[GENERAL] The Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Thread

^I personally didn't hear her say Malta specifically, but i definitely heard her saying she went to Europe to study. I guess most of us are just assuming that means Malta since that's the only one mentioned in the rumors (and an oddly specific country lol).

And yes they are! She's participating in 'remote' activities, which I guess means any kind of #stayhome video's the girls make, along with blog posts and mobame, up until the time she's able to go abroad.

 

Well according to Wiki, Malta is a Southern European island country so

Miyu looks lovely nowadays, I never really looked at her as one of the beauties of K46 but she looks so pretty in her IG

 

Miyu is beautiful, specially since her early long-hair days. She was the one that stood out (aside from Techi) to me the most in the Silent Majority MV.

 

@rdamon42, @Jsprite
Can confirm. Come to think of it, Suzumon has been cute since the beginning.
On the other hand, this recent IG Live... Damn, that's too much.
Definitely made me re-evaluate some things.

P.S. Speaking of Malta. That's a rather popular destination among English-learners. As far as I heard, it's cheaper and more chill than the big shot countries.

 

Rock in Japan 2020 is now officially cancelled. And republik2020 wont pretty much happen.
No anniversary live, no RoK, no appearance in Rock In Japan, no summer arena tour is hard so I hope they will compensate us with a live stream of an unreleased concert (not something from 2017 but a recent one with 2ki)
Public gathering wont still be permitted for some time the sake of public safety. So only when nogi & hinata gives a new schedule for their delayed handshake that I will believe that 9th single is comming. I can only expect the damn documentary to be released when they restart their activity because keyakizaka new chapter is long overdue. They can air half ot it on TV and end it on an emotional cliffhanger so that ppl would buy the DVD

An uniform change with brighter colors would be more than welcomed after 7 months in that dark dress

 

In case they release something, Anniversary live in Budoukan would be the best. Since many fans reported it as the best live (before TD i guess), and it's also an important live of the group, on a big, famous venue and including the 2ki in it

 

MTV Japan's hosting a special Keyakizaka challenge for their #AloneTogether campaign. They're asking for performance covers of Silent Majority, and winners will be posted on the official website and SNS accounts. The girls might even comment on the best covers. Can apply here.

 

Interesting, am getting tempted to fire up the old recording mixer and actually do this not sure I am ready for publicity though LOL

But kidding aside this is the kind of thing that 46G should be doing to drum up interest and keep the fans engaged. I saw AKB48 with an OUC48 intitiative where they do online performances, why can;t we have the same for 46G and especially Keyaki?

Hoping the feedback from this will generate some ideas, like, even a member showroom once a week would do.

 

Keyaki member has been doing activities, thinking of many things but that only on mobame. AKB got more free-styled, so it's easier for management to let them do all kind of things. They had many free channel to reach fans and community, like showroom, insta and youtube. Sakamichi while it's only member doing it on their own, mainly they are done in private, costly channel (mainly mobame I guess). They are different in business core but I really hope management can deal with Sony somehow to let the Sakamichi groups be more active in this period, public wise. Many contents are interesting and worth publicize and public should know about this, esp for Keyaki girls to gain more interest. ( But honestly paid service have their own advantage too, I'm currently really having fun with Hono and Pon mobame's content )

 

I suddenly realized. What do we do with our existing singles? Surely someone has to center all this songs now. Probably they'll assign different singles to different members now. In total, how many members with previous centering experience are available? Off the top of my head:
Pon: Garasu, Ambivalent, Kaze (?)
Sugai: Fukyouwaon
Habu: Ambivalent, Eccentric, Kaze (?)
Koike: Futari Sezon
Risa: Ambivalent
Hikaru: Kuroi Hitsuji
At least that's what I remember hearing about or seeing videos of.
What else was there?

 

This is good to know, but I really don't understand why 46G does not want to expand their international fanbase. Aside from us hardcore Keyakids (credit to @Dill for the term, lol) who take time to check on everything, I really think this is the time and opportunity to do so. But alas, I should not be expecting good management and innovative promotional ideas from S&F.

I have been thinking about that too, like, when NeruNeru left, her usual spot in Sezon between the two Watanabes was taken by RunRun.

 

Keyakizaka barely seems interested in expanding their fanbase in Japan let alone internationally.

 

Imo, I think it's not just about international fan base, but also public in Japan and these two category are the pretty much similar in this issue. Honestly, 46G are expanding internationally, mostly by Nogi until this point ( Since 2017, Nogi has been doing live in Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan and even held dome-level concert in China in 2 years), but while paid service is mainly targeting Japan-based fan ( Even though foreigner can still reach them, mobame and goods shipping are available for foreigners, especially Keyaki/Hinata one is much easier for us than Nogi mobame), as for free service we have the same amount as Japan-based fans.

As I said before, the way they are doing now is core difference in business. AKB have their motto to interact close with fans, and with huge number of members, they introduced many free-service for members to reach, interact and gain more fans - both Japan based and international fans can easily reach them. Then the business gain profit mainly from distributing goods, CDs, DVDs (literally every big event/live is published) to fans who get interested from these free service. The amount of goods, even in member goods only, is much larger then 46. On the other hand, 46 are more into business-like, beside a little free service (blogs, public events), fan don't have much gateway to interact with members beside paid service ( fanclub, mobame) so they have no choice but to signing in. And the content limited to those who paid became more precious, giving them more "special feeling" and draws who haven't paid sign for that treatment. The same with releasing DVD, they release little to make the experience of fans who actually came more precious, draw more to attend and getting profit from that.

