Morning Musume’s future after triple graduation

JunJun, fourth from left, and LinLin, third from right, are graduating.

Eri, LinLin and JunJun are graduating from Morning Musume this fall. The only question about all this? The future of the entire group.

As has already been eludicated here on sister blog YankeeOtaku, Morning Musume’s members are getting up there in age, and the Chinese duo of LinLin and JunJun were pretty old to begin with when they started in 2007.

Eri Kamei, left front, Hello! Project Winter 2009.

Frankly, the Chinese market has been a disappointment, caught up in the global recession like everything else. Just like the apparent deterioration of Ice Cream Musume in Taiwai, so it is with JunJun and LinLin. A cool experiment, but something that is clearly not working.

Talentwise, the Chinese girls are outstanding. JunJun is a terrific, physical dancer and LinLin has the pipes. It remains to be seen how these gaps will be filled.

Eri, center, in ‘Hero,’ Winter 2008 at Yokohama Arena.

As for Eri, what can you say? A 6th generation star, for sure, but what of 6th gen compatriots Reina and Sayumi? It would appear the entire group is becoming compromised.

Solutions? I would love to see, say, Maimi and Risako of Berryz move over to Morning Musume, along with Sakichi of S/mileage. That would bring experience, energy and youth to Morning Musume.

Sakichi, left, in a shuffle verson of ‘Shiroi Tokyo,’ Winter 2010.

Bump the other three S/mileage girls up to Berryz and °C-ute, and that would create unmatched synergy. This type of move would be better than risking open 9th generation auditions which may or may not produce anything with staying power.

And it looks like the Eggs are all looking solid, just a little too green to bump up into Morning Musume.

In any event, a triple graduation means triple tears, and triple earnings from Morning Musume’s fall tour DVD.

This is Rad♂ signing off — for now.