Koharu Kusumi as Kirari Tsukishima -- Balalaika（バラライカ）

 

As I've mentioned in past Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）articles, there was a point in the early 2000s when the premier Hello Project aidoru group was everywhere on television, including a Sunday morning music-variety series. It seems as if one couldn't switch a channel without seeing at least a couple of Musume gallivanting with some other tarento or comedians. It was usually the Sunday morning show that I caught since it had the entire group getting involved in all sorts of hijinks including comedic segments.

My interest in the group started waning when their television fortunes began shrinking for whatever reason. Of course, as has been happening throughout, there was the influx of new members and graduation of older members. Near the end of my time with them, a new and sole 7th-generation member joined Morning Musume. Her name is Koharu Kusumi（久住小春）and if memory serves, I think that she was once called The One, in terms of that she was a potential superstar on the rise. To be honest, I'm not sure whether she fulfilled that premonition for the group during her 2005-2009 run with them, but I remember seeing footage such as the one above where she was auditioning for Morning Musume and then once she was accepted, she was going through the hard work to earn her keep.

From what I've on both her J-Wiki and Wikipedia articles, Kusumi has been able to generate a good career on television beyond her time with Morning Musume as a singer, actress, TV personality and fashion model. She even had a "side gig" of sorts being the seiyuu for a character called Kirari Tsukishima（月島きらり）who starred in the 2006-2009 anime adaptation of the manga "Kirarin Revolution"（きらりん☆レボリューション）, the story of a food-obsessed girl that begins her hard journey to become an aidoru herself.

That side gig included a number of opening and closing themes coming out with Kusumi as Tsukishima recording them. The second opening theme was "Balalaika", written by BULGE and composed & arranged by Shigeki Sako（迫茂樹）. With a spritely delivery by the singer, the song with those exotic kayo sentiments reminds me of a few Morning Musume numbers that had the same sort of feel. "Balalaika", which was released in October 2006, peaked at No. 8 on Oricon and it is also included on her first album under that name of Tsukishima Kirari starring Kusumi Koharu（月島きらり starring 久住小春 ）, "Mitsuboshi"（☆☆☆...Three Stars）, released in February 2007.

I was rather curious as to what she's been up to recently since basically since those early appearances as a Morning Musume member, I hadn't seen her at all. Apparently, she started a YouTube channel last month and she's been pretty prolific with the videos.