by Shoujo Q » Fri Apr 14, 2023 5:24 am
I hate to break it to you, but the moment they welcomed new members in, they became a revolving door group. They had a option of not doing that, but the group themselves chose to become a generational group and not disband. Now, as much as I don't like new girls coming in and overshadowing older girls. It's going to happen.
I think they did the right thing with Tsubaki by having a new generation coming in and getting comfortable before the graduations started to take effect. When they brought in so many girls, my brain went into overdrive. How many of the old members are leaving? It was the first thing I thought of. And it seems now, a year later, I'm finally getting my answer.
We all hope that with the next generation they will do the same and it wont go all, Angerme/Juice=Juice where girls drop left and right without any time to recover. But the world isn't perfect, and things happen. Juice=Juice is a prime example of that. Unexpected things happen and graduations happen. These are real people with real life problems. While they are there to entertain us, sometimes it becomes too much even for them. They ask to leave, they are suggested to move on, whatever it is. We need to accept that it will be a thing that will eventually happen. It's REALLY tough as a fan. It hurts like hell. I've been in this fandom for over 20 years and I STILL miss certain girls. But Hello!Project was built on the principle that there will always been someone that will continue to sing the songs that were created. I'm pretty amazed that they are still singing stuff from 20+ years ago and it's timeless. At some point, you stop becoming a fan of a certain group and then become a fan of the Project as a whole.
On a side note, I've been knee deep in the bowels of H!P Wiki the last few weeks, working on some stuff for my own amusement. They have a section in their member section for tenure of debuted H!P members. The Kenshuusei have one too, but it's separate. Sometimes I'll stop what I'm doing and really look at how long some of the members stuck around.
If you have a kenshuusei that sticks around, debuts and then stays in a group. You can bet 10 years is going to be a benchmark where they start thinking about their future. Riko and Yumeno have been in H!P for over 10 years. 10 years is when they begin to tap out. You want to go do other things. You're an adult now. It's very rare you're getting any of the girls to stay longer. I THINK, (don't quote me) the average is 6-8 years due to contracts. I am not certain how long a contract runs in UF. But Tsubaki is at that 7 year mark, so it was inevitable that something was going to give.
