[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

Just finished read the akb48 costume book which released arount last months ?

And i feel kinda relieved that theres 1 pict about boku no taiyou and they still put rinatin photos and mention her name . xd

 

I was hoping they did. Close up for the remainder of the month and sort everything out.

 

Bah! What good is it then!?

 

from kouhaku to rakuten, now everyone wants their own sousenkyo

 

God save our wallet.(Or not)

 

If SHOWROOM holds their own senkyo, it'll be a real massacre. Contrary to Senkyo, where you say "I'll buy 100 votes" even if you could buy more, in SR events ranking is updated every 5 minutes. So you might have wanted to place only 100 votes, but you see she's just one vote away from someone else, so you buy 101, and then realize you could buy 10 more to pass another, and then be done because she's 300 votes below someone else, but then you see everyone else making an effort to reach a goal...

Yesterday Kimi Dare barely survived for another week. When the episode started it was below 900k points. 10 minutes before ending they were 250k points below the minimum threshold and J-Lo, who along Kazu have been the ones keeping alive since Taguchi retired his support, apologized cause he could do nothing else having thrown 17 towers on that last day. That's like when everyone understood there wouldn't be a saviour and that everyone had to work together in order to make it real. So they kept throwing small gifts and stars, and by the time the program should have ended they were still about 190k below, so the show continued while everyone continued pushing forward. Truth be told, I really felt like throwing a few hundred bucks seeing everyone pushing forward throwing small gifts, one or two of each. Actually, when it was just 30k below threshold and saw Truth, a listener I crossed several times who has supported Kahotaru (STU48 43) in her events back when she was still a model, threw 10 bears, I actually opened the menu and chose the bears to throw, but then decided against it. I spent a lot of time thinking people spending money to vote for these girls in Elections was nonsense, and then in SR I thought the same until I threw my very first gift, a Tokyo Tower for Kahotaru back in October during the final day of an event.

However, I doubt SR will hold a Senbatsu unless AKS/Yoshimoto/etc can get more money than the chunk they are actually getting from the current campaign.

 

The more I read about Showroom and how it works, the more I think it's another addiction like gambling to some.

 

For some it surely is. I only throw the free stars since I don't see why I should waste tons of Money for some some (imo pretty pointless) gifts. But hey, everyone's free to do as he wants

 

I personally don't spend on SR but I think with Kimi Dare it's quite understandable - it's pretty much crowdfunding and spending 5-10 dollars a month to watch a show you enjoy seems legit to me. Some do spend more but they aren't the kind of people who would have to starve for a month as a result.

it's interesting that 2 weeks ago it was smooth and they reached 3500k with day to spare and now 2800k in 4 days was hard to do. But I wasn't really in doubt, as they still had K-point charge which brings a lot. Also the situation in Komariko's last KD was even worse and they just extended it for another 20 minutes etc. Maybe it's simply getting harder for people to justify spending with SSK nearing but it doesn't always look like that in personal rooms so not sure.

 

I could say it's pointless to donate money on board maintenance, but some people do

Main problem with Kimidare and 48G in general is that they only recognize towers, which is great for them but bad for listeners. Some broadcasters call 10 bears in a row a クマタワー (tower of bears) and recognize it as a tower even if it doesn't stay on screen for long, because the listener spent as much money on a row as with a tower, sacrificing recognition in order to give the broadcaster extra points for an event. By the way, 10 towers in a row is called 10万円タワー (100k yen tower) between the big spenders.

If I were the producer, I'd tell the girls to name those who have thrown 10 bears in a row, maybe not as sponsors but as a passing thanks. And if I were a listener able to throw more than a tower at that program, I'd throw just one and then, just smaller gifts in tens.

Do the top supporters still get the signed board? It was at least something after spending hundreds of bucks. I prefer this



Attached photo is too big. Please use thumbnail function, or reduce the size when photo is oversized.

 

Aside from the obvious "getting towers = popularity" factor, what do the girls actually get from that hundred bucks someone just threw at them? If it's nothing (and I've often heard that's what they say about it), then it really is a waste of money compared to other things the person could be doing for that girl, like buying votes or hs tickets or her official merch. If I were a member, I'm sure every tower I saw would feel like 10 votes I'm not gonna get in election. That must not be too great. Where is the money for all these gifts going? If it isn't "into the girl's pocket" then you're not actually supporting her in any concrete way, aside from things like Kimi, dare.

But even Kimi, dare is extremely questionable. If it's just barely hanging on by a thread and mainly supported by a few people whose money is running out, the people in charge are gonna see that (while they're pocketing all the profits). If the show doesn't actually bring any new opportunities to the girls it showcases - which is a very real possibility considering how AKB does pushes - again it's a waste of quite a lot of money.

No one can force anyone to spend their money a certain way, but I can't help thinking that some people can get addicted to the momentary feeling of seeing that gift go up and get acknowledged for a second by a girl who otherwise wouldn't be interacting with them. A lot like a drug addiction

 

I think it was Sasshi who said they got some of it every 3 or 6 months, but like a small percentage or something?
I don't know.

Thing is, if SG singles right before the election are seen as a Catch22 by fans (less money for votes, but you don't want the girls to bomb...), how's this any different?

I think @ET920 said somewhere that a fan was asking for his salary in advance to support someone. THAT I find worrying.

Sure, anyone can spend their money however they see fit, but I wonder if some of this isn't getting into a dangerous area that could put people in trouble.

