It has been announced that Morning Musume leader Fujimoto Miki has resigned from Morning Musume, in a nearly-identical repeat of the Yaguchi Mari incident. Of course, unlike Mari, Mikitty will remain active in H!P with GAM.
You know, I was never a real big fan of Mikitty. But this saddens me a little, because she was a whole lot of fun in Morning Musume, and well, now that she’s gone, she’s probably taken a good chunk of fanbase with her.
This also reduces my “Aruiteru” curse idea to shit, but it was a nice try, huh? XD
I doubt Mikitty really wanted to leave, but with the multitude of scandals in UFA’s face right now (Aibon is still associated with H!P in the eyes of many fans, so this whole ‘Kago YES Nude’ thing she might be doing will probably hit them pretty hard as well, even if she’s no longer signed with them) she probably felt it was best. I also doubt that she resigned “distinctly as herself.” There was probably some pressure involved, but I don’t think she was planning on staying anyway. It’d be a stupid expectation, not to mention that Up-Front could probably get accused for favoritism if they let Mikitty stay without repercussion but punished Mari.
Okay, so Mari “quit”, but again, no one in the idol world makes decisions “distinctly as themselves.” There’s pressure from the company involved, as well as just what is going on with their careers.
I’m curious to see if she will get her solo career back. Many fans have been calling for it, practically ever since she was tossed into Morning Musume. Now that Morning Musume is out of the way, will UFA give it back to her, or have they decided that it really is a dead idea?
This thing isn’t just about Miki, either. Now that she’s gone, Aichan and Gaki have become the leader and the sub-leader of Momusu, respectively. When Yossie first graduated, many commented that it was a good thing that Mikitty was sub-leader, because Aichan didn’t have the “leader” qualities. The girls once mentioned that the feel of the group changes with every leader - the “Nakazawa era” was their most successful, and there was a feel of aggressiveness, of rivalry. The “Kaorin” era was the longest and probably the most stable, but over the years, the success really dwindled. Morning Musume had a passive feel, and so did Tsunku - he seemed to the have the idea that he’ll just churn out songs and if they’re hits, that’s great, if not, oh well. There really was no “Mari” era, just like now there is really no “Miki” era. And the “Yossie” era was mentioned as being very focused on sports, though they honestly still had the Kaorin-passive feel to them. So now we have Takitty as the leader. We’ve come to expect no surprises from her. I hope that she’ll break out and do something fun, but even now - maybe especially now - she still wants to play the good role model and doesn’t want to do anything crazy. Which isn’t really the right mentality to have in this particular group, because Morning Musume (as proved amply over the years) is all about the crazy. The crazier you are, in fact, the more popular you are likely to be.
So now that there is no Miki anymore, Morning Musume has gone from it’s “Asia” 10nin lineup (something I would’ve liked to see, because the 10nins are always the most compared lineups) to the “Asia” 9nin lineup. Will Morning Musume have any hold over the Japanese public now? Hopefully this expansion into the rest of Asia will help, because now that Mikitty’s gone, the only other leads left are Aichan and Reina, and Gaki to a lesser extent - and the only wota left will be the Aichan and Reina ones. Maybe Gaki will receive a greater push in Morning Musume - even greater than the one she’s got right now - or maybe they’ll give another girl the spotlight.
This is a sad thing, but hopefully it’ll turn out for the better. D: Good luck to Mikitty in her post-Musume career, and good luck to Aichan and Gaki in their new positions!
Posted: June 1st, 2007 under hello! project, miki fujimoto, morning musume, scandal.
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