They choose different way to reach the fans and public, increasing their fan base in different activities but that would be too long to write here, but in this period/ situation , it's just AKB method more suitable since they are more freely to spreading in public

 

I kind of agree with what @Hunter said, but I find it a little too optimistic. Are we sure mngmnt has chosen a direction and not just playing guess and hoping to sell?
Like usual it feels to me they have no idea how to get out of this situation and even the new content the members are putting in their mobame is their own doing. Not planned at all and made for people who are already Keyaki fans.
Don't get me wrong, I love it; but I think Keyaki needs bigger pushes... especially now than Nogi has been brought by KeyHolder and, I presume, they'll get a Promotion Campaign of some sort to seal the deal, so to speak.

Honestly, at this point I'd be happy if Keyaki just get to perform in schools around Japan and form a new fandom base

 

As @Dill said, anything is better than nothing. I was and still am optimistic about the future of Keykizaka46, mostly because I have strong faith in the girls' capabilities and camaraderie. This does not mean, however, that I have any trust in their management. The whole situation that preceded the 9th was a disaster alone and the covid lock-down has made it even worse. It could not have happened at the very worst moment for the group. Personally, this drought is nerve-wrecking for most fans, as whatever is expected to come out of this group will be after essentially TWO YEARS after Kuroi Hitsuji! his is really too much. TVCs are OK if nothing else comes out but, after all, Keyakizaka46 is NOT a model agency - this should not be their core business.
Sometimes I feel as if time has stopped somewhere after February 2019. Tokyo Dome and the end-of-year period were some sunny days in the gloom. And what do we have: The current bad management does not even let the girls communicate with fans and untap their potential and creativity which they do have in abundancy. Don't you all feel as if the girls now are like compressed springs ready to explode? It's OK to set broad rules on where, how when and what to produce/publish/communicate, a framework based on the group's ethics and equity should be set. But let this happen!
We are getting (almost) nothing. Anything, would be fine, really fine!

 

I'm really agree with you. The long post up there of mine is just trying to describe what I think about there business theme in general, it worked well for Nogi, but for Keyaki right now,as I said in the post before that, I really want Keyaki management to break through that theme, gathering the girls amazing idea and bring forth a project. They did act in respond to this situation with Keyamimi, which is great, but again it's still paid service and public don't know/recognize this. Nogi has their set of member that bringing out their name and individual activities to raise their recognition, but now Keya is weak in this aspect, so much more public shown activities should be brought. For example, since video can't be uploaded to blog, members like Pon and Fuu and sending video teaching choreography to mobame, while AKB official channel posted at least 2 video of member teaching Oogoe Diamond and Iiwake Maybe, just do like them pls

 

I guess you can add Silent Majority for Pon as well. Also, Moriya centered Sekai during 2nd anniversary live.

I think management might shake things up and add a 2ki center here and there. Here were the Omitatekai centers:

Karin: Silent Majority
Takeyui: Garasu
Hikaru: Ambivalent
Ten: Kaze

If we're including non-A sides:

Karin: Nobody, W-Keyakizaka no uta
Uemura: Mou mori, Kimi wo mou sagasanai
Risa: Hiraishin, Getsuyoubi
Habu: Katarunara
Akane: Getsuyoubi
Sugai: Otona wa

 

Nogi did stream their Tokyo Dome on YT though. For three days from May 5 to 7th.

 

I get what @Hunter said about the management strategies being different, and I kinda understand it to a point. Even AKB has the lottery system when you want to watch them live in the AKB theatre. To a certain point, making something that people want a bit challenging to get is good for business, the scarcity of content makes it seem more valuable.

Case in point, I think most people here had done one of the following: flown out to Japan to go to handshake events and concerts, bought CDs, photobooks, and make the effort to translate and share variety shows and MVs (salute to these heroes), and at least if you're a casual fan you watch the shows weekly or follow their mobame and blogs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the marketing can be a little better. Management knows that there are foreign fans, even the girls know that they have them. Any good manager would see that opportunity and run with it, expand the fanbase and get more eyes on the product and in the process gain more fans and get more sales. This is basically what I don't get.

 

There are not much things they can do specifically aiming to foreign fans imo since it's hard. Developing foreign shipping and allowing their VISA to buy goods also is a great move, since long ago AKB and idols business did not focus much on this that it was sucks. Mobame is now easy for foreign fans to sign up too. But I can't quite think of anything else they can actively push. Collaborating and appearance on world wide channel or famous foreign show is not something easy. Keyaki management is not doing well for Japan fans let alone us foreign.Foreign fans caught interest by receiving same free contents as japan fans, harder since we have to dig in finding it, but we can hardly expect anything just for us only.

But I think they can have some privilege for foreign fans who came to events in Japan, which can greatly increase their interest and spread the name when those came back. An example is AKB have special seats for foreigner only in their theater, and those seats are goods, near the front. For Sakamichi, I only went on HS event once 2 years ago, maybe because of my lack of experience that I'm not aware of it, foreigners is treated the same as japan fans. Again, maybe I'm not aware of it since i'm not familiar, there might be privilege that i'm not aware of.

We can only hope foreign fan's activities to make an impression. As these fans increasingly left good impression to management in Japan ( number of goods sold oversea, number of foreign fans attending events, campaign on SNS) and enough for management to hold event overseas, getting good response and continue doing it. It's possible, since it worked in Nogi case. As I was there, I'm sure fans caused quite a big impression in Nogi's first live in Singapore, the starting of their overseas activities.