Warning: This is about the first generation of Morning Musume. If you like the 1st gen and love it when people talk about it, enjoy youself. If you don't like the 1st gen, please cover your eyes and brace yourself because I'm gonna talk about them whether you like them or not.
Now that that's over, let's get to my post. You can't talk about the history of Morning Musume or Hello! Project in general with mentioning the legendary first gen. Real MM fans can easily name the first 5 members: Ishiguro Aya, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Fukuda Ayaka, and...that other one (Just kidding. Nakazawa Yuko. Love you, Yuko!) This was IMO Momusu's purest generation. This was before all the boyfriends, substandard songs, and scandals that stained MM's image.
Let me take you to the world of 1997.
Sharan Q's Tsunku decides to have an audition to find a female vocalist for his band. There were six finalists and Heike Michiyo won. But Tsunku wanted the other 5 girls to stick around. He told the girls that if the recorded "Ai no Tane" and sold 50,000 albums in a certain amount of time, then they would stay a group. So they recorded the song, released it on November 3 and promoted like crazy. They completed their mission and managed to stay a group.
After that, "Morning Coffee" was released on January 28,1998 , new members were added, and MM (And later H!P) started to make history. They did tours, starred in "Morning Cop" (One of the greatest movies ever IMO), and gained their own show.
I'm gonna talk about each 1st gen member one by one. It seems appropriate XD.
Fukuda Asuka - The baby of the first generation. She was one the original lead singers along with Nacchi. She was the first one to graduate and she was the member with the shortest tenure. While she said she left to focus on her studies (Back when "graduating to focus on studies" didn't mean "boyfriend"), it was also rumored that she was bullied by the older members and the staff. If that rumor is ever confirmed, then I'll lose a little respect from Nacchi, Kaori, and Yuko. Bullies are horrible people.
Ishiguro Aya - Good old Aya. She was the girl with her nose pierced in MM, one third of the original Tanpopo (The best gen of Tapopo IMO) and the second one to graduate.Then she married Shinya of Luna Sea and became the best former idol/mom ever. Unlike other ex-H!P members who graduate and then fall of the face of the earth. Aya is still active, releasing books and blogging. Motherhood hasn't affected her looks either because she still looks hot X)
Natsumi Abe - I love some Nacchi. Look at this picture. She hasn't even aged since 1997. She graduated from MM in 2004 and became one of H!P's biggest soloists from '04-earlier this year, Now she's just a soloist for UFA and still busting out ballads
Iida Kaori - This pic is from 2001 btw. Anyway, you gotta love Kaori. She held the record for the longest time as a MM member until Aichan and Gakisan broke it and she had 26 singles released during her tenure. Then she graduated and released some Mediterranean-influenced music and got married. Her and 7HOUSE member Kenji are currently living happily ever after.
Nakazawa Yuko - Last but certainly not least is the oldest of the first 5, Yuko. She was the first leader of MM and the first to start a solo career after graduating. Her failure at finding a husband made her well known among MM fans. At 36 years old, she's still the hottest "old lady" I've ever seen XD.
Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to respect the original 5. Without them, there be no Aichan, no Gakisan, no Jun or Lin, no H!P. They are living, breathing pieces of J-Pop history IMO.
Yesterday Koharu officially graduated from H!P on the last day of MM's NINE SMILE tour. Koha's graduation means the end of Morning Musume's most stable lineup (2 years, 8 months).
Over 2,000 fans were in attendence at Tokyo Kousei Nenkin Kaikan as Koha left. They wore red and brought red penlights. Koha's final song was "Furusato", the song she sang on Hello! Morning (Miss that show) when she first joined MM in 2005. Then the group sang "Love Machine" and "Songs" to close out the show.
I'm glad that Koha actually got a graduation ceremony. I was expecting her to get roses and that's it. But her ceremony was decent and well deserved for MM's most genki member.
I used to think that Koharu was really, really annoying and that her singing voice was horrible. I still sort agree to that 2nd one XD. But I've grown to like Koha. I'll miss you, my hyper friend!
I will now leave you with Koha's final quote.
"THANK YOU EVERYONE! I TRULY THANK YOU ALL!"
Since there has been so many post-worthy topics recently, I'll avoid making several posts and just squeeze my witty comments into one post.
Nakajima Saki to release her first PB, "NACKY"
Finally, a PB from Nakki! I thought she would be like Ume and go her whole career without a PB. I wonder what it would look like. If it's anything like the recent C-ute Alo Hello PB, I expect pictures of Nakki having fun and looking good (I hope there are plenty of bikini shots)
Tanaka Reina wishes for growth in that special area
During a recent appearance in her hometown, Fukuoka, Reina was talking about what she wanted for her 20th birthday. She said that she wanted to grow. She didn't say where but it's assumed she was talking about..that place. Good luck with that, Reina.
Kago Ai's in NYC
Aibon, welcome to America. She's here as a spokesperson for the cummunications company KDDI but she's also visiting fans and doing a press conference. Man, this is one of those times I wish I lived in New York. But I'm happy where I am XD.
That's all the news I can round up this time. I'm planning on writing something on the 1st gen Momusu...or maybe 5th gen. I love them both.
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
While I was thinking of something to write about, I got to thinking about all the comings and goings of 2009 (More going out of H!P than coming into H!P) and how these events might affect H!P.
I decided to look take a look into the future (I'm a part-time psychic) I will now report my findings to you. So here they are, my predictions.
Morning Musume
- Koha graduates and MM leaves the spot empty for about 2-5 months
- MM holds an audition for the first time in years adding 2-4 new members (at least 2 of them from the Kanto region)
- The chances of Ai or Risa graduating rise, Reina is tapped to fill the sub leader position if either of them graduate
- There will be at least 3 tabloid stories claiming things from public drunkeness to boyfriends; those claims are never confirmed
C-ute
- Record sales will go up slightly
- C-ute will head to Hawaii again to do a Alo-Hello! PB and DVD; sales of the PB will be high
- Saki or Mai will have more presence in songs
- Devoted fans will follow Erika's modelling career
Berryz Koubou
- Captain will finally release a photobook, making her the last Berryz member to release a PB
- Risako will release 1 or 2 PBs; stores will quickly sell out
- There will be a tabloid story about Miyabi, Maasa, or Risako; blurry pics will be published
- No one will graduate
There you go! All that predicting made me a bit tired...
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Yes the last day of C-ute's fall tour has come and passed and Ume has finally graduated. My all time favorite member is leaving with a nice ceremony but I'll talk about that in a bit.
You're probably saying "Slasha, why didn't you post the day of her graduation?" Well, I wanted to get all the information before I made a post so I could tell you guys what happened.
Now let me tell you what happened. C-ute did their show as normal. When it came time for Erika to graduate, the other members said nice things about her. That was it. No expensive special effects. No bouquet of flowers. No singing to the guest of honor. Nothing.
I'm a little displeased with the graduation and apparently so are the fans who were there. Maybe UFA didn't want to spend a lot of money. Maybe Ume did want a ceremony. Whatever the reason, I'm glad she actually graduated and didn't just leave. Good luck with modelling, Ume!
Now for family pictures.
And so ends an era...
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
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