Event / Concert AKB48 53rd Single Sekai Senbatsu Sousenkyo (2018/06/16)

The members themselves - the staff conducted a survey of "songs you'd like to hear" prior to the SSK. The results were performed as the opening act and the actual concert consisted mostly of those results, too.

 

I'm pretty disappointed with this SSK overall. Seichan only moved up one rank, Komi and Macharin ranked low, and we got the single most boring and predictable winner (and not even any graduation announcements for the #drama). The only real saving grace was Saho ranking high, and Cherprang and Music making it in was nice, though I don't actively follow them.

Spoiler

plus a few certain members ranking down, but I won't name names in the sake of preventing an argument lol

 

Nobody calls her that anyway? lol

I can’t help but replay in my mind Sakura’s reaction to being called 3rd.

 

OK. I figured it had to be the members or the audience in attendance. That is a cool concept. And 47 no Suteki na Machi e finally came in first, albeit as a part of a tie.

That is interesting. It's like their destinies flipped. I did once think Okada was suited to become soukantoku. I will support Mion if she wants the role though.

Holy crap Ayana. That is one of the craziest sousenkyo stats.

 

Sayanee would probably have had a vote growth similar to Jurina. Honestly, I don't know. Or maybe neither would have increased that much if they were still all in the game.
I'm surprised she got 190k+votes (congratulations btw) but were the other old members still around, I think they would show the same proportional vote inflation.

 

Ayana is practically the new Hirajima Natsumi who always ranked at 26. And when she joined the election as a graduate, she ranked at 62!

 

Thoughts:

1. I'm really happy with Ouka's rank! SKE has a history of really paying attention to SSK when it come to selecting senbatsu, and I think this will secure her senbatsu spot for the foreseeable future. As a side note, I also think that is one of the reasons SKE does so well in the election. The fans know that their votes get results beyond the election single. It will be interesting to see if Arai Yuki enters their senbatsu now.

2. I'm really torn about when girls are salty about their ranking. On the one hand, they should have the right to express if they are disappointed, but on the other hand, some of them sound like a little kid who's mom has said, "What do we say....?" when they say "Thank you to everyone who voted for me". It does make them sound a bit like petulant children if they seem ungrateful for all the people who spent a lot of money voting for them, especially if they have a high rank. I think some girls do a much better job than others at seeming gracious while still expressing their disappointment.

3. NMB continues to really struggle at SSK. I think there are a couple reasons for this. They have lost many front members without really succeeding in replacing them (Milky, Nana, Shuu, Kei, Fuuko), while SKE has kept a lot of their long standing popular girls for a while now. I also think there is just an attitude that "NMB doesn't do well at sousenkyo" which may keep fans of theirs from voting much. No single person is likely to get a girl to rank, and if you know the other guys aren't going to vote much, why should you spend your money on a lost cause?

4. Also on NMB, I feel bad for Miru. At least Akari went up. I watched her in some recent theater performances, and she's always giving 100% with her expressions. I appreciate it when the top girls don't start thinking the theater is beneath them.

5. I don't really like that AKB doesn't have any girls higher than number five in their own single. I hope that someone (Nana?) can make top 3 next year.

6. Impressive jump for Saho this year!

7. I'm also happy for Nako/Miku. Sure they seem to have picked up a bunch of Sasshi votes, but I do think they're pretty great idols. They started out as a kind of novelty act (Look how tiny they are!) and I expected them to fade as they got older and the little kids thing wore off, but I think they've really proved themselves. I have a preference for Miku, but I still do kind of like how they are presented as a pair as well, and their side by side ranking in senbatsu is just perfect.

8. Will this be the year AKB finally starts paying attention to Tomu? ..... probably not

 

This is probably the most satisfying SSK for me in years. Too many years of SasshiMayu made the event pretty bland(for me) but this year piqued my interest again.

Senbatsu review(?)

1 - I saw Jurina coming from the start so no surprise there.

2 - Dasu was the biggest surprise for me after Minarun. I never predicted SKE to be Top2 even in WMatsui era so I'm really happy about this.

3 - Sakuratan's rank wasn't tragic and I didn't want her to win but its pretty sad to see her cry over this.

4 - I had higher hopes for Ogiyuka but this is already impressive considering she didn't really have as many resources compared to others like Naachan, Yuiyui, NakoMiku...etc.

