Idol Discussions

[Saegusa Miria]

I'm not sure if I am allowed to make a thread but---



Let's talk about idols, after all, this is a 48/46Group based cover group. Feel free to talk about any idols or idol groups, indies, major, or anything in-between!



I am also a huge Keyakizaka46 fan, if you couldn't tell by the first thing I wrote in the song request thread--- 

[Deleted]

2016 is a year full of tearful graduations ;;
From AKB: Iwata Karen, Owada Nana, Ogasawara Mayu, Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami, Maeda Ami, Hirata Rina, Shimazaki Haruka, Ishida Haruka, Aigasa Moe, Iwasa Misaki, Kobayashi Kana, Takajo Aki, Nagao Mariya, Uchiyama Natsuki, Umeta Ayano, Iwasaki Moeka, Kita Reina, Kondo Moeri, Fujimura Natsuki, Yamamoto Ai and Nishino Maki (22)
From SKE: Miyazawa Sae, Miyamae Ami, Yamashita Yukari, Isohara Kyoka, Umemoto Madoka, Kato Rumi, Koishi Kumiko, Shibata Aya, Murai Junna, Kawasaki Narumi (10)
From NMB: Kishino Rika, Kotani Riho, Nishimura Aika, Kondo Rina, Ueda Mirei, Umeda Ayaka, Kadowaki Kanako, Kinoshita Haruna, Matsuoka Chiho, Shibata Yui, Yabushita Shu, Watanabe Miyuki and Jonishi Kei (13)
From HKT48: Anai Chihiro, Ito Raira, Okada Kanna, Otoshima Risa and the most recent member who announced graduation 2 days ago, Wakatabe Haruka (5)
From Nogizaka: Nagashima Seira, Hashimoto Nanami, Fukagawa Mai (3)
From sister group JKT: Delima Rizky, Elaine Hartanto,Ghaida Farisya, Rezky Wiranti Dhike, Sendy Ariani, Sofia Meifaliani, Jennifer Hanna, Chikita Ravenska Mamesah, Nakagawa Haruka, Martha Graciela, Nina Hamidah, Alycia Ferryana, Anggita Destiana Dewi, Farina Yogi Devani, Helma Sonya, Indah Permata Sari, Putri Farin Kartika, Rissanda Putri Tuarissa, Triarona Kusuma (19)
And from SNH: Liu LiWei, Shen YueJiao, Deng YanQiuFei, Liu ShiLei, Qian Yi, Li DouDou, Zhang YunWen, Cheng WenLu, Shi YuJie (9)
Total: A total of 81 members graduated/announced graduation in 2016.

The graduations I was most surprised at were probably Naanya's, Paruru's, Keicchi's and Wakachan's.

I don't know about you guys but I think this amount of members (and a few significant senbatsu members) graduating is quite serious.

Whose graduations made an impact on you ?

[Deleted]

Discussion about Sashihara Rino:
Personally, I am not really fond of Sasshi. Even though, she won the general elections three times, I doubt that her fanbase is any larger than Mayuyu. I really do suspect that it's that the wotas supporting her pays huge amounts of money to support her. That being said, if there are any Sasshi fans here, I apologise and please do not be offended by this as I am just stating my opinion. It's a discussion so please feel free to counter me, I really like friendly debates so ... ^^
I really dislike it when there are trashy articles like this: www.asianjunkie.com/2016/04/22/dust-off-a-reminder-on-why-sashihara-rino-is-the-best/
Recently, Sashihara has the intention of joining the General Election in 2017.
link: akb48daily.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-653.html
What do you guys think ?

[Deleted]

♢ News ♢
Shimazaki Haruka's Birthday Live and Graduation Live Ceremony will be live-steamed on Japanese platform "niconico LIVE".

Shimazaki Haruka's birthday live ceremony: 25 December 2016 (18:30)
Shimazaki Haruka's graduation live ceremony 26 December 2016 (18:30)

Note: Free account is able to view the first part of LIVEs

live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv284968288

[Nishikawa Popuri]

I'm not fond of Sasshi either. Of course, every member has their good points, but I think there are a lot of other members that deserve the spot Sasshi has. Not to depreciate Sasshi, but I think there are a lot of members with better skills than her that deserved to be more appreciated and to have more support. About the Sousenkyo, it isn't about who has the larger fanbase anymore, it is about who has the richest fans that can spend lots of money to vote for their oshi.
Sorry if I offended someone! It was not my intention and even I had a time when I liked Sasshi, I just happen to have a different opinion nowadays~

Ohh, I want to watch Paruru's graduation! Thanks for the information~

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2016 13:58:18 GMT Nishikawa Popuri said:

I'm not fond of Sasshi either. Of course, every member has their good points, but I think there are a lot of other members that deserve the spot Sasshi has. Not to depreciate Sasshi, but I think there are a lot of members with better skills than her that deserved to be more appreciated and to have more support. About the Sousenkyo, it isn't about who has the larger fanbase anymore, it is about who has the richest fans that can spend lots of money to vote for their oshi.
Sorry if I offended someone! It was not my intention and even I had a time when I liked Sasshi, I just happen to have a different opinion nowadays~

Ohh, I want to watch Paruru's graduation! Thanks for the information~

Welcome ~ whose graduations were shocked at or made you feel sad

[Kurosawa Yuka]

Nishimura Aika's greaduation was the absolute worst for me because although both she and Takamina were my oshis Takamina had been in the group for forever and we were all ready for her to leave. Aika on the other hand was a relatively new member who's push had just gotten started and for who I was head over heels for. Even worse was that they graduated within three days of each other

[Yamada Fumi]

A lot of the people I liked from SKE decided to graduate...it was hard but I had to except it. Even though they announced in 2015 Sae and Aki's graduations actually made me cry.

