[GENERAL] The NGT48 Thread

Some excerpts from my translation of the 8/3 summary here: https://saitowinterstar.com/archives/632

• NGT performs at TIF 2019. From their greetings in Tokyo: “We’ll do this performance with all our might so we can be once again accepted by everyone in Niigata”
  • https://i.imgur.com/0Dlo9Md.jpg
  • [From Daily Sports: “NGT’s activities resume with TIF performance — Ogino: “So we can be accepted” — KKS Kato goes to the back row”]
    • https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190803-00000035-dal-ent
    • https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2019/08/03/0012574585.shtml
  • WWS Channel:
    • NGT48 resumes activities at TIF2019 — Starting from “zero”, “We want to go for it again with all 34 members” ＜TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL 2019＞
    • http://www.wws-channel.com/girls2/157754.html?view=more
  • Situation at TIF
    • https://i.imgur.com/TsD6fA9.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/GgXTMuU.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/I2LctHP.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/Q1IYy3t.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/ciApgPZ.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/n90Fpt3.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/xzFI9MV.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/9vuYjec.jpg
      (ボンズ = the firm providing security guards)
  • Video of the greetings
    • https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1157444592444198912/pu/vid/720×1280/JwQ4luDpw89qDP51.mp4
  • Nikkan Sports’ report that 4000 fans had gathered is an exaggerated number. The comment section is a flood of criticisms
    • From Nikkan Sports: “NGT restarts with 34 on their first outside stage since the turmoil” (more than 3000 comments)
      • https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190803-08030150-nksports-ent
    • https://i.imgur.com/6vPJp8y.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/XrBnz8n.jpg
    • https://i.imgur.com/LEUc9GO.jpg
• It is reported that AKS has plans to resume NGT activities in August
  • It is discovered on the 3rd that it is expected NGT48 theater performances will resume during August
  • According to authorized sources, “it may be a little sooner” than the graduation performance of Murakumo Fuka (22) planned for the end of this month
  • With members already taking opportunities to meet local Niigata media, they are steadily making arrangements for a full restart
  • From Daily Sports: “NGT to resume theater performances this month… making progress with preparations”
    • https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190803-00000113-dal-ent
• From modelpress: “NGT48 fresh start with resumption of activities — Ogino Yuka gives speech and kenkyuusei shed tears at TIF2019 <set list>”
  • https://mdpr.jp/music/detail/1856842

 

oh yeah mhmm... literally thousands* (not appearing in this (or any) photo are apparently 3 or 4000 other attendees)

Spoiler

*according to people who make shit up for a living

 

Before "Maho's case" people used to believe this group was better than really is. Now people believe it's worse than really is. They're simply not as special as people think they are.

 

Honestly? What has killed NGT48 for me was the general opportunism, pusillanimity, "passing the bucket around in a circle" kind of indifference mixed with detachment from others, and the "first to apologize/admit to one's own faults loses" sort of undignified mentality which is oh-so very distinctive of "black kigyou" enterprises nowadays (needless to say, long gone are the days when the '80s myths of Japanese ethics, especially work-related ones, still persisted on in everyone's consciousness).

Fair-weather "captains" (I hope such a joke of a position will no longer be used in the group for here on, at least for the sake of preserving what dignity is left, since no one who's still there is fit to fill the role) who used to run off at their little mouths with pretty words about solidarity and whatnot, only to devolve into an "every man for themselves" mindset and rush into hiding into their fuhrerbunkers (or alternatively have fun at the onsen, then to the Tokyo Tower, before getting handsy with their manager for a good time) at the slightest sign of hardship, until the problems simply is no longer current news, because at the end of the day they are more concerned about preserving their status-quo.
Big-headed and ineffectual theater managers who love to blow hot air around when it's time for them to receive praise over empty promises, but literally run away and make themselves unreachable to the local press looking for them when it's time to fulfill their due responsabilities, as if he is some sort of top wanted bandit.
Wotas are forgetful and easily duped, but good luck being taken seriously by the public at large by repeating these exact same drivel now. And you, Hayakawa, you may go ahead and post again another one of those staged birthday videos that follow all the same formula to the point of creepiness. These ostentations are more pathetic in their attempts than anything else.

Add also to that the double-facedness, complete lack of honesty and trasparency in telling how things really stand (another example, in addition to the lies fed by the management itself to Sponichi & co. over these months is, as we have seen, the purported 4000 -- or maybe 2000, the Ministry of Truth is still out -- people at a venue which was largely empty at the time of the show). Veiled attempts at character assassination of who came ahead to speak out in the first place, by using less than honorable media outlets, all to try and snuff out the controversy in the way I pointed out before. An approach to the issue that can only be described as ballsless and toothelss, not to mention deliberately asking to be taken advantage of for how clueless it is (yeah, Hayakawa, I am sure that telling Inaoka, Tanku or whoever of those yakkai subhumans who were purposedly standing in front of the NGT48 stage at TIF "Please don't come once again, you are being troublesome", complete with polite speech and all, will teach them the lessons of their lifetime after it all happened and they got away with, considering that they have been through worse shit back when the AKB manager was still Togasaki, who at least was prone to smashing stuff).
And I'm not even beginning to talk about the core issue here, just the response to it they showed.

So, in conclusion, my best wishes to the three who graduated from this group and the AnshinAnzen 7 who volunteered to show up at the graduation stage. Shame on all the assorted sellouts instead.

