Music Column: Does Sou ja nai mean Maria is the new Ace?

Morning Musume will drop their new single in just 11 days!

I am here today to talk to you guys about one of the A-sides and especially the girl centering it. 

Ofcourse I am talking about Sou Ja nai, the third a-side of Sexy Cat no Enzetsu/ Mukidashi de Mukiatte/ Sou ja nai. 

Let's start with the facts: 

1. Makino Maria was choosen to be the center of the song, 

2. This is Makino Maria's first center song. 

3. Tsunku was asked by management to write a song for Maria. 

4. When the title of the single was first announced, Sou ja nai would be the main a-side. 

5. Sou ja nai was later moved to be the third a-side.

6. Sou ja nai's MV was the second MV for this single to be released.

7. Sou ja nai was the first song preformed of this single.

This article will mainly focus on the question: does this song mean Makino Maria is the new Ace of Morning Musume and my opinion about this. 

Sou ja nai is pretty much a 100% Morning Musume song. It kind of sounds like EDM and has this typical Tsunku sound to it. Makino Maria is the absolute center of this song. She has a lot of solo lines, including the first and last line and the important Sou ja nai lines. 

Makino Maria joined Morning Musume in 2014, when she was choosen as one of the winners of the Golden auditions alongside Ogata Haruna, Nonaka Miki and Haga Akane. 

Makino hasn't been pushed in the group very much, she had the occational solo line and was pushed as a visual girl (releasing a photobook before any of her generation mates). 

Tsunku talked on his blog about Sou ja nai and his reasons for writing it. It seems that management wanted to release a song with Maria as center. A lot of fans see this as the start of the Loverin era (Loverin is a persona created by herself). Yet some wonder if this is the case. 

As for me personally I do not think Maria will become the Ace, at least not for a while. After Riho left Morning Musume kind of fell into a pit. Sato Masaki admitted that Morning Musume was quite a mess after Riho's graduation. Everybody was aiming for the center spot, which meant that the group as a whole was messy. After Zukki's graduation, however, the group started to see that they should work togheter to make Morning Musume amazing and that everbody will shine on their own if the group shines. When I heared this, it made me think of the current strategy management is going for. I am pretty sure that Oh My Wish! was made to see if Morning Musume would sell if Riho wouldn't be center for all songs (Oh My wish had Zukki and Duu as center, while Ima sugu had Masaki and Miki as centers). When this sold well, Riho could graduate without a problem. Morning Musume however did go into a crisis. The fans still bought the singles and supported the girls, but the girls themselfs didn't know what to do with that empty center/ace spot. 

Sou ja nai will be centered by Makino-chan, but I do not think she will be Ace yet. I think management will be trying out different centers for a while and are maybe looking for a totally new center like they did with Riho. Riho outshined her senpai's pretty soon after she joined. Risa, Sayumi, Aika and even Reina in a way lost to her in the battle of the Ace. Reina had always been the secondary Ace after Ai-chan and I feel that she stayed in that spot when Riho took over. Ofcourse Risa lead both Pyoko and Renai Hunter, but Riho was obviously being pushed into the center spot from Only You on. 

Okay but back to Makino-chan. I think that if Sou ja nai would have stayed main a-side I would have a different opinion. If Sou ja nai would have stayed in that spot, it would have been the most heavily promoted song of all of the song. Sou ja nai does have some things going for it: it was the first song to be preformed form this single, it has already been preformed on television and the outfits on Morning Musume's profile are from the song. 

So in conclusion, I do not think this song mean we have our new Ace. I think management is trying out new ideas for Aces and maybe we won't get a new Ace anytime soon, but rotating centers.

Do I think Makino-chan would be a good Ace? 

Honestly, I do not think Makino is ready to be the Ace of Morning Musume. She has a really cute face and I think visually she is going to do a lot for Morning Musume. Yet I think her voice and personality are currently lacking Ace potential. Vocally she is improving, yet I think her voice is to plain to be Ace material. Her persona feels like a Sayumin/Koha copy and I think Makino needs to find her own thing before becoming a really important member of Morning Musume. I think for now they should keep Maria as mostly as a visual center for Morning Musume or just give her good screentime as I think other members are more overall Ace- potential. 

Yet I really enjoy Sou ja nai and think it is quite a good song. It is, however, for me the weakest song in the single and I think there are more people who feel this way. Let's see what the future brings and what the next single will show us!