It’s been a few days since the last overview. I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how I was going to write down my thoughts about this girl, or what I was going to say that was negative enough to counter the positive notes on her. She is really a terrific idol, one of Hello! Project’s best, but for different reasons than, say, Goto Maki or Abe Natsumi. Many of you will ultimately not agree with me on that — so be it.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michishige Sayumi.
I know there’s a lot of people in the Jpop blogging world who wrinkle their noses at this girl. She’s not exactly the most talented Musume to be in the group — at least, not in the way that “counts” to most people. Her dancing and singing abilities have always been sort of subpar, even though she has improved since her debut. I see people criticize the hell out of her because she has no talent in those two fields, and this somehow makes her a worthless idol. I don’t believe in that. Maybe it’s because my Jpop go-to person is Vulpi (who, by the way, provided the pictures of Sayumi from Sou Sou! Thanks, Vulpi!), who is one of the biggest fans of Sayumi that I’ve seen and as a result, has made me sort of fond of the girl. But I think, even without Vulpi’s influence on matters such as these, I would still like Sayu. She’s just the kind of idol I tend to enjoy. Sure, this is coming from someone who revered Maki for her exceptional skill at both the dancing and singing requirements of her occupation, but I can see the good in Sayu as well. I just wish other people could, too.
Now that I’ve gone on about how great Sayu is, I guess the next logical step is to point out those good things. Well, let’s see… She is basically the only girl in Morning Musume who I cannot criticize the persona of. Ai’s downside was that she didn’t push the personality that comes out in her pictures in real life, instead sometimes favoring to talk in a cutesy voice that hardly suits her. Risa’s and Eri’s downsides were both that they were too stereotypically “cute”.
“Isn’t Sayumi cute also?”? Well, yes. That is the general idea of her idol persona, that she is ichiban kawaii (though lately, I think she has traded this concept up for ichiban iroppoi — the #1 sexiest member of Momusu). But there’s something special about her brand of cuteness, something that makes her more than just a Risa-Eri-Aika monster. I’ve tried to figure out what exactly makes Sayumi so different, and really, all I can chalk it up to is how forceful her personality is. It’s almost like she deliberately put herself out there and continues to do so, marketing her persona rather than her slightly weak skills. But she’s good at it. Ai, Risa, and Eri could take a leaf out of Sayu’s book and more. Because in idoling, I think you can only love an idol so much for his or her talent, but when he or she has a personality you can relate to, that just makes the relationship with that idol so much more meaningful to you. With people who focus more on the music that Momusu puts out and judge how skilled their members are in particular fields that apply to their job, I suppose the personality portion of it doesn’t really matter to them. This is where Sayumi falls out of favor with several people.
Another great thing about Sayumi, and this is a bit shallow, but…she is literally the most beautiful person I have ever seen. She isn’t constantly drop-dead gorgeous like, for example, Maki, but that’s one of the things that makes her that much more appealing. Want proof of her genetic perfection? Just look at all the moles on her body. Those are SO beauty marks. She is the Moley Queen of Morning Musume. She’s got cuteness and prettiness embedded in her DNA. I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn, years from now, that Sayu was actually a scientific experiment conducted by UFA Laboratories to create the most physically perfect idol. If there’s anything I hear from other people about Sayu that’s good, it’s how damn pretty she is.
It bewilders me, how she only just started getting more photobooks in 2007. Market her personality and appearance and she will go a long way. UFA should have been doing this from the start — Sayu certainly recognized her flaws and decided that emphasizing the things she was good at, as an idol, was best for her career. She’s also the only girl from the current Musume lineup who I believe could go on to do gravure once (or if) she gets out of H!P.
It sort of pisses me off, though, because Sayumi has been billed as Ishikawa Rika’s “successor” in Morning Musume due to the fact that they both played up a narcissistic personality, but when I look back at old Momusu singles, Rika got marginally more solo lines and roles in songs than Sayumi ever has. It’s almost symbolic of how much Momusu has changed — instead of “giving everyone a chance”, UFA prefers to advertise the girls they think are marketing material, and exclusively use the girls who can sing the best on the music. I can understand the latter, but really? Given the chance, anyone from Momusu, Berryz, or ℃-ute could build up a strong, solid fanbase, if only UFA wanted to take a risk and try to promote those underused girls. They were good enough to beat out tens of thousands of applicants…right?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not getting it. All I know for sure is that Sayumi really gets the short end of the stick from a lot of bloggers out there, even from UFA, and I really wish that wasn’t so. But the people who do support her are kind of hardcore about it, and she has plenty of support in Japan (as do the other two Rokkies), so I can’t feel too worried by it.
Usa-chan peace out, bitches.
Oh… wow… I can’t stop staring at the first picture.
