Predict Izumi Hikari's number if she compete in 42

[katoshiho]

As the title said, we need a Japanese rival to compete with Oshima.
I know that I'm a Hinatazaka 46's fan, but I don't want Higashimura Mei to keep 'Japanese women 2nd' in future, at all.
We need Izumi Hikari compete in next tournament!
And I will going to predict the same number as before, No.84.
Inui, please make this dream comes true.

[ItalianNinja08]

Unfortunately I don't think this will be happening

[dakohosu]

Is Mei Higashimura actually referred to as the 2nd best Japanese female? If so that's kind of a joke, as she doesn't actually train properly for the show and is fundamentally another idol who's just paid to be there.

I agree with the above that Izumi likely isn't getting invited, as she's consistently been snubbed for no other reason than Inui just wants the female competitor list to be Ayano, a bunch of celebrities, and occasionally Jessie Graff, which is funny given that he's seemingly very keen on Japanese females to do well, even to the point that he massively raised the time limit for female competitors just to facilitate Ayano being able to clear (no coincidence that he started doing this from 36 onwards when she started competing regularly), yet will also invite internationals who are way stronger as they've been forced to compete and hence train for the same show as the men.

I really don't understand the over-reliance on Ayano at this point, especially as given her height, her hard limit is Spider Drop (though Izumi is actually shorter so bear that in mind), and she's had one Stage 1 clear in 7 attempts. I would say that there are more capable female competitors out there, and I'm sure there are, but it's a negative feedback loop where female athletes don't feel motivated to train or apply, knowing that they're almost 100% going to get snubbed, and so there are far fewer contenders to step up to the plate. Even then though, surely there are a few Kunoichi competitors (like Izumi) that could get considered regardless, even if that show was fundamentally a lot easier than Sasuke's course so the likelihood of them clearing would be pretty low. At least giving them a chance to compete would provide some motivation for them to train at Matsuda's or Gio's, just as it did with Ayano post-36.

They really need to do a female competitor trials process, and maybe get a bit more lenient in terms of how many non-celebrity females they allow on the course. Surely they could swap out a few rando athletes who will get cut anyway, for some legitimate female talent that isn't Ayano.

[ItalianNinja08]

Does Hikari have an account on Instagram or Twitter?

[dakohosu]

Feb 21, 2024 13:13:59 GMT -5 ItalianNinja08 said:

Does Hikari have an account on Instagram or Twitter?

yes, it's hhhhi02