Where oh where have all the Eggs gone?

I interrupt my slew of encoding and download posts for an original piece about the current state of the most ignored members of Hello! Project - the Eggs. Don't worry, I'll have plenty more things for you to download in the coming days. Until then, I encourage you to read about what is probably the biggest change H!P has seen since the mass Elder Club graduation that most fans are unaware of.

With UFZS - a new group comprised of former Eggs - announced (more on them in a later blog post), I wanted to catch up with any current events dealing with the Hello! Project Eggs. I didn't think I would find much, but boy was I wrong.

Remember all of the Eggs that "completed their Egg training"? It turns out that was only the beginning.

Well known Eggs such as Kitahara Sayaka (MilkyWay girl), Okai Asuna (Chisato's sister), and Maeda Irori (popular loli) are no longer with the group and many others like Komine Momoka and Hirano Tomomi (the Egg that is older than Aichan) have randomly disappeared from the group.

That leaves me with so many questions, but the biggest is: why? Why did all of these Eggs almost suddenly leave?

Unfortunately I don't have a real, concrete answer to that question. Anything below this point is pure speculation, so take what you will from it.

So we all knew that Eggs were allowed to audition for Morning Musume's 9th Generation. Out of who knows how many auditioned, only one was chosen. If I were in charge, I totally would have picked more and I'd guess some of the Eggs agree. The answer could very well be as simple as them feeling like they won't have much of an opportunity in Hello! Project, so they decided to pack their things and leave. Morning Musume's 10th Generation is likely a long ways away from now and with Kikkawa Yuu debuting this year, I imagine the earliest a new act would debut is 2012. I can't say I blame them.

Some of them (such is the case for Okai Asuna and Tanaka Anri) were Eggs since the beginning (that's almost 7 years ago!) and have little to show for it. Others (Hirano Tomomi) weren't even given a chance (though to be fair, there isn't much you can do with a 27-year-old-trainee in a business where youth rules).

The real question now is: is life after being a Hello! Project Egg member a better situation?

Most of the graduated Eggs' current whereabouts are currently unknown, but a few of them have reemerged in the entertainment business.

Again, I'll talk about UFZS in more detail in another blog post, but they are a K-pop dance cover group comprised of former Eggs Furukawa Konatsu (YES!), Mori Saki (double YES!), Sekine Azusa, Arai Manami, and Satou Ayano. They, along with Sengoku Minami are still a part of UFA, just not with Hello! Project.

Kitahara Sayaka also (thankfully) is still with UFA. She is a part of the same record label that T-Pistonz+KMC (remember, they worked with Berryz with Inazuma Eleven) are under. If this means its soloist time for Saya-sama then I will jump for joy (though I question whether or not she is ready at this stage in her career).

The only other former Egg whose whereabouts are known is Maeda Irori. She is unfortunately no longer associated with UFA in any way and has joined some blatant AKB48 copy group called AKBN0.

Irori's case is the hardest to digest. She was (and still is) very young at 13 years old. She was one of the more popular Eggs. She even got some work as a member of the shuffle group (or sub-unit, whatever you want to call them), Shugo Chara Egg. I'm not saying she should have been satisfied with that - because it's still not much of a resume for having nearly 5 years on the job - but she did have more going for her than most of the other Eggs.

It's not even the fact that she left that bothers me - it's what she left for; AKBN0 is shady at best. Besides their name (an obvious copy of AKB48) they have a video series called AKBNGO, which is eerily similar (at least in name) to AKB48's TV show, AKBINGO.

AKBN0's AKB rip-offs aside, it actually gets worse. The zero in their name apparently stands for having no money/experience and the company decided that they would have the group's trainee members raise money by selling their personal stuff via auctions. lolwut?

Oh Irori, I hope you know what you got yourself into.

But anyway, with all of these Eggs gone, there are only 11 of them left. The most notable of the bunch is definitely Saho Akari of Aa! and Shugo Chara Egg! fame.

Joining her are:

Kaneko Rie (has danced for Manoeri singles)

Takeuchi Akari (Maimi's cousin and member of Shin Minimoni)

Miyamoto Karin (member of Shin Minimoni)

Katsuta Rina (has danced for Manoeri singles)

Tanabe Nanami (2nd Generation member of Shugo Chara Egg!)

Jang Dayun (H!P Korea Audition winner)

Kudo Haruka (joined in 2010, a part of Nakky/Chisato's 1974 Ikunayo play)

Takagi Sayuki (joined in 2009, was a part of Risa/Nakky's 3D horror movie)

Nagasawa Wakana (joined in 2010)

Kizawa Runa (joined in 2010; has danced in a Manoeri single)

Suddenly the Egg pool is the smallest its ever been and that bothers me. Being a back-up dancer may be their primary job, but that is not what defines them. They are idols just like their Mobekimasu senpai and are bound to the same rules as they are. I just hope that their patience will eventually pay off and that someday they are able to step into the spotlight just like S/mileage and many others have before them.

tl;dr: every egg except the 11 mentioned above are gone, some are still with ufa in some way, most have disappeared, one joined some weird akb wannabe group, i miss the lost eggs