[News] Reina Tanaka to graduate from Morning Musume in Spring 2013

[krpsygafan]

I knew it was going to happen.    She's been a very long-serving member. I immediately think of her when I think of Morning Musume.

  AHUHUHUHUHU!

[CrypticShadow8]

Now that I think about it this makes me more worried about Sayu than Reina. I think this is a great opportunity for Reina and one that was probably long in coming. However this does mean that Sayu looses her support system and anyone that she can consider an equal. The next closet are the 9th gen and there is a very obvious Sempai/Kouhai gap going. I just hope she doesn't keep everything to herself and get too stressed out like she did a couple of years ago.

[nimrod]

http://www.up-fc.jp/helloproject/news_Info.php?id=3896
Reina will be with M-line club in June 2013 after graduated from MM & H!P.
 

[nimrod]

[shirenuファクトリー]

^ Except not really...

[J-Triumf]

MM will be bad joke without Reina.

I think I know ten people who have already proven that statement to be false.

[Chibs]

http://blog-project.net/tanaka-reina/95394
Yes Reina isn't gone yet...

[winner]

MM will be bad joke without Reina.

oooh. predictions!
Continuing with H!P tradition, Reina is going to marry one of the band members...

wait...

[mske]

I think I know ten people who have already proven that statement to be false.

In spring 2013 nine of ten people will be members of MM only one or two years.
Person has to be member of MM at least five years in most cases to have chance to become valuable member according to my criteria.

[SomethingWild]

Person has to be member of MM at least five years in most cases to have chance to become valuable member according to my criteria.

Five years to have a CHANCE at becoming a valuable member?! A lot of idol careers don't even last five years.
That's like saying girls like Sayashi and Fukuchan don't add any value to the group? That's just ridiculous.

Not sure what your criteria are (feel free to elaborate on that), but I think they're more suited for an Olympic gymnast team than an idol group.

[shirenuファクトリー]

Person has to be member of MM at least five years in most cases to have chance to become valuable member according to my criteria.

Maybe you should try this fandom called Kpop. Plenty of girls there who train for 5-7 years before debuting. As a Jpop idol, you're lucky to even last five years.

Seriously, I have no idea what some people are even doing in the JPOP IDOL FANDOM with this kind of criteria. If you want to watch people who are already polished performers, try something else instead of wasting everyone's time by complaining how this JPOP IDOL isn't good enough for your standards. It's like buying a Nintendo DS and then complaining that it can't play PSP games. If you wanted to play PSP games, maybe you should've bought a PSP instead.

Also, hadn't most members in MM in years 2000-2001 only been around for 2 years or less? And wasn't that period considered the Golden Era (or at least the beginning of it)? Defining any kind of time period after which someone becomes 'valuable' is useless. Members will step up when they need to, they always have. I'm even more surprised when older fans don't realize this when it has happened over and over and over again. Like how blind do you have to be to not see it.

[mske]

Five years to have a CHANCE at becoming a valuable member?! A lot of idol careers don't even last five years.
That's like saying girls like Sayashi and Fukuchan don't add any value to the group? That's just ridiculous.

Five years is average. Some members become valuable soon, some never.
Valuable member (for me) has to meet at least one of these criteria:
1. sexy/cute adult (age >= 18 in my country)
2. good singer

Maybe you should try this fandom called Kpop

kinda like SNSD, but it isn't so impressive as MM was until 2010.

[Estrea]

^I think then it's just unfortunate for you then that the new gens joined that young. But then again the average age of new joinees starting from 3rd gen (Goto Maki was a wee 13 year old when she started!) has been around early teens, and it just so happened that there has been a rush of graduations for the older members in the past two years, so the average age has just plunged without the constant renewal we were seeing from 4th to 6th gens (where it was like an audition almost every year, or every other year). That period of stability under Ai's reign as leader had a hidden cost: no new girls starting at the usual average age = average age of group dropping like a rock when the older members start leaving by the time they decide to add new people. For your first criteria....we do have sexy and cute girls (*coughFukuchancough*), but well....she's just only 16. Which doesn't bother me, because I can admire someone's looks without it going R-rated all the time. Personally, I'm quite entertained by watching this crop of girls grow up....it's kind of fun to watch. They're like my favorite nieces or something like that But that's me, and I respect that you might want to be looking at more mature girls. I admit that I use AKB48 for this purpose nowadays

As for criteria no.2....excuse me while I go laugh my guts out. Good singers. Idol music. BAHAHAHAHA. Sorry. Good singers in idol music is the exception rather than the rule. Granted, I have a bias for good singers (I love you Aichan ) and my favorites do tend to give excellent live performances, so I get where you're coming from, but I have come to realize that as long as they do not murder my eardrums, my standards for acceptable idol music are really low. What would offend me coming from serious artistes would not offend me as much coming from idols. Music, while important, is but one part of being a good idol -- for reference, please see Sayu; the girl can't sing that well, but she is a good idol. What they really do is sell an image, which packs in personality, looks, whatever quirky behaviour that might appeal to fans, and anything that is remotely marketable can and will be exploited. If the girls (and their managers!) know what they're doing anyway. It's a cult of personality, idol-dom. With less people dying, obviously.

