Ikuchan has good basics in singing and she is very consistent, that's why her musical work helps her to improve. None of any other Nogi members are near her level (except Mahiro of course who is amazing). Sometimes it's difficult to judge when they only sing a few verses but once you hear them sing solo for a couple of songs you can tell how big the difference between Iku and other members. At first I thought Misa was good but upon listening to her solo concert I think she needs a lot to improve, she is very pitchy. Uhmm....I listened to it when it airs and they sound pretty bad imo, except Ikuchan.
I disagree. I thought they sounded very good... considering they're not in the industry for their vocal skills.
I don’t understand the Sato Kaede push. It has got to be the most annoying push in idol history. Management are putting efforts into her and shoving her into senbatsu (her HS sales are not ground breaking) while members like Junna rot. She may not have the best HS but she has actual potential to grow in popularity. And people actually like her.
As I said before I wish she was given a break so we could have more rotation but seriously? One lower-mid tier girl is in senbatsu twice and it's the most annoying push in idol history? Lots of people are blowing it way out of proportion. She's getting outside jobs on her own. Management can promote her, but they can't give her outside work. She's done a lot of great magazine appearances recently
I think Sato Kaede has an easy recognizable face, you can recognize and distinguish her even if you don't know Nogi members that much. That's why to me, her in senbatsu makes sense.
I feel like I'm minority here because I loving the fact that Denchan made it twice. I feel like my opinion is waaay more unpopular. Her HS is okay. Not super stellar, but she still has room to improve and to be more popular. She is pretty and has almost perfect body proportions. She is among very few who can take twoshoot with Ashu or Naachan without look having huge head. She slay in every photoshoots.
Calling Sato Kaede the biggest push in idol history is kind of hilarious. You'd think she centered several songs so far, but she hasn't and wasn't even fukujin for the A-sides she's involved in.
Here are the handshake sell outs for the 22nd single after 19 rounds of sales: from https://ameblo.jp/seto-kasumi/entry-12443461233.html Kaede sold out all 30 of her sections in 4 rounds. So she's in that row 3 or under row 1 territory. Junna has sold out 19/25 of her sections. While management obviously doesn't just blindly follow handshake results for sembatsu rankings, it's still probably the best way that fans can predict or try to get into the minds of management. These results show that Junna is in under row 2 territory. Unless there's a really big reason that boosts her, I don't see management putting Junna in sembatsu. (If there's something to complain about for the 23rd single, it's putting Hinachima and Ranze in under while boosting the gen 3's, but it's all borderline. All of them in that area sold out their handshake sections in 4-5 rounds. They clearly did push Tamami up though to give her that 1st sembatsu experience (over Renachi).) Which bothers me. Putting aside Ikuchan, I feel like the best current (and recently current) Nogi singers are Sayunyan, Reika, and Misa (for gen 1. For other generations, I only know Kubo is known as a good singer). If even Misa still isn't quite there, then what of the other ~40 members that aren't named here lol... I feel like a lot of them can sing decently when they sing quietly (like in a room, in a Showroom, or for a video in the dressing room with other members taking video of them), but when they have to sing loud in a huge arena and/or sometimes add in choreography, only the real pros like Ikuchan can impress. I remember in their live performances of Itsuka Dekiru on some music shows, in the beginning where 4 people (the front row?) each sing a line solo, it was almost like in each performance at least one person of those 4 would face plant their solo line
I’m really really sorry to those 4 members but i really find it amusing when they sang their solo lines and that they even had it live singing. I think that was their perf in Nogichuu? Then after them, Ikuchan and Misa sang together so the difference was really so obvious lol. Ikuchan’s solo line for that song was in the second part of the song and it sounded so heavenly. Before I know that they had vocal lessons as they even show videos of then sometimes. I even remember some videos where the others are singing but Ikuchan is just at the side playing the piano for them lol. Maybe they don’t really do that anymore (atleast with the members who already had some outside jobs. Ikuchan ofcourse have it on her own solo jobs) or maybe only for the newest gens that is why we haven’t really seen their improvement. Another thing I see that could be the reason is that the management seems to be focusing more with getting the members atleast one modelling gig as I think they see it as the fastest way to gain attention for a member. It’s also something I have noticed is that Nogi is already on their 8th year yet no member has ever released a solo album. Atleast Ikuchan had her solo concert through MTV.
