[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

AKB48G Calendar 2019 Cover

 

It's actually just a song to commemorate the end of the Heisei era, Not the last idol song of the Heisei Era (I mean STU48's 2nd Single comes out February 13th lol), Don't know why some of have that.

I'm guessing 6 for each groups (with the ones who performed with Hirose Kohmi and Mizuki Nana will be your ones for AKB48).

 

The execution of this trailer is astounding in its hypocrisy, I have to clap my hands and bow down at how the director unintentionally managed to pull it off so well.

You know, there's a wonderful expression in Japanese language, which I'm surprised has no counterpart in any other language I know of, despite being essentially a mixture of different English loanwords: match-pump (マッチポンプ).
It describes the action of causing problems for everyone else, either accidentally or deliberately but almost always in a surreptitious way, and then coming out to make yourself look good, either by condemning the problem or claiming to have the solution for it, all the while pretending you have nothing to do with it. The expression is supposed to conjure up the image of someone first starting a fire (by lighting up a match), and then coming back as the wannabe savior brandishing a water hose (pump) to extinguish it, expecting praises and rewards.
Every single scene in that trailer is a parade of such "match-pump" material for the management to feast on: from Ogiyuka noting "These days you'd get laughed at even if you say you like AKB", to Jurina shouting "What we are fighting against now is not AKB anymore, but Nogizaka", all the way to Minegishi wondering "Things would be really simple if only we knew how to make people feel enthralled like back in those days. The point is, we don't know". Yeah, you Minegishi are one to talk about that...

Who causes things to be as dysfunctional as this and sabotages the members' honest efforts, if not the same people who profit off producing and selling these flicks in the first place? Especially in the person of a certain fat, short, bespectacled, misguided "executive producer", who himself is pretty much the instigator of most of the problems the members lamented of in these interviews?
And then you realize that this artificial drama represents the entirety of Akimoto's line of work in the end, and rather than bothering you, in the long run it simply gets to the point of boring you.

 

Yes, idols are manufactured groups with mostly manufactured drama. The angle they play to keep themselves relevant is to create their own difficult circumstances and then attempt to overcome them. After all, the music's over only when the fans stop paying out - and watching the drama unfold is one factor in what keeps us handing over the money.

As idol fans, let's not pretend we don't know this already. Let's not pretend it's not at least part of why we're here. We even enjoy it. Having their own producer create a rival group that sucks away fans stinks for the members. Being coerced to enter an event every year that essentially turns them into politicians who have to beg for money stinks for the members. Having new faces kick out the old ones before they even had a chance to shine stinks for the members. But we all know this already. The fans enjoy drama and management knows that. We go "poor so-and-so, I really feel bad for her and what management is doing to her" while we open our pocketbooks and throw her a gift on Showroom. Fans empty their bank accounts to make sure their idol-politician lands high in the rankings. Who wins and who crashes and burns keeps us on the edge of our seats. It's not nice, but it's the truth.

Idol fans can act outraged about it all we want, and pile blame up on Aki-P and the rest of the management all we want, but idol groups have always lived on the food of manufactured, yet entertaining drama. It's not exactly a novel concept, just one that fans sometimes try to forget about. And honestly, if they didn't use this as a business model, this forum probably wouldn't even be here for us to post complaints on. Again, the truth is cold and sad, but it's what keeps idols in business.

 

Nah, count me out of that, I'm here to watch the everyday interaction between members, something which many users in this forum either are uninterested in or don't have the slightest clue about, not these attempts at shock value. More so than being tasteless, they are first and forsemost soulless in that no effort is made to ever present the members when in an otherwise normal situation, it thus teaches nothing about how the members themselves really are, and is at its essence just a poor, empty excuse to hide a state of total creative bankruptcy.
Even watching Faces of Death gets boring after a while, when you pause and realize that the guy who just got smashed into a pulp was once again only a stunt mannequin filled with pork meat, so to speak...
Other groups carry on just fine even without this constant addiction to artificial drama, which has only the opposite effect of turning people off (and in part ties also back to the problem Ogiyuka pointed out, because it only contributes to make AKB a laughing stock). All you need to do is making an effort not to be so creatively bankrupt as to constantly fall back on that.
If the trailer is any indication of what the whole flick is like, then I'd have much more preferred it had the members talking one-on-one directly with Akimoto himself for once (since you are the one answerable for all that, for one thing), rather than speaking alone to the void in front of a running camera. Any other option makes the whole operation pointless and laughable.

 

After a while angst just gets a bit wearing.

If anything, this trailer shows that most of the senior members (pre 10th gen at least) need to graduate already, Yukirin seems to be the only one that's having fun. And for the love of god will Miichan just go.

The 48-group can have a valid new chapter, the newer members are good and things like the singing competition were actually refreshing, just keep doing things like that and make good music, but things like this documentary seems like a regressive step.