Anyway, to conclude the rant...I suppose the use of the word "valuable" would rile up any fan. Let's call it controversial word choice and forget about it.

To bring it back on topic...

So guys, we have the preliminary tour dates up, how many more do you think they'll tack on?

[muppet]

One last thing about the five year criteria--- Tsunku has this covered.....

Switch to Berryz Kobo and C-ute (7+ years for all the members) to get your fill of experienced members (and I am a big fan of all the Hello! Kids, who are now Hello, Hello Pretty Women!) and then check back in on Morning Musume now and then, you might be surprised how good these one and two years members are.............

I can  remember well all the frigging doom and gloomers moaning and whinging about how Morning Musume was finished when the original girls were stepping down, and all the bitching about the fifth and sixth gen members..............Yet Ai Takahashi and Miki Fujimoto, ably backed by Risa Niigata (and everyone else) was, in my opinion, the best vocal combination the group ever had.

And yes, watching the girls growing and getting better is a big part of idol music, it's fun! And Rena will be working as well with her new band, so lots of good times ahead, guaranteed.............and you can take that to the bank.........

[mske]

Good singers in idol music is the exception rather than the rule.
for reference, please see Sayu; the girl can't sing that well, but she is a good idol.

When I said good singer I meant good singer, not excellent singer. Reina is also good singer.
I said they have to meet at least one criterion, not both. Sayu is sexy/cute adult.

[Estrea]

Good singers in idol music is the exception rather than the rule.
for reference, please see Sayu; the girl can't sing that well, but she is a good idol.

When I said good singer I meant good singer, not excellent singer. Reina is also good singer.
I said they have to meet at least one criterion, not both. Sayu is sexy/cute adult.

Sayu has also been in the group for 10 years. Probably not the best example in this case.

Morning Musume will survive until Tsunku gives up on them. If anything, their survival hinges more on Tsunku than on the roster of girls in the group. We all have our favorites and preferred types, but the girls come and go, and only Tsunku remains. I love Reina and am happy to see her embark on a new career outside of the group -- she certainly deserves something to call her own by now, after working towards it in 10 years as an idol. I admit, I like the new girls because they're all quirky and funny and even if some of them are complete brats (Duu and Riho, lol), I still like them and look forward to watching them in coming years. To me, that's a big draw of Morning Musume: you get to see a variety of different girls do their thing, and you can laugh with them (or at them ), cry with them, and generally have fun. I'm not an eternal optimist in life....quite the reverse actually. But when it comes to idols, they allow me to escape to a happy place for a short time. Which is why I can be optimistic about them and ignore all the doom-and-gloomers. It's too much work to hate on something, or to predict that THIS IS THE END. Real life gets me down often enough without my fandom doing the same to me

And this reminds me why I generally try not to interact with the majority of fandom. So tired of disputes over something that should essentially be enjoyed.

[TommyVD]

Real life gets me down often enough without my fandom doing the same to me
And this reminds me why I generally try not to interact with the majority of fandom. So tired of disputes over something that should essentially be enjoyed.

Same here.
Morning Musume will be fine.

[Slack]

Whenever I see someone underestimating the 9th and 10th generations, I always have to laugh to myself a bit.  If you're paying attention to what they do and how they perform, I feel it's impossible to come to the conclusion that Morning Musume has no future.  The fans who come to the conclusion that there's no value in the newer girls are the ones who weren't ever going to give them a chance in the first place.  These are the fans that have an expiration date, and their complaints about how the future is going to suck is the smell that lets you know that they're getting close to that date.  Since they're pretty much determined not to be fans much longer, there's really no point in listening to or even directly responding to their negativity.  Let them live with their lack of patience, imagination, and excitement about the future.  It's their loss.

I'm personally more than glad to see Reina go for many reasons.  As someone who believes in the younger generations' potential and can't wait to see what they'll do next, it's hard for me to see her graduation as anything but a positive change.  After putting in so many years, it feels like there's nowhere left for Reina to grow as a performer in Morning Musume.  Unlike Sayumi, whose particular skills and experience in self-promotion are of obvious continuing value to the growth of the younger girls, it's hard for me to see how much Reina's continued presence in the group can have similar benefits.  In the meantime, she's taking up that prized center slot that any of the younger girls could be benefiting from and furthering the popularity of the group with.


TL;DR version:
Fans who can't see the younger girls' value and potential are the ones who haven't even looked for it and are unlikely to start.  They're likely not going to be fans much longer and their negativity and opinions just shouldn't matter to long-term fans.

Reina's gotten just about all she's going to get out of being in Morning Musume, and the younger girls have gotten just about all they're going to get out of Reina's presence.  Reina deserves the chance to continue growing as a performer and the younger girls deserve a chance to be in the spotlight.

[elgie]

Personally I started to pay sporadical attention to MM again since 9th gen joined, and 10th gen had me completely hooked. Those girls are awesome.
And with Sakura's great voice they're going to have me on the wagon for a loooooong time

[Chibs]

Reina's graduation concert will be streamed live!!!!
http://www.up-fc.jp/helloproject/news_Info.php?id=4460
http://www.helloproject.com/news/1304251900_musume.html

via Ameba Studio and you have to buy a special e-ticket
I need to look into this further... must get in on this shiet :fear: