momotaka said:

This concert is released with the first limited edition "Mononofu Pack" of the best album in Blu-ray.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0795655CF

Does that mean it won't be sold separately? The price seems quite high

would anyone be able to translate or summarize what the girls said in their farewell to momoka? :-S thanks in advance for my lack of japanese

Yeah, I imagine regarding contracts there's a lot of legal stuff going on behind the scenes. It seems natural that they wouldn't even be allowed to keep her picture and profile once she's no longer with Stardust, since they're not representing her and she now has no legal affiliation with them whatsoever.

Ariyasu san May Be Trying to Protect Her Family, Friends, Co-Workers, and Herself from Physical Harm

Like every one else here, I was in a state of shock on January 15th when Ariyasu san announced her graduation from Momoclo.

The tale of her having thought about it “for a long time”, followed by a “flying out the door” last minute show has left me certain that there is so much more to this story than meets the eye. I think many people have similar feelings and suspicions.

But there is just not enough information to accurately point a finger, or to assign blame or disappointment on anyone near ground zero. We should all take care to reserve our judgement until we know more, which arguably, we never will.

But I can not help pondering. In spite of whatever caused events to unfold as they did, and at the velocity that they did, we do know that, whether or not they may have been available to Ariyasu san, she had a range of choices as to how to act / react.

The scale goes from, “Forget What Happened and Stay with the Band”, to “Scorched Earth”. Plus a bunch of other options in between. The burning question: Why would Ariyasu san choose Scorched Earth, the most extreme and irreversible option?

Let's look at an overview of her possible options:





We all know which option was selected. But was Momoka at the controls? Did she actually pull the trigger on this? Did she actually make the decision she wanted to make?

Even if you've been in show biz since you were a toddler, it is not easy to find a good job, not to mention a GREAT job. Unless you really, really hate what you're doing, you figure out how to take a break, have a vacation, get over it and go back in.

If part of your professional life becomes untenable, then logic says to cut that part out. Thus leaving the band, the company or your agent, are all reasonable actions, given a particular set of circumstances.

But dumping your band, your record company, your agent, and declaring immediate retirement from entertainment, literally over night? Sorry, but that has to be filed in the WTF folder.

If I may be indiscreet for a moment, there are certain points in the lunar cycle where one's estrogen can become weaponized, lethal, and highly volatile. Bad decisions can be made. But surrounded by friends and family, there is a network to help you mitigate or reverse decisions you would not have made under less scrambled mental conditions.

@Flowercreek pointed out ”the girls' contracts were set to expire this month. The others renewed them last year, but Momoka didn't.” An excellent possibility to consider as the catalyst for the events that we watched in horror between the 15th of and 21st of January, 2018.

Whether or not Momoka was contemplating her contract for a “long time”, burning down the house at the last minute would be a tactic to beat the other side to the punch. But she didn't bail out of just one contract, she bailed out of everything, leaving behind scorched earth. Why such a devastating, very final set of actions?

Maybe the kool-aide they've been trying to make us drink is true. Ariyasu san is ready to start a new life for all the reasons we've been told to believe. My woman's intuition says, bull shit.

There are dark and sinister possibilities. It is well known that the Yakuza controls the Japanese entertainment industry. Nobody gets in without their approval. Measures to keep entertainers (and entertainment companies) in line can be draconian.

What could Momoka possibly have done to piss off the tattooed wise guys? Maybe a sticking point in the new contract(s)? She wanted too much, or they weren't offering enough?

Japanese business is all about seniority. Momoka has the least tenure of all the MCZ members. Recently Momoka has emerged as a powerful solo talent. Maybe she wanted equal pay. Maybe more. All speculation, but certainly logical that something along these lines could cause a dispute. So?

Maybe none of her band mates, manager, agent, record execs, supported her contract conditions. Maybe there was solidarity against her rather than for her. Disappointed, she quit completely, and she did it suddenly so the powers-that-be could not try to wrangle her in the 11th hour.

Or, strong arm tactics were used to threaten her or her family in an attempt to force unreasonable conditions on her. Rather than give in, she quit. Wouldn't be the first time that something like this happened.

If you are not already aware of it, please take a rare look behind the scenes of the terrifying business-as-usual in Japanese entertainment. In 2012, Ikumi Yoshimatsu became the first Japanese beauty queen in history to be crowned Miss International.





Yoshimatsu san was riding a wave of success. She was new to Japanese show business, naïve, and apparently unaware who held the ropes. She was shocked when the Yakuza stepped into the light to tell her who was in charge.

In spite of canceled contracts and death threats, Yoshimatsu san refused to do as instructed . The final straw for her came when the Yakuza blocked her from participating in the ceremony of passing on her Miss International crown.

Not only did she break the sacred Japanese code of silence, she filed lawsuits against the major players and the Yakuza. One week before the passing of the crown ceremony she called a press conference attended by all of the major Japanese television news networks, national newspapers, and magazines. At the press conference Yoshimatsu san named names and revealed sordid details about what had happened.

Not a single Japanese news source published the story. Only a small paper printed locally in Yoshimatsu's home town ran a short article. The Yakuza also controls the press in Japan.

