[GENERAL] The Sakamichi Series group thread

I said they were same bcs their reason to graduated is a doubt, at least for me. You can cmiiw, but iirc Neru didn't wrote clearly why she want to quit. While Suzumoto's reason was clear, she loses her passion (or so), you can still questioned why she loses it. That's why i have a question in my mind, what happens?
It'll be better if they said their reason clearly eventho it's a lie like want to focus on their study or so. In Neru cases, if she want to leave showbizz industry, she can said she want to retired (but maybe she just take a break).

 

I mean why not. yesterday I want to be vegan but today I dream of a juicy steak serving on the plate. That the irrationality of men. I mean in some cases people even realize what sense of purpose they seek later in life.
I'll call the case like this as the typical "privilege kid crisis". It's different from girl like Nanamin, for example have to pursue the choice regarding her finances. many girls I bet like Ikoma take idol audition as form escapism. Neru could have everything in her life while not be bothered with that kind of things but yet that one is not the mean "she already gets what she wants".

But that also didn't discount the third, the fourth, fifth... and the more reason we can think of. These individuals we talked about might end up to certain natures of syllogisms but there should be nuances individually.
to compare to Zumin that clearly an ambitious one, Mona that wants to be a model while also a (true) rebellious girl, both could be dissatisfied with the group and... you can nail the coffin that as mgmt fault and everything tied; but Neru as personality, at least from what had shown not seems in that category. It's not mean her so special than others, it's just one can believe the case that happens unfortunately just not in the good timing.

it comes to which narratives you want to believe for now. either this the sole keya's mgmt fault(which fair or unfairly targeted) or just neru being neru. I can understand the doubt because there is no clear-cut statement. But one case doesn't need necessarily follow the other. To me it's sound like Neru does not want to reveal, or cannot reveal it yet.

 

Let's play devil's advocate.

As someone claimed Keyaki's edgy period made them more popular.

Is it actually true when you brought up MV views as validity and points.

A-side is the one fans and public recognize most but according to MV views there is a downfall trend from Garasu wo Ware to Kuroi Hitsuji.

Garasu= 45M (And no, it's not Keyaki's third most viewed MV)
Ambivalent= 31M
Kuroi Hitsuji= 18M

Or could it possible be the audience dropped interest because they got tired of the edgy push for each single AkiP ran with. His visionary ego hurted Sony's business and his push with perma center made songs stagnant in the end. Mngmt is not a saint either as they have other issues they contributed with since around 3rd single by telling the girls to tone down on Keyakake and how they handled Kouhaku accident and Budokan cancellation.

 

This is what make's me, and perhaps alot more people outside there, questioning her graduation. I hope Keyaki's docu will give all of us a clear answer

 

in full fairness, i hope too, for there some view of clarity in the future (y).

 

Regarding the edgy artistic image, I think that's fine for a big corporation like Sony. If an edgy image makes a successful artist, I'm sure Sony would be happy with that. It's the internal conflict and eventual collapse that comes with bad management or ownership that a big corporation doesn't want. In the case of Keyaki, it just so happens that the edgy image, perma center, and internal conflict happened to all go hand-in-hand. If there was a way to maintain whatever artistic image (like edgy) would bring in money but internal group member and management/ownership relations were also good, I'm sure Sony would love that. Edgy artistry means edgy lyrics, edgy music, edgy MVs, but it doesn't have to mean edgy internal politics and edgy management lol!

Regarding Neru and graduations, if the reason a member leaves a group is because management was just not good enough, they're usually not going to just say that out loud, obviously. So you have to read between the lines, look at circumstantial evidence, even see what Bunshun says, etc. In some cases, you don't have to read much between the lines, like Shida was saying some things on Twitter when Hirate withdrew (something like, "I thought it would happen more slowly." She deleted the tweet soon afterwards though.) But of course Shida left because of a scandal and I assume she's not with Seed & Flower anymore. So she's the most likely to say something direct like that. Someone who doesn't have a scandal and still may not want to burn bridges with Seed & Flower, like Neru, is going to be a lot more diplomatic with what she says and does. And IMO, a graduation episode on KeyaKake is unlikely to spill beans about internal stuff. Not only is it somewhere with all members there plus the MCs (so it's not the easiest place to say anything not positive) and who knows, maybe even some management staff too behind the cameras since it's a big event, management later gets to edit every single second of that before it airs anyway.

