2016 replies to this topic

[Greyface]

Yes.

 

Please imagine me flipping over the shogi board like Genma Saotome.

 

I haven't been able to see J=J since Miyamoto's graduation... and the whole group has turned over since then.  I don't even know what they sound like any more.

[midnightbottle]

The only good thing is they have laid good ground work for her, since she has been doing solo activities on and off. I will presume it will be a gradual transition.

But it will really have to depend on her medical condition.

[Touki]

That's really unfortunate for her, especially after she has broken the "25-year-old girl must graduate" myth.

[Juandalyn]

Kanatomo has been my oshi for years... this hurts. Especially since she has to graduate for health reasons. But I already had a bad feeling since she went on hiatus...

[YellowAccel]

Wow... Momona, Masaki and Tomoko the same year...

[KawaiiLand]

And Sayuki

[ItsudemoAibon]

Sad to see her go.......but a step closer to J=J being Ruru/ReiRei's group.

Welcome to the role of leader, Aarii!

[honeyharunanfan]

I'm really sad about the news. She was planning to stay longer and help the new members settle in, so it's really unfortunate that this is happening due to her illness. But she is a champion for battling it so hard and performing as an idol ever since the diagnosis already many years back.

 

I am glad she gets to have a graduation concert in Yokohama Arena. And she will get a graduation single too. Her tenure definitely needs to be honored. She's also done a wonderful job as the leader for the past two years. 

 

I love her voice so I hope to see her as a solo singer, whenever she is ready and fully able to pursue such ventures.

[Verilian]

I really hope she goes solo too. She was always my favourite in Juice, and this grad is really gonna hurt, especially if she quits the industry after. But I mean, she needs to do what is best for her health, and endometriosis is serious business. I hope she feels better soon.

[Nayok-Kihara]

I'm really sad she's going because of an illness, especially since she clearly didn't want to yet - but I really hope she's able to live as comfortably as possible after and feels good about coming back as a soloist eventually. This makes two for H!P and endometriosis (Matsuura Aya), and the last of my current (previous? OG? I guess, with one gone already) Top 2 in Juice moving on. I feel bad the new members won't get to spend more time learning under her.

[Greyface]

"I hope she goes solo." "She's ready to go solo."

 

Meaning... "I'm quitting because of my poor health" is a pretext?

 

I want more Kanazawa Tomoko in media, but I do not want to be lied to.

[Nayok-Kihara]

^ Both announcements (UF and hers) essentially say she wants to work solo after graduating, but she's only going to make the final decision after she's had more time to recover.

[Greyface]

^

You know the difference between segueing into a solo career and restarting her career after graduation?

 

If she needs a significant amount of time off, it doesn't matter what she has done this year, or last year if she takes a year off.  Short of Michishige-class fandom, it's starting from essentially nothing.  A few directors remember that she did this or that. She has an agency.  She has 1 released song, and a few more to her name.  That's not ready for anything except the dinner show circuit.

 

If she only needs a couple months and can actually make hay out of her J=J history, it doesn't seem like the real cause of her graduation.

 

EDIT TO ADD: Reviewing my own words here, I'm obviously very bitter right now.  Maybe nobody should listen to me for a little while?  I do feel that the putative future solo career sounds very far away in the graduation notification, and I don't think it makes any sense to talk about what she's done now, in terms of what that solo career might be.  But I'm being openly, petulantly sore right now.  So... yeah, ignore me or whatever.

[Verilian]

^

Several months is enough time for a new medication to be successful, or even to have surgery and recover. I think how long Tomoko needs off depends a lot on how lucky she gets with her treatments--if she responds well then it could be a few months, if she doesn't respond well it could be far longer, perhaps never. Everyone responds differently to treatment with endometriosis. Some people get lucky, some don't. So saying that I hope she goes solo really also means that I hope she responds well to treatment fast, enough so that she can still have some sort of entertainment career, even if it's just to do the dinner show circuit. I think the fact that she's saying she wants to go solo but it will depend on her health feels like a very honest assessment of what things are like for her if she has a serious health issue where the outcome of treatment is uncertain.

