It started as a text message from CJ: “I don’t know if you’ve heard yet…” he began. I was hustling out of the door from work on my way to a quick lunch at Panera. I texted back only one word: “WHAT.” And really, that’s all that I feel needs to be said. SakuraIchigo put it well, and I agree: This is THE biggest thing that’s happened to H!P. This is monumental. Not to mention sad. Not to mention a little boggling.

Read all about it.

This shit is bananas, and now I can’t help but wonder whether I really am too old for all this shit. My H!P favorites are known to change like the blowing of the wind, but things like Yoshizawa Hitomi, Melon Kinenbi, and Aya Matsuura have been constants in my fangirl world. I used to think UFA was very savvy and bright for keeping around the Elder Club even when their sales weren’t stellar. Melon Kinenbi outsang every other group in H!P (okay, time to admit it), and Aya Matsuura was as vocally diverse as any major label idol – moreso, I might say.

I have to chime in with the “maybe this is a good thing” chorus, but at the same time it feels like the fabric of UFA – and, to a finer point, what Hello!Project means – is changing right before my eyes.

This article is a short one because in between work, a real life (for once. I know, it’s a nice change), and reruns of Doctor Who (I am still only myself), I’m finding little time for teh intarwebz. But my GOD. The entire Elder Club graduating? I wouldn’t have even predicted something like this in the most tongue-in-cheek “Nostradamus” post.