Another Year, Another Election Massacre

Oh, I checked her albums at the S48 wiki and they had like no data for the first one. I stand corrected then.

I guess NMB48 fans care about the Election, more than what people mention here they do, but unfortunately they just can't do any better than this. Not without a flagship. I like Sayanee, but personally I think captains and aces should always participate in concerts and events, Election included. And if they don't it's because of a good reason, like graduating (I was Rena kamioshi, so the way she handled it was perfect personally). Fans themselves notice when a member is ready for graduation, it's a pity when members themselves don't (Miichan, Shiichan, etc).

 

@minaeshi IDK I just didn't expect her to rank so high. I mean she did beat Yuuka by a long shot and Yuuka has been more or less really good at ranking decently. I hope this translates to something from management tho. She's in P48 too right? I'm not really watching, but hope she does well.

 

Lucky Fuuchan to have a fanbase organized and stable enough to rank her in for years. Will be hard to find those kind of community again.

And speaking of fickleness of idol otaku, You know better than I that your girl Yuuri is in yellow flag, given the concentrated mass of them is.. there. Much in the same vein as Miru groups. Better take some precaution for next year and onward tho.

Yeah, either that or waiting for Backup of Sayanee-fans-Support.

Besides, Uuka cores group doesn't strike me as a right-wing though. Isn't it?

 

I'm not sure if someone mentioned this but isn't a possibility NMB fell so hard because of the major scandals some girls were part of?

I'm talking about Riripon and Kinoshita Haruna (and probably some other scandals i don't know about). I don't pay attention to NMB that much since my main focus is Sayanee and Jo and I've been quite absent in the past 2 years but even i heard about the mess they made.

It's true that AKB (and maybe other sister groups) had a fair share of scandals too but overall it wasn't something so out of ordinary (in other words: scandals about dating) but getting married????? having an affair with a married man with a kid????? and the wife of the man is an ex-member?????? thats just so messed up I genuinely regret voting for Haruna last year on s48 member ssk. I can understand if the fans started doubting the girls or just stopped investing so much in NMB.

Maybe other NMB's fans didn't leave if their oshi wasn't involved but the mess surely didn't bring any fans either. In the end, not every publicity is good publicity.

 

Sayanee had the best reason of all - instead of being part of the 49th single she spent the time composing and recording her 2nd album and preparing for her 2nd live tour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

It's a good excuse, though Yukirin did a solo tour and participated in the Election just three weeks after the final date But as I mentioned, it's just my personal thought that aces and captains should always be there, it's like having Barcelona and Real Madrid play a match without Ronaldo, Messi and their stars.

Mind you, I also think that old members should know when to step down and leave new members shine, however if there's a group that needs their ace is NMB48. Right now NMB48's main ace is AKARIN (who I love but has nowhere the popularity, charisma or leadership Sayanee has).

 

I feel that because of the gap between Sayaka and the rest of NMB she needs to do a better job of pushing the group. The competing theory with this is that the rest of the girls just aren't that good... and that could be true, I just don't want to believe it, and that her opportunities are more of her management than her leadership.

I don't know if our community is really that close in JP or international. Like I mentioned here and in our podcast, we definitely seemed less organized at the election compared to the NGT group sitting near us, and all the SKE fans would change their penlights to the color of the girl whenever she got announced. That's why I'm thinking that our lack of SSK support may be due to our lack of community.

And as @zeroshiki and I mentioned, Uuka's community leader rallied together 16k votes in the Uuka community for Sokuhou, hoping that it would inspire others. They came to play, they were organized with sunflowers and nearly everyone in their oshi section was clad in Uuka Birthday T-shirts. As we realized during the election, they only managed 19k in total; her community rallied hard but were unable to find other Uuka fans.

But definitely, the reason I made this post is so we can find out if it is a community organization issue, and maybe we can do a better job next year of rallying our community together; at least internationally.

I don't think so, because outside of election, NMB was still pulling its usual numbers. Both Kokochan and Yuuri still mention Ririka a bit and they had massive increases in votes. Even Jo had a fairly recent mini scandal and ranked in.

 

@joooooooooe I agree about the gap that's quite present in NMB (and as much as others may not want to believe she can push more and more as much as she desires, she has leverage as top member of NMB). It's one of the reasons I want management to focus on both Miru and Akarin and not just Miru alone. They have something with Akarin and they need to utilize her before she decides to call it quits lol. Miru is great, but she might need a partner in crime and they are both in Team M so that's cool too. The girls are just as good as Sayaka imo (maybe not in singing talents but Sayaka is quite rare as a talent for an idol. Actually IDK if "rare" is the right word, but she's got amazing singing talent).

 

I'm really confused by the random Sayaka backlash in this thread. Sayaka is way more popular than anyone else in NMB including Milky and this isn't even up for debate and I still feel she does more for the group than anyone because of her outreach abilities regardless of what it actually accomplishes for the other members. Akari is not going to get a center position anytime soon, so I don't know how she's the ace now just because she ranked the highest of participating members in a whaling contest.

But I guess what I've always wondered, what else can Sayaka really do? We keep saying she needs to do a better job of pushing the group, but her highlighting each individual member on Google+ a few years ago didn't create a SSK powerhouse nor did anyone reading this become a Yukitsun oshi because Sayaka retweeted a (WONDERFUL!!!!) set of photos of them together. Have any of you vowed to sell your house next year voting for Moka, Maokyun, Yamarina, Aayan, or Naru because of this? I mean, does she really have to double down on a specific member to make a difference like when she was doing painfully obvious management pushing tweets about Aayan? How does that get anyone else in besides her?