 

I doubt she would have quit Juice unless things were serious and she didn't expect to get well enough to perform as a full-fledged member of Juice for a long time, but solo careers after HP are often slow in the beginning, and can be quite low-key, so even if she does go solo after graduating that doesn't mean we're being lied to. It probably means she traded a more stressful and time-intensive job for a lower-key and less stressful (and less prominent) job. Assuming she ever gets well enough to even do that. But I'm hoping she does get well enough to do that the dinner circuit shows at least.

[sukibeam]

^ That's how I interpreted it - "I'm not feeling well-enough at current to continue my J=J commitments and want to graduate to focus on my health. When I'm better, I would like to come back as a soloist and meet fans again" type of deal

[midnightbottle]

I doubt she would have quit Juice unless things were serious and she didn't expect to get well enough to perform as a full-fledged member of Juice for a long time, but solo careers after HP are often slow in the beginning, and can be quite low-key, so even if she does go solo after graduating that doesn't mean we're being lied to. It probably means she traded a more stressful and time-intensive job for a lower-key and less stressful (and less prominent) job. Assuming she ever gets well enough to even do that. But I'm hoping she does get well enough to do that the dinner circuit shows at least.

Actually it depends on how much her medical condition allows her. If she joins M-Line (which likely she will be) and ends up in the Music club, she will very likely get a steady stream of work lined up.

Just look at Risa - she has a solo cover album + singing videos, involved in M-Line concerts, solo events, collaboration single and hosting M-Line weekly youtube shows all in the span of 4 months since she return from her hiatus. It will not be as hectic as being in H!P, but it's still quite "busy".

 

The good thing is it will be easier for her to manage as they will just need to work around her conditions to plan out a schedule that she can work with.

[Verilian]

Err, I never said she wouldn't have work or that her schedule wouldn't be busy to a normal person, still. Just lower key and less stressful than being a part of J=J. And I did say it all depends on how well she responds to treatment for her medical condition. Her medical condition seems serious now, but if she responds well to treatment then her condition improves so she may be able to do solo activities.

[Greyface]

Would you have been annoyed if she took 3 months off without graduating? How about 6? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d have happily waited. Even under the forewarning that it depended on unpredictable guesses about how treatment went, and there was an explicit warning that things might not go well and she might not be able to return. (Give her a non-performance graduation if, after a year, they give up)
But, ya’ll obviously think 3 months on the disabled list wasn’t an option? Difference of opinion.

[ItsudemoAibon]

Considering how long Maachan has been off I don't think taking a hiatus is a questionable matter. The choice to take time off or just move on is a personal matter, again I wouldn't question it, just as I wouldn't their future career choices. Nobody forced her to quit as far as we know and she'll get plenty of support from the company whatever she does. How successful she'll be will be dependent on all the factors at play which includes how talented she is and how personable she is. I don't really see failure in her cards.

[Fall]

Having said during her 2016 (?) birthday event that she already once requested her graduation because of her condition, presumably on her own assumption that she'd only be holding the group back if she stayed, and was reassured that Juice=Juice still needed her, I can only guess that she presently feels something similar and doesn't want to potentially be the cause for multiple group functions to be delayed or everyone else to have to readjust their own schedules based on her condition. So long as she's in J=J, that's an additional bit of pressure that she's likely forced to feel so long as she's looking out for her health.

 

I wouldn't see it as any kind of sleight or lie if she does return quickly and ready for performances, as she may not really know if she's ready until right up to the moment she'd otherwise have to cancel. If she's no longer in J=J, that's not a cancellation that she'd have to see as being damaging to the group, rather than just something that she and her own management would have to endure based on her own health and ability. It would be unfortunate if it takes a significant enough amount of time that she can't leverage her popularity in Juice=Juice into a solo career, but she at least wouldn't have the additional stress of thinking she's also causing problems for J=J, even if the members themselves would never see her as a burden.

 

As fans, we tend to see it as someone being "forced to quit" because of health reasons, and that can be the case when a condition is severe enough to require it, but at least in cases like this, it's possibly also fair to assume that the members themselves have to be talked out of quitting because they see themselves as a potential drag on their groups. It seems as if her manager talked her out of graduation once already, so the way she's managing her health now may be something she's been considering for the past 5 years after breaking in multiple new generations to secure the future of the group.