Graduation announcements thread

Thank you! I'm so tired of the negativity. And I'm not one to like toxic positivity either, but at the rate things have been going, I'd rather that to all this negativity. Every time anything at all is announced there's always someone who finds a way to complain about it, even if it's a good announcement! I almost want to stop following any fans, I just don't do it because I'm not one to always be on top of every single news source and I don't know Japanese anyway, so I do need the AKB English fandom spaces. Anyway... I agree with you. The group will be fine. I think people act like AKB needs to be how it was during its golden era, and anything short of that is not good enough and a sign the group might end tomorrow. In reality, however, they are selling and promoting the new girls well, downsizing is also good to guarantee good promotion. There's no reason for the group not to continue for a bunch of years even if it has to be as a smaller scale-type group.

Also, I understand part of the frustration is all of these graduations, it's only natural to feel sad and dissatisfied when your oshi is gone. It's also natural to feel like the group isn't the same and to feel sad over it, I myself didn't follow the group closely for some years because I felt like things weren't the same, I didn't know the new gens and while I like idols and J-Pop in general, nothing else ever came close to AKB. It's hard to feel like you've lost the group, at least I felt that way. But my issue is that the comments I've been seeing all over don't feel like people are simply (understandably) mourning what they liked about the group, they're doing that + actively nitpicking and criticizing anything that the group does, good or bad. And the former I understand and have empathy for, but not the latter. I think it's okay to criticize objectively bad decisions from management, but other things we should hope for the best on. One huge example of this for me was how most people reacted to teams being gone. I understand it's sad, but we have no way to know just yet if it was a good decision for the group or not, and yet people have been mostly saying nothing but bad things about it. At a certain point some of the complaints stop being logical and are born out of frustration more than anything, imo.

 

It's funny that some fans want the group disband after they lost their oshimen in the group. Please stay away from AKB48 and ignore it. Why do you guys need to follow the group you don't like anymore?

After 14 years following this group, I still find the enjoyment and exitement in new coming members and think the future is very bright and positive.

The best way to avoid negative is blocking 48RH - place of toxic fans (anti-fans?). They always say we stage48 members are toxic but thank god we are friendly than that place.

 

and my mind was, I can see sasshi the idol once again for the last time!

 

Goodness, I didn’t realize my comment would cause such a fuss. I apologize for that. I was mostly taking into consideration the mass graduations, overall weirdness that was OO48, and singles that are dropped and forgotten about (minus Nemohamo, which they did seem to care about, so I’ll give them that). I would love for AKB to pull a Morning Musume, and I am excited to see what the new gens have to offer (just look at my icon lol), but we also can’t ignore the possibility of what the past year means for the group.

But for the sake of not getting too off topic on a graduation announcement thread, I will return to my usual lurking. Just wanted to clarify what I meant.

 

I think there's some sort of misunderstanding here. No one actually believes that AKB will end. Gosh, if that didn't kill Johnny's nothing will! The point is: what AKB we have and what AKB we will have?

See, Morning Musume and H!P still exist, they're still releasing singles and their sales have been consistent. Yes, far lower than AKB but it has always been like that. They're selling less than a few years ago but so is AKB. If you ask a person who never gave up on Momusu they will probably say they're happy they can still have their group.

If one says that their individual sales don't matter when deciding the senbatsu because there are other things, how can you say it's all fine because of... single sales? Did the rest improve that much? Is Yukirin, of all people, going to have her graduation concert in a big stage?

 

NMB48 Team N captain Sadano Haruka has just announced graduation. She'll leave in December.

EDIT: Official notice:
https://ameblo.jp/nmb48/entry-12825598497.html

 

people worry so much about the future that they forget to enjoy the present

girl know that management won't give her more push...

 

This exactly.

I'm confused by what you mean here. We know that AKB doesn't have the kind of money it used to have when Acchan graduated. So they'll have to give Yukirin the best possible graduation concert considering the circumstances. Isn't that enough? Pia Arena isn't as big as she deserves, not even close, but we can't compare her graduation concert to the ones for the other older gen aces, simply because the group isn't the same. We need to see if her concert is proportional to the current AKB.
But if what you mean is that the location of her concert is indicative of AKB's bad state at the moment, then what I can say is that rebuilding popularity isn't that easy and takes time, so I don't think we can say if the group is doing better or worse one way or the other, tbh.