As for the topic at hand, I don't really know how to improve NMB's standing in the SSK. I find the community topic interesting partially because I don't grasp the concept of SKE fans not only pulling together as a community but that it creates enough votes or rallies those to vote for some random girl enough to rank. It is honestly so hard to get your oshi on that stage that I just can't believe that simply crediting the "community" makes that much of a difference. I personally always felt like fellow fans voting for their oshi was one of the biggest things that drove myself and yet it still never mattered because I just couldn't get Kanakichi up there.

But here's the thing, I haven't voted since she graduated. (I was going to last year but someone decided not to participate....) Maybe it's a really uncommon sentiment among the western fandom to not vote for 32 members, but I know I'm not alone in saying I've only voted for one girl and that I would have never voted for anyone else under any circumstance while she was participating. I can show up and wave lightsticks in support of Coco or Uuka or Saepy all day, but I didn't vote for any of them, nor would I have. We now know that's apparently true for Sayaka fans, but at the same time, her participating isn't going to get more members in, so what does that really matter as far as the "health of NMB" goes?

If the individual fans of the girls can't get them there, I feel that's their responsibility to take on and it's on them to figure it out. But in a world where Konomin has landed as many NMB senbatsu spots as the 25th ranked Aapon, I'll always be the mind that the SSK doesn't really matter at the end of it all, so whatever.

 

I think the problem is that NMB's fans are mostly girls and having Miru as center is just not going to make girls want to sell mansions for them since her whole persona and appeal is so male-centric. Honestly the group as a whole lost a lot of their girl-crush feels over the last two years and I think that could be why they're doing worst than ever right now.

Likewise, it's no surprise that the champion of girl power, Queen Yoshida Akari herself managed to rise and take over Miru as the top NMB member. Have a Sayanee x Yuuri lesbian lovers slash bad bitches on the run from the law concept and I think NMB will flourish.

 

You doofus . Sayanee's album and tour preparations were happening during the period of the 49th single's recording, shooting, and promotions. Yukirin's tour was over even before election day.

 

I am going to input something not as an NMB fan, but as someone who has been living in Kansai where the group is based. Kansai people are not poorer than other groups’ fans, they have two port cities around and Osaka is still the second biggest metropolitan, also Kyoto got IT gigs and Kobe has industrial stuff going on. I remember people saying that Osaka has smaller and local business in opposed to Tokyo’s finances and Nagoya’s automatics, but the trade and service sectir here are no joke either.

Kansai people also generally spend a lot. Cost of living is lower than Tokyo, and they have quite an open/modern/carefree spirit whatever it is that makes them care less about saving money. But Kansai people are also practical, so the idea of spending money on an idol group is not exactly exciting. The finance and automatic industries in Tokyo and Nagoya respectively have more people in otaku culture who will generally morely to care a lot about idols.

Secondly, as someone has mentioned, there is this mindset that the girls are having works so they dont feel the need to vote so hard. Yoshimoto also don’t seem to pay much attention to SSK’s result either. As a contrast SKE and NGT mgmt give a lot attention and that shows in the results.

(There is also a conspiracy that Miru receives quite a backlash foe taking part in PD48. Uuka too I think. Because NMB fans hate seeing the girls taking part in work related to other groups. I actually believe this because Kansai people are stingy as hell about these things)

 

Of course, being a good leader isn't easy. But there's this feeling that Sayaka in NMB feels more like she's gracing the rest of NMB with her presence than feeling like she's leading it. Highlighting a girl or two doesn't feel like much if it doesn't feel like you're working with them or bringing out parts of their personalities that would sell.

It might be unfair to put it on Sayaka but I can also see it being justified. The status of a leader or captain in the 48G has always been nebulous.

I think everything about the SSK is community oriented. Our wishy washy days of hoping fellow fans vote just doesn't work. Instead it's about timing your amount of votes with the community at the right time. If I vote 500 when the rest of the community is deciding not to push this year it's game over just for me, but if I rally with a community and we all vote 500 then the member will do a lot better.

To me it's just upsetting that this happens nearly every year and our girls are crying and feel like shit compared to everyone else. It's not about the offer of future work or whether rank 38 will change your life; it's just about making them feel good and in some respects paying them back. And because I am thinking that it is community oriented, it's starting to feel like whether your fans care to mobilize or not...

I think the narrative that NMB is more for girls is really just something NMB is trying to push with Queentet and girls only seating. But in the end, you go to the events and it's definitely majority male. Furthermore, they're not doing that poorly; it's just SSK. I've repeated this several times in the thread already.

You need to watch your language. You already scared a member off who had something to contribute with your poor behavior.

 

I'm always wary of and extra defensive when there are topics like this that come up because the foreign fandom always has this weird notion that AKBingo/Sousenkyo is the be-all-end-all of the 48G. They don't see NMB on AKBingo and NMB does poorly in Sosenkyo q.e.d. NMB is doing poorly. Nevermind that NMB just announced a national tour or that Manabukun is the highest rated show for its timeslot, it doesn't matter to most fans because they've already bought into the narrative and its honestly very tiring trying to defend the group.