The Groove Music Life

Being a creature of habit, especially as a newlywed, I tend to leave my BlackBerry on overnight while it charges, albeit with the ringer set to “Phone calls only” in case of any family emergencies. This is especially good, because I have a couple of close friends’ Twitter accounts as well as some music and news sites’ Twitters set to send their tweets to my text message – the better to get any breaking news. Had I failed to turn off my ringer for the evening, my wife probably would have clobbered me for the flurry of SMS messages that came up in the middle of the night, especially from Hello! Online and my blogging/writing BFF Vee.

All of which related to this big announcement from Tsunku that came up while I slept:

Big announcement from the Morning Musume camp:

About the graduation of Eri Kamei, 6th generation member:

Eri Kamei came to me several times regarding her health condition. One time, she said to me : “I would like to find the time to cure the atopic dermatitis that I’m suffering from”.

Since the time she joined the Morning Musume, it looks like she was dealing with symptoms like itching and slight skin color changes. She took medication to calm the symptoms down and she also used make-up to cover it but during live concerts, there is a lot of sweat and many outfits to put on, which made her recovery very difficult.
Some may say it is “just a skin problem” but according to doctors, an external problem like skin problem may move to an internal level. It may as well have an impact on her spirit, her mental level. Also, for her, it is a serious thing so she decided to focus on her recovery instead of letting it continue.

Eri Kamei will graduate from Morning Musume and the Hello! Project on the last day of the Morning Musume?Autumn 2010 concert tour. As for her activities after that, I intend to discuss with her after her full recovery.

About the graduation of Jun Jun and Lin Lin, 8th generation members (foreign students)

In May 2005, both of them joined the Morning Musume as foreign students and today, while being skilled singers and entertainers, they also greatly improved their Japanese proficiency and they are now grown-up women. This is why I took the decision to graduate both of them at the same time as Eri Kamei on the last day of the Morning Musume?Autumn 2010 concert tour.
After graduation, they will enter a period of preparation before focusing on their singing and entertaining career in China.

August 8th 2010
Morning Musume? Producer
Tsunku?

Followed, as always, by statements from the band members themselves:

Eri Kamei: As Tsunku? said, I will graduate on the last day of the Autumn 2010 Tour from the Morning Musume? to focus on my health. It is my decision but let me reassure you, my condition is not that serious. I just wanted to focus on my recovery for a while because lately, I was thinking a lot about how I could become a pretty woman. I took this decision with that in mind.

But I really love to do concerts so today and until the Autumn Tour, I am counting on you to sing, dance and have fun with me.

Thank you for your continued support.

Jun Jun: Since I came to Japan, I did and I learned so many things. Thank you so much.
But what really made me happy was to meet all of you, I am so thankful for this.
With this emotion in my heart, I want to make more and more happy memories with you.

Until my graduation at the end of Morning Musume? Autumn Tour, I intend to sing with all my heart.

Thank you for your support until the very last day. Thank you all.

Lin Lin: Since I first joined the Hello! Project Egg and then the Morning Musume?, I was so happy every single day. Of course, I sometimes missed my home but thanks to everyone around me and all of your support, I now feel that Japan and the Hello! Project is like my home.

During the Autumn Tour, I intend to sing with everything I got so I count on your support and I hope to see you there.

Wo Ai Ni.

Now, keep in mind, I read all this and went right to my laptop to write about this development before I even had a single sip of coffee, so my first lucid thought before turning on both computer and coffeemaker was this: “Um… OK.” An understandable reaction – after all, when your favorite band is Morning Musume, this goes with the territory, even if that part of the territory had been practically between 2007 and 2009!

After a quick pause to actually have a few sips from the first cup of the day, now I can think a little clearer.

Eri’s reasons for departure have to be a first for Morning Musume and perhaps for Hello! Project in general – I don’t think I’ve ever know of anyone in the band or the organization having to graduate for legitimate medical reasons (I think it’s safe to say now that the sudden hiatus and equally sudden departure of Kanna Arihara from C-ute may have not been for the medical reasons originally given as a reason for her hiatus, given her much-rumored indiscretions.) Tsunku’s statement gives plenty of reason to believe that she will be returning to show business after she has had a full recovery – and also suggests that Eri’s departure is more of a sacrifice than anything else. Eri was a new member of the band, along with Reina Tanaka and Sayumi Michishige, when I first started to get into them back in late 2003, so there is a touch of melancholy there.

The sudden graduation of the Pandas, Li Chun and Qian Lin, is a major surprise. The fact that both of them are going to depart not only the band but Japan is saddening. I don’t know how well news of Chinese pop travels even in this broadband and mobile day and age compared to their Japanese and Korean counterparts, so I am taking the statement from Tsunku about their continuing to record and perform in China with a grain of salt. I hope to be proven wrong, though. That having been said, their being referred to as “exchange students” when they first joined the band in the spring of 2007 made it sound like they weren’t going to even be in the band for very long. But four years is a pretty good time frame to be a MoMusu, and the Pandas were part of one of the band’s best and longest-lasting lineups, and got four albums (counting the Hello! Project wedding songs album), several singles, and the band’s inaugural trips to America and France under their belt.

All this, of course, reduces the current lineup (with Reina Tanaka still intact – in fact that was my first thought when I first read of graduations in one of Vee’s tweets: Oh, shit, I hope Reina isn’t leaving the band!) to five members – the first time they’ve been a quintet since the beginning of the band in 1997. And with Tsunku already casting about for people to try out for 9th Generation auditions (a year after Koharu’s departure, though?), even that won’t last long.

After having a lineup that lasted close to three years, two graduation announcements within a year’s time is almost like an extreme slow-motion one-two punch. Again, this goes with the territory of being a Morning Musume fan. And I’m more than fine with that.

Ganbare, Eri. Ganbatte, Jun and Lin. And rock on, Morning Musume.