[Tsutsui Natsuko]

I'm way to cynical to be shocked about any graduations sadly. :/

[Tanaka Kotomi]

Not to fond of Sasshi either. I think Mayuyu should have won tbh. I'm surprised on how big the difference was with the votes

[Kashima Rika]

#LetSayaneeLeave #FreeHer

[Kashima Rika]

also Saegusa Miria, you can make any threads you want int he fun board XD as long as they're not mean or offensive or stuff

[Saegusa Miria]

Dec 21, 2016 11:45:23 GMT @mochisayuri said:

I doubt that her fanbase is any larger than Mayuyu. I really do suspect that it's that the wotas supporting her pays huge amounts of money to support her.

The bold is true, her fanbase¹ is not large, nor smaller, than Mayuyu's. The italics is half and half. You see, AKB hadn't had an ace after Acchan, Yuuko was a center, a placeholder even, but not an ace. AKB management tried to instill Mayuyu as ace, but failed. Mayuyu didn't, management did. Mayuyu tried her best, supporting AKB as much as she could as an ace but management shuffled the the center and the front line members too much to rush the "new" gen members in order to increase popularity and it backfired. Not did it only "demote" Mayu from supposed ace to front liner, but instead of the "new" gens gaining popularity and acknowledged from the general public³, the public turned on them because they didn't know anyone and those they knew already left the group. The public knows AKB's Mayuyu, not Mayuyu the Ace of AKB. How does this relate to sousenkyo rank? Well, like you said, their fanbase is around the same. So why do they settle their score? A few extra-die hard fans a the general public. Because Mayu is not the Ace of AKB, she doesn't have the amount of external jobs an ace does. Still, she's AKB's #1, and a front liner lock, so she gets a fair amount. But it's still not a lot, compared to past aces such as Acchan, or recurring centers like Yuuko. Mayuyu has released 5 solos, and 3 non-AKB affiliated dramas, and one movie. Her solos are praised, her acting is not however, but fortunately for her, it isn't hated either. Her solos and character often portraits a perfect idol, pure and clean, not one scandal to stain her reputations. However, this image does damage her, and she's not often invited for comedies or regular talk shows frequently. Sashihara, however, was sent to HKT as a "demotion" for scandal, and tried to help the newly created idol group in Kyushu, which has a lot of idol fans and finally got a local group to support. Sasshi, unlike Mayu, was a no-good, negative girl who had a knack for comedy that made up for her "shortcomings" as an idol. She was always the butt of jokes in the comedy shows she participated, but it escalated with the scandal, but Sasshi used it. And it caused a boom. She was on all sorts of comedy shows before, but now she was nearly every where, as far was every where an idol could go, and squeezed in some more. People started relating to her, her struggles, and her failure, and became attracted. She started getting more and more jobs offers, and more an more exposures. More people saw her than they saw Mayuyu on tv. Now, general public votes don't amount to much, around 5,000 to 60,000 if we are optimistic. However, once a member of the gp starts getting more interested, she become a fan and join her fanbase, and if s/he starts liking her even more, s/he'll become a "fat wota" or what I like to call, obsessed fan².  Obsessed fans spend lots and lots and lots of $$$ on idols, and their and the general public votes are what often end up helping deciding the verdict. What's happening right now is that the process about people concverting into fans, converting into obsessed fans is happening faster and faster with Sasshi than it is with Mayu. That said, I think Mayu's "fanbase" is larger than Sasshi, however, Sasshi has more obsessed fans and general public votes than the former, and that is what I think causes the tipping of scales. 


Note: 
¹Fanbase members: Invested fans of an idol=They love XXX of XXX
²Obsessed fans: "Followers" of an idol=They are OBSESSED with XXX of XXX
³General public/casual fans: "Casual" fans of an idol=They are interested in/like XXX of XXX

Comments:
While technically the first two should be together, the sheer obsession "fat wotas" have with the idols is more akin to the same way a follower of religion treats their god, than the way a fan treasures their idol. The last one I lumped together because I kinda used interchangeably and their vote amount are around the same number. 

I also really hate the word deserve, you cannot convince me that one idol deserves more than another. What we see are illusions, we do not truly know how hard a member works or not.  

Dec 21, 2016 13:58:18 GMT Nishikawa Popuri said:

Not to depreciate Sasshi, but I think there are a lot of members with better skills than her that deserved to be more appreciated and to have more support. 

Each individual skill? Yeap, plentyyyyyy of girls can do something she does better. All of the skill she has, refined and honed until they shine, not so much... The only other person who can is Miichan. Yukirin and Takamina are ones that behind Miichan, but still have a big gap, and the latter has left, while the former has one foot out the door. That said, I do agree that management needs to stop using Sasshi so much to get money, if they actually do half the work the girls do, they'd find ways to promote the new girls, make money, and still be popular without the use of Sasshi and the other older, over-used members (*cough*sayaneeandjurina*cough*). 

[Deleted]

To be honest, I will stab myself if Sashihara wins the next election. I don't expect Mayuyu should win the 2017 election, but maybe Jurina.

[Saegusa Miria]

To be honest though, it doesn't matter much anymore. The senbatsu is mostly locked, and the center is easily predictable. Luckily, it only determines results for one single.