My Eri story:I was still fairly new to MM/H!P when the 6th Gen joined, and to be honest, for a while the only one of them that I could recognize/remember was Reina because of her wonky eye and the fact that at the time, she rarely smiled in promo photos. The defining moment that really made Eri stand out for me was when she cut her hair. At the time, no one in the group had hair as short as what she got. Before that happened, the only thing that I really knew Eri for was this one scene in MMs 1st Alo-Hello when she, Rika, and I think Reina were being swung in a hammock. Rika was freaking out, Reina was giggling, and of course, Eri's just ROFL'ing like mad, obviously enjoying every minute of it.
In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that no one in MM had had hair that short since before Ichii graduated. Anyway, her new uber short hair worked really well for her as soon after, she took on her now-famous role of Eric Kamezou on Hello!Morning. Truly adopting that character as her own, I'd say that's when she really started to come out of her shell (pun intended). We had seen glimpses of her weirdness in the past (like finding out about her love of small spaces and her lame gags), but you could see she was becoming more and more comfortable in front of the camera, and that as an idol/entertainer, she was really starting to blossom. You couldn't help but smile at her weirdness, and you couldn't help but like her more and more. I mean come on, how could you not cheer her on when they showed her doing take after take after take after take for the GakiKame throwing skits?
My favourite thing about Eri:Her unabashed weirdness and her pure, sincere giggle-fits.
A memorable performance:Same as BgDmn1, her HPH solo of ~100kai no KISS~. This song really suited Eri's voice as it has a naturally higher, lighter tonality to it compared to, say, Aichan. In my opinion this perf really showed just how good of a singer Eri can be.
A moment that made me laugh:"Refrijeeta". Hands down.
A moment that surprised me:When she first cut her hair. It was enough to really make me notice her because it changed her fundamental look so much.
A picture that I like: As awesome as she looks in a swimsuit, I really like the simple playfulness of this one.
A video that I like: The "Making of" video for her MAPLE PB. I love the scene where they're taking pics while the train zooms by behind her.