{"id":45,"date":"2007-01-13T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2007-01-13T09:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2007-01-13T12:59:34","modified_gmt":"2007-01-13T09:59:34","slug":"discussing-yossie-and-a-battle-cry-will-television-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/?p=45","title":{"rendered":"Discussing Yossie and a battle cry, will television listen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick thoughts on Yossie<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New Year is yet to blossom, but we\u2019ve already been hit with the news that Hitomi Yoshizawa<\/strong>, Morning Musume<\/strong> group leader, shall be stepping down later on in the year. Though my initial reaction was that of shock, it\u2019s really nothing to get worked up about. She\u2019s fought it out like a trooper over the years, it\u2019s time for her to collect her medals of honour and, well, retire. Not quite, it seems Yossie will stay on in H!P after her graduation. I can\u2019t quite see her as a soloist myself, though her voice is decent enough it\u2019s nothing special. Even her \u2013tomboy\u2019 attitude has taken a backseat and following in the footsteps of Morning Musume itself, become a rather boring affair. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m a fan of Yossie but really, she hasn\u2019t exactly dazzled us with anything lately. I\u2019m not blaming her at all but rather stating how boring MM have been in general. Who knows what Yossie will do after? I\u2019m sure many will speculate and many already have, it\u2019s not for me to say.<\/p>\n

\"Nacchi<\/div>\n

Whilst I\u2019m upset at the prospect of Yossie leaving MM she deserves a break. Her weight fluctuations over the years are a good sign of the stress she\u2019s felt as an Idol. I won\u2019t begin to go into the details of why this may be; it could be very simple or equally as complicated. So labelling the problem \u2013the pressures of fame\u2019 is an easy enough escape clause to use. Last year was a rather rocky time for H!P\u2019s mother ship and it showed. Although most of the defeatist opinions came from fans and not H!P headquarters, it\u2019s the fans that keep Tsunku\u2019s<\/strong> capital healthy. So these voices should be taken seriously, if the shoe fits, I think we all agree it does.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it\u2019s a new year and another 12 months for Morning Musume to bring everything back to the boil. I think we all see the arrival of Aika as a sign of hope, she\u2019s got expectations on her\u00a0shoulders and we\u2019re all guilty of putting those expectations there. I think if the tide starts to move with MM we could see a very good year for the newest addition. I would have liked Yossie to stay on, at least until Morning Musume are a little more grounded and stable. Even if she\u2019s just sitting in the background she\u2019s always a welcome and familiar face to see, and I think we all feel as if a part of MM\u2019s past is with us when she\u2019s around. That\u2019s what you get if you hang around long enough. But pleading for her to stay is pretty selfish, like I said, she needs a break. Still, the timing of her graduation still leaves me a bit puzzled. With Aika<\/strong> coming in I would have thought Yossie leaving at the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007 would have been better suited for the fairytale \u2013fresh new start\u2019 angle. And for the die hard Yossie fans out there, maybe even the end of this year.<\/p>\n

What I hope to see from the media<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aika\u2019s maiden appearance on Utaban is something I am looking forward to. Even though the relationship between both camps has been hit and miss with recent MM the love is still there, it just needs to be reawakened (I tried<\/em> to tackle the issue in an earlier blog, emphasis on \u2013tried\u2019). Let\u2019s hope Taka-san<\/strong> will take her on as one of the Idols he wants to date when they turn \u201320\u2019 (that was always a funny angle). Apart from his loyalty to Mikitty<\/strong>, the only palatable member left in MM for the feisty host is Sayu<\/strong> in my opinion and frankly, I think they scare each other. Hell, Sayu could always try and win over Nakai-kun as it\u2019s always great to piss him off.<\/p>\n

\"Aika<\/div>\n

Downtown of Hey Hey Hey can just keep doing their thing, maybe more regularly than recently. Though it has to be said, they\u2019re a little \u2013hands on\u2019 sometimes and whilst it\u2019s not always physical abuse, these guys can be pretty scary. TV spots like Dokyu and Futarigoto were always welcome. Though it\u2019s fair to say some were more interesting than others, down to who was on it if we\u2019re being honest. Do we need another round of these spots right now? Probably not, but fans won\u2019t care about that. I\u2019m sad to say the days of Mari<\/strong> crunching on ice for twenty odd minutes\u00a0has long gone, but I\u2019m sure there\u2019s enough interesting things to talk about and do, or not do on Dokyu or Futarigoto. There are other shows and such out there like \u2013Fun\u2019 for example who I\u2019d like to see get their hands dirty again. As for Hello! Mornings, I get the feeling standards are dropping in that department to. I\u2019m still waiting for Taka-san to appear on the show. Maybe it\u2019s best for everyone if that never materialises \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

What am I asking for exactly? Just a little more effort from everyone involved. The situation is rarely as bad as we\u2019d like to think, up until headquarters and sales statistics tell us otherwise. I personally think the situation right now is in the middle of speculation and fact. I recently listened to a radio rip of MM\u2019s 10 th anniversary single and was thankfully thrilled by it. It\u2019s not perfect by any means but it sways in the right direction. I like to use the term \u2013grass roots\u2019 as it seems more familiar to past MM releases than it does newer ones. That\u2019s a very quick round up of the single, but it\u2019s not a review so forgive my poor explanation. On the whole though, it\u2019s a great single to start off MM\u2019s year.<\/p>\n

So whilst I sit and wait to see how the year unfolds for H!P\u2019s catalogue of groups and projects, I\u2019ll be hoping for the best. It\u2019s the least we can do right?<\/p>\n

[Note: Wu-San wrote this blog before those very sad news of Yossie’s brother\u00a0hit us.<\/strong>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick thoughts on Yossie The New Year is yet to blossom, but we\u2019ve already been hit with the news that Hitomi Yoshizawa, Morning Musume group leader,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mm-hello-project","category-wu-sans-mix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kakko-ii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}