Well after 25 years of H!P why not rank the flagship group’s members one more time?
The top 3 stays pretty much constant. Ai-chan, Li Qinyao and Sayu would be hard to beat. But over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time watching old episodes of Hello! Morning, Haromoni@ plus platinum-era DVD Magazines and a turtle has slowly risen up. It’s nice re-watching these things with the benefit of hindsight. Loving the platinum era and seeing how bad sales sometimes were was hard at the time. The group is still going now 16 years after Mikan’s poor sales and you know what? That’s a fantastic single. Without worrying about the group’s future and how things look to idol fans in general I can just enjoy things without any need to look for flaws and I can accept everything for what it is. Some DVD Magazines are fun, some boring. Some singles are better than others. Some Haromoni@ episodes aren’t super dull, some are actually pretty enjoyable. And Mitsui Aika is actually a quite adorable super bloody annoying little sister type.
Yamazaki Mei has jumped up many places. She is just so positive. Pure essence of idol spirit. In the top ten are still the likes of Konno Asami, Iida Kaori and Ishikawa Rika. Tanaka Reina is there too which makes her my 5th favourite platinum-era member and yet still top ten. I feel a bit bad for Linlin. I don’t dislike her but maybe with so many I love in that period she just gets overlooked. Not as much as Koharu or Mitsui though. Also I don’t yet have an opinion on anyone who joined after Mei and Homare which shows how I am paying so much less attention than I used to. I do still check out new releases though. At this stage I would say I follow the current Juice=Juice line-up more closely.
Well that was the post. I plan to get Sayumi’s latest Blu-ray at the end of this month. Sayuminglandoll’s are always worth watching. I’m so happy she is still so busy. I am tempted by her calendar too. The fandom never dies. 🙂
Edit* I may have updated this post in February 2024. 🙂
Morningtime 
Hey Morningtime, good to hear from you again. Man, I really loved platinum era – this brings back a lot of memories. Well, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!
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Thank you! I hope you had a good Christmas and have a good upcoming year too.
Platinum era was my entry point to H!P. The members seemed to go together so well. I’m always happy re-watching things from that time or seeing what the members are up to these days. I doubt anything will ever top them for me.
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I was so busy these past few months that I missed this. Amazing choices! I am Glad some of my favs you like as well haha.
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I wonder who your faves are?
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Nakazawa, Yasuda, Ishikawa to name a few of my top
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