Kinjiru

Er...they did zero to sell that CG album. Events, where? If there is no reason to buy it other than for the sake of having it and there is no active group to promote it then yes, it will sell abysmal.

Just to add to any sales discussion...it's not necessarily an indication of popularity. This is not something non-local people see, but the vast majority of the time when singles sell well it's quite simply because they have a lot of release events for it. An example would be Angerme's latest single, which had a loooooooooooot (I own that single maybe over a hundred times). Because of them we go to see them every day and buy multiple copies of the single to the point they sell out. On top of those are the kobetsu events which also sell tons, and the more they do them the higher the sales. Notice how even though groups sell quite a bit, they can't do a hall tour. A more accurate representation of a group's widespread popularity would be if they are able to fill out multiple venues, since only a single person can sit in one seat, unlike CDs which are bought in the dozens and even hundreds by the same people. Morning does very few release events, because Up Front is satisfied with the number of CDs sold. If they'd do as much as the smaller groups they would sell an insane amount.

MM- Is absolutely fine in terms of members and their newest additions are already gaining a lot of love. They are popular, will remain popular, have no real need for new members atm. Reirei initially auditioned for them and loves the group, which might give them some reason to put her here.

Ang-  Members have been graduating one after another and Funakki, who is very popular, leaving will impact their popularity even more. Although their latest single sales have been fantastic due to a laaaaarge number of events, they will still struggle to attract enough customers to larger concerts once Funakki leaves (new members not that popular). CDs are bought in the dozens, even hundreds by the same people; this strategy won't work for lives. Reirei also has a low voice and can grunt so she's a good fit for Funakki's lines and Angerme's more rock/high energy music style. Also, Angerme has a lack of good singers in general so they could really use her. Could see them announcing no winners for the auditions and putting in Rei, or maybe both the winner and her.

JJ- Has plenty of good singers at the moment and a lot of members vying for one's popularity. Although the new members have not given them the boost of popularity the agency might have hoped for, they are fine at the moment. This is unless some of the older members will graduate soon, in which case they'd definitely need Reirei's singing to fill those shoes...as they're big to fill. I don't really see more than 1 leaving any time soon, though. Hopefully it stays like this.

Tsub- Although Reirei gets along the most with this group's members, she does not really fit their girly and flowery style. Her rock voice would not see much use and there is too much of a difference in tone here. Unless the agency has big plans for Tsubaki in the upcoming future, I expect them to manage them and keep them as they are for the foreseen future.

BY- This'd be weird on too many levels. On top of being a kouhai group, they have tons of members, are enjoying a great deal of popularity, do not fit her style, and there is absolutely no reason to add members to them at this point.

So yeah, I think Ang would benefit most from her addition.

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.

Correct, if he didn't want to risk anything he would never upload anything, but previous members' BFs have uploaded even worse.  Also, since it was just a back shot from a random instagram account in his dumb boy mind he might've very well though it was safe, unaware that it would be found and that fans were so familiar with ther they know her clothing etc. Plenty of JP boys would make this mistake (coughTaguchiBF). I've personally seen and sat beside her guy friends and they weren't very bright. If this guy knows her and wanted to actually set her up he could've easily posted a 2 shot, her face and another guy, or anything really, but this photo is just really natural for a guy wanting to celebrate the past year with his GF without showing her face directly. There have been dumb scandals before but this one is rather believable, hence why it took off. Paparazzi isn't really a thing anymore for H!P as they're too unimportant. Another possibility is of course that they took the risk knowing that they'd disband anyway but yea.