Kasahara Momona

## Kasahara Momona笠原(かさはら) 桃奈(ももな)

Kasahara Momona, December 2023

**Kasahara Momona** (笠原桃奈) is a Japanese idol as a member of ME:I, the group formed in PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS. She made it in the final lineup after placing 1st in the finals. She was also a 5th generation member in the Hello! Project group ANGERME.

For more in-depth information about Kasahara Momona prior to her participation in PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS, visit her page on the Hello! Project Wiki.

## Biography

### Early Life

Kasahara Momona was born on October 22, 2003 in Kanagawa, Japan. She has nine years of ballet experience.

### 2014

In 2014, she entered the Morning Musume '14 <Golden> Audition!, but failed.

### 2015

On April 1, Kasahara joined Hello Pro Kenshuusei, a trainee program part of Hello! Project. She was formally introduced on May 4, 2015.

### 2016

On July 16, it was announced that Kasahara had joined ANGERME as the sole 5th generation member. At that time, she was the group's youngest member at only twelve years old.

On October 19, her debut single with the group was released.

### 2021

On June 21, it was announced that Kasahara would be graduating from ANGERME and Hello! Project and also leave the entertainment industry by the end of 2021 to move abroad to study singing and dancing.

On November 15, Kasahara graduated from ANGERME and Hello! Project at Nippon Budokan.

### 2022

In 2022, Kasahara attended KPOP ART SCHOOL, a Japan-based music school focusing on K-Pop.

### 2023

On September 3, after almost two years of silence, Kasahara was revealed to be a contestant of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS.

On December 16, she placed 1st in the finals, making her the center of ME:I.

## PRODUCE 101 JAPAN Participation

### Teams

* **Audition Team:** rebloom
* **Group Battle Team:** AWAKE (center/sub vocalist 4)
* **Position Battle Team:** Track Beat (leader/sub rapper)
* **Concept Battle Team:** NALALA (sub vocalist 4)
* **Debut Evaluation Team:** Souzou Ijou (leader/main vocalist)

### Rankings

Online votes
* **Week 2:** 4th place
* **Week 3:** 2nd place (+2)
* **First Ranking Announcement:** 1st place (+1)
* **Week 6:** 3rd place (-2)
* **Second Ranking Announcement:** 3rd place (=)
* **Third Ranking Announcement:** 1st place (+2)
* **Final Ranking Announcement:** 1st place (=)

On-site votes
* **Group Battle:** 2nd place in team, 5th place overall
* **Position Battle:** 1st place in team, 6th place overall
* **Concept Battle:** 3rd place in team, 3rd place overall

### First Voting Period

Kasahara's audition team, rebloom, is the penultimate team revealed, much to the other trainees' shock. She also is the last team to be evaluated by the trainers, with the trainers worrying if Kasahara still has the room to improve. She proves the trainers her might by maintaining her **A** in the reevaluation. Despite being ranked by the other trainees as 7th place, Kasahara is not satisfied with that, showing her competitive attitude.

In episode 3, Kasahara is chosen as the center for AWAKE. She performs well, and manages to get 5th place overall in the group battle in episode 4.

In episode 5, she is revealed to have received 1,768,859 votes, which made her 1st place.

* **First Ranking Announcement:** "桃奈さんはプロ意識と向上心の塊。いつも練習生に刺激を与えてくれます。" (Momona is a person with professionalism and a desire to improve. She always inspires the trainees.)

### Second Voting Period

In episode 6, Kasahara gets to choose the song she performs in the position battle first as her benefit for placing 1st, picking "SHUT DOWN". Kasahara volunteers to be leader and suggests adding choreography to the performance to stand out from the other rap & vocal team, which the team ends up doing. At the end of the position battle, Kasahara places 2nd in rap, behind Shimizu Keiko.

Kasahara shows her casual and goofy side in episode 8 when each "&ME" member shows up one by one, and she reacts very excitedly. However, at the second ranking announcement, she is serious again. Despite receiving more votes than at the last voting period, Kasahara is 3rd place.

* **Second Ranking Announcement:** "第１回順位発表では１位でしたが今回は順位を２つ落とし３位となりました。ポジション評価ではさらなる成長のためラップ＆ボーカルに挑戦。賞賛も批判も愛し自分の信じるアイドル像を爆走します。" (In the first ranking announcement, she was in 1st place, but this time she dropped two places to 3rd place. In the position battle evaluation, she challenged herself in rap & vocal to grow further. Loving both the praises and criticisms, the idol image she believes within herself came out.)

### Third Voting Period

In episode 8, Kasahara stays as a member of "&ME". At the end of the concept battle, she places 3rd overall, having received benefits for her team winning.

