The Road To Graduation Is Paved With Them Feels

You guys, it's just now hit me - the gravity of this upcoming SG graduation. Shirai Saki will be leaving Sakura Gakuin.

C-tan entered SG along with Yamaide Aiko in May of 2013, in what a lot of fukei regard as the least impressive transfer-in student class in Sakura Gakuin history. I'm not sure that's a fair assessment, but even if it were true, it was still a noteworthy class because of who Shirai was/is: the first fukei to ever enter Sakura Gakuin.

Shirai Saki attending Babymetal show circa 2012

She is one of us! And it's just now dawning on me how hard it will be to watch our surrogate fukei graduate.

C-tan has managed to fly somewhat under my radar until quite recently, probably around September of last year.

I antnicipate that, due in no small part to C-tan, the upcoming graduation has the potential to be the best (i.e. the most cryingest) one ever.  Looking back at their history, obviously 2012 was hard grad to get through, and more or less universally acknowledged as the best. The 2013 Nendo's Fab 4 were graduating just as I was having by perspective blown far and wide by Babymetal - which is maybe a good thing, because if I knew Marina then like I do now, it's fair to say I might have been completely devastated by her leaving SG, especially if I had any inkling how scarce she would become post graduation; she almost as elusive as Nene!

Last year's graduation of Moi, Hana & Yunano was my first as a fully fledged fukei. I remember thinking it was weird how not quite emotional it was at the time. This was probably because of the extended time between the lead up to RTG (including a farewell episode of sorts on LoGiRL), the event itself (with accompanying sound-bites and bits of news trickling out during and immediately following the event), and finally my ordering and receiving the Blu-ray of the concert/ceremony. Maybe it was oddly less emotional than I had anticipated due to the long time period I had to process the reality of it? I'm not sure, but it was still plenty emotional.

But the RTG coming up in March will be the first one since all of the original members have gone. Yes, if you want to get nit-picky about it, Yui and Moa were considered transfer-ins, but for all intents and purposes, they were originals. And I fully anticipate it being a rival to the 2012 Nendo graduation, it terms of The Feels.

Now I'm coming to terms with the fact that I've become more of an SG fan than a Babymetal fan. I had always assumed that SG would be more of a supplemental enjoyment - given the often long stretches of time between particularly noteworthy Babymetal happenings...I mean other than shaky, warbly concert footage, the accompanying flash-in-a-pan merch dumps on Asmart, and the occasional interview, it can be months between significant events.

And just in case any Amuse marketing types are reading this (doubtful), I would totally buy SG funko pop rocks dolls. Make SG funko pop rocks dolls.

Ibaraki Highschooler

I used to know this girl who has since seemed to drop out of facebook who was huge into [Ibaraki Highschooler]. I usually don't friend underage girls or boys because it's kind of really weird and creepy, but I will make an occasional exception if they are someone who seems mature, intelligent and also they never, ever message me or bother me in any way. This girl on facebook was 16 or 17, I think, but she was more articulate and witty than most college graduates I know, so I made an exception and accepted her friend request.

Anyway, this girl who has since dropped off the face of the earth (not unlike her oshimen) would always tell me that deep in her heart, what she really, truly believed is that [Ibaraki Highschooler] is life, [Ibaraki Highschooler] is love. I wish I could write it so that you might see it conveyed in its original, beautifully poetic form, but jackals at Amuse are so relentless.

Until she opened my eyes to the glory of [Ibaraki Highschooler], she held a place in my heart somewhere near Rau, basically right in the middle of the of the pack of the (at that time) 19 members.  I've discussed this before, but for a quick review:

• Oshimen: Marina, Yui, Megumi, Soyo, Mirena

• My queen: Suzuka

• The reason for my smile: Moa

• 2nd tier: Hinata, Rinon, Hana, Ooga Saki, Maaya, Ayaka, Kano, Sara, Ibaraki Highschooler

• Middle girls: Raura, Shirai Saki, Marin, Ayami, Airi, Momoko

• Not so crazy about (still love & support them, but whatever): Aiko, Yunano, Mariri

And before you ask, yes it's possible to have more than one oshimen. I totally looked it up online and everything. Don't worry if they don't seem to make sense: all of these categorizations are legit and ISO-9000 certified for your assurance.