 

I completely forgot Miichan is still in the group To be honest, everyone pre-9th gen is like non-existent to me except Yukirin

 

the funniest part of the trailer of the documentary is Jurina having a meltdown cause nobody cares anymore about AKB but everyone wants Nogizaka. AKB looks like a joke now

 

Billboard Year End Stuff is out
Top Artists
4th: Nogizaka46
5th: Keyakizaka46
8th: AKB48
http://www.billboard-japan.com/special/detail/2543

Hot 100
3rd: Glass wo Ware! (Keyakizaka46)
6th: Synchronicity (Nogizaka46)
7th: Jikochuu de Ikou! (Nogizaka46)
10th: Teacher Teacher (AKB48)
11th: Ambivalent (Keyakizaka46)
21st: Kaerimichi wa Toomawari Shitaku Naru (Nogizaka46)
32nd: Sentimental Train (AKB48)
33rd: Jabaja (AKB48)
37th: Kaze ni Fukaretemo (Keyakizaka46)
38th: Ikinari Punch Line (SKE48)
43rd: Muishiki no Iro (SKE48)
47th: Silent Majority (Keyakizaka46) (lol)
50th: Fukyouwaon (Keyakizaka46)
57th: Warota People (NMB48)
65th: Influencer (Nogizaka46)
71st: Boku Datte naichau yo (NMB48)
80th: Hayaokuri Calendar (HKT48)
81st: Yokubomono (NMB48)
92nd: Itsuka Dekirukara Kyou Dekiru (Nogizaka46)
98th: Sekai wa Doko Made Aozora na no Ka? (NGT48)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=hot100_year&year=2018

Albums
6th: Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi no Yoake o Shitteiru (AKB48)
22nd: Hashiridasu Shunkan (Hiragana Keyakizaka46)
36th: 092 (HKT48)
38th: Bokudake No Kimi ~Under Super Best~ (Nogizaka46)
61st: Masshiro na Mono wa Yogoshitaku naru (Kanji Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=hot_albums_year&year=2018

Stream Songs
12th: Glass wo Ware! (Keyakizaka46)
16th: Silent Majority (Keyakizaka46)
22nd: Fukyouwaon (Keyakizaka46)
32nd: Kaze ni Fukaretemo (Keyakizaka46)
34th: Influencer (Nogizaka46)
38th: Synchronicity (Nogizaka46)
98th: Futari Saison (Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=stsongs_year&year=2018

Download Songs
26th: Glass wo Ware! (Keyakizaka46)
53rd: Synchronicity (Nogizaka46)
80th: Kaze ni Fukaretemo (Keyakizaka46)
92nd: Fukyouwaton (Keyakizaka46)
99th: Ambivalent (Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=dlsongs_year&year=2018

Download Albums
99th: Hashiridasu Shunkan (Hiragana Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=dlalbums_year&year=2018

Top Single Sales
1st: Teacher Teacher (AKB48)
2nd: Sentimental Train (AKB48)
3rd: Synchronicity (Nogizaka46)
4th: Jikochuu de Ikou! (Nogizaka46)
5th: Jabaja (AKB48)
6th: Kaerimichi wa Toomawari Shitaku Naru (Nogizaka46)
7th: Glass wo Ware! (Keyakizaka46)
8th: Ambivalent (Keyakizaka46)
13th: Ikinari Punch Line (SKE48)
15th: Muishiki no Iro (SKE48)
21st: Warota People (NMB48)
23rd: Boku Datte naichau yo (NMB48)
24th: Yokubomono (NMB48)
25th: Hayakouri Calendar (HKT48)
28th: Sekai wa Doko Made Aozora na no ka? (NGT48)
35th: Kurayami (STU48)
37th: Sekai no Hitoe (NGT48)
40th: Haru wa Doko kara kuru no ka? (NGT48)
41st: Itsuka Dekiru kara Kyou Dekiru (Nogizaka46)
58th: Kaze ni Fukaretemo (Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=sales_year&year=2018

Top Album Sales
2nd: Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi no Yoake o Shitteiru (AKB48)
18th: Hashiridasu Shunkan (Hiragana Keyakizaka46)
20th: 092 (HKT48)
25th: Bokudake No Kimi ~Under Super Best~ (Nogizaka46)
77th: Masshiro na Mono wa Yogoshitaku naru (Kanji Keyakizaka46)
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=albums_year&year=2018

 

How long are they gonna use the "new chapter" for AKB? I mean I have seen that word several times already, from Maeda graduation, to Yuko's one, and Mayu, and...

Anw, as long as I audition enough new girls, I think their old fans will probably find them a new oshi to spend money on her so they group will be just fine, as least for 5 more years.

 

AKB48 will be appearing on "Music Station's Super Live 2018" on December 21st
https://natalie.mu/music/news/311231

 

Are we supposed to comment again on how AKB is dead/ a joke?

I mean, everyone knows the reality that AKB is far from being the popular and well loved group it was around 5 to 7 years ago but the facts that its still here, earning enough to keep things going, and arguably relevant enough to manage kouhaku invites and what not, I must say, "not bad".

 

It must be at least chapter 4 by now .

They should be focusing the doc on the members that will be the core of the next 3 to 4 years of AKB like Juri, Nana, Mion, Mako, Yuiri etc plus the most promising young members like Zukki, Yahagi Moeka and Suzuki Kurumi instead of the "old ladies". Look forward with optimism instead of constantly looking back to the old days. If AKB aren't on top any more, so what, concentrate on making AKB/48-group better rather than looking at what other groups are doing.

 

just wondering
how popular is Suzuki Kurumi,she's so adorable

 

Happy 13th Anniversary AKB48!!!
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Gotta say, would love to see them doing 365nichi no Kamihikouki together.