Morning Musume。11th Gen "Suppin Utahime" WINNER ANNOUNCED!

[AyuHikaru]

Riho is popular in the international fandom too, you can always tell how popular a girl is by how many haters she has... and Riho has SO MANY OMG (It's like Taka all over again). And not the Aika like haters either, the ones who bitch and moan about her being the new ace. Those haters.

[ntrd]

I'm sure she will the new frontgirl after Reina graduates. She's the only one who has the voice for it (given that she has the stamina for a whole concert). Plus, they need a new Nacchi/Ai as they already have Riho as the new Maki/Reina.

[Pavlova]

I think once Reina graduates we'll get a few singles with more balanced lines just to give the new girls (esp. Sakura) a chance to adapt, but then yeah I could see Sakura being a front girl/lead singer... as long as the fanbase stands behind her. If the japanese fans don't like her/don't buy her goods as much, then I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure they'll like her, she sort of has that Taka feel to her.

[questorminator]

Riho is popular in the international fandom too, you can always tell how popular a girl is by how many haters she has... and Riho has SO MANY OMG (It's like Taka all over again). And not the Aika like haters either, the ones who bitch and moan about her being the new ace. Those haters.

Yeah, but her fanbase is still mainly the Japanese. Which reminds me, there used to be a monthly sales ranking update in H!O. It hasn't been updated since February but Riho never dropped out of the top 5 for at least 3 to four months before the updates stopped coming. If her place as lead girl number 2 is any indication, I'd say she's still selling pretty well.

That said, I think the Japanese wotas are fairly OK with Sakura. From what I gather, the reactions are positive but I don't think they're crazy about her just yet. Considering it took them some time to get used with Takahashi, I could say that I'm very positive with her prospects as supposed future lead singer. So after Reina, Sakura and Riho will be girl number one and two. It's all a matter of who is number one and who is number two.

[danzarely]

I'm not a Riho hater - I actually quite like her personally, it just seems like WHENEVER there is a performance EVER there is a constant flood of "WHY IS SHE SCREECHING LIKE A MONKEY?!??!?!!!! "

It's even brought up on 2ch.

[boinsie]

The Japanese talk about it, so it must be true.

[Pavlova]

I like her live voice the best.

[Amped]

http://ameblo.jp/satodamai/entry-11364394230.html

[danzarely]

^Resemblance, why you so uncanny?

[Nayoko-Kihara]

Resemblance to who? She looks nothing like Satoda to me.