Continuing on with traditional work, I next moved on to using Copics. It’s been a couple of months since I last used them. I usually have trouble using darker colors because I’m afraid I will mess up in a way that I can’t reverse but this time I decided to push it woth some darker colors in the skin right from the start. Since I have been working with colors more I know how they will react once I add darker values such as with the hair so I felt a bit more at ease once I started working. I’m still not as fast as I would like to be though. This took me a couple of hours but I feel if I can probably do this in a bout an hour once I have a bit more experience. Looking at the reference photo and my version I could have added a bit more of the red tones on her skin but the overall idea was still portrayed which is good. The lips reacted with the ink since I might have overworked it a bit too much so I wasn’t able to portray a more natural lip color, I’ll have to be more careful next time.
The person who drew me in to Morning Musume, the one that captured my heart with her amazingly cute smile and heart wrenching voice, the leader who despite the massive backlash of fans after the departure of many old favorites still managed to keep the group together and created an ever reaching fan-base around the world. That is Ai Takahashi forever in my heart as the leader of the Platinum Era. She was left with Morning Musume when it was at it’s weakest state, she along with the other eight members managed to fight through it so that the name Morning Musume could eventually be passed off to the next generation.
To me, when Ai Takahashi joined, the group just became something magical. She was destined for greatness. Her voice, movement and emotion all drew people in. Such a combination of talents in one person, could that even be possible? This of course also had some repercussions. Because of her abilities she had to support the whole group, that, to some fans seemed unfair to the other members. Although I can see what they mean, I feel it was for the best and something the group needed. A voice and unreal girl that would draw in the crowd, that for some reason decided to leave or have never heard of the group before. Her voice and performances were that of a pro, and that is what was needed to break the chains that restrict many idol groups. Sadly not many seemed to appreciate the best vocal group in the history of Morning Musume and of all the idol groups. It seems that whatever resentment was still left, only kept accumulating to the point of trying to bring Morning Musume down in forums and such. But that only goes to show how great the Ai chan led era was. Despite so much going against them, the group managed to stay afloat and even gradually started to gain momentum to the top.
The first time I saw Ai was in Mikan ( I know I mentioned it before, but it was such an important moment for me). Right away, despite seeing many cute girls in the screen (I did not know them then) the one person who just had me looking for her throughout the whole MV was Ai. There was something unreal and just… special about her. Soon after I wanted to know more, her name and the names of the group members. I needed to learn as much as I could, specially about her. Luckily for me I entered the fandom almost as soon as the Platinum Era began (I missed Onna ni Sachi are). At the time I was in high school, so some days were rather rough and dull, but I always felt a sense of relieve that I could always head home and watch/hear Ai chan’s voice.
Despite there being a five year difference between us, and she might see me as a child, I would totally do what I could to make her happy (I know to many that seems like a hopeless dream, but I really feel serious about this). But before that I would have to get on her level. I’ll support her whenever she is down, at least, that is what I would do. After all she is my dream girl.
To many people I see talking about her, she can be either the best thing for Morning Musume or a good addition that also happened to “steal” the lines of other members. But I would like to point out to those people that she didn’t steal anything, and secondly, that was only in the singles. The other members had their chances in the other songs made for the album. And now that she is gone we can still hear her voice, so prominent and beautiful. Hopefully we will be getting a solo album of hers soon. Then a duet with Gaki that will eventually span more with LinLin and Reina. And this in turn will hopefull bring back the Platinum Era so that it can bring about heaven to the ears of many once again.
To me she was a great leader to be remembered. One that truly cared about the group, and that truly wanted to bring them all together as an actual family that could use each other as support in the harshest of times and also celebrate the great accomplishments they all happened to go through. She definitely was a caring leader that showed her love through action rather than empty words. Not seeing Morning Musume with Ai chan was just so foreign that it left a big hole within me when she left. Luckily she stays in contact with her fans and makes many appearances in the media. One other thing that makes me feel, yes, I did not make a wrongful judgement in making her my favorite member was when she took time to visit the Platinum Era members and allowing us fans to be a part of it. That type of dedication is just … lovable.
The story of me and Sayumi Michishige starts off quite simple, in fact this was probably the case for many Morning Musume fans as well. I really didn’t like her… Clearly it wasn’t because of her looks (she’s so cute and beautiful it almost seems too incredible to believe she is real). But her personality that she showed on variety shows made her seem really mean and stuck up. Although I mainly blame some of the “fans” who commented on Morning Musume videos for giving me that impression of hers (I’m to blame as well of course for listening to their thoughts). Of course, at the time I felt like this, I was very new to Morning Musume and was barely beginning to learn more about each individual member of the group. Like many had said Sayu was definitely giving the aura of a narcissist, but after a couple of weeks of cramming in as many videos of the members as I could find at the time, things began to change. I also started to pick up all the subtleties of how each member acted and I noticed that sometimes Sayu wasn’t so sure of herself and what she said. She was definitely quick to recover and change the subject or keep going with the original onslaught of remarks depending on the situation. At first I wasn’t too sure what to think about it, but I began to question whether she really was as bad as she made herself out to be.
Sure enough my suspicions were right, in fact I was entirely right. She was mostly playing the role of a narcissist, but I still didn’t quite understand, why? In the end it was very simple, the entertainment world definitely prefers someone who is fun to watch and listen to, and although many of Sayu’s comments could be deemed mean or hurtful it was obvious that she was really thinking about what she uttered so they weren’t too painful so people didn’t take it seriously. In fact after saying one of those “Shige mean” comments she seemed to leave it open so that others could react. By becoming, arguably, the most famous variety show ace of Morning Musume, she made sure to raise the name of Morning Musume as high up as she could. Even if people came to hate her, as long as they have heard of Morning Musume she didn’t mind it. And truthfully that is what made her so endearing. She didn’t mind getting hated as long as the group was to prosper. Truly a woman worthy of my love.
She truly is the perfect women in my eyes; cute, smart, and nice (believe it or not). Not only that but her code of honor and respect for the group and members is absolutely alluring. She definitely deserved to be the last leader of the Platinum Era and Sixth Generation.
Her beauty is just so … I can’t even comprehend how she could be blessed so much, and what makes her even more amazing is that she seems so humble (this is something I really like about Morning Musume, despite being so famous they don’t act stuck up and feel like they are better than everyone). What I specially like about her appearance is her long black hair, it just seems so natural that she kept it like that. I seriously can’t imagine her any other way. I’ve seen her with wigs of other colors but black was definitely better. And I’m glad she herself took note of that. Speaking of notes, I remember her talking about doing self study sessions of what she could do to improve whenever she made tv appearances to not embarrass the rest of the group, having heard that I just absolutely gained another level of respect and love for her.
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