Mitsui Aika's graduating and all I care about is appearances.

…and I’m actually shocked, because I thought she probably would’ve hung on for another year or two. It’s funny how just as I’m starting to warm up to Aika she goes. I’m going to be honest; I never really liked her, and I continue to do so for entirely shallow reasons. It’s because of her mouth. At some point I read a blog somewhere where somebody was wondering how they’d be judged by people who hate Aika for her small mouth, and having some wonderful people with small mouths in my life, I have to say I really don’t notice/care much what a person looks like when I can see their personality. Sometimes I think fans forget that the idol world is this strange place all based on appearances and the well-liked girls are unusually genetically blessed, incredibly photogenic compared to the population at large, and magnetically charismatic or at least very very extroverted in an unannoying fasion. And real life is like that too, sort of – but at least in real life you get to talk to people and do things and show how awesome of a person you are. In real time. And make jokes. And personally talk to these people. And make connections based on shared interests and so on. So appearances don’t matter nearly as much, though it helps to wear cloths neatly and not smell. Idols can only say things that get put out in fairly canned quantities and hope for the best. So there you are. A small mouth is kind of awkward to see, but we’ve all got our awkward body parts so move on. (And back to the moral of my soapbox-post: I got used to Aika despite her small mouth. For an idol. ’cause she stopped sounding so scratchy and worked really, really hard, and I deemed that kind of idol-worthy. But I still don’t like her much. But if you had a small mouth and I met you in real life I might like you better than I like Aika, ’cause there are limits to liking people you never meet whom you can’t have real interactions with.)

I also had a long rant about Zukki built up, but at this point I think the idol world is so saturated with girls that you really can’t look anything less than absolutely outstanding, because I live in a part of the world with a lot of East Asians, and even the ones who are so stunningly pretty who I can’t look away from, might just make it as an idol now. Maybe. If they were super talented. And ‘had a personality’ (whatever that means).

Sometimes I feel like I should venture out of H!P for idols, but sometimes I find that the vast amount of idols out there are just so dizzyingly large I don’t know how to choose. And I can’t choose based on appearances, because I’m tired of doing that and finding girls who make my ears bleed. (And I guess I have a strange preference for Tsunku’s idol music.) I think it’s kind of great that there are so many new idol groups – I mean, we even have performance art (Kyary) and metal (Babymetal) now, and Korean idol groups, and…it’s great. But seriously it’s also terrible in another way, because it makes the idol world that much more competitive and it seems like the competition’s just focused more on looks, because with so much media coming at you, how are you supposed to choose? Looks are the fastest way, really. I’m tired of it because I’m tired of listening to pretty girls who I eventually find out can’t sing, or finding a group of 12 girls with only 2 who could really sing. I want charming and interesting girls who can sing, and early MM was full of these girls so I’m starting to wonder why aren’t there more girls like this. Except, of course, I know that the answer to that is because they’re all in C-ute now.

On an exciting and graduation-related note, after May 18th 80% of MM would’ve been added in the last year or so, under Sayu-Reina leadership, which I am really, really looking forward to. They seem to be the older members who’ve taken to the new members the most, and cutting down the senior members to just Sayu/Reina means that they’ll have to start using the new members, and the new members really will have to step up to bat. It’s really a new group now! I am excited.

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