The City Girl With A Pure Heart & The Girl With An… Intriguing Relationship

Recommended reading. Yoshimi compares the two H!P Kids units mostly by breaking it down to their respective lead members, Risako and Airi. The logic in branding Risako “pedobait” and Airi as not doesn’t strike me as particularly convincing – but then, I was just watching Airi in that red kerchief-style bikini that she wore for her Clear photobook. Neither is claiming that “Airi may be the face of ℃-ute, but Risako is Berryz,” – this isn’t even semantic hair-splitting, it’s looking at the same approach management has given to both units (favoring certain members, giving them more lines, more camera time) and declaring they’re somehow qualitatively different because one features a “bad” girl and the other features a “good” one.

The funny part is, I actually like Airi and don’t like Risako – but a consistent argument trumps both, I guess. And there’s some valid points Yoshimi makes about the PVs she’s looking at, which get obscured by this central rock-em-sock-em approach to comparing the units. If there was more focus on those more salient issues, I’d be persuaded.