Your Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Experiences (HS, fan meeting, concerts, etc)

4/30, 2017 Keyakizaka46 Fukyouwaon Kobetsu HS @ Pulse Plaza Kyoto

This is my first time writing on this thread but for anyone here that also reads the experience threads for other groups my write ups should come as no surprise. This was my first Keyakizaki event as well as my first 46G event. Ever since their 2nd single people have been bothering me about going to Keyaki events with them. I always kept brushing them off that I really don’t have the money and time to be following another group. There were actually people telling me that they were willing to pay for a couple of my tickets just to lure me to go lol. After the release of Futari Saison I gave in and told myself if they held a kansai event on a day I could go, I will. Now here I am.

Just for heads up, this report is unlike my regular write ups where I mostly focus on the contents of my conversation but rather this time my whole Keyaki experience as a “whole” for going to this event.

The first one I went to was actually in Kanto on the 8th of April. I was already there for a NMB handshake event and it just happened Keyaki was also doing theirs a few halls down. There was only a very specific time frame that I was free in my schedule so I only applied within that. I ended up with only just 1 Akanen. The truth was, I never intended to go see Akanen but since 1 of my friend is somewhat an Akanen regular(?) I decided to get a ticket just so I could renban with her.

Moriya Akane

Spoiler

I took this meet as my Keyaki warm-up handshake and that my main one would be on the 30th in Kyoto. A few days before the handshake I got an email saying I won a NMB BII theater show on the 30th. I decided to still go to Kyoto for the tickets I could use and forfeit those I couldn’t since I needed to rush back to Osaka for NMB.

I was told that the Kyoto events are always more chill compared to the Kanto which is somewhat expected. Luckily that’s the case since the venue 46G always use in Kansai (Pulse Plaza) is a small, crappy venue. Regardless there was a decent amount of people comparing to modern day AKB/NMB event. It wasn’t overwhelming but definitely felt full. It always amuses me that at 46G events they actually have a “handshake area” within the venue which doesn’t exist amongst the 48G. I guess this is partially why it felt full as well, since there are also birthday stands and trading area all within the same hall. Right away coming into the venue I could tell the niche group is a little bit different. Keyakizaka has more significantly younger fans or some would like to call them “Pinchike”. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up for debate. The booths are set up pretty much the same as 48G, except they made the entrance and exit to the booth TINY. It was only big enough just for 1 guy to walk through it. I thought it was hilarious and also nostalgic because I recall there were a period of time AKB or NMB also did the same. The whole purpose of doing that is to create this…”exclusiveness”. By making the entrance/exit small means that it was super hard to see members from the other lanes. It’s pretty much saying, “If you want to see the members, you havta buy a ticket and enter the booth urself” lol. I think it’s a smart marketing stunt to create an illusion of high demand but at the same time I feel it created a strong segregation. I also find that the members seem to dress a little more casually as oppose to NMB members. NMB members often bring out their nice outfits for handshakes, as Keyaki-chan went for more of the chill route. I do have to give some credit to the Keyaki-chans though. They have no chairs, which meant they are expected to stand for the whole slot. What else…Oh! the basket you put your bag inside is green! Loll. There are a lot of nice small differences here and there but since not everyone reading this goes to them I won’t go into too much details.


Hirate Yurina



I’ve always heard that ever since the 2nd single Techi always seemed tired at handshakes so I wasn’t expecting much going in. Surprisingly though, although her voice sounded weak and didn’t really say anything it didn’t “felt” like it was an unpleasant experience. Her facial expression and the smile she put on for me felt some what..genuine? The best I could describe is like talking to a cute puppy and the puppy just stood there looking back at you. Whether the puppy actually processed a single word you said was irrelevant but you knew she was giving you the attention the best she could.

Watanabe Risa



She was THE member I was looking forward to meeting the most. Why? I just thought she’s really visually my type lol. Again, from the tiny tiny bit of things I know about her I could tell she’s not the very good talker type so again I wasn’t expecting anything much. Oh man, but I didn’t think it was going to be like this loll. It was so bad when I left the lane I was actually laughing loll. She seemed like she’s so done with the whole handshake stuff, almost like Milky when she wanted to quit lol. I could sense her huge S aura and I guess with me being also a huge S, I didn’t take it too well lol.

Either way, after the handshake I was semi short on time and I didn’t want to risk not able to make it back to Osaka on time I forfeited my other Risa ticket and sold my remaining tickets for the rest of the day to our Sugai Megane-kun above this write up lol.



