The Cracktastic Era Is Over

It’s December 6th where I live &  many hours ago in Japan it was December 6th.  The day that Kusumi Koharu graduated. Normally I take to these graduations with a “meh” attitude but this is a totally different situation for me. Allow me to explain before I get to the Koha.

I have been an H!P fan for 3 years. You could say my fandom is still in its infancy stages compared to a lot of others out there. But I have dedicated myself to learning all I can about H!P and in the process I have developed an affection for certain members of the organization.

When I seriously got into Morning Musume I started with the 4th generation. The 4 girls who were part of that gen had some of the most interesting personalities (Charmy!) and pretty much got me hooked.

As I started to understand the group more I stuck around for each subsequent generation. While I appreciate the earlier generations (Abe Natsumi is love) I have obviously stronger connections to the later group of girls who joined.

I kind of missed out on watching the 5th gen auditions but from the 6th gen on I was able to see each member develop from obscurity to the idols we know them as today. Watching one such as Koha leave is not exactly easy.

I have pointed out many times that I think her vocal abilities are lacking (although she has improved a lot lately) and perhaps I found her a little annoying at times.  But that is part of the entire package of genki that is Koha & I grew to adore her over time. I tend to think of her as the Happy Fun Ball of H!P in a way.

What really put my adoration of Koha over the top was Anime Expo. Watching her in concert totally changed my opinions. Yeah I still think she could use a few more vocal lessons but the preconceived notion that she was totally awful live was obliterated in my eyes. I found her surprisingly vocally decent.

Then there was the autograph session I had camped out more than 5 hours for. I got to see her up close (she is so pretty in person) & watch  as she signed my photo card with a gold sharpie & then tell me to shake the card so the ink would dry faster.  Then I got to shake her hands afterwards. It’s the kind of stuff one doesn’t forget as a fan.

While reading the recap of her graduation ceremony (I think Sayu’s message was the best) I’ll admit that I teared up a little. Like I stated earlier I don’t normally have a reaction to any graduations.  Most likely because I knew I would end up seeing those who left as part of UFA (or the entertainment industry) in some other capacity.

Koha? I don’t really have a clear picture of her future at all. So that uncertain feeling combined with whatever else I mentioned probably contributed to that reaction.

It isn’t a exactly happy day to be an H!P fan. I mean even the most hardened anti-Koha person out there has to admit that she did contribute a lot to the group. Just her mere presence brought a lot of energy.

Who will be the crazy spark plug now? I doubt that void will ever really be filled, nor do I think it should be. There’s only one Koha, no need to try to find a 2nd rate clone.

With that said I say farewell to the best pair of legs in H!P (IMO) and to the only one who can ever convincingly pull off any songs from Kirarin Revolution. (Those songs should be retired now that’s she’s gone)

Thank you for the 4 years of cracktastic goodness. It was fun.