STU48 News and Discussion Thread

I cannot agree more. More effort and less quantifiable data on management side but they shouldn't be so lazy

 

There are events and events. For example, Piyomaru won one to star a Sony DVD release. There were events to appear along Tomochin in her next movie. Nanako won one to model for a day in a fashion show, Shimitaru won one to get her face as advertisement in Shibuya, a few singers won events to get their song broadcast in the big Shibuya screens, etc. Stardust was holding a private event too, and now Judy & Mary (you might remember Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin opening song) and choosing a singer. Those kind of things you can't get any other way. Of course, then there are other kind of events, like getting 10 kgs of meat, or a 2.5m teddy bear. And yes, there's the pride of the broadcaster and the team following them.

Like, Shimitaru participated in a 3 day event to get a pair of Rebooks I believe, and yeah, the amount in gifts spent in that one was probably 10x times the value of the pair (and not counting all the money others spent as well). But she wanted to win the event to continue her consecutive wins, and we obliged.

No, it's not about the money, it's about building kizuna. If you aren't Japanese, you will never understand it (I barely understand it myself). Just today I was talking with Takabon via Twitter, one of the 3 big spenders of 75 exactly about this, how my Argentine mentality could not understand the Japanese mentality of someone (an idol in elections or a showroomer in an event) asking followers to spend more money on her to make her win (when Mayuyu says "Next year I'll try harder" she means she will do her best to convince her fans to spend more money on her, remember that). They accept it naturally, so naturally it surprised me.

lol, in 2ch they complain that such members are too pro for STU48, and here I read that they are too amateur for it. Have you ever watched Momochan's showroom? Everyone counts, everyone does 3 rounds of star throwing, that's the reason she beat Rikachan and Jurina on their own field. When she was nearing Rikachan they started throwing Towers (that was probably the only amateurish part, they should have thrown bears), but other than that, even though she doesn't ask them to count, they all know what it does and why they should do it. That's the way they could support her, and thanks to that she was chosen senbatsu member.

In the case of Nanako and Shimitaru, this is part of what they are. Of course, it's hard to look ahead when most fans just say "94 is pretty" or "70 is cute", even if they are dead boring. This is probably the advantage I personally have regarding Shimitaru, I've seen what usually wotas can't even see in new idols, how she basically started (even though I didn't actually see the beginning), and how she was changing the way she wears clothes, make up, how she talks to people, etc, etc. Even if you pick up a girl in one of these showrooms with zero experience and gets chosen, you won't be able to see the first months of training, by the time you can get to see them again they will have corrected their makeup, learned the songs and dancing routines, learned how to treat fans, etc.

In the end, it'll be management the one deciding who gets in. Some girls never used showroom and got accepted in 16 generation, for example. What can be worse than not caring at all about interacting with fans during an audition? Yet they got into AKB48 because, well, who knows. You see, if a girl can convince people about the importance of counting even though they have never done it before, they don't know why but they do it anyways, I'd think it's the kind of girl they would want having. Maybe fans don't care much about it, but again, in the end it will be management the one deciding.

In these auditions, never a girl who ended #1 in the audition was rejected, so... =)

75 and 43 are the ones who streamed the most out of them all, over 30 hours in 5 days. I guess some "efforts" are better than "others" =)

 

Where are you guys finding videos of the Showroom Live Streams? Like, what do I type? I really want to find Rock-chan's (#69) video live stream from two days ago.

 

STU48 第1期受験生 xx番 Showroom, change xx with the number of the girl, you can add the date if you wish.

 

Thank you!

 

STU48 xx番 works too

You mean fan base XD

The top 2 is too pro while the mid tier is thriving and the rest is too nub. lol

 

But they do!? For the latest auditions they always did a showroom round, and there were a lot of girls who haven't had many followers or points. There were even girls who decided not to stream at all. I guess it's a big point to see their abilities while talking with fans. There's a chance that a girl is doing a great job in dealing with fans they wouldn't had chosen otherwise.

A little complaint from me though: I hate the time rules. I understand that a lot of them are minors and aren't allowed to work after a specific time, but it would feel a lot "fairer" if they all had to stop their stream at the same time, in this case 8pm JST.

 

I would just like to say that I feel that it wouldn't be fair to completely base the audition on showroom. It's great for the two pro girls, but honestly? As a fan, and this is just me speaking, I don't care if my idol can use showroom. I mean it's great, but really, fans should care about performance (which they don't always) and handshakes. And I don't mean results, I mean the girls themselves during handshakes. Sure, it's easy to be good at interaction when you're behind a screen reading comments, but it can completely change once you have to have these conversations one-on-one. I don't really know anything about any of these girls, really, except for Cuca (and I only checked out a couple of minutes of one showroom) but I do plan on looking at them all later on. But while I understand that it's part of business now, and it generates money, in the past it wasn't a criteria. Past auditions didn't utilize showroom, and those girls get along fine. Mayuyu didn't use it, Sashi didn't use it, and even Mion didn't use it. A girl's ability to rise up and get fans to "support" (spend money) them can be judged in plenty of other ways, and management uses them. SSK, handshakes, special stages...all those things, and other events, like PB contests (which I know the ones on 755 were free? cmiiw) can show the support of a fan base. Auditions are a competition, but I just don't like such a big emphasis on showroom. For current members, it's fine, it's a way to further build up their bases, and appeal more. For auditioning members it can be seen that way too, but...idk I don't feel like I'm clearly saying what I want.

