So Manaka will be taking a long break from Country Girls activities (at least until July/August when the H!P summer cons are) due to severe asthma. Apparently she had it really bad as a child, and despite it dying down for several years, it started flaring up (is that the right term?) again at the end of last year and she's been having problems with it ever since. Because of this, she's been advised to take some time off and will not participate in Country Girls activities for the next several months. In addition to missing out on all the upcoming release events, she'll also be absent from Country Girls's concert tour and the Hello! Project summer concerts. The Osaka performance of Kizetsusuru Hodo Aishiteru! has also been cancelled and people will be able to refund their tickets until May 30th.
http://www.up-fc.jp/helloproject/news_Info.php?id=8720Poor thing... She seems really upset by it, and I understand. I'm not a huge fan of her but she's always been a good performer and super into the whole idol thing. I could tell that she was enjoying herself generally, so to have to just suddenly stop everything must be crushing. Hopefully she recovers, and I'm really pleased UF are letting her stay on since she'll be MIA for ages ;_;.