Singles/albums affects everything for musical acts. And make no mistake, 48G ARE musical groups. It is their main delivery vehicle for everything. Without it, they have not much at all. For example, NMB just released two singles in three months, and they are the 48 group with the most positive reactions from fans, the public, and the industry. Spoiler Yoshida Akari's masterful handling of her graduation played a big part as well. Meanwhile, AKB has not released a proper single since before Covid-19 hit. And look at all the doom n gloom reactions from fans, the public, and the industry. Spoiler Acknowledging their fuckup in handling the NGT scandal would helps heaps as well, but that ship has apparently sailed for DH. "But NMB did not sell well." I would submit they sold really well, all things (including Covid) considered. Also, now is definitely not the time to be worried about selling astronomical amounts. It's about doing all you can to not fade into obscurity while the world holds it collective breath for a vaccine. And singles are a big part of that for 48. "But the HS event backlog..." Never stopped AKB from releasing before, and no real reasons why that should hold them back this time. "But they can't sell HS tix with the new single." 1. Bull . 2. NMB, SKE, STU, all figured it out, AKB can as well. Maybe time to rethink HS events, 48G and it's fans. It is a new era afterall. Reiwa, folks.
Well, this is the AKB general thread, so.... Yeah. That said. HKT was floundering, until they opened their theater (BIG news for them), and they have good and growing local business support (thanks to some smart maneuvering by Mercury). SKE are floundering right now. Thanks to some real fugged up in the head office. (Having Jurina AND Churi hold off their grads with no end in sight, no way that is helping any). And guess what, New Single senbatsu announcement tonight. Hmmmmmm. What does AKB have for big news? Losses left and right. DH is trying, just not hard enough and/or not using the correct toolsets. Spoiler It's almost like DH is just AKS renamed. Oh wait, it is. There's their problem. Miichan not graduating also is not helping, but not hurting as much SKE with Jurina & Churi.
is there any more information about the esports tournament? I'm assuming we'll be able to watch it online.
That was to highlight why so many are fussed about the lack of singles. My point was and still is about AKB. Tickets for online viewing are still open. Otherwise, info is all on twitter or the Official Blog/Website. Spoiler Just don't ask for pirate streams. That's not allowed here, per the site rules.
imo these are the only relevant bits. I watched both of the esports videos as well and obviously they were quite long and interesting, but... individual girls are doing showroom all the time and let's be honest, people who aren't interested in AKB48 and its members to begin with won't watch their showrooms, instalives or youtube videos. I have to agree with @hjr1891, NMB is really the most interesting group at the moment because they're the only ones doing things that are also relevant to non 48g fans. They're releasing new music and holding concerts. They stilled peaked Oricon, even if people wanna say they didn't sell well. I spent nearly four or five hours yesterday watching AKB48's Mechaike specials (Dissolution Dokkiri and Bakajo test), as well as a few episodes of Hiragana Oshi (Keyakizaka46 variety show). I don't know, it's just nothing grand.
Makes sense when you put it that way. I still think it's something they should give a try though. Admittedly I stopped paying attention to SKE around 2017 lol so only know a handful of members from that era who are still around. AKB and NMB on the other hand, I kept following them both, so i'm more able to compare the two and how they've dealt with their most popular girls leaving. I mean, look at Nob3 and Diva, French Kiss and Not Yet. All their members were staples of senbatsu and/or prominent members of the group. At the time I only really knew Kami 7, but those sub groups helped me learn the other senbatsu members. I think it also helped the girls with curating their own idol image with a themed unit that suits their characters. That's where I was going with the NMB unit's, they helped a lot of fans get to know the newer members and the popular members from this new era. I think the main goal for AKB right now is to get their fans to learn who the new members are, so that they want to support the new girls as well and not move onto other groups. That's what worked for me as a new fan of AKB back then. Once they've established a batch of girls as the new faces of AKB, they can proceed with promoting them. Right now AKB senbatsu just feels very individualistic to me and i think sub units could help remedy this.
