When I was watching that reaction video, I was expecting a normal reaction...but Rikako went first and i'm like "um...she lost all marbles...thats so not what I expected but it's so cute" lol
Murotan went up and when I saw her reaction, I was like "yup, that's the one I was expecting...but aww, she's so happy she cried"
Maho went up, and just made me like her even more "なんで?” that was great! I knew she was gonna react differently because she JUST got in KSS and now they just debuted her off the bat. She didn't really have a Murotan situation where she's stayed for years to one day get to debut. "How do you feel right now, using a 4 Kanji idiom expression." "Aikawa Maho desu" this girl has that silliness in her, pair her up with Yattaruchan and do something amazing lol
Yeah, I don't get the name change either..."secure the future of S/mileage" yet "change the name when we add new members"
I hope the name change is minor, like S/milecharge スマイルチャージ or S/mileageShin スマイレージ新 (could be a play on with Shin meaning new but sumaire-Jishin meaning smiling + self confidence? maybe too vague)
Maybe what AyaKanon want is just to have some sort of distinction aside from "gen 1, gen 2, gen 3" etc and that they want to officially establish a group that's definitely going to be generational.
But starting over at Gen 1 feels is eh...
I dont know, I hope they and the staff planned this out well...it'd be a waste if they dont have a group name that can somehow connect back to the original group.