First Icchan, now Yuha. It's so sad to see members leaving so quickly one after the other. It's also a big blow to Beyooooonds. They were my favorite group in H!P, and it seems like they are just falling apart.
I saw news of the grad announcement on Twitter/X because both Yuha and Toyosu Pit were trending in Japan. I read some of the tweets from Japanese Beyo wota, and I think it's safe to say they are not very happy with UFP. Quite a few wota were expressing anger and frustration at UFP for Beyo having only 5 singles in 5 years. Although there were extenuating circumstances (the Corona pandemic), 5 singles in 5 years is truly atrocious, especially for a group of Beyo's potential. A few were also mad that the tour final was at Toyosu Pit, and not some bigger venue. As UFP's statement says, the discussion about Yuha graduating started last year, so they should have had more time to get a bigger venue for the tour finale. The graduation concert will be after the tour finale from what I understand, and that will probably be Budokan or some other venue like that, but the tour finale should also have been held at a bigger venue when it was known that Yuha might graduate.
I think a lot of Beyo wota (myself included) imagined Beyo to be like Cute or Berryz, where the whole group would disband one day instead of individual members graduating. But if they were to disband this year, they would have only 5 singles, 2 albums, and 2-3 stage plays. UFP really needs to plan better long-term for their groups. I wonder what Beyo would look like with 10 members. It's kinda hard to imagine. And I imagine the member's morale would also be quite low after this double whammy.
Amped wrote:I can see her changing agencies to further her horizons, but it has to be a quality one.
Idols these days want to go on those survival audition shows even in their 20's.
I would bet on this as well. Momona's example is still very recent, and it might have given Yuha a push to challenge herself more. From what I understand Yuha already had an image (reputation?) among Japanese Beyo wota of being ambitious and wanting to be famous, and seeing Momona plus UFP not promoting her as much might have persuaded her to try some other approach. And UFP's statement explicitly says that she has decided to graduate "
based on her desire to expand her possibilities by learning more about music and challenging herself with various genres of songs in a new environment, and to make a start towards her new goals at the age of 21.". The only sad part about this is that like Momona, she might not appear in the public eye or for a year or two. I dunno if this is a contractual thing, but it would be a shame if it is.
Incidentally, I was a bit struck with the wording of UFP's statement. It seems like they admit they were not the place for Yuha to expand her possibilities and learn more about music. Momona also gave her grad reason as wanting to learn dance and performance from zero again and polish it.