23 December 2012

Q&A Month! (2012): Question 15

One more question left after this, and I am already missing having these around to answer. But I will still wait until next year to do this again.

This question comes from an anonymous poster:

What do you think is the likelihood of Yamada would leave Hey! Say! JUMP ? I just wanted to hear your opinion since the whole fandom believes so


I do not think Yamada Ryosuke is likely to leave Hey! Say! JUMP. There is a clear love for the group and the other members in it that other recent group leads turn soloists lacked. Akanishi Jin was a bit infamous for not hanging around his group members and with Yamashita Tomohisa he rarely did, minus Nishikido Ryo but since he left the group as well I am not sure how much that counts. Yamada on the other had does so on a regular basis and there are plenty of papa photos to prove it.

In an interview about doing a solo song he talked to Takaki Yuya who told him to take it as he could never know if the opportunity would present itself again. I think it is rather telling that Yamada went to another member of the group for advice. And I think Takaki was a good choice as he has been the only other member of HSJ that has done a solo song for a drama (Oretachi no Seishun fro Gokusen 3 that was a B-side on the group's Dreams come true single). But the main point is that he went to a group member, and most likely talked to it to some of the others as well, about this just to make the decision. I think that shows that he really cares about the group over his individual wants or at least sees them as interconnected.

I know Yamada gets a lot of hate his way because he is the ace of the group and gets promoted the most, but that really is not his choice. So I would ignore those who call him selfish because of how much screen time he is given or that he is placed center all the time. Those are not his decisions to make and from interviews and seeing him on camera for behind the scene segments it is easy to see that he enjoys being with the others and does not naturally push himself in front of them.

Also I think the big difference between Yamada and the other two is that Yamada was much younger when he debuted with HSJ then they were when they debuted with their groups. (And I will emphasis the debuted part here as debuted groups since I believe it makes enough of a difference.) He has the vast majority of his teenage years growing up around the members of the group and most of his time in Johnny's has been around mostly the same group with Nakajima Yuto being the member he was frequently paired up with as a Junior. And I think this has let him create an attachment to the group that the other two lacked.

Plus leaving a group to go solo after a solo release is actually something new. Most of the older groups have had members do solo releases but stay as a group, the duos can be considered infamous for it. And there is still to be seen how well Yamada will sell solo, especially as soloists tend not to sell all that well.

So looking at all these things I really do believe that Yamada will not leave HSJ. Or at least not anytime soon but there will have to be a major change in his personality for that to even happen.

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