Single Keyakizaka46 3rd [Futari Saison] (2016/11/30)

Saison has broken the 500K mark on Oricon, according to figures posted to 2channel.

On the Oricon site itself, the CD is back up to #3 for each of the past two days. And both Silent Majority (#8) and Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai (#15) are inside the top twenty in the daily sales list posted Tuesday. Sugoi. And it is now over a month since the CD's release. (I believe the Billboard chart had Saison over 500K long ago.)

The Kouhaku effect is clear from the latest figures, as published on 2channel, showing comparison among the three singles (SaiMajo -- SekaAi -- Saison; first week down to 8th week; current full totals in bottom row):


There has been basically zero drop-off from 4th week to 5th week sales. It has seemed since the fall that Aki-P has decided to push Keyakizaka (including Hiragana, who were rushed into their Omotenashikai in three weeks from their being told about it to having to perform). These sales will do nothing to change this: in fact, perhaps the push will just increase in intensity, as he sees his bread and butter of CD sales taking a jump of over 100K between SekaAi and Saison.

I predict a semi-patriotic song (some theme like "beautiful Japan") in this coming year, to advance his other agenda of using K46 to rehabilitate his own image. However, having demonstrated Keyaki's range, perhaps the first order of business is another social message song like SaiMajo. Or maybe he will want to demonstrate even broader range with something more like a Nogizaka song and dresses rather than uniforms. The world (or at least Japan) is very open to K46 right now, it seems.

Nogi is benefiting from Kouhaku, too: Sayonara no Imi is at #7 for the day. Nogizaka has had one jump in sales of over 100K: from Kimi no na Wa (5th) to Girl's Rule (6th).

 

Someone made a nice clean copy of just the voices in Futari Saison. Sounds great. The Japanese commenters don't mention this -- they just say how good all the voices sound -- but I can't be 100% sure that there aren't some back-up vocalists in there.... There is certainly some post-processing going on. But that last thing doesn't matter to me, as long as the sound ends up as great as this.

 

Wonderful! Makes me want to listen to their songs sung a capella... I think there are background vocalists... I think there are some male vocals in the background?

 

There are definitely back vocals doing the harmonies. But, pretty sure, the melody is all Keyaki.

 

Propelled by their appearance on Kouhaku, the Keyakizaka46 wave continues to roll. In the weekly Oricon chart covering the period from 2 January to 8 January, Futari Saison (released 30 November) has risen back to number 3, selling 12,000 copies and raising its total to 524,000. For a new artist to break the 500K sales barrier within nine months of its debut shows remarkable strength, says an article on the Oricon website.

At the same time, Silent Majority, which was released about nine months ago, has risen from the already remarkable perch of #18, back into the top ten at #8, selling 4657 copies, to lift its total to 388,000. So Keyakizaka has two singles in the top ten right now.

To put this in context, however, the Keyaki-chans' elder sisters, Nogizaka46, have seen their latest hit, Sayonara no Imi (released 9 November) also return to the top ten, at #7, making its total sales 937,000.

The piece on the Oricon website points out that Keyakizaka is getting support from young and old, from 18-year-old star actress Hirose Suzu (who has supported them on Twitter) to Yellow Monkey vocalist Yoshii Kazuya, 40 (who bought SaiMajo and Saison CDs and showed them off at Kouhaku). Weekly Oricon rankings for the CD have been 1 -5 - 3 - 13 - 5 - 3.

In a further demonstration of growing popularity, the magazine Asahi Weekly, which is not a youth magazine at all, includes Hiragana Keyaki on its cover as one of the people and groups it expects to make 2017 a lively year. "Including Hiragana and not Kanji makes this journal for old men seem as if it is trying to hard to look smart." Probably so, lol. But they might also be right that Hiragana will make its own splash this year.

EDIT: @ForrestFuller's figures will be more exact than mine. I just took mine from Oricon's summary article, not from the chart itself.

 

Keyakizka46's 3rd Single (Futari Saison) (6th Week Sales)
Week 6: 11,513 (520,368) (3rd)

 

instead of posting the video individually in all the member's threads, I figure I will post it here since it's an individual PV from the single. here's my translation of Hiragana Keyaki's individual PV:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Thanks for the translations. I haven't really known much about the Hiraganas (except Neru) so it's nice to get a glimpse at them through this video.

