Which agency do you think is the best for an AKB48 member? Hori Pro - Known as the best agency for AKB48 members along with its active promotion and advertising. Itano Tomomi Nito Moeno Ishida Haruka Kasai Tomomi Sato Sumire Miyazaki Miho Ogi Pro - Known for promotion of subgroups, such as No3b and Watari Rouka Hashiri Tai. Oota Aika Kojima Haruna Takahashi Minami Nakagawa Haruka Matsubara Natsumi Kikuchi Ayaka Nonaka Misato Minegishi Minami Komori Mika Hirajima Natsumi Watanabe Mayu Watanabe Pro - Another strongly influential company, known for variety work including television and radio promotions, such as Kiss Radio. Oya Shizuka Kuramochi Asuka Takajo Aki Kashiwagi Yuki Sato Natsuki Ohta Pro - Known for acting work, such as Q10 and Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo. Sashihara Rino Maeda Atsuko Oshima Yuko Kitahara Rie Office48 - Known for its line-up of original Team K members with varying types of work. Akimoto Sayaka Umeda Ayaka Miyazawa Sae Kobayashi Kana Masuda Yuka Itoh Company - Known for its promotion outside the AKB48 franchise. Fujie Reina Chikano Rina Mousa - A new company with various forms of promotion. Nakata Chisato Nakaya Sayaka Uchida Mayumi Tanabe Miku Aterlier Duncan - Known for musicals and stage plays. Katayama Haruka Sato Amina DRESSCODE - Similar to Aterlier Duncan. Nakatsuka Tomomi Suzuki Mariya SOMEDAY - Known for acting and radio work. Shinoda Mariko Matsui Sakiko AKS Yokoyama Yui Flos Two Maeda Ami Artist House Pyramid - Known for gravure work. Yonezawa Rumi Nagara Pro - Specialize in the ENKA genre. Iwasa Misaki From: http://midnightdriver21.blogspot.com/2011/04/akb48-members-agencies.html Im really a stranger about talent agency in Japan, I've tried researching about it but information about this is scant (I can't read kanji), I just got curious after watching Mendol. I realized from the story that talent agencies are pretty powerful in Japan unlike in the US where famous artist can just discard there agencies. In Japan its a different story, I try to compare AKB members with agencies and without, and it seems those in commercials are those in the agencies. Does this mean girls without agencies can hardly get any exposure outside the theater and concerts? And without exposure there fate in Sousenkyou sealed?
Idk about this. Some people were claiming that Ohta Pro was ruining AKB so I guess that one is the most influential in a way? Sometimes I wish any of my faves were signed with Ogi Pro, I love their Ogi Matsuri concerts so much. It's a shame that none of the girls signed there are in my top 10
^ heh, horipro's the best agency only if you're ishihara satomi and ayase haruka. maybe tomochin too even though her akb popularity seems to be slipping. poor myao, pretty soon she'll be in the back row of the undergirls. and no sub-unit for kasai who's a candidate for undergirls herself. wonder if ohta pro will sign up yui.
Does YOUR agency make you a birthday cake with KFC biscuits? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYN5Yu3afOU
I agree If anything Horipro is really not having a good run with xx48 members, Itano and Kasai's popularity is slipping and the rest of the dont get a mention...... Watanabe look after the French Kiss 3 and obviously Yuki but past that....... Ohta Pro has 3 big hitters in Sasshi,Yuko and Acchan and all the work they do and of course have Not Yet know too. Out of the 'little' agencies actualy Mousa is doing ok for thier girls with a few shows and some anime stuff to do, also the 'Baby Gamba' thing for Nakayan and Tamamin Out of these, gotta say that Ogi Pro is probably the best, they have N03b, and Warota 7, actually makinf it a 7nin of course by hiring Mikapon and Wasamin (at the time). They also have the Ogi Matsuri concerts each year and even for girls like Nonaka Misato and Matsubara Natsumi they have had some dvd's and extra tv apperances through ogi so they win for me.
