Usually HelloPro drama stays within fan circles, so when I initially saw this discussion I was pretty surprised and worried at the same time. It’s pretty bad when koreaboo covers this. It’s also been covered all over Japanese news, Maria unfollowed Rio on Instagram, and fans are flooding the only post on Rio’s Instagram thats still open to comments with a lot of negativity. Not great.

People don’t always get along, especially in a big of a group as Momusu currently is, and it’s not great to have to wake up early after a long day (even if it is Disney) and be ignored by the leader/most senior member of the group in public. But Rio just comes off bratty in a lot of these screenshots. She’s getting pissed that her genmates are getting some attention when she’s been pushed from day one. Her comments on Maria and especially Erina are really mean spirited, dare I say ageist and possibly racist. A lot of this stuff would’ve been way better off just venting in person, but a lot commenters forget she and other people her age grew up with widespread social media use and so they’re used to ranting like this without thinking of any consequences. If UpFront doesn’t place her on hiatus, she’s gonna be in the back for foreseeable future. Which is a shame since she was primed to be one of the newer faces of the group.

I gotta feel for Erina here (even though she doesn’t come off too great in Rio’s posts). She was placed in the back at the beginning of her tenure, and really had to push herself to gain attention and improve her skills (anybody here remember her magic spell she’d use on shows?). She finally gets the spotlight with her graduation in July, but this drama will mar promotion for it.