[GENERAL] The Sakamichi Series group thread

But Neru should have been the constant (Her having the public recognition and fanbase would have helped Keyaki established a Mini Fukujin )

Hinata is still in the wait and see phase , I find Hinata in the Hungry wolves phase similar To earlier Nogi .

 

Putting aside the permacenter issue, I actually like that Keyaki took a bit of time before deciding on Kobayashi Yui and Watanabe Risa to be their two front row regulars. But then yeah, you're right, it's a different category from the two front row regulars of Nogi and Hinata, since with those, management didn't take any time to decide to put them in the front row.

Perhaps another thing that helps Hinata's two front row regulars is that they are two of the older members of the group, so they can handle it better. The more I think about it, the more I feel that Nogi's early Iku-I-Hoshi push was risky, though in the end it worked out.

Since the permacenter issue with Keyaki was so extreme, I doubt having KobaYui and Risa as front row regulars the whole way would've changed much, but it's still interesting to think of what would have happened having 2 perma front row regulars from the very start. If they were older and reliable, could they have controlled Techi more, or convinced the other members in rows 2-3 to stay strong? Or would some members in row 2 start to look at them with frustration? (Btw, the new Bunshun article depicts Sugai as not being reliable and tough enough to keep the group together.)

Yeah, true, Hinata is in a wait and see phase. Looking at the history of the other two groups, the next few singles from single 5 is likely to be a crucial period for management.

 

Seed & Flower has probably learned their lesson based on all changes they apply to Hinata. The group was basically Hiragana Keyakizaka46 until Feb 2019.

https://sakamichinotes.blogspot.com/2019/01/managers-being-recruited-for-keyakizaka.html?m=1

The name change did also reset the group. They are in a good spot now where they can change center. But even before Hinata they changed center in Hiragana. At one time Kyonko was center, then Miipan, then Katoshi and now Kosakana. All songs are different with unique abilities from each member.

But I like what they have done with 1st gen Keyaki. Make Ponpon and Berisa as front row aces in the group. The question is though if they waited until the end for 2nd gen completion to carry on center rotation policy on them. When there was only 9 of them they were treated like support as if nothing was set in stone for Seed & Flower yet. With new 2nd gen in addition to 9 members already assigned they might have a direction now that is determined. It's crucial for both Hinata and Keyaki for Seed & Flower to prove they have changed. Once this pandemic ends it's back to normal and that's when we want to see the end result.

 

I'm a little late at the topic, but I just want to say some of my opinions.

About Keyaki's front row rotation, I think this is a good thing I loved that not so many groups has done this before. They gave every girl a chance to be in spotlight, especially in their first 1-1,5 year since their debut. It's good for member's morale, not staying in 3rd forever without a chance to show their potential. It gave good result too, as Koike and Habu are two example of showing their huge growth. Habu became 1st row regular and is serving as top member now. This maybe a lesson from Nogizaka's 2gen, when they only pushed Miona and dropped others.
Until 5th single when this end (Ozeki and Nijika turn), as @EinhanderX said, the 2nd row consist of 2 captains and models team - who already got some fame and name to themselves, considered stronger than 1st row members. If we need to draw the line, I think this should be from here and up to that point, I think management did a good job about member positions.

Without establishing Fukujin system, I think fan still can kinda grasp who was the top members of the group, just not so exactly who is which number. This worked well with Keyaki motto of 21 member bonds that they didn't want to have a clear hierarchy. This however lead to a backlash in member lack of competitive and go depend on Techi too much, but this is another long topic so I wont touch it here. However it's still clear to me that management is pushing Neru as 2nd, and it worked. Neru got sub-main role after Techi in 2 drama, became their representative to talk in shows, having solo photobook after only Rika. For Keyaki's 1st year, I dont think position in 1st row said much, and in fact with all resources Neru has, she can be considered standing beside Techi as 2nd - also showed in talent ranking power

