Makoto Ogawa: I like her

This post will feature Makoto Ogawa, ex-Morning Musume. First of all, I’d like to mention that she will be in an upcoming stage play, “Sleeping Beauty.” She is the second female lead.

She joined Morning Musume as part of the fifth generation, in 2001, when she was 13. I was attracted to her because of her beauty/cuteness, but also because of her genkiness. In fact, in “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari,” she was praised for being so genki. She always seemed to display a magnetic smile.

A couple of noteworthy performances of Makoto were in shuffle groups. She did a great job in the PV for Happy 7’s "Shiawase Beam! Suki Suki Beam!" All the girls looked good in that video, but Makoto looked particularly fit. Makoto made another good performance as a member of Salt 5 (“Get Up Rapper”). One thing I remember about that one relates to a live performance of Salt 5. It turns out that Makoto got injured and couldn’t dance. Tsunku let her perform sitting in a chair.

Makoto’s performance in the PV of the Morning Musume single “Mr. Moonlight” is also memorable. She played the partner of Hitomi Yoshizawa, who was the “Mr. Moonlight” character. Some commentators have indicated that she (Makoto) could have been very big in Morning Musume and H!P, but for the fact that much of the attention was focused on fellow fifth generation member Ai Takahashi.

Anyway, Makoto graduated from Morning Musume in the summer of 2006. She went to New Zealand for almost two years, to study English. That’s another reason why I like Makoto: she probably has the best English of any non-Coconuts H!P alumnus. She returned to Tokyo in 2008 to rejoin H!P. She had a bit of involvement in their activities for a while, particularly, as a member of Dream Morning Musume.

A couple of years ago, apparently her entertainment career wasn’t going too well, and she announced that she was going to stop being an entertainer, for an indefinite period of time. I think she was working with a company that was developing English-language educational materials for speakers of Japanese. She even appeared in a couple of videos as an English teacher. About six months ago, after an absence of slightly more than one year, she quietly resumed her pursuit of an entertainment career. She was taking acting lessons. Then, she started appearing in stage plays. One recent play was a comedy about the breaking of the Enigma Code during WWII. She was the lead in another recent play called “Papa! Daddy! Daddy!” On the poster for the play, she was dressed in what looked like a waitress outfit from the 1950s. I mentioned above that she will be in a play called “Sleeping Beauty” in the near future. She also appeared and spoke at what looked like a tourism/business expo for her hometown, Kashiwazaki.

Regarding her personality, Makoto always seemed kind of edgy to me. For example, I heard that she introduced Nozomi Tsuji to her current husband at a party that she hosted. Also, Makoto is friends with one of my favorites, aMI TOKITO. Finally, I am so proud that Makoto replied to a tweet that I sent her. Let’s keep supporting Makoto Ogawa! If anyone has more information about “Sleeping Beauty” or any of her other planned performances, please share it in the comments.