well seen from that perspective, sure, although in general IG and YT (and Tiktok) are surely excellent and proven ways to attract new young fans my point was that there is so much content that even if you just jump from one live/now released thing to another you can easily fill almost your whole day, and that even if you follow only 2 groups - but it's virtually impossible to even follow more groups seriously just because of the sheer amount of content there is. the content for people already in the environment is not any less important. After all, while NMB's single releases and concerts were beneficial, it's only half of the success - the other half was the adoption of the "modern" SNS and constant production of new interesting content, and even if some of it maybe couldn't attract completely new people, it certainly did very well in keeping their own fans engaged, finding out more about more girls, and attracting fans of other groups (which did hardly anything). AKB releasing a new single would be cool - I guess, I don't care at all personally - but they're simply failing even in trying to compensate for it appropriately with other channels like NMB have done, so I'm not really sure if the single itself could change that much when the problems are rather structural. I'm happy I inadvertently started this wholesome meme. We need more positivity in the AKB fandom (but fuck Aoki!)
OK, honey. Here's my prediction for the next single a.k.a. (no pun intended) DH's wet dream. Team A: Iriyama Anna, Okabe Rin, Oguri Yui, Chiba Erii, Nishikawa Rei, Mukaichi Mion, Yokoyama Yui Team K: Kuranoo Narumi, Minegishi Minami, Muto Tomu Team B: Omori Maho, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kubo Satone, Honda Hitomi Team 4: Okada Nana, Murayama Yuiri, Yamauchi Mizuki Team E: Suda Akari Team M: Shiroma Miru Team BII: Umeyama Cocona, Yamamoto Mikana Team H: Tanaka Miku, Yabuki Nako Team KIV: Miyawaki Sakura NGT48: Homma Hinata STU48: Ishida Chiho, Takino Yumiko Graduates: Maeda Atsuko, Oshima Yuko
that's why I don't care about the new single! Erii is the only decent choice there! What a crappy group!
Best artist performance today is 365 nishi kami hikouki With: Iriyama Anna Okada Nana Okabe Rin Oguri Yui Kashiwagi Yuki Kuranoo Narumi Minegishi Minami Mukaichi Mion Muto Tomu Murayama Yuiri Yokoyama Yui Yamauchi Mizuki Suda Akari Tanaka Miku Hommage Hinata Takino Yumiko https://twitter.com/AKB48_staff/status/1331518216644956165 https://twitter.com/AKB48_staff/status/1331522096082522113 Yeah, 365 again. Though the Best Artist staff could have been wiser and request Hanarete Itemo since they are competing for the JRA grand prix with this song.
well it's a NHK asadora tie-in afterall.. imho hanarete itemo is a much superior and timely song over the tw thou
Well, Hanarete Itemo is AKB song while there's 4 SG girls so somehow management chose to sing 365nichi for 1 million times than practice Hanarete Itemo with the SG girls so
Latest Imechen 48 fashion video from nano-universe - 'Co-ordination Showdown Part 1' - with Odaeri, YuiYui and Yukirin (as well as Shinobu): if the video does not show watch the video here
I found this article regarding AKB48 not being invited at the Kouhaku utagassen this year. A politic, Edano Yukio criticizes the NHK selection process in short: since Sakurazaka who released nothing are invited why not AKB ? https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2020/11/24/0013887430.shtml on another hand, some matome pointed out a lot of Sony and Universal artists being invited.
Maybe Sony sent big luxurious cakes to NHK On realistic side, Sony's THE FIRST TAKE project has gained more attention in SNS media so no wonder there's lot of Sony Music artists in the list (though it's weird because Yoasobi, which has 3rd most viewed video, didn't get into the list)
Or maybe AKB nowadays is just good for yet another throwback and interesting for oldies like morning musume, while 46 groups ARE the hot cakes and easily prefered. It's not that deep.
DISH//'s Neko is the second most viewed video yet they didn't get invited either (though it's probably because they're boy band)