Receiving advice from senpai Aichan (Natsuyaki Miyabi auditions)

{From the 'About Miyabi' page from Natsuyaki Miyabi's new group audition website, we have a discussion between her and former Morning Musume。 member Takahashi Ai}

It's the new group of my cute kouhai Natsuyaki Miyabi-chan

Ai：I've known you for about 10 years, but this is the first time we've done a shooting together, right?
Miyabi： Right, I'm a bit nervous (laughs). Shooting in plain clothes, it was fun thinking up how to coordinate outfits.
Ai：There's a mini 'Goes well with sneakers' theme, right? Ever since I saw how Miyabi-chan had coordinated it, I thought about how to make it match. Fully clad in white, it's cute ♥
Miyabi： Aichan's clothes are stylish, I like them. You're adorable as well today~♥ Please go shopping with me next time!
Ai： Right (laughs).  Miyabi-chan, you'll be putting together a group in the future?
Miyabi：That's right. Aichan, from your perspective, what sort of girls would make it a good group?
Ai： I guess individualistic girls, girls who wouldn't lose to Miyabi-chan's character~ Also, girls with good personalities! This is pretty important (laughs)!
Miyabi： Indeed (laughs).
Ai：Also, their goal to make a group with Miyabi-chan would be the same, so wouldn't girls who like singing and dancing be all right? It'd be even better if they're girls who can bring out Miyabi-chan's good taste, who are good at being their own producers.  I look forward to seeing a Miyabi-chan that's different from what we've seen so far~!
Miyabi：Right! Hearing Aichan say that has got me looking forward to it as well ♥ I wonder what sort of girls will appear~ I want to sing on-stage soon~. We'll be waiting for your applications!!

Ai-chan gives a quick update on Tsunku♂

Takahashi Ai made an appearance on the 'Electrolux Best Cleanest Award' ceremony, where she gave a quick update on how Tsunku♂ seemed to be doing.

She enlightened us on the present conditions of producer Tsunku♂（４５）, in the midst of battling the early stages of laryngeal cancer. 

 Takahashi, who underwent an operation on both sides of her vocal nodules in May of last year, 'Since I had also undergone a throat operation, we communicated on all sorts of things. It seems that he still pops up at the company (office), and while his treatment is still ongoing, he seems to be in good health,' she reported.

 According to persons concerned, Tsunku♂ is unable to utter any words, but continues his producer work communicating through writing.

Having translated it, I dunno, doesn't seem like she's mentioning too much - her second sentence smacks of hearsay rather than something she'd seen with her own two eyes.

And as always, the reliability of 'persons concerned' is always suspect.

But since I hate to discard the efforts of translation, here you have it.

Source

Missing Aichan

So, Aichan's graduated.

I'll be honest - I've always been in 'Aichan has a boring/no personality' camp. My reaction to her graduation - 'good riddance'.

I finally had some time to finish off the bonus Blu Ray footage from H!P's 2011 Winter Kangei Shinsen Matusri concert, the A-gana portion specifically.

Shin Mini Moni (sans LinLin) is made up of a girl from S/mileage, a girl who's now a submember of S/mileage, and a girl  who should have been in S/mileage

About a third of the way in, we have Shin Mini Moni performing Crazy About You.
With some regret, I realised that my favourite part of the song wouldn't be sung by Aichan. Then it hit me that I'd never hear her perform it live again.
And as I expected, Kanyon was nowhere as effective as Aichan doing her transistion into the final chorus.

Then we had High-King perform Gomattou's 'Shall We Love'. With High King, I expect to be impressed. And they didn't  disappoint this time either.

Aichan's vocals make up the vocal backbone of the unit. Time will tell if this'll impact the unit, though at worst it would pass off as a great dance unit even without their vocals.

So I guess I can finally admit that I'll miss Aichan. And all the best in all your future endeavours.
Now GTFO and let Airi take on the mantle of Queen of H!P. Time for the Kids to shine!

Day 29: Your favorite Morning Musume Leader?

Well, not much competition here.

Ever since I've entered the idol fandom, Takitty has been the leader of MoMusu.

I've heard that Yossie was a good leader, but I've got no benchmark to compare with.

Now if it had been between the current H!P units, would've been more food for thought. I have a definite bias towards the Buono! leader, but I think I'd end up calling it a draw between Captain and Maimi.

Heck, I'd probably call it a draw and call it both of them. They're also another fun, if uncommon, pairing. Heck, they form a manzai - Captain as the tsukkomi and Maimi as the boke. 'Twas fun watching them MCing during one of Mano's lives.