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Monday 26 June 2017

Hello Project Debut and Transfers!

Today, it was announced that Country Girls members Morito Chisaki, Yanagawa Nanami and Funaki Musubu would be transferring to existing hello project groups (CG will still be around, it's just those three will be in two groups at the same time). This was coupled with the debuts of three very popular kenshuusei: Ichioka Reina, Kawamura Ayano and Danbara Ruru. The announcement of the transfers didn't appeal to me since 1. AKB has already done that and 2. even when AKB did it the fans hated it so what made H!P think this was a good idea? My best case scenario was for all six members to form a new group together. That didn't happen. That said the actual results weren't as dire as I was expecting.

Firstly...

Chisaki will be joining Morning Musume!
This is probably the least popular of the transfers. Chisaki is easily the most popular out of the girls up for grabs and fans of hers consider it a bad thing for her to have gone from being the ace of Country Girls to just being another girl in the ocean that is MM. Furthermore Chisaki is a rather quiet girl and MM is a rather quiet group. I imagine it would be better to place her with some crazier girls who can bring her out of shell. Fans have noted that the MM members didn't seem very happy at the announcement but people have said it's because they were expecting bad news, like Fukumura's graduation, not because they don't like Chisaki.



Ruru and Nanami will be joining Juice=Juice
This is easily the most controversial addition. A lot of people, myself included, did not want J=J's lineup to change (and I will continue to be on that side of the argument till the day I die). However the cuteness of the girls' reactions and the awesomeness of these two members has softened the blow for me. Both are very talented girls and I can't wait to see the new J=J (though I'll always be a little bit bitter that they didn't think the old J=J was good enough). I'm interested to see if they travel with the rest of the group for the upcoming world tour.



 Ayano and Musubu will be joining ANGERME!
This one I'm 100% behind. ANGERME gives the impression of a group anyone can do well in. Both girls are super cute and confident so they should do fine in the wild world that is ANGERME. One question this does bring up is what will happen to Aiai? If it had just been just one member, that would have spelled the end for her but the fact they added two suggests she may be coming back (it would take less effort to change the choreography that way, keep things the same and just add an extra girl on each side).

Finally...

Reina will be the leader of a new unit!
This is the news I'm happiest about. Reina really has the aura of a leader, and I was having trouble imagining her being the newest member of an already established group. No word on who's going to be in the new group yet but my money is on Maeda Kokoro and Kanatsu Mizuki being in the ranks.