Nishino Nanase (Nanasemaru) / 1st Gen

Hmmm, is there any report on the ignoring incident? I'm actually not surprised if Nishino does ignore Manatsu when she returned and took her place but I also believe she's not the only unhappy one within the group at that moment. I can foresee people like Mai Shiraishi being vocal or pissed when it happened too. It has got nothing to do with being kind or naive.

However, I do find Nishino Nanase's rise pretty interesting. She was almost non-existent during the early nogi days but her popularity mid way through was fast and sure. Her handshake results are steadily improving with each single and was soon catching up with the nogi aces like Shiraishi, Hashimoto and Matsumura until currently she is outselling every one in nogi.

Her blog is also the most lively with comments and her 755 has the most traffic among all nogi members. I'm actually quite curious what is it about her that attracts people and their attention. She and Wakatsuki are the first to get my attention when I started to go into Nogi and they are still the ones I look out for in their shows. I know her shyness and beauty are some of her trademarks but I believe it's more than that and hope some one can enlighten me on it.

 

About Naachan-Manatsu, natalie has interesting interview about them : http://natalie.mu/music/pp/nogizaka46_09/page/2

The interview is too long for me to translate, but I translate a question to Nanase

I don't thing Naachan disliked Manatsu. Maybe the situation at that time made them difficult to make conversation..

 

I honestly believe Nanasemaru's popularity rise *almost* starts and ends with her looks & personality. She is the demure, shy, beautiful idol who isn't entirely bad or awkward in any one category [singing/dancing/acting/variety]. Nogi's members push Nanasemaru as "the perfect girlfriend/wife" so often that people who yearn for that cookie cutter "traditional" Japanese marriage [from like the 60/70s] just get brainwashed into believing, "yes she is the best significant other material in Nogi." It also helps that she almost always has photo shoots, fashion & gravure-- in that regard, she's right up there with Ringo for Nogi photoshoot frequency.

Aside from that, I don't know if there's a variety show appearance, a song performance, or one particular moment that helped Nanasemaru support soar. To be honest, she's kinda like Sakura in that she started off looking awkward, doesn't have a personality that really stands out, then out of nowhere got really really attractive, and BOOM roaring support. I still think Nanasemaru's funny; it's her big rabbit teeth :3

 

I agree with you! Her looks grows on me gradually and her personality is actually pretty "subtle" and not that "in your face" type for me. She might actually be what many wota considered nogizaka members should be hence the popularity. There are many members in nogi with interesting and dynamic persona (eg. Shiraishi with her Kuroishi alter ego which she always find very hard to contain LOL!!) but at the end of the day I find myself reading up on Nishino and looking forward to updates on her.

I actually find her rabbit teeth rather cute especially during that Macau bungee jump where she was smiling awkwardly to the cam shortly before jumping down.

 

Yeah, she reminds me a lot of SKE48's Mukaida Manatsu in that they are both pretty girls, but also very girl next door, nothing too striking, and their demeanor is pretty shy and demure, they are soft spoken and kind and they are good at singing and dancing. I guess that's why Mukaida was Team KII's original center, but I also guess that the SKE fandom and the Nogi fandom must be very different because Mukaida didn't really catch on in popularity while Nanase is the top member now in Nogizaka.

A Yamato Nadeshiko, in a way. I had thought as much, but I still thought I'd ask some fans because I followed Nogizaka when they debuted and then didn't pay attention to them for a while and came back to Nishino centering some singles and being number one which puzzled me.

 

Thanks for the translation OSR48 I think she was being as honest, about her feelings, as she could regarding that matter on the interview unless there are other source(s) suggesting otherwise. I agree that the situation then might have made it awkward for both of them to converse as Nishino is feeling that bit of grievance while Manatsu might have that sense of guilt towards Nishino but we will never know

 

It's not like Nanase's interactions with the the other girls are few compared to most other members, it's just that she rarely gets the chance to work with the ones she's close to (Ami & Yuttan). Everyone has people they get along with better than others.

While I the believe that the main reason for her popularity is mainly her good looks, and her lack of any outstanding flaws, as CherryBonchan mentioned

I do believe there is a lot behind her beautiful, demure appearance, which is why she manages to get such a strong hold on her fans. Because she's not just appealing to first time followers or casuals, the devotion she receives from her hardcore fans, and Nogi fans overall, can reach rather "impressive" levels at time.

Take the "Have never told a lie ever" however you want, but she's usually really honest about her feelings, both in words and via expressions. In contrast to her smiling self on TV and in magazines, she can often look very serious on stage too, which may be good or bad depending on who you ask.
It does make her appear more human though.

