Smileage Maeda Yuuka graduated at end of year 12/31/2011

[Parhelion69]

The kouhaku thing is maybe a leak?
If it's true then Mobekimasu or S/mileage would be in it I guess.

Anyway, Yuukarin IS the face of s/mileage and one of the main members in the whole Hello Project, so I'm really worried, specially for s/mileage since now we don't have a strong positioned member (Kanon is popular in s/mileage, but within H!P she's waaaaay down), and then we have 4 green members. Both former eggs may have it easier, but none is as physically perfect and likable as Yuukarin.

Now they really need a Maki Goto.

[Sohee]

Ayaka is damn popular though, even outside of S/mileage.
But even so... damn, I don't know. They better pimp the new members like crazy and for their sake I hope Meimi is as popular as they made her seem. If only they could teach her to sing, she might not be that bad.

[Daisuki Daiiyo]

Time to fold Karin into the group~

[MrMoondoggie]

for their sake I hope Meimi is as popular as they made her seem. If only they could teach her to sing, she might not be that bad.

She's definately popular with girls i'm not overly certain about the guys. It's funny as by Japanese logic i always expected the female fans to take more to Takechan as she has that Yossi tomboyish character going on and Yossi was really popular with female fans of Morning Musume back in the day though this time seems not to be the case as it seems more males than females like Takechan from what i have seen and heard i guess her saying she likes Dragonball and One Piece and baseball kinda helped that maybe the males can relate i dunno lol. But back on topic i think Meimi's big push will be to appeal to the female fanbase which is growing all the time for S/mileage but she's definately popular no doubt about that so love her or hate her she has a role to play.

But yes they really should give her some more singing lessons i'm sure she could learn to sound acceptable in time like Konno did though with the way things are going Meimi has much less time to get to that level with her singing as she doesn't have the benefit of a very strong group like Konno walked into where there were enough talented ones to cover up her weakness with singing. With one original member gone and another on her way out she'll need to be there to pick up that slack so S/mileage have a good foundation to work from with their 2nd gen. The 1st gen girls can't be expected to prop the group up on their own.

[Sohee]

Was Yossi as popular with the Japanese female fans though? I know she was always a big favorite to international female fans, but from what I've seen I'd always thought it was guys who were the most on her side too, but that might just be me seeing the wrong things?

Either way, I don't think Takechan saying she's a baseball-geek and loving One Piece has much to do with it really. If anything I think it only brings up her overall entertainment points and makes her more interesting to watch to grow. She's by far my favorite member out of 2nd gen, but even so that's mostly because her dance is amazingly cool and her singing is really good. On top of her talents, she's a very interesting girl so.

What I can imagine people really liking about Meimi is that she's first off young and while being in the same class as Rina and so, she seems to be at least 4 years younger than her. She just comes off as very immature to me, and that would give girls that "Awww such a cute sister!"-vibe thing, I guess? Though honestly I'm not sure at all. I'm sure she's supposed to be cute and funny and look the little-sister-role but except for that I'm not quite sure. As it is I have a hard time for her personality (which might be because she's immature) and she can't really use her voice. She has one, no doubt. But she doesn't use it properly at all. Which I guess is what makes me the most disappointed. Didn't they receive any vocal training before the tour started? And if they did, did they seriously not point it out? Seriously?

Either way, I hope she stays popular. She could probably bring in sales well enough and to be honest I don't care who it will be who will be buying, as long someone does. And give lines to Takechan and Rina to begin with, those two can at least sing. But knowing UFA that probably won't happen. Unless they stick to the "equal screentime/lines"-thing they did for S/mileage. Somehow I doubt they would do that with 2nd gen having joined though.

[boinsie]

They're not going to learn to sing well unless they're allowed to sing.

Also, Take-chan might be boyish, but it's not the same kind of boyish as Yossui was/is. Yossui was cool... Take-chan (perhaps due in part to her age) is more "actual little boy".

[Sohee]

They were allowed to sing a lot in the ongoing tour and still there was no improvement at all from her auditions. If anything I'd say she got worse.

I think Takechan's young boy-boyish is totally because of her age. I mean, she's just 13, Yossi was 15 when she joined and some 16-17 when she got the boyish image. xD Gotta wait a bit for that to come~

[MrMoondoggie]

Yeah i think it gets kinda hard to devide up lines equally when you decided to have more members. With four i guess that's a pretty simple task when writing a song you can more or less visualise how the lines will be split up. But with 7 and later 6 (or maybe more if the audition rumours turn out true) it just becomes a lot more difficult to have equality in lines unless you want every song to be some 12 minute epic. I guess they could take things single by single and think "okay those girls had most of the lines on the last single so this time we'll have the other two girls doing leads this time with those ones doing backing vocals and chorus" or maybe give the girls who didnt get to sing much on the main song more time on the B side or that single whichever works. This also works the same with screentime unless each member is on screen solo for very few seconds of the PV. I think they could always alternative who gets the most attention each video.

When it comes to liking Meimi she's not really to my taste but i can see why she'll appeal to some people. She has a childish charm that you either end up finding adorable or just slightly annoying. I find it the same with Suzuki Kanon although her appearence is much less babyish than Meimi. It's also an amusing thing that 9th gen MM and 2nd Gen S/M have had the same effect on me as far as being 4 girls 1 of which i like instantly Riho/Takechan 2 girls i start warming up to later Eripon,Fukuchan/Rina,Kana and one i will never be able to like Kanon/Meimi. They should have had vocal training before the single and tour i think some will need more time than others. The former Eggs seem to fare much better with the singing live part and understand how to use their voice in a live enviroment and are consistant over more songs. Hopefully they'll give Meimi some extra lessons to try and sort out the things she is doing wrong and teach her to not do them.

And Yossi well i guess it depends on who you talked to back then. I can't speak for every Japanese fan because i've only ever met small portions of them over the years but i found more girls than guys who liked Yossi and thought she was really cool. I did however have an amusing encounter with a male wota who was a Yossi fan once though sometime back in maybe 2003 or 2004. Me and a friend were discussing Yossi's sexuality and i was listing reasons why i think she is gay and this wota well he told me i'm wrong and that she's all woman or something like that. It was a long time ago so i can't remember exactly what was said. It was funny though . So she definately had her share of male fans in Japan.

[Amped]

Yuukarin blogged. shes been reading everyone's comments. she knows that they are trying to convince her to stay
http://ameblo.jp/yuuka-maeda-blog/theme ... 72253.html

[Sohee]

Okay wow Yuuka's entry. I won't translate all of it, but what she basically says...

"I understand that there are people who cheer me on, who asks me to re-think and who still can't understand it. I think I would have reacted the same. But please understand that this is something I have thought about seriously and many times. It's not so simple as though I just decided on a whim yesterday, this is my decision and I will stick to it. I wish I could tell you how grateful I am and how I think of the comments and such, but I'm afraid it might just sound shallow so I won't write it. But I will do my best to work hard and let everyone know how I feel for these last two months!"

She pretty much told everyone off in the most polite way ever.