[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

Putting this here, beacuase it's more appropriate than in the graduations anouncement thread

Well, it has become tough to be in positive spirit after all that has happened lately.
We had this mass graduation anouncements partly due to various management decisions. The end of teams being the main ones. Girls not afraid to hint they are pushed out, or they won't have anymore opportunities because they are sidelined.
There were management decisions which don't go in the right direction, and are questionable. And they don't even try to hide that all this is driven by financial difficulties.
And todays concert is just one more stone to this accumulation of disapoining moments. It was promoted as the big reveal of the new AKB48 structure, to basically anounce nothing.
How can you keep fans interest after that ? It's like they keep pouring water on a dying fire.

So basically, the new system is no system at all, they will rotate members in the new stage with KKS subbing from time to time, if any because the roster is large enough to (theorically) do the stage without need of subs.

Speaking aboutf the new stage, it's anouncement is a sour taste to me.
There were times, around 10 years ago, where money was still flowing and they anounced new shows for all the 48groups teams, just to end with 1 real stage (I'm excluding SKE48's ones because they obviously aren't part of this original plan).
Sure it's great to move forward with something, just it could have been done way earlier for at least Teams K, B, 4, maybe 8.
It seems they pulled this stage because they feel the pressure from SKE48's ones. Their stages are good and they managed to recover the expense in no time.

So, what DH can do now ?
A7 studio recording album is still nowhere to be seens, and I have some doubts it's going to be released anytime soon, there might be some rights issues with most of the original performers.
Team Surprise 3 ?? same availability. Ironically the album has been released, just distributed on a very restricted scale.
So about a "whatever it is" stage album release ? I have low hopes, even on streaming.

All in all, I wish AKB48 can continue and accelerate on this ascending slope they have slowly taken. Just, with this management, (and today concert conclusion is another proof), they are still sailing in a heavy fog and they don't really show signs of will to come out of this low visibility zone as quickly as possible.

 

We'll get summary 8 teams: 4 season teams (Haru, Natsu, Aki and Fuyu) and 4 school club themed (Undo, Geijutsu Kateika, Otaku and Benkyo) . Each girl belongs to 2 teams. Team Season is based on date of birth and school club is based on what they are interested about.

8 teams give fans more variety in the theater, so we'll have 9 options to apply for (with 19ki kks in the future).

Some examples:
Yuiyui is Team Fuyu and Team Geijutsu Kateika
Sorara is Team Haru and Team Undo
Hiichan is Team Aki and Team Undo
Yukirin is Team Natsu and Team Benkyo

But let's wait for official info from AKB website.

 

Kashiwagi Yuki: "Yuiyui, from now I entrust AKB to you."
「ゆいゆい、これからのAKBを任せたよ」


I'm sure that 9 years ago, that shy, small 12 years old child could never expect that one day AKB48 would be on her shoulder.

 

This Modelpress article has what appears to be a confirmation of the new system :
https://mdpr.jp/music/detail/4013517

It also has a setlist of today's concert and it lists the members of the seasonal teams.

 

I thought the "Teams" combo's were just for the concert like a fresh member shuffle, never thought this would be the new system of the group for theater performances

 

I-


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Seems almost identical in terms of audition process and timing to 18th gen audition, so we will probably see the 19ki in April 2024 then.
The only difference I see is that now they are limiting the maximum age to 19 years old instead of 20 y.o. previously.

 

I'm extremely confused about this simply because Team Natsu only has 10 members (right?). If they are supposed to go back to 16nin stages, how can the seasonal teams be the new system? So I too assumed the "teams" were just for the concert and that the new system is just kinda dividing the girls at random (hence the huge amount of new "teams" during the concert).

 

Effortlessly. Whatever it was.

I mean, yeah, I knew that. But... that's it? That's the system they killed the teams for? That's what some of them waited for? Jesus, even the AKBATTLE would've been a better idea.

And what are you going to do with the sub-forums now? DH screwed the mods.

 

I think they already explained it in the concert.
from the concert, DH gave us a slight idea of what the theater will be like.
no more traditional Team system. The member will unify under the name of AKB48.
with this new system, management can decide whoever they want to perform.

 

Then... don't announced a damn thing. They could've said this months ago.

 

One 16 members stage and 5x girls so just 1/2 of the girls can have their original stage if we don’t count KKS and upcoming graduation but I’m sure staff want “new ACE” Aichan to be there so even less space for promoted members. An AKBattle or even SSK to decide the line-up is way more better than the current senbatsu line-up full with staff favour and nothing interesting.

 

Personal favorite is to go with Promoted Members and Kenkyuusei; but if they want to consider the new teams (if this is for real), then dividing them by their birth seasons (and KKS?).

 

I could be wrong but imagine if we got team bijin, team gravure or team loli for the stage? that is even better than SSK!
it's up to the management to decide the line up.

 

I've just remembered that last week I had a message from the Official FC about the email which club members receive every year on their birthday. The email contains greetings from the members of a selected team - I had chosen Team A as many of my top oshis were in it, not just Komi.

Last week's email from the FC said that in future I had to select a group of members based on their birthdays in a 3-month period - seasonal teams? (Obviously I chose the group which included Komi's birthday in September.) So was it an early announcement of today's teams? Er, no it wasn't - as can be seen from my screenshot the four 3-month periods do not correspond with the ones used today.



(for confirmation, the ones today were for months 3-5, 6-8, 9-11 and 12-2)

 

these new arrangements will change with time or are they fixed?

and honestly, i thought they would do something more extreme, this is basically the team system + kenning system, since they belong to two different "groups".

 

Damn..they could merely & humbly stay with the thing of dividing the members in promoted and kenkyuusei, no need to create this bullshit

 

New profile picture has been updated for both Regular Members and KKS:
https://www.akb48.co.jp/about/members

It's the purple costume for Promoted and for KKS is the picture with seifuku and hairstyle same with the debut.

 

I read on 5ch that tickets for Budokan concert weren't sold out. Some people guess the next time AKB48 do a concert they will have to choose a smaller location than Budokan.