5 - Naachan broke 75k~ (≧∀≦) The girl deserves it. (*´∀｀)

6 - Yuihan went beyond my expectations...Soukantoku ganbare!

7 - Tomu made a successful comeback and breaks into Kami7! ( ☆∀☆)

8 - Minarun came out of nowhere with 53k...( • _ •)

9 - Really happy with Nako's rank. She's among my Top10 HKT favs.

10 - Mikurin too~ Did the votes come from Sasshi's fanbase or Hayaokuri Calender center effect? Either way both of them broke 50k, mad respect for HKT's future aces.

11 - Hm...I did expect Sarina to drop out from single digits but I'll blame the vote decreasement on SKE's management...

12 - Ugh Juri dropped...and I was pretty optimistic on her rank after premilinaries...

13 - Mion back in senbatsu~

14 - My NMB fav after Mirukii's graduation. The only reason keeping me from celebrating this rank is #14 being NMB's best this year. Still that means Akarin is NMB's best girl so I'll take that.

15 - Satisfied that Nao's still in senbatsu. I'm still salty about TT senbatsu.

16 - Not surprised, not disappointed. Hinatan still needs time to expand her fanbase.

-End of Senbatsu review-

Overally I'm really pleased with these results. Most balanced SSK senbatsu with old-mid-new gen distribution. Well actually there are only 2 'new' gens but there are more fresh faces so... The vote count is pretty interesting, AKB has a promising future~

Edit : I made this comment right after SSK stream but the page wasn't working, sry if its out of place at this timing.

 

I just want to give my appreciation to AKS for the YouTube stream. It made a nice change from the usual scramble for a good stream.

 

My first live SSK and it was a blast!

Was very surprised that Mirurun ranked so low (losing nearly a quarter of her votes), was hoping she would place in top 10 this year...

AKB making a bit of a comeback, even though they were the lower ranks they managed to get 3 girls into Kami 7. Nana looks like she's on pace to match or overtake OgiYuka next year. Speaking of Ogiyuka and NGT the nuggets weren't as overwhelming as I feared and Ogiyuka gained less from prelims > final than I thought. Still good effort on her though and her speech was super meme.

Sakura made an insane leap to 141k but tragically still not enough! While I was very hyped at the announcement that top 2 would be SKE I actually feel really bad for Sakura and definitely would have preferred her as 2nd over Dasu. Not that I don't like Dasu I just like Sakura more. Congrats to Dasu by the way she was the real dark horse of the night, pretty much everyone was expecting her to place 4th-6th, her placing 2nd is a huge triumph for her.

Of course the crowning moment of the night was Jurina clinching the throne and in dominating fashion at that. 194k makes her the 2nd highest votes achieved by any 48G after Sasshi and I think it does a lot to quell the notions that J only won because Yukirin/Sayanee didn't participate (Sasshi is still an unbeatable wall ofc). Yukirin's highest vote count was 167k and Sayanee's around 110k which are significantly less. Obviously the circumstances of each election are different (Nagoya + SKE 10th Anniversary buffs are OP like I said) but this narrative of Jurina moving up only because of others leaving is now a lot weaker than if she won with 'only' 140-150k like most people (me included) were expecting.

Hopefully the next few SSKs will be just as entertaining especially as so many girls seem to be experiencing vote growths to shake things up. I voted exclusively for Jurina this year but next time around there's a lot of other girls from all across 48G I think I'll put a few votes in for!

 

SKE fans really went all out for their 10th anniversary year in the event that they are known for! Can we just talk about SKE for a bit?

As much as Sakura got burned bad, she still had over 140k votes. She got what 60k more votes? That's a huge achievement. I want to talk about how the fact that she came third wasn't much about her failure but about how fans went absolutely ham voting for Jurina and Dasu/Akarin. 194k is just a massive amount, I didn't think I'd see J reach Sasshi-like numbers so fast. Dasu coming second was a stunning upset, but I'm happy for her. Overall SKE has 5 senbatsu members, as many as AKB.

Kaotan and Churi didn't make it but honestly it's a good showing (and kind of relieved that there are a lot of strong showings from AKB members to make it in that there weren't a few years back). The younger SKE members like Maya, Ryoha, Yunana, Egoten, Airi, Ouka, Miku.... were really impressive. The fans did good. Another thing- Mikotti's speech after ranking in for the first time (after being one of the members who had joined every sousenkyo since the 1st one and never ranked) was also one of the most touching moments from the whole event.

