I think they are actually dieting. For example, Chima mentioned it multiple times in her blog, like this one and this one. I don't know about the other members you mentioned, but I prefer to: 1. believe the things members tell us, because I don't think your explanation applies to them. 2. not encourage weight loss for girls that are already thin enough, because it's unhealthy.
Like it or not, if they don't diet, they will become the 2nd AKB's Miyazaki Miho (the girl said herself that she lost her golden time b/c of her weight gain) and a lot of girls who lost their opportunities b/c they couldn't control their weight.
Team STAR and Inoue get a lot of love on Tumblr and most of my Sera Myu friends prefer them. I just think MOON (including Zukkii) did a better job. I'd say Team MOON got all the hype from the press and media, but in terms of the fans it seems to be more hyped towards Team STAR. As for recasting, apart from Matsumura (who would have been an amazing Moon), I think Minami Hoshino might have been a good Venus. Her voice and looks fit more than Kana IMO.
One thing is not dieting and another thing is eat whatever you want whenever you want. Those girls don't nees to "diet" as in abstain themselves from eating, they need to learn to have a proper diet full of everything a girl need during teen/young adult years and learn about their own metabolism. What keep surprising me is that is expected from them to learn all that stuff by themselves, or so it seems. Unpopular opinion, mngmnts should take the time/resource to make sure their idols know how to be and stay healthy.
As Sailor Zakuro said Team MOON was so good especially Mizuki she fit the character so well the only thing she needs to work on is facial expressions but other than that
Surely women in Japan always mention dieting because the women are low-level dieting all the time? I think there’s more pressure to be thin in Japan than the West. Not necessarily in the sense that it’s a harsher mental burden, since there’s more “support” for it built into the culture like easier healthy food access, menus have low-calorie “for women” options, everyone accepts it, etc. But if you move to Japan and you’re not thin, you’re going to feel more like something’s wrong. In addition, being in an idol group distorts idols’ own standards; Nogi members have said they feel bad their faces aren’t small enough compared to Asuka, when Nogi members’ faces are already smaller than average. And if you think an idol is too fat, there’s probably someone who’s told her that at a handshake event. All this is to say that if they’re actually not dieting, I doubt it’s because they haven’t considered it. A model’s diet may also not be good for an idol’s lifestyle. To diet, you’re encouraged to consume less calories, but less calories means less energy, and idols are supposed to perform at high energy. It’s not just the dancing, but also hectic schedules, Iku-chan being the most extreme case (although she’s probably a workaholic and hey, she eats more). I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the hiatuses idols take for “health reasons” are because of exhaustion from an unhealthy lifestyle.
i think if ppl have worried about idol's diet then there actually many approach and thing to consider rather than something that sound cruelly instant and unhealthy like strict fasting, barely eat, which i believe still pretty darn thing in high profile modelling. im not sure as not really cope myself with the subject, but nowadays some method is not sound so backward or more "smart" diet in a way. not eating during night time probably the simplest but also the hardest if one's not getting used for it. the other like low intake carbohydrate mean the body will take/burn a lot calorie more from fat and protein for the need of energy. they can be selective for certain food and what's not. i remember ikoma banned potato chips(also soft drink?), or nanamin somewhere showed herself eating a kind of specialized tofu (high protein) which i believe highly recommended, or member like eating cucumber(urm well im not sure if this just the need of fiber xD). that probably explain why they seems so like "hungy wolf" with mgmt catering or backstage/studio's food because that might the time/opportunity they loosen up the everyday discipline. the rest of it i guess is balancing it with the activity as it's still doesnt matter if one being selective, even focus just for protein intake(which following the above has said still sound pretty japanese in their food culture), calorie is still calorie. weight gain itself can be accumulated from some aspect like anxiety, stress(which also in other way can caused weight loss as well). i remember karin mentioned like to cook herself because her appetite, it might be/migh be not has something to do with anxiety and insecurities but i personally think this isnt a peculiar story. sleep deprived also one of factor that causing stress i believe. not only that it can accumulated mental and physical fatigue which can increases injuries potency or any health problem. different ppl diferent story for what they can take (gene-metabolism, immune system, lifestyle) but it's hard to maintain healthy if someone has hectic unhealthy schedule itself.
