Ogawa Saki is graduating

from both S/mileage and Hello! Project this Saturday. The official S/mileage twitter confirms it (as does the official S/mileage website).

She also won't be on Oha Star anymore either (what exactly is she going to do now?).

As I hinted in my initial reaction to the S/mileage auditions, I knew something wasn't quite right about this whole thing. We already knew that any of the original S/mileage members could be kicked out, but whether or not this is related is waiting to be seen.

S/mileage has never been my favorite group, but as a Hello! Project fan, all of this just makes me angry. We'll see what I can come up with tomorrow in my usual essay-like reaction post.

EDIT: Some quick translations of the article on the S/mileage website have been made by various people and apparently it was Saki's choice to leave (she cites wanting to return to being a normal girl). However, the sudden announcement (why now?), sudden graduation date (this has to be the quickest non-scandal graduation ever, right?), and venue (it will happen at an Uchouten Love event at a small venue) makes me scratch my head. At the very least, why not do it at the H!P Summer concerts that just ended? Especially if she was considering this since May (according to the translations).

Seriously, 2011, please end already before something else happens.