Single AKB48 40th [Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai] (2015/05/20)

It's pointless to compare to any other groups. The best way to be popular is through TV appearances, especially drama and variety shows. After that, quality of music 99% hardly matters beyond the point of just being decent.

Arashi have ALL their 5 members among the top of ALL celebrities in Japan in terms of TV appearances rankings. AKB has 300+ members, but only Sasshi is somewhere to be seen, while the rest literally cannot be found. AKB has decent rankings in CM, but CM is relatively insignificant compared to drama and variety. On the wider picture, female groups are generally less popular in Japan's entertainment industry.

 

TBH if AKB48 tried to earnestly succeed in the USA they would have an easier time than most users here think. In the USA lipsyncing is a staple occurence by popular musical acts especially among acts that are popular with children, teens, and young adults. Their main problem would be getting people to embrace their music and concept. As wonderful as some might believe it to be it would be quite hard to sell their concept and music to the general public in the USA.

Aki-p managed to get some of the public to embrace Onyanko Club in the USA back when this one show was doing a showcase and analysis of what music from around the globe might take off in America back in 1998. The audience on the show said things like "for being so young they show a lot of promise" "their music is interesting I could get hooked on it easy" "their sound is catchy" and other such positive feedback, so who knows really how his 48 groups might fare.

 

As long as they don't focus on videos like Heavy rotation
There was quite some talk about the PV, young girls in their underwear and quite daring camera angles.
It's way more accepted in Japan then in most western countries.

Showed it to some friends and they were like "typical Japan". It was almost over the top for me that are used to it.

I have some friends that liked the music from UZA(one of my favorite songs in 48G as well), River especially though.
Got few girlfriends that enjoyed the music from some like Heavy rotation etc as well.

This being people that don't really listen to this kinda of music, at all.

 

The sheer size of the 48 groups overall would make a world tour a piece of cake. Split them into teams of 16 or 21 alla their actual teams & regular Senbatsu & choose venues that have capacity of 1500-2500 people & they could have a sold out tour of some 50 to 60 concerts. This would be especially effective if they had each team they made for the tour be a good balance of established/recognizable girls, up & coming girls, & not quite on the radar yet girls to ensure each concert does in fact sell out.

We know the groups have a modest worldwide fanbase & doing the teams in such a balanced way ensures they cater to said fanbase while leaving the doors open for anyone they might draw in during the tour as they become more visible. A concert here and there like their 2009 effort in NY will not serve to help them make it big as it puts them on the radar for all of a month tops a full blown tour using all their members resources & connections would be super effective & set them up for future endeavors overseas.

 

50 x times 2,000 people means you need to sell 100 thousand tickets to sell out those venues. I don't think AKB has 100,000 fans world wide or even a number close to that.

They're not going worldwide.

 

Finally listened several times to all the songs (first thing I did with my copies was voting) and my favorite song is Tentoumu Chu's. If I had to rank them all it'd be:
"Danshi" wa Kenkyuu Taishou > Kafka to Dendenmu Chu! > Barebare Bushi > Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai > Deai no hi, Wakare no hi > Kegarete iru Shinjitsu > Kimi no Dai-ni shou > Summer Side

Summer Side has that sound in the background that you can find in funky 70s songs and several early SKE songs that automatically makes me dislike a song. So it's the only one from this release I'll never really listen to anymore.

 

^x2 They may and they may not, we really couldn't know until they tried it and the venues they booked could be even smaller if they shared your fear that 1500-2500 is too much for them to fill. The point is basically this: they have what they need to pull it off if they do it right.

 

The chance of them going global is small/non existant, but you don't need a big venue or arena.

Babymetal does not do Saitama size concerts like they do in Japan overseas.
But they do sell out 1000-2000 playings very fast, and they had 0 fans since no one knew they existed way before their first real appearance, same could be said about AKB.

Sure Babymetal filled something that never existed as a genre, but AKB is very different from everything western as well.
The biggest problem I would find is that AKB is so huge that it confuses people, fewer people is better when going international.

If they put together a smaller sized "unit" that would focus on going on a tour, that might work, but swapping in different members all the time would for sure not.

 

Is there any information about the selling of each version? I might think most of it comes from Theater edition for getting vote ballots. (Post moved to the right thread)

 

Don't think so, but I would be interested in that as well.

 

I don't think there will ever be a tour outside of Japan, which is fine. They will only do some one off concerts here and there, but imo their focus and tours should be in Japan.

The management obviously knows all the statistics, including the amount of cd's/goods/dvd's/.... etc. sold overseas. I'm 100% sure if they thought it would be profitable they would do it, but since they won't really make that much of a profit at all they won't. Outside of E/SE Asia there really aren't that many 48g fans at all, so there's no point in even doing a 1000-2000 size venue, because the money just isn't there compared to the effort of setting it up and doing it (opportunity/cost or whatever, its been a while since I took econ in university lol). Of course people can say we won't know until they try, but I think that they know already, so they won't do it.