 

And for how long have they been on that path? But I guess this time is different, unlike all the previous attempts, this one will definitely do it with the new teams. Fighting!

 

It may not be, to be honest. I'm not saying it's clear that they're doing better and will continue on that path. But I also refuse to be pessimistic about it. I think it's valid to be pessimistic, but I'd rather enjoy what we do have.
Besides, I already didn't follow the group closely during the years between 2017-2020 (roughly), and to me that was actually when the worst management decisions were made. The group was coming off of the highs of the golden era so it wasn't as obvious then the effects of poor management, but at the time you had a huge amount of new gens who were given next to no promotion at all because AKB was always sharing the spotlight with the sister groups. Compared to that, I would say AKB now is more sustainable (just suffering the consequences of not promoting the girls during that period).

 

Otani Yuki of SKE48 Team S (and a D3 member) has just announced graduation. She'll leave at the end of January.

Official notice:
https://ske48.co.jp/news/detail/47482

Her leaving date is confirmed as 1/31.

 

How many D3 members are going to remain?

 

13 members
AKB48
Omori Maho

SKE48
Nakano Airi

NMB48
Izumi Ayano
Yamamoto Mikana
Abe Wakana
Shiotsuki Keito
Maeda Reiko

HKT48
Ito Yueru

NGT48
Sato Kairi
Fujisaki Miyu

STU48
Oki Yuka
Shinano Soraha
Nakamura Mai

 

I don't know too well about the others but AKB48 and NMB48 are examples to me of what a group can do to make members feel valued. Mahopyon being the only one left standing is because she was the only one besides Moeka who really got a push (and Moeka's story is another one entirely). Mikana, Keito and Wakana are pretty big names in NMB.

D3 debuted in 2018, and these were the first A-side positions every NMB 3rd Draftee appeared in (bold are currently active members):

• Shiotsuki Keito - Boku Datte naichau yo (2018)
• Ota Riona - Bokou e Kaere! (2019)
• Minami Haasa - Tokonoma Seiza Musume (2019)
• Yamamoto Mikana - Tokonoma Seiza Musume (2019)
• Abe Wakana - Koi Nanka No thank you! (2020)
• Izumi Ayano - Sukida Mushi (2022)
• Maeda Reiko - Sukida Mushi (2022)

Members without senbatsu appearances:

• Kumamoto Hinako (graduated in 2018) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
  
• Osawa Ai (graduated in 2019) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
• Sato Ami (graduated in 2020) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
  
• Mizobuchi Maria (graduated in 2020) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
  
• Kawano Nanaho (graduated in 2021) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
• Sakamoto Nami (graduated in 2021) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
• Sugiura Kotone (graduated in 2022) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
• Yamasaki Amiru (graduated in 2022) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018
• Nakano Mirai (graduated in 2023) - first song appearance on Boku Datte naichau yo in 2018

There's still more draftees that didn't appear in senbatsu than vice versa, but compare that with the 19 AKB draftees, where only 2 have had senbatsu appearances (Moeka and Maho) and literally EVERYONE ELSE had their first B-side appearance on Ne mo He mo Rumor in 2021 (3.5 years after debut)...

As far as I know, the 3rd Draftees (especially Oki Yuka and MaiQQ) are getting very good treatment in STU48 too. Their entire generation is still active!

 

Another D3 member getting very good treatment is Fujisaki Miyu in NGT48, she's the Captain there and she's centered an A-side ('Sherbet Pink'). She also seems to be the main MC leader and indeed she's managed to drag me back into following the group! (Maybe she's been attracting back other former fans as well as new ones.)

EDIT: Hinana has just announced graduation - she'll leave in January.

Official notice:
https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12825849854.html

 

Shimoguchi Hinana just announced graduation at the theatre

https://twitter.com/dedemaruenzo/status/1716777806217220511

 

Do you think Macharin will return to Taiwan?

 

When they announced Yukarun, Ayanan, Hinana, Macharin and Kyoka not appearing at the spring concerts, I felt that was a pretty definitive hint at members about to graduate as well.

 

And those are the ones we know and they don't mind leaking.

 

And another one: NGT48 Homma Hinata just announced her graduation as well

https://twitter.com/s_egg/status/1716780965098672420