If you follow the story of Parallel / PLIC PROCK at all, you know that they’ve never had an easy time with this whole idol thing. Minus a silo explosion*, they’re basically idol’s Frank Grimes**
But on Dec. 12, they’re having themselves a one-man. That’s great! Less great is that Asumi will be withdrawing from the group at that show:
【プリックロック大事なお知らせ】
2017.12.12(火)プリックロック
@代官山SPACEODD
初ワンマンライブをもちまして
アスミが脱退する事となりました。 pic.twitter.com/6DWrUTxUZl— プリックロック 12/12ワンマンライブ (@PLICPROCK) November 2, 2017
Here’s her (incredibly long) statement:
【大事なお知らせ】
私プリックロックのアスミは
12/12のワンマンライブをもちまして
脱退する事となりました。突然の発表で驚かせてしまい
申し訳ございません。読んで頂けると幸いです。
よろしくお願いします。 pic.twitter.com/aQvBOMAQlp— アスミ@プリックロック (@ASUMI_PLICPROCK) November 2, 2017
If you’re able to read that or have it read to you or just have amazing telepathic powers, you should. Asumi went on hiatus a few weeks ago for health reasons, and that was sort of the writing on the wall here.
Now, the group hasn’t made any indication that it’s going to close up shop as a result of this development, which is good. However, what you’re looking at here is one of the truly indie outfits, a group that formed itself out of a team of dancers and, with no external support, rode one of the hardest and most hard-luck trails I can even imagine … in an industry as brutal as idol; that the friendship and trust between these three got them through it is, I think, an incredibly safe assumption.
So what next? I hope they stick with it — PLIC PROCK’s good, if perennially underappreciated — and I hope that Asumi is able to get everything sorted out.
* Not ruling it out for the future
**Which, you must realize, means that BiSH is the Homer Simpson of this analogy
