Blog update: “An announcement from ℃-ute.”

Maimi makes an announcement about the future of ℃-ute in her August 20th update “An announcement from ℃-ute.” Full translation below.

Thank you for always supporting ℃-ute and Hello! Project.

I have an announcement for everyone today.
Next July, those of us in ℃-ute will realize our dream of performing at Saitama Super Arena.
And then, after our dream performance, ℃-ute will disband.

After all of the members became 20+ years old this February, we discussed what we could still do as a group and what we could each do on our own.
We reached an understanding on which paths each of us wanted to take, and from there we starting thinking about the future of the group.

However, we thought “There are still goals we haven’t achieved as ℃-ute!”
and “We can’t stop until we have our dream performance with team ℃-ute at Saitama Super Arena!”, and decided again to aim for that goal with the 5 of us.
From there we continued our activities with one shared feeling, and we were informed one day that our performance at Saitama Super Arena had been decided.

I was so, so happy.
At the same time, it was a strange feeling reaching the large goal that we had always chased after.

Once our performance at Saitama Super Arena had been decided, again the members and the staff had a discussion and we decided to go after our individual goals and dreams after the performance.

We had 3 choices.
The first was to graduate from Hello! Project and continue our activities as ℃-ute in a different way.
The second was a hiatus.
And then, the 3rd option was to breakup, which we chose.

℃-ute was born and raised in Hello! Project.
℃-ute is part of Hello! Project.
If it wasn’t for Hello! Project, we couldn’t have gotten to where we are today.
We felt that we always wanted to be “Hello! Project’s ℃-ute”.

In these 11 years, all of the members have earnestly ran towards our goals,
so when the performance at Saitama Super Arena is over,
I think we’ll be able to say with confidence “We have no regrets! We’ve accomplished everything as ℃-ute!”
The five of us talked positively for a long time and decided to breakup instead of taking a hiatus.

June 11th next year will be 12 years since ℃-ute formed in June of 2005.
The members have been able to continue for 12 years since the beginning because of the support of everyone during the good and the bad times.

We were established by our Hello! Project seniors,
and then had our major debut in 2007 and received various awards beginning with the Japan Record Awards newcomer award.
However, we became a 5 member unit in 2009 and the scale of our tours was downgraded,
and Saitama Super Arena seemed like a dream within a dream at that time.
Thanks to everyone in team ℃-ute who believed in us,
we were able to do our best this far.
When we reached our first goal of Nippon Budoukan in 2013, I was filled with so much gratitude, and started thinking “I want to take everyone to Saitama Super Arena someday!!” and “I want to reach our goal with everyone in team ℃-ute!!”.

Soon that dream will come true.

There are a lot of reliable juniors in Hello! Project now.
I belive that they’ll continue to maintain a powerful Hello! Project even after we’ve disbanded.
It’s come time for us to pass down to our juniors what we inherited from our seniors.

“Hello! Project 2016 SUMMER ~Sunshine Parade~/~Rainbow Carnival~” will be the last of the yearly summer and winter Hello! Project concerts that we will participate in.
Until our performance in Saitama Super Arena, I want to work as close as possible with the other ℃-ute members and give lots of gratitude to everyone all over the country.

Please continue to support ℃-ute until the very end.
And then, please continue to support Hello! Project from now on too.

                                 ℃-ute leader
                                                   Yajima Maimi