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I knew it was only a matter of time, but I'll still miss her in H!P. Glad she's not leaving showbiz!

In all seriousness though, I'm glad she's found something that she wants to do and hopefully it works out for her! There's no reason why she should have to stop being an idol if that's what she wants to keep doing.

Well shes done an excellent job as an idol, a leader, an academic, and as a person. She's been in H!P for over a decade and her impact has been enduring. I can't be upset at this announcement. And it makes things much much easier knowing a year in advance.

I'm also pretty excited that my girl Kana is about to have her time in the spotlight when she ascends to her place as new the leader of Angerme. Can't wait to see her leadership style and to see how she grows into her role.

Translation of Wada Ayaka's blog post announcing her graduation and detailing (very much so) her reasoning.
http://nogistreet.tumblr.com/post/17263 ... ement-blog
https://twitter.com/queenachima/status/ ... 7505386496

I kept seeing people able to read it on their own react with varying forms of "she's so cool" (she's a rockstar, she's badass, she's Tsunku's type of rock n roll, etc), and I think I agree.

I can't help but feel bad. "The group will be better off without me", despite her trying to put a somewhat positive spin on it, makes me feel a bit sad for her. I remember her saying she never wanted to graduate and she wanted to stay in ANGERME and that was her goal, but this kind of sounds like she's having a bit of an existential crisis.
Did she realize that she couldn't stay forever because it became a generational group and it freaked her out? Did someone remind her it was a generational group and it freaked her out?

I found her last paragraph interesting, about how she doesn't think idols should have a preconceived set of rules and I can agree with her but I'd like to see how she's going to smash the stereotype beyond "I'm a 30 year old idol".

I’m honestly a bit confused about her reason to quit. There seem to be more reasons:
-She thought that other members would stay longer and felt odd to be the only og left?
-She feels like she’s bringing the group down from becoming new
-She wants to give others the opportunity to grow and shape the group in their own way
-She wants to try out new things for herself

Is that about right? It just feels odd that she was amadant about staying longer and didn’t want to leave.

Those are all different ways of saying the same thing: she feels the widening gap between herself and the younger members, and she realizes it’s time to grow up and move on with her life. As genki as she might be, and as much as she loves being an idol, she’s a woman in her mid 20s with an adult career already lined up. She can’t hang around with girls half her age forever. It’s not good for them or her.

I don’t understand why this is so shocking or disappointing to some fans. We go through this every time a member reaches that age, if she hasn't already graduated to do something else like become an actress or go to university.

Wada Ayaka's MC about her Graduation announcement (Angerme Concert Tour 2018)
https://youtu.be/oBASCJRgoJw?t=27m53s

Announced today at Angerme's Live Tour Spring 2019 ~Rinne Tenshou~, the Angerme concert tour final and Wada Ayaka's graduation date is set for June 18th @ Nippon Budokan.

Miyazaki Yuka on June 17th @ Nippon Budokan

I keep forgetting she announced this stuff last year. Two grads literally back to back.