About permanent center, theoretically I don't think that is bad. From business point, they need a figure/face to promote groups's charecteristic, and Techi is perfect for Keyaki. But the different between Nogi and Keyaki is here. I considered Nogi's really booming period is from Kizuitara, after they change the center from Ikoma - Maiyan - Miona and get to Nanase, they decided to create and follow new group's image around Nanase, within 2 years Nanase center 4/6 single, the other two center is for welcoming Ikuta and Ikoma return, but Nanase is still next to center and Nanase even was the main character of Bemars - where Taiyou is theme songs. But regarding position, the front members were always Nanamin, Sayuringo, Ikuta, especially Maiyan was paired with Nanase. Even among Fukujin, these top member were featured in many individual jobs - radio, magazine and dramas, Nanamin even got a golden-time one and had their status close with Nanase-the center. They became strong foundation for Nogi's growth that they can later changing center for trial while keeping image of these member as pillar.

This is what Keyaki is lacking imo, as they only focus too much on 1-2 members. Management wanted to have Techi-Neru pair like Nanase-Maiyan so resources focused on Neru, while others don't have so much. But Neru was still in 2nd row, while strong performance member are on 1st. However these member did not have as much works outside as Neru's level.
After 5th single, at this point "golden 2nd row" didn't work anymore, they only have 4 girls as model team and 1-2 members with regular radio, mostly let them stay with current job without trying other fields and increase their jobs. Both old 2nd row and new 1st row could not establish a status like Nogi's top fukujin. A strong candidate for 2nd position and center Imaizumi got issues, hiatus and grad, following by Neru and now Techi graduated, the members got most resources gone after another, leaving only some member with little radio works and modelling. So Techi as center is not a too huge problem, the problem imo is other members dont get enough resources to growth on par. This of course happened during a hard period of Keyaki, with many things happened behind the scenes we have not yet know, so I don't put all the blame on management, can only wait for the documentary to see it

But after all that, with the new chapter coming, while it's a little late but now S&F is giving members new jobs, pushing Risa and Yuipon as new pillar, I hope they learnt from their mistake and have more stable plans with remaining 1ki and new 2ki.

 

A Google trends ranking of Sakamichi members (plus some graduates) of the last 7 days:

http://nogizaka-46bunno1.blog.jp/archives/81880370.html

https://smtrends.net/ranking/sakamichi-series-member/ja/

(For some reason, the source forgot to label Hinata members as Hinata and are labeled as Keyaki.)

