Single AKB48 52nd [Teacher Teacher] (2018/05/30)

Why would poor Minarun be the Dark Lord??????



























It’s Hana.

 

"Teacher Teacher" campaigns with various record shops (https://gamp.ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12376920257.html):

TSUTAYA RECORDS:

• Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii appear on a special issue of the free magazine "TSUTAYA on IDOL" (signed photo & interview, magazine contains printings of all SSK posters for this year), release date 2018/5/28

TOWER RECORDS:

• B2-sized poster one can request to be printed at a TR store (features Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii), release date 2018/05/29
• Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii appear on a special issue of the free magazine (interview), release date 2018/05/29
• if one purchases the single at a TR store, it's possible to enter a lottery to win a signed B2-sized poster

Shinseido/WonderGOO:

• they'll put up a poster signed by Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii
• possibility to enter a lottery to win a poster (features Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii)

amazon.co.jp:

• possibility to enter a lottery to win a signed poster (features Yuiyui, Mion, Berin and Zukkii)

 

Wow.. none of the "senpais" are featured (Sasshi.. sayanne.. yuihan.. etc)... new young blood.. interesting..

 

Those are the centers for each row basically YuiYui, Miion, Rin and Zukki in that order. Awesome!

 

One of the big appeals of HKT is "freshness" but I don't think Aki is the next Hana. Hana's popularity dropped almost as soon as she started getting gori-pushed... it seriously had a reverse effect. HKT members don't automatically drop from popularity as they lose their appeal...Mio is only a slight exception. Meru is recovering slowly, Morippo jumped back up last election, Sakura is pretty consistent, and Haruppi only dropped in popularity after the health thing. Aki (and Nako/Miku for that matter) is not going to suffer the same fate as Hana unless management does something dumb again .

I think the only members that should be worried about popularity slowing as they get older/lose freshness are the ones whose entire appeal relies on freshness/imouto personality (Takajo Aki, Kimoto Kanon, and arguably even Lemon until she rose back up recently).

 

What does inclusion in senbatsu have to do with how much they sell? Does Sally sell less because they don't put her on the A-side? Does Hana sell more because they did? The answer to both questions is no (if anything Hana sells less). With one recent exception, over 95% of AKB single sales fall on the day of release, meaning they're mostly theater editions, and the A-side senbatsu means jack all. The exception only drives that point home--singles with a Sakamichi AKB coupling track tend to sell 30-40k more on the ~4th day of release. I don't think senbatsu makes a difference there either. Likewise the marketing disaster that was the Kuchibiru ni Be My Baby experiment wasn't a result of the senbatsu--although the more-popular B-side did have more sister group members, the reason it was so popular was a) it was just a better song, and b) it was featured on a show that half of Japan was watching, and most of those viewers had no idea who was in the song.

Thanks to the ridiculous slot counts AKB is contributing way more to reaching that million seller goal than it did even back in the High Tension days. Naachan and Yuiyui between them account for ~40k sales on this single (though Oricon may not count them all), Kizaki + Mayu amounted to about half that (Nyan hardly sold and Paruru didn't have slots available). I realise there are other goods for sale besides HS, but the members included don't sell out e.g. namashashin noticeably faster than some (seemingly) permanently excluded members.

Members like Sasshi, Sayanee, and Akarin do contribute some public hype to the single, and that might translate into more sales (but not many, cf. first day sales vs. the rest above). They're also milking some hype out of Macharin and Zukkii (and Nako)'s first senbatsus (less so drawing in their fans, more giving newspapers a reason to hype the single), but the majority of the sister group inclusions we're discussing don't do any of that, and that's clearly not the reason for them. The intent seems to be to raise public awareness of up and coming members in their respective groups, something I don't really have a problem with, except that those groups also have their own singles to do this in, which AKB lacks, despite having by far the most members in need of promotion.

You didn't address the senbatsu size issue, perhaps because you don't have explanation for it (I don't either). I still wonder why they went from 28 (11gatsu) to 27 (Jabaja) to 28 (Teacher Teacher), and why Teacher Teacher has the smallest voting-single senbatsu since Everyday, Kachusha, while retaining almost the same amount of sister group representation, and gutting the amount of AKB representation.

edit: It could be conservation of hype. Focusing the spotlight on fewer members in the hopes that it will work in getting them recognised where previous huge senbatsus failed.

tl;dr: The point is, there is no quota, apart from the bare minimum of one member from each group and maybe inclusion of agency members (though Miichan got dropped, and there are several other agency girls floating around).

 

You missed the point completely here. AKS doesn't need sister group members on their A-sides to sell one million, they need ALL of sister group members to shake hands at their events. That's what makes them reach their beloved goal, not the senbatsu itself.

Sister group members on AKB's A-side is a trade: SKE, NMB, HKT, NGT and STU accept to send their girls to AKB's handshake events and AKB gives them senbatsu spots according to how much they contribute. And why do sister groups want their girls as AKB senbatsu members? I don't even need to answer that one, do I?

From AKB's point of view they don't give a damn if HKT sends Sakura, Sashiko and Hana or Imamura, Ueno and Bibian (well, sort of). That's why I said that if someone like Hana is there it's HKT's problem and not AKB's. You see, HKT doesn't have the same label as AKB, they're Universal's. NMB doesn't even belong to AKS. They have their own agenda, tastes, pushes and such.

Read above.

Read above.

