[GENERAL] The Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Thread

2nd single: Prepare for Hono-center.

 

AEON CARD SPECIAL STAGE at TGC 2021 SPRING/SUMMER with Risa, Rika, Tenchan, Morita, Habu, Yuipon and Karin (from 4:50):


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

2nd SINGLE Y'ALL!!

 

Yeah, no changes to the centers. Sakura 8 system remains in place (for now).

 

Why this system is needed if there is no change?

 

Yawn. What a boring formation. Not mad at Hikaru being center again (she's great) but at least switch the Sakura 8 members or the other two centers.

 

Like with so many businesses , strategies are maintained, no matter what, for some specific period to make business boom. If you change them, responses will be weak. That is what snf is doing, bcos believe it or not, if they change the senbatsu from before, it will be tough to grab attention. Cos there is always someone new. Let them establish that face, then once it's recognizable, they can switch all the want. I only hope they don't keep this on till you know when

 

konno giving us early nogi 2.0 with the fixed front 2 rows

 

I am happy about a 2nd single, but I am also torn a bit.

Hypothetical situation. If 2nd & 3rd single come out with same setup, Runrun main center 3 times with Ten and Karin alt centers 2 times each, that is technically 21 (or more?) singles. No unit or under songs. "If" live performances with an audience starts to happen again, Sakura 8 would be on stage for all 24 songs with zero breaks besides MC time. Runrun with 9 center songs, Ten and Karin with 6 center songs each. Who passes out first, gets injured or graduates because it is to much for one of them in Sakura 8?

I know they train hard, and are professionals, but there has to be a balance somewhere at some point.... right?

Just being a bit over worried early. I am sure everything will be fine and it won't be an issue for them. It's just something I thought of with this setup SnF is doing.


(Also, anyone know how to change your username on here? Been wanting to change it to something Sakurazaka but can't find any place to do that.)

 

I'm absolutely OK with the same 3 girls centering for a second time (viable to establish an identity). However, Sakura 8 should have another max 5 girls (not necessarily all of them different, of course). If not Risa and Pon as supporting pillars and Mii-chan as anchorgirl that makes at least 2 to 5 different experienced girls could have been there.

 

I'm happy to put my faith in management for now - the last single was pretty much perfect so I feel like they know what they're doing, even if I'd personally have switched out Hikaru for Karin or Tenchan just to vary things a little. I'm mostly just happy we're getting another single so soon.

And hey, I can still privately daydream about my Onuma/Kira/Marino triple centre, right?

 

I wonder if they're going to do a trilogy thing for the three centers? We're at the second single w/ Hikaru, Ten, and Karin centering songs, and my guess it'll be the same again for the third single. Then for four through six, a new trio for center. Since it was established that they went with three centers for the first single, I wonder if management didn't want to risk anything by switching up who got main center for the second single. Either Karin or Ten, then the remaining as lead center for the third.

Maybe I'm imagining things, but I thought there was a thread where you could request a name change.

 

Count me in for this specific dream. We'll be both on the front row, cheering!

 

Are we golden now?
Can it be that all singles are going to be titled in English from now on?

 

If it is English, what are we BANning?

 

The senbatsu for the single follows precisely the popularity of the members, as indicated by how fast they sold out all their slots for Meet & Greet (=online handshake).

So this is a formation by popularity, not performance. I personally do not agree with this, but it's hard to object to giving fans what they want -- except that this is what they want for handshake, not for performance. Sigh.

Here's a link to the Japanese sales table for handshake (I mean Meet & Greet, lol). And here, taken from that table, is the list of how quickly members sold out all their handshake slots:
sold out in
2 weeks: Kobayashi, Sugai, Rika, Risa; Tamura, Morita (by generation, and in Japanese alphabetical order by last name)
3 weeks: Koike, Habu; Ozono
4 weeks: Karin, Marina, Ten-chan
5 weeks: Inoue, Renaa
--14 members above this line --
6 weeks: Akanen (this one week is why Akanen can be out of the formation for the single)
7 weeks: Uemura; Seki

not sold out all slots (many new2gens here, with time to rise; Fuu-chan, despite her dance importance, is the least popular 1gen for handshake)
sold 21 slots: Aoi-chan
sold 18: Masumoto
sold 16: Ozeki
sold 13: Takemoto
sold 3: Fuu-chan; Onuma, Matsudaira
sold no full slots: Endou, Kousaka

Lots of interesting comments on this story in Japan. So many that I'll put them under a spoiler.