Overall I thought the experience was kind of disappointing. Maybe because I came from NMB where we have bunch of members who are really good talkers so the gap felt that much larger. Some people were saying that maybe I’m just too used to getting all these great interactions from my oshis but I mean, Keyaki girls aren’t the only members I’ve met outside of NMB for the first time. I’ve met so many different girls just for once within the 48G family. While I often tell fans to never judge a member only after interacting with them once since there are many members that require time to warm up to. That being said first impression is also really important and I guess they fell a little short of it. Another fan asked me, “So I guess that means no more Keyaki tickets for you?” I will probably end up buying again next single especially for members I was supposed to meet but didn’t. Then there are also Techi and Berisa that I will probably try again since really It’s hard to say anything concrete after just meeting them for 7-10 sec. Before I end this write up I just want to make something clear, I’m not here trying to bash them Keyaki-chans. I do want to like them more, and hopefully next time I will be able to provide some better conversational contents lol.

 

Thanks for the reports. Really interesting. The fact appears to be that the Keyaki-chans are just not as talkative and "professional" as other groups. Their strong point is their naturalness. There are only a few girls who are said to give really good handshake "service": Imaizumi Yui, Moriya Akane, Katou Shiho, Saitou Kyouko. According to reports, the others either can't quite do it, or actually act according to their real reactions (I haven't been there to say personally). And Hirate in particular apparently doesn't seem that responsive, normally.

Your report tends to solidify my impressions about all that. I like this group for being kind of quiet, natural and real, as well as for their performances.

 

While I agree to what some of the things you said like the Keyaki-chans are keeping it more "real" but I don't think it necessary means the members who does give good handshakes aren't being true to themselves. Naturally some people are just great talkers, and talking to them just "clicks".
Part of me thinks the way they are acting like this has partially to do with their popularity rising so quickly. Everything is coming at them faster than they can catch and I feel like maybe part of them stops trying to catch all of them after awhile. This might be okay for awhile, but I hate to say it but the wotas who really invest in attending to HS will eventually expect something satisfactory in return otherwise they will eventually just shift on to the next group. I know so many people who have recently started buying into Keyaki HS is mostly because of the hype that's around the group, not actually because "seeing the members were so much fun". I'm not sure if the members can continue just being "themselves" once that hype passes.
Sure you can say "well, maybe because they aren't actually Keyaki fans to begin with", but technically the whole 48/46G fans are all really the same group of people. It's just people are constantly shifting around loll.

Anyway I'm not sure where I'm going with this exactly, but this is something that definitely went through my head when I saw how most of them reacted.

 

I'm not the biggest AKB fan or expert (I follow just a handful of careers), but I'll tell you my quick impression of them. AKB's strength is their huge selection of songs and fun stages, but like 80% of their catalogue sounds "meh"/bad to me and their live performances are just alright. My impression of Keyaki as a whole is that they perform more professional, and skilled songs that the 48 group would have trouble with (I've heard 48 group covers of SaiMajo didn't turn out well, I've heard the excuses for this as well, but it just feeds into the narrative doesn't it?). When I watch Keyaki's bad performances I still feel their is a large difference in skill (dancing and effort-wise). I don't like some of Keyaki's songs, but for the most part it is easy to spot the difference in dancing and effort when Keyaki performs live, vs when AKB is on Music Station or whatever (I hated Shoot Sign's choreography for example). Keyaki is so fun to watch, that sometimes I feel like I'm watching a smooth Kpop group I used to like (although they're not at that level yet obviously). I'm not a huge expert or fan of Sashihara Rino, but my quick impression of her is that she can excel in AKB, but she would just be some girl if she had been in Keyaki, and to me this is a good thing. Selfishly, I'll tell you that I don't care about handshake fishing/treatment, I think Sashihara Types are unsavory, and a lot of wotas' demands during Keyaki's handshakes are unimportant. I think it is a good thing that the 46 group can thrive on different things. The wota model is what holds back a lot of these 48/46 groups. I don't think it should be catered to, rather I think it is intelligent what these members did.

Based on the interesting story ukifune posted recently in another thread, and based on some stories I've heard about Hello!Project, many idols don't seem to like handshakes either. The reason you might not have had a good experience with Keyaki is because the girls think shaking your hand, or hands in general, is disgusting or tiring. Some idols are just better liars than others, obviously that's why you might not tell with NMB? I assume there is some 20% or whatever percentage of idols that do like shaking hands a lot (Maybe Sashihara Rino types? I don't really know too much about her except that she's an example of a member I don't want Keyaki to have).

