The conclusion of this presentation of the Musume Overview series draws ever so closer, as with the advent of this post, I’ll only have four girls left to write about before a lengthy break, and then I’ll wrap up with the fourth and fifth generations and a little “asides” post about Fujimoto Miki.

The last and youngest girl of the original Morning Musume lineup clocks in at 23-years-old at the moment, but she was really just a cute thirteen-year-old with a lot of talent and potential back in the day. Yep, I’m talking about Fukuda Asuka.

I tried to discuss her on the day of her birthday last year, and I succeeded in doing that a little bit, but that post was mostly about Gocchin than Asukacchi. I guess I can just copy and paste…?

…no, I’m kidding, that’s so lazy.

Asuka remains an interesting case in the history of Morning Musume. She had great vocal prowess and understandably claimed her fair share of solo lines in Momusu songs, but what set her apart from the rest of the lineup at the time was her young age. She was only 14 years old when her last single with Momusu, titled “Memory Seishun no Hikari”, was released, and yet she blended remarkably well with the members who were otherwise in their late teens or early to mid-twenties. She was just mature, even with her babyish features that hadn’t quite aged, and her decision to leave Momusu so soon still saddens me. I can’t help but wonder what would have become of the group, had Asuka’s graduation not inadvertantly called for a replacement, and that replacement would have happened to be Goto Maki? Would they have continued on until their numbers depleted as members felt they were too old for performing anymore, or that they could go on to bigger and better things as a solo artist? With that alternate ending in mind, I think I would have preferred that to what really happened. Morning Musume has been going for so long that they have effectively slaughtered their credibility and longevity with the Japanese public, and Tsunku still wants to milk this dry cow for another ten years. Of course, nobody seems to agree with me on this besides Vulpi, so I’ll just shut up.

In a lot of ways, I view Asuka as the one who set off the chain of events leading to the generations and overall length of Morning Musume’s existence as a name for a collective of girls. Although I view this in a relatively negative light, I don’t blame her.

There’s a lot of questions surrounding why she left in the first place. Officially, she graduated to go through high school, but she dropped out shortly thereafter. Whoops, I guess the plan failed? But others say (and this is a rumor, mind you) that she left the group because she was being bullied due to her young age.

Immediately, this called into questioning my loyalty as a fan to Nakazawa Yuko, Ishiguro Aya, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Ichii Sayaka, and Yaguchi Mari. Never could I have seen any of these people being as low as to pick on and bully a girl who was only 13-14 years of age. So then I considered the possibility that perhaps Asuka was lying about this and was deliberately trying to start something up with the media (the rumor supposedly began from her essay book she released after leaving the group, titled Mou Hitori no Asuka), as it would have been around the time Momusu was still famous to cause some damage to their reputation. This questioned my loyalty to Asuka, and in general the whole ordeal is a confusing mess of hidden facts and loyalties and whatever, I don’t like thinking about it or dealing with it.

Focusing on the facts, Asuka just acted like a sweet girl with a lot of talent whenever she was in front of the camera. But she never did it in the cutesy way that Kago Ai did, which may be why she bores a lot of people.

These days, Asuka’s grown up to look quite a lot like…a prettier Inaba Atsuko. I guess she’s still basically doing the same shit she was the last time we heard anything about her: Bartending.

An awesome idea, in my mind, would be to try and round up all original five girls for a one-time reunion performance this year, now that they’re all ten years older than they were at the beginning of Morning Musume. I think Aya can be coerced, but Asuka is another matter entirely. I would just completely enjoy hearing them sing “Morning Coffee”, “Summer Night Town” (would have to bring in Kei and Mari for that; I don’t think Sayaka’s coming back), “Daite HOLD ON ME!”, “Memory Seishun no Hikari”…

It’s a fantastic idea in my opinion. Of course, Hello! Project would rather have just compiled a crappy tenth anniversary unit of Abe, Kaori, Niigaki Risa, Kusumi Koharu, and Goto Maki. Jodie was in H!P when that was going on, wasn’t she? Why didn’t they take out Risa and Koharu and put her and Kei in instead? I would have even forfeited Maki to have Yuko in that unit. It’s really symbolic of how much H!P’s views have changed from “what the fans might enjoy” to “HEY LET’S MARKET THESE CHICKS SOME MORE!!!! DOESN’T KOHARU’S HORRIBLE SINGING JUST REMIND YOU OF THE ORIGINAL FIVE-MEMBER GROUP AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL HARMONIES?”. More importantly, they were only given generic ballads to sing. Why not disco songs akin to “Daite HOLD ON ME!” or “Summer Night Town”?

H!P’s lost its touch. At least I can find solace in the Asuka of yesteryear, and keep praying for that fabled reunion.