“Auditions for S-mileage!! YAAAAA-What? No really, I always said I would do this. It’s not like it’s totally out of nowhere…what do you mean ‘I’m crazy’? Hey…COME BACK! It’s gonna be awesome…seriously…guys, wait up…”
I know the S/mileage audition is old news now, but I’m still shaking my head about it.
CALM. DOWN. TSUNKU.
Look at these reactions: Do they even look the least bit excited? Sure, there is some smiling, but they are on stage. What do you expect them to do? They can’t exactly pull a Big No and run away. And Tsunku LOVES this crap. He loves not explaining himself and shocking the hell out of the very people it will affect the most. He says he’s always planned to do this, but why not ages ago? Why RIGHT now?
Right after the auditions for Momusu. DURING the auditions for (again) Momusu
. Oh, and just as an added bonus, the girls can audition for either S/mileage or Momusu and then must choose which group they’d rather be in.
Isn’t…that a bit much?
About S/mileage, I just…don’t care that much.
They seem like sweet enough kids. The ‘we’ll stand out by having the best legs in Japan’ angle is cute and the short hair-cuts suit them. I liked their debut single (mostly because it is SO completely the sort of silly, romantic crap a 15 year old would dream of) and I didn’t mind Suki-chan. I was oddly proud of them when they won their big Newcomer award and the Kago-clone could barely walk she was crying so hard.
For the most part though, they’re just sorta there.
What gets to me is the way Tsunku is directing them to be Momusu the second, like he can recapture the same spirit he did before with this new group of girls. I mean what was that ‘get-this-many-smile-pics-and-you-will-debut’ stuff about? Did he get the idea from that time when he made those other girls sell all those singles before they got to debut?
Then they won a big award. Yay. Looks like people notice them. Good. Alright.
WAIT! Now suddenly, there will be a new generation, cause, like, he said in the beginning that he’d do that (Why does he keep insisting everybody knew this would happen? I don’t think the members OR the fans remember him saying that). Momusu started with five and then more were added after their debut; they weren’t exactly jumping through hoops about it. Remember the extremely awkward totalizer segment on Utaban when five out of 8 members said they didn’t think the new members were necessary? Ouch, dude. And two of the five were older. How do you think a bunch of sixteen year olds are going to treat an unwelcome newcomer? They looked shocked, crest-fallen and terrfied about these auditions.
It’s all a little too familiar.
Are they really ready for new people? They are still pretty new, at least to me.
Simple questions and these are the faces we get. Maeda Yuuka is an example of someone who looks happy when performing and perpetually in tears when she is not. Maybe their manager is always yelling at them, like that one clip I saw of them all being noisy teenagers and then someone yelled at them to be quiet because they still couldn’t do anything right. Then they cried, but quieted down. Maybe that sort of thing happens all the time.
But there are so many moments she looks miserable and there is no reason to be.
Though, to be fair here, Yossy is standing right next to them.
Being awesome.
…
She needs to stop being so awesome, because then people lose their trains of thought…
….
…
What was I talking about again?
….
Right. The kids.
It doesn’t bother me so much as it seems weird. If Tsunku (cause that’s who I’m blaming) is trying to recapture the olden days then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just think since JunLin and Kamei left us, there has been way too many out-of-nowheres going on. He doesn’t need to do these things.
I’m barely aware of them, but even I think S/mileage works just fine. Forget about how all of their songs are written for four people, not to mention the dance formations, but how are these kids going to react to some new girl stealing the attention when they are still so very new? Four is a great number. It just works. Why mess with something that is fine?
But I’m sure way back in the day, people said the same sorts of things about Second Gen Momusu.
Hm. INTERESTING, isn’t it?
*shakes head*
~Isilie
Itsumo Genki 
[…] Tsunku, you’re too excited… – Itsumo Genki […]
I always thought that S/mileage as a whole should have become MM’s 9th generation instead of forming their own group (nothing about the current 9th gen. I have no problem with them joining as well, just as the 10th gen instead). Seriously, if you watch them clowning around together, they give off a real young-5th-gen vibe. That combined with how Tsunku is making them jump through all these MMish hoops REALLY makes me think that they SHOULD have been an MM generation.
They’re all genki and talented and had a bit of a fanbase from Shugo Chara Egg. They could have given MM a real shot in the arm a year ago. Plus:
1) They would have filled up that ridiculous age gap between Aika and Mizuki.
2) By this time, instead of having 5 incredibly established members and 4 members we barely know, we’d have 9 established members and 4 members we barely know. It would take a bit of the sting out of the inevitable 5th/6th gen graduations, I think.
3) All the resources that went into S/mileage’s debut–seriously, their Suki-chan PV is practically a masterpiece compared to recent MM PVs–would have been put into MM.
Andy…as much as I really enjoy S/mileage and count myself as a big fan, i totally and completely agree with you here, but it’s too late for that, unfortunately. Maybe Tsunku realizes this as well and is backtracking here, trying to have lightning strike twice, turning S/mileage into a Momusu-styled generation group…
maeda yuuka looks thoroughly disgusted at the idea. Ogawa saki is happy only because she knows she’s leaving. Dawa is excited but she seems to like a lot of things. and Fukuda? is curious and confused.