Speaking of candidates. There's one, but it's very unlikely that she got in, probably just stopped activities due to other reasons. Because, well, she wasn't very entertaining herself and her English is not good enough for an EN branch I think. Though they could've chosen her to fill a niche, also consider the remark in the audition announcement about accepting Japanese nationals.
Anyway, she uploaded a video on March 31 JST where she said that she planned on retiring in the summer but will do it now and that we will see her again somewhere.
And yeah, she LARPs(?) as a commie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v0ctnO_O94 