Spoiler

Anklet
Eito: 2
SKE: 3
NMB: 4
HKT: 5
NGT: 3
STU: 1

Jabaja
Eito: 3
SKE: 3
NMB: 3
HKT: 4
NGT: 2
STU: 1

Teacher Teacher
Eito: 2
SKE: 3
NMB: 4
HKT: 4
NGT: 2
STU: 1

As you can see, numbers have been almost identical. HKT went from 5 to 4 because they "lost" Haruppi, NGT from 3 to 2 because of Kitarie, and they just want to piss off Naru's fans. Why replacing Miku with Nako instead of having both? Well, Sakura, Sashiko, Hana and Spot 4. It doesn't need to be 100% strict, of course, but changes are minimal (and their sales numbers change).

But this discussion began because someone questioned why Hana has a 6-single streak while they can't fit Tomu. They're two completely different things. Ask Hakata, ask Universal.

 

oh i loved serious @Aka keep going red

nah, Yui stay in Kami 7...she's the gatekeeper

but in 2014 Tomu not in Team K anymore, she's belong to Team A after Daishokaku matsuri..so the mess of team K not on her

 

The AKB University pv is so funny lmfao but I don't really have anything to say about the song. The least special Mion center IMO.

Team A pv is aesthetically pleasing, the song is meh. I'm not feling this Team A, its just too much of an all star. Return Mion and Renacchi to K and B. Yuiyui looked amazing as usual though.

Team K song sounds ok. No opinion on Naru. Cute but no impact? Would have preferred seeing Mion in that spot. I'm pretty sure the next K song would be centered by Moeka anyway so wtv.

Kubo looks just like a kid so putting her in those dresses look really awkward. Want Renacchi back. Also weird how Team B's pv didnt feature their signature colour.

Team 4 pv looks cute. I don't actually know who'se the center lol.

Kinda sad how after two singles full of great bsides we're back to such generic elevator music. Will not download.

 

I'm going to respond to this more fully in the Team K thread, but the comment hinting at Tomu wasn't really about Team K, per se. And that event should be called the Dai Sokaku Sanji, not Matsuri.

Label pressure is a much better argument than the one you seemed to be making. I can't disprove it, though I'd also like to see some evidence (besides the thing you're trying to explain) that other labels have input on Kingrecords' decisions.

 

In my opinion, you have both correct and wrong points. Yes, AKB needs sister groups doing HS to help them keep the million sale, and they pay back by the Senbatsu slots. Though, AKS have a strong influence on the number of slots and which girls to be selected.

Do you think HKT wants to sends 4-5 girls while SKE, NMB want to send only 2-3 girls? If the number of slots is based on HS sale, SKE should have the same or more slots than HKT.

AKB does not take whoever sister groups send them. In fact, AKS decide their position (center, front row, back row), so they need to control the selection. Many times, sister group push do not match AKB push. For example, I believe NMB prefers to push Yuuri (who is ready to step up the game next to Miru but lacks of AKB-side exposure) over Aayan (who is reserved for far future). With NGT, they are rotating the centers in their singles (both A-sides and B-sides) but having the same set of girls in AKB singles.

Spoiler

In contrast, there is a rumor that AKS has a strong influence on sister group singles and their interference may times destroyed good intentions from the labels and local staffs:
https://onehallyu.com/topic/103-official-akb48-thread/page-2691#entry22628138
https://onehallyu.com/topic/103-official-akb48-thread/page-2691#entry22642265

 

Hi guys,

Please be kind.. On my first look, teacher teacher seems more Kpop instead of AKB from pretty much all aspects, especially the sexy image. Is this the new direction of the group? kind of sad if it does.. but that's only my own 2 cents

 

Not likely. AKB has a long history of using various different styles of music. Teacher Teacher's Kpop/EDM vibe is no different from the Latin or Motown-inspired music AKB does, just another costume the group puts on sometimes.

 

Nah, it's just a Kpop gimmick thing.

 

48 groups in general try a lot of music styles. We need to wait for the next singles to see whether Kpop-style is just one time thing (particularly in context of Produce48) or an actual new direction.

 

(not originally my gifs; I took a screenshot cause they're bigger than 1MB)
http://akisayaka.tumblr.com/post/157627369584/mochichan00-vicious

 

@wlerin, @antares, I'll never forget HKT's documentary. They were on a meeting to decide the senbatsu for a HKT single. Aki-P suggested Natsumikan, Sashiko suggested to leave Nako out to improve her image. Universal pretended they didn't listen.

=========================================================================================================

AKB is 8!

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/998177579306696704/pu/vid/720x1280/cFaOZ2lskYjWxYDP.mp4

Spoiler

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/998183309241806848/pu/vid/720x1280/UhoyvWgKRC6idFZa.mp4
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/998184361982771200/pu/vid/1280x720/XzROPTYzBcxyju-0.mp4
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/998186252963799040/pu/vid/1280x720/yYy95Mh8iUQ6XDVn.mp4

Mod edit: removed dead video link

 

To be honest, the Universal guys who work with HKT probably know more of the girls than AkiP himself.
He might have been deeply involved in the group when it was just teams A, K and B, but when things blew up... nah, he probably doesn't know much about them.

I think the theatre manager should have more of a say, tbh.

The bee song... has a very wacky dance.
Was anybody missing? I feel there's some unbalance in some shots.

 

I don't think so, there are some replacements to make it 16. But the formation is just...not regular. As they put Yokochan nearly always in the center, and 1 member extra at the back row on one side (not in the center) when they form the triangle formation and no one is in front or behind Yoko to make it balanced.

 

Yeah, that was good. Shows how much power the respective labels have over the sister groups. I think a lot of people were probably surprised that the situation wasn't even close to 'whatever Aki-P says goes'.