So here we are with a little under two weeks before the big news drops for Hello! Project and the new additions that are going to be added. So with the halfway point past, it’s time to delve into what has happened so far!
Morning Musume ’18
The year began with the group continuing to promote their album, but released a digital single, “Hana ga Saku Taiyou Abite” before releasing a mini-album, to commemorate the group’s 20 year tenure, “Hatachi no Morning Musume” which included old members of the group mixed in with the current members! Though in March, Haruna Ogata announced her graduation in June before releasing the last single with the group, “Are you Happy? / A gonna” before she officially left. Plus currently they’re doing the stageplay for “Pharaoh no Haka ~Hebi Ou Sneferu~” which also had a small OST released
ANGERME
The year was pretty slow at the start, but once April hit we got the sad news that the last original member from the S/mileage days, Ayaka Wada announces her graduation for sometime in the Spring of 2019. Then they released their next single, “Nakanai ze…Kyoukan Sagi / Uraha=Lover / Kimi Dake ja nai sa…friends (2018 Acoustic Ver.)”.
Juice=Juice
Likewise, Juice=Juice was mostly quiet at the beginning of the year and didn’t get to their single until April with the release of “SEXY SEXY / Naite Ii yo / Vivid Midnight” before an interesting twist happened in June where former Country Girls’ member (and current leader for the Hokkaido Kenshuusei), Manaka Inaba was added to the group!
Kobushi Factory
After the triple loss from 2017, Kobushi Factory was kind of floating around and IMO, quietly released their first single of the year, “Kore Kara da! / Ashita Tenki ni Naare”.
Tsubaki Factory
Continuing from last year, Tsubaki finally released the full single (Teion Yakedo was a preview single), “Teion Yakedo / Shunrenka / I Need You ~Yozora no Kanransha~” and afterwards was pretty quiet from the group up until the end of June.
New Units
After learning what was going to happen with Ichioka, Takase, and Kiyono, it was that two groups would be made! After a little while in early June, Ichioka added Rika Shimakura, Saya Eguchi, and Shiori Nishida to her group while the other two added Yuhane Yamazaki, Kokoro Maeda, and Minami Okamura to their lineup while the final lineup will be announced at the Summer tour!
Kenshuusei / Hokkaido Kenshuusei
So in the half of year we had quite a number of losses and no gains yet! Already from the recent batch, both Sayaka Goto and Momoko Hashimoto had both left, as well as then leader Hikaru Inoue & Hokkaido’s Ryo Kitagawa had left as well! On top of the above happenings as well concerning the new units. Though the Hokkaido girls managed to release a single, “Hankouki! / Ice day Party” and the KSS released their sophomore album, “Rainbowx2”.
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Future Happenings
Both of the Kenshuusei releases will get a general release with the Summer Tour
Tsubaki Factory is first up with their next single, “Date no Hi wa Nido Kurai Shower Shite Dekaketai / Junjou cm / Kon’ya Dake Ukaretakatta” in 3 weeks.
Juice=Juice to release their sophomore album, “Juice=Juice#2 –¡Una Mas!- in August. The first to have Manakan (though on quick notice, so she’s only going to be in a couple songs here.
Kobushi Factory will release a single in August as well, “Kitto Watashi wa / Naseba Naru…not much else is known about the upcoming single yet!
Momusu will release a DVD+CD of their Pharaoh no Haka stageplay as well!
Iroppoi Twilight Game 