Suto Ririka (Riripon) / Draft 1st Generation

I read on Twitter that she is pursuing a PhD of Philosophy from a University in Germany? Does she even know how to read and write in German?

 

The stats for the stability of long distance relationships is pretty grim.

And who knows what might happen in germany, she might experience a lot of new things there, she might even develop a taste for sauerkraut.

 

Depends what reason she's here for, might just be half a year of stuying abroad or something like that. Wonder where exactly she's going though.

 

Can anyone translate this article?
https://mdpr.jp/news/detail/1705615

 

This Jijipress video has a big part of the Riripon apology speech, but unlike what the article above mentioned it has Momoka adding her two cents in there.


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I was hoping they show the part where they hugged.

 

I'm sure.

And yoshida speaking there as a former scandal girl of course.

 

In AKB48 Show Yui Yokoyama thanked Juri Takahashi and Nana Okada for saying what she can't at that moment, Komiyama dare to criticized Suto so called "honesty", Akane Takayanagi said if Suto is SKE member she'll beat the hell out of her etc and now we have their 3rd album sales figure
Only a naive person would believe that not a single one of NMB members hold a grudge against Suto

Suto is one person who have done most damage to her group than ex member AV debut can
I feel sorry for NMB member who's got nothing to do with all of that marriage stunt but still have to suffer the effect

 

if the video does not show watch the video here

You are beating a dead horse, guys.

 

Tbh there wasn't really any other member who could write it except Akarin.
I mean Momoka can't really in her position since she's graduating. Sayaka's also out cause she wasn't there at the 1st-day concerts.

The only two other remaining 1st gen members are Aapon and Renapyon, but Akarin has been a longer serving regular and prominent senbatsu member for NMB, so that kind of made her the only option by default anyway xD

@eko p I don't really want to argue about this cause only the members themselves know how they truly feel anyway.
Also about holding grudges, I don't know about that though. I mean what exactly do you want them to hold a grudge against her for? It's not like she is even staying on and resting on her laurels. She's graduating and moving on. It's not like she can undo what was done after all.

I also don't know why this incident is treated as though NMB is done for. Honestly, it's no different from a usual graduation just with more dramatic circumstances. Tbh, just like the rest of 48, NMB has been going through a stale season, and I actually think even that negative publicity that Ririka somehow seemed to cause wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean have you seen their reactions during her wedding announcement at SSK? That and Ririka is now the infamous kekkon (marriage) idol. She literally made them living memes overnight.

Of course the hype has more or less died now but it gave NMB some attention and even more material for their relatable struggle story (essential in every idol story), so we'll just see what happens from now on. And of course it's up to you if you want to stay for the ride or not XD

One more thing, about the sales figures, NMB sales have been dropping even before the whole incident. 48 sales especially for sister groups have really been going down, so I don't think it is all that much related.

I mean even Boku Igai no Dareka single last year sold only about 260k for first week...album sales are bound to be less than that cause albums generally sell less than singles esp for groups like 48. I mean they are more expensive and not everyone has the money to buy that in bulk for handshakes/2shots and what not too.

Also, considering they only have 4 new songs in the album, no one is surprised by the low figures at all. The other two previous albums had like 7-8 new songs altogether, and this was inclusive of even team songs. Even the DVD extras this time don't even seem as appealing. The previous albums even had concerts attached to them (this new one doesn't) and at that time especially during the Teppen Tottande album era, concert DVDs were a rarity, so everyone wanted to get their hands on the albums for that.

 

Appreciate your post, I'm just snipping it to make this post a bit shorter and not make it look wall-of-text-y, I agree with what you said except for one thing.

I don't really agree with the "all publicity is good publicity" tbh. You may get some notoriety with casuals but that can be counterweighted by the loss of long term fans, who I think are the ones to be most pissed off by this. A fan who buys dozens or hundreds of CDs is much more of a loss than the potential short term gain of some casuals who buy one or two CDs. Sure, the long term sales averages are on a slide down but that slide can be mitigated by taking care of your committed fans.

If Sutou had any honour and regard for NMB she would have apologised and resigned and that would have immediately lanced the boil. However being that self-centredness is an essential part of her character she tried to act like it's just a little blip and then when she finally realized that she had to leave she stayed on for a graduation. Given that situation I think NMB management did what they had to do as best as they could. It's obvious that NMB members aren't going to fuel the fire by publicly criticizing Sutou, the speech is a classic face-saving measure.

As to what happened behind the scenes, we can only speculate. NMB invested a lot in Sutou, she was obviously put there as a big pillar of NMB in the post-Yamada/post-Milky world and they're probably gutted that she put them in this situation. Anyway, once she's gone it's time to move on and hope that Ayaka/Suzu don't get themselves in any scandal lol.

 

I highly doubt Riripon's scandal had a large effect on the decline in sales. The scandal would only really affect the potential albums sold for her handshake tickets. If I were a Maichi oshi, I'm not buying less CD's because of what some other member did.

 

Comparing it to SKEs latest album, which was released pre-shitstorm, it doesn't perform that badly. 150k vs. 100k
(sauce: http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2086645/full/)
Or if you want to keep it with Winston Churchill (although it's disputed that he actually said it): 'I only believe the statistics I doctored myself.'

This or announcing that you are willing to beat a coworker has a retroactive negative effect on sales numbers because you could see it as immature and lacking any sense of professionalism

 

Or, you know, the sale period conflicted with the AKB single.

 

@Reveen Ok fair point. But I think it's still too early to say whether or not what she did has a bad effect or good effect on NMB in the long term. I mean it's not like we know the answer to that since her whole wedding announcement at SSK was completely unprecedented. She pretty much created history though I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens. What I thought was interesting was what she said during her speech on Sunday.

A condensed version/summary of what she said cause she kind of repeated herself:

"It may take time but until the day I die, I won't give up on my dream and as a NMB graduate and through my way of living, I'll prove to everyone that NMB really is the best."

Lol I won't be surprised if she writes a book or something about NMB someday in the future and links the whole thing to life philosophy.

 

My salutation to the long-term fans here whom I don't know whether you're pissed off or not with her act, but still choose to stay and supporting NMB onward. The storm will pass and 48G will found another dead horse to beat next time.

 

I would hope that with her graduation coming up, her speech during the concert and Sayaka/Momoka's follow up to it as well as Akarin/Yuuri/Sayaka's blog about putting it to rest, that people will put it behind them. If you were not a Riripon fan and this somehow caused you to leave NMB then I'm not really sure how much of a fan you were in the first place.

 

To be honest, after watching that video, I'm so glad that she was picked by NMB in draft (thank SayaLord), because not only the group clicks with her weirdness, but had she been in other SG, I feel like members (in addition to fans) would have slaughtered her to death while I see NMB's were quite considerate about it. I only saw Sayanee's getting a little heated up during that SSK Live showroom comment and she only told Riripon to explain her situation to fans immediately.