It’s bad and it sucks when idols graduate and, from that, groups disband. Yeah, sometimes it’s for a good reason; more often than not, though, it’s just a bummer for everybody involved. So it was a pretty substantial while back now when PIIIIIIIN declared that they’d be hanging ’em up — it was unexpected, nobody seemed terribly thrilled about the move but not so invested as to try to stop it, and a bright light flickered out. I even eulogized the PIIIIIIIN experience!

And then, because the entire world is upside-down right now, it was announced that a PIIIIIIIN was going to be making a comeback. Yesterday, that happened. This was the set list for the re-debut, and presumably also their musical content for the time being:

This is the new regime:

今日はPiiiiiiiNのデビューライブに来てくださってありがとうございました！！！

たくさんの方がライブで声を出してくれたり、特典会でお話しに来てくれて嬉しかったです😊

美希あすか、気持ちを新たにPiiiiiiiNでアイドル界のトップを目指します！✨ pic.twitter.com/QAnOWcradZ

— 美希あすか (@asuka_piiiiiiin) May 26, 2018

I’m not sure why they’re still going with seven I’s when there are deliberately five members, but nobody asked me, so

I have such all-around-positively mixed emotions! Idol didn’t need PIIIIIIIN to come back, but idol is all the better for having PIIIIIIIN come back, and the post-grad existence of QUEENS doesn’t in any way invalidate the new PIIIIIIIN, and … man, this jazzes me up. It really does.

If this is the effect that Let’s Remember Some Idols can have, what other thought-to-be-extinct projects would we like to see return to life?