Year in Review Thread

[Amped]

What was the most surprising thing?
Morning Musume. '22, Juice=Juice, ANGERME, and Tsubaki Factory getting weekly #1's for their releases (single or album)
OCHA NORMA's successful debut single
Tsubaki Factory's "Adrenaline Dame" becoming a hit song
Fukumura Mizuki's graduation announcement
Country Girls getting together again at Disney
Morning Musume. '22, ANGERME, Juice=Juice, Tsubaki Factory, and BEYOOOOONDS all got Budokan concerts.
Hirayama Yuki joining ANGERME
Morito Chisaki making youtube videos
Hello Pro Dance Team putting out some viral dance covers
Morning Musume. '22, ANGERME at ROCK IN JAPAN and JAPAN JAM

What was the most disappointing thing?
Morning Musume. '25th Anniversary was sublime
Oota Haruka ending her contract
No Solo Fes. this year

Out of the new members, who's your favorite?
Sakurai Rio, Hirayama Yuki

Whose graduation are/were you most sad about?
Inaba Manaka's graduation, Morito Chisaki's graduation

Favorite releases of 2022
Ogata Risa 1st EP "Docchi"
Morning Musume. '22 "Chu Chu Chu Bokura no Mirai"
ANGERME "Ai Subeki Beki Human Life"
Juice=Juice "Zenbu Kakete GO!!"
Juice=Juice Kudo Yume's 1st photobook

Least favorite releases of 2022
ANGERME "Piece of Peace ~Shiawase no Puzzle~"

Overall, which group had the best releases?
Morning Musume. '22

Overall, which group had the worst releases?
None of them were bad at all, just sales were lower than usual.

What would you like to see more of in 2023?
Giving Juice=Juice better content.
More Mini live events for all H!P groups.

What would you like to see less of in 2023?
Morning Musume songs written by Tsunku (sorry)
Idol audition competition shows

What are your hopes for 2023?
Morning Musume. '23 audition winners
A big release for H!P's 25th Anniversary, appear some big music show to promote it.
An arena or dome concert for Fukumura Mizuki.
The day when H!P lifts the ban on, standing, jumping and cheering in concerts.
Branch out of Budokan

What are your fears for 2023?
I don't wanna know

There were other stuff that happened as well like Matsuura Aya making CMs, Hagiwara Mai and Yajima Maimi getting married etc.

[Zunu]

Nice recap. Sublime? Did you mean subdued?

[verilian]

What was the most surprising thing?
Ayaya making a semi-comeback
Mizuki graduation announcement

What was the most disappointing thing?
Morning Musume. '25th Anniversary. Not much happened for it.

Out of the new members, who's your favorite?
Hirayama Yuki, Tsuitsui Roko

Whose graduation are/were you most sad about?
Inaba Manaka for sure

Favorite releases of 2022
Omatsuri Debut da ze! - OCHA NORMA
Ai・Mashou - Angerme

Least favorite releases of 2022
ANGERME "Piece of Peace ~Shiawase no Puzzle~"

Overall, which group had the best releases?
OCHA NORMA's releases were the most fun

Overall, which group had the worst releases?
Juice=Juice maybe? They felt the least engaging for me. They weren't bad exactly, but the other groups had more exciting releases.

What would you like to see more of in 2023?
Return of Solo Fes or more opportunities for solo performances/self-produced performances for the girls

What would you like to see less of in 2023?
Indistinct pop music for J=J

What are your hopes for 2023?
Strong MM 17th gen (not to read too much into things, but the fact that they're letting Mizuki grad makes me think they've found a decently strong vocalist)
A real Ayaya comeback

What are your fears for 2023?
Oda Sakura grad

[Amped]

Nice recap. Sublime? Did you mean subdued?

yeah that's the word, but I should have put the word "underwhelming" to describe the anniversary.

[Amped]

What a year 2022 was for winning GOLD

- BEYOOOOONDS 2nd Gold Disc certification : "Eiyuu ~Waratte! Chopin Senpai~ / Hamukatsu Mokushiroku"
- Morning Musume. '22's 22nd consecutive Gold Disc certification : "Chu Chu Chu Bokura no Mirai / Dai・Jinsei Never Been Better!"
- Tsubaki Factory 1st ever Gold Disc certification : "Adrenaline Dame / Yowasa Janai yo, Koi wa / Idol Tenshoku Ondo"
- OCHA NORMA 1st ever Gold Disc certification : "Koi no Crouching Start / Omatsuri Debut da ze!"
- OCHA NORMA 2nd Gold Disc certification : "Unmei CHACHACHACHA~N / Uchira no Jimoto wa Chikyuujan!"
- Morning Musume. '22 23rd consecutive Gold Disc certification : "Swing Swing Paradise / Happy birthday to Me!"

