Are the new generation of HP OGs, doing things their own way, "post-idols"?

Ayano Hamaura, one of the main members of Kobushi Factory, which disbanded in the spring of 2020, has opened a Twitter and Instagram account.

Fans of Kobushi Factory and fans of Hamaura seem to be following these accounts and looking forward to the content sent out by Hamaura. On the other hand, there are those who are concerned about whether or not they can remain fans.

Unless they disappear (like Mizuki Murota and Nanami Yanagawa), the OGs who have recently graduated from HP may not be able to continue to provide the kind of information that fans want when they continue with their solo activities.

There are some OGs who are searching for their own unique positions, such as Berryz KOBO and ℃-ute, and many of them continue to appreciate their fans and have fun with them, just as they did when they faced their fans as idols. However, while some of them continue to send out messages to their fans through blogs and other media even after becoming mothers of two children, others have disappeared from their entertainment activities, which they seemed to have continued smoothly after graduating from the group, perhaps due to problems in their personal lives. In such cases, the younger generation of OGs are not necessarily able to live in the same way as before.
Even among the younger generation of OGs, Haruka Kudo, whose films as an actress have been very successful, Haruna Iikubo, who is actively venturing into various fields, and Yuka Miyazaki, who is building a stable career around her hometown in Ishikawa Prefecture, have regularly held fan club events that can be called "business as usual”. They also hold fan club events that can be called conventional.

Karin Miyamoto's confession attracts attention.
On the other hand, Karin Miyamoto, who also graduated from her group and from HP, has opened a personal account on SNS and has been sending out various information. While she is expected to be active as a guest at HP's live performances, she is also attracting attention for the content of her messages.
For more details, please visit the individual accounts, but for example, there is a frank confession about her repeated absences due to poor health before a big stage performance, saying, "Maybe I wanted to escape.”

Miyamoto, with her lovely looks, is expected to have a typical attitude as an idol. In a sense, she was one of the members who stood out for their stance that did not meet the expectations of the fans. If this is the case, it may be possible that the fans opinion of the management of HP may change.

Focusing on the future of Riho Sayashi
In recent years, this tendency to take a unique stance in their activities after graduation has been particularly noticeable.

The former member of MM has recently started her own radio show, and her guest is Kyoko Koizumi, a legend who started out as an idol but has maintained a unique stance for decades.

Ayaka Wada, not only highly educated, but also an ideological standpoint.
Ayaka Wada, the leader of Angerme, has not only focused on the history of art she studied in graduate school, but also has not hidden her skeptical stance that questions the position of idols and female celebrities themselves. In fact, from this stance, she has left many testimonies looking back on her time as an idol in a completely different way from that of many former idols who have presented their time as idols in a bad light.

In the case of Wada, she not only speaks freely on her personal SNS account, but she is also regularly invited as a guest on TBS Radio, a station that advocates cultural curation, to share her views.

In a sense, the talk about Miyamoto is continuing on the Internet, Sayashi is trying to learn from her "seniors" in a wide range of fields, not limiting herself to HP OGs, and Wada, who does not hide the fact that she is from an idol background, is not limited to discussing gender or sexuality, but also LGBTQ issues, which is becoming more and more visible in society.

Wada's discourse is even attracting academic attention (for its original rarity, given her unique background as an idol). The future development of Morning Musume is indeed something to look forward to, but I cannot help but point out that it may not meet the conventional expectations of fans.

I've been a fan of Morning Musume since the platinum era and after Verikyu have shown their younger members how to move on after becoming idols, as celebrities, actresses and models, the OGs who have recently graduated from HP seem to be showing a new way to move on after graduating.

(Text by Shigetaka Tsubakimichi)