[GENERAL] The Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Thread

I can understand that very well. I was there the first day of Tokyo Dome, and the crowd just gasped when they stood there in their Keyaki uniforms and 10gatsu no Pool started. I'm more of a Sakurazaka fan than I ever was a Keyaki fan, but that encore was so emotional, it was crazy x.x
At the same time, it is nice to know that the captain was seen off with such a reaction. That was a worthy end to this chapter ^^

 

I would love to see them do a behind the scenes of sawabe and tsuchi that they have already done before in sokosaku and show us who was there with them

 

i'm gonna write a bit of my thoughts of yesterday's live done:

Jouken wasn't a song i had listened too much before, in general i haven't really taken the time to listen to the new album songs quite often besides masatsukeisu. I really thought the perfomance was great and the choreo with the piano was iconic. Also the intro with all the lights and the choreo was really fierce.

Ban as expected was amazing and cool. Dead end was also a perfomance that stood out too me, the set design with the traffic lights was done very well and suited the song. The dance performance prior to danzetsu with the doors, was also peak quality. Nagaradema was intense and cool.

--

time machine de yeah left me teary eyed, a sad happy song idk how to explain it. One way stairs was also really cool as well as the uniform! Out of the subunit perfomances zutto was my favourite, it was really magical and mysterious in a way. Ningyo was also great.


--

When everything turned green on stage, i thought at first that we would get a keyaki song. Regardless i wasn't dissapointed since samidareyo got performed, these new uniforms i thought were quite cute, ten's vocals have really improved. Then came naze koi and with Karin flying in the air i was even more amazed it looked really cool!


Than Nobody's fault came, nobody's fault is one of my favourite a-sides of saku, so this song never dissapoints. I'm in, this song is so good , i had hoped we would get sonia too but im quite happy. Buddies another song i was happy too see since it is 1 of my faves. Shakan kyori was also great the way the stage moved made it seem like they were in a car so it was nice.

very pleased to see koi, i hope it gets performed more often cause the song is so good. Masatsukeisu that song will never dissapoint, since it stays fierce, the choreo is really good.

--

When keyaki overture's started playing (which i knew would happen, since i read it happend on day 1 in tokyo dome too) i felt very excited, the vtr (?) playing along was very cool.


well and then ofcourse the biggest surprise Fukyouwaon!

when i say i screamed i am not lying, i was very shocked to see it happening on my screen. This perfomance of fukyouwaon might be favourite in the song's history. The way the audience cheered, the boku wa iya that left chills on my spine and ofcourse the amazing perfomances of our beloved members definetly created something magnificant. I thought we would never see this song again, but im very happy we did.


Than we got Saijin, its not my fav song but i regardless i still was happy to see it. And Yuuka was flying that was cool.


in the end sono hi made, well i cried a lot. Yuuka really looked like a princess

--
my conclusions

i think each saku live tops another, with each perfomance and live the girls get better and better and it leaves u curious what will they show us next. This live may have been the greatest the stage design and the lightning created an amazing ambiance. The future for saku is looking bright

--
perfomances i thought stood out:

karin, ten, yuuka , habu, fuyuka, kira

 

Taken from Akane's instagram, we can confirm that she was one of the people who were in the VIP area? edit: it seems Kumi was there too and Risa is confirmed.

 

Unfortunately Sakurazaka doesn't appear on Kouhaku Utagassen 2022.

Female idols who appeare on the program are:
IVE
Niziu
Nogizaka
Perfume
Hinatazaka
Twice
Le Sserafim

https://www.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artist73/

 

well this sucks. can't say i'm too surprised though, they get the least amount of exposure among 46g. they still don't have their own drama, sokosaku is their only variety show, sony didn't even bother to send them on The First Take despite sending nogi and hina members multiple times, etc. plus it's not like they've been crazy active this year, with only one single, an underpromoted album (that also had less new songs than your average single to boot, lol) and cancelled live shows. aaaand i guess there's also the fact that the general public isn't really into female idols anymore, in fact the jpop industry now seems to be the complete opposite of kpop: boy groups have some degree of public relevancy (just look at all those johnny's groups on the list lmao), and girl groups are only relevant to their fans.

the silver lining i guess is that they did manage to go on tour and perform at tokyo dome though, so hopefully that's a good sign and things will start looking up from here. i REALLY hope the addition of 3ki breathes some life into the group, and that they can make up for the 1ki graduation rush we are currently undergoing.