Other agencies do have their own matsuri's, a few throughout the year but they're not a big event with dvd release like ogis. For watanabe outside french kiss, I can only really comment about shiichan(I like nacchi but I don't follow everything she does) and shiichan has appeared on a few variety shows as part of host team and as a guest(she's been on sanmas show twice recently, once with sasshi and once with her mum as a parent-child special). I know ogi really pushes girls in a way that akb fans can relate to but the other agencies(apart from maybe hori) do push the girls in ways that will help them once they leave akb(getting their name out there in other forms). When you look at say ohta, they've picked girls that could pretty much promote themselves within akb but then put them on shows and in films that will help push their name outside akb and I think that's really amazing.
Ahh guys I didn't compile this . Its actually from this guy. I just mirror it to know your opinions because me being an idiot about Japanese show business just want some insights from the more knowledgeable guys in stage48 . From: http://midnightdriver21.blogspot.com/2011/04/akb48-members-agencies.html
> Mousa - A new company with various forms of promotion. > Nakata Chisato > Nakaya Sayaka > Uchida Mayumi > Tanabe Miku Wow! Can i get a job there? 3 of the 4 (Tanabe, Nakaya, Uchida) are in my own current senbastu team! There would be great coffee-machine talks with Tanamin and Nakayan every morning about the latest developments in manga and anime.
In my opinion, ohta pro is the best in pushing the individuals and getting individual jobs for them. However, most of the time I find them obnoxious. I like Ogi Pro more because of the Ogi Matsuri concert.
Moderator : If you think that this is not the correct thread to post, please have it moved to the correct thread. My apologies in advance. Okay, since this is a thread about agencies, I would like to seek some clarifications on what is the relation between agency and members. For example, AKB48 has their own TV shows like Bimyo, Nemousu, AKBingo .. and not to mention being invited to other talk shows and others ... So how does this work out ? I mean if a member was engaged in a photoshoot session, or PV, or even a CM .. so who decides who to send to which shows/tv programme (using above shows as an example). And how would their agency be involve or not involve ? Not to mention, AKB members are involve in, almost, daily theater shows. So if they have a theater show that clashes with their other commitments, how does that work out ? And what about the members that don't have an agency ? Can they participated in other TV shows/programs ? Sorry if the above questionnaires is a bit confusing as I'm also quite confuse on how the entertainment industry in Japan works and how much does the agency involvement in all this ? I'm very new to AKB and their sisters' group so still have much questions to be answered. [blush]
Well as far as I know entertainment industries have it like a give and take philosophy. Talent Agencies try to develop a good relation, by gifts and favors, with directors, producers, and all other staff responsible to casting in shows. In return these people try to prioritize talent from such agencies and that is why having an agency to manage your career and do PR for you is a good thing plus if you're really a successful artist these agencies can really raise the price of an artist appearance in every show. Artist have agencies not only to manage there schedules but also to serve as salesman in selling the artist to the producers and the fans. They are expected to guard the image of their talent so as to keep the artist potential high plus they also spread gossips about there talents so that people will talk about them and generate interest in them. In AKB48 I think there talent agencies coordinate with AKB48 staff about the schedules and it seems they always prioritize appearance outside theater, at it seems in the present because the senbatsu members are most likely absent at theater shows that they've called it Kenkyuusei show. For those girls without agencies you seldom see them in CM and shows most likely they spend there time in Theater shows and concerts but it doesn't mean there not fan favorite its usually from the theater that hardcore fan can be found and through theater shows they gain a fanbase. Well that is how I understand it in general but its Japanese culture so there's some difference so expect some variation.
ALL the girls have an agency, it's called aks. AKS arrange their schedules and managers and such if they don't have an external agency(like all the full team members minus team 4, yui and shihori) I believe that aks have to work with the external agencies to organise schedules for those girls(it would be impossible any other way). It's the same as when a drama cast have to be organised together for filming schedules and tv appearences, they're often all under different agencies but it all works out because the drama staff will say what the filming dates are an things will be worked out from then(if a very popular person appears in a drama they may have to work a little around their schedule if they're a busy person) For the theatre appearances, the girls themselves have often said they enjoy performing in the theatre and you can say this is just to appease fans and such but I remember a show last year where acchan appeared just for the performance of the single(or might've been kurumi, I forget) and then disappeared again because she was between moshidora shoots or something. If you want to look at it from maximum sceptical angle then you could say they have to make some appearances at the theatre to keep up appearance so the agency will leave a few of those dates free. ^this paragraph is purely my observations though so I have no 'hard evidence' for it.