And on the time constraints, I have to agree. Everyone should end at the same time. It doesn't matter when they start, but it's not fair if older girls can end later.

 

About time rules and all I think it's fair? Cuz the older girls would seem to get less click views even if they had more time to stream anyways (except for top 2 who had veteran SR experience)...compared to the younger girls who had less time but more click views. So I'd say Fuuchan is the only legit winner in this event cuz she had less time and gathered more views than rest of the girls.

But then again I would also criticize that this event shouldn't be the focus for the judges to determine if the girl would be passable or not. I don't really want STU to be a bunch of streamer girls instead of girls who can dance and sing on stage.

=================================

Yes! It's here!
Fuuchan Kami Koen
1:30:07 - end

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Because singing and dancing part is what we don't see and Showroom part is what we can, it's really hard to judge who excels more in what area except maybe in talking to an audience. I think it's good to build a base early on but what's the point if you don't pass the auditions? It just happens that there are 2 girls who are (semi)pro when it comes to this and I would love to see them get through. 48G would definitely like someone who can potentially be popular members. It probably doesn't do much if they aren't pushed but that's another topic for another time. I'm supporting Nanako in this audition so I hope she gets through.

 

They may be "Showroom pros" but when it comes to going on a theater stage in front of an actual live audience they may turn into deers caught in headlights. They might find they don't like shaking peoples hands and can't relate to people they have to encounter face to face.

It's not a matter of caring or not, some girls can't show their faces until they get accepted because they go to schools that frown on entertainment activities.

Some girls have actual lives and have other things to do other than sit around streaming all the time. Yeah we get that Showroom is your jam but it's a minor part of being a 48-group idol, plenty of girls have become popular without it.

 

Guys, we're living in Internet era. Forget the times when "members didn't use SR and still got famous" (as well as those times when idols "didn't poop") - everything changes, and if idols didn't use Internet in the past, that doesn't mean, that they shouldn't use it in the future as well. Everyone uses internet now, members use SNS every day, more and more members get famous because of their social media. Sasshi's blog and now twitter/instagram, Rika's Showroom, Akarin's Youtube channel... The thought that "this internet thingy" is inferior to singing/dancing is wrong. The importance of performance was always inferior to 1. personality/character and 2. looks in this fandom. And since SNS is a tool that helps to reveal the character, I'd say it's even more important than performance skills.

Ps: I can't believe there still are no game streamers... That's a golden mine, even bigger than SR.

 

When you present in your next one, your fan base will be larger and you will have members supporting you, just like that 8 generation member who had all the SKE48 8 generation members in her stream cheering on her. It is enough? No, but it probably eases her mind enough to not make the same mistakes again.

Of course, which could happen to most except the few ones that have belonged to other idol groups, the ones that have acted as MC for events in Yokohama Arena, or the ones that modelled in front of thousands... oh, wait.

Maybe you didn't read correctly, so I'll write it again: some girls didn't use showroom at all, not even in radio mode as most of the girls who can't show their face or give a name do. Maybe they didn't have internet or phones at home, maybe they were so shy they couldn't even speak, but for me, they just didn't care.

How do you show, through Showroom, that you are a hard worker? You show your school marks? You show your skills? You interact with fans? Keeping 4000 people in average watching your stream for between 5 and 10 hours says something, I'd think, about being hardworking.

There are a few in the Amateur and the Anime categories, plus a few that sometimes do (idols and models). But if you want to earn money out of games, you use Twitch, not SR, where they can get money not only via tips but also subscriptions.

 

By the way, I'm not that old of a fan (started during the second half of 2010, a few months before founding Project SUB48), so I might be wrong, but idols in general and 48G in particular have never been about being able to sing or dance. They used playback during most of their concerts, they used basic steps for dancing, they redo all the music track for DVD/BD releases... in fact until performing with French Kiss in a TV program singing live Yukirin had never used earphones before during a song.

They are about watching them improve from raw material to stars, their struggles, their failures and their successes. It was only until Beginner that they started to perform to the "top" of their abilities because, well, otherwise they would have not been able to show any more improvement. But the new research students start as raw as possible.

Nobody knows what they do with these Showrooms, but we have all watched the old audition footage where the girls introduce themselves, sing a song, and answer a few questions. Obviously a 12 year old girl will be nervous and might not be able to answer fluidly to Akimoto himself, so I'm guessing they have always found hard to know how they would interact with other members and fans themselves. This Showroom gives them a good insight of the girl's talking abilities, their inventive, how they react to certain questions, how they can keep fans entertained, being it 30 minutes or 5 hours per day.

By the way, looks like 102 was insulted by a troll during her stream, she broke down, and fans threw a few Tokyo Towers to cheer her up, 5 or so I think.

 

Ishizuka Akari (Anchu) has done two NicoNico Lives playing different Dragon Quest games, if that's what you mean by game streaming. I haven't seen any clips of the second one yet, but the first was absolute comedy gold for NMB fans because other members came in and out to help her periodically.

Back on topic, I never thought I'd get sucked in this much to these audition Showrooms... I didn't pay attention at all during 16th gen. It also turns out that three of my favorites (17, 22, and 29) are from the Hiroshima audition (29 is from Yamaguchi but lives in Hiroshima now). I had a really nice time when I visited there last month, so maybe it's something subconscious lol.

 

And Nobodywil. Not even you...

 

Is it ok to ask any of the girls if they have AKB merchandise/collection?

 

no problem, Fuuchan did like a 2 hr stream sharing her wota goods few days ago.