Aside from SKE-

I was really happy to see some of my favourite members like Ayakani, Ayutaro and Okabe Rin perform so well. Music and Cherprang making it in with a splash was really nice. It's cool to see foreign sister group fans being able to engage so much with the biggest main events.

A lot of people seemed to drop, probably due to how close all the middle and lower ranks were. It was crazy competitive- you could say a bloodbath. Some pushed members definitely underperformed as well and some like Miru dropping out of senbatsu after being there ONCE? That was just upsetting...

A side note but wasn't Mako just adorable? So smiley, no "kuyashii" Hope she can make it to the top 16 next year!

 

SKE! Yes! So happy!

 

This was the smoothest sousenkyo stream, I've ever experienced, and no adverts!!
Thoughts good/great/sad:
1. YABUKI NAKO, MUTO TOMU, NISHIMURA NANAKO, GOTO MOE, MATSUOKA HANA, - my oshis really smashed it this year.
2. AKB0048 vibes - its so nostalgic, it was because of this anime, that i got into akb48 in the first place and Karen
3. Disappointed that Juri dropped. My next GM, hope she does better next year.
4. I knew from the start Sakura wasn't going to get center. Jurina has always had more votes. But wow Dasu is too stronk
5. Congrats to the Thai wota! I didn't expect BNK to do that well.
6. Meru is making a comeback! and i am excited for it.
7. O D A

One of the best sousenkyos so far for me.

Management better make NakoMiku senbatsu staples after this...

 

They do though. Maybe it's not used that much in the forum but it is in Japan, especially by members. You could say her double nickname situation is a bit special, in that “Akarin” is the affectionate nickname and “Dasu” the teasing one, some people actually use both depending on situation. You can see it in SKE TV shows and MCs.

 

Congrats for J and Dasu, and SKE fans in general.
So can now we predict the extend of NGTs secret recipe on getting that many votes?

Just happy for Okabe Rin to rank

 

SKE fans definitely blew everyone away. Sakura getting 141k puts her close to Mayu territory and should have been an easy #2 or possibly even #1 given I think most people were predicting Jurina to hit 140-150k max if she wanted to win #1 and Sakura would have been expected to hit 110-130k. Dasu basically came out of nowhere with an insane 154k and Jurina with an equally impressive 194k. It seems like most of the SKE Hako oshis voted for Dasu with an unknown amount of help towards Jurina's cause (which now seem to mainly be propelled by a Herculean effort + saving up from last year by her fans). The scary thing is if the SKE oshis directed more of their votes towards Jurina they could have brought Jurina to Sasshi's 254k vote count whilst STILL keeping Dasu in 3rd with 94k. That's insane.

 

I have followed Suda since the days when she was in Team KII. I have seen her changed her fishing ways from very extreme to a more personal, homely kind of fishing, less extreme. I remembered 3 years back when she dropped out of Senbatsu. It was extremely hard to watch. She didn't give up. I have personally experienced her changed her ways and worked even harder where she interacts and fishes her fans differently after that.

I was expecting her to get 7 to 10, reason being her age but I glad I was wrong. Being 2nd was a shocker to me and I am extremely happy for her. I was cart-wheeling with joy across the room. She really deserves it. I was laughing away yet glad that she said she wants to continue this till she is 30.

I like her very much and will continue to support her. She loves her job very much and is a symbol of what an idol is. She will forever be my SKE oshimen.

That was her nickname when she first started out. I still call her that instead of Dasu.

 

Imo...
Best Moments:
1. Tomu ranking in Kami 7 (The biggest f u to management and I'm living for it - this is also my favourite moment from the event)
2. Jurina finally winning (honestly just wanted her to finally be relieved and get what she's wanted for literally 10 years)
3. Music and Cherprang ranking in (lol another f u to people who thought they weren't going to rank - my 2nd fave moment)
4. NakoMiku ranking senbatsu (literally exactly how i wanted it as well i wanted nako to be ahead of miku since im a nako fan)
5. Ogiyukas speech lmao she had me dead
6. Akarin ranked higher than last year (but still lower than I expected )
7. Minarun sudden jump to senbatsu (I didn't even know her before this but I always love seeing a wild card pop out of nowhere. And I swear #8 is always the wild card)

