Even though my prediction is wrong, I'm not surprised. Except for Odasaku and Fuku-chan, members who are not former KSSs tend to be promoted more: Nonaka Miki, Kitagawa Rio over Maria/Akane or Mei-chan.
Anyways, Haruka does resemble Homa-tan.
Off-topic:
I do think that Kamiko may graduate (ANGERME)
Aarii may graduate from J=J (not that I care), but I'll be quite sad if either Ruru or Reirei is the one who decides to graduate.
Surprised they didn't add new members to Tsubaki especially when they are losing 2 members (when one is basically the voice of Tsubaki).
They're obviously downsizing the group, they have always been a 9nin group. Also the new gen girls are quite capable, which is why we all fell in love with them. Maybe it'll be 9-10 max for Tsubaki moving forward
Srsly how in the world UFP can get HP girls with the rarest surnames in Japan. Also wow for an all-audiition gen this time! This is like a pure reverse of the 13th gen.
I wish they could have used bigger platforms to announce the new members and not give us something like this. I liked it when we got the new audition winner videos from HelloSta haha
You may get the footage on Hello!Sta tomorrow.
The original announcement does say that there will be a special episode for the announcement and reactions of the new members aired as the 5/24 Harosute. Then the next Harodori episode will also review the new member announcements- this being the "new development" that was teased last episode.
Happy that the KSS got promoted! Unexpected moves are the new expectation as Mifu went to JJ, but now all my favorites are collected in one group so I can't complain.