[GENERAL] The Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Thread

As far as concept goes, I hope they keep the "cool" concept but I hope the drop the teen angst "adults are sucky" vibe. First, because all of 1st gen and half of 2nd gen are in their 20s so its kind of embarrassing. Second, its been done to death. They beat that concept to death in the Techi era. If they want to put the Techizaka thing behind them then the last thing they should do is rehash the same old thing. Third, its super played out. Its like super 2010s. The alt-idol fad is a parody of itself at this point and Keyaki need to jump off the "mainstream alt-idols" boat before they sink with it.

 

The duplicating.
Duplicating AkiP interest on the group after his favored children(s) departure.

 

Lol but they sang abt adults only in SM and most of 1st & 2nd Single. The rest are just encouraging and challenging songs. What happened is, the got more into the lyrics and the songs. They started understanding and became aware of their message, which is actually fine for an artist, except these were young girls who lived in such situations their songs are talking abt so it became personal and before they knew, it had consumed them.

I would say they don't need to give that up because now they are adults who can separate such feelings.

Any ways, I also hope they keep their cool aura. No cutesy cutsy burriko stuffs lol

 

I fell in love with Keya's songs ever since Silent Majority. Howver, individuality? No, it's only Techi. A future? No, it's half baked marketing. While I understand the concepts of AKB and Keya are diff., they're still the same generational groups in essence. I'll stay for the songs, but fuck S&F

 

Well, here I am talking about what happened after thinking about it all day long.

I had a few reactions about it through the day - at first I was sad, even mad... 'how dare management don't trust these girls to keep keyakizaka relevant?', 'look at all those teary eyes'. After a while I started thinking about it as a "Chapter Ending", but I'm still frustrated about the way it was done. What we can do now is to hope everyone will stay somehow, because all of those girls deserve the best now - a striking re-debut, and rise to the top.

Obviously, I'm also concerned about this "new concept" that will come after rebranding. Just like most of you, being another burikko group would kill what I like the most about Keyakizaka46 - but even if it becomes something like that, I'll give it a shot because they truly deserve it. I know most of us are on social network talking about it, but now I think what we need the most is to be supportive to the group and be vocal as much as possible about management issues in the following months so they can do it right, to respect 1ki and 2ki careers.

It was expected, but there was a lot of blaming in social network today. Obviously the management made the "Techizaka46" and the "21-1=0" really painful, but let's keep awareness about it instead of bashing members and ex-members. I know most of you are already aware of it, but I think it's worth talking about.

Your passion is something to look up to. Let's all be together when the group comes back, hoping that everyone will be there on stage once again...

 

Reading everyone's posts yesterday and today, thank you for voicing out your passion and love for Keyakizaka46. To quote from Alan Moore's masterpiece Watchmen:

Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past... even the grimy parts of it... keep on getting brighter.

Keyaki is what it is because of its history. Not only the happy ones but the difficult memories too. Having slept on it, I am still a bit upset because if there's one thing S&F is good at, its making fans uncertain of the future. What will happen to KeyaKake? What about the brilliant Takahiro-sensei? Tsucchi and Sawabe? What about the documentary?

Anyway, there is nothing we can do but give our support to the girls. No wonder they performed with such fire yesterday. Imagine knowing that the name and camaraderie built for over five years will be closed soon just so management can wash their hands of this mess. And to think this all started with management insisting on having Techi become a perma center, burning the kid out when yesterday showed that other girls are capable of handling the center role too!

Okay, rant over. I personally think the announcement could have waited, and I agree with @Dill, stop using the Captain for apologies, just because we fans can't be mad at her. Take the heat, S&F.

Its not all bad though. I really like the last (!) single, it feels and sounds quite uplifting. Having Yamasaki Ten center yesterday shows that management sees potential in her (DO NOT BURN THIS ONE OUT S&F, SERIOUSLY), as well as emotional performances from Habu, Koike, Ponpon and Runrun.

For me as a fan I will still personally support the last single, and whatever iteration of the group comes next.

 

Toriizaka46 was what I had in mind, too.

 

Ten-chan KILLED it during Otona. @heatsignature posted some great screencaps on her individual thread. Girl is center-material for sure. Wild that they excluded her from the long-gone 9th senbatsu.

Koike's stage presence, confidence, and charisma during Ambivalent was truly a delight. I always felt she was overshadowed by stronger members back when Keyaki debuted but now, she's become one of the group's most dependable, solid performers and a generally well-rounded member. Shows you that hard work and effort doesn't betray you. Now if only I can say the same thing about some of the other 1gen..

Pon, you can say, was the MVP of last night's show, centering 4 songs, including the new single. I agree with @Dill that she stunned in Glass wo Ware!. And I'm glad she gets to center Keyaki's last single. Moving forward, I'd like to see a new center emerge in the "new" group but that discussion can be saved for another time.

Here's the full setlist and who centered what (creds to @shuukankeyaki):

 

omg. techi is keya and keya is for techi is definitely real guys!!! lol
keya and its fans are definitely suit each other..my eyes and brain hurted looking at all of these heavy and long text comment in this thread. keya itself has heavy lyric.

anyway, the only thing i really hope is that keya would never change its music/genre/style. hinata concept itself already overlap with nogi. we dont need another one. we need emo edgy group full with philosophers fans like keya!!!

 

it's first time posting at the forum, but I wanna do it this time

it's a shock to learn the re-branding, but I guess it has to be done
Keyakizaka image with Techi it's too strong for the public but the company should handle it better

anyway we have to support them as always, whatever the name will be
hope they keep the genre/style of their music

and hope that will be no change for Keyakake except the name only

 

Here you go

 

THIS RIGHT HERE

is the reason why Keyaki really didn't need rebranding but a good Marketing Team
what else is there to say?


