Had to say something

I have nothing new to add.  But the shock caused me to miss a chunk of a perfectly good game of Apples to Apples going on in the living room last night.  I actually had to put Eriko's name into Google to make sure I was reading the kanji right (even though that's a name that I obviously know).

I like Eriko and Masami, but I know that there are others in this fandom who are much more enamoured.  My heart goes out to them.

I guess in every generation there are always a few who retire early for whatever reason (Sararan, Kazu, etc), but that certainly does *not* make it any easier for their very surprised fans.

I'm really grumpy about the lack of role names.

Young Star Guides

quinquin made a comment about how already four people from the 2008 Young Star Guide have announced their retirement.  I thought it would be interesting to go back to some of the older Young Star Guides and look at the statistics:

( List of stars + their status under the cut )

My one comment would be that the 2008 Young Star Guide is a lot more inclusive than the previous editions.  Over half of the people in the 1999 Young Star Guide are former, current, or future top stars, plus there's Kiriyan (and is any really going to argue that she's going to retire early?)

The 2008 Guide is much more inclusive IMO.  There are 22 siennes featured, as compared to 15 in the 1999 edition and 13 in the 2004 one.  People like Sonoka, Masako, Magee, Hiromi, etc...they're all very talented Takarasiennes, and I'm tickled pink that we got such wonderful pictures of them.  But are these really people we're expecting to make top?   (Obviously we still want them to stay around forever <3)

Of course Kazu, Shun, and Eriko's retirements were still surprises.  However, I'm going to point to the fact that the 2008 Young Star Guide came out right before two major "changing of the guard"s, aka the time when people are much more likely to retire.