Like someone commented above, if Endo Sakura graduates in 2 years (without an obvious reason), you wonder why. And this is Neru and Keyakizaka we're talking about. Neru is someone you wouldn't be surprised if she became center or became a solo tarento, not someone who was stuck in under. And Keyaki is still a super successful group. This isn't a minor pop group where you expect the entire group to disband after 3-5 years without ever appearing at the top of oricon charts much because that's just how those kinds of groups go. This is a blockbuster money-making group (in 2018, in musical artist total revenue, Nogi was 2nd with JPY 10 B, AKB 3rd with JPY 9 B, and Keyaki 8th with JPY 4 B), which also has a model for management they can relatively easily follow in Nogi. Which is why I think the standards for management should be very high.

Putting these two things together (most graduates aren't just going to come out and say bad things about the group or management, and Neru was a top member and Keyaki is a hugely successful group), the lack of certain things you might expect is what becomes your circumstantial evidence. The lack of a clear, official reason for graduating or retiring from show business, the lack of a big send-off (for example Nanamin retired from show business but had a graduation center, solo grad song, grad pb, grad concert), etc. Neru was more important to Keyaki than Nanamin was to Nogi, so I would expect a huge send-off of Neru if it was a completely happy, harmonious exit for her and management.

 

as I remember(cmiiw), to compare with other graduates in the last two years she's the one that got the more proper send-off in a concert.
Neru won't spill any beans, either this mgmt's fiasco affecting her or not, there no reason to become a whistleblower.
Again this just come to how do you perceive a person. Neru is technically the 2nd top member but never (as far I know) come in the case frequency of techi, zumin or shida--seamlessly an apparent dissatisfy individuals against the perceived enemy: the holy moly mgmt. There external hype(mgmt, fan, media) that want thrives her as the next big thing, but by the image that conveyed, she comes as someone that won't be bothered with a thing like center instead of professionality and responsibility. In this term, the internal take of that I can read is she could leave the group last year even if the group in a healthy condition, nothing happened behind the scene, or even she's at the peak of popularity. Thing wont change except the perceived timing.
If we put it by spectrum, i believe Neru more aligned in the direction of Yone, a shift of focus(the reason). a little problem i admit it came with some vagueness because she not/yet to reveal what she gonna do in public; that's where i put a brake in my assumption. obviously we can put Techi, Shida and zumin are on the other side, while imo oda and suzumon seem like aligned on their side but close to center.
What i want to put on my perspective is that all of the thing been discussed to seek a possible certainty of a story has certain fault at the premise, that everything happen must be a bad thing on the expense of mgmt.

 

As I expected after perma center's withdrawal the captain will take her position more seriously now in the group.
https://twitter.com/rockinon_com/status/1240110692755107841?s=19

Is this the first time Rockin'on publish the group's captain and not a protagonist/ace member. I expect Yukka to grow stronger in her role surrounded by many promising aces who wants to show their abiilities going forward for the group. They need this to stabilize the group before the next Sakamichi Joint Audition happens (probably next year).

I also find YukkaNen's showroom today very interesting. Yukka mentioned the full version of bell song is great, so is 10 gatsu (not removed) and that should probably applies to Saijin as well. This is not a single we have upon us, mngmt could take a break and put out a 2nd album. I will tell why this is possible.

The new 2ki members have now recorded their Keyakake episodes and mngmt is also pushing them with 10 pages on Up To Boy. The thing is, unlike last year, AkiP has nothing to wait for now. His perma center was heavily injured (compared to Kouhaku) during Arena Tour 2018 so she sat in a wheelchair when current 2ki members joined the group.

But now it's just for mngmt to run the show without hurdles and excuses. Straight forward push for summer like they did with 1st album after 4th single.

 

I was hoping to find a thread for the Yoshimotozaka46 group, but I guess I'm blind? Anyway, according to this website two members are now married.

 

@Conjyak

rude. Nanamin was literally in nogi’s top 4 most popular members and has been influential since day one. she retired before nogi really peaked success and relevance wise but she was still important to nogi.

 

Nanamin was the only Nogi member besides Maiyan to be in fukujin for every single up until she graduated.

