After watching Gen. Powell give his endorsement, I grabbed my laptop and started hitting up my usual news and political haunts to see the initial reactions, then started going to my usual other haunts to see what else was going on, to discover this statement from Tsunku:

I have important news to share.

All members of H!P Elder Club, namely Morning Musume OG (Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Konno Asami, Ogawa Makoto, Fujimoto Miki), Inaba Atsuko, Satoda Mai(Country Musume), Melon Kinenbi, Maeda Yuki, Matsuura Aya, Miyoshi Erika, Okada Yui and Ongaku Gatas, will be graduating from Hello!Project on 31.3.2009.

Most of these girls have already graduated from Morning Musume and other groups. They have been appearing on stage since their teenage years.

After the 10th year anniversary had passed, they have realized that it is necessary to smash through the stereotypes they have built by now, and find courage to begin a new trip towards their future careers.

Personally, I have big expectations to see their future efforts, and I would like to announce my support for these girls.

I also hope you will keep supporting both current Hello!Project members and the members who are going to graduate.

(Translation from Hello! Online, grammar-nazied here by yours truly)

While there is some initial shock at reading of what seems like a mass purge, with the shock and bits of sadness comes the realization that this had to happen.

Most of these artists haven’t done much on the recording side of things in at least a year, so their forthcoming departures from the unit aren’t too surprising. Yuko Nakazawa hasn’t done a single since last year’s “Danna Sama” or released an album since 2004’s Dai 2 Shou ~Tsuyogari~. Natsumi Abe, although as of this writing has another single due to come out on December 12th, hasn’t released a single in over a year, and her last non-single-length release was the 25 ~Vingt-Cinq~ EP back in March of 2007.

Much of the list hasn’t had much activity in recent years, at least not when it comes to studio recordings. Kaori Iida and Nozomi Tsuji haven’t done any recording in years – Kaori was strangely silent as a recording artist after releasing two post-Morning Musume albums in 2004, save for the MoMusu 10nen unit. Nono hasn’t been near a studio since W3:Faithful and its advance single were first sent to the mastering studio, only for the entire master tape to end up going the way of The Beach Boys’ original version of SMiLE. Their recent transition into motherhood and wedlock is barely a factor in their studio inactivity given that both became Morning MILFs only last year.

The presence of Yuki Maeda on the list sucks. I liked all of her singles (they frequently come up in rotation on an enka playlist I have in iTunes) and would have liked to see at least two full length albums or at least a singles collection from her by now. I hope she’ll have a long post-H!P career as an enka singer that can match Sayuri Ishikawa’s and Yuriko Futaba’s.

Melon Kinenbi’s inclusion on the list is also a shame, given that they’re the only Hello! Project unit that has never had a personnel change in its entire existence. So much for that distinction (unless they are able to keep the band name for a post-H!P career).

The presence of much of Ongaku Gatas on the list is a major shock – especially since Hitomi Yoshizawa and Rika Ishikawa are going to be part of the HANGRY&ANGRY project (unless that’s part of a transition for them already). It seems like yesterday that Asami Konno, after graduating from Hello! Project entirely in 2006, suddenly returned first in a cameo appearance at the graduation of Country Musume’s Asami Kimura and Minua Saitou, and then returned to H!P to participate in Gatas Brilliantes and Ongaku Gatas. I also wonder how Mai Satoda feels about this, given that Ongaku Gatas gave her a seemingly permanent home for her talents after the implosion of Country Musume.

I am of mixed feelings on Miki Fujimoto’s presence on the list. I liked her post-MoMusu solo single (I think I was one of the few, if not the only one, who wrote about it in the IW blogosphere) but its likely she seems more happy as an actress now. We’ll see.

I don’t think anyone expected Rika’s bandmates in the recently disbanded Viyuden, Erika Miyoshi and Yui Okada, to get the axe so soon after the band broke up. What the fuck, UFA, Erika and Yui were just two pairs of tits to you after Viyuden’s last tour ended?

At least all of the above were to see the inside of a recording studio. Mari Yaguchi should have also had a couple of solo albums out by now, but she has become more of a TV personality and has only done one recording (an appearance on the B-side of Berryz Koubou’s first 7nin single) since her sudden departure from Morning Musume in 2005. Kei Yasuda should have also been more active as a singer (her only post-MoMusu appearances as a singer on records were on the last Folk Songs album, and on “ALL FOR ONE & ONE FOR ALL” with H!P All Stars), but at least she’s been touring as part of Natsumi Abe’s live band in recent years as a saxophonist and keyboardist (those MoMusu OG bonds must run deep!). Makoto Ogawa didn’t even get to do anything ouside of a HaroMoni@ cameo since her return from college!

Aya Matsuura’s inclusion on the list is and isn’t surprising. While she has continued to record, in recent months (and years) she has been open about her desire to go in a different direction musically – as if her live-in-studio set Naked Songs, last year’s Double Rainbow and her recent solo singles from that period were not already an indication.

No doubt, many of these Elder Club members will continue to have careers after their departure from Hello! Project. Graduating from H!P does not necessarily mean a departure from Up-Front Works itself (keep Tsunku’s statement about smashing stereotypes in mind), since there are a slew of UFW artists that have never been part of Hello! Project. Some are already active, so I’m sure we will still hear from them. I look forward to seeing how they fare from April of 2009, although I have to admit that in a couple of cases I shouldn’t exactly hold my breath waiting for new music from a few of them. I’m sure Hello! Online will continue to follow news about these artists as they have already done with Ai Kago and Maki Goto’s post-H!P careers. And if this purge means a greater quality focus on Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou and C-ute in the immediate and distant future, so be it.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Apologies to Metallica for the paraphrase of their 1993 live album’s title… maybe. I’m still waiting for one from Metallica for the aptly-named Load and Re-Load albums, unless Death Magnetic is supposed to be one.)