*brushes self off* Well, now that all that nastiness is out and in the open, I suppose we can move on with the more thoughtful posts again. I’m not counting on ever writing another entry like that, as it (likely) slaughtered the positive opinions some of my readers had of me, but if you’re still with me right now, I swear I will only deliver to you the highest quality of intellectual debate and writing I can muster. ANYWAY.

So far in this series, we’ve covered Takahashi Ai and Niigaki Risa. That’s basically all that’s left of the fifth generation, so guess who we’re going to cover now… Rokkies! And as Kamei Eri is the oldest Rokkie, she’ll have the honor of being the first one I write about. Shall we?

I have to say, a lot of the girls in Morning Musume could be typecast as the “ideal girlfriend”, but nobody really gives me that sense more than Eri. She’s just such a sweet, genuine girl who makes me really believe that she almost always has a smile on her face. However, this does mean that she bores me a lot, and I really don’t think she’s a humorous character in Momusu. She has a sense of humor, but it’s not enough of a dominating trait in her persona for me to be able to say “Oh, she’s the funny one” like I could with Yossie, or Makoto. I’m happy that some of her comedic roles did happen and helped her stand out, because she’s honestly one of the most underappreciated Musume I think the group has ever seen. Sure, Momusu’s personal fanbase recognize her and, like the other two Rokkies, there’s a large amount of support for Eri, but to the casual observer, she’s really just an overlooked stranger. I believe that Eri understands this and wants to improve and strengthen her image so people will know who “Kamei Eri” is. I have to say, more power to her.

Unfortunately, another problem I have with Eri is that she’s really just another typical “cute” girl. I touched on this in my Niigaki Risa entry. There’s too much cuteness in Morning Musume right now, just as there was too much “coolness” when Miki was there. Miki had that really strong, kakkoi personality, which is why she works so well in the duo GAM with Matsuura Aya. I often perceive Eri to have a persona not unlike Aya’s. With Miki and Yossie both in Morning Musume, there was an imbalance of personality, and when Yossie graduated, things could have evened out with Miki assuming the role of leader. But just as it seemed things were settling down, Miki got caught in a scandal and took off. Now we’re left with the only potential “cool” personalities being too weak to make that much of a difference. I can only hope something changes between this point and 2008 Kouhaku.

As for Eri, she is far from being my favorite member, but she has a better chance of me growing to like her more than, say, Koharu does. I did not initially enjoy her singing voice that much, finding it too cutesy and almost like Kago Ai’s. She is a strong singer, however, and I am a little happy that she is finally receiving the solo lines and attention that she deserves in their songs, rather than being shunted to the side like the “new recruits” have been.

So with all of these nice, relatively “safe” things about Eri, where’s the room for improvement? I really feel that she is who she presents herself as right now, and that’s unlikely to change, but that she could jive with a funner Momusu. Whether she stands out, or if she ever will stand out, is all up to her and her manager.

I’d like to hear her rap, actually, in a single… That would be an interesting image turn for Eri, wouldn’t it? The ghetto-fabulous Musume. I don’t think we’ve had one of those yet — the closest would have to have been Jodie (and even then, she was more fabulous during the time she wasn’t filming infamously sexy photobooks than ghetto)…