 

I dont understand, why Nanase ignore Manatsu? And who are the other members who ignore Manatsu?

 

Here's a cute moment I like that kinda exemplifies how dorky Nanasemaru is.
At around the 3:56 mark, this confetti goes off & a large wad gets stuck on her arm.
And you can see her try to get it off, but then she gives up LOL & uses it as a piece of flair


if the video does not show watch the video here

SIDE NOTE: whoever the uploader is IS an a-hole. There's no reason to pixelate a member over nonsense. Smdh

 

Indeed someone has no idea what Nogizaka46 stands for and should be ashamed to be so hateful. (I'm sure this person is perfect and has never made any mistake...)

human version is here


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

manatsu auditioned into nogi as a 1st gen, but immediately took a long hiatus to focus on university entrance. When she finally returned during the 4th single senbatsu announcement on Doko, she was airdropped into fukujin position while naachan was demoted following her first time as fukujin member in 3rd single. The airdrop caused unease to not only naachan of course; many other nogi-members displayed uneasiness in that episode, & I think that was natural & to be expected with such an arrangement. As with above discussion, naachan & manatsu did have some distance after that, it was talked about in a recent NogiRoom episode & bothered manattan quite a bit lol. I don't think it was necessarily deliberate too tho, after such a happening it's natural to feel unease, & not find it easy to approach manatsu.



It's good to see a rather lively discussion going on in a member's thread. ^ ^
Just gonna throw my two pence here too, & throw in a chart I made as well lol

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Spoiler: Some technical details

The chart starts from the 3rd single cuz earlier data are rather incomplete. The 3rd single's HS sale I found didn't specify when each blocks were sold out, hence the title condition don't apply to it (in other words Nanase did not drop as the chart implies suggest.) These six members are chosen as they are the top six in latest HS sales, & also present interesting & relevant growth history. HS sales for the 10th single is charted twice because originally on 25 blocks were on sale, & two events were added later, hence resulting in two sold out rounds. The vertical axis indicate HS blocks sold out in absolute terms. This chart uses HS sale by the round of first member sold out so it is easier to compare the relative difference between the top members, as this allows different sale out time to be reflected. Otherwise we will just be seeing all the top 10 sell out 30~35 & there's nothing to compare lol

To start off, it was mentioned that having appeared on a tons of magazine shoots might have helped naachan achieved her status today. However, in actuality naachan's been having a slow but steady growth in HS sales since the first single, & continued mostly with few magazine shoots. The many magazine shoots that naachan have today are a rather recent occurrence, & a result of her unignorable popularity growth rather then the other way around.

So how did she achieved such feat? I agree with many above that being undeniably cute helped. Another thing often mentioned is her personality, described as demure, shy, etc. I personally think the term endearing is what the defines her best; when she cries, when she's talking to strangers, when she's cuddling the other nogi-girls, & did I mentioned when she cries? I find this to be very endearing, & I believe this pulled many ppl in. Maybe because this is not something one can immediately see, it took time for fans to be exposed to this side of her, hence the slow & steady popularity build-up.

She's not only endearing, she's also very interesting! Oddly so actually lol. As mentioned above, she's rather shy, & maybe due to this she does not stand out in nogi's earliest days. However as time past she get to showcase her top-notched drawing talent, her love for fat hato (pigeon), her very odd doiya-san (which was merchandised & kept selling out lol), & her weird love of Jojo's Bizare Adventure (& frequent posing of it). These might have helped her gain even more fans, or at the very least furthered her awareness.

Not only endearing & quirky, naachan also showed herself to be growing as a person too, & I think this might have pulled in fans that like to see idols grow as well. While she is arguably still a relatively quiet member of nogi, I think it's fair to say compared to her early days she is a lot more outspoken. She cried in one of the early nogi single promotion campaign when she was ignored while handing out tissue, but later on was able to speak with a complete stranger in one of her bonus video. She stated she want to play all the roles in the Principal deux, & achieved the feat. I guess it can be argued that she was never too bad at any one thing to begin with, but I do personally feel she have grown even more rounded at least.

The moment that struck me as showing her growth most symbolically was her solo line in nogi's collab perf of Mizuiro no Ame, to be very frank I was blown away & I'm aware many other nogi-fans were too. I nvr considered naachan to be one of nogi's top singers, nor to have a particularly good singing voice either, but in this performance her solo line was very captivating, more so than maiyan despite that I still think maiyan have the better voice in the perf. Sadly this level of singing haven't been replicated since I think lol (must be hard to do so I guess), but I completely reconsidered her standing (singing-wise) within nogi after this.


tl;dr & to sum up, naachan's endearing, quirky, & have displayed character growth in addition to being super cute. Am I missing anything? /o/

Also something totally not on topic, is maimai going to pull a naachan? :O

 

idk if they want to push mai2 ala nanase but maybe she will be kept in fukujin only not top3. anyway, everyone who is into nogi sure puzzle how nacchan is gaining fan slowly without any obvious job besides photoshoot.