 

@jujuchuu --Thanks for doing this. I know the Hiraganas pretty well, but I still found it great to get a chance to watch this again and get even more of a feel for them -- despite the fact that the poems were pretty disappointing, lol.

@Obelovic, I think it's really worth getting more glimpses. They are becoming more and more interesting as they learn how to open up, and as they so quickly polish themselves as performers, as idols, and as people. I thought it was good how their little dance solos in Dare yori mo Takaku Tobe in the Xmas live helped communicate their images. And of course, my blog is full of bits and pieces about them...there are 71 posts with the tag "hiragana keyaki." But I think the best way of getting to know them from now on is going to be watching Keyakitte, Kakenai. I feel certain that they are going to play a bigger role there soon.

 

Both KeyaKake and Nogichuu have become my weekly routine now. I always watch them whether or not a subbed version is available, doing my best to pick up bits of information from here and there. I do hope that the Hiraganas start getting more involved in the program.

 

If you have the time, I also recommend you their Omotenashikai because they will hold their self-introductions and you'll see them perform. I'd recommend the chorus and dance club in particular. IMO the SaiMajo and SekaAi performances are nowhere near the level of Kanji but that's just natural because they only practiced for a short time and they have their own style and way. Also Mao may not be a pro dancer but is definitely worth noticing, lol.

Spoiler

http://48videodouga.net/index.php?poste=3211

 

Thanks for the link! I'll watch it as soon as I'm off work.

 

Late to return to the discussion but I just bought Futari Saison via iTunes, but before I listened to it I decided to find the MVs for the songs that had them.

And WOW. Dare yori mo takaku tobe was just perfect, the dancing, and lyrics, the music, and the atmosphere of the video was just like... perfect. The location for Otona was cool and I really like the lyrics for the song. Futari Saison I had watched awhile back, it isn't my absolute favorite but it is still very good. Yuuhi 1/3 and Seifuku to Taiyou I could not find/did not have MVs but those two songs were also on par with the "amazingness" of Dare yori's MV, but in an all of the member's voices + good music way.

Awhile ago I said I wasn't interested in Hiragana, but Dare yori has made me want to follow them

The only song I didn't super like was Bokutachi no Sensou, but that's mainly because I'm not a big fan of love songs/songs about fighting for love. It's still good though.

In the end, for me this has been the best single so far for Keyaki out of the three. I haven't listened to the B sides for for SekAi however, but SekAi but it's self comes in third after SaiMajo and Futari for me.

Slightly off topic- Sadly SekAi is not on the American iTunes.

Also @ukifune , "a song about the natural beauty of Japan" may be a longer phrase to write but that would be better than describing it as "semi-patriotic" or "patriotic" for speculation about the next single. Patriotic and patriotism are broad terms, and it would suck to have another history themed scandal/get slammed by Chinese state media (like Eien no Zero, a love drama, did back in 2013).

EDIT- So I have been going around and it seems many people think Hiragana's performance in either Hiragana Keyaki or Dare yori mo takaku tobe's MVs (or both) was pretty bad. But to be honest I personally don't really care to much about perfection, and therefore the Dare MV was still pretty good to me

 

Ahh, Hiragana. Glad more people catch their glimpse. Now if we can get them to appear once more on variety program again...
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Keyakizaka 3rd Single 'Futari Saison' 12th Round Handshake Sales​

Current rank. | (Previous rank.) | Slots sold out/available | (Sales increase) | Members' name

Spoiler: Previously sold out members

01. (01.) 24/24 (+00) Imaizumi Yui (Sold out 1st round)
01. (01.) 24/24 (+00) Hirate Yurina (Sold out 1st round)
01. (01.) 24/24 (+00) Watanabe Rika (Sold out 1st round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Sugai Yuuka (Sold out 2nd round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Nagahama Neru (Sold out 2nd round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Watanabe Risa (Sold out 2nd round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Kobayashi Yui (Sold out 2nd round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Uemura Rina (Sold out 2nd round)
04. (04.) 24/24 (+00) Shida Manaka (Sold out 2nd round)
10. (10.) 24/24 (+00) Moriya Akane (Sold out 3rd round)
10. (10.) 24/24 (+00) Koike Minami (Sold out 3rd round)
10. (10.) 24/24 (+00) Nagasawa Nanako (Sold out 3rd round)
13. (13.) 24/24 (+00) Suzumoto Miyu (Sold out 4th round)
14. (14.) 20/20 (+00) Harada Aoi (Sold out 5th round)
14. (14.) 12/12 (+00) Katou Shiho (Sold out 5th round)
14. (14.) 12/12 (+00) Saito Kyouko (Sold out 5th round)
17. (17.) 20/20 (+00) Satou Shiori (Sold out 6th round)
18. (18.) 06/06 (+00) Sasaki Mirei (Sold out 10th round)

