Claimed by many to be the most talentless member of Morning Musume, Koharu is not so different from the idols that are given more credit.
When it was announced that Kusumi Koharu was going to be the only girl accepted as the seventh generation of Morning Musume, there was a definite outrage among fans. Koharu was called pretty much every name in the book, from ugly to obnoxious to lousy. The girl wasn't given a chance even before she debuted as an official member of the group, and it seems that many refuse to give her that chance because they are putting their idols up on pedestals, and comparing a young and fresh Kussun to more experienced girls. When she first joined, I was too busy freaking out over the fact that Yaguchi Mari had resigned from the group as leader, and that she was on suspension for having a boyfriend. Judging a twelve year old girl who was just accepted into the group was not my concern at the time. It wasn't the first time someone so young or even with so little talent was accepted. In fact, a majority of the girls accepted into Morning Musume after Maki Goto were lacking in true talent and only became favorites after they took on their assumed roles in the group. From an experienced Musume fan, seeing that Koha struggled with singing and wasn't the prettiest girl ever was no surprise. If anything, that was Tsunku up to his old tricks.
However it seems that over the past few years, despite the growing appreciation for a girl who puts her heart and soul into the group, Koharu still has a large amount of anti-fans. It's easy to choose our idols as a favorite due to their physical appeal. Look at the storm that the H!P Egg Mano Eri created in her debut for the Ongaku Gatas group. Where it was supposed to be Konno's triumphant return as an H!P girl, she was outshined by a girl younger than her and probably of less talent. Many times we choose our idols because we find them physically attractive. With a group like Morning Musume, which used to be a group of mature young women and is now an idol group, the physical appeal is what really sells. When photobooks are announced or come out, there is a surge of love for the girl as soon as the pictures become available. Claims of their beauty and "true" personality displayed in the books convert fans and remind their current fans of how much they love them. But lest you forget, when your idol first joined, they weren't exactly the pretty you're familiar with. Being a current fan, it's easy to forgive or overlook the awkwardness and the incredible lack of make-up that girls have when they first join Morning Musume. I even struggle to find Mitsui Aika attractive due to the fact that her teeth annoy me severely. Great beauties such as Takahashi Ai were ones that I found looking more "troll-like" in their first appearance, than pretty. Cute, if you're pushing it. It actually made me laugh however when people exclaimed how attractive Kusumi became over the years. It's quite humorous how people are so quick to call these girls names when they are only twelve years old and are barely starting puberty. Yes, let's call these girls ugly and unattractive, it's easy to do that under the cloak of the internet. It's very easy to demand that as a requirement for Morning Musume, that all the girls must be pretty. It wasn't until sixth generation that we were met with a group of three very pretty girls. If you want me to pull out the yearbook of how your precious idols looked when they first joined Morning Musume, I gladly will to remind you that they didn't look too glamorous either.
Next comes the shouting and wailing over her voice. Kusumi Koharu has never once claimed to be a vocal genius and Tsunku himself never said he found her voice to be something extraordinary. However, it is reasonable to conclude to be called a "miracle" one must come in with a voice like Takahashi Ai's. Koharu's voice has improved and while many still find it intolerable, I've found it to be unique among the group. Even a girl like Niigaki Risa can be lost among the girls, with their latest release of "Mikan" I confused her for Ai and Reina at times. Another thing to remember is that even girls who have been in Morning Musume a long while do not have what I would consider a spectacular voice. Sayumi Michishige has improved, but comparing it to how she sounded to the beginning, she has made as much progress as Koharu, and in a longer period of time. Being a Yossi fan myself, I can fully admit that in certain types of songs, Yossi's voice just does not work, and sounds strange mixed with the other girls. And don't even get me started on Ishikawa Rika. While I think the girl is beautiful, it wasn't until the release of Koisuru Angel Heart and hearing the lovely falsetto she hit to my astonishment, that I actually felt like I could actually like Rika's voice. Koharu is only fifteen years old, she is still maturing and I'm sure once she levels out in voice, we will see even more of an improvement in her, because that's what Koharu is best at doing. Improving.
It's very easy to call someone like Koharu annoying or obnoxious. It's easy to favor our own idols whom we feel we are more familiar with. However. Note the however? We are accustomed to the personality types that the girls seem to be assigned, and if anyone has been their true self from the beginning, it's Koharu. Honest to a fault, the girl naturally gravitates to the camera, something people criticize her for, even though they favor girls like Rika, Reina and Sayumi who do the same. If there is anything that I've found I love about Koharu Kusumi, it's that she is a dork, a spazz, a little annoying, but the girl never stops giving it her all. While many loved the fact that Fujimoto Miki was extremely apathetic to being an idol (myself included), someone who puts their heart and soul into being in Morning Musume, a member of Morning Musume, deserves more love. It's obvious that Koharu is just as excited nowadays to be a member of the group as she was when she first joined. Every event she is listening to what the others are saying, she's waving enthusiastically, interacting with the crowd and people around her. She's the type of idol that you should love, because she cares about her fans and she shows it. And not just her fans, but her fellow Musume members. While other girls in Momusu would glance or nod their heads at the new Chinese members, Kusumi stepped forward and tried to speak with them. People complain she is in the middle and that she shouldn't be there because she can't sing? How many times was Rika the center and her voice really only improved in her later Musume years and time with Viyuuden? One thing I want to make clear. Kusumi does not decide what lines she wants to sing or where she is positioned in the group dances. Being in the center of a dance formation does not mean you are the prettiest girl, the best dancer, or the best singer. Having solo lines is not a decision by the girls, but by Tsunku himself. If there is anyone to blame for that, it's Tsunku. So stop taking your frustration of your favorite Musume girl being ignored out on Koharu and start complaining to Tsunku.
