12ki member "Mirai Shoujo" Audition - FINISHED.

[Pavlova]

Well, look at the ranking Chibs just posted. "KonKon wasn't that popular" and "Eri wasn't popular until platinum" don't exactly seem to resonate with those lol.

As for photobooks, they are a good indication of if a girl is getting pushed by management.. while sales (of the official store as much as of PBs..) are a good indicator of wota popularity. For Miya a lot of us got the feeling it's her decision. As for Risako yeah she got 4 and then no more, still 4 is a good number compared with most Berryz members. Like Sohee said there can be variety of reason. Momo is the only one who got more than that, but then again Momo is the most popular Berryz member so it's to be expected.

See it like that.. Sayu was the girl 6th gen girl (outside of Miki but let's ignore Miki for this exercise) to get a PB, probably because they figured "Well she can't sing, and she sort of can dance but nothing special, and her personality is a copy of Rika's, but she's pretty, so let's give her a photobook". Then, it probably didn't sell, because she wasn't very popular (I think? I don't have numbers so this is a guess). Cue management going "fuck this shit" and Sayu getting no more PBs for three year. Compare Eri, who got her first PB a few months later, and then kept getting them every year, probably because, just like Reina's, they were selling pretty well. That's my guess. It took longer for Sayu to be popular.. for obvious reasons.

[AyuHikaru]

On Konno: Konno was pushed quite a lot during the first few years of her tenure, Taka may have gotten lines (Because she was a natural singer) but Konno did other things. I don't remember the year but there was an ENTIRE christmas special about her. She was the "11th member" and felt all left out and the rest of the girls had to make her feel welcome. She starred in it. The whole thing revolved around Konno. She was cast in the lead role of Morning Town in 2002, she was shoved in Tanpopo with Niigaki, and was in a drama called Angel Hearts. In 2003, Aichan was put in Minimoni (Which is widely regarded by wota as a mistake), and Konno joined the Fustal team. Konno was THEN put into Country Musume to help promote them, and was a guest star on some other drama. Konno got a lead vocal before Taka, with "Namida ga blahblahblah houkago" which was a terrible song, but it came before THe Manpower! Taka always had LINES but she was never a lead. As for photobooks, we don't know WHY she didn't release them early, she could have not wanted too. Miyabi is a great example of someone who is popular as hell but has only released one photobook. Photobooks aren't the only judge of popularity here.

Taka just didn't have as much as an impact in the first 6 years as Konno did. Neither did Risa or Makoto (Makoto, poor thing, never ended up making much of an impact). The fact was, Konno was the popular member of 5th gen.

[Starra]

That Christmas thing was the best thing ever. God I love Konkon.

I'm not saying they were unpopular, but, Idk. At least with international fans, Konkon didn't seem to have a lot of supports and Eri didn't either until Platinum.

Then again, my memory is shit, so it's probably best not to trust me .

[Chibs]

Miki was never top, but more up and down. Konno, Reina, Eri and Ai are the big sellers of that time, with Konno being the lead sales of course. And yes Haruna got some tv shows, I would say more so than any of the other girls. I think Eripon was the only other one that has been on a tv show by herself.

Junjun got some kind of push, she did go on several tv shows with members or OGs.

I don't know I think because of Eri's lack of doing stuff between 07-09 she lost a lot of popularity and people think she was unpopular before.
btw those arent just pb sales ranking, more like an everything sales ranking from the store.

[Pavlova]

Really? I was always under the impression Miki was hugely popular. Color me surprised! I didn't know/realize that. And yeah I know they are everything ranking from the store

[AyuHikaru]

Riho only just recently went on a TV show by herself, so as far a variety goes, they're pretty much training Haruna to be the next Sayumi. I honestly don't expect Haruna to "pop" sorta speak until Sayumi Graduates, and then she'll slip into Sayu's roll.

[Kita St Cyr]

Chokobo's never going to take Sayumi's place in variety as the adorable bitchy idol. I wonder what her shtick will be. I feel like she took over Zukki's bizarre nerd character a little but that's not all that interesting unless you really commit to it (which we've not seen yet).

[AyuHikaru]

Whhaatt? She's totally commited to it:

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/43084014 ... ses-things

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/41542305 ... were-a-boy

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/42910095 ... of-puberty

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/40043062 ... -to-master

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/39594507 ... decided-to

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/37823344 ... -she-wants

http://chokubo.tumblr.com/post/40510121 ... se-welcome

Those aren't even all the examples.

[danzarely]

So now that we explored all the possibilities we can suffice to say that Sayu is indeed next in line for graduation, unless a serious illness or injury befalls one of her kouhai.

Not only that but Sayu is about to turn 24... she's old for an idol. How much longer can she realistically be in the group without sticking out anymore than she already does?

That being said - the only reason I think people throw up Zukki for graduation is her weight. Kanon gets as much time and attention as Erina, Haruka, Haruna~ it's the only factor that pulls her out. And in fairness - I wouldn't be surprised if they put her on a diet to cut down on her weight and she hasn't followed it. Or her weight could very likely be stress related - and maybe she isn't cut out for the idol life, which is VERY stressful despite all the glitter of the finished product.

So - my vote is Sayu. I think it's obvious. And I think it will be sooner than later. Then? If illness/injury isn't an issue, then Kanon. But I think we are going to have a Platinum era situation when Sayu leaves. A few years no grads or adds.

[Sohee]

If Aichan could last until 25, I would say that Sayu can too. Sure Aichan was lead vocal and blabla but that's hardly the only reason to why she was in for so long. Besides, Aichan, Gaki and Reina all decided on their graduation on their own. Judging by what Reina said in her graduation DVD it's possible that they didn't want her to go for another 2 years (which was the original plan for her band) anyway, but she wanted to graduate. So if Sayu doesn't want to graduate, she remains popular and all I could see her be in the group for another year or two.

Kanon has lost weight since everyone started to nag about it around Renai Hunter/One, Two, Three. If they put her on a diet, it's working. If she was stressed and gained because of that, she's lost some of it now. Yossi, Kago, Tsuji, Ogawa, even Nacchi according to some, were overweight for a while and then they lost it. Being chubbier than the rest of the group has NEVER been the reason for any graduation, and why would it be. Getting less exposure because of it, sure I get that, but graduating? No.

Kanon isn't as spontaneous as she was when she joined, she's probably working on trying to become more reliable for the group in terms of being a senpai and MC. Like I've said millions of times before, the girl respects Aika - who was very good at MC-ing and such - Kanon herself has hinted to it and the other girls (9kies) have mentioned in blogs or whatever it was that Kanon has changed and is working on trying to be better at speaking. Listen to fanrecordings or just radio or whatever and it's obvious.
This does not mean she's not funny still - listening/reading the MCs from the ongoing tour for example she's still plenty funny in the MCs when it's her turn to be creative.

It would be tons a lot easier to see this if the management would push her though, of course. Give her MC-time with a good MC (Nakajima?) and/or give her variety with someone who's quick with responses (Sayumi, Chisato?) and we'd definitely see more of the "old Kanon" or see that she's not sad, depressed or want to get the hell out of the group. She expresses her love for the group just as frequently as Haruka or Ayumi or anyone, and definitely more than Masaki on a general basis.

She had a low period mid-2012, she got out of it. Get over it already.