Kasahara rises to 1st place again in the third ranking announcement, having received 650,828 votes. When choosing her position in the debut evaluation afterwards, in a grand move, Kasahara takes Takami Ayane's main vocalist position in "Souzou Ijou" and makes her sub vocalist 6 in "CHOPPY CHOPPY", the only empty spot left. After the lineups are figured out, she is the leader of the team.

* **Third Ranking Announcement:** "希望のパートが担当できず 悩むことも多かったコンセプト評価。しかし、いざスポットライトを浴びると、どんなパートでもメイン級の存在感を発揮。圧倒的な得票数で、再び1位に返り咲きました。" (In the concept battle, she had many worries because she didn't get the part she wanted. However, once she was in the spotlight, she exhibited her main character-like presence no matter what part she had. With an overwhelming number of votes, she reblooms at first place again.)

### Final Voting Period

In episode 11, Kasahara's family make a surprise video message to her while the trainees prepare time capsules. On the final stage, she performs "Souzou Ijou" and "FLY UP SO HIGH" to great applause and places 1st again, receiving a whopping 1,116,716 votes. However she sheds no tears from this announcement. However, she does shed tears when Kato Cocoro is revealed as the last member of ME:I. For the last time, Kasahara pledges to the national producers as the show ends.

* **Final Ranking Announcement:** No quote given.

## Personal Life

* Family
* Education
* Friendships
* Name Meaning
* Nicknames

As of 2023, both her parents are 39 years old, and her two younger sisters are 18 and 15 years old.

She is also related to Takahashi Eito, a popular Japanese singer and songwriter. It is believed that he is the husband of her aunt, but this is currently unconfirmed and only speculative. He appeared alongside her other family members during a surprise video message in episode 11.

When Kasahara joined ANGERME, she was a first year middle school student. She graduated from middle school in March 2019 and began high school the following April.

Following her graduation, she attended KPOP ART SCHOOL. Kasahara attended the school's study abroad program prior to her feature on PRODUCE 101 JAPAN.
On the show, Kasahara Momona has a close relationship with Kato Cocoro, with the two of them training together in rebloom. They have expressed affection towards each other many times on the show. This is further shown when Kasahara remains relatively stoic when she ranks high, but cries tears of joy when Kato also ranks high.

Her parents chose the name because "momona" means "sweet" in Hawaiian, and they hoped to raise her to be a sweet girl.

The following list are nicknames that have been used to refer to Kasahara Momona:

* **Kassa** (かっさー): Most common nickname used by co-members and fans alike.
* **Momonya** (ももにゃ) : Used in Hello Pro Kenshuusei.

## Trivia

* Her hobby is to take photos with a film camera.
* Her special skill is acrobatics.
* Her outfit in rebloom's level placement evaluation may be a reference to her time in ANGERME. Her member color was hot pink, and her outfit was pink.
* Her favorite smell is that of her pet cockatiel's head.
	+ She has stated that would take her cockatiel out and they would whistle together.
* She believes she is an all-rounder who can lead the group.
* Her pledge for debuting in the top 11 was eating onigiri with the others on top of Mount Fuji.
* She cut her hair during PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS so that she could overturn the stereotypes that people had from her previous self.
* Due to having a feminine name, she likes to appear more gender-neutral.
* She keeps a picture of her cousin's baby as a good luck charm.

### PRODUCE 101 JAPAN Achievements

* She is the only trainee to have her "LEAP HIGH! ~Asu e, Meippai~" fancam reach over 500,000 views before the first episode premiered, almost reaching one million views.
* She received the highest total votes in the first voting period, third voting period, and final voting period. (The only voting period she did not receive the most votes is the second voting period.)
* She is the only trainee in show to receive benefits in every battle evaluation (group, position, concept).
* She is the only trainee in the series to receive over 1,000,000 votes in the finals.

## References

1. ↑ "アンジュルム 笠原桃奈の卒業に関するお知らせ" (in Japanese). Hello! Project. 2021-06-21.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 ✨BIG NEWS✨" (in Japanese). Twitter. 2023-09-04.
3. ↑ "[1]". 2023-12-16. Twitter.
4. ↑ Kasahara Momona. "中学校バイバイ 笠原桃奈" (in Japanese). ANGERME Member Official Blog. 2019-03-21.
5. ↑ Kasahara Momona. "こんにちは 笠原桃奈" (in Japanese). ANGERME Member Official Blog. 2019-04-02.
6. ↑ *Pocket Morning*. 2016-10-12. (Translation by Ro-kun)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS Profile" PRODUCE 101 JAPAN. 2023-09-04.
8. ↑ "1分PR┊✧ 笠原桃奈（KASAHARA MOMONA）✧┊ PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS" YouTube. 2023-09-04.
9. ↑ "LEAP HIGHアイコンタクト┊✧ 笠原桃奈（KASAHARA MOMONA）✧┊ PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS" YouTube. 2023-09-28.

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