(random sidenote, why are sekai no owari in the red group...? lol do they automatically get put in there just because they have one woman?)

 

I'm not surprised either. I've mentioned this last year but it's still relevant: they can't seem to attract new fans for some reason. Their numbers are quite stagnant (despite Samidareyo having a surge in sales, As you know's sales weren't impressive and besides I dread the 5th single's sales bc of Risa and Yuuka's departures). It seems to me that their fanbase is primarily made up of old Keyaki fans who didn't abandon the group after the rebranding.
I have no clue what management could do. They can't send them on shows if there's no demand. But having a year with just one single and one album was a very bad idea. If Nogizaka can release three singles and one album in one year so can Sakurazaka. Keyaki released two singles and one album in their second year. Makes no sense for Sakurazaka to only have one single out. They need to release 5th asap.

 

I thought they had done away with the male/female group separation for red and white a couple years ago?

 

How come there's no news of a 5th single yet ? Should have been out by Oct.

 

Judging from my own experience with the Japanese (mostly girls, early 20's), the general public still struggles to remember what Sakurazaka is. When I said that I liked Sakurazaka, most of them said something along the lines of 'Oh that Nogizaka-like group, I see'. One girl at least recognised Ten-chan (I guess modelling and magazine gigs are paying off). It's pretty embarassing to say, but when asked 'Do they have any famous songs?', I had to reply 'Silent Majority, they used to be called Keyakizaka before, you know'. And of course, everybody knew and many reacted positively. Which brings a question, can we really say that the promotion is sufficient when the recognition levels is clearly not there?

But of course, most people don't really know anything about Hinatazaka either, so let's not get too gloomy Everybody knows Nogi, I'll give you that.

 

We shouldn't worry, let's remember, Kohaku invitations are made for the social and commercial impact that artists have throughout the year, the girls only released 1 single and the album with some new songs this year, unlike nogi and hinata, they released 2 singles and nogi announced a 3rd one for early december, at least sakura won the group of the year award at the MTV VMAJ. They should have released a single in September/October, but I imagine they didn't because it was going to collide with yuuka's grad and that was going to force she to stay until the end of the promotion of that single and would not have been able to graduate at the dome concert. I think that in December or at the end of this month they would announce a single and according to the website, this month the 3rd gen should be almost ready to debut. Those are the reason why our girls were dropped from kohaku.

 

I couldn't really get into Keyaki/Sakurazaka's 1st gen, but totally love 2nd gen. I have only started to recently follow them and got bummed when they didn't get to Kohaku.

 

Yuipon, Habuchan and Tenchan at the first part of the AEON CARD SPECIAL STAGE - TGC KITAKYUSHU 2022 by TOKYO GIRLS COLLECTION (with model Ikeda Miyu in the second part):


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I know this isn't the point, and I definitely don't want to bring up old stuff, but I'm convinced that if they hadn't changed their name they'd still be invited, despite the fact that their popularity has gone down.

 

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I low-key believe that the way Kouhaku works is that producers from S&F and NHK execs strike somewhat of a mutual deal, where S&F has to pay a certain amount to make Kouhaku invite 'happen'. The said budget was already spent on Tokyo Dome and that MTV thingy, so no Kouhaku this time around. Also, this whole incident makes for a convincing documentary story. 'They've risen to the top only to face the harsh fall afterwards, now together with the 3ki they have to rebuild Sakurazaka'.

By the way, expecting the documentary to be released in January or February.

 

@turbogig no spoiler please

I gave up my twitter account after Musk coming, so I'm quite losing Sakuinfo I'd usually see there.

I expected 3rd gen to be out by now, it felt my TL was full of Nogi's new gen a lot before they were even on shows and I would have loved to see the same for Sakura's.
Or maybe they could have used Tokyo Dome spotlight to make a fast presentation about the future gen at least, while the first captain of both Keyaki and Sakura said her goodbye. It could have been.. fitting? Interesting?
Just a thought.

