[quote="DonJuan"]
I don't disagree with you at all, but I can kind of see why the other three would be there.
Maria was the loli who turned out to become the new photobook girl.
Miki was the somewhat talented person that still was no threat to Riho, Sakura, Mizuki or even Masaki/Duu/Ayumi.
Akane, well, they could have taken any younger Kenshuusei since they totally left her in the back as someone with growing potential, but I guess they wanted to ride on the fact that she has some features that resemble Sayumi or something. Also they might have wanted a mediocre Kenshuusei, since they didn't really want to shake things up.
Haruna though? She was already "old", older than the younger 10th gens and the same age as the younger 9th gens, and definitely brought nothing to the table in terms of talent. When they added Harunan it made sense they wanted to close the gap between Mizuki and Aika (which turned into the gap between Mizuki and Reina), but everything about Ogata was so weird. I mean she was very white yeah and they wanted to push her as a visual but they stopped that pretty quickly, especially when her weight problems started. As said, they never made use of her actual qualities, like having the potential to be entertaining.
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Spoiler: [+]
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My theory was and still is that they intended to make 12th gen a slow gen, with the hope of Miki becoming a reliable 3rd row singer quickly and the others being in the back. Then Riho left suddenly, that wasn't planned at all, and they did regret not adding a center-like girl. Akane didn't get out of her shell until lately, Ogata started having weight problems and it took much longer for them to train Miki to fill the gap in singing (they still prefer Ayumi over her, and if that isn't a sign I don't know). The only one that kinda worked was Maria, filling the loli gap. But she still didn't become center or face in any way.
This also goes well with my theory that 12th gen was the first MM generation without any assistance from Tsunku. I know he never made the final decision aside from 1st gen, but considering who was in the finals - girls like Uta, Saori, Ami, total moe blobs - and who was chosen in the end it feels rather obvious. It becomes even more certain looking at 13th gen: Yokoyan could have been one of the wild cards Tsunku likes but Kaede is so out of what he usually picks. She's averagely talented and doesn't have much space to grow, something which Tsunku always tried to avoid. There were other members who didn't grow much, like Aika, but it's not like Aika had no potential at all, especially since she was younger than Kaede when she joined. Then the whole Morito thing when they desperately tried to add a face to the group. Another thing that won't work out.
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You can't make a face if you're not willing to commit to them. You gotta basically shove a girl in everyone's face and put your weight behind them for awhile, all these companies think it'll work if you only do it once or twice. Riho wasn't face material, but they put her at the forefront of everything and basically treated her like she was the Mariah Carey of idols. Now they do it once and if it's not an instant success they give up.
