2929 replies to this topic

[Lurkette]

I can't do a full translation of the statements right now but I'll do a quick summary of the personal ones:

Hirose says she will start attending music school in April, so that explains the timing of the final show. She says she gained a lot of experience doing chorus work and learned a lot about writing music and would like to continue in that vein of the industry.

Nomura says she really wants to go into acting and will pursue that route post-graduation.

Hamaura likes singing and dancing but also gained experience in modelling and acting while in the group so she's exploring her options but wants to stay in entertainment.

Inoue seems the most upset in the personal statement, probably because she still wants to be an idol as she is the only one remaining in H!P proper. She says she will absolutely support the other members in their new paths in life.

Wada says that she wanted to continue being an idol as the 5 member Kobushi or nothing at all, and she wants to gain new experiences outside of entertainment so she will not be staying with the agency.

[Juandalyn]

Personally I think they've decided to disband a lot earlier. Maybe it was because some members wanted to have a love life - more than just Hamachan. Ayaka has been seen "close" with a guy (how scandalous this is is debatable, of course), and we don't know if the others just managed to hide it better.

 

I was already surprised to see that management didn't decide to add new girls to the group despite the sales not rising. Their last releases were solid, but they couldn't catch the wota's heart again.

 

I'm sad, especially since I really like Ayaka and Minami just bloomed lately.

 

/EDIT: ^Oh, that explains it quite a bit. Thank you, Lurkette.

[Touki]

@Kinjiru: I know it's really hard to believe that Hama-chan's incident and Kobushi's disbandment are coincidences. I think that the decision to graduate of Ayapan is true. However, I cannot believe that UFP responded to Hama-chan's incident this fast (just 1 day). If UFP decides to disband the group immediately after this incident without a single explanation, the incident must be really devastating. There's also a possibility that UFP doesn't want to brag about it, but to end this as silently as possible so that other H!P groups won't get affected and to save budget (we've known that KF right now is the least profitable in H!P, regardless of how good the group is).

I'm not surprised that Reirei decided to stay, since from the start she has showed us that she's a no-nonsense and decisive type of idols. Her aura is similar to even Rihoriho. Other members do work seriously, but I think they don't have the aura I mentioned.

[Lurkette]

^^ From what I can see, a lot of wota are actually quite satisfied that new members were never added. While they're bummed the group is ending, they appreciate that management seemed to respect the members enough to speak to them about the future of the group before making any decisions to add anyone. Sakurako's statement suggests that any idea of new members wouldn't fly, too.

[YellowAccel]

Ayaka and Sako I'm surprised to be honnest. Sure, the hype died after the scandals, but i thought they were... Stable now... Country girls, now Kobushi...

[KawaiiLand]

Kobushi no Hana

[GetRapper]

Just as I thought that they were getting over the scandals and getting really good...I'll miss them. 

[Greyface]

It doesn't seem plausible that some "scandalous picture of Hamaura alone and walking away from a camera" caused the disbandment.  At most, (and I don't even think this is the case) it pushed up the announcement timing.

 

It makes more sense to me that they just wanted to allow a full week's breather from New Year's before announcing it, so they didn't start with the H!P show on Jan 2.  But also had to thread a needle of getting Hirose graduated before school started, and not stomping on the CG disbandment...

[Kinjiru]

＠Touki 　Yes, but I also do not feel that it is unrelated this came out just a day after a major scandal. Although it is quick, all it would practically take is a single meeting where the members expressed their dissatisfaction towards what had happened after deciding to rekindle the fans' trust and them then to decide "Yes, we are done. If not these 5, no Kobushi". It makes sense the members and staff would want to end Kobushi on a high note and therefore just said "Make the official announcement we want to embark on our own paths" rather than leave a final black mark on their history. We must remember that Up Front has lied before in the information they release, such as that CG stopped activities due to Yamaki and Ozeki wanting to concentrate on studies, which has been disproven by themselves over and over again after that.

Also, if anyone is taking that picture of Hama at face value and don't know about the specifics why people are a 100% certain it is her, look into it. There is a lot of information (albeit uncovered by JP fans).

[Lurkette]

^^ I agree with your thoughts on the announcement timing. More and more it seems H!P wants to wait until one graduation is over before announcing another, for a number of reasons, so I think they were trying to line it up after giving CG's last show and the holiday some breathing room. Half a dozen members have had these micro social media scandals in the past few years and precious little has come from them, so I have absolutely no reason to believe they are related. Also, it definitely takes more than 24 hours to get all relevant parties in a room, write statements, negotiate final terms, and send out press releases of the quality that they have. It's a coincidence.

In case anyone didn't/can't see, the last show will be on March 30, 2020 at Tokyo Dome City Hall.

[Doraleous]

Meh, this group has been dead weight for quite some time now, the only one with any true potential was Inoue Rei anyway.

[Nayok-Kihara]

Greyface:

It makes more sense to me that they just wanted to allow a full week's breather from New Year's before announcing it, so they didn't start with the H!P show on Jan 2.  But also had to thread a needle of getting Hirose graduated before school started, and not stomping on the CG disbandment...

Exactly my thoughts.

 

I'm sad that they're disbanding, this (especially Hirose) is probably going to hit me harder than °C-ute leaving since we haven't had nearly as much time. That said, I'm glad most of them will still be around in some capacity. I admire their desire to stay as 5 until the end and I'm glad they have goals they want to pursue. I can't be mad at that.

