resop2 wrote:I wonder if the moral of the story is: if you have a popular member leave the group replace her with a quality new girl before your next single.
I know this is one of the problems this group has, a feeling of incompleteness when a (popular) member leaves, but I also think there are other factors:
1. No more connection with Hokkaido, Country Musume's home land. Losing Manakan means losing all the promotion she used to do over yanders. This can be fixed if they add a member from KSS Hokkaido when Momoko eventually has to graduate soon.
2. Rockability song for the 3rd CD release in a row. Their 3rd single's main A-side and their musical (album, DVD, etc) was rockability. It's somewhat getting repetitive. And unlike Boogie Woogie Love, Dou Datte Ii no seeme so agressive and "in your face." It gets tiring after a a handful of times listening to it.
3. No hype from the casuals. From the looks of it, sales look like it's mainly from their regular fans. Maybe this release ain't the casuals' cup of tea and would have been a better idea to release a triple A-side with a public-friendly song.
There are many scenarios on why the sales dropped, but rollercoasting ain't something new from H!P groups. I hope the find a solution to whatever problem they have by their next single.