CLAMP*NEWS

Iwasaki Moeka passed the Team 8 auditions in 2014 alongside her peers, Abe Mei, Okabe Rin, Okubora Chinatsu, Nagano Serika, Fujimura Natsuki, Onishi Momoka, Kuranoo Narumi, Shitao Miu, Cho Kurena, Hamamatsu Riona, Fukuchi Rena, Honda Hitomi, Yokomichi Yuri, the other Yokoyama Yui, Yoshino Miyu, Oda Erina, Oguri Yui, Yoshikawa Nanase, Hayasaka Tsumugi, Hirose Natsuki, and Yaguchi Moka. Unlike so many of the members we have covered already who saw their debut at the SKE48 or HKT48 theatres, Moetan's first appearance was actually in Akihabara, in the famous theatre at the top of the Don Quijote store and the two floors of arcades sandwiched in-between them... though I can't actually remember if those arcades would have been there in 2014. I get the feeling that at that time the building was all still Don Quijote all the way up, but I can't say for sure. I digress! Moetan debuted! The Team 8 revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo was the stage! Two years to the day after, she graduated!

Wait, what?



Even during the Team 8 era, it's sometimes tempting to think of AKB48 during these years as mandatory military service, yet if we entertain the idea that someone can become a ghost whilst still living, then to this day, Moetan is definitely haunting the AKB theatre. Maybe. Born in 2000, a true Millennial, Moetan was also the first ever member of AKB48 to be born in Nagasaki Prefecture, a testament to how far reaching the popularity of AKB had become at the moment, the group being a true national institution at this point. In keeping with the idea of AKB being so all encompassing at the time, Moetan never actually planned to audition at all, but rather her mother and sister sent in an application for her and she only discovered two days before the big event! It's kind of cute imagining Moetan being completely oblivious to everything, sitting there talking about her admiration for Watanabe Mayu and then suddenly finding herself thrust on stage with a real shot of following in Mayuyu's footsteps.

If there's one thing I like about Moetan, it's how enthusiastic she was regarding the members that were important to her. She was always talking about how much she loved Mayuyu and fellow Team 8 member, Shimoaoki Karin, how much she loved HKT48's Moriyasu Madoka, also from Nagasaki Prefecture. You don't need me to explain to you how adorable Moetan was during her time in AKB, she's more than capable of conveying that herself:



The gap between the idea of AKB48 as this coming-of-age-rite-of-passage and the pressure of real life is never more telling than in Moetan's story, however. In early April of 2016, Moetan announced that she had been accepted for her first choice of high school and really wanted to push forward towards her dream of one day become a doctor. To make this all the more tragic though, a day after this announcement, she was hospitalised with influenza and was unable to graduate properly, her name being quietly removed from the books without her ever being able to properly say good-bye. Ah, physician heal thyself, eh, Moetan? And yet, at the same time, it's easy to imagine how Moetan might want to haunt the theatre for the rest of her days. Good news though! In 2019, in Osaka, Moetan came back even if only for that concert! Joining Nacchan and Pena, Moetan finally got to say her good-byes.

Title: Haunted
Universe: Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya
Series: Season One | Season Two | Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie | Ninja Quest (1, 2, 3, 4)
Character(s): Yamaji Kei, Yagyu Rei
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: 27-years-old, she had retired her childish armour as Princess Ninja Emiha long ago, taking up the sacred Jiraiya armour after Touha had gone into space alongside the Space Sheriffs. The thirty-sixth Jiraiya, she thought, placing her hands around the glass. Thirty-five people before her, all working from the shadows, and the only two she knew anything about were Touha and her father.
Length: 808 words
Author's Notes: external link .



( Haunted )

Like Takashima Yurina, Kawamoto Saya was a draft member who was moved into Team 4, however, it must have been like the two were ships passing in the night as Sayaya was one of AKB48's first generation draft members, alongside Goto Moe, Arai Yuki, and others, and she did not join Team 4 until 2015 when Takahashi Juri was appointed captain. Before all that, however, there were auditions, and Team B!



Being selected for the draft pool in September 2013, it only took a couple of months before Sayaya was placed in Team B, then under the leadership of Umeda Ayaka, joining Katayama Haruka, who had returned to the team a year prior. Another handful of months and Sayaya was promoted to being an official member of the team, after which point she was amongst of the ranks of Team B until that shuffle the year after when she was finally moved over to the new new Team 4, where she started racking up the hits, joining the senbatsu for the celebratory Kibouteki Refrain, and appearing roughly every other single, with her most noticeable absence being between Halloween Night and Kimi wa Melody, and her best streak being between High Tension and the hauntingly French sounding Negaigoto no Mochigusare.

During this time, Sayaya was of note enough to earn herself a temporary exchange student position with JKT48 in 2018. As she took up duties in Jakarta as a member of Team T, Stephanie Pricilla Indarto Putri, then a member of Team J, joined AKB—but what kills me about this moment is that there's nothing concrete to really preserve it! Stephanie did not participate in the AKB general election, which, fair, I can understand a reluctance to do this as she may have seen it as setting herself up for disappointment, but the fact that neither girl was snuck into the senbatsu for a single for their temporary groups frustrates me so much. This would have been cool! Everyone loves a guest appearance! AKS, do I have to do everything for you?! Ahem. Perhaps I'm asking too much. In truth, the exchange was in place for only just over a month so there probably wasn't time to do anything really significant, but that just frustrates me even more.

From 2018 up until 2020, when we were in and out of lockdown in the fever dream of the pandemic and events were limited, Sayaya continued to work away as a member of Team 4 until, at the last, in August, she announced her graduation during a livestream, her final performance being a stream filmed live at the theatre, a last farewell with her friends where the only audience was watching from their homes.

I'm sure no questioned this arrangement at the time, but now, looking back, it strikes me as terribly sad. With a whimper, not a bang, Sayaya left AKB, but the significance of her role was undeniable. Sayaya and many members around her were not given the attention of the departing Kami 7 or the Sakura/Jurina/Nana axis, but they were the members who carried the group during moments of change and for that, I feel that Sayaya and others like her definitely deserved better than graduating in an empty theatre.

Title: Chinensis
Universe: Oshioki Sanshimai
Prompt: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: S03E04 - Ninja Quest (Part 1)
Character(s): Yamabuki Yukiko, Yamambuki Tsukiko, Yamabuki Hanako, Okubo Reika, OCs
Series: Project R.O.S.E.
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Her expression was sheepish, embarrassed. This, Yamabuki Natsuko thought, was her older sister, Tsukiko, all over. The problem was, however, that her Tsukiko was no longer older than her. In fact, all three of her older sisters—Hanako, Tsukiko, and Yukiko, in order of distance from her—were now her younger sisters, ages 12, 14, and 16.
Length: 2508 words
Author's Notes: "When Darkness Fell, a New Heroine Arose." also: external link.



( Chinensis )