WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
MY COMPUTER BREAKS DOWN AND THIS KIND OF NEWS COMES UP...
AND AS I'M TRYING TO SLEEP

Holy fuck. This must be what it feels like to have been a fan when this type of thing was happening more often. I still remember last year when Koharu's graduation was announced, though the shock wasn't as big as it is now because I was still a noob and it was only one person...this time around I feel it even more.
Damn, I never would've thought that Eri would have it that bad since she's always looked healthy even in those casual blog photos. Just as she was becoming more prominent in the singles, too.
Jun/Lin is the real shocker, though. I understand that the whole "foreign exchange student" label meant they were just an experiment anyway, but it also seems like so much wasted potential considering how things turned out with them. Shit, even I kinda wasted potential in that I've only mentioned my "LL and Cool J" nickname for them just once (is it too late for it tp catch on?

). And still no Jun photobook??? I've never really paid attention to the Chinese entertainment scene, so I hope I can somehow still catch wind of what they're up to in the future. Have 'em work with Zhang Ziyi or something!
9th gen audutions...now this is gonna be the weird part for me, after already having been aware of a graduation as it happened. I hear the targeted age range is 10 to 17...why so young? The whole group will be over 18 by the time the new girls show up; they should at least raise the lower limit by 4 or so years. And then you gotta think about how that long period of relative stability is finally coming to an end, along with how Ai and Risa are still around coming up on a decade of service...dammit this is too much for me to take in at 4 in the morning while typing on my phone!!!

I'll look into more of this in the morning.