As said before, 11th gen auditions have been announced and Sayumi is now the new leader of Morning Musume. I'm sure that a lot of people have different views on this, and so do I. This is just my own opinion of the recently announced news, so please say what you think, too.
With this auditions announcment, I was much less surprised at it in comparison to the 9th and 10th gen auditions. With 9th, it had been quite a while since 8th had been added. With 10th, it was announced when the 9th debut single was being released. So at this rate, the addition of another generation wouldn't have been that shocking and would be just like back then when auditions were happening basically each year. Although I'm a bit worried that the 10th gen hasn't had enough time to make themselves known (in my eyes, at least), I'm interested to see what kind of people will be added to the group. If you ask me, I'd like people that are slightly older than the average age of the gen members at the time of their joining. New members are usually 12-14, somewhere along those ages. And currently, there are much more "new members" than "old members". Personally and generally, I'm not a big fan of idol groups that have a young average age because I see them targetted more at kids and their voices aren't as mature, yet. Plus, it would make the age gap a little closer instead of about 5 years or more of an age difference from the youngest senpai (Reina) to the oldest kouhai (Haruna). But then again, by the time 6th gen graduates, all of them would have aged by probably two years or so, making Haruna 20 or at least almost 20, which would then make the average age bump up again. (Assuming there are no auditions and graduations, which I can't be so sure of) Also, I think it'd be cool to see former members or trainees of indies idol groups being accepted, if the contracts were acceptable within the rules, since Ayumi makes a great fit in the group and her experience from DLH has made her an even better member.
As for Sayu taking over the reigns of Gaki-san, that also wasn't surprising since in most cases, the next oldest member (In both age and time for when they joined H!P) becomes the next leader. But she seems great with the kouhai (from the looks of the blog pics that are posted) and looks like she can make a fun and cute leader! I hope that she, along with Reina, take good care of the group and really get them all into shape before they eventually take their leave, as well. After all, that time is going to come soon...
