Geez, guys! What is happening with the °C-ute girls lately, anyway?
Kanna is gone, and I’m still kind of devastated. But today’s news does, for whatever reason, make it better. It seems the tall girl of the group, Umeda Erika, will be getting a graduation concert in a few months here. Although, the fact that she’s going to study to become a fashion model… well, we’ll see. I know there are plenty of people who find her attractive enough (and probably even tall enough), but I do wonder what she needs to study for that.
We’ve seen how Berryz and °C-ute were developing for a while. Lately, especially, Berryz has been continuing to give the lesser known girls more and more lines. Now, most of the girls seem to have at least 2 solo lines per song, and the bit about who dances center doesn’t seem to stay as constant as their dances have had then moving around more and more. After 5 years, it seems like they’ve found what works, and with Berryz? That means just about everything does. They are turning into spectacular performers, and you can see that the girls are all happy to perform whenever they can… although I can see Chinami get frustrated sometimes because the dances are maybe a bit harder than she’s comfortable with, and she still often gets gypped in the line department.
Then, there’s °C-ute… which is often called the Maimi & Airi show. Sure, there are other girls in the group. But, the other girls don’t really get lines or focus. They’re just kind of there. And °C-ute’s been together for long enough, and the other girls are talented enough (even the ones I don’t like, myself) that everyone should be getting shown off at least a bit. But, they’re not. There are plenty of people who can name off Maimi and Airi, but have no idea who Nakki, Maimai and Chisato are. What does this mean to the future 5-nin °C-ute? I’m going to go ahead and call break-up. At this rate, if things continue as they have been, I don’t foresee °C-ute lasting another year. We’ve seen UFA be reluctant to “change their formula” before, and if they don’t do so here at least a bit… °C-ute will have no future. They had a meteoric rise, so in the entertainment industry… it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the whole thing go under. I think UFA and H!P could both move on from that, though, especially because of the talent present in the other groups.
I’m sure there are some people who are as devastated about Erika leaving as I was about Kanna. Many of you may try to hold out hope that °C-ute can make it past this. But, nearly half of the girls are gone! And look what’s been done with the group in the singles without Kanna. Have the other girls gotten more lines because of it? Well, Maimi and Airi have. That doesn’t exactly inspire growth within the group. It merely creates resentment.
We’ll see what happens, and if I’m right. For those of you who are big °C-ute fans, I hope I’m not… but I wouldn’t mind seeing some more love for Berryz come about if I’m right. We’ll wait. As fans of H!P at all, that’s all we can do.