NEWS: As you may or may not have already heard, it was announced today that Iida Kaori's 6 month old son passed away back in July from chronic renal failure. A memorial service was held for the child in September and Iida-san plans to return to the stage sometime next year.

I can imagine that losing your own child would be one of the most painful things to endure and I'm just really shocked and saddened by this news. Iida is such a kind, generous soul and it's so unfair something like this had to happen to her. With the love and support of her friends and family, I pray she can make it through this rough time.
My deepest condolences to Kaori and her family.

NEWS: Shocking news this afternoon as the official Hello!Project website announced the mass graduation of every Elder Club member on the 31st of March, 2009.

Graduating Members


Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari


Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Konno Asami, Ogawa Makoto


Fujimoto Miki, Satoda Mai, Inaba Atsuko, Maeda Yuki


Melon Kinenbi
Saito Hitomi, Murata Megumi, Ohtani Masae, Shibata Ayumi


Miyoshi Erika, Matsuura Aya, Okada Yui


Ongaku Gatas' Eggs
Korenaga Miki, Noto Arisa, Sengoku Minami, Sawada Yuri

While the girls are graduating from Hello!Project, they will apparently still remain part of UFA and continue as artists without being idols. Whether this refers to all members is unclear at this point. The Eggs will likely remain within the Hello! Pro Eggs, other than Korenaga who graduated as an Egg since joining Ongaku Gatas.

I gotta say... This is just horrible news. To me many of these artists are who I think of when I think of H!P. How can you have H!P without Yuko or Nacchi? Mari or Kei? Crazy Johnson? The incredible 4th gen? All the soloists? Ahh, it's gonna take a bit to get my head around this. Just the other day I was ranking my fav members in H!P with a friend and they were surprised I had so many of these Elder Club members so high. I really do respect and adore these girls. They will be missed.