19. (19.) 23/24 (+01) Habu Mizuho
20. (20.) 21/24 (+04) Ozeki Rika
21. (21.) 17/24 (+01) Yonetani Nanami
22. (22.) 10/24 (+01) Oda Nana
23. (23.) 09/24 (+01) Saitou Fuyuka
24. (24.) 06/12 (+00) Sasaki Kumi
24. (24.) 06/12 (+00) Kakizaki Memi
24. (24.) 06/12 (+00) Kageyama Yuuka
24. (24.) 06/12 (+00) Takamoto Ayaka
24. (24.) 06/12 (+00) Ushio Sarina
29. (29.) 03/24 (+00) Ishimori Nijika
30. (30.) 02/06 (+00) Higashimura Mei

na. (na.) *0/06 (+00) Iguchi Mao
na. (na.) *0/05 (+00) Takase Mana

497/603 (+8 since 11th round) Total [82.42%]
349/397 (+148) Last Single (Increase/decrease compared to 2nd Single 12th round)

Spoiler: FS HS 12th round img

Source

 

I think their performance of HiraKeya (and also SaiMajo and Sekai) was actually OK. Not perfect, but then again they're quite new and that level of performance is much more than one could expect. Dare coreo, though, is in my opinion a bit weird. I think they make it stiff on purpose, not due to lack of skills.

Poor Nijika... I hope her sales will improve a bit.

 

I am amazed that Hiragana haven't sold more. Clearly, people just have not seen them enough. I look down that list and every one of them has something special. Sure, they are not up to the level of the Kanjis in dance, but overall their singing is pretty well as good, in my opinion, and there are some extremely attractive people there, in both looks and in character. The people at the One-Man Live actually got to see them, and their response was tremendous. They will definitely become more popular when they start appearing more on KeyaKake, which is the way fans got to know the Kanjis in the first place. Then the fans who ignored them will start cursing themselves for not going to a handshake session when they could.

As for the MVs, yes, they were newcomers doing simple choreography with next to no practice time. But the videos were still fun, and their performances in both the Omotenashikai and, especially, the One-Man Live, were much better and extremely entertaining. The rapturous response of the crowd at the One-Man Live to their DareTobe was completely appropriate, in my opinion: that was good entertainment.

EDIT: I just checked the daily Oricon chart for Wednesday, and Futari Saison is at #6, Sayonara no Imi at #9, Silent Majority at #13, and Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai at #19. That is absolutely amazing on a Wednesday, the day after the new singles hit the chart, and are normally still dominating. It's almost certain now that both SaiMajo and SekaAi will end up breaking 400K. That's something even N46 hasn't done until its sixth single, Girls Rule. Nogizaka are definitely the foundation of K46's success, but K46 are building a tower on the foundation they were given.

 

Quite a few times Mao's timing was off though. But apparently she has a problem with dance so maybe it's just her.

 

Did you see the video of her trying to learn SaiMajo? She was clueless. It's amazing that she got to as nearly acceptable a point as she did by the time of the Christmas lives.

@Obelovic -- I was not a fan of Nijika's at first, but now I find her wonderful. When she was speaking straight to the camera in last week's KeyaKake and said -- quite humbly -- that she wanted K46 to give a performance like no idol group had ever done before, it gave me a thrill. And she looked good saying it.

 

@ukifune: TBH, she was one member that I find rather weird looking at first. But following KeyaKake makes me realize that she, just as the other members, has her own charms. I hope she'll rise in popularity.

 

I only just started following Keyakizaka a few weeks ago so I'm not too clued in. Any specific reason why Nijika is selling so poorly, or is it just due to lack of interest?