Oct 24 2007
Thoughts on Ai-chan
Ai-chan holds a special place in my heart, because I believe that we both look a bit like monkeys, and if people think she’s beautiful, then maybe there is hope for me yet! It probably helps that she has lovely eyes, a tiny yet perfect body, and she used to have amazing hair. If you can’t tell, I’m in the camp of people who miss her long hair. Yes, the shorter hair makes her look more mature, but somehow it’s just not Ai-chan to me.
One of the things I like most about Ai-chan is how she’s retained her innocence even as she’s grown up. I know some people in show business can end up kind of jaded *cough, Miki, cough* but that hasn’t happened to Ai-chan. She’s still as sweet and vulnerable as she was when she first joined. I was so touched by how emotional she got during Yossie’s graduation. Ai-chan isn’t good at putting up a fascade, so a lot of the time you don’t just see the face she puts on for the audience, you see the real human girl behind that. It’s also clear that she cares deeply for Morning Musume and its members, and she takes a lot of pride in her work as a singer and dancer. I think that these qualities are very good in a leader. Ai-chan is someone who the other members should look up to, as an example, and I really hope they do. While she might not be a very forceful leader, I think that she is doing a good job of stepping up to the roll, based on recent TV appearances. It’s too bad she didn’t get much of a chance to be sub-leader before she was pushed into full-on leadership, but hey, neither did Yossie, and she did great!
Speaking of singing and dancing, Ai-chan rocks in both catergories. I love that she has ballet training, and I wish that she had more of a chance to show that off. Her voice is currently the best in Morning Musume, and while she might get more lines than some would like, it’s probably for the best. Her line at the end of Koko ni Iruzee is my favorite part of the song.
Finally, Ai-chan’s strange little personality quirks are way amusing. Her manly screaming, her strange accent in her early days, and her tendancy to occasionally say things that make absolutely no sense. Ai-chan is in her own little world sometimes, isn’t she?