The H!P Musings/Rants Thread

[Jessi]

I've been an H!P for over 10 years now and my interest level increases and decreases over time. Sometimes I'm following super close and other times I just listen to the singles when they come out. It usually depends on how I feel about Morning Musume at whatever point because they are my favorite group over all the others (I don't really watch the concerts or tv appearances for any of the other groups). The lowest point for me was in 2011 before the 9ki audition when I was really not into MM and was listening to Berryz and C-ute more, but I also lost interest in MM for a bit after 12ki joined (I may have gotten into Angerme around then) Auditions tend to pull me back in as well, or when exciting shake ups happen in general. But a lot of it is also just personal. I just recently I was off the forum for almost a year which had a lot more to do with what was going on in my life at the time (it was just chaotic). Sometimes its just because I love other types of music too and shift towards that for a bit. I also really love alternative rock and EDM, two very different genres and both very different from J-pop and sometimes I'm just in the mood for that instead. I do lurk the forum every day though for news. That's been consistent since I joined in 2012.

[CaptainBerryzGiraffe]

Thanks Celedam and Jessi, both posts have some things I was looking for.
I think mainly it's that now I've been listening to mainly Metal music over the past half a year or so, and it's slowly pulled me away from non-metal H!P, but I've been within the past few days listening to more and more H!P again, so I wonder if I'll slowly gravitate back towards H!P.
At the same time, real life responsibilities and interests have also changed too, because within the past year I've gotten an internship, had 18+ credits each semester and work at same time, etc. and I guess I just haven't had enough time to check the forum or stay updated....

And I guess the hardest part is that once you miss a small period of time, you fall into a loop of "ugh there's too much material to catch up on, so I'm not gonna check." which then becomes "ugh, I haven't checked on all the new material since then, so I still won't check..." etc etc... until at some point you decide "screw everything that came before, I'm just gonna skip to today and that's it..." and that's where I am now, and slightly confused about what's been happening in H!P and piecing it all together slowly, lol.

[AyuHikaru]

15 years a fan and there are entire years I don't really remember due to being somewhat checked out (2005, 2010, most of 2011) and years I was only passively paying attention until something interesting happened ( 2016, probably more years I can't remember). H!P is something I'm interesting in, but it's only one aspect of my life so it can take a side step sometimes. Right now I'm super obsessed with Produce 48, looking more into the 48G's, and I'm traveling pretty much constantly so H!P has taken a bit of a backseat, but I always come back to it eventually.

You don't need to have 100% focus on something to be considered a fan. And when (if) you come back to it, the easiest place to do so is the latest single of the group you like best. Then ease in to the rest of it.

[B8067HC]

My thoughts, why Kobushi's sales perform so poor.. I guess their previous incident with 3-members quitted suddenly (and had a bad reason) is the reason. I feel bad for their remaining members (current five).

Why can't they have a new additional members?? With positive aura and excellent visual appearance.

[Amped]

There is nothing wrong with Kobushi, they are having fun and moved on already. That was ages ago. Upfront has worked hard to get them closer (bonding camp on The Girls Live and Hello Station, DVD magazines, A bus tour with another one coming, a radio show)

They are trying to make you feel positive, not feel sorry for them.

Most Idol groups wish they could sell that much and rank high @ #3 with 5 members.

[kobushifactorylove]

When H!P announced the whole "digital singles" thing, my interest kind of waned a bit, because I was thinking, "Oh God, less PVs, less double/triple A-sides." Thank God they're still releasing lots of normal singles and kind of forgot about that, though I still feel bad for Country Girls, especially Yamakki and Zekki, watching their groupmates have all these extra activities and songs. Zekki even mentioned in a radio show how much she misses hanging around Chiichan. That decision from management is so weird, they should've just doled out all five members.
Also, I'm loving the new separate channels/bite-sized videos thing, as I got bored going through time stamps out of an hour-long video to watch what I want.

[otaku_blue]

My thoughts, why Kobushi's sales perform so poor.. I guess their previous incident with 3-members quitted suddenly (and had a bad reason) is the reason. I feel bad for their remaining members (current five).

Why can't they have a new additional members?? With positive aura and excellent visual appearance.

Isn't it more insulting for you to actively label and recognise their sales as poor?
I don't think anyone really thinks they're doing that bad except you.

Besides, even if they do add more members like Angerme, it'd be harder for individual members to get more spotlight.
But honestly, I think its about time 2ki graduated. I think Ayacho should be graduating earlier, because she is right. The group is stagnating. They've done everything they've can at this point to revamp the group except graduate 1+2ki.

[Shoujo Q]

Sales don't make a group. This is a ancient way of thinking, since the majority of people know that 90% of sales is stock buying.
As much as I see them wanting to stay at 5 members, I wonder if Management will eventually add new members because they want to continue the group name for future longevity.

Hirose Ayaka, I love the girl but she can sometimes look so miserable with her facial expressions. I don't know if that's just her normally or what. But it's like any time I see her it's like she's about to either burst into tears or flip a table. I guess she must feel like she's under a tremendous about of pressure to be the best leader she can under the circumstances. I feel bad for her.

[Celedam]

From another thread…

Oricon Monthly ranking for June 2018 : Morning Musume. '18 Are you Happy? / A gonna @ #4
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-06/

Looking at previous months, it's interesting to see that while AKB48, Nogizaka46, and Keyakizaka46 still sell more than a million copies of each of their singles, no one else comes close. Not even other *48 groups. The only other group to crack 500K this year was a new Johnny's group called King & Prince.

Anyhow, with such low numbers for everyone other AKB48 et al., H!P releases are routinely in the top 10 each month…

June 2018: Morning Musume. '18 at #4 (as noted by Amped)
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-06/

May 2018: Angerme at #10
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-05/

April 2018: Juice=Juice at #6
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-04/

March 2018: Kobushi Factory at #18 (oops)
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-03/p/2/

February 2018: Tsubaki Factory at #7
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-02/

July 2018: Tsubaki Factory at #11
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-07/p/2/

Almost in the top 10, but it wasn't as close as it seems — it was 15K short of the actual #10.

Unfortunately, while H!P releases do well in their respective months of release, they have no endurance into succeeding months. They're not even in the top 50 a month after release; they pretty much disappear within two or three weeks. Which means there is a lot of up-front (pun intended) demand from existing fans for these releases, but H!P songs do not become part of the popular culture like other songs do.

Despite ongoing sales, Morning Musume '18 was not in the top 50 for July.

Meanwhile, DA PUMP dropped only from #15 to #28…

https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-06/p/2/
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2018-07/p/3/

DA PUMP's "U.S.A." became part of the popular culture.

[Jessi]

I don't think Kobushi is performing poorly rather than just staying the same while the other groups grow in sales. Tsubaki suddenly shot up, Angerme, J=J and MM are consistent. It just looks like they are doing poor because of the stagnation, but they are honestly all such strong singers and performers and I think that its just a temporary lag. Overall, they are still doing fine.

Also going back to CaptainBerryzGiraffe, I think its all totally normal and one day you'll just find yourself back into it. I've also had moments were I'm like oh man I missed alot, but I honestly just skip it and focusing on whatever new thing caught my attention. Sometimes later on I'll see a video or hear a song from years ago that I missed and its like oh hey.