Nogizaka46 (AKB48's official rivals, produced by Aki-P)

Lead girl doesn't look that pretty :l None of the girls that are supposedly rivals of the big members (Itano, Acchan, etc), are especially pretty/standoutish to me.

But I guess if they can turn 2005's Acchan into 2011's Acchan, then I'm very curious as to what they'll do with them.

 

At least these 36 girls won't be in janken senbatsu or normal senbatsu elections.

Most of them do look pretty polished for their 1st press release. Sony must be spending big bucks on hair and makeup.

I just hope Aki-P remembers that he still has 10 other teams that he needs to write songs for.

 

So if these girls get a theater and they wont have teams.. will all 46 perform on the same stage?

 

^ That's still uncertain (but they will not have a fixed theatre), during the press conference, Aki-p said that there are still a lot of things that he couldn't announce at the moment

From Nikkan Sports :

Spoiler

　センターには、熊本弁でたどたどしく話す小柄な少女、吉本彩華（１５）が選ばれた。「６年前の前田敦子そっくりの良い子（生田絵梨花＝１４）もいた。でも、それだとＡＫＢのマネです。一番未知数で伸びしろのありそうな、どうなるか分からない吉本にしてみた。少し暗い感じにも興味が湧くね」。前田やＳＫＥ４８松井珠理奈とはまったく違うタイプの子だった。

He said that there was a girl who was just like the Acchan of 6 years ago, Ikuta Erika (14) but putting her in the center would be just an imitation of AKB. He chose Yoshimoto, because she looks like she has the highest potencial to growth in many different aspects, another totally different type from Acchan or Jurina.

And from Natalie and Nikkan Sports:

Spoiler

Natalie: 「公演はストーリーを持った内容にしたい」
Nikkan Sports: 全国のホールを回り「２部構成の物語仕立ての公演にする。毎回観客にショー前半の後の休憩時間に、携帯電話で人気投票してもらう。

It seems that the perfomance will have a story based concept, and according to Nikkan Sports, fans will vote through the cellphone at the perfomances (during the interval), and 乃木坂46 will perform at the "halls" around the country, thus not having a fixed place for concerts.

Well, for the discussion, we can see that Aki-P wants to do a totally different concept from 48 family...it's a possible market strategy, picking all the raw material from the competitors no ?
At the limit, the best case scenario would be the raise of new fans of both groups through the process of healthy comparison. The worst case scenario would be a massive anti-fan war (since they already born with a rival concept), OR fans starting to be impatient with the lack of music from their groups (like Sorceress628 said, there's a thousand of songs to be written) and/or the girls starting to be tired/dispirited with all of this.

Oh well, to finish, more videos from 乃木坂46 (you can see some of the girls and Aki-p himself talking about the 乃木坂46 concept):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACsTpS6QtsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOBE9fffdnk#t=01m59s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNxG-El3Sk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8lt9rSXWQI

(thanks Criss, for the other videos!)

 

Well like I said months ago, even when this is in fact another multi-girls Idol Group with the same producer they have the Rival title, so maybe we can see some... direct "friendly open confrontations" with AKB, so this could be very interesting.

Now... the big difference (aside the 46 and no teams so far) its the speed; new show in more or less 2 months and concerts before the year ends. Haha Part 1 and Part 2 Crazy after the Concer part1 the new senbatsu will be selected for part2, rush, rush, rush

Sound very strange like... "encore senbatsu"

 

the only person's photo i liked was shiraishi mai.

oh mai. i'm so superficial.

(although i do think this whole idea is hilarious and terrible)

also acchan-chan is such a scary spitting image of acchan.

 

Ok, so after LOLing forever about this I finally can properly join in on this discussion.

I think it's very interesting how Yoshimoto is the center of this thing, she is a very different type from Jurina, Acchan, and Yamamoto so it should give the group a different edge from the xxx48 groups. I hope that's a sign that this group will have it's own identity in terms of sound and looks. If it's just more plaid, school girl outfits, and idol pop then I don't see the point of even bothering with them. If their aim is to be as popular or more popular than AKB48 then they'll have to offer something new. Four of the most popular Japanese girl groups ever: SPEED, Perfume, AKB48, and Morning Musume... all are completely different from each other. What could the next big girl group add to that line-up? Granted I doubt this group will be the "next big thing" but it'll be interesting to see how they fare.

Spoiler

Btw, I would think that these girls will resemble their "rivals" in some way so... with the lead girl being Tomochin's rival... would it be too far-fetched to consider this group like an alternate reality AKB48 w/ Tomochin being the lead girl?

 

As someone mentioned before a majisuka seaso has to made for thenew rivalry betweeen the two family [nod]

 

The thing I really don't like about this is that Aki-p is spread so thin already. Now with HKT and NMB and this will Teams A, K, B, or S ever get a new stage again???

Also, how long before EVERY girl in Japan ages 12-25 is in an idol group? Or at least every girl in Tokyo. Maybe only 75% in other areas.

 

Wow! I'm so happy this group finally started! Personally, I'm not a fan of the whole 'AKB rival' thing they are tagging them with. For both the group and the girls, I think it's a big mistake to tag these girls with that label because people are going to expect the group and the girls to act like their rivals and if they turn out to be something different or innovative, it might backfire. I hope these girls can break out of their 'AKB rival' shells and use their own talent and personalities to create a unique group. With Sony's big-budget-backing, I'm really looking forward to something special with this group.