Spoiler: comments from Japan

• Great for Pe-chan otas. But I love Takemoto's performance
• Of course Renaa gets into the senbatsu
• Except for the fixed eight, it's in order [of Meet & Greet sales]
• Renaa otas should buy up all her goods right now
• I look forward to the Ten-centred song. There are some dance members in that third-line swamp [=Oonuma, Kousaka, Fuu-chan, Masumoto, Akanen, Endou].
• Pe-chan getting in is clearly because of Meet & Greet sales. If you want your oshi in the senbatsu, get to work, otakus!
• Inori selling out got her in. Meet & Greet has become important.
• It's been Nogi-fied.
• All in order. If you have a problem with that, buy Meet & Greet tickets and that's the end of the story.
• For this new song, it's good. It sure beats the post-Hitsugi hell.
• Of the 2gens who were in the senbatsu for the mysterious ninth single, only Chairman Yumiko is not in. I want her in the senbatsu for the third single.
• This was thought up by management to save Rika and Uemura...
• The second is the do-or-die single. With so little time to work with, the Meet & Greet became a harsh battle.
• This is a "Meet & Greet Senbatsu"

I should mention here that Meet & Greet/Handshake doesn't just show some notional popularity: for every slot fans get, they have to buy a CD. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but if there are, say, a hundred guests per slot, each slot represents about $1500 in sales. And if there are 36 slots per member, that's around $54,000 total sales from handshake alone. And 3600 units sold.

Handshake sales have always been the core of the 46/48 groups' commercial success. And as I've said elsewhere, other management companies have always complained that this is unfair to normal artists, who don't do handshake. In addition to quality, handshake is why 46/48 groups have so many #1 hits.

 

We (Keyaki fans) have been spoiled by Keyaki's formation in the past. If we ignore the permanent center thing (hard to ignore, but still), S&F not only included all members, but they also were quick to give unpopular members a chance in front row (correct me if I'm wrong, but every single Keyaki member has been in front row at least once). That's why it might be shocking to see some regulars out of senbatsu now (like Akanen, although I'm honestly worried about her future in the group, or Ozeki). Now it seems like management is no longer going to do charity, if you want to be blunt, and will be using popularity as a metric for senbatsu from now on. Sucks but I get it.

 

I'm not seriously worried about akanen, only because I feel like she has the means to become very popular if she focuses less on her 'sergeant' responsibilities and more on her fashion/beauty interests. I've said it before but I think management needs to let girls like her open up a youtube channel a la Yoshida Akari. Her keyaki/sakura name will carry her in the same way the nmb name carried akarin to success. If management gives her the chance just like they did with Habu's gaming/modelling gigs or Yuuka with her horse stuff, we could see her growing in popularity this year. We just have to hope she doesn't lose hope by being dropped from senbatsu..

It's obvious that with girls like Rei, Rena and Kira getting a surge in popularity, Matsuri getting leadership responsibilities, and the 2nd gen Saku 8 members being pretty immovable, that the 2nd gen overall are really making the 1st gens reflect on their abilities and kinda force them to do more ...because let's be honest, they got away with being complacent and not growing for a very long period of time, a luxury not given to many 48/46 group idols because it is based on popularity at the end of the day.

The remaining 1st gen are the members who decided to stay in this new chapter, so it shows they have the absolute resolve to improve, i hope management realizes this and works on pushing them a little more. Especially Pon and Risa?? They're in the front a lot but they need more than magazine gigs lol.

 

I will say this honestly (not sure how some will receive it), but if the following five (5) girls graduate soon, they will most likely announce the third generation auditions.

Watanabe Risa, Kobayashi Yui, Sugai Yuuka, Moriya Akane and Ozeki Rika.

They are the strongest anchor in this group; based on my personal opinion, and I can tell that based on their love and resolve for the group, they will most likely remain for a good while. But with the massive surge in recognition for the second generation, I watch and feel like the first generation are being ghosted lately. I rarely see Habu being the genuine ditzy girl that she was.

It's a little sad how Keyakizaka46 had to be rebranded, but I will still cling to hope that Sakurazaka will be just as unique and dynamic in their own way.