The Charismatic Atsuko Inaba

Greetings! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

In this entry, I’d like to focus on a somewhat obscure member of Hello! Project: Atsuko Inaba. She is one of the oldest members of H!P, born in 1974. She was a member of a non-H!P group with five girls called Osaka Performance Doll from ’93 to ’96. Later, in ’99 she joined the new H!P group Taiyo to Ciscomoon, whose name was subsequently changed to T&C Bomber. I saw a few videos of T&C Bomber, and I was very impressed. Another member (besides Atsuko) had some acrobatic moves that she inserted into their performances. Anyway, T&C Bomber didn’t last long, disbanding in 2000. Atsuko stayed on with H!P as a backup singer, MC, and dancer. She remained with H!P until she was released from her contract in October, ’09. She actually was the longest member of H!P, not including Morning Musume members. I should also mention that she participated in some of the H!P shuffle groups, including 7Air, Aoiro 7, and Hello! Project All-Stars.

What can I say about Atsuko Inaba? She was/is attractive in a mature way, more impish than elegant. Her singing voice was good. In fact, she has the best voice in H!P (according to one YouTube commenter.) In my opinion, it wasn’t a particularly strong voice, but she was an excellent vocal stylist. She had a soulful voice, suitable for R&B. What impresses me the most about Atsuko Inaba is her magnetic personality and stage presence. That, and her dancing ability. She has a lot of grace when performing. Another thing I’d like to mention about her is that I saw a video of her participating in one of the Hello! Project sports competitions. She placed second in her heat of the 100 meters (to Koharu Kusume), but ahead of Ayaka. Even though she didn’t win, she handled it with a lot of aplomb. The cameramen paid a lot of attention to her, as she made an elaborate bow.

Anyway, I am following her on Twitter now. She mostly just retweets stuff. I think she is friends with Masae Otani (ex-Melon Kinenbi). Unfortunately, I can’t read or write Japanese, which limits my ability to communicate with any H!P person, with the possible exception of Makoto Ogawa. It would be great if I could get Atsuko Inaba to respond to one of my tweets, or even to favorite one of my tweets. I’m not sure if she is active in the entertainment industry at the moment. I’d just like to say that I wish the best of luck to Atsuko Inaba in all of her endeavors, and that I will continue to support her.