Kojima Mako (Kojimako) / 14th Generation

Annin was a strong mgmt push? Not since the incident, I'd think, and that was (exactly) a year ago. Id say Tomu got more of a push during the same time period just looking at her ranking jump compared to Annin.

Agree with the rest, but those claims on the above seem like a stretch? Maybe I'm missing something...

 

Agreed, nearly all of them got stronger pushes that Mako's.
But, they managed to rank high and it's make their push more reasonable. Except for Renacchi that had the push for a long time, but only to ranked in undergirls last year. Or, that girl had a potential for the group in the future, like how Meru was pushed again in 12byo. But that girl is in HKT, Meru's potential rival wouldn't be as much as AKB girls's. Mako had many potential rival (Naanya, Mion, Juri, etc.) that was given the same amount of push and if she fail election compared to the other girls, I'm afraid for the worst.

 

Miyawaki Sakura, Kodama Haruka and Ikoma Rina had pushes in AKBG shows because they were brand new groups. HKT(Debut 11/2611) had appearances in AKB shows mostly in 2012 to mid 2013 to popularize the just launched group. Other than that the HKT girls received push from there own shows which was Hyakaten and later Odekake. Hardly a great push compared to being one of the main focuses on AKB48 shows like Mako. HKT48 girls success is because their shows are good and they are interesting not because they got bigger pushes than Kojimako. Staring in your own group show doesn't guarantee popularity; the NMB girls have many shows and are an older group yet they had less members rank in 2014 than HKT - the girls have to appear on a good show and shine otherwise the push doesn't work. In the AKBG world, the big shows are AKBingo, AKB TV Show, Nemosu TV and AKB to XX and over time these shows can seriously change a girls popularity.

On the other hand, Kojimako(Kenkyusei since July 2012) has been one of the main focuses of AKBingo from 6/25/13 to present. Bingo even gave a corner to Mako, Miki and Nana called Osaborisan. She was also a main star on the show Tentoumu-Chu and the TV show Jyoshiko Keisatsu. She also often appears in Nemosu TV, AKB to XX and The AKB TV Show. Furthermore, she has been on most singles since Maeshika Mukanee to