Morning Musume member Kitagawa Rio has come under heavy criticism recently after snaps she made on a private Snapchat account leaked, revealing that she was talking shit about her fellow members behind their backs and was complaining about her job. As a result, she recently apologized for her actions, explaining the content was sent around two years ago to friends.
“I sincerely apologize for hurting the members and all the fans due to my immature actions. Everything that has come out was indeed written by me—there is no mistake about that.” She explained, “About two years ago, I was exchanging messages with a friend via social media, sharing things that happened in my daily life and at work.” She added, “What I did is absolutely inexcusable. I deeply regret my actions. I am truly sorry for what happened.”
As for exactly what she said that was so controversial, there were a lot of complaints about leader Ikuta Erina.
Ikuta sunbae who didn’t greet me again today
During the Buzz Rhythm (music show) shoot, I called Ikuta out for being rude when I said good morning. Even the host, Bakary-san, heard it and was like, ‘That’s too much,’ so I thought maybe she’d change after that. But she was even worse today. When I said, ‘Good morning,’ she made a disgusted face like, ‘Who do you think you are, the emperor?’ Get over yourself. You’re useless anyway.
“Seriously, can’t Ikuta hurry up and quit already—26 years old and whether it’s a plane or the bullet train, she takes her shoes off and sits with her feet up on the seat.”
Can Ikuta please hurry up and leave already?
She also poked fun at Makino Maria’s hairstyle, derisively comparing her to Xiao Xiao.
Makino getting on the train with twin tails was scary. Is she trying to be Xiaoxiao or something?
And complained about getting hurt by her.
The mic hit me so hard from Makino’s st*pid large dancing I got injured.
Okamura Homare got some minor whining individually…
“I was supposed to be interviewed at 5pm but somehow Homare was already doing it first ww
I’m the busiest so hurry up and finish already”
…but mostly the resentment was about her duo with Yamazaki Mei.
[Censored] isn’t even done yet, and I have to wake up in 5 and a half hours. This is seriously killing me. It’s always ‘Homamei, Homamei’ (nickname for a duo pairing of two fellow members), then just the two of you go do it already.
Maybe one of the best ones, though, has to be her complaining about a senior gossiping behind her back, though to be fair, I guess she did at least do it privately.
A senior member was 100% gossiping about me behind my back. If you’re gonna do it, at least wait until I’m not around, you old lady.
There were also just some amusing random things.
This is something that always happens in Morning Musume, someone wears a cute dress but then ruins it with these tacky socks. I seriously don’t get what kind of sense of style leads to that. Just wear plain white socks and you’re halfway there.
“Looks like we’re going to Disney at 7am tomorrow. I’m dying”
That I get.
Compared to the things that passes for conflict between celebs with weeks worth of coverage out of K-pop of late, at least this is truly mess and provides another peek behind the curtain of the dynamics of idol groups.
I’m also not totally unsympathetic to her as I can’t say I haven’t vented shit about work/co-workers/seniors in private as well, but the apology she gave was basically a curt “I’m being forced so here’s a sorry message” type shit. Based on what we know, it’s hard not to just feel bad for the targeted members, and now having to put up an act like everything’s cool.
Contrasted with the way she delivered her complaints just makes me laugh, I’m sorry.
