Juice=Juice is Hello! Project’s last hope

Hmm … where have I heard this one before?

The saviors of humankind???

Newly-minted girl group Juice=Juice has made a dashing first impression, becoming the darlings of J-idol fandom almost as quickly as Stephen Curry has become the darling of NBA basketball. With his pure shooting stroke and legit playmaking skills, Curry has captured the imagination of the hoops nation, not to mention his eyes are prettier than Yuka Miyazaki’s. But I digress. Juice=Juice has all of two singles to their name, both under an indie label (which means no B-side tracks), yet the sheer impact of these songs and the videos accompanying them are inspiring all sorts of buzz among fans. “Better than S/mileage,” some are saying. “The greatest talent Tsunku has ever assembled.” “Hello! Project is finally doing something right.”

After two songs? As in, they don’t even have enough repertoire to fill in between two MC segments at a concert?

While people often say “Don’t be so quick to judge!” in response to something negative, I think the same words of warning apply to positive reactions too.

Yuuka graduates again

The pictures are out there, and whoever wants to see them has probably already seen them. Or at least, they know where to look. But they spell out the truth as clear as day: Yuuka Maeda, formerly of S/mileage, has really, truly, returned to being a normal girl.

Who SHE?

March is, after all, graduation season in Japan, and if I remember my school regulations correctly, whoever turns 18 before April 1st of the current year is graduating from high school. So Ayaka Wada (turned 18 on August 1 of last year) is graduating. Kanon Fukuda (turns 18 on March 12 of this year) is graduating. And Yuuka, who already “graduated” once from S/mileage in the heartbreaking shocker of my lifetime, will also … be graduating from high school.

That’s 3/4ths of original S/mileage. Kind of a surprising reminder of how close in age they are.

New S/mileage, One Year Later

SERIOUS BUSINESS.

The way I reckon, the “new” era of S/mileage began with the release of “Choto Mate Kudasai!”, the first single after Yuuka Maeda’s graduation. But I feel that New S/mileage didn’t really come into their own until “Samui Ne,” which struck me as—for the first time—something that the old S/mileage never would have done.

For this is what Old S/mileage meant to me. Wada, Maeda, Fukuda, Ogawa. Four loli brats who kept Hello! Project youthful while all the other acts were busy being grown-up; the fearless upstarts who dared to challenge Girls’ Generation (and won); major keys and circus noises and songs that never dared venture below quarter note = 132. That was the S/mileage sound, and nothing on this earth could change it.

Until two graduations and four new additions later.

Memories of Yuuka

Gone, but never forgotten.

It’s been three weeks and I still haven’t entirely gotten over it.

And something tells me, I don’t think I ever will.

When the news of Yuuka Maeda’s graduation broke, I was standing in line waiting for the SNSD fanmeet in New York, which was pretty much the weirdest feeling in the world because I was super excited for one event while SIMULTANEOUSLY having my heart broken. And if anyone wants to know what happened next, well, after they herded everyone into the performance hall and started playing SNSD videos, I finally let the tears stream down my cheeks, in the dark, where no one could see.

It was the one goodbye I never wanted to face. And now it was just over two months away.

These Fresh Legs Are Made For Walkin’

Did you know what you were going to do for the rest of your life when you were 14 years old?

I didn’t, and I’m guessing Saki Ogawa doesn’t either.

GRATUITOUS PIC WITH MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

That may be the best way to rationalize the unexpected announcement that Ogawa, one of the “original four” of idol unit S/mileage, is dropping out of the group and TEH Hello! Project altogether.