The End of An Era

Michishige Sayumi

 With the recent announcement that Michishige Sayumi was graduating from Morning Musume, I feel like the book has finally closed on one of my more favorite J-pop artists. Shigechan was the last member still in the group that I knew of, once she's gone, the group will be completely made up of members I don't know and they will be 100% a "new" group to me...
   I got into Morning Musume roughly by the time the "Generation 2" was in full swing (about 1999) and though the members would routinely graduate and get replaced, there were always members I knew and liked no matter which incarnation was current, but I have to say that after Kusumi Koharu joined, I really didn't pay that much attention to the various new members joining. I still liked their songs and would occasionally download a few of them, but the days of me maniacally watching all of their shows and learning all the members and their personalities were long gone.
 There was a time there when Shigechan was my favorite member of Morning Musume, taking the place of Ishikawa Rika when she graduated, who took the place of Goto Maki when she graduated, who took the place of Ishiguro Aya when she left, LOL. Her cute and adorable antics  simply killed me, (especially in the Hello Project News Segments) and in fact, until very recently Sayumin's recorded voice soundbites were still the sounds for all my computer alarms! Sweet Shigechan, she'll be missed!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com