Single AKB48 58th (Ne mo Ha mo Rumor) [2021/09/29)

I think it’s ultimately good for them to have broken the streak (by quite a large amount too) Hopefully it encourages management to stop being so complacent and to actually put effort in again

 

Worst 1st day sales since Sakura no Shiori in 2010. Maybe now AKB members will realise how much sister groups have carried them since the golden age.

I don't think there's any magic bullet to rescue sales, it's going to have to be done by word of mouth. A good start would be members improving hs service whether physical or online. Can akb afford to carry salty chicks like Myao anymore?

 

Honestly I don't think the cover (and it's just one cover that people criticized) had an impact on sales. I agree that they should have done more music videos and songs (and I don't mind that they included Hanarete Itemo but the fact that there are not many songs and no other music video is bad), however I also don't think these things would have made a big difference.

I actually think management tried to promote this single, the dancing videos, the individual versions of members dancing to it on TikTok, and many other things. They did get praised and many people saying that they want to support AKB. But honestly I think the problem is somewhere else. First, I don't think AKB is in the situation (in terms of popularity) to have so many members. I think they would benefit from having less members. I saw many japanese people say that they want to support AKB because they seem to try their best, and then this is also Hitomi's first single since return so it could bring a few more international fans. However it's not very attractive for any potential new fans that AKB has almost 90 members with very little being popular members. Having less members overall would also help to promote the members individually better and increase the fans for each girl (and so for the group as a whole).

Some other things they need to work on is creating better content, their latest new show didn't get positive response at all. I don't think it's that hard to give good content, I watched some of HKT and NMB's shows and even if they don't have a lot of budget (and mostly air online), they still make fun activities and it's good content. I don't know why AKB doesn't do more of it.

Hopefully they'll release singles more often from now on because one single by year (for two years in a row) doesn't help them at all.

I hope the members don't get discouraged by the sales, personally I don't think it's that bad, considering the pandemic and not having sister groups, it's kinda the numbers I expected. I hope management doesn't take this as a sign to give up but instead they'll think of better ways to promote the group and the girls and to make better decisions. Even if AKB is not as big now, they still have a big fanbase and literally everyone knows them (by name, the "AKB" brand). it would be really a waste not to try to rebuild the group properly.

 

320k in a single day is not bad at all. I honestly would like to have more AKB48 members only singles like this. They can always include sister groups in the senbatsu to create more sales and continue their streak but they chose not to with this single so I love that they took a risk here. The song is good, the dancing is amazing and they promoted the hell out of that song online so overall a great single.

 

Limista has just opened a new sale for the single in conjunction with TIF2021:
https://limista.jp/projects/2376

However this is different to the previous one in a few ways:

• *All* senbatsu members are included (including Yuihan, Megu and Momoka)
• It looks like the covers won't be signed? even though they're the same designs as the autographed ones
• Everyone will also receive a TIF2021 official bromide folder
• You only have to buy 2 CDs, not 3 (can be A+B, A+C or B+C) so the price this time is 3,400 JPY for each one
• Sales are FCFS with a final purchase deadline of 23:59 JST on 10/2 for any members who do not sell out before then.

 

I kinda wishing they could go back to using 3 teams format but with the sheer amount of member it's really difficult to do it unless they force the girls to graduate.

 

Assuming they'll hit around or close to 450k end of the week (give or take) it's actually a really great number considering all things. It's also their first single in over a year too. People move on tbh. So many groups exist and have released numerous singles and albums while AKB has not. Even myself I went back and focused more on Hello Project cause they gave out content. And Kpop always has content too. AKB has to step it up.

 

They've actually already let numbers run down somewhat as they have done any recruiting since almost 2 years ago (team 8) and longer in the case of AKB proper. The problem is that there are too few outstanding members. They should quietly encourage some of the grannies and salty chicks to graduate and then open 17th gen auditions but this time really carefully recruit members as Draft 3 and 16th gen in retrospect were a real mixed bag.

 

This is not an autograph event. You’re basically just gonna get TIF’s official bromide folder in addition to the solo cover of your chosen member.

 

Interrupting the sales discussion,
The full version dance looks great!
More than anything they are having fun and I can feel it too, it's refreshing.

From the Tiktok livestream (I believe):

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I think you're right - Google Translate suggested the covers would be signed but DeepL gives me the following translation:

I've amended my post above.

 

Who? These?

178,048 SKE48
177,046 SKE48
161,148 STU48
128,237 NMB48
120,109 HKT48
73,010 NGT48

Online meetings are not the same as shaking hands. They could've sell more internationally but those sales don't even count.

So... you want DH to fire them?

I said a long time ago that with Team 8 there was no need to have new generations. But you (plural) and the management said no, they need "their own" girls, proper AKB girls, so they hired the 16th generation and the D3s. But then you (plural) would say "Why don't we fire most Team 8 girls and keep 16D3?".

Who wants to play God here?

It's easy to say we should get rid of them, but every girl has her own fans. What would've happened if they had fired Hii in 2017? Or Shitao in 2018? Even Yuiyui in 2015? How long it took for Satone? How many times they could've fired Erii?

 

Thanks for the information. It's a shame they're not signed, but it's still nice to have an 'exclusive' cover with your favourite member(s). I think I'll pick 3 of my favourites to go with my signed Tomu cover and put them up on the wall above my work-from-home desk. As the regular editions should come with a bonus photo inside if they're the same as the regular editions you'd get in stores or online, getting a wide selection of those will be nice too. Or, y'know, I'll just end up with the same photo several times.

 

Very selective data sample you picked. I said "since the golden age" but you blithely ignored several years pre-covid. It's obvious that DH/AKS were desperately hoping that physical handshakes would come back but finally had to drop some product, probably for contractual reasons with King Records. Even if physical handshakes came back, AKB wouldn't sell anywhere near 1m on it's own.

It's good that AKB has had a reality check. They've done some good things with this campaign like all the viral marketing stuff and letting the members get actual rehearsal time so their dancing looks reasonably sharp, hopefully this will encourage them to improve in other areas as well. .

 

Of course I am ignoring several year pre-covid! This single was released in September 2021, not in 2016, 2018 or 2019.

Your own words...

You're the one saying that a single released under these conditions proves that AKB was being carried by the sister groups before covid-19. How does that make any sense?

 

What I said is internally consistent, just because you disagree doesn't change that.

 

another sister group make fun of the single
https://twitter.com/STU48_official_/status/1443165342444834817

 

some people seem to have received their Limista signings already, although I'm not sure what the deal is. Mine haven't been sent yet. Random example I came across earlier today
https://twitter.com/kn_izone/status/1443036448161107969?s=19

I'm also quite happy with these sales. Before HS sales started, I predicted 600k for first day, but when I heard we'd reach 600k roughly if everyone sold out, I thought it'll probably be closer to 300k, maybe 400k within first week. I'll be content if we go past 350k within first week.

AKB is still the best-selling 48 group and they reached number 1 on the charts. We lost out on sister group sales, we lost out on physical handshakes, we have only very few members that are known by the public, the song hasn't been performed much so far on television... So all things considered, I'm happy with this.

 

I'm wondering if this level of sales can keep a group with nearly a hundred members afloat tho.

 

If you add those to AKB's sales it's over a million.

I don't know why you're arguing with the obviously true part of Reveen's shitpost instead of his obviously false assertion that AKB isn't already keenly aware how much the sister groups helped (and hurt). Naachan said exactly that in that mistranslated quote earlier.

I hope this single did well enough considering the circumstances that management will consider sticking to tandoku singles going forward, at least some of the year.