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Friday, June 01, 2007

Fujimoto Miki Resigns from Morning Musume

It's official. After Fujimoto Miki was caught on Friday that she is dating comedian Shouji Tomoharu, she has officially resigned from Morning Musume.

Expected? Almost. I was most sure that the agency UFA have tried their best to stop her from quitting, but end of the day, in deja vu of Yaguchi Mari's relationship scandal, the 3rd gen leader who also quit Morning Musume after being discovered by Friday, Mikitty has announced her resignation, in almost similar words "As leader of Morning Musume, and more distinctively as myself, wish to resign from Morning Musume."

This will be the shortest reign ever for any leader of Morning Musume, with the duration of only 4 weeks.

UPDATED:
From the official announcement in Hello! Project website, after many repeated meetings with Mikitty and other, the scandalous news reported by the Friday tabloid has been confirmed and acknowledged. Mikitty herself submitted her wish to resign from Morning Musume, apparently for the sake of the younger underaged members of other groups. As for her activities, Mikitty have participated in her duo unit 'GAM' with Matsuura Aya, just as previously scheduled. However, UFA asked for the understanding of the fans that Mikitty will not be participating in the upcoming concert in July - Hello! Project 2007 Summer 10th Anniversary Daikansya Matsuri HaroPuro Summer Festival | "Hello! Project 2007 Summer 10thアニバーサリー 大感謝祭 ~ハロ☆プロ夏祭り~".

The new leader will be the current sub-leader Takahashi Ai, and filling in the sub-leader post will be Niigaki Risa.

Fujimoto Miki comments as displayed on the Hello! Project official site:


To all the fans who have been supporting us.
While being in the position as a leader of Morning Musume and to lead the other members, I have broken the rules of being in Morning Musume, and feel deeply responsible. As the result of my actions, I have caused trouble to all of the other members, and it is truly inexcusable. Personally, I cannot continue as the leader of Morning Musume as it is. Distinctively as myself, I resigned from Morning Musume.
Apologies to all the fans that have been supporting so far. I am really sorry.
From now on, I will continue as "Fujimoto Miki", please give your best support.



I've just created that new site Momusu banner only recently, then THIS happens. Dammit, I'm leaving it up there for a while longer. (>_<)
On topic, How much of these "comments" are fabricated and how close it is to the truth, I leave this to your discernment. I'm skeptical about it.

BUT, end of the day, one thing is clear to me - UFA planned to continue and uphold the "Idol" tradition in the Japanese music scene, and they are doing it with Hello! Project.

So what's next? Keep following Mikitty's future developments of course, the "Idol" part, I understand now. I'm interested in comparing how things will turn out for her, compared to Marippe's after-scandal career life. If Ayaya have a new single/album released in the next few months or so, then... yeah, pretty much we can guess what's happening already.

Special thanks to Rob for the email alert.



*******************************************


Announcement from Hello! Project official site

『モーニング娘。』リーダー「藤本美貴」についての重要なお知らせ
平成19年6月1日
いつも『Hello!Project』を応援して下さってありがとうございます。
本日は『モーニング娘。』について大事なお知らせがあります。

「藤本美貴」は、平成19年6月1日(金)をもって『モーニング娘。』を辞めることになりました。

 平成19年5月25日(金)発売の写真週刊誌「FRIDAY」誌面に藤本美貴に関する報道がされました。このことについて、藤本美貴本人と事実関係の確認等をし、本日に至るまで話し合いを複数回行いました。この話し合いの中で、多数の未成年者が属するグループの一員としてのあり方を話し合い、藤本美貴より「モーニング娘。のリーダーである自分自身へのケジメとして『モーニング娘。』を辞めさせて欲しい。」との申し入れがありました。弊社は、この藤本美貴からの申し出を了承する事と致しました。

 現時点で『藤本美貴』の今後の活動としては、先週末(5/26)から行われている松浦亜弥とのユニット、『GAM』のツアーへは予定通り出演致します。また、7月に行われるコンサート「Hello! Project 2007 Summer 10thアニバーサリー大感謝祭 ~ハロ☆プロ夏祭り~」へは、出演致しません。ご了承下さい。尚、モーニング娘。の後任のリーダーは、現在サブリーダーである「高橋愛」が務め、サブリーダーは「新垣里沙」が務めます。

今後とも『Hello!Project』をよろしく御願いします。

株式会社アップフロントエージェンシー



藤本美貴コメント

「いつも応援してくれるファンの皆さんへ。
私は、モーニング娘。のリーダーとして、他のメンバーを引っぱって行かなくてはならない立場にありながら、モーニング娘。としての約束を破るような事になってしまい、重く責任を感じています。私のとった行動で、メンバー全員に迷惑をかける結果になってしまったことはとても申し訳なく、そのままモーニング娘。のリーダーとして活動を続ける事は、自分の中では決して出来ることではありませんでした。自分自身へのケジメとして、モーニング娘。を辞めることになりました。
これまで応援してくれたファンの皆さんには申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱいです。本当にごめんなさい。これからは『藤本美貴』として頑張って行きますので、よろしくおねがいします。」


Sources
News from Sponichi
News from Sanspo
News from Sports Hochi

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely knew it was coming.

