... and the sugar turned bitter.

Kudo Haruka is baby. I mean, she’s clearly not, she’s an adult woman now, she’s 25-years-old, and yet, in a sense, whenever I see her in anything, that same instinct is triggered in from when she first debuted in Morning Musume: Kudo Haruka is baby, we must protect Kudo Haruka.



Debuting as a Hello! Project Egg, which is what the kenshuusei were called prior to 2012, she served as a backup dancer for various groups for a year from 2010, initially appearing at the winter Hello! Project festival in Yokohama, until it was announced that she would be promoted to Morning Musume.

Despite being present and on various stages for a full year before her promotion, it was only the most hardcore of Western fans who kept track of the kenshuusei, partly because there were so many channels through which you could join H!P, not just as an Egg. The rest of us only really learnt of them when they got the occasional starring role or collaboration—Aa! and the like. At the time Kuduu debuted as a Morning Musume member with the single, Pyocopyoco Ultra, I had friends who were ready to give me her full biography, but I always shied away from following junior idols because, I will admit, I found it a bit creepy. The further you get from the age of members in groups though, the more forgiving you are of it, I think. It’s already weird to be an adult supporting idol groups, everyone’s younger than you anyway, and the situation is no longer akin to where you are roughly the same age as first-generation members of a group.

All of that aside, everyone fell instantly in love with the cuteness of Kuduu. Even with Pyocopyoco Ultra, which... I certainly felt was a disappointment as a single, even with Ren'ai Hunter, which similarly failed to land for me, there was a sense that we were one step away from greatness, and that Kuduu’s presence in the line-up was a sign of that.

Surprising no one, we were one step away from greatness. One・Two・Three was released in 2012 and everyone went crazy. This was the new Morning Musume we had been waiting for! Listening to these releases now, it’s clear that Ren'ai Hunter was a necessary step towards One・Two・Three in terms not only of music and production but in the group’s faith in Kuduu, yet it is this song and this video specifically where she comes into her own. With the following year’s Wakuteka Take a chance, these feelings were cemented. We were so back, as we might say now to describe the situation.

Help me!! followed in early 2013, introducing Oda Sakura, and both her and Kuduu became like the twin towers of cuteness, we could never imagine them falling. Despite that, at the time, I was quite harsh in my review of the single. ‘Help me!! is something of a Return of the Jedi for the recent trilogy of electropop-tinged Morning Musume releases,’ I wrote, proving that I have no chill whatsoever.

Although the last of the old guard graduated during this era, I genuinely feel it was members such as Kuduu who held Morning Musume together, who pushed the group forward. Her time in the group was the era that gave us LILIUM, a performance in Suemitsu Kenichi’s TRUMP series, which is... gosh, friends if you haven’t seen that play, if you’re not yet invested in these setting, then to-day is the day to start, for sure. Almost immediately after graduation, she appeared in a central role in Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger and his continued to build upon her talent and skill as an actor and an idol.

I love Kudo Haruka, just in case that wasn’t clear enough from this entry. I think the world of her, and I’m so happy she’s continuing to do well even if she is no longer a member of Morning Musume.