by iceymoon » Sat Sep 15, 2012 5:36 am
welp.
did not expect this to be over so soon! i mean, at the very very least i expected it to be announced at the concert, not beforehand.
i'm a little disappointed that he only chose 1 girl, even if he didn't want to add too many members he could have chosen 2. even though i like many of the 1-person genners, i would argue that even Maki wasn't a very successful addition because even though she was mega-popular, she didn't mesh with the other members well. luckily 4th gen came along to help with that, but when she was on her own it didn't go down very well internally.
i agree that with this Morning Musume it should be better since 80% of the group or not veterans and most of them are close to her age. however, she'll still undoubtedly be alone in many situations and in all 1-person gen cases (including Aika and Miki, and remember Aika had Koharu, another 1-genner in close proximity to her age who was fairly new) there is a distance that happens and causes a weird dynamic. for every situation the dynamic is a little different (Maki was envied, Miki didn't belong, Koha was hard to bring up to speed and Aika was not very included), and Sakura's experience might not be so bad.. but still there will no doubt be a separation.
especially considering kyuuki and juukies are often grouped together. remember how that went down with Aika? Gokkies here, rokkies here, kyuukies over there and Aika you uh.. will you can stand next to rokkies cuz we don't need a solo photo and you're too old to be next to the newbies. it was the same thing before the rest of 8th gen joined. Aika would just be thrown in wherever she didn't stick out too much. even though Yossie was also alone, she was a senpai and their leader (plus very easygoing) so it's not exactly like throwing a new girl in there, and once you'd put her and Aika together that looked very odd.
so yes, i really would have preferred a 2 person gen. however, i'll take a moment to be grateful that i didn't particularly dislike any of the options, so i'm not unhappy, just not totally fulfilled. and also at least Sakura is a good singer and not a "we'll turn her from some untalented troll into a proper idol... may take a few years though, sit tight" type.
also, her fate depends entirely on fans. she can be a great singer, but if she doesn't rise in popularity quickly they still won't give her many lines, much less lead vocals. UF can push her and she can work hard to appeal to people more, but if they don't buy what she's selling then it won't matter. i guess it worked with Ayumi, though, so it can work with Sakura.