Back to the single, now that I've listened to all the songs, here's my rankings:

BwT>Summer Side>Team8>>>>>>>>>all others.

・I really didn't like Summer Side's sound in the pv and soundcloud that I'd heard a while back, but listening to it in full quality totally changed the song for me. It gives me that relaxing summer song feeling (exactly like LabuReti) that I just want to listen to outside on a hot summer day.
・BwT is also great. But opposite of SS, somehow I liked the preview a little more lol (especially that first soundcloud preview from the concert). I'm sure this will change as I listen to it more and more.
・The team 8 song is great, sounds a lot like Two Roses, but I love that song so I really like this one too. So far Team8 has gotten really good songs!
・The rest I don't like as much.

I usually only end up liking 2-3 songs from a single anyway, so I'm definitely happy with this release!

 

^x2 Using a small unit would make them come off like most every other girl group. Their size is one of if not their greatest appealing factor. And people would zero in on getting to know all they can about the girl or girls that draw them in anyway. Their goal with such a tour should be and logically would be to put the franchise as a whole out there for the world to see in an efficient and timely manner. For this they would undoubtedly need to utilize every member as they have to stay on top of their activities in Japan while not limiting themselves overseas by making people think the group is just that small unit.

Did you not see the negative reception that they had for sending only six girls to Central Park for Japan Day? It all turned out just fine in the end but my point in using this as an example is that people want to see more than just a few of them, preferably most if not all of them in fact. That's why I said they should schedule the girls as teams of 16 or 21 members for this if they ever do it.

As for the person above saying management clearly knows such a thing would not pay off and that's why they're not going to do it I'll retort with the simple statement that most foreign acts who try their luck outside their own country either break out or flop but they never really know what'll happen and that's why they try.

You're right about the fact such a thing could be more costly than profitable, and given AKB's success in their own country it would be somewhat pointless from a business standpoint, but there's always that chance that their unique concept and their music might actually catch on and new doors would open for them. Since AKB from the start was built on big dreams and their management has always been pretty ambitious a world tour would be a logical next step. The fact it's been brought up many times whether they'll do it and if it will be a success or not is testament enough to the interest in it happening.

 

Yea, I'm actually loving Summer Side~~~ I'd say it suits "Hajimete no Drive" more so than LR~~ but all three are similar in that "soothing summer drive vibe to the beach"~

 

It is useless to discuss.
Two years ago Guitar Wolf did a european tour, I went 200 km to see them.
The venue was a small club in cologne, around 60 to 100 People came.
At entrance fees by 15 euros.

So, no, don´t think about it.

 

Okey? What does that have to do with anything.
It's like you are saying just because 1 group from Japan could not make a showing internationally, no one can.
Which is ofc 100% false in every way and shape because plenty of others have.

I watched Babymetal live, and LOVED it, thousands of fans. And they are well known all over the world. 3 Tiny girls from Japan, made famous.
One ok Rock, sell out every venue on their tour.
Scandal does very well outside Japan.
LiSA as well.

And so on, I have no Idea what you wanted to point out with the Guitar Wolf point though, so might be wrong about what you was after

 

I hope the sales of the thrid day are gonna be higher than the ones from second day.

And to the worldtour thing even if its out of topic:
I know that AKB48 has a dencent fanbase in Europe. Not sure about how many but I think they could sale out a venue with 1000 to 2000 places. (Naturally not everywhere in Europe)

 

Didn't AKB just went to New York and was greeted by 5000?

And Kojiharu's the only big name that went

+ Don't forget the Indonesians, they also have considerable fanbase in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Heck, my Singaporean friend told me everyone in his platoon love AKB48.

 

I think AKB's best bet for the US would still be to do anime conventions, at least for places that are not the LA area and the NY area. I just saw SCANDAL at ACen and there were lots of people who came, the Rosemont Theater holds 4400 people and most of the seats were filled with the exception of the furthest balcony seats from what I could see. I think AKB would have a very good turnout. I went to an Idols in Anime panel and the person running it talked about idol anime throughout history and when she started talking about AKB0048 people went crazy cheering, they were much more enthusiastic for 0048 than for any of the other idol anime. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

^ AKB0048 being better received than idolmaster and Love Live?!

Then again, that show uses AKB's singles... Still, wtf?!


I believe a concert a Cali could work for AKB, seeing that Hatsune Miku also had a good turnout.

 

AKB has already had a concert in Cali for Anime Expo in 2010. Expo doesn't usually repeat guests. As far as ACen goes they would get a wonderful turnout I guarantee you- but the guest relations DH doesn't seem interested. Akb0048 is considered by many to be the best idol anime ever - so yeah..... Anyways! Back to the single!

Anyone know if they are performing any of the other bsides during the AKBshow? I want to see another performance of team 8s song....


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