To understand Fuku-chan, you have to understand that she's been with UFA since she was 12 years old all the way back in 2008. And for most of her time in UFP, she has ALWAYS, for whatever reason, been treated very well and gassed up. Wota even discovered a couple of years ago that back in 2007 she was given the Grand Prix prize for a kids magazine contest. And that one of the judges was Nishiguchi Takeshi, who became the representative director of UFP after Riho graduated, and that UFP itself sponsored the contest. But after she joined the company and became an Egg, she was immediately given preferential treatment. She was chosen to replace Maeda Yuuka, the most popular Egg before her debut, in Shugo Chara Egg even though Fuku-chan was clearly unpopular in the Mixi Egg Popularity Rankings wota were posting in early 2009. Even Maeda Iori was more popular than her and it confused wota at the time that she got shafted for Fuku-chan. A lot weren't even familiar with her when she was chosen.
Then in 2010, Fuku-chan failed the 9th gen audition but after the audition process was completed and after the three 9th gen audition winners were announced, she was called over as a new member of that same generation which has never happened before and never happened again. In 2017, UFA named her H!P sub-leader even though there was a very clear 4 year difference in tenure between her and Ayacho, and that position magically ceased to exist after Fuku-chan moved on from it.
In 2020, she did an interview and said that the managers who worked with the group said she should stay in Morning Musume until she's 30 and even after she gets married and have children. Have we ever heard a Morning Musume member say the staff told them that? Even Ayumi, being super popular, was shown the door despite wanting to hang onto the group until she became leader. She even blogged about how her dream of becoming leader was crushed which led wota to understand graduating wasn’t her decision alone.
In 2021 Fuku-chan did an interview where she said that singing lines are given based on ability, so her having the most lines just meant she was deemed the most capable. I know we're supposed to hate her, but does that sound like something a member would say? She was bashed up and down for it but to me it just sounded like she was parroting whatever the staff was telling her to justify why she had so many lines and that she just accepted it as truth. You have to understand that for whatever reasons, UFP has always given her preferential treatment and has gassed her up at the expense of her juniors. They centered the group around her and created an atmosphere where no new members of considerable vocal talent joined that could challenge the idea they put in her head that she was the most stable singer and the only one worthy of her lines.
If you literally grew up in a company like that and spent 15 years of your life around people like that who were complete yes men (for whatever reasons) then, yes, you will get a big head too. Don't get me wrong, the things she's said about members and her victim complex are in fact bad, but UFP created a monster when they pushed and gave mostly undeserved preferential treatment to someone over the course of 15 years. I think her single selling horrifically is the wakeup call the company needed. I do feel pity for her though, I can imagine she’s in shock.