I think there's unhealthy thin, healthy thin, healthy average, healthy chubby, unhealthy chubby, and unhealthy fat and so on. The only time I can remember someone being unhealthy thin is Kubo when gen 3 just entered. Like 95%+ of the girls are either healthy thin or healthy average, and sometimes becoming healthy chubby. So like 95%+ of the members are healthy bodies for their age. And still, I think the difference between healthy thin and healthy average can mean the difference between sembatsu and under for some of these members, or row 3 and fukujin, etc. Healthy doesn't mean eating whatever you want because you think any sort of dieting or restriction is mentally destructive. Agree with every word. Higuchi's self-proclaimed "best face": https://66.media.tumblr.com/58f1a4399ea8479d973d0034f6b6707f/tumblr_ocz56uRENN1ukquamo5_1280.jpg Karin when IMO she was thinner: and Of course there may have been some airbrushing going on in the professional photos, but I don't know. There is mentally healthy dieting and mentally unhealthy dieting. As mentioned above, management should do what it can to create mentally healthy dieting. Looking at Nogi, it's like a pro sports team. The sembatsu are the starters and the unders are the reserves. Physical fitness (or beauty) is important to their performance. If a pro athlete comes back from the off season looking fat, pro sports fans are hilariously merciless in criticizing a pro athlete for not maintaining their physical fitness. I don't want to criticize any idol for not maintaining physical fitness, but it's still a fact that that can be the difference between sembatsu and under, or a magazine cover or not for them. Can't blame them too much because they probably don't get the same coaching and fitness that pro sports teams do... Well... except Nogi can afford it because they make as much revenue as some pro sports teams now lol! This article https://www.oricon.co.jp/confidence/special/52291/ says Nogi revenue in 2018 was about 10 billion yen. Googling around, https://www.baseballjapan.org/system/prog/news.php?l=e&i=1352 the Nippon Professional Baseball league has annual revenue of about 1.5 billion dollars or about 150 billion yen with 12 teams, so on average, one team is contributing around 12 billion yen revenue. (Obviously we don't know the profit, but revenue is good enough of an approximation when we're just talking about whether they can afford to put in extra effort into members' nutrition.) So if management can be blamed, they should be. Healthy dieting should be a management priority. But I remain unchanged on the (unpopular) opinion that being physically fit and thin absolutely helps in sembatsu positioning and magazine appearances especially for the girls I mentioned, because I think they look much better when they were at their thinnest. (Some other girls seem to pull off a chubby look, and maybe with some others, their row and position probably wouldn't change even if they got physical fit or got chubby.)
interesting subject to discuss on . i just checked the term for more correctly that is underweight-normal weight(healthy)-overweight(obese). there are method like IBW or BMI to measure it approximately(not strictly accurate nor precise). as nogi mostly didnt put weight on their cv it can be measured by using height in variable. i tried put kubo's attribute(17, 159) in calculator.net Formula Ideal Weight Robinson (1983) 53.4 kgs Miller (1983) 56.6 kgs Devine (1974) 51.5 kgs Hamwi (1964) 51.2 kgs Healthy BMI Range 43.5 - 63.7 kgs while we dont know the exact weight, it does seems she was alright?. safe to assume by impression especially by BMI range. even if her was gain weight months back i think her case still on the positivity. but what "ideal" is different if we mean it by perfection though. that's why if one put too much stress or obsession toward they can standardized and idealized themselves in unhealthy range. also dieting not sole intended as weight loss in purpose, though battling a little fluctuation was often the case. it's basically regulate or manage the intake. in purpose it can use as weight gain/increase body mass , medicine or another health reason etc. im sure most nogi averagely already has low level body fat which diet --for the best-- should mean just as maintenance. interesting comparison with sport team. well tbh im not sure i can agree if mgmt was regulate too much in this matter(nutrition) because this was showbiz, im afraid it can turn to be another fascism like other places, but i can understand if they should effort in like health analyst or instructor, someone which they can rely on in the subject and observe them closely. not bad idea that they should invest on gym, spa etc and it instructor(s) as well, for a place that they can visit in day to day basis, keep it close from their office/jimusho so they didnt have to risk neglecting their jobs and stuff . the closest effort we seen so far is trainer room at their backstage but again i believe they can put much more rather than simply massaging.
Unubore Beach >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Nigemizu>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Jikochu de Ikou. And I dislike both Unubore and Jikochu's choreo.
Everyone likes Unobore beach I can't remember where I said it, but I predicted 2nd gen fan reactions to the 4th gen before they were even announced. Humans are funny creatures.
If you could have other members from other Sakamichi or other 48 groups transferred to Nogi, who would you choose? Can include graduated members. My opinion: AKB48: Taniguchi Megu SKE48: Don't know much of them NMB48: Don't know much of them HKT48: Aramaki Misaki (She has the same kind of beauty like Kotoko) NGT48: Yamaguchi Maho (even before all this scandal. She's pretty yo) STU48: Don't know much of them. I'd say Okada Nana would be perfect in Nogi but she is essential for 48 Keyakizaka46: Actually a lot of them. Tbh other than Hirate and Suzumoto Miyu, the rest don't suit rock concept at all. Poor them they must have thought they'd join a group alike to Nogizaka's concept only to perform something isn't of their nature. That's probably why no one can replace Hirate as the center yet. Koike Minami screams so much of Nogi's vibe though. Hinatazaka46: The 5 models. I have this theory that Keyakizaka is derived from "What if we create a group concept as a derivative of Nogi's Seifuku no Mannequin concept?". And then Hinatazaka is derived from "What if we branch out this group as a derivative of Keyaki's Futari Saison concept?".
Don't know much about other group but imo Neru will be a good reinforcement for Nogi from these mass graduation.
^ I don't think Shida Manaka suits Nogi image at all. Can't imagine her wearing long dress like Synchronicity. Neither do Yone actually. If I may choose a few Keya members, it would be Sugai Yuuka, Koike Minami and Uemura Rina.
From Keyaki: Watanabe Rika, Watanabe Risa, Uemura Rina From Hinata: Kato Shiho, Kosaka Nao Neru fits Hinata more than Nogi imo.
But I think it's because of the Keya image. They managed to wear those uniforms, they can handle Nogi dress. Most of them would do fine with Nogi. Neru, the 2 Watanabe, Sugai, Moriya, Uemura, Koike, Kobayashi. I still think Shida can. Just put them on a dress a see a how gorgeous they are. Anyway forget about that. If I'm to choose only one of course it's Imaizumi.