[Nayoko-Kihara]

^ It would be nice to see all the groups represented. Gotta keep my fingers crossed for it in 2023.

I'll come back and edit this with my actual year in review a little later on.

[Amped]

What was the most surprising thing?
Loud cheers and voices returned this year at Hello! Project concerts and events.
All of the collaborations : MM x MOS Burger, MM x Aoyama, MM x Beams T-shirt, Hello! Project x GU collab, Oda Sakura's KFC commercial
Kudo Yume winning Hello Pro Survivor
Yumigeta Ako and Inoue Haruka joining Morning Musume. from the audition
Yamagishi Riko and Kishimoto Yumeno both graduating at the same time.
OCHA NORMA releasing a Quadruple A-side single.
Hello Project 25th Anniversary 2-day concert at Yoyogi Arena
Juice=Juice Uemura Akari's graduation announcement.
Upfront moving their office again, but to a more modern building, in a beautiful area.
Hello! Project getting to perform concerts at Nakano Sun Plaza, to say goodbye.
FC Bus Tours returning
Nonaka Miki's recent photobook of her with her body in tip-top shape.
Kasahara Momona joining a survival audition program from Korea and winning 1st place.

What was the most disappointing thing?
Nakano Sun Plaza closing down
New members Goto Hana and Kawashima Mifu both getting sudden hearing loss. Seriously, those ear monitors.
OGs that did not appear at the H!P 25th Anniversary or Fukumura Mizuki's graduation concert.
It wasn't H!P's year for many GOLD.

Out of the new members, who's your favorite?
Yumigeta Ako. She is just a breath of fresh air. She is genuinely happy to be part of Morning Musume. '23.

Whose graduation are/were you most sad about?
My all time favorite Fukumura Mizuki's graduation of course. Her graduation concert destroyed me.

Favorite releases of 2023
- Morning Musume. '23 "Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~", a song not written by Tsunku, but by Hoshibe Sho is refreshing sound.
- Morning Musume. Best Selection 25th Anniversary Album
- Juice=Juice's "Juicetory" Album
- Juice=Juice's "FUNKY FLUSHIN'"
- Ogata Risa's 2nd single
- BEYOOOOONDS "Yume Sae Egakenai Yozora ni wa"
- Tsubaki Factory "Machigai Janai Naitari Shinai"
- ANGERME "Ai no Kedamono"
- Juice=Juice Kudo Yume's 2nd photobook

Least favorite releases of 2023
OCHA NORMA "Yoridori ME DREAM"

Overall, which group had the best releases?
Morning Musume. '23, Juice=Juice

Overall, which group had the worst releases?
H!P had an excellent year of releases, so there were none.

What would you like to see less of in 2024?
TV Music Specials making Morning Musume. perform the same songs.

What are your fears for 2024?
Worried about Hello Pro Kenshuusei Unit '24's direction. So far, they are not really that exciting as a group. If they want to win the New Artist of the year award, they need impress hard. Because Kasahara Momona's group "ME:I" group will be hard to beat in 2024.

What would you like to see more of in 2024?
More Morning Musume songs not written by Tsunku. They released with "Wake-up Call ~Mezameru Toki~" (Hoshibe Sho) and it was awesome.

What are your hopes for 2024?
Morning Musume. '24 performing their newer songs only on those TV specials.
Bringing more concerts overseas.
Hello! Project 25th Anniversary audition winners for all groups
More Kenshuusei joining, because Hello Dream is not really interesting without the drama.

----

Miyazaki Yuka getting married, Morito Chisaki returning, and Sato Masaki releasing her debut single also happened and so much more.

[Idol Tenshoku Ondo]

Yeah, I like...uhhh... *shuffles pages*...Tsubaki Factory. V good year.

I'm just a Tsubaki fangirl, lol. I can't seriously try and write anything. Pretty good year though. I listened to a lot of new music, the most I've listened to non-H!P music since I found H!P.

I will say my 2nd favorite H!P group this year was Angerme. Big Love was surprisingly good after I didn't care much for Rinnentenshou's original tracks and their 2 singles caught my ear too.

Lookin' forward to H!PKU'23. Hope they're a cute and happy concept group. Their performances at the 25th anni were promising, TF was certainly crustier in their first year of indies and I still loved them. For the love of god let the H!PKU'23 stay at or under 12 members at the absolute most. 10 or less if I'm smoking heroin.