Worst Moments:
1. Sakura ranking third (I love dasu too but I would prefer if sakura came 2nd)
2. Literally only two STU girls ranking in
3. Renacchi in next girls and, Miichan and Kaotan still in undergirls (especially miichan who ranked so low )
4. Mirurun in undergirls, therefore making only one nmb girl rank in senbatsu (seriously nmb fans need to step up their game)
5. Okappa and Mahohon in Upcoming girls and Nakai Rika in Next girls (not the biggest fan but I don't hate her either so it is still sad to see)
6. Takeuchi Miyu didn't rank in (but that's to be expected so I'm not that sad about it)
7. That they call this a sekai sousenkyo but literally only two international members (from the same country) rank in

Overall thoughts:
This is my first time watching ssk live and holy shit was it a blood bath. Probably the wildest ssk ever imo. I was already shook from the beginning when okappa and mahohon ranked so low, all the way till the end when dasu beat sakura. Mirurun ranking in undergirls was another massive shock. But I'm so happy we at least got the BNK girls to rank (even better than what I was expecting as well). I think there's so much more that I have to say that I can't remember rn but I'm just so glad that Muto Tomu ranked kami 7, I swear to god if management doesn't make her a senbatsu staple but make renacchi, hana and even takino yumiko (although this ones understandable since there would be no one to represent STU) continue to be a senbatsu lock I'll riot . Overall, I'm pretty sad about this ssk, a lot of my favourites didn't rank in the places that I thought/wanted them to rank in. But there are a few highlights that do make me slightly happy about this ssk.

 

Hana placed EXACTLY where I said she would when I was just going on instinct. I said she wasn't going to escape Upcoming Girls while the lot of you expected her to rank into the senbatsu.
And when I later compared Twitter followers and used that as a metric of popularity and dropped all bias, I estimated that she would do much better.... and well, my initial negative assessment turned out to be dead on.

For a girl who has been center so many times and received so much exposure, so many advantages over the other members of her group and so much direct support and promotion from the company over the last two years-- her rank was absolutely pathetic. If so much effort and promotion had been funneled into literally anyone else, they would have done better.

The whole thing is.. yes, she went from rank 80 to rank 66, but none of the people she passed got anywhere near as much exposure and promotion as her, and she got passed by people who never got as much exposure and promotion as her... and most her advancement is not because she passed people, but because people above her either graduated or decided not to run this year which pretty much accounts for her just sliding up because of ranks emptying out without her even passing more people than passed her.

And "haters" can't drop or have any negative effect on her rank. You can't buy a -1 vote for someone. Which means the assessment that her fans are people who have gotten used to everything just being handed to her on a silver platter and have this entitlement that they don't even need to buy votes and actually vote for her like everyone else's fans do has been proven conclusively to be true.

If the people on this board actually cared about her as much as they like to claim they do, then I should be looking at the 2018 Stage48 Exit Poll and see a line that says "Matsuoka Hana 500 votes". Surely the lot of her fans can muster up 500 votes and give her those extra few ranks to get into Future Girls-- if just to prove my negative assessment wrong.

But, you didn't. In fact... I look there and I strangely find her name entirely absent. Which is a good sign that her entire "fanbase" on this site decided to cast a total of 0 votes for her. At least none they were willing to brag about.

And if it is 0?... That means even though I really put minimal effort and money into the election this year, just as a lark-- just to have fun picking out a random oshi from every group, even though I knew half would not rank, I still voted for 7 different girls each more than the entire Stage48 community's "Hana fans" voted for her.

Seriously, does anyone think they "accomplished" something by noticing the girl who is being shoved down everyone throats, getting angry at people and arguing with them on the internet about her being pushed too hard, too early and not living up to the hype being generated for her, and now see that she went up ranks... kind of... technically... well, as long as you don't think about it too hard?

That's not an accomplishment. That's nothing to be proud of. And it certainly doesn't "prove the haters wrong". As her "#1 hater", she did exactly as bad as I initially said she would. Because a girl who has everything just handed to her without her having to work for it simply because someone in the head office is really into her is going to attract a fanbase who expects to have everything handed to her forever without them ever needing to pay or work for it.

 

First off, chill kid, darn, the hatred is real on this one.

Next, where in the world did you get the idea that a lot of people here expected Hana to rank in senbatsu????? Besides, 'hating' (or simply, dissing her) is actually the mainstream thing here in the forum. She's "you know who must not be named" for a reason.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of Hana, more on the side of not really liking her, and yes, I agree, given her push, she's expected to do better. I don't see management giving up on her though.