In her update at the official ℃-ute blog, Maimi wrote that she was surprised yesterday. Elaborating for those who don’t know, the 9th generation members of Morning Musume were announced at the annual H!P New Year’s tour, and nobody, not even the members of Morning Musume, knew of who was going to join. From the 9th gen auditions, Ikuta Erina, Sayashi Riho, and Suzuki Kanon all made it through. While everyone was congratulating them, however, Tsunku announced that there was one additional member. Maimi wrote that the news caused an uproar from the crowd and even her and the other girls were surprised. Accounced as the fouth member was Hello! Project Eggs’ Fukumura Mizuki. Maimi said that she could understand Mizuki’s feelings, as like the Eggs, ℃-ute started as back-dancers for the other groups. She also wrote that she can understand the disappointment of Eggs members not chosen (the members that form ℃-ute now were originally passed over for Berryz Koubou), and told them that if they continue to work hard they will definitely be rewarded. She hopes that they will all preservere, and vows that ℃-ute also won’t falter. Now that Morning Musume has a bunch of young and fresh new members, the members of ℃-ute will have to work hard so that they won’t lose and their charm can come out. For that purpose, Maimi wrote that she’d “tanobaru” at today’s concerts and that ℃-ute would sparkle more than any other group. Lastly, she shared some photos taken in the dressing room; a 2-shot with Berryz Koubou’s Tsugunaga Momoko, and a picture of the concerts opening outfit.

At Sweet time, Maimi updated that she proposed to Mai a game of rock-paper-scissors to see who’d go and bring some juice, and the loser was… Mai.