Sayumin is really really gorgeous. I love her~ XD
It’s strange that I can like Sayu very much too and still have a very different view to her from you. First of all, why do you think she can’t dance? Yes, she definitely cannot sing but I find her to be pretty good at dancing, Actually I think that all the current Musume can dance, some are just better than others (Aichan and Kame, so to say). Sayu is a great dancer though sometimes she makes all the moves in a very cutesy way instead of taking it very seriously but I guess that’s just playing her part - when she takes it seriously she can do it as well as anyone else (and even when she’s going the cute way, actually).
Secondly: the one and only Moley Queen of Momusu is Yossy even though she isn’t in there any more. :) No arguing on this.
Thirdly: the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen is Yossy but this is of course only a matter of taste.
BUT Sayu can’t be compared to anyone else because she’s perfect. o_0 Now that you mentioned I’m too starting to suspect that Sayu is only a creation of UFA, Tsunku and Japanese Foreign Minister’s conspiracy. Yossy’s beauty is the same kind of beauty that eg Kate Moss has - they’re incredibly attractive because of their imperfection. Sayu’s beauty, however, is remarkable because she’s quite perfect. It’s the kind of classical beauty that Leoardo da Vinci talked about and even calculated the perfect dimensions for a pefectly beautiful face. Maybe I should one day try ro match those calculations with Sayu’s face? :) But then again they were created for European features and wouldn’t necessarily match Sayu. But you get the point. :)
To me Yossy is the one I consider more beautiful just as Kate Moss has become a very famous model overshadowing some others that have a perfect face and because of that can be found even a little boring.
But that wouldn’t apply to Sayu of course. :) Maybe for me she’s overshadowed by Yossy but not in any case boring at all.
But you talked more about the personality so this was a little off-topic. Sorry about that. :) I find Sayu’d personality one of the most interesting in Momusu at the time, mostly because I know that she can’t be like that in real life. I remember the Haromoni@ episode where Kohachan and Sayu visited some little Momusu fangirl’s home. That little girl said that Sayu was her least favourite member of Momusu and named the reason to be that she sometimes says rude things. But I think it’s exactly that that makes her so appealing to me. She doesn’t sink in the swamp of the other over-polite and cute Momusu members (I think I’m sounding a bit harsh now. I actually like all the Momusu memebers so no offense to them). When Reina is always labeled as the yankee one sometimes I would find that title more suitable for Sayu. :)
I loved this quote: “She is the Moley Queen of Morning Musume”. It made me think of those old sci-fi flicks that had titles like “Attack of the molemen!”. I wonder if Sayumin would be a good Mole-person queen?
Whatever her faults may be, what I love and respect most about Sayumi is that she is the only one among the five current senior members of Morning Musume who has never chopped or dyed her beautiful, long black hair. I’d like to think it’s because she’s confident and comfortable enough with herself that she doesn’t need to resort to “hey-look-at-my-do-of-the-month” tactics. Confidence is sexy, and that makes Sayumi a worthy idol in my book.
You used like, one sentence to touch upon her “bad” side when you used practically the entire article to talk about Ai’s “bad” side. I know I shouldn’t get on you about being biased but if you’re going to write an article that’s being toted as an “overview” you should have equal amounts of good and bad. For example, you could have elaborated about her weaker singing in comparison to other members just like you elaborated about Takahashi’s weaker personality in comparison to other members. Just saying.. :|
@ Amber: OH NOES I TOUCHED A NERVE.
Short answer, I’m shamelessly biased.
Long answer: Uh, bad things about Sayu are basically said all the time. I cited these things a million times in my post. Go out and find them. There’s your bad quotient, right there. I’ve seen someone say she was the ultimate failure of Hello! Project, people bitch about how she sucks so bad at singing. Have at this:
“But yeah, my least favorite member award will still go to Sayumi because I hate her forced cute personality and SHE CAN’T SING AFTER 4 YEARS. You people bitch about one bad line that Aika sings? How about every line that Sayumi sings? HOW ABOUT THAT ENTIRE FUCKING OPENING OF YUUJOU? Sure she’s easy on the eyes, but my god, she’s nearly 18 and still acts like a 4 year old? (That’s what pissed me off about Kago and Tsuji, although they’re much more talented than Sayumi. Kago was witty and at least both of them can sing. And yeah, I know you’re all thinking “That’s 95% of Japan liking 21 year old loli girls. Fuck off ;o )”
“Sure, I liked Konno who was cute and couldn’t sing, but she was a genuinely cute (and intelligent) girl. I don’t recall her acting a decade younger than she was. I’ll take a more quiet, reserved, sweet girl over a fabricated in your face cutesy act. Thinking about who used to be in Morning Musume (Everyone up through 4th gen) and then those added later makes me sick. It makes me throw up all over myself when I imagine Sayumi being part of Love Machine and songs like that.”