Member reactions to 17th Senbatsu

Clearly I have too much time on my hands so I've collated member reactions to NMB's 17th Senbatsu being revealed yesterday. I think its important for us to remember that these girls work really hard every day using blogs, mail, twitter, showroom and the like in addition to all the theater shows, concerts and handshakes they do. Getting into senbatsu is validation for them and rightfully so, it is something all of them want.

I'll do the border members since thats where all the action is and then maybe some others if anyone has requests.

New Senbatsu: (Momorun's gotten alot of support from all the members and it really seems like the other girls like her personality so she's gotten alot of praise)

Momorun - Really really happy. She's neither good at dancing nor singing so she's had to work harder than anyone else. All her success up to now has been because of her fans and all their support. It was her first time going on a music show and seeing all these big stars and sharing the same stage as them made her really happy.

Got back into senbatsu:

Saepi - Apologized to her fans for making them worry. She says that the fact that whether or not she's in senbatsu is something to worry about is not a good thing and she has realized how hard it is to get into senbatsu will work harder to make sure that she will always be called.

Aapon - Happy to be back. Will make sure she won't let go of this chance yet again.

Azusa - Thanked her fans for all their support. Getting dropped from Masaka Singapore was really hard for her, seeing the senbatsu perform in concerts made her sad and she has been supported by the kind words from her fans for the past 6 months. Promises to not let go of this chance.

Drops:

(During the Best Hits Music Show where they announced the new senbatsu, they were actually doing a theater show in Namba at the same time and thus, it confirmed that Kokochan and Chihhi got dropped from senbatsu and others like Renapyon and Yamarina didn't make it in)

They all did this together so I'll group them together, but at the end of the Team M Idol no Yoake theater show, Renapyon addressed the elephant in the room and said what everyone was thinking in that the senbatsu members are in Best Hits which means the people standing there did not get into senbatsu. She then brought out Chihhi and Kokochan to say a few words.



Kokochan - Actually cried during this part. In her blog she said sorry to all her fans. Said she hadn't been able to sleep for the 2 weeks since they announced internally who would be senbatsu. She felt really conflicted when their manager told her she would be pinch hitting for Team M on the day that senbatsu would be announced to the world but she decided that refusing this assignment would just be her running away from it so she decided to do it.

Chihhi - Searching her name on twitter the past few days would repeatedly show tweets talking about how she's dropped out of senbatsu. She promises to show these people and she will get back into senbatsu.


Renapyon - Not giving up senbatsu. Hoping to one day finally get into it. She even posted a picture of all the remaining 1st gen members in NMB (all of whom are in senbatsu for this single)


Rinacchi - This was the most brutal one because she spent 30 minutes on showroom crying about getting dropped from senbatsu. Rinacchi actually made a lot of good points, about how she was senbatsu for BokuIgai and Masaka Singapore but it never really felt like she was senbatsu, she got no magazine shoots, no radio appearances, no special units in concerts. She talked about how hard it was to get back into senbatsu the first time she was dropped and how a lot of girls never are able to come back but now she has to do it again and how it scares her.


Shion - Did a showroom too but didn't really cry. She said she felt sad and apologized to her fans for not making the most of her chance in Masaka Singapore and how she wants to come back.

Maokyun - Everyone seems to think that since he has outside work that she doesn't care about senbatsu but she actually does! Says that she knows senbatsu is not the be all end all but that doesn't make her want it any less.

 

Thanks for the great work!

Sad but this is exactly why I am really against senbatsu with more than 16 members.

I feel like Renapyon really missed out on this. She actually ranked really well at the prelims! Also, she's a really good captain. I really want to see her get rewarded... Personally, I would replace Momorun with her since there's already two 5th gen in senbatsu already.

I'm surprised that she actually had something to say about this. I thought her best chances were during the AKB0048 days... I don't know if it's possible for her now.

I wonder if Enokii has anything to say about this as well?