Now, onto the details that have been revealed so far:

I'm overly ecstatic with the idea of ROTATING SENBATSU!!!!!! OMG! I DIED when I read that! This is what I want AKB to do! THIS IS IT!!!!!!! The fact that different girls will be represented, by the fans, for different shows is absolutely fantastic! EVERY GIRL GETS A CHANCE TO SHINE AND SHOW HER TALENT!

Another thing I'm really excited about is the fact that the group will perform in halls throughout Japan. This will give more exposure to the group and make it more easily accessible for fans to see this girls. This makes them, almost, seem like a more 'indie-styled' Idol group because of the smaller venues they will be performing in (but then again, if you think about it, the 48 theaters are all smaller venues, too).

As I stated above, I'm am really looking forward to this group and I cannot wait for their official debut!!!!!!!

Kay

 

This group is gonna be amazing =D Probably the highest level ***48(-related) audition ever.

With the whole rival thing, I don't think it's as official as some people are making it out to be, like Yoshimoto = Tomochin etc. It's probably just something the girls casually got asked or got told to say at the press conference, the girl that they're aiming for.

 

So I'm going to assume this group fixes everything that fans felt was currently wrong (per se) with AKB48 (see bolded parts, plus a completely original stage from the start), just that it's not from AKB48?

Competition should theoretically drive each group to continuous refinement and improvement, but I wonder how the existing -48 groups will respond. Especially if N46 starts becoming a hit. I just hope they don't cannibalise each other in the marketplace (and I seriously hope they don't both release singles on the same day, although I suspect this will be likely).

Of course, all groups involved are completely under the authority of Aki-P, so idk Does he even have enough resources to manage both the "original/s" and the "rivals"?

 

oh yeas of course we are talking about the genius Aki-p
I am looking forward to this... Aki-p said nogizaka48 will do something that AKB doesn't.
What is it about??!

 

Hmm ,well I agree with this idea in principle I wonder how well it will work from a sense of marketability, whislt I agree that it is important to give all the girls a chance, something that maybe AKB lacks, it is also important I feel to have your 'marquee members' reconisable faces that are there all the time so can be easily remebered as being part of that brand as they are regulary featured, very much like Acchan is to AKB

 

wow that was so fast ass i did not expect the debut of the 36 girls. well, roatating senbatsu very interesting need to watch that space...about the official 'rivals' thing..i need to adpot a wait and see tatic first.

 

Her name is Matsumura Sayuri. The girl with a reallllly long ponytail on the left side. Actually, on second look, she's not as pretty as I thought.

 

I think that will still happen with the senbatsu picked for singles. The rotating senbatsu seems to only be advertised as something for live shows and does not seem to be the case for public events or marketing.

What I think will happen in the long run, is that as the group grows and gets more popularity, the more popular girls will get voted the most (like how AKB is now), therefor, we will still have the familiar faces of a 'regular senbatsu', but this still gives the other girls their chance to shine: if a 'popular' member is absent from a show on a given day for whatever reason, another girls will sub for her- therefor giving the her a chance to be voted. Maybe we won't have a different senbatsu performing every week, and after a while I'm sure we'll start to see the same faces over and over to generate familiarity for the fans and because of certain members popularity/management pushing, but it still gives the other girls a shot, esp. if they are subbing for a popular member or have a lot of fans in the audience on a given day (birthday show, for example).

Kay

 

Ikoma Rina and Yoshimoto Ayaka...
These girls caught my attention
especially for NGZ46 coolgirl,Ikoma Rina

 

If they're going to take this rival thing seriously, then I'd like to see them release their first single on the same day as AKB's release of the 2nd JanKen single.

 

Hi,
I am new here but not new to the ABK48 fandom. I just wanted to voice my opinion and thoughts.

This is interesting however, I thought it was going to be more spectacular. After 38k girls, they picked them?
After a few thorough views of all the girls, none of them strikes as gorgeous nor charismatic. None of them stood out t me, not even in an ugly way. They all lack charisma to me especially Tomochin, Maeda and Haruna's rivals. Maeda's rival just looks plain, not even in a good way because Maeda looks plain but in a good way. Haruna's rival just lacks so much to me.

I have doubts that this group is going to be different from any other xxx48 group. They are produced by the same person. They are all Japanese (obviously), personality traits do not differ every much person to person. There is over 50 girls in AKB48 including kenyusei. All the lovable personalities are taken by the senbatsu already, what could nogizaka's girls have? Even if it is something different, there is lots of girls personality still unknown that can be used beneficially.

Why rival Akb48? They ave already taken over Japan. Eventually everything will cool down. This just makes it faster cooling. In general in other countires large groups of 40 people do not appeal to the general public. They only appeal to niches and those who are already fans of the xxx48 franchise. Why not just have a senbatsu girl group that rival incoming girl groups from other countries? I'm sure the public will love that. I really do not think nogizaka will be that different. akb, ske and nmb all sound the same musically and have the same overall concept. Since it's the same producer the same tricks can be used on both sides. If not it is not a fair rivalry.

With that said, I am interested on who is going to be Mariko's, Takamina's and Sae's rival. I hope they do not find look-a-likes.

One last thing in the big group picture a lot of the girls in the back look so much better than those in the front. They kinda "shine" more. I'm not a person that has an attachment on idols based on their appearance maybe that is why no one in nogizaka appeals to me.