With the Elder Club graduation concert having occurred on February 1st, I thought it would be fitting to have a Memorable Snippets post in honour of the event. With nearly 12 years of history behind them, you’d think it would be hard to find one clip to share. Luckily, I was browsing thrugh the graduation concert setlist and saw ALL FoR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL, and it immediately made me think of the Utaban special featuring the H!P AllStars.

I chose this clip because I had a subbed file and it’s hilarious. In addition, you have most of H!P from that time there. The people missing from this special are members who aren’t graduating and the majority if people Taka and Nakai spoke with are graduating.

The MIA list: Suzuki Airi, Okai Chisato, Hagiwara Mai, Murakami Megumi, Tokunaga Chinami – all C-ute and Berryz Koubou members, who probably had school commitments. Keep in mind this was pre-Kanna, seeing as C-ute hadn’t formed yet. *EDIT: seems I missed that Kago was also not there… XD whoops*

The interviewees: Yasuda Kei, Biyuuden (though really mainly Ishikawa Rika), Nochiura Natsumi, Takahashi Ai, Ogawa Makoto (with a smidge of Yaguchi Mari), Nakajima Saki, Kei (again), Fujimoto Miki and finally Saito Hitomi. That’s a pretty rounded out list, if you ask me. Only two interviewees are not part of Elder Club. And so, without further ado, here’s the snippet (though actually, it’s not quite a snippet, seeing as this interview + performance is ~18 minutes long. But it’s too enjoyable to cut down).

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Right from the opening bit with Kei dancing, you already see great interaction between the hosts and all of H!P, particularly the current and former members of Morning Musume as Taka makes fun of Kei’s dancing. I know this isn’t about the Kids, but Miya and Maiha look so cute in the background as Kei dances.

I love how Taka refers to the H!P Kids as “Kids”, rather than their names. Also, when they stop of Biyuuden… “Who are you?” This is Erika and Yui’s first visit to Utaban, and they seem overwhelmed with the all of the funny. It’s so cute. And Rika’s funny little story is absolute win! Reina looks so amused with Rika, as does Maimi in the background.

This whole interview is just full of laughs as Taka and Nakai try and pit Nacchi, Ayaya and Gocchin against each other – I mean, even all their blood types are different. XD I don’t think I should go through the whole thing, since you can all watch it… Actually, I’d be interested to hear what everyone’s favourite parts are within this interview. Though, it realize it would be hard to pick one part… ‘Cause I don’t think that I can.

I feel like this clip really brings to light the awesomeness that Elder Club was (or is, seeing as they don’t officially graduate from H!P until March 31st). It lets people who weren’t H!P fans from back in the day to see what H!P members outside of the current Momusu, Berryz Koubou and C-ute line ups were/are like and the great dynamic that existed between these energetic girls!

You know, I actually just got around to checking out Hello! Online’s article on Elder Club’s graduation, and looking through those photos really gave me this warm feeling inside, particularly the photos of the flowers that Maki sent over and the photo of Mari and Kei with 1st gen member Ishiguro Aya. I didn’t get into H!P until just around the time 5th gen joined, so I wasn’t around when Aya was still part of Morning Musume, but Love Machine was one of the first Morning Musume PV’s I saw, and ever since my brother pointed out her “Nice body body body”, she’s always held a special (albeit small) place in my Morning Musume fandom.

Maki’s congratulatory flowers.

1st gen Momusu member Ishiguro Aya hanging out with 2nd gen’s Mari and Kei

If just these photos made me feel all warm and fuzzy, I can only imagine how I’ll get when I finally watch this concert. I can’t wait, but it will be such a bittersweet thing to watch as well. My thought is that the concert should be released on March 31, the day that Elder Club officially graduates. I don’t know if a release date has been scheduled yet, but it seems like that would be the most fitting day to set it to.

This has turned into the longest Memorable Snippets article yet, but I think the girls, some of whom have put nearly 12 years into Hello! Project deserve a warm and appreciative send off! I wish them all the best of luck as they move out of the comfort zone of H!P and I just want to thank them for all these years of wonderful moments and memories! <3