I'm sure this sounded very much like the viewpoint of a person who is biased to Koharu, and yes, she is my current favorite of the line up, and that's because she's the one that looks the most excited to be there. Every. Single. Time. Koharu is a girl I've come to greatly admire because no matter what, she puts on a smile on her face, she goes out there, does the best job she can do. And it's apparently working with the Japanese fans who are now looking at her as the new face of Morning Musume. She is not "replacing" Nacchi, and I won't even say she's on the same caliber as that first generation member, but there's something about Koharu that people like. And while many people continue to be picky (and somewhat hypocritical in their choices), I'm willing to love Koharu because she's the idol that will love you back. She's a fighter, a actress, an entertainer, and she's the miracle girl. Miracle doesn't always mean something obvious, and it doesn't mean it'll be a miracle right away. But with time, I'm sure everyone will see, that Koharu is not only a great idol, but a great person.
And remember, it's really easy to say nasty stuff about these girls on the internet, but everything I say here, I would have no problem saying to the idol's face. It's very easy to call someone a name, and criticize them harshly when we don't have to tell it to their face.
The obligatory entry where my conversion to all things H!P is explained and how much it has effected me and my wallet.
It seems only natural to start off a new blog, especially an H!P blog, discussing how one came upon H!P. To admit fully, I actually despised Morning Musume to begin with. I was far more concerned with other big H!P acts at the time and didn't fully grasp the big deal of a group of 10+ girls singing around on a stage. In truth, I found it very...processed, commercialized and uninteresting. Artists I was into then (and still hold a large part of my heart) are the singer/songwrtiers, the people who inched their way to stardom through hard work and discovery. I was hesitant to listen to a band where girls tried out to be included, a fast ticket to stardom. And it was unfortunate that the first song I had ever heard from the group was in face "Love MACHINE" a song that I still struggle on a balance of like and dislike to come to a decision. But then, something happened I completely didn't expect. I found a song I liked a lot, if not loved.
"Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~" is a swing song with the vocals dominated by Goto Maki, Abe Natsumi and Yoshizawa Hitomi respectively. I can admit that I like some swing, but never found any to stand out to me. However while at an anime convention, the same one where in previous years I had seen their video for "Love MACHINE", the video was airing with subtitles. As soon as I saw it was Morning Musume, I had to make a decision. Stay and stick it through or leave and come back when it felt like it was an appropriate time for the song to end. My decision was to stay and as the song started and the video went into full swing, I could hardly believe my eyes. This was not the same Morning Musume that I had seen in previous years and the song was nothing like anything I had heard before from a Japanese group at that time. After the convention I went in search of the song itself and ended up coming across communities, websites, and full forums dedicated to something called Hello!Project. It took me awhile to figure out that all these smaller groups I had been seeing on JpopSukiTV were in fact the shuffle groups and the reason that there were so many familiar faces was because it was all part of the same label. For someone who jumped in the deep end of the H!P world, it's a tad overwhelming and downright confusing. With the discovery of Morning Musume, it was brought to my attention of their Menudo like process, adding girls and removing the older ones. However it seemed evident that girls were not removed because of age, rather because of their own desire to move onto bigger (sometimes) or better things. A relief to me since I was finding excuse after excuse to start down the path of evil.
Evil you say? Well, becoming an H!P fan has done quite a number on my wallet, so a bank account that is far lower than it would be normally would of course find the world of H!P and their multiple single versions, photobooks, concert DVD's, and other merchandise to be a very big and expensive evil. However it's an evil I am willing to buy into. Over the past few years it's become evident that the more I listened to H!P, the more I found I enjoyed the generic bubble gum pop sound the group could have, or the rock/pop style that some of their songs had picked up. But like all labels, there are artists you don't like, and therefore, being shoved in a label where there are so many artists, I found that many fans were divided. The Ishikawa Rika fans and the Goto Maki fans, the Berryz fans versus the C-ute ones. The reason it took me so long to finally get a blog up was the fact that such a divide often annoyed me or deterred me from expressing my opinion. Nobody wants to argue with people who don't want to listen.
So here I stand. An H!P fan that reluctantly found a love for a group and a label I initially wanted nothing to do with. It's difficult to say when I became a full blown fan since it all seemed to happen so very quickly. It's actually bizarre even to think about it now since one moment I was despising them and the next I couldn't stop singing their praises. As an introduction to this blog, I found it only appropriate to discuss how I came to know H!P and how this blog will probably be centered mostly on it. However, other musical artists may sneak their way in, if I feel it necessary to discuss them, so this isn't just a general H!P blog.
I hope some will return to this site and find my articles interesting or of note. I may not write here often seeing that most times when writing an article, I like to make it detailed or expansive on the subject itself. Thank you.