 

so true. how the f he talked like nanamin is just regular member? if she is still here. her position would probably one and only in 1st row(probably will mirror maiyan position). nanamin maiyan sayurin are considered the 3goddeses of nogi(until sayurin made that stupid scandal). plus with her short hair and stylish look, she is also popular in modelling field. neru and nanamin basically is the same level of importance except that nanamin has higher chance to be centre(not including her grad single) than neru would be.

 

@hiraganatwice @mayuri91 Have you actually read his post? @Conjyak nowhere claims Nanamin wasn't an important member. On the contrary.

 

he is not saying it directly. you cannot understand his last statement?

 

@mayuri91 I understood it perfectly. Did you?

 

@Conjyak literally said that Neru was more important to Keyaki than Nanamin to Nogi. And most of us here know that's not true. I mean, it's Nanamin we're talking about.

 

Thank you!!

I'm not even super knowledgeable about Keyaki, but I feel like the comments further up show a misunderstanding of how important Neru was to Keyaki.

If you look at Keyaki handshake sales, like 4 or 5 members are all at the top with Neru always among that top group, so you can't really differentiate them there. Keyaki row formations don't really follow handshake sales and there was no under, so it's hard to tell why they place who where, unlike Nogi where for the most part they really do go by handshake sales and popularity and other achievement (solo jobs). You can do a subjective "eye test" for their solo achievement, in which case Neru had a lot of solo variety appearances that other members didn't, but I'm sure other members have some other stuff as well that Neru didn't have much, like modeling or acting. But from what I remember, her variety presence during 2017-2018 was big, like the same as Nogi fukujin level at least, if not more.

With Showroom data, CMIIW but Neru never did a solo showroom, so it's impossible to compare her showroom popularity with other members. Plus, as the group gets bigger, showroom numbers grow with time, so for example, if member A did a Showroom in 2018 and got X amount of views, if she does a Showroom 2019, she'll most likely naturally have more than X views in 2019 just because of natural growth of the group and fan awareness of Showrooms. Again, hard to compare.

So one big piece of objective evidence I'll bring up (again) is photobook sales. The only Sakamichi photobooks to sell better than Neru's (206,000) are Maiyan's 2nd, Ikuchan's 2nd, and the two Nogisatsus. Not even Asuka's, not even any individual one of Nanase's beats Neru's photobook sales. Keyaki's group pb was 156k. The next highest Keyaki pb is Risa's at 102k. Neru's pb literally sold twice as many as the next highest individual Keyaki pb. Neru's pb went on sale in December 2017, and in a ranking at the end of 2018 for that year's best pb sales, Neru's sold 190k, so her figures weren't boosted much by her announcing her graduation in 2019 either (if you're wondering if her 206k current figure was abnormally boosted by her graduation and can't be compared with a current member like Risa's, as I was.)

If Hirate was Keyaki's Maiyan, then Neru was Keyaki's Nanase. Now compare Neru's graduation activities with Nanamin's graduation activities, and then ask why Keyaki management made that decision for Neru's graduation activities, was my real point.

 

But that's something different than saying that Nanamin isn't an important member, as above posters accused @Conjyak of doing.

 

I do agree with what @Conjyak said about Neru and Nanamin. Neru is indeed more important to Keyaki than Nanamin to Nogi. Here is the reason.

In Keyaki that's heavily-focused on Hirate, Neru is maybe one of few members, and I can even say, the only member, that can compete with Hirate for Center position, in terms of character, popularity, and presence, as well as a member that can change the group image. If management decided to make light & dark or yin & yang theme, they can easily use both of them for the center position. And, when Neru graduated, basically, there is no member that can do that anymore. That shows how important Neru to Keyaki.

Nogi, doesn't have a focused member that affects the group's image. Nanamin is indeed one of the most important members of Nogi. However, her influence on Nogi is not as big as Neru or Hirate to Keyaki (if we use my explanation above as the basic). When Nanamin graduated, there are still many members that can keep Nogi image as it is, and even develop it even further. I think this is the biggest difference between Neru and Nanamin, as well as Keya and Nogi.

 

1/21 > 1/34

Mathematically proven Neru's contribution was more than Nanamin's to their respective groups!