Graduations and Auditions and... Skin conditions, Oh my?

This morning, I woke up about to have a very leisurely breakfast, eat a waffle and spend the day largely away from my computer. I decide to open up my laptop to check a few things before I go and do this and BAM there it is; two giant bombshells about Morning Musume at once. One that I am happy/ambivalent about, and one that was a huge relief to me.

The first one is that at the end of Morning Musume's next tour, Rival Survival, Kamei Eri, JunJun and LinLin are graduating. Now this news I'm fairly ambivalent about. Kamei's graduation I'm alright with. The reason she's graduating is because she has a skin condition and that after consulting her doctor everyone decided it would be best for her to graduate from Morning Musume and Hello!Project to treat it. Health is most important, and so I really hope that Eri can get better and be well.

However, I'm pretty sad about JunJun and LinLin. I understand that they were originally called "Exchange students" so I remember when they first joined people didn't know how long they would last, but by now they seemed so permanent; they've been on two albums, in two Alo-Hellos, countless tours, the revival units, etc. I had really thought that they were making a name for themselves in Morning Musume. Granted they were just about the least popular members for the entirety of their tenure, but they still had their fanbases. I'm a bit sad about this; I had really high hopes for 8th gen leading the future of MM, but I guess it will just be Aika. :(

I really was hoping that at the very least the next graduation would be Ai and Risa. Now, before I get haters telling me I suck for not liking them, I have specific reasoning; they've been in Morning Musume for way too long. The original charm of Morning Musume as a group was that it rotated members, and that almost every single people would join or leave and it would be very interesting. In my opinion, that's what they need to keep doing, and the remaining 5th gen members should do it. Putting it into perspective, they've been in the group for nearly ten years, which is a really long time for any of the members.

So while I wanted other members to go, at least it's not Aika who's my favorite in MM right now. It's a bit saddening, but I'm very interested to see how Morning Musume will be after these graduations. For some time I've been thinking that H!P needs to shake SOMETHING up to get the general public interested in Morning Musume again, and this might just help.

The other major announcement is that Tsunku announced gen 9 auditions, and THAT I'm excited about. I've long thought that MM needs some new members to shake things up and feel fresh, so I think this is a great move on H!P's part. Hopefully it can get televised in some way, to bring back more interest in Morning Musume.

So, I wish the very best for Eri's health, and for JunJun and LinLin's careers in China. graduations are sad, but I'm excited to see how different Morning Musume will be in the future years to come.