One unrelated thing I wanna say though is that I saw people around (not here, but big accounts on twitter) saying things like "if you are a fan YOU MUST support the group no matter what, or you aren't a real fan!"

What those big accounts do not understand in their arrogance and something I want to state clearly, is that the reason we are so hurt by this decision is because we love Keyaki deeply, the group, the members, what it meant for us, what we fought for and protected until today.

No one who didn't do the same has any right to dictate how you should or shouldn't feel and what you should or shouldn't do.
It's your decision and it's valid no matter the direction you'll take now, or in October, or whenever it happens.

Once a Keyakid, always a Keyakid.

 

Thank you very much!

Btw, about Keya's new name. If they decide to use Sakurazaka, this kanji, "櫻坂" , the Sakura kanji "櫻" also has 21 strokes like Keyaki kanji.
Moreover, it is also kanji for a Sakura tree, similar to Keyaki tree. When they are Keyaki, it mean they are under protection of a big and strong tree. The Sakura maybe represent the moment they bloom, and when the Sakura petal fly by the wind blow, it mean they are ready to go out to see the real world.
It is just personal opinion and my theory. We never know what kind of name they will use later...

 

I don't think that will be a problem, from what I see in their Showrooms our girls have a hard time even acting burikko

Interesting. I still don't want the name change (keep the history dammit!) but since it is inevitable, I like Sakurazaka more then going back to the original Toriizaka.

This is like saying if you are a Star Wars fan keep loving it even if Disney has turned it into SJW nonsense.

 

I'm going to miss Keyaki's anthem theme. The overture. But I guess it's too avant garde and associated with Techi. I don't really know what mngmt and AkiP were thinking in 2016 around 3rd single.

I understand Saimajo is Techi, but other songs in 1st, 2nd and 3rd (outside of Otona wa Shinjikurete) single are more group oriented. I guess you can say Fukyouwaon and Eccentric are also catered to Techi. And all singles that came after 4th. This is mngmt's point of view. They messed up.

Album songs like Tokyo Tower, Taiyou wa and Kimi wo mou sagasanai can be performed as a group. But mngmt once again pushed Techi for Kimi wo mou sagasanai in their first Arena Tour in 2017.

This group was doomed by SnF's direction from the start. Even if they tried SnF didn't agree and put this group's activities in limbo to figure out what they should do and keep us fans in the dark to speculate and create rumors. Hinatazaka was their guinea pig project in 2019 which was a big success. They rebranded and become a new group from their Keyaki brand associated with Techi and Neru. They were free.

I hope the same for the remaining members of Keyakizaka. And I don't agree with Sakurazaka46. Cherry Blossom is already associated with AKB48= pink. Let them be yellow and green. It suits Seed & Flower's company name too. They are a bunch of mysterious members that don't suit purple and pink.

 

All songs were created for Tecchi, even Dare ga... (9th single) I'm sure. Lyrics, dances etc ALL. Without Tecchi all songs are losing their deap meaning. Other keyaki girls are just like cover group without her. Also Tecchi's voice are very significant in every songs.

Sakurazaka and pink logo are meh...

 

Another thing to add.

Torii" refers to the torii gates to Shinto shrines. Both Toriizaka and Keyakizaka are streets in the Roppongi area of Tokyo. Toriizaka is a long, steep street with a variety of uses along it. It's nice, but not as high-class.

Yuuka talked about she wants to do things they can't do as Keyakizaka. The name change to Toriizaka46 as a group suits what Yuuka wants for this group. More variety, more stuff that are not held back.

But I assume why SnF changed the name to Keyakizaka46. Techi= high-class. One eternal center. One star. This doesn't suit the other members so they have to get rid of this name, unfortunately.

 

I don’t want Sakurazka no matter how many theories they are creating for the name. I, too, associate sakura and pink with AKB, especially their early days. Their sakura songs (Sakura No Hanabiratachi, Sakura No Shiori, Sakura no Ki ni Narou) are eternal bops. I think the “sakura section” is already so commonly used that it no longer creates a unique feature. As a “new” group you want to stand out and be unique, not overshadowed by established brands.

I do like yellow and green (very tropical lol), but as a Sakamichi group there needs to be an underlying purple triangle? Wonder if they could use 3 triangles like Yoshimoto? Red seems to be a popular choice among Keyaki fans too. Btw, do you think they’d announce the 1st single in Keyaki Last Live. I’m assuming the last concert would be a transitioning one like Hiragana-Hinata. Some fans said they would be waiting for sakura season (if use the name Sakurazaka) that that’d create too long of a break in between. Although Corona’s still going on so hs still remains a question.

I don’t think S&F changed Torii to Keyaki because of Techi. They announced the name change when introducing the members for the first time (August 2015). It was simply for the tree symbolism, nicer street, image and sound imo. Techi wasn’t chosen as center until they started practicing and doing pre-debut activities later on. And I doubt anyone associated Techi with high class or the ace that early on, especially when there are girls like Yuukanen or Zuumin

 

Looking on Google maps, I didn't realize Sakurazaka is right next to Keyakizaka. Its literally the next street over.

So that makes me feel like Sakurazaka46 is likely, especially with the other clues (pink triangles, Sony copyrighted the name and domain).

I don't understand what was wrong with Toriizaka though.

 

I think maybe because Torii is associated to religion, they thought it wouldn't be the best to use