 

I definitely feel like Sakurazaka needs a little sob story in the form of a documentary to get their ball rolling again. There's nothing quite like supporting an idol who's on the ground until they can get up and start running again. We could do with a popularity boost both in fans and by media with a doc that showcases the groups struggles with the rebranding and losing 1ki bit by bit. Can end it with 1ki's comments on their hopes for the future of the group, matsuri's/2ki's leadership and new goal setting, and introducing the 3ki's who all adore sakurazaka46 and want to see the group be as big as keyaki was again.

 

They definitely need something to put them in the public eye. I wish I knew what it was. They are attractive and tremendously talented, especially in dance. A good and unusual song could do a SaiMajo for them. Maybe new choreo could create a mood that strikes the public fancy. Maybe some exciting new member(s). And I will beat the drum once again for new hosts on SokoSaku. But not being on Kouhaku seems a big dark cloud. I also wonder if changing the name, sensible as it seemed, might have been a mistake.

However, they do now have 9.8 million views of BAN. And after dropping numbers from Nobody's Fault to BAN, and just holding steady for Nagaredama, sales have climbed a bit with Samidare yo. Nevertheless, Hinatazaka is outselling them by 40,000 units: after only 13 weeks, Boku Nanka has sold ~482,000, while after 21 weeks, Samidare yo has sold 437,000. Maybe Japanese fans' taste has shifted, and no longer wants the tougher Keyaki spirit, but more the new Hinata style of primary colours and idolish songs and expressions. And in any case, I can't say that the Sakurazaka style is very clear.

For me personally, liking Karin as much as I do, I think that if her acting talent and presence can propel her into more dramas, it could help the group as a whole. For me, she's the one who has something unusual and special (if not weird, lol), as Hirate did in Keyakizaka. If only S&F knew how to make use of her, or wanted to.

 

Maybe they need a new drama, perhaps a short horror series , or at least another mystery drama. It can help hone their acting skills too. It's been quite a while since they did Borderless. Runrun will look really stylish in one .

 

I don't really like comparing the two keyaki groups, but i do think it's important to note that hinatazaka still has a full senbatsu with every member each single, and they have only lost 2 1st generation members and 1 2nd generation member during that time. during this time they've also added 3rd and 4th gen and they're set to keep increasing their sales with each release. they have steadily increasing popularity with each single, and their management are constantly promoting them and giving them more cm opportunities and media appearance, and have yet to face any hard challenges since the groups debut as hinata.

Then you compare that to sakurazaka who have lost countless members in such a short time before the rebrand, and then even more after the rebrand under the span of two years. during this time they haven't added any new generations since 2.5ki before the rebrand, tightened the number of senbatsu members for each single, and during this time management barely push even the sakura 8 girls enough. when a single is released we may see matsuri appear in a few more shows than usual, and the center of each single getting onto some shows. maybe rena or rei on love it, and a couple rotations of backs members on radio shows, but that's it as far as promotions go for the group. it's only recently they've been promoting themselves more on tiktok.

So for me, to see that despite having all these set backs, sakurazaka are only outsold by 40k compared to their sister group, and they can still sell a crap ton of tickets for 2 days in tokyo dome, it makes me incredibly proud of the group. The real challenge will be to see how well the group does in their new chapter with 2ki widely becoming the seniors and leaders of the group, with only 5 1ki left. Seeing how they fully flesh out the image of sakurazaka while they integrate the new 3ki's will be great to see, and watching how hinata's will deal with the inevitable senbatsu reduction with the arrival of 4ki will make or break them (knowing ohisama it will make them as they have such a strong drive to push their oshimen)

Sakurazaka's style was made clear as day to me from the 1st anniversary concert, they are still the cool group that keyaki was but they are happy to show us their elegant and cute sides too. They're the fashionable cool group of the three sakamichi, imo, and that's a good niche that has been rather void in the jpop female idol scene ever since e-girls and co largely disbanded. The TGC and Aeon Card deals help with that, and I hope that they continue to give members exclusive contracts and allow them to go on media appearances with the image of 'cool beauty', because it fits them so well.