Again I'm not a huge 48 expert, but these are my initial, quick impressions of NMB: I don't think Miyuki actually liked shaking hands with a bunch of strangers (except for some of those rumors/exceptions out there about a few cases), I don't think a lot of people in NMB care about these super wotas that come to see them. I don't like Miru because she seems disingenuous, and I don't know, not the type that I would take seriously? Whether she gives me a good handshake or not is unimportant to me, I would rather have a bad handshaker that is more skilled. I know a bit about Watanabe Risa and I really don't think she cares about wotas either, and in all honesty she seems like she gets annoyed by things sometimes? I've heard her general sense of being annoyed is well-known among some individuals at least. Her personality seems a little less patient than the nicer people I've met before, but I'm sure she's a really nice person overall, I just wouldn't expect a great handshake from her, vs other people. Obviously the stories are out there about disgusting or delusional wota in these handshake things, so I'm much more concerned about the members. Also, I'm more interested in how 46group members should be getting paid a better salary, and other issues, rather than what kind of abbreviated handshake treatment some experienced in a handshake event. If some Keyaki members have found out the trick to get them out of wasting energy during handshakes when they're really tired, God bless them.

 

Spoiler

I think part of it is practice, but that's not the sole reason. Keyaki's Saimajo in Kouhaku 2016 was extremely smooth for instance, and it reminded me of the times when I watched a certain Kpop group I used to like. Also, my knowledge of HKT, NGT, and STU is just terrible, so thank you for bringing up these additional examples, they were interesting to read about.

Hmm I don't doubt you that HKT might have some far higher potential than what they currently display, but........

I can only judge the groups based on their real-world output though. HKT was cursed with a less interesting concept (aren't they just the minor league farm system for the real 48 group?) , and they don't have time to practice and have other issues like you said, so that's unfortunate. Blame Aki-P for being lazy, but Keyaki is just an incredible group dance-wise, they're better in the real-world. I can't debate potential though, you might have some point there. I don't think life is about potential though.

Spoiler

I understand where you're coming from, their concepts are different. AKB overwhelms other groups with numbers; number of songs, handshake sales, organizational size, etc.

They also have theatres, I get it mostly. It goes back to the potential argument, I'm just judging both groups based on the reality that they have different concepts, and this leads to a different level of emphasis on performance.

Spoiler

Oh I'm sure the 48 group needs those handshake sales, but Keyaki can afford to be more real. They're more like a real music group, that's why their digital sales are so good, have more complex choreography, etc.

Spoiler

I'd be curious to know what Sasshi's talents are? I'm only aware of two, she's decent in variety shows (I will never know because she's so unlikable to me), and she suckered a bunch of her wota into over-voting for her in SSK, probably because of her fishing skills. Hopefully she retires soon. AKB should try to be more skilled in the future, she's the kind of idol that holds back the industry in my honest opinion.

Of course Sasshi wouldn't be anything in a different situation, really successful people are often just lucky. The same has been debated before about various Keyaki members. I enjoyed our conversation though I think you're intelligent, I just think you misunderstood some of my perspectives initially.

 

Damn, you savage lol. Talk about casually calling me disgusting.

In no way am I bashing you, but out of curiousity, do you attend handshakes?
Here's the thing, it makes perfect sense that a person who doesn't attend handshake wouldn't care whether a member gives a good handshake or not. I mean, it makes sense, why would they? Heck, even if it's a member I don't go to I wouldn't even care. Morning Musume gives crappy handshakes? I don't give a S***t.

I mean I agree with most of what you say, and I think everyone knows the girls don't really enjoy doing handshakes. This isn't even because about all the potential disgusting wota, or whatever. The fact you need to constantly socialize with hundreds of people is a crappy job in general. The job content in itself is not for everyone. Here is the thing though, just because you don't like a job doesnt mean you can't try to find something that you can enjoy out of it. This is why I think a lot of people got Milky from NMB all wrong. Everyone assumes Milky is a great liar because she's good at fishing during handshakes. Man, I can tell you Milky is a horrible liar. It's just she found her ways to enjoy part of her job.

As you said it is important for a group to thrive on different thing but I don't think being responsive with your fans is necessary "catering to wotas demand".

Anyway, I think it got a little out of topic of the thread

 

I would love for handshakes to be phased out over time in this particular group (replaced by concert/ad revenue? Something like that, like a real music group). Selfishly, I think that's the right direction artistically and just something I'd enjoy seeing one day. Realistically I don't expect this of course.

I thought the discussion was interesting though, hopefully it wasn't too far off-topic. Good luck in your future handshakes.

