Ikuta Erika (Ikuchan) / 1st Gen

No comment on the “new nogi image girl”. Lol
I doubt they’ll give her center position again for next year. She already has a line up of 3 big musicals for next year. They might not give her once she started rehearsing and the stage plays would run. But I heard that she will only have 8 schedules for Romijuri which would be in between her other 2 musicals, so they can possibly give her that chance to be center again. Tbh, of all the top members right now, she deserves it the most

 

To say the most, we need to let Maiyan graduated first.

 

Asuka has the highest chance of centering again next year then Maiyan. I think at least 1 w'center, like maybe Yoda x Muzuki or even a solo for either of the two is possible. The way things go, I feel like Hori have a higher chance of centering than Ikuchan. I'm exaggerating a bit there, but I think you get the point.

 

I'm Hori oshi but i don't even think that Hori will centering a-side song again except for her graduation.
If management want to maintain their sales or looking forward to Tokyo 2020, they will rellying on their most popular girl. Maiyan-Asuka-Ikuta. One of them will be the center or Wcenter with one of them in it. But if they want to promoted some girls, 3rd gen have the higher chance than Ikuta and Hori.

 

That dude that Ikuta sang a birthday song for on "Why'd you come to Japan?" show is one lucky dude. I am envious.

 

Her twitter PB account has been teasing us with a lot of photos and videos.

https://twitter.com/erika_newyork

 

Goodness. Ikuta so playful in those shots. I like. I like Ikuta. Yet, they still can't hide her adorkableness.

 

This PB's twitter already hit 100 follower...

And her CM


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Iku 22nd birthday shirt
https://www.nogizaka46shop.com/product/2570

 

Compilations from her 2nd PB's off-shots rush

 

This article is explaining why Iku's is special in nogi. While Nogi it self already established as model group with the biggest names mostly works as models, Maiyan, Nanamin, Naa, and Asuka. Iku is an anomaly, and an exception. Because she is not. She is active on stage, known as musical actress. She is regulary appear to do collab with pro singer in FNS music fest, as musical singer and as pianist.

She also doing great as variety member. It lead her name to trended on twitter multiple times, whether as singer or as talento.

So, when her 2nd PB announced, then it's twitter account released. The account's follower rose quickly. After the first tweet on 20th November, it already gather more than 124k follower. Her first comment vid played more than 500k times.

Here's the complete article from Realsound, 1 and 2


As always, Kodansha know how to promote PB. Many ppls predict Iku's 2nd PB will have the biggest twitter follower on the release day, among Nogi's member. How about the sales? It hard to image her to surpass Maiyan's Passport and Naa's 3rd, or even Ashu's 1st. But who know? With gori promo and her π's power may be she can sell more than Ashu or even Naa. Still no way to more than Maiyan.

 

Honestly, I am more into wanting her to release a solo single than a PB, but I’m not sure anymore if they would even want her to be the first Nogi member to have her own solo single. They might use that first solo single chance to push another top member. So, I’ll just enjoy Ikuchan contents that we have right now. Actually there’s a lot of them. If you search her name in yt, they will provide you videos of her doing tons of stuffs and not just one or two or three of them. It’s pure fun to have Ikuchan as your oshi.

 

Does any top member, past or present, get a push with a solo single?

 

I did not mention any member pushed based on my post I said they might because it would help a top member or incoming top member to ger morw attention for the group. I used “might” because I am not sure about it. Please read my post well.

 

If you read my post correctly, i'm asking, tbh.

 

I can’t answer that question because like what I said “they might”, so that is why. I’m sorry if ever you felt offended but I was not really implying anything on my post. I was just stating the possibility because I’m not sure if it already happened before. It’s just that they might grab that chance.

 

im not sure he understand english or not, the answer is simple, no.
no one in nogi ever release a solo single. when i think again, i wonder why sony never push a member in singing field? not even a unit has been debuted. i think nanase unit can get at least 100k every single. but now the unit already dead.

 

I’m not sure who you mean who can’t understand english well.

Okay, I’m sorry if my post may have caused some troubles here. I was just trying to state my opinion. Maybe I should be more careful next time and understand better the tone of the sentences in every post that I would read.

I’m sorry again for the trouble.

 

I think that was the case, SONY.
Nogi's management can push their girl in different occasion. Variety, drama, model, etc. In singing field, the best they can do is giving solo song or unit song. But to give solo or unit single, it's completely SONY decision to do or not to do it.
But perhaps there's some terms of agreement between Nogi management and SME, something like, idk how to say it but in football world we say it : no one's bigger than the club.

 

まま. Lots of misunderstanding and misreading in this thread. It's very, very interesting.

I agree with @sambelteri12 that Sony has currently decided not to intentionally make one member above the others. I think that has been a smart move and has paid dividends for the popularity of the group. It may make fans of really talented members chafe at that handling, but I believe that management has given the members space to pursue their interests. That in turn enriches Nogizaka as a group. That's why I don't believe in forcefully pushing the more popular members; they already have momentum that carries them through their projects. You push the mid-tier or upper-lower tier more to create a deep bench so when these graduations continue, the group is still very much recognizable as Nogizaka.

That being said, I don't think Ikuta is meant as a soloist. I think her style suits musical theatre more. If she mellows and develops a more emotional voice, then I'll believe. She's still young, and she will grow. I'm hoping to see that from her next year considering that she's the lead in that Comet musical. That's pretty big and I believe she will pull it off.