 

You forgot to say that a lot of Nogizaka46 members do love her and so turns the light on her quite often.

 

Her rise is surely one of the greatest mysteries within 48 and 46 I mentioned she was almost non-existent in the early nogi days but she was steadily rising in popularity even with the limited screen time she had back then. I don't remember her being pushed at all by management or any defining moments that catapulted her to the nogi elites but it just happened. Except for members saying how great a girlfriend she will be and her kindness, I also don't see it being highlighted much (unlike Takamina's daijoubu sensor which was frequently mentioned in 48 member's blog).

Even now with her popularity, I felt that not much focus is on her during shows. One thing about her that strikes me which may be subjective is that she is a fast learner. I like how she performed admirably in difficult task like the ventriloquism manzai with Ringo (she was awesome too!) and from being a girl who can't cut cabbages properly to plating that delicious looking sashimi. MAYBE this might be the way management is subtly pushing her

 

Thank you for your answer Rust, I dont understand why people ignore Manatsu because it was not her fault. It's like Ikuta she return in the group and directly center ,but no one was frustated in this case. 46/48 it's a group but for me the atmosphere is very individual sometimes. Thank you for the videos ,i'm unhappy that Reika and Kazumin haven't a solo line because they sing better than Maiyan and Nanase. And for the video of cherrybonchan ,i don't understand why they hide the face of Sayuringo! .Nanase has a good voice so please, when you have a video of dance and sing ,please share the video

 

The way I look at it Naachan and Maiyan are the "two top" of Nogizaka46, similar to Rena and Jurina in SKE and Sayaka and Milky in NMB. They are both very beautiful girls, but have a big difference that effects how their popularity manifests itself. Maiyan is more like "oh my god that girl is STUNNING!", she's the archetypal model in terms of her looks. She has a personality too, but you look at her and see someone who was always destined for celebrity. On the other hand, with her shy character and slightly understated appearance, Naachan is the archetypal girl-next-door. The girl who reminds you of the girl you had a crush on at school, the girl you want as a girlfriend.

How this manifests itself popularity-wise is that Maiyan is known by more people, and has more fans outside Nogi fandom. There's quite a bit of evidence to support this assertion, but i'm not going to trawl through other threads to find it right now. She has the fanbase of a celebrity, with far more "casual" fans who don't necessarily contribute to things like HS sales. She's still very popular within the fandom, but very much second to Naachan. Naachan, meanwhile, presses all the right buttons for people who are "idol fans". Idols have always been more girl-next-door and that's exactly what Naachan is. She has a disarming sweetness that makes you want to go and do HS with her. However, her shyness does not lend itself to being a "celebrity" which is why she's behind Maiyan in this aspect, but ahead within the nogi fandom.

 

Frustration was displayed when Miona was airdropped as a center too. Nanamin went as far as to complain to staff as soon as the recording started, even posting about it on her blog.
I highly doubt the girl had an easy time during her first month as center, but now, she's become a member that fans and members alike hold dearly.

The difference between Ikuchan's rice, and the sudden additions Manatsu & Miona, is that Ikuchan is someone who's been with the girls since day one, and always had a good position.
And it seems like someone was a bit frustrated about the Ikuchan center, namely Ikuchan herself.


Another thing about Nanase's popularity, it may be because I've liked her for a really long time, but I don't really see it as a mystery.
Word of mouth should not be underestimated. The more people talk about her, the more attention she gets, and her fanbase is far from the most quiet one. A unified fan movement also helps fans get together more easily, which makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable, especially for hardcores.

It's interesting Rust brought up Maimai, because just like Nanase, she's a girl with a somewhat cult-like following that has steadily been climbing upwards.

 

I agree with the points you guys brought up and it sheds some light on her rising popularity. I also fully agree with SUPER☆LeMON that word of mouth should never be underestimated especially in her case. Nishino is some one who even the more critical fans find it hard to find flaws to criticize. I really admire her fandom and how dedicated they are in their support for her. I can relate Maimai to Nishino because every members in nogi and the nogi fandom can go on about how kind and selfless she is. Both Maimai and Nishino are also very good in drawing and have the GND face which many find endearing.

 

I would like to add Ashurin and perhaps Sayunyan for having a large following. Oddly, I don't see their HS reflecting this.

As for Naachan, my friends all agree that she gives off that girl next door aura. I do feel that her shyness does affect her MCing though.