 

Here's the full report of the 2 days concert in FujiQ Highland Conifere Forest, 22-23th of July.

Rollercoaster of emotion : A keyakizaka story

@Cristafari @ithebigc can you pinpoint the thread like in NMB, SKE, HKT thread? Thanks in advance.

 

^nice write-up

I should have wrote this a few weeks ago but I've been so lazy after the trip lol.

This was actually my second handshake since I went while attending the birthday live before. However, I only used two tickets last time (1 nen and 1 pon) so it hardly counted i guess. I did get to meet akanen's committee which as fun though.

6/24 national
I had a buddy with me on this trip who isn't into idols. He said he was cool going through a national handshake line once though so I gave him a ticket and we headed off. The line for the mini live was insane and if you don't get there hours early you're in trouble so we skipped on that unfortunately. After lining up in the sun for an hour or so they finally let us start filing in.
It was akanen and fuuchan. Fuu was first and seemed pretty bubbly. She did the usual foreigner spiel asking where i was from in the few seconds we had haha. Pleasant experience for sure. Then after greeting nen I told her I would see her tomorrow. It caught her off guard I guess and I had to repeat it since she was also trying to speak (doing the "oooo foreigner" thing) in the two seconds we had and probably didn't expect me to immediately hit her with japanese .
My buddy had no idea what happened, he also barely remembered there were two girls. Kinda makes sense because fuu and nen both had pretty similar hairstyles that day. He said the first one was talking to him a lot and then the second one seemed to be staring at him open-mouthed though now that he thinks back she might have been talking the whole time and he was just in shock lol. About what I was expecting since he knew no Japanese and I didn't prepare him haha.

This was also the day of the flare incident, but we were long gone by the time that happened. However, I did make a comment to my friend when we first were let in about how easy the bag check was. Absolutely not the case for day two.


6/25
Security way better this time around, they were checking every pocket in your bag. Almost all of these are just single tickets, aka I only get to say something quick to them other than greeting/goodbye. Mainly because I can't actually speak Japanese so I keep it short. It's all Japanese thought except some greetings for the most part.

Slot 1
Habu~ Her line was pretty short so I didn't have much time to prep on what I was going to say before I was being forced in. She was in a yukata and really pretty.
Me: "hello!, you have a nice height lol."
Habu: "Hi!, oh thank you!
*being forced out but she did a good job gripping my hand as we were saying bye*
She's so cute, will go again. First time in a while I noticed an idol was taller than me (though I'm 5'7" so it's close)

Slot 2
Dani~ The main thing i noticed is she had pretty strong makeup and perfume on that day. Stepping into her booth was like stepping into a cloud lol.
*greetings*
Me: "Thanks for always making the other members laugh."
Dani: "haha! thank you very much!"
Me: "bye!"
Nice girl, I'm just glad i was able to get that one off and she understood it.

Pon~ Last time I complimented her singing at the birthday live. This time I decided to go with her cuteness ^_^.
Me: "hellooo!" *she grabs my hands* "I like your quiet style." is what I meant to say. I totally screwed this one up though and can't exactly remember the word i messed up on . I stumbled trying to correct myself, then kinda gave up and did a "well fuck me" expression and we both started laughing. However, I could tell she knew what I meant to say since the context was there. She was a pretty calm so I'm glad for the reaction.

Techi~ Absent T_T . She was there for slot one only. Because of the incident the day before, really unfortunate since it was her birthday and it would have been perfect...

Slot 3

Nen~ First one of the day! Super nervous because she's known to have a low key or salty hs a lot of the time. She was like that my first hs in april but it was still a fine experience with her being attentive. Also, this was the first lane where they made you empty all contents of your pockets in addition to setting your bag down.
Me: *walks in* "Heyy!"
Nen: "OH! Thank youuu!" (I couldn't tell if she recognized me from the previous day or if it was a foreigner reaction)
Me: *nen grabs my hands* "shooting on location looked like fun!" (the previous keyakitte was her vacuum episode)
Nen: "yes! thank you!" *grips my hands harder and gives me a great smile*
Me: "big smile lol"
Nen: "yes haha smile, thanks!" *crushes hands more as she smiles hugely*
Great handshake haha, phew! I could still feel the grip she had on my hands as I was walking to the next lane!

Sugai~ Not too nervous with sugai, I figure if anything goes wrong just say something in english. This time I also had to empty out my pockets.
Me: "Hiii, *takes hands* your aura(captain) is gentle."
Sugai: "Ah , thank you!" *dragging me away*
She was really chill, more than I expected tbh. But still kind and easy to speak with, I'll try and see her next time.

