Shimamura Uta has left Country Girls and Hello! Project as of 6/12

[JonCC]

They have already changed the thumbnail of Itooshikutte Gomen ne from Uta to Manaka

Well now... that works for me.

[downfrontguy]

If you are a 14 or 15-year-old girl who may or may not be interested in pursuing entertainment industry career (an idol at that, among all things) earnestly, I'd say many would take what Shimamura went through and come out just fine. She didn't lose much by experiencing the (relatively) highs before quitting and going back to a normal life. It's a nice experience for the little girl.

I'll leave all these speculations-as-facts talks to others (entertaining as always~).

[yukisuki]

Also as we've learned from Aina later after she left, she explained it and it didn't really sounds like it was her parents more or less it was Aina herself that wanted out

Wait when did this happen?

[forgetmenots]

I'm personally with Starra with this. I remember watching early backstage stuff and behind the scenes stuff and wondering if she'd make it the year... The charm about her, the way she's easily embarrassed, also means she's dealing with an anxiety a lot of the other girls aren't. Most hide their nervousness or express it loudly. She was quiet and expressed it obviously on stage. On top of that she got pushed as center and face of the group almost immediately. I'm sure UF kept wanting to get her to do more things than the other girls to capitilize on that goldmine. I'm sure as fun and rewarding it was, it was hard for her to handle.If you add her family arguing with UF as well (my personal speculation is that contract issues are more likely time issues, these girls lose most of their vacations and are now not even around for New Years Eve) Uta probably felt likethe whole situation was too much.

I loved Uta a lot. She shot up to number two on my H!P rankings, she could have shot to legendary idol status. But, I have no doubt CG will be fine without her. Momochi and Ozeki will be a good promotion force. Manaka will get the center position her talent does deserve, and Chisaki will get a focus now where before she was falling through the cracks.

I hope Uta will be happier and less stressed. I also hope that she keeps in touch with the friends she made.

I'm so happy I got to see her police sketch though (@_@)

[Sohee]

30k isn't bad, but if Uta has to support her family's move to Tokyo, 30k wouldn't be very much (This seems to be a thing for a lot of girls, having to move their family to Tokyo). And in Japan, where the cost of living is ridiculous, 30k will really only support one person.

I don't think this was the case for Uta. She's from Kanagawa which isn't far away from Tokyo at all so they most likely stayed there and had her commuting - which UF pays for. And most likely one of her parents were working anyway... (Or I can hardly see them pull her out of showbiz if she would be the only source of income they have.)

Either way though, I also think money might have been the issue since we know how her mom definitely thought highly of her daughter and female idols aren't paid too much at first... But I really hope she wasn't forced out of it. It really would suck if she wanted to stay but wasn't allowed to.

[bisuketto]

Holy crap, I didn't see that coming! I wonder if we'll ever get an explanation from her, like we did from Aina.

[aerosuffly]

Really, where did the impression that Uta's family is money hungry come from? We have never seen any strong enough evidence on her family situation, right? The only concrete event that I can think of is that Uta once mentioned in Country Girls radio that she wants a garden-attached single house, but that also does not say anything about her family finance. I mean, I want a garden-attached single house too, but I am not money hungry.

[AyuHikaru]

There's not one, it's just speculation. It's better for everyone to assume anyone saying anything about why she left the company automatically has a "Maybe..." in front of it.

[wotakubrandon]

Honestly after Aina I don't even pay attention to group until they're about a year or more into their major debut life but I imagine this is something to get used to. For better or worse most groups will go through member changes.

[BerryzCelebration]

Uta was never my favorite but daaaaaaaaaamn. This is so upsetting. I'm sure the group can manage without her, but she was so close to the others and got so popular, it's upsetting ;_;.