5 girls of Team A are going to graduate, they announced it last night at the last show of the night. The girls are Narita Risa, Tojima Hana, Komatani Hitomi, Nakanishi Rina and Ohe Tomomi.

Only my favorite members of Team A minus Maimai… Sucks to be me…

Damn! I didn’t even get to do profiles of Ohyay and Hana!!! I’ll finish those as a tribute, I promise!!

Now, pictures… so we can all remember this lovely girls, and how much they will be missed…

KOMATANI HITOMI

 

 

First up, Hiichan. I was never a big fan, but it still pains me to see her go, she had a very nice voice, and that’s something I always like in an idol. Haruna must be crushed now that her best friend is leaving…

 

Still, she probably got sick of being stuck in the back, so she’s going to try her luck as a full time model. I wish her al the luck in the world, she’s very pretty and I’m sure she’ll do great in gravure

NARITA RISA

 

 

OMG!! Of all the people in the whole AKB that I could see graduating, Risa was among the least likely in my mind. I was very moved with her answers in the “48 questions” thing of the Team A PB, she said that she would always work hard in order to be more popular and stuff along the lines. She probably got sick of always getting even more demoted…

 

I still wish that she didn’t go… her charm and girly manners were very fitting for Team A and I really liked her as a performer…

 

And I wonder what’s going to happen with her afterwards… She doesn’t have an agency to back her up, nor does she have the typical gravure model appeal, she’s more of a cute girl. Maybe she just got sick of showbusiness altogether…

 

Well, I wih her all the best in her future affairs, and I hope that she pops up again somewhere, I mean, she’s totally built for idolness, which makes me even sadder somehow

OHE TOMOMI

 

Ohyay has been absent for a very long time due to an illness… I feel sorry because she was a much needed different character in Team A, adding a little variety to the otherwise pretty typical girly idol Team A. I will really miss her, and she was a great singer too… Damn, am I going to be able to like Team A after all of this? 

 

She’s probably tired of showbusiness as well, or has decided that it isn’t so good for her health, much like the reasons Team B Inoue Naru stated for her graduation

 

It is kind of interesting that Ohe, Nakanishi, Tojima and Narita are all close friends. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing, but at least they’ll be sharing their graduation concert with their best friends (and Hiichan XD)

NAKANISHI RINA

 

Oh, how this pains me! Rina has always been one of my favorite Team A members. Her sweet natured ways and angelic voice made her an instant favorite to me. She was also absent for a long while because she had asthma, but then seeing her back on the A4 revival made me think that everything would be ok now, and I was really happy that she was chosen for the Baby Baby Baby PV

 

But then she didn’t get chosen for Oogoe Diamond, which I found a bit strange… I figured that her frontgirl position was going to be given back to her, and everything would be alright with the world, but it wasn’t like that at all. Actually, she didn’t even perform in a lot of songs she should’ve been in for the Shibuya AX concert, maybe due to her poor health, I don’t know, that still seemed unfair to me

 

Ultimately, Rina’s health issues coupled with her gentle and sweet nature don’t match well with a rising group like AKB. The competition must be on at this rate, and I can imagine Rinatin backing off from all of that. Still, this is a very sad loss for Team A, and for AKB as a whole. And of course, it also means the end of Chocolove…

TOJIMA HANA

 

It must be nothing new for you readers, but Hana was my second favorite Team A member. So right this moment I am in total denial. Maybe that’s why I’m not even crying yet, I’m hoping that someone will post saying “Oh, it was all a joke, they’re not graduating” But I know that that’s highly unlikely right now

 

Hana is a fierce performer, her dancing skills are unmatched, and even though she has a high pitched voice, she is an extremely accomplished singer. That’s also another thing I liked about her, how she looks so fierce and then opens her mouth and has this sweet little voice… Hana was the main reason why I stopped grieving about Maimai’s supposed graduation, and now, go figure, Hana who I clinged on to so much is leaving while Mai stays… talk about ironies of life…

 

She has a promising career in modelling, and given her undeniable beauty and how much the camera loves her, I’m sure she will succeed, and I will bleed my wallet to buy her PBs if they ever pop up… Still, I don’t want her to leave. I’m going to Japan on december and I was already planning on seeing her specifically, even trying to take a polaroid with her… I’m in denial here.. I can’t take this…

 

So now who’s going to be Team A’s quota of fierceness? All this new Kenkyuuseis they’re adding are cute as they come, but that’s all. Hell, most of them can’t even sing! I fear for A5 now. I’m not even looking forward to that anymore… (see, I’m entering the depression stage of mourning really fast)

Goodbye, Hana. I promise that I will support you in anything I can, and I hope that you have a very bright future ahead of you. You are too cool, I’m very sad to see you go, but if this was your choice, then I will respect it and try to keep supporting Team A, because I know that that’s what you would’ve wanted us to do, no matter what…

 

And now, with my weeping wota heart out of the way, we can discuss the practical issues that arise with this sudden announcement. Team A gets reduced to 13 members, making it the smallest team. Also, they lose 5 of their original members, a frontgirl (Rina) and a girl who was rising and rising in popularity (Hana). This is a very serious situation, considering how Team A has always been the front group of the collective, and it makes me wonder if they’ll be adding at least 3 Kenkyuuseis (to form a 16 member team, like all teams are supposed to be) out of the blue. This wouldn’t be good, I mean, as far as theater regulars are concerned, some Kenkyuuseis are even more popular than some members, but this still means a huge change in both the image of the Team and the “feeling” it has. I bet they regret sending Cindy and Nacchan to Team B right now…

The girls will stay until Team A 4th Stage revival ends, which will be in about 10 days now. I wonder if the management knew about this choice with enough anticipation as to plan A5 (which is already being rehearsed) without all of these girl. The girls will appear for the last time in the NHK concert (the concert with the funny name “I bet you can’t leak this concert’s recording, right?” if I’m not mistaken), and that will be their graduation concert, and the last DVD where they will appear. There won’t be a DVD release of Team A 4th stage revival, but there are a few Live On Demand concerts for Team A that we’ll probably be able to get our hands on to watch the girls in action for the last time. 

WTH is Live on Demand, you ask, well, it’s an internet broadcast of one of the shows of the day, and if you pay a certain amount of money, you get to watch it for a limited period of time, because they are DRM protected. This was kind of OT, but since I didn’t make a post about that, I might as well clarify the whole thing right here.

Bottomline, these girls will be missed, and I fear for Team A, because Mai and Mariko still remain absent from most of the shows at the theater, and nobody know whether they’ll be staying or leaving. Team A will change completely after these 5 girls are gone, but let’s do our best and try to support the remaining girls, as they all work very hard and deserve all of our gratitude and respect during this hard time.