I think It's like this.. the members' schedules are mainly decided by their managers, especially for those in bigger agencies and have personal managers. The managers are also the ones who negotiate with the media on the members' PR, appearances on TV shows, CMs, while the theater performances (and probably AKB related tv shows) are scheduled by AKS, so if they need to be absent the managers will have to inform AKS about that. So the theater performances come as a first, something which they're expected to perform in unless they have something else going on. But to prioritize the theater or the media is largely dependent on the manager. I'm following a bit of Watanabe Girls' managers' twitters, and it seems it's a routine for the manager to go negotiate about everything regarded to the girls appearing in the media, or some outside job, prepare the events and concerts, practically everything. Most of the big agencies like Ohgi Pro, Watanabe, Ohta, Horipro look after each girl in some way, and try to get jobs for them. But there are limits to how much one manager can do, time-wise and resource-wise. For Ohta Pro I believe they have individual managers for each of the girls, which is why they are able to negotiate bigger jobs and bigger events for them. And if you look at their theater track record, they're very rarely absent. One of the reasons is that Ohta Pro is very influential now in the industry and AKS so it's a lot easier to fix the schedules. While Ohgi Pro is doing well with No3bs and Warota, it is still hard to get the young members of Warota in the media coz they still have school. I'm not sure about Horipro but it doesn't seem like they're doing much except for Tomo-chin. Horipro in general comes off as very influential in the acting scene for me, but I don't see any of their members doing any active acting. The smaller companies like Itoh, Mousa, Atelier Duncan try to get jobs for their members, no matter how minor they are, and as a result they only appeal to a minority audience. Well, in Japan being in an influential talent agency makes a lot of difference, but it also depends a lot on who your manager is. If you're in Ohta pro but get a shitty manager you still get minor jobs and a messed up schedule. Personally, I think the best agencies for now is Ohgi Pro and Watanabe Girls. They're still in the slow lane, but once they have relations and influence in many different medias, they'll grow into monsters.
I think the agency is still the driving force for negotiating outside work and that the managers coordinate the schedule (for the big agencies). they must have some PR guys that present these girls' portfolios. It doesn't make sense for the individual managers of yuko, sasshi and kitarie to negotiate a not yet appearance for example. But I guess it's safe to assume that they have a say with regards to scheduling since they're the ones that manage the schedule for the girls they're asigned to. And I suppose it's for AKS to determine whether they can be absent from theatre and akb-related events when there's a conflict. but it could be diffrent for different agencies. some managers might have authority to negotiate the contracts themselves but this seems more likely for smaller agencies where roles would be less defined. Looking at the list, it's hard not to think that ohta pro seems like the best one. But if you're not one of the big members, it seems like ogi and watanabe would be an even better place to be. but the small agencies are also good for lesser known girls. there's less work but less competition since the big agencies also have non-akb members to give projects to. whatever the case, it's still better to have been signed to an agency than not although it seems like they're not doing it anymore. at least at this time.
Thanks again for the info and insight of the agency's role and the members. At the end of the day, it's the members own career path that they would want to pursue and joining in the right agency will assist them in securing a career for themselves (post-AKB48). thanks gatx,blu-cherri,lonehunter and kimunlimited.
found this thread after a while, i still definitely think that Ohta is the best agency ever, they have Acchan, former AKB queen, they have Yuko, current AKB queen, they have Sasshi, one of Aki-p favs and Empress of Hakata, contender for no 1 election, and they have Yuihan, another management fav and Kitarie, another fav too, also Annin, definitely management favorite, and looking how she is 27th in the prelims, Ohta has done so much for the girls and i expect Annin to be at least the level of Kitaire in the future , plus they have Nontii, who is really successful nowadays
Personally I feel Ohta Pro is the best agency. Although Rie isn't Kami level like the other 3, she does get quite a far number of roles in dramas etc. I feel that solidifying their career in acting promotes better survival after graduation.
I am not sure which is the best, but seems SOMEDAY helped Mariko and thus the AKB48 a lot during their dark age ( just read from a Chinese blogger, maybe translate the whole thing in English as he did a lot of research thus very worth reading) Seems office48 is really not a good one, as those team K members can't get enough attention, justy opinion though
All the members who had ben #1 is Ohta Pro girls. I wish Takamina was in Ohta [think] [think] [think]
