Produce 101 Japan The Girls

Produce 101 Japan The Girls has finally ended and secured the 11 winners who will debut in the new group ME:I.

This show has been going on for a few months now, and I really wanted to talk about it at least a little bit.

The last timeI watched a survival show was Produce48..

From having 101 participants going down to 50, then to 35, then to 20 and then 11.

Of course it is impossible to know everyone who participated, but I think I was able to get a good overview without getting too attached.

But there was one person I was rooting for since she was announced:

Former Angerme member KASAHARA MOMONA!!

We were all so excited to see her and definitely expecting her to be able to get to debut in this group. But more about her later.

To be honest, a lot of my favourites got eliminated after the last elimination that determined the Top 20.

Mainly Mena, Joa, Yui, Nagomi and Hina. Yui was one of the best (and most unique) vocals in the season, and Mena radiated the most Idol energy out of everyone. I do really hope they get to be part of different groups that fit their individual style. They are still some of the youngest participants, so they have a bright future!

And Tsukushi OMG, she will do amazing!!

The Top 20

Let me talk about girls who sadly didn't make it to the final line-up.

The biggest surprises of the whole show were Rio and Rin. While I never really paid attention to Rio, Rin got a great storyline about her hard work.

Kagura is similar in a way, and both her and Haruka showed some of the best improvement throughout the show. I love how clumsy and relatable Haruka was, haha.

Nano and Yuuki had the IT factor... and they are both VISUALS.

Rino and Momoka were experienced all-rounders and would have added to the group in their own way. Out of this finale I'm the most bummed that they didn't make it.. Especially Rino, she was so close at 12! I just started really liking her (and Keiko) after the Baddie performance. I am pretty sure Momoka will find a group that fits her well, maybe even better. I'm still confused how she only got 20th place though..

The Top 11

11. Kato Kokoro

Even if it is the last place, I am so relieved that Kokoro made it into the line-up. Her and Momona's chemistry was amazing throughout the show, so it would have been sad to see them seperated.

As a former Cherry Bullet member, she does have some experience that will be very valuable to the group. She actually seems like a great leader; and she is the oldest. She makes up some of her weaknesses through her cheery personality, and I hope she if going to flourish even more in the group!

10. Ebihara Tsuzumi

Tsuzumi made it!! I am surprised she is quite low, but now I am just happy she made the line-up. She has one of the best vocals of this season and will be an important pillar because of that.

She is the youngest, but I am sure she will be able to grow through being in this group.

9. Ishii Ran

Ran is also lower than expected, especially since she was pushed quite a lot. She also has Idol experience and is very professional. I am happy she made it into the group!

8. Shimizu Keiko

To be honest, I was not the biggest fan of Keiko in the beginning. But seeing her funny personality, and how she is improving made me like her more. Her performance in Baddie definitely made her one of my favourite members at that point!!

7. Iida Shizuku

Our classical princess!

Her story line was definitely one of the more interesting and surprising. I absolutely loved how she challenged herself and went out of her comfort zone of singing classical style.

At first I was surprised how high she got ranked, but it does absolutely make sense and deserved.

6. Sasaki Kokona

I don't really have a lot to say about Kokona. I think she is a great singer, but I am not sure why she got ranked this high.

I definitely do not dislike her though, and I am pretty sure with more practice she will look much more at ease soon.. and she is very young anyways.

5. Yamamoto Suzu

Suzu is similar to Kokona, but I actually see a lot of people hating on her. Why are you hating on a girl who barely turned 17??

Yes, her facial expressions aren't that great yet, but just like Kokona I think she will imrpove immensly!

4. Sakurai Miu

I am so glad that the original center made it!

After participating in Girls Planet999 and almost making it into New Jeans she is finally getting her long deserves debut!

It felt like she got pushed less towards the end of the show, but I am glad we got to see her working with the other girls and delivering great performances.

3. Takami Ayane

My vocal queen!!

Probably my favourite vocal, she shocked everyone in her first song and went on to deliver amazing performances. She seems very shy and still a little unsure on stage, but we already got to see her stage presence improve a lot.

I can't wait to see her as a lead singer in the group.

2. Murakami Rinon

In second place we have Rinon, whose rank improved the most out of everyone (she was 84th in the participant evaluation!!).

I really like her performance on stage, even though she doesn't have a lot of experience.

She is definitely a fan favourite.

1. Kasahara Momona

And Kassa got first place!!!

I am incredibly happy to see her on top of this ranking, she truly deserves it. She is a great performer, a very stable vocal, a great personality (all the participants liked her) and always up for a challenge.

Despite not getting much screentime and kind of bad editing, she managed to show her talents and got the support she needed.

As someone who knows her from her time in ANGERME, this feels really special. I am glad to see former and current H!P members support her!!

I am so glad I watched this show for her and I can't wait to see her in the group.

All in all I feel like this is a pretty well balanced group!

All the members add something unique to it, and I am so excited to see their debut, their songs and their growth!!

Being an Idol fan in 2018

Hello my dear readers or anyone who happens to stumble on this blog.
As you may have noticed I didn't write anything on this blog since January. Why? you ask.. Well, I have been quite busy with my life as university, family and friends are important to me. I'm having fun studying and meeting with the people I love, I'm having quite a balanced lifestyle and I'm happy.
Of course, I still love Idols a lot! I still listen to their music, and I'm following them on twitter, instagram etc.

So the bigger question is, why am I writing a post again now? What happened?
Actually, nothing really happened.. I just really wanted to write again. Use English, talk about the things I love.. I missed that. But there have been two turning points and I want to talk about them now.

