So do forgive me for beating the Babymetal drum, but the fact remains that every Su-metal exhalation is cause for recognition among Western wota of pretty much any stripes, and all that to-do from the other day has culminated in a ton of fallout, not to mention thinking and angsting and so on. I thought, rather than try to keep up with it all in real time, why not use the patented format of the Weekender to sum up the rest of Babymetal’s week?

And Here We Are

The first thing that must be acknowledged is that Koba all but doubled down on the doubters yesterday:

Just move forward#THECHOSENSEVEN#DARKSIDE#METALRESISTANCEEPISODEVII#WORLDTOUR2018#BABYMETAL pic.twitter.com/LZGkwIubge

— BABYMETAL (@BABYMETAL_JAPAN) May 11, 2018

And was immediately clowned right the hell back. What a brutal response.

Our man Daemon on the case:

Not that anyone is interested in another opinion at this point, but as the moderator of r/YUIMETAL here's my is my take on #WhereIsYui :https://t.co/V6TVv4ZqWN

— Daemon ☠ Dallas 5/11 (@DaeMetal) May 9, 2018

All the recent drama aside, #BABYMETAL destroyed the House of Blues tonight. Su stills owns any stage she sets foot on. Moa still bleeds charisma. The Kami Band is still world class. The new dancers are excellent. I ❤️ Yui. But this was an awesome show. #BMWT2018

— Daemon ☠ Dallas 5/11 (@DaeMetal) May 12, 2018

I included Alex’s reasonably hot take on the official-ish statement, not just the official-ish statement, because I like when Alex gets saucy:

BABYMETAL update: after Amuse refused to comment for two days, a representative of 5B Management apparently stated that "Yuimetal remains a member of the band, but she is not on this current U.S. tour" citing the same "Fox God" lore bullshit as cause.https://t.co/2JJPcfycvZ

— AlexRisingSound (@Alex_Tofa) May 11, 2018

Once you’ve lost Yuimato, what do you even have anymore?

Starting today I'm no longer a #BABYMETAL fan. Amuse/Koba you've failed your fans again, I've had enough.#ymy #whereisyui #ripmikio pic.twitter.com/mSTmgLPsLD

— MaTo (@Yuimato4) May 11, 2018

The possible angle on this (works well with what I was thinking, at least):

Yeah, we don't even know if the rotation thing is even happening anyway. I'm betting Yui is recovering for whatever reason and Koba wrote the lore and brought in the 2 extra dancers from Mikiko's group to hide it thinking he's always so damn clever.

— CAVZEE-METAL (@cavzstarburst) May 11, 2018

Which would make a ton of sense, with even more/less circumstantial evidence:

I'm trying to figure out who the back-up dancers are. At first I thought they might not be Japanese, but now I think the "manly" one might be Minako Maruyama from Elevenplay. It would make sense for Mikiko to lend some dancers in Yui's absence. #babymetal pic.twitter.com/77VaEOuTk0

— Leah Moreno (@leahmoreno) May 10, 2018

There are a lot of stupid rumors going on out there. Don’t believe in rumors. Stick with the happily acknowledged bonkers-ass conspiracy theorizing that’s literal fun and games, rather than the people who are just trying to get attention. Also, I’ll go ahead and stand by my we-ain’t-seen-the-last-of-Yui thing. Jordan has some incredible scenarios broken down; I may not be subscribing to his newsletter, but I’m stopping on the street corner to hear what he has to say.