Bikkuri Project

With recent images and video of Miyabi and a boy who she appears to be dating circulating around the internet, the outcry against H!P’s “unjust” boyfriend policy has started anew. I don’t think I’ve ever weighed in on that particular issue here, so here are my thoughts on the matter.

1st- Man. I was so betting the first serious Berryz scandal would go to Risako.

2nd- As a sidenote, if any of you are HeySayJump fans and are concerned about the rumors that the boy with Miyabi is Inoo Kei, please take a deep breath and relax. Johnny’s boys do not get kicked out of their groups for dating girls, okay? As far as I know, it’s never happened. They get interviewed about their dating habits almost every month “where do you like to take girls on dates? how do you confess? how long are your relationships usually? etc.”. There are new tabloid photos of a Johnny’s member with a girl almost every week. I could show you clear pictures of Masaki Aiba of Arashi with a girl, on a bed, both topless and kissing. If he didn’t get kicked out of Johnny’s for that, Kei is not going anywhere for a little public hugging. A slap on the wrist probably, maybe even getting passed up for a drama roll, but not expelled.

3rd- And now to Miya. I’ll have to admit. I am concerned. I can echo the popular sentiments of “a girl her age should be allowed to date!” and “they were just hugging!” but you’ve heard that all before, and it doesn’t get any truer. What it comes down to is whether or not Miyabi’s going to be “leaving h!p to focus on her studies”, and the ball is entirely in UFA’s court. There are 3 ways that the can choose to react to this, and no doubt there are currently many frantic behind closed doors meetings going on at UFA to decide on a strategy. They could: A- Apologize profusely for the photos, make Miyabi apologize profusely for the photos and then either expel her or put her on probation, B- Either claim that they are “just friends” or ignore it completely, take Miyabi a bit out of the spotlight for a while and wait for things to blow over, or C- Deny the fuck out of it. That girl is not Miyabi, she’s never met Inoo Kei, and Miyabi will confirm this. Cross their fingers and hope people believe them.

At this point, I’d say that B is out. It’s pretty clear that they are not “just friends” and I think there’s too much evidence for this just to be ignored. Strategy B works well for minor scandals by trivializing the issue. By refusing to acknowledge, scandals can be run out of steam quite quickly, and there is very little lasting damage to the idol, but I’m afraid that this might be too big a deal for that.

That leaves A and C. UFA would probably prefer C since Miyabi is currently a major player in H!P as both a lead in Berryz and a member of Buono. On the other hand… that girl really really looks like Miya. I don’t know if the pictures are blurry enough for them to believably claim it’s not her. Then there’s A. Nobody wants that, but it’s seeming like the most likely option at this point, at least to me. Now it’s time for us to all cross our fingers and anxiously wait for the verdict.

As a final note, does anyone know what the Japanese fans reactions to this have been. The English-speaking community seems to be largely of the opinion that h!p rules are highly unfair and extremely concerned about what is going to happen to Miyabi. Are the Japanese fan’s reactions really radically different? Are they all angry not at UFA, but at Miyabi? Are they demanding that she be expelled? Can they really turn on their idol so quickly?

Concerned,

~Celestia~

Trackback URI | Comments RSS