日本 過去 7 日間 (04/15 〜 04/21)
順位 検索キーワード 人気度 [%]
1 白石麻衣 - 乃木坂 46 100.000
2 齋藤飛鳥 - 乃木坂 46 72.306
3 平手友梨奈 - 欅坂 46 48.623
4 生田絵梨花 - 乃木坂 46 40.827
5 秋元真夏 - 乃木坂 46 37.034
6 高山一実 - 乃木坂 46 33.614
7 与田祐希 - 乃木坂 46 32.187
8 長濱ねる - 欅坂 46 29.873
9 山下美月 - 乃木坂 46 28.992
10 小坂菜緒 - 欅坂 46 23.089
11 遠藤さくら - 乃木坂 46 22.476
12 松村沙友理 - 乃木坂 46 19.926
13 堀未央奈 - 乃木坂 46 17.707
14 渡邉美穂 - 欅坂 46 17.088
15 渡辺梨加 - 欅坂 46 16.841
16 長沢菜々香 - 欅坂 46 14.559
17 齊藤京子 - 欅坂 46 14.165
18 渡邉理佐 - 欅坂 46 14.118
19 星野みなみ - 乃木坂 46 11.836
20 梅澤美波 - 乃木坂 46 11.159
21 賀喜遥香 - 乃木坂 46 9.900
22 加藤史帆 - 欅坂 46 9.853
23 佐々木美玲 - 欅坂 46 9.270
24 衛藤美彩 - 乃木坂 46 9.239
25 大園桃子 - 乃木坂 46 8.877
26 東村芽依 - 欅坂 46 8.436
27 菅井友香 - 欅坂 46 8.373
28 金村美玖 - 欅坂 46 8.358
29 井上小百合 - 乃木坂 46 7.870
30 松田好花 - 欅坂 46 7.618
31 宮田愛萌 - 欅坂 46 7.240
32 筒井あやめ - 乃木坂 46 6.957
33 久保史緒里 - 乃木坂 46 6.941
33 上村ひなの - 欅坂 46 6.941
34 河田陽菜 - 欅坂 46 6.658
35 北野日奈子 - 乃木坂 46 6.390
36 新内眞衣 - 乃木坂 46 6.311
37 桜井玲香 - 乃木坂 46 5.997
38 山﨑怜奈 - 乃木坂 46 5.981
39 富田鈴花 - 欅坂 46 5.871
40 岩本蓮加 - 乃木坂 46 5.839
41 影山優佳 - 欅坂 46 5.383
42 中田花奈 - 乃木坂 46 5.367
43 清宮レイ - 乃木坂 46 5.052
44 森田ひかる - 欅坂 46 5.037
45 丹生明里 - 欅坂 46 4.753
46 鈴木絢音 - 乃木坂 46 4.423
47 樋口日奈 - 乃木坂 46 4.360
47 佐藤楓 - 乃木坂 46 4.360
48 柿崎芽実 - 欅坂 46 4.250
49 佐々木琴子 - 乃木坂 46 4.092
50 田村保乃 - 欅坂 46 4.045
51 高本彩花 - 欅坂 46 3.982
52 土生瑞穂 - 欅坂 46 3.683
53 井口眞緒 - 欅坂 46 3.541
54 上村莉菜 - 欅坂 46 3.526
55 斉藤優里 - 乃木坂 46 3.415
56 寺田蘭世 - 乃木坂 46 3.384
57 掛橋沙耶香 - 乃木坂 46 3.352
57 小池美波 - 欅坂 46 3.352
58 鈴本美愉 - 欅坂 46 3.321
59 濱岸ひより - 欅坂 46 3.211
60 田村真佑 - 乃木坂 46 3.069
61 和田まあや - 乃木坂 46 2.865
62 守屋茜 - 欅坂 46 2.628
63 伊藤純奈 - 乃木坂 46 2.565
64 原田葵 - 欅坂 46 2.534
65 伊藤理々杏 - 乃木坂 46 2.141
66 伊藤かりん - 乃木坂 46 1.920
67 渡辺みり愛 - 乃木坂 46 1.873
68 佐藤詩織 - 欅坂 46 1.810
69 松田里奈 - 欅坂 46 1.684
70 吉田綾乃クリスティー - 乃木坂 46 1.605
71 齋藤冬優花 - 欅坂 46 1.574
72 向井葉月 - 乃木坂 46 1.558
73 金川紗耶 - 乃木坂 46 1.495
74 柴田柚菜 - 乃木坂 46 1.401
75 藤吉夏鈴 - 欅坂 46 1.385
75 潮紗理菜 - 欅坂 46 1.385
76 阪口珠美 - 乃木坂 46 1.338
77 早川聖来 - 乃木坂 46 1.259
78 高瀬愛奈 - 欅坂 46 1.180
79 北川悠理 - 乃木坂 46 1.023
80 中村麗乃 - 乃木坂 46 0.771
81 石森虹花 - 欅坂 46 0.598
82 井上梨名 - 欅坂 46 0.535
82 矢久保美緒 - 乃木坂 46 0.535
83 松平璃子 - 欅坂 46 0.519
84 山﨑天 - 欅坂 46 0.283
85 武元唯衣 - 欅坂 46 0.220
86 佐々木久美 - 欅坂 46 0.000
86 小林由依 - 欅坂 46 0.000
86 織田奈那 - 欅坂 46 0.000
86 関有美子 - 欅坂 46 0.000
86 尾関梨香 - 欅坂 46 0.000

 

Keyaki's "future center" Kobayashi Yui at the bottom with 0.000

 

Even tho She starred in a drama recently
To rank below Nakamura Reno and Yakubo Mio is Unexpected.

 

These are stats from a 7 day period, which is too short of a time span to make any relevant conclusions.

 

And recently had an entire episode of KeyaKake dedicated to her.

 

You mean the episode that was aired on the 12th of April, which falls outside of the mentioned period? Come on, you can do better than this.

 

This is from April 15 to April 21.