Undaunted, one day before the passing of the crown ceremony, Yoshimatsu san called a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan where she told her story to the outside world. The story of her ordeal and law suits were widely reported in the international press. Speaking out in Japan in general, and Japanese entertainment specifically, is very very rare, and it is dealt with harshly.

Here you can see Yoshimatsu's courageous and heartbreaking uncut statement to the foreign press: http://bit.do/IkumiForeignPressConf

Yoshimatsu was physically blocked from entering the ceremony where she was to hand over her crown to the next Miss International.





In the aftermath, the disgraced beauty queen's career was ruined. Completely ostracized from Japanese entertainment, and fearing for her well being, Yoshimatsu Ikumi was forced to leave Japan and now lives in California.

I shared Yoshimatsu's story because, for reasons we do not yet know, Ariyasu san may have been forced to make decisions she would never have made under other circumstances. She certainly didn't agree to any contracts. She certainly is respecting the code of silence, as are all the other visible players.

I just hope things go well for her and six months or a year from now we do not get news of a tragic “suicide” or “accident”.

In any case, until there is much more information there is no way to know what really happened, or who to blame.

If there is anything to be disappointed about, in my opinion it would be the mob's strangle hold on the Japanese entertainment industry, and how things are run.




RR

I think you should pay close attention to Momoka in the majority of the videos/posts within the past 3 years. She's been showing moments of breaking down and being overwhelmed with stress given the amount of work she could be given within what? 1-3 months? Let's take a look. 2015, people have argued about unprofessional Momoka was when she pretty much stayed upset throughout the March episode of Folkmura. That same month and year, they were traveling the country (visiting 2-3 prefectures a DAY) to promote Maku ga Agaru. Sleeping on the bus/taxi toward each theater they have to visit and record their rides at the same time as well as getting all of her college homework done. They also had concert rehearsals as well as practicing for the stage play that happened that same year. Skip forward to the DOME TREK Tour. Out of all five of them, only Momoka had to travel to the venue by plane due to how far her commute was compared to the others. This created health issues for her even when she also recently had surgery until management finally let her travel by train to prevent her from getting sick.
Skip to the U.S. Tour. They only had one day between each location and all would each take a 5 hour plane ride which they would have to take right after the concert to move on. A lot of people from the L.A. and New York show were really upset with Momoka because she "rolled her eyes" and "looks really uninterested" during the VIP events. Consider this. Their flight to LA was delayed and had to immediately run around to places they want to visit before rehearsing. The same applies to NY. They got to NY at a really late time given how they were unable to visit the venue until around 11pm-12am. They probably couldn't sleep in their hotel until about 1-2 am and had to wake up around 7-8 to go visit Lady Liberty before arriving at the venue around 11 am. They are also jetlagged given how the time difference between Japan and the majority of the United States is OVER 14 HOURS (14 for NY, 17 for LA). And right after they arrive back home in Japan, she had to rush over to rehearsals for her solo concert that took place ONE WEEK after the New York show as well as having Folkmura smacked right in the middle of that same week. She looked exhausted and about to collapse any second from the workload.
Just be happy she never did any self harm or anything throughout all her years an an MCZ member with all of the workload they have to endure.

We have to take Momoka's word for it. No more schedules, figuring out plans on her own, and not having so much stress until she can figure out what she can do. She is the ONLY member that has a college degree which, honestly, was another flag that she was bound to leave soon and added on to her stress (but it was worth it given how she got 2 awards at the graduation ceremony). She can still use that degree to help her figure out what she will do outside of MomoClo.
As for the not renewing her contract thing, I was told staff tried to convince her to stay until the very end but she was insistent that she wants to leave so they only gave her the okay not to long before she told the others and took a while for them to arrange the venue and everything. She's done what she's always wanted to do in her life and is happy to have all of those memories. That smile on her face during Sunday's concert was proof that she's happy with all of her achievements as a MomoClo member and knows everything will be fine for her and the group after that. There's no need to come up with conspiracies. What's done is done and the girls are happy. You can be mad all you want at Momoka but coming up with stuff like that or "she's leaving cuz she's pregnant" or "she really hates MomoClo" is just sick and disrespectful to all the hard work she's put into the group.

I'm done with this place. Tried to get back to posting but now I'm just done. These forums, the FB group. I'm just done.

Flowercreek said:

The by far most likely thing to have happened is exactly what she said. She wants to take a break from the line of work she's been in since she was a toddler, and that's what she did. Maybe it was handled a bit poorly by the management which lead to the rushed announcement and graduation concert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

I haven't clicked you link, but I heard about this Occam's Razor thing before. The way I remember it, it states that, usually, the most correct explanation for an unexplained event is a long winded conspiracy theory involving the Yakuza.

So who are we to argue with science.

MizukiChan said:

You can be mad all you want at Momoka but coming up with stuff like that or "she's leaving cuz she's pregnant" or "she really hates MomoClo" is just sick and disrespectful to all the hard work she's put into the group.

This especially. I've mentioned it before, but none of the girls owe us anything. They never have done. They've dedicated the better part of their lives to our entertainment. If any of them feel they want to move on to other things, no matter how sad it makes us, they have every right in the world to do so.

I also agree with Mizukichan.
In this week fundoshi, Kojima and Namiki from Bubka commented that we may know more about Momoka's graduation in the next Bubka edition. They also said that the interview will make you say "Oh, I see..."

Let's find out.