Side note: if you are bothered and can't really help it, argue back and don't leave a reverse thumb-up. This too is a sign of pusillanimity.

 

Maho killed the group and then left

 

And it was totally worth it.

But no really, if going by your expression, it was management committing suicide, slowly and painfully so, involving problematic fans as accomplices and some members as accessories to it.

 

Remember what Cristafari said to you in April 2018?

I won't ask you to remember it. But if you ask me, we(you included) probably are part of those two opportunist pussalinium or something as well.

Which is why I won't say anything.

 

New stage for regular members will begin from August 18th. 1st gen (minus Katomina) will participate in this stage.
https://ngt48.jp/news/detail/100003372

 

^ That dislike lol

 

Disliking the bearer of the... er "bad news"? Those people sure would beat an actor playing an evil role if they run into them in the street.

 

Nah. They did it to themselves. Maho just pulled the IV.

 

Looking forward to it. Hopefully they also resume student performances.

 

I've come across a Twitter user called @your_intention (https://twitter.com/your_intention) who has been tweeting estimates of the lengths of lines for NGT members at this weekend's HS event. He (or she) has just tweeted the following (https://twitter.com/your_intention/status/1160475399068901376):

Terhina: 10 people
Ainya: 15
Reinya: 20
Ayutarou: 30
Ando: 20
Rikahime: 50
Gatanee: 50
Hinatan: 40
Ogiyuka: 50

There's also a report from yesterday (https://twitter.com/your_intention/status/1160048470608060421) which lists Gatanee, Katomina and Okappa with about 20 each in their lines and Hinatan with 40. The day before that there's a tweet (https://twitter.com/your_intention/status/1159867022404009984) which has a photo of an empty lane for Ogiyuka:

 

50 for Rikachan dang

 

It says more than 50 people, to the point that they had to start looping it and he couldn't get an accurate count. These are estimates of how many people were lined up at a given time, in this case ~18:00 on the 11th. That would be near the close* of the 5th round, which is actually kind of surprising there were still that many people since none of the NGT lanes had oshimashi or day tickets available. But, maybe for him "current" (現在) means the whole 5th round. (His photos showing Yuka's near-empty lane are all from a similar time--just before the close of the 2nd round on the 9th.)

* I.e. when you need to be lined up by to get in, the member will still keep shaking hands for another 30 minutes but they usually rope off or otherwise close the lane at this point.

 

Sorry if this was posted already and I missed it. AKB announced a new group-wide stage play based on a famous Japanese crime movie. From my trans of the 8/11 summary:

• The AKB Group will perform “仁義なき戦い” [“Battles without Honor”] at the Hakataza theater, and it is confirmed that Nishigata and Ogino will appear. In the role they are killed while tormenting drug addicts. [It is a shared-role casting, with two 48G members for every part]
  • https://i.imgur.com/bzUkAXp.jpg
  • https://i.imgur.com/rW1Z6FR.jpg
  • It seems Kashiwagi has said “I don’t want to appear”
    • https://i.imgur.com/8Levurx.png
  • From the Hakataza Theater
    • https://www.hakataza.co.jp/news/detail.php?id=911
  • From AKB Official Blog: “A gathering of all AKB48 Groups! “Battles without Honor ~A work of women in a struggle to the death~” Performances in November, 2019
    • https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12504543858.html

Also about the resumption of theater shows, from the 8/10 summary:

• NGT announces performances will resume from the 18th of this month. The reason for the resumption is, “We respected the wishes of the members that wanted to stand on stage together with Murakumo, who is graduating”
  • https://i.imgur.com/9OMxzue.jpg
  • https://i.imgur.com/0wh1z30.jpg
  • https://i.imgur.com/h6zWMKG.jpg
  • Official announcement
    • https://i.imgur.com/AHxLfim.jpg
  • Murakumo tweets about the resumption of performances
    • https://i.imgur.com/XaZ8q0U.png
  • Yamada’s Photolog
    • https://i.imgur.com/SGWczK0.jpg
  • From Weekly Jitsuwa: “With the establishment of a system of rule by the Top 2 [Ogino and Nakai], NGT likely to become “governed by fear””
    • “As one would expect, due to the costs of maintaining the theater, etc., the economics of not having performances soon was driving them into an austere corner. Nevertheless, there is concern about the fan reaction.” (Record company official)
    • https://wjn.jp/article/detail/7094857/
  • From Sponichi Annex: “NGT to resume theater performances August 18th, “A new performance by the 16 regular members”” (more than 1000 comments)
    • https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190810-00000123-spnannex-ent
  • From Sponichi Annex: “NGT48 manager Hayakawa decides to resume theater performances, “to be a group that can be supported by everyone from the bottom of their hearts”” (over 1600 comments)
    • https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190810-00000171-spnannex-ent

 

There's currently 3 theater shows scheduled for this month, the first one later today:
2019-08-18 (Sunday)
2019-08-21 (Wednesday)
2019-08-22 (Thursday)

Somehow I got it into my head that Mofu's graduation would be on the 22nd, but that's not listed on the site, and I can't find where I originally read it.

 

You intrigued me.
But I can't find anything about her graduation stage either.
I wonder if you weren't confused by her Twitter header ?

 

She just said she will have her graduation performance on August 31st