So you're saying her buzz dropped to absolute zero only 3 days after the episode was aired? And stayed at zero for 7 days?

That's bad. Any way you look at it.

Memi has literally been a ghost for a year and look where she is compared to Pon.

Edit: By literally I mean figuratively. Memi isn't dead.

 

It's not absolutely zero.
First of all, Google Trends is a relative measurement. This means that even though the charts show, for example, a decline from 10 to 0 on a given day, it might actually be that the absolute searches have increased but just get drowned because something else was more interesting.

Also, and this is very important, do your own research. I don't know how they got numbers from the article, but if I look some stuff up myself, the results are very different. I can't really deduct the exact parameters they used in that article. Did the search keyword contain only the name, or also the group name? Was a category selected?

I did my own lookup for the mentioned period, with just the name, no category. Worldwide interest. It looks very different. If I am understanding things the wrong way, please let me know, but it all seems very contextual and therefore quite unreliable.

Kobayashi Yui

Shiraishi Mai

 

I was actually playing around with Google Trends a few weeks ago. Searches are relative out of 100%, so they only make sense if you're making relative comparisons.
https://trends.google.com/trends/
You can set the region to Japan and copy-paste members' names if you don't know Japanese. But certain members and Hinatazaka46 itself only show results if you put a space in the middle of their names. Something to do with Google's mysterious formula for when it has "enough data."

Nogizaka 46 (blue) vs Keyakizaka 46 (red) vs Hinatazaka 46 (yellow)
Searches for Nogizaka (乃木坂) are much higher than Nogizaka 46 (乃木坂 46), so the difference widens if you subtract 46. I don't know how much of that is because the the actual location Nogizaka is more famous.

Nogizaka 46 (blue) vs Shiraishi Mai (red) vs Nishino Nanase (yellow)
The only members to ever surpass her own group’s searches were Nanamin, Nishino, Shiraishi, and Hirate, all for a brief moment during their graduation/withdrawal announcements, as well as Nishino at the end of her drama Anata no Ban desu.

Keyakizaka 46 (blue) vs Hirate Yurina (red) vs Nagahama Neru (yellow) vs Techi (green)
The Y-axis automatically adjusts to the highest value, so it's hard to make comparisons when a big event like Hirate's withdrawal occurs.

Kosaka Nao (blue) vs Saito Kyoko (red) vs Watanabe Miho (yellow) vs Kato Shiho (green)

I believe these are the highest non-Maiyan Nogi members in the past year:
Saito Asuka (blue) vs Ikuta Erika (red) vs Yoda Yuki (yellow) vs Akimoto Manatsu (green)
The legendary Nanamin’s searches are still comparable to new gen aces and mid-tier 1st gen:
Hashimoto Nanami (blue) vs Hori Miona (red) vs Endou Sakura (yellow)

 

No doubt, people here won't do the bolded when the truth contradicts what they want to see/think. Especially, Kobayashi's number one fan who actually took this ranking quite seriously, your post must've disappointed him. Thanks @gish0046 for keeping her name relevant though!

 

So instead of absolute zero, its zero relative to the rest of Sakamichi, putting her in the same category as Oda Nana.

Pretty bad for a supposed center candidate.

 

i just toyed with the suspected top member(1ki keya). i dont fully get this but only when i put habu as 'topic' instead of search term it shows the proper result of her
kobayui (blue) | berisa (red) | akanen (yellow) | sugai (green) | habu (purple)
on one year average, berisa and captain led while kobayui on third followed by the other two.

 

Huh, I didn't realize those search suggestions were Topics. Topics might actually be more accurate, since it includes all associated search terms. That also makes it easier to just type in English and select the topic.

 

Sure, just hold on to your own opinions while ignoring multiple posts, with examples(!) that explain it's not that black and white. Good job.

 

ah that what it is. i just noticed that too. just switch the five of them and the graph technically still the same but with increases number

 

Wow, using this highly variable, unreliable seven-day (not even a month of data!) search trend to judge someone's center candidacy. Super well done!

Now, that makes a lot more sense though I still question the validity or worth of hyperanalyzing these search trends. Even twitter hashtag trends would be more meaningful and consistent than this.