Now for me, Mariri falls into the bottom category simply by the virtue of the brevity of her tenure. The 2012 nendo was before my time in this fandom, and there just isn't very much available recorded material to get to know her very well. Plus, she is the only member in SG history to quit - it seems almost like a rejection or betrayal on her part!

And so, somewhat ironically, one of he things that has endeared Nene-don - is Nene-don okay? -

*receives cease & desist letter from Amuse, Inc.*

- okay, one of the things that has endeared [Ibaraki Highschooler] to me is the fact that she herself came very, very close to quitting Sakura Gakuin in her second year as a middle schooler. You can read about it here; it's fascinating stuff if you've never heard about it before. Reading about it brought out another dimension in [Ibaraki Highschooler], and made me appreciate all her hard work and sacrifice - done especially for fukei like you and me - all the more.

It does make me wonder, though...what if she had joined Mariri and quit? How would I (and the rest of the fandom, for that matter) have seen her - would it have had that same sense of rejection or betrayal? Would it seem worse due to her long tenure in SG, and even before that, in Mini-Pati? The more I think about it, the more I feel that probably would not be the case. I think I'd see her as a tragic figure, maybe like a victim of the unforgiving idol machine that pushes these girls to such extremes. Plus, she would have been undefeated in the nendo tests, so there's that.

In any case, I admire her moxie in sticking it out and overcoming the adversity. And I support her decision to leave the industry on her own terms and go into the field of nursing. Can you imagine getting hit by a car in Ibaraki and ending up in her hospital? What a rush.

So yeah, maybe [Ibaraki Highschooler] is one of my second tier girls, but of course...

...each of the girls, no matter which tier, have their special and endearing charm points. They all deserve our appreciation and support. They are all our precious members.

Even Mariri.

Can't stay mad at u gurl

And especially [Ibaraki Highschooler]

Ichiban! ICHIBAN!!!

Rankingu

I think it would be fair to call myself a feminist. Like, in terms of the actual definition of the word (not the made-up definition bandied about in comment threads and on talk radio):

[fem-uh-nist]

adjective

1. advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men.

noun

2. an advocate of such rights.

And this sometimes leads to an odd disconcert with my feelings towards Sakura Gakuin. This is one of those times. Women have historically been pitted against one another in competition for recognition and approval of a frankly male-dominated society at large - rather than encouraged to develop a sense of cooperation and teamwork.  I of course appreciate all of the girls each on their own unique merit, and I could never say that one is truly "better" than another.

But there is no denying the fact that fans find their oshimen. That's just the reality of the situation. And so inevitably we all engage in some form of ranking. It somehow seems kind of wrong to me to compose a list of the SG girls ranking them, but let's do it anyway. Here's my list, compiled about one month ago:

This list is still pretty representative of my feelings, though I think that if I were to take it again there would be some shuffling and rearrangement in the middle of the list.

While on this topic, I might as well bring up a discussion I had online a while ago with a very angry lady who did not like the fact that songs like 'Gimme Chokko' by Babymetal and 'Gokigen Mr. Toropikalory' by SG focus on girls worrying about their weight. She also had a problem with that one Meghan Trainer song about the bass or whatever, saying basically that songs should focus on appearance at all, but on the personality, intelligence, and other such qualities of females. And yeah, it would be great for society in general if people paid more attention to the inner workings and accomplishments of women and less to their superficial appearance.

But here's the thing: just because we wish for a world where girls are not unduly obsessed with their weight doesn't mean it is wrong to acknowledge that these thoughts/pressures are very real things they have to take into account in their lives, and that others can relate to. Just acknowledging - rather than sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring - the everyday experiences that women and girls feel is not necessarily an endorsement of the view that females should worry about their weight so much. It's wrong to downplay or devalue the feelings of others - what a cruel thing to do to another person - and it does nothing constructive to solve the problem they are so concerned about it the first place.

I used to be quite cynical about the world, seeing the wrong and the bad in every situation - not so different from that angry lady in the comments section. But Sakura Gakuin have really opened up a  long ago closed door to optimism and positivity and genuine happiness and the ability to see all the good in the world. I try not to let people put that heavy shroud of cynicism back on me. I can still see and recognize all the problems with the world we live in, but I'm no longer a slave to the idea that that is the only thing worth focusing on.