Is S/mileage Doomed?

In the aftermath of the Yuuka graduation announcement, this is something that many blogs (even International Wota - though was perhaps said with more irony than truth) said. Yuuka graduating = death of S/mileage. Is it the case? I really don't think so. That isn't how this industry works. If a graduation, even of a popular member, signalled the end of the group, then I'm afraid to say Hello! Project would have died very early on. Instead we find that our favourite groups are still going strong. The truth is that, while the Yuuka and Saki leaving H!P is a great loss for S/mileage, it's not the end of the world for the group. Those fans who don't find a new favourite member will vanish, sure, but that's not so much a loss for S/mileage...

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More Graduations? Yuuka to leave Hello! Project?

A story published in one morning newspaper in Japan has just caused a frenzy online. It reports that 1st Generation S/mileage member, Maeda Yuuka, is set to graduate on the 31st of December this year. Apparently she commented that the wants to leave her duties in Hello! Project in order to focus on her schooling, so that she can get into a good university. It wouldn't be the first time a member has graduated to go to university. Konno Asami being a pretty well-known example. In fact, schooling is a pretty standard excuse. More often than not it's the one given out by talent agencies when they'd rather not go into too much detail. It hasn't been confirmed as yet. So it will be interesting to see just whether or not it turns...

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Michishige Sayumi - Sayuminglandoll Previews

By now, we've had quite a few previews released of Sayu's upcoming photobook, as release bears down on us from less than a week away. The PB certainly takes a unique approach, when compared with other photobooks of Sayu's, or H!P photobooks in general. Interestingly, the PB seems to be quite heavily influenced by 60s media, photography and fashion, and such. Even the excessive use of bright girlish colours like pink and yellow. Though, in those last two pictures, we can see that the colour isn't maintained the whole way through. For W Saki, Nakajima came up with the idea of having a black book and a white book, and the theme and colours gradually change through the PB from one to the other. Perhaps Sayumi liked the idea? Sayu...

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Okai Chisato 2nd DVD "Imp Girl"

This week we had UP FRONT revealing previews for Okai Chisato's new DVD, titled "Imp Girl". It's been almost a year now since the release of her first solo DVD, "Chissa~". And, although it was right at the peak of H!P's dreaded Image Videos, it still proved to be a pretty good release - especially for the numerous Chisato fans out there. It was one of those releases that we, at KIDS, had decided to work on almost immediately after it was announced - in fairly spectacular fashion at that. If I remember correctly, it was announced live on her livestream show when they started running footage from the Making DVD, and blew the minds of the several thousand fans who were watching. Now, this isn't an announcement that we're also going...

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The Difficulties of Fansubbing: Brand Loyalty

In this (likely to be final part of the series) entry I'll be talking about what happens after we've finished working on a project and release it, and how predicting response is near impossible. High viewership ratings is not something we aim for. I always use the logic that, if we were, we wouldn't be subbing Hello!Pro Kids releases. We are there simply because we want to fansub. However, that doesn't mean we don't read the response to our releases, or watch those download figures go up. Why? We get some form of enjoyment out of watching them. We'll say, "Oh, look! This Nakky release is almost beating our Momo release!" And we imagine some sort of internal race amongst the projects we put out, to see who will fare better than its...

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