While calling them "rules" may be a stretch, there is a very obvious and long-standing expectation that idols, especially 48G-style idols, shouldn't date, especially not in the way both of the members being compared did. Otherwise Bunshun wouldn't have bothered to break this story. A school girl falling for her classmate is one thing, an idol dating her (former) producer is something else entirely. It may not be against any law, it may not break any contract stipulation, but most people will find it suspicious and immoral. Sneer at the idea of immorality if you like, but idols are supposed to be examples, role models. What Yukarin did is a violation of her role.
And. I have no problem with that. But it wasn't what was said originally. Just... No. While we call them Idol because it's from the Japanese アイドル it has absolutely nothing related to the English word Idol. Conflating the two will cause mismanaged expectation. She is not supposed to be a role model AT ALL, nor does the Japanese society expect that. (Note: I am not arguing about immorality -- just the role model part). This problem also occur in Thailand initially after BNK and it took a while to clear thing up.
... except the Japanese word アイドル is literally the English word idol borrowed into Japanese and they absolutely do expect them to be role models*. Kinoshita Momoka ring a bell? * (To some extent that is true of all celebrities, but there is a lot more leeway for misbehaviour in non-idol celebrities.)
When you mentioned Momoka I think of that red rope getup she wore in the Chaos Stage. Her name rings a bell but so does yukirin, miichan, and sashihara. AKB48 has always towed the line between chastity and flirtation. Good girls and yanki bad girls. It's in the image (torn seifuku with ultra short skirt), the music lyrics (old man, what do you want to do?), the rebellious teen (zannen shoujo), the appeal of a girl's after-school activity taking place in the heart of electric town on a school night. Yukarin took a blowtorch to that line. The big names I mentioned above survived their scandals. A newcomer like yukarin? Well we'll see. Her adherence to the "rules" was implied, (no one wants to see her flex her boyfriends to the public) but her debut was basically, "minagawa the bad girl that takes wotas money." It was just a stupid lazy move by her and her live in ex, to pick her up in his 8 series. Send a car for your girl, punk. She's in a national idol group with an image (I agree) to maintain, not the underground teenager he exploited in 2017.
What's next, you are going to tell me スタイル means style and absolutely doesn't mean body shape, because it's borrowed from English? Jesus. That's not how language work. EDIT: And now people are disagree'ing with dictionary lol.
スタイル does mean style. The meaning has also expanded to include looks and appearance (well, "expanded" except I think you'll find it includes this in English a lot too), but it also still has the sense of style. But yes, there are plenty of borrowed English words that mean completely different things in Japan, called Wasei Eigo. アイドル isn't really one of them. Yes it is a bit more specific, but all the elements that were there in English in the 40s and persist to this day remain in the Japanese word, e.g. adoration, worship, eager fans, musicians/celebrities put on exceptionally high, bigger than life pedestals. You said it had nothing to do with the English word. That is patently untrue. Get a better dictionary. Yes, Kinoshita Momoka bucked the idol trend hard, and suffered for it. To be clear, I don't mean that she had any love scandals, just that she was very much not a traditional role model. She was constantly fighting with management who wanted her to stop dying her hair, wear different clothes, behave more idol-like, etc. Anyway having said all that I will concede that "role model" is not the perfect word for what I was trying to say. x_lambs put it a little better, there is a certain expectation of an idol image, wider than the narrow "orthodox idol", encompassing Yukirin well enough but Miichan and Sasshi have long been outside of it. Yukarin was nowhere near popular enough to attempt to leave it behind herself, nevermind in a far more egregious manner than any of those three.
Westerners and Asians are like Men (I'm sorry, People) and Elves: sometimes I think they should've never met.
I agree the biggest problem(s) for Yukarin being a relative new arrival with very little contribution to the group and her teasing wotas with the "take your wallet" talk all the while maintaining these relationships, but imo Sasshi's and yokoyui (team 8) bedroom photos, mii-chan's walk of shame are more egregious. I don't remember if there was photos of Kashiwagi or just a report). Yukarin was photographed fully-clothed on the street, getting into a car, with later corroboration by the parties of the living situation (making it worse).
Back to twerk/ work AKB48 Team 8 member Yuka Suzuki will resume her activities from July 30 (Fri.), and AKB48 Mail deliveries will also resume sequentially from July 30 (Fri.). https://www.akb48.co.jp/news/detailpage/53977666 I would like to do my best with a renewed spirit from today. Thank you very much for your support. https://twitter.com/SUZUKIYUUKARIN_/status/1420910469179609090?s=20 even cut her hair in repentance https://twitter.com/oricon/status/1420933933273817089?s=19 https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2201923/full/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&ref_cd=tw https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7c4f7ef20db0948cab62506f957f76736312e99e i forgive u
https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12689287358.html ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ https://twitter.com/SUZUKIYUUKARIN_/status/1420910469179609090