Look what I found on Youtube if the video does not show watch the video here if the video does not show watch the video here I think the performance on Nogichuu was lip synched (I think the ones on Nogidoko/Nogichuu are always lip synched). One or two of the ones in the links are also probably lip synched (like the CDTV one).
It's better to hope Ikuchan graduated than hoping her have solo album when she's still in Nogi. At least it's better for your emotions.
Maybe it was another live show lol. I just remember seeing that in twitter. It would be more amusing if they actually were not singing live and I still thought they are not hitting the right notes. Lol just kidding. Why would it be better for our emotions?
rather than no solo member push, it baffles me that not at least one unit of few girls getting a single release. naachan hoka unit, elder sisters unit like dekopin, those unit pretty sure can at least sell about 150k of cd. now we dont have fix unit since naachan and the girls.
I think the number of sales you mention are not high enough to warrant such a release. The target audience for a unit release is much smaller and releasing a single is expensive, so it's safer to include them on the regular singles. I like the idea though, but maybe more in the form of an EP. I can imagine myself a Sayuringo Gundan mini album. But at this point, none of the units have enough songs to fill such a release.
i ddont think the numbers is the problem. sister group of 48 with 40+ girls can release a single with only 200-300k sales..with only 7girls at most, 150k can gain quite a profit. i wonder what sony is thinking though..at least a push for nogidan is good enough and a band of idol from nogi pretty much can garner soo much attentions.
I'm still waiting on Hashi kun 2.0 with Hori Miona. I'm not giving up on this just yet but if it does happen I want to see her revive the tableware gundan as well with fork (Sakaguchi Tamami), spoon (Yamashita Mizuki), and knife (Umezawa Minami). She'll be the leader in charge and I would want to see what surprises comes next. On another note, my only Nogizaka wish is to see Takayama Kazumi with her amazing pose again. Just one last time with amazing is enough for me if not it's okay but if it does happen I just want to say it'd make my idol fan life complete.
I think Miona is much more interested in boosting the Pudding Kai, Kiichan, and gen 2 in general. As I kinda mentioned in a previous comment I made, I think there are two types of groups. One are official gundans that management gives more stuff actively, possibly a coupling song. The other are basically friend groups like Inumen that happen more organically. From management's perspective, official gundans have a purpose of boosting lower profile members using a higher profile (fukujin variety type) member as the leader, whereas friend groups can just exist on their own and are "called upon" randomly for some events (like Nogichuu or 46 Hours TV). This is why the Wakasama Gundan is and was bound to fail, because you have 3 fukujin members and one under member (though Tamami is in sembatsu for the 23rd single), and the leader (Wakatsuki) wasn't higher profile than Mizuki or Umezawa once they got into row 1 or fukujin. (Not to mention it's simply harder to schedule 3 fukujin together for what often are relatively silly variety events lol. (<- Relatively silly for fukujin members because they often have individual activities going on.)) Replacing Wakatsuki with Miona doesn't change that dynamic much, with the most important aspect being that Mizuki and Umezawa don't need more profile than they already have, since they are fukujin. What they should have done is made the Wakasama Gundan something like Wakatsuki, Tamami, and two other gen 3 in under. What I think will happen is Miona will slowly just let it disappear since she's more interested boosting the rest of gen 2, and management will try to create new official gundans led by a gen 3 like Umezawa or Momoko (they will reserve Mizuki's time for all the tv dramas she's in lol) and populated by three gen 4 members.