Still sucks though.

Anonymous said...

I find the whole situation absurd.

Anonymous said...

did UFA copy and paste the yaguchi situation?

Anonymous said...

No, Miki did. Plagiarism !

She shoulda at least rigged up a more original way of saying 'I want out !' :P

Unknown said...

Think about it Miki's way:

- GAM is fairly successful (something non momusu that she could do)
- Yossui is gone, pressures of leader to a group she's obviously never been thrilled about being in are coming down on her
- She could still be bitter about the solo-to-Momusu thing

as for the header you could just edit her out :P

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Friday feels proud for cutting down the numbers of Morning Musume and H!P. Especially the members with the best personalities. Sigh... The last two-three years have been very bad for my favourite H!P artists...

IndigoSkies said...

Raaawr...I can't believe this. ><
I mean, after thinking about it for a while (I posted something about this to my own blog as soon as I heard the news, but I didn't really have too much time to think about it before I had to leave...), I should have seen this coming...but I honestly didn't think this would happen...
Well, at least she's staying in H!P...

Xacur said...

Just when I though that things were gonna change in MM about the boyfriends rule...
What I really wonder is: is she really going on with GAM? if fans don't like the boyfriend thing it could be bad for Aya, and Aya is untouchable. In the other hand, Miki's fans don't seem to care about a thing as long as they have "Mikisama" to punish them ^^

Anonymous said...

You knew it was coming, but didn't wanna admit it...

-The rule is now clear! Dating a no within MM (and lower groups); OK out.
-That being the rule, she's 22 for godssakes. Gotta be sick of it.
-GAM is absolutely awesome and she should concentrate on it anyway.
-I think Ai should be leader! Nuts to haters!

Anonymous said...

HOLY SNAP!

Another Mari adventure again.. T_T
Will Ai be okay?

Xacur said...

I hope it dont mean that Ayaya's solo carrer ends.
You know if they focus more in GAM =/

Anonymous said...

Well, if this is truly deja vu, then Takahashi-san will be staying around as leader for quite a few singles.
It sucks that Fujimoto-san is out, but I think one of the biggest differences between Yaguchi-san and Fujimoto-san is that MM had just released "Osaka Koi no Uta" when Yaguhchi-san got caught, and nothing was happening with MM when Fujimoto-san got caught.

Anonymous said...

I'll still support MoMusu but... maybe time to start giving more love to Berryz and C-ute.

Anonymous said...

........I don't know why but it's a kind of "yeh...well...doesn't matter"
MM with or without miki, what's the difference? we almost didn't notice konkon and makoto's absence, even if we loved them.
the only thing i regret is the uncomplete HP for the anniversary concert. no "boogie train" dakara...^^

Anonymous said...

First off, I must say that I love this blog! I'm an H!P fan, but I'm often too lazy to dig up all the latest news (plus, I can't read Japanese), so this blog is really convenient in every way, shape, and form! Not to mention that the writing's just great altogether. Very informative. I think I visit it a couple times a day hoping to catch a new post.

Felt a little compelled to reply to Hotaru's comment though. I would argue that Momusu had just as much going on when Miki quit. First off, think of all of those scandals that had been around as of late regarding Aibon and Tsuji, which must have put more scrunity on both the agency and Momusu. Then, think about the new single that they had already announced and probably did most of the work for (jacket covers, recording, etc). They now have to decide between using it (sketchy, since Miki's been branded as the rebel!Momusu, and she was just irresponsible and uninterested when it came to her duties) or to throw it all aside (which means they have to redo everything, and that obviously means more money). And arguably worst of all (since singles can be delayed without too much uproar), they have to completely rethink their plans for the upcoming concert, which is only a month away and has lost its very leader! They have to divide up all of Miki's lines for the other members, recoordinate dances, etc.

So I personally think that Miki got caught during a worse time. At least for Mari, Osaka Koi no Uta had indeed been released, and so they could continue simply selling it.

It's a wonder more people aren't chiding Miki for it. But I guess diehard fans will be diehard fans (if anything happened to Gaki-san, I'd probably still support her to the end).

Anonymous said...

I've just noticed this week's Haromoni@ that Miki's not in it. They must have filmed fast. o_o MM looks kind of small now. XD Hey, at least we can see Ai 'leadering'.

Mick a.k.a. jinryuichi said...

Okay, I confess..... I KNEW it was coming, but i didn't want to admit it. ^_^ As for the banner, I'll edit it, right after the next Momusu single. Cos' Jun2 and Rin2 will be in it. :) (I wonder what the 2 girls are thinking right now?) I don't know how much Mikitty wants to get out of Momusu, but I prefer that Mikitty stay for awhile so we can see how she will lead Momusu. As for Ai-chan... I cannot picture her as a leader, but let's give her a chance and see what she can do.

And thanks for the nice words, haku. ^_^ By the way which "haku" are you? From H!O or thehakujin of LiveJournal... or was that Jim Hak?

@anna... if you haven't realised, they have removed Yossie's character from the intro of HaroMoni. Let's see if they remove Mikitty's character come next week.

Anonymous said...

Ehe, neither of those. I'm actually haku from LJ. ^_^

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