Bye Bye Bye to Arihara Kanna

Was the next to previous single foreshadowing? But as of today, Arihara Kanna has left the Hello! Project. Am I surprised? No, not really. Am I sad? Surprisingly, no. I actually think that she's better off not in the group.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not a Kanna hater or anything like that. But it seems that the fans have really been treating her badly. I've heard a story about the time when her first boyfriend pictures surfaced (apparently, according to H!O, there is now a second set? Or maybe this is the same set?). Basically in a handshake event, all the wota would deliberately shake hands with all the other C-ute members and then deliberately skip over her, resulting in her ending up in tears at the end of the event.

I know that I'm a fan of AKB48, where cruelty to their members seems to be their business (election anyone? I'll probably do a post on that later), but for the most part, I put that on the managers, since the love to structure things that the girls know when they're not popular so that they "work harder". Ha, or have a nervous breakdown.

Anyway, that's to blame the management. But with Kanna, I feel it was the failure of us, fans. They maybe idols, but they're still people. And I toast Kanna's departure and hope she finds a better future, and people who will appreciate her a lot more than we have (or at least the Japanese fans have).