Manaka Inaba to graduate from Juice=Juice/H!P at the end of May

So a few days ago, it was announced that Manakan would be graduating from Hello! Project and Juice=Juice to pretty much to her own thing going forward and bless her since she’s been in H!P for 9 years or so.  Granted it has been a little shaky at times since she was part of the OG Country Girls lineup until she had to graduate then because of her asthmatic issues.  Then was for a time leader of the Hokkaido Kenshuusei and returned to full time as a Juice=Juice member.  

She’s been through a lot in her years and while I’m a little surprised she’s the next J=J member to go (after the shake up with Miyamoto, Takagi, and Kanazawa leaving in years time last year, I would’ve thought Uemura would’ve announced it).  Glad she is doing the album and has a little time to perform the new tracks til her 5/30 graduation.

Also realizing that with Chisaki Morito having also announced her graduation, these two mark the final Country Girls members to leave…so comes an end to that era too.  (Though she leaves on 6/20) so hmm.  Regardless, I hope to see good graduations for the both of them when the times comes.

Chisaki Morito to graduate from Morning Musume/H!P in June!

So it was announced that Chisaki Morito is going to graduate from the group in June, kind of surprised since it wasn’t who I had thought was going to leave, but I think it’s a fair move on Chiichan’s part.

 

If I had to be truly honest though, Chisaki never really vibed with me as a member of Morning Musume, but I think it’s just due to how she didn’t quite seem to fit the group after the weird situation that had befell Country Girls post-Tsugunaga.  I had this gut feeling she didn’t really like the idea of being a concurrent member to CG and MM (but I kind of got that feeling with both Funaki and Yanagawa too).  

Add on that Chisaki never really stood out to me in Momusu.  Granted she did have some roles to play, but she never had the limelight and popularity as with other members and once Yamazaki, Okamura, and Kitagawa joined, she fell even more into the back of the pack on top of vocal issues in the last few years.

She’s had a decent run, but I feel like this is a good time for graduation and I hope she does well moving forward!