I purposefully used an awful image of her. It didn’t take much searching. Ok, that was the last Mika Mutou joke, I swear.

I never thought I’d be writing this. I never thought I’d care that about Mika Mutou graduating. I never thought that I’d be upset that Mika Mutou was leaving. But, here we are.

some boys! blog has the report that Mika Mutou is graduating from Ongaku Gakas and Hello!Project.

And I am actually wish that Mika Mutou, OF ALL PEOPLE, would be staying.

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Years from now, we may be talking about how brilliant Hello!Project was to turn Erina Mano into a soloist. It could be the decision that turned things around for the company.

As for today, on March 2, 2008 - it doesn’t look like the right thing to do.

And I really like Erina Mano, and not just for her looks.

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It seems like times are bad for Hello!Project. Berryz Koubou is going to release another uninspiring single. C-ute is going to follow up the fantastic Tokaiko Junjou with Lalala Shiawase no Uta, a song that’s already frowned upon by many after the 58th Kouhaku. Morning Musume’s next single is delayed. Natsumi Abe and Maimi Yajima’s single, 16sai no Koi Nante, did not sell well and I have a sneaking suspicion the blame for it will be laid upon Maimi. Risako Sugaya is dangerously risking overexposure by releasing a third photobook, which is unjustly coming before the first photobooks of Aika Mitsui, Li Chun, Chinami Tokunaga, Kanna Arihara and others.

Despite all of that, good news has arrived today! V-u-den is breaking up! It may not seem like it, but it is good news.

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The Close Up PV of Yattarouze! is out. It’s pretty standard fare. However, in one scene, we get something completely different. On the final chorus, at the “wow” part, we get this…

It doesn’t even last a full second, yet I’m looking this far into it.

Nine different attempts to produce one single facial expression. First of all,
all of these were too closeup to enjoy this face in its full effect. Besides that, how well did Ongaku Gatas show this expression? What are we looking for here? It’s simple, to pull off the perfect surprised look. What is the perfect surprised look? Well…

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Eight days, not bad!

Ongaku Gatas is a fantastic group. I’m aware people get attached to certain groups (Berryz Koubou) and refuse to look towards alternatives (C-ute). However, I think you can get a different appreciation of your old group (Morning Musume) by seeing how amazing a better group (Ongaku Gatas) is.

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Everyone on the (*DEAD LINK*) Internet is talking about how Hello!Project would or wouldn’t work in America. Well, it is way too hard to predict the music industry. Ah, but a prediction I will make. With the support it is getting now, even for much lesser known groups, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the idol industry around in 10 years. That means the middle-aged wota community will still exist in 10 years.

That means I’ll become one of them…

Oh god!

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