[EzioNG]

And as the only great potential, it will be the one that stays, at least there was a happy ending for those of us who are fans of Rei.

[Sokhar]

For those who have seen the J=J drama "Budoukan", this is just the Kobushi Factory story, so much similarities...

[JPope]

I'm confident the scandal spurred the announcement, because I don't see UF giving them a full album knowing that the group is going to break up in 7 months. My guess is that UF asked Ayano if she was the girl in the photo, and she confirmed that it was. UF then asked the other girls if they would continue without Ayano, and they said no. 

[honeyharunanfan]

Wow, I am quite shocked... I expected them to disband eventually, but in like 5 years at least, and after achieving their goals such as performing in bigger venues. This is really sad. I mean I'm glad that my favorite Reirei is staying in H!P, but it's hard to feel happy about it...

[Fall]

Quoting myself from Hamachan's thread

That certainly would not remotely have anything to do with an announcement for a full disbandment of the entire group, a date and venue for their finale, and the date of their last single, all within less than 48 hours of some rando posting a picture. New fiscal year starts April 1st, their contracts were already up at that date, and 3 months is about as much notice as we get for most graduations. They weren't a perennial group and weren't given the fanfare of longer-lasting groups like Berryz or C-ute, and with Ayapan having wanted out since 2019, this all would have been pre-planned long in advance.

 

Whether or not they were dating, it's a picture from behind without being acknowledged and no indication at all that it wasn't a cap someone made when they realized who it was, and honestly even if you're dating an idol, who tf secretly takes pictures of their gf from that angle when those phones in Japan have a mandatory shutter sound that would let them know immediately anyway. At least the one over a year ago had her charging her phone with some other dude's power bank, and that was never acknowledged even though it was just as obviously her. So long as there's any benefit of the doubt, and there's far more to doubt here than there was for some of the others that were never punished, the agency just doesn't care as much anymore about dating, and neither should any of the relics of the past that still care about "purity" for idols. They've gotta give up the ghost or they're forever going to be disappointed when they learn that their faves are regularly dating behind the scenes.

 

I'm disappointed that I won't be able to regularly follow so many of them now, but I'm also glad it seems like they've spent this past year deciding what their paths would be after Ayapan made her intentions known. I'm especially happy that ReiRei will be hanging in there for a while longer. I'm biased and she's my favorite in KF, sure, but I also still want to see the Berryz and Kobushi spirit continue. I don't know whether that will be in a new group, as a soloist, or if she'll be put into an existing group, but I'll continue to love and support ReiRei regardless of where she lands.

[Kinjiru]

With them having announced that a final venue is secured at least it's clear that they've been properly talking this through for quite some time now, it's so insane of a coincidence that the incident likely just impacted the announcement timing.

[JPope]

I get that I'm speculating, but that's what fans do. If Ayano was dating a dude, I really don't care. I think the "no dating" thing makes sense for younger idols from the perspective of keeping their minds focused on work, but for 18+ experienced idols, it's silly. And I agree that UF seems to be more laissez faire wrt dating than other agencies, but this is Kobushi Factory we're talking about. Scandals destroyed this group's momentum, and they never truly got it back, so it's not so far fetched to imagine UF pulling the plug on KF if Ayano admitted to being the girl in the photo, and the others decided they'd rather disband than continue as a four-member group. Their final single was probably already in the works as their next single, as was the date for their final performance. You can make any future performance a final performance simply by not scheduling any future shows -- or cancelling any that have already been scheduled -- beyond it. The fact that KF was given a new original album just three months ago suggest to me that UF was planning on them being in the fold for the foreseeable future, certainly longer than seven months, anyway.

 

I understand the instinct of fans to protect the idols they like and to dismiss any speculation that might reflect poorly on them, but from my perspective none of this reflects poorly on anyone, except perhaps the fans who would abandon an idol or group for dating. Ayano should be able to date so long as it doesn't effect her job, and UF has to do what's best for their bottom line. It sucks, but I get it. And I also know that I might be completely wrong, and that's cool, too, but it's not nearly as implausible as some are making it out to be.

[Fall]

Don't get me wrong, it's less of a defense of Hama and more just me always having basically the same tone any time dating scandals come up 

 

That said, I disagree with the idea that the dating scandals having anything at all to do with the loss of momentum for Kobushi Factory. More than a month before the stream of photos and dating scandals started in Summer 2017, their single absolutely tanked in sales. Shalala/Ee janai ka only got 22,493 on Oricon weekly and only sold 23,593 total. They spent most of the time prior advertising for their ninja stage musical/movie, and even for the year prior to that just weren't releasing any singles to carry on the momentum from their previous single almost a full year prior that had sold ~40k units. Granted, that was with old oricon rules, but only Kobushi Factory suffered that much out of all of the H!P groups also releasing in that time. In that entire year, they only released an album and advertised for the ninja musical. That was what killed their momentum. Wota later popularized the idea that it was the dating scandals that did it, but it's revisionist history that's easily shown wrong by the timeline and the sales numbers, especially since Kobushi sold more units in their next single with less budget.

 

Kobushi Factory's decline falls entirely on the office making miscalculations in how they should be managed and promoted, and as they do, they lost any willingness to spend any more money than necessary to promote Kobushi after their single tanked, just as they lost confidence in CG when Momochi's grad single with them also didn't deliver the sales they expected.