^ She's plenty cute. Those sparkly eyes, that pursed upper lip of hers and all those rows upon rows of tiny little teeth are freaking adorable.
Her problem is that she had bad luck from the start.
First of all, she won out over girls who seemed to have better prospects from the start, Kikka, Suuchan and Yukirin.
Then, she still wound up having to share the spotlight with a couple of foreign girls, which was a different experience than any other generation. She never got to enjoy the attentions of being a singleton like Maki and Koharu did, yet she never got the kind of synergistic partnership effect enjoyed by Two Top and the Rokkies. And she never came pre-recommended with a hit solo career like Miki, who had a similar maverick situation.
Then she suffered through the very worst of the downward spiral in terms of sales and Tsunku's creative energies (aptly noted by the Delicious Cake Project as
boringly “mature” songs and unnecessary glitter and synth-strings and 3 1/2 years straight of minor-keyed singles. THREE AND A HALF YEARS.)
Then came the whole brittle bone thing.
Then when the 9kis came around and were showered with attention, that was it, she was already a has-been before she ever was.