After yuukanen were done I ran over to the akb handshake also in Makuhari because I had a fuu/miru ticket to use. Met up with Wahoho and Sakuraism there while in front of Miru line and talked for a bit too. It was already late in the slot so unfortunately I skipped on Fuu :/

Slot 4

Nen~ Still nervous since I wasn't sure if I got a lucky first-timer/foreigner reaction last time.
Me: *waves*
Nen: "oh again! thank you!"
Me: "You know my family likes tennis a lot?"
Nen: "oh..amazing!"
Me: "I play tennis too! But...so-so"(eng) *did the gesture showing small with my fingertips* "akanen's the best"
Nen: During this part she started laughing, apparently she really liked the 'so-so'+gesture i added in english. As the staff started dragging me she smiled still giggling and said "so-so" doing the gesture.

Sugai~ I didn't know what to say to her but felt like looping her lane again so I decided to just name-drop my friend and talk in english haha.
all english-
Me: "helloo, how are you?"
Sugai: "hi, how are youu"
Me: "My friend is wahoho you know him?"
Sugai: "ahh, un!"
Me: "he lost (tickets) today haha" *staff dragging* "byebye!"
Sugai: "ah haha! byebye!"

Slot 5

Nen~ Last ticket I planned on using.
Me: "hi, this is the last one :/ . Thank you!"
Nen: "oh thank you, thank you!" while saying this I went for a fist bump not sure if she would get it or not. She didn't get it since she was kinda talking and gesturing quickly as the staff were already pulling me and we ended up kinda waving awkwardly instead. dammit . But then right as I was leaving the booth she called "mata ne! (see you!?(next time)). I turned and she did a fist bump in the air which I reciprocated! The handshake was saved, great ending to the day!

All in all great time. Really hard to get tickets for a lot of members already, all of mine here except oda and habu were won in round 1. I lost everything in round 2. I'm just really glad I got a good mix of girls I wanted to see.

 

Did you get full 10 seconds or being screwed 2-3 seconds for being with popular member?

Too bad for Yurina. But considering they have such momemtum, there will be plenty of other opportunity to attend handshake.

 

^that's true but I'll never win a ticket for techi on her bday again lol

It was fine actually, I don't think I got too shafted. Yuukanen and Pon didn't seem short compared to Habu and Dani. Not 10 but 5-8 for sure. Used two tickets once or twice (like for the tennis convo with nen) and that was definitely shortened.

 

My (last) report of of the Zenkoku tour final in makuhari. It's very long so i tried to put as much picture as possible to make it more digest.

Toward the Zenkoku tour final, in Makuhari Messe : Another Keyakizaka story

Going back to reality will be hard. It was a hell of a summer.

 

^Thanks for the great write-up and I agree with your thoughts about them building an edge between themselves and AKB48. Having had a short taste of Keyaki performing live at the ZIP! Haru Fes in Tokyo earlier this year I'm hoping that my next trip to Japan in 2018 will be more focused on them instead of 48G. I'd love to see a full-length live concert and goodness only knows how much they'll further develop and improve over the coming months. (Also I hope I can get to HS with Mona, my own favourite in the group!)

 

Many, many thanks for this. Helped bring me right there. In a little post-event interview, Zumiko said she was nervous and not even sure fans would welcome her back. When she stepped out and saw the entire hall in orange penlights, she almost cried. Maybe that was why her voice was a bit uncertain at first. But she stabilized as the song went on. I don't really like the kind of big Broadway/West End musical-type song Zumiko does, so I've never been a real fan, but I can't help loving her now. That aura of suffering and courage is irresistible.

 

Sorry if I am posting on the wrong thread, but what is the process for seeing Keyakizaka46 perform?
I believe to go to handshake events you apply through Fortune Music? But I am not sure about lives.
If I am posting in the wrong thread I'm sorry for the disturbance, please guide to me the right thread, thank you.

 

Does anyone have experience with national HS events?

How early do i need to come to get a live ticket? And how to exchange for the live ticket?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

@k1s3k1 I didn't make the live but the line was already long by 8-9am so I'd say as early as you can. As for using the ticket, again i didn't get to exchange that one but I didn't have any problem with the hs process so I assume the live isn't much worse. Good luck~

 

Thanks, i sent you a message.

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I'm going to a handshake event later this month but its my first time so i dont have any experiences. I know that the solo handshake event has to be pre-order/buy about months before the actual events but i dont know where to apply to do so ? I need a lot of info about HS event please help me