 

It isn't getting into a dangerous area, it's already there. Some people are centering their lives around idols (you can meet a 48 or 46 member practically every weekend, showroom is just yet another opportunity to drain people's pockets. It's interesting that the creative output, music-wise, is mostly stagnating (in my opinion) but the creativity for finding new ways to make money is ever growing. Sometimes I really do wonder if AKS has found the perpetuum mobile in wotas' pockets.

 

I mean, I know a Tomu oshi who went bankrupted and had to close his shop after ranking her into senbatsu in ssk

 

In my honest honest opinion, I don't find any point in throwing paid gifts where members only get a very small percentage of it nor asking for salary in advance in order to support someone. Yeah, sure, it's good seeing your oshimen being everywhere when you support them but is it really worth you spending thousands of dollar? It's fine spending like up to 5 votes for SSK but to be buying over 100 votes (which is about $1396)? With all that money, you could be doing things much better. If someone spends roughly $1400 for years consecutively, they could be enjoying a luxurious vacation.

My point is, I would never spend thousands of dollar to support someone that I don't know on a personal level. I'm willing to pay for a concert, CD, and/or something along those lines but votes for SSK or paid gifts in SR? I think I'll pass. If someone is financially stable, then that's barely behind the line but for someone that is not and spending thousands, yeah...I'm sure the girls don't want anyone going bankrupted because of them either.

 

Too much to reply from a phone. SR usually keeps 80% of the income from gifts, agency and broadcaster share the last 20%. A model told me her agency and herself share 17%, so maybe AKS got a better deal. From that 20%, usually the agency gets 25% and the broadcaster the rest, but others share 75%/25% instead, and in auditions the broadcaster usually gets nothing. So, throwing a TT would give ¥8000 for SR, ¥500 for the agency and ¥1500 for the broadcaster. If you don't have an agency you'd get all ¥2000. In AKS case, it looks like AKS keeps between 95/97% (Sasshi said she kept ¥300, Kohaku said ¥270 IIRC, Naachan said ¥0, etc).

If you go to Kahotaru's Top 30 list, I know there are at least 7 very well paid professionals who could spend a lot of money. But in other places there also are common people who just earn a lot of money in pachinko, shops, etc. Those are the ones at risk of going bankrupt.

Girls get money for every HS ticket they sell, but doubt they get anything from every vote, although Kaotan and Masana mentioned (ironically?) that their salary was down this year cause they haven't done SSK last year.

Yes, SR was made thinking in the "find a cute girl with a dream and support her with money", which is the base of "idolhoom". That's why such program wouldn't really work in any place except Asia, and that's why they have so many like this (DMM Yell, for example).

This guy is just a common dude from Kuwait, but was trying to get money for an event. I admit the IRIS sisters are awesomely cute and talented, but if you aren't a professional you should keep your impulses under control.

https://twitter.com/_rrue/status/855163603078479873?s=09

(Addenum)

A few girls actually say that aloud, I think Nako or Miku say don't spend money here, instead buy handshake tickets. However, they don't realize people who spend money on SR don't necessarily spend it on real life. Foreigners (even from near locations in Asia) might not be able to travel to Japan for handshake events at all, and the only way to "visually" show support is throwing gifts. It's my case as well. Others, for example, do realize their fans got the money for both gifts _and_ handshake events. For example, Andy is a Taiwanese who's Kurenyan oshi and virtually always throws a tower at her whenever she broadcasts. But he also attends to HS events, and Kurenyan remembers him from both sides. Same with the butler (can't remember his name right now) at Tanao's room, she broadcasts daily and he spends at least USD 150 per day on her, but also attends Team 8 events. If you think about it, even if he'd spend those USD 4500 per month in handshake tickets (besides the ones he already uses), he wouldn't be able to use them all on her. And there are some who are just too shy to go to those events.

So, spend the money on elections. Okay, but that happens only once per year, so what do you do the rest of the year if you already have every towel and pic you could get from your oshi?

I don't think these girls (at least the common 48G girls) stop to think that a Tokyo Tower means 10 votes less in senkyo. Most are just thankful. I could say that it's possible that the pro showroomers might cringe if they see someone throwing 20 bears, one at a time (as a listener we tease pro broadcasters that way, 一個投げ, ikko nage, throwing many gifts one at a time so that neither she nor the listener receives the 20% bonus for 10x throws), but since they aren't on an event now I doubt they care that much. However, we as listeners sometimes suggest them to throw in tens, or if they don't have the coins, choose a smaller gift so that they get a better value for their money (if you go to Tanao's room you'll probably see the butler throwing hearts, as a listener is much more rewarding to tap the button 10k times during 30-40 minutes than tapping it once only for a Tokyo Tower.

And I wonder how she'd feel if she knew that. Girls never stop to think from where comes the money fans spend on them during Elections, they just say "I'll try harder next year!", which means they would try harder at making fans spend more money on them than what they did this year, doesn't it.

Common people can only buy one tower at a time. So, if you see someone throwing many towers in a show but only one at a time, he probably is recharging his gold during the show, which means he is careful with what he's spending. Big spenders have more than USD 1000 in gold in their SR wallets at all times, so they can throw them in tens. That's why I always thought Taguchi was not a professional able to spend a big amount of money, but instead someone who was pushing his limits. Maybe a pachinko player, maybe a shop owner. You would see him in some broadcasts throwing a tower to reach top stop, then if someone matched his bet, he would bet another, and if someone else threw 20 bears, he would throw another. He might end always at the top, but measuring what he spent. When I compare him with other big spenders like Youichi, Ryuu, AK, Mecha, Aipon, Date34, etc, you realize there's a big difference.