1. Feeling nostalgic (a.k.a How did I become an Idol fan?)
First of all you need to know that I have one close friend that also likes Idols. I have been spending more time with her lately (as we are also studying for an exam together) and we were talking about Idols. She has been a very very big Berryz Kobou fan, but she also likes other H!P groups. We were mostly talking about the Hello Project Kids though, but that is nice enough for me. Especially since I don't know a lot of people that like Japanese music and Japanese Idols (and don't make fun of it). So we were watching old videos and getting really, really nostalgic. It reminded me of how I became an idol fan 6 year ago. Coincidentally my friend and I became fans around the same time (we didn't know each other back then). I don't remember the exact time when I became a fan, but it was somtime in 2012. It must have been around June or July but it took me some time to catch up with current music. I was mostly listening to old Morning Musume (and H!P) songs and my second stage on becoming a fan must've been with me catching up on the current line-ups and also starting to listen to AKB48. Maybe that was aroung September/ October 2012? I remember really hyping UZA and Wakuteka Take a Chance, so around that time.
So imagine a 15 year old girl jamming to Morning Musume's Nanchatte Ren'ai or Berryz Koubo's Special Generation. I even watched YouTube videos when I went on Holidays abroad, because Germany still had most foreign music videos blocked back then (GEMA T-T). I was depending a lot on Jpopsuki.tv in the beginning, but YouTube has always been the beginning of everything. I'm so happy I can watch olmost any video now though. :) (even Sakamichi videos are uploaded on internationel channels nowadays, wtf)

Even though at first I mostly just fell in love with the songs, I started to appreciate the actual Idols more and more. I fell in love with Takahashi Ai and Oshima Yuko and I feel like they really marked a change in me turning into an Idol fan. I was watching all these funny game shows, behind the scenes videos and of course all their music videos. I was actually liking most Idols that I encountered but I had a few favourites over the years. Members graduated, new members joined groups but my love for Idols was unchanging. The two girls that had the biggest impact on me were obviously Matsui Jurina and Kudo Haruka. I instantly followed Jurina when I saw her in UZA and I just really liked her personality and performance. She is always giving her best, even now that she is as busy as ever.. I do wonder until when she is going to be an Idol since she has been doing it half of her life. More about her later. I needed a bit more time with Kudo Haruka, she only became my favourite Momusu member in the beginning of 2014. She gradually started to impress me more and more and she is just the funniest and talented young lady. Sadly, she graduated from Momusu last year which is still weird to me and maybe one of the reasons I didn't write on this blog. She's still active as an actress and I'm so so happy for her. I also love following her on Instagram!
Over the years I started to have a few favourite members but these two always stayed the same. (I still remember when my favourite 48girls were in this order Matsui Jurina, Miyazawa Sae, Oshima Yuko, Akimoto Sayaka and Matsui Rena)
Nowadays it's a bit harder for me to find new favoruite Idols, for example I still don't have a favourite Morning Musume member right now. But I don't need one to follow the group right xD

There are a lot of things I didn't talk about yet and I guess to some extent it was random to find Idol videos, I just randomly wanted to listen to music. I randomly started watching Idol shows. I was in love with the country Japan, I love the language and I even decided to study it. Through the years of course I changed and was growing up, some tastes are different now. The way I love Idols compared to how I did before I went to Japan, in Japan and now is totally different, yet somehow still the same. I guess that could be hard to understand. But finally meeting your favourite Idols feels like you accomplished a goal. At the same time, there is so much more to explore in this weird world of Japanese Idols and I'm happy about that! With this written down I will now proceed to the second part of why I am writing this post.

2. Produce48 (and how seeing Korean and Japanese girls interact warms my heart)
Of course some recent events and activities made me want to write about them. The korean talent show Produce101 teamed up with the 48group to have a show called PRODUCE48. In this show Korean AND Japanese (from 48groups) girls are able to compete. Just like the two Produce101 seasons before that it's like a talent show with the goal to survive in the competition and to form a group in the end. The concept is interesting, even though I was quite sceptic at first. Japanese Idol Pop and K-Pop are two different worlds and even though I enjoy both, it is kind of weird seeing them mixed up.. Especially since Korea's and Japan's Idol system is quite different. Adding to that, the two countries aren't actually best friends and there are still some political disputes going on. I also don't like seeing haters on either part, and fans can get quite overprotective of their favourite Idols.
But what I'm seeing right know is actually quite positive. As the first activities passed you could see the Korean and Japanese girls interacting normally and it just simply warms my heart seeing them all together, trying to communicate etc.. Seriously, it's the best thing ever! Adding to that, fans on both sides have been quite curious about the other part and I didn't find too many hate comments yet, even though Miyawaki Sakura gets pushed as center (And Jurina looks so tiny amongst Koreans XD). Am I being too positive now?
There is one negative point to make. Apparently the Japanese girls participating in this show are really stressed over it. They have to work even harder in Korea and they also have some upcoming events in Japan (like Sousenkyo getting closer). I feel like it's a lot for them and with Jurina's history of getting ill and overworking herself I am especially worried for her. But I just hope they can find a balance and not go over their limit.. We will see how this show turns out and even though I don't plan to invest too much time into it, I'm a bit excited about it now.

That's it with this post. I hope it wasn't too confusing, as I just wanted to write about my thoughts on the Idol world. I feel like I'm always busy but I enjoyed writing this post a lot, so I don't think it will take me another 4 months to write again..
I'm really proud of you if you patiently read until the end, so let's finish this post with some beautiful pictures. See you next time :)