 

Since bottom tier senbatsu on a sister group of AKB48 doesn't mean anything regarding exposure based on Rinacchi's points, I wonder if girls are purposely being held back from senbatsu or pushed forward based on their plans to mobilize certain otaku fanbases/whales. This seems like such an easy way to monetize border members when their fanbases are slipping. Drop them from senbatsu, get an invigorated fanbase that will buy a bunch of current singles to apologize for not supporting them hard enough. Then you can include them in the next single and get that same base to buy singles to thank the member for working hard until the fanbase gets lazy and stops supporting them as hard, drop them again, rinse and repeat.

Must be fun to toy with everyone's emotions and dreams like that.

 

I think management sees it the other way from you. There's nothing to be gained from putting Renapyon in a 16-member senbatsu but it might be a boost to Momorun's career.

Maokyun gets alot of outside work (pretty much more than everyone except the top top tier senbatsu) primarily because she can speak well. Its not out of the realm of possibility she gets into senbatsu but no one is under any delusion that she will get in since its not really anything that would benefit anyone involved. Her message was basically, "Hey, I'm not a variety talent, I'm still an idol and member of NMB. Of course I want to be in senbatsu."

I actually looked for a reaction from her and other than a vague "People say lots of things but I still have to live my life the way I want" she didn't really comment on it which is surprising since she was a senbatsu regular for a long-ass time.

I tend to agree with you and I think that's exactly what management is doing albeit not as cynically as you're making it out to be. I've noticed that NMB management has this sick habit of putting someone into senbatsu and then dropping them next single as some kind of test or whatever. I'm not sure why they do it but I suspect they see it as challenging the member and their fans and if the member is able to get through it, they get a better more permanent slot.

There's always this raging argument among the fandom of give XXX a chance but no one ever answers the followup question of "well, who do you drop?" I think management tries to balance this with giving the slots to the girls who "deserve" it and balancing it with "growth" slots for girls they want to give mini-pushes to and who they hope will grow.

 

Oh I don't think there's much to be gained from putting her in. I just want her to be in. She !deserves! it lmfao. Anyway, my attention span is short, I'm still trying to get to know the not Sayaka girl and Keicchi's sister. I won't be able to get to know another girl. I would prefer having someone I know and like get rewarded.

This is so funny lmfao. Queen of being high.

Mte.... >.<

 

I think that ideally, senbatsu would confer two mutual benefits: it brings exposure to the girl and draws people into the group through her, and through that she secures more opportunities to push the group through outside work like magazines, etc. That may have been true in early AKB48 days, and even then, work was heavily tilted towards Kami 7. But now there are more groups under the 48G umbrella and if we include Sakamichi groups too, why would you bother getting a low tier senbatsu member when you can just get the top members of another group, or whoever their modeling/interview/talk specialists/etc. are?

This song and choreography don't seem particularly tied down to a 16-nin. It could've been any number of people, it doesn't seem better with only 16. So what's the point? Saving on hotel and transportation fees to Tokyo for filming the music shows?

Of course I'd rather them use the senbatsu to springboard to bigger and better things by keeping the senbatsu compact, but if that's not happening and it's just used solely as the otaku stimulator/money grabber it's kind of embarrassing.

 

Originally there were rumors that it was going to be 22 people but scheduling of members made that seem impossible unless they did a "media senbatsu" of, like, 12 members and 10 non-media which I thought would solve the too many girls problem while also giving the "prestige" of senbatsu to more girls.

 

Now I realized why NMB members were given "extra" freedom on SNS (Even an official YT account) compared with the rest of 48 Group. It may have been viewed as the management being liberal, but it is actually their attempt to expand the target market. Same can be said with NMB tour recently (And some other things as well). In short, term "Senbatsu" has lost some of it's benefit that another way to gain exposure has to be found.

But until the fruit is ripe (Like what happened to Akarin), the engine of the group still has to be fueled. So....

 

i still don't get why they dropped Kokochan & Chihii. especially Kokochan, and especially in the dire situation Team N's in rn