We've spoken about Miyamoto Karin before but because her birthday is 1st December, this week definitely feels like the right time to talk about her again as we usher in our festive Hello! Project Wednesday pivot.



When Juice=Juice arrived in 2013, it was at the height of the Morning Musume revival that began with One・Two・Three, something you can absolutely hear in songs like Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne. This was absolutely the first song I heard, and whilst I can't remember the circumstances, I definitely remember being asked if I had heard it yet by friends unable to contain their excitement. Everyone went crazy about Karin; everyone went crazy over the fact that we suddenly had a new Hello! Project group who were good. 2012-2013 felt like the Hello! Project comeback, and a huge part of that was the debut of Juice=Juice, that first single doubling down on every stupid tsunku musical troupe and yet still defying expectations. It was a moment of validation. We had all grown up a bit in those years, and I certainly had started listening to "serious" bands again, but suddenly here was Miyamoto Karin in the same shirt that Hayley Williams wore in Paramore's comeback song, Still Into You. Friends, I went out to H&M immediately after and I bought a jumper with that same design. We adopted Kairn. Like Kudo Haruka, like Oda Sakura, we adopted these kids as the standard for what idols should be like. When that first Juice=Juice single arrived, I really wanted to be more like Karin; I really wanted to be a kid again.

All of these entries are somewhat ridiculous, so I won't hold back from saying stupid: Karin was the last idol to really exemplify what idol was in that moment before the times changed. In 2013, she was present as a backup dancer for Mano Erina's graduation, she was there as Morning Musume began appending the year after their name in 2014, thus destroying everyone's stats on lastfm, and she was there as AKB48 began to flounder also in search of direction, a brief burning bright in that single moment as Morning Musume contested AKB's popularity again before times changed and groups such as BiS (founded in 2010) and the anti-idol aesthetic that carried over from Togawa Jun's prior example really became the way people thought about the genre. Despite the changing times though, it feels like Karin never lost her love of what idol means.

Having previously been established as a trainee, Karin was a member of Juice=Juice from 2013 right through to 2020 throughout the changing of seasons. Following that though, she has established a solo career for herself, her most recent double A side having arrived as recently as June of this year. Now that those seasons have changed, we're seeing a lot more blurring of the lines when it comes to celebrating idols active in that former age. During the 8th Momoiro Uta Gassen last year, Karin was there on stage with Goto Maki, Watanabe Miyuki, and Kashiwagi Yuki for a performance of Mr. Moonlight. Friends, we're a step away from nostalgia forcing everything we ever felt about these groups into one big super group, and when that happens, I definitely think Miyamoto Karin is going to be at the heart of it.

I wanted to say "it's that time of year again", but, in truth, it's always that time of year, yet I chuse to deliberately make life hard for myself. Nonetheless, welcome back to Write Whatever the Heck You Want, Courtney! 🎄🎉🎁💝🍰



I worry that because I f-lock most entries that mention my personal life, it must seem like I only ever post on Wednesday and Friday, and so this may be the first time you've heard from me on a subject that isn't related to idols or weird fic—but surprise! This is totally about idols and weird fic also! This year, I have a theme though, and whilst it didn't start that way, everything that I have begun working on for this event has ended up being about being in a band/group or about little guys, so in addition to this being Write Whatever the Heck You Want, Courtney!, I thought I'd also make this first post Courtney Writes Whatever the Heck You Want, Friends! Only if it is about little guys though, because I don't want to take on anything too big as it would defeat the object of this being a chance to find a way to express how much some of the material I talk about here has influenced me, even if you might not have guessed that this were things dear to my heart as you're staring at the hundred Harima Shiori stories I post each year.

Cats can be little guys also. There's a really fluffy black cat I see on Nevern Road in the mornings who I've taken to carrying around treats for. I digress. I am including mascot characters in this as well, as long as I know them or you give me some sources without expecting too much. Yet perhaps you're looking for more traditional little guys but want to narrow the scope, there are, after all, a lot of little guys out there. In this case, I am pleased to inform you that this year's Monster Calendar is now available on superlove and it comes with a spreadsheet of all the new 'cards' in the set. Again, I wrote most of this in coffee shops in and around Akihabara during the autumn and then completed the final entries one per night whilst at my mother's house after work. I spent a lot of time harassing everyone in our little discord server and asking anyone who would listen to me to suggest little guys for this, so I'd really like it you liked these guys too. As always, I encourage you to pretend this is a real card game, and if you give me five numbers at random between 1 and 58 and ask what cards are in your pack, I will happily tell you and you can look them up if they are included in this year's calendar.

Life is cruel and we are often not at our best when up against it, but even if, like me, you're not a Christian, I think there's something in this season that encourages you to try and rise above that. This year I really want to write about girls doing just that. Settle in for a month of gentle feelings, late autumn and early winter, and maidens in their fullest bloom, and in the meantime, like Kanie from Wonderful Precure! above, I want you to show me about your favourite little guys, and, in return, I will try and write you a small piece about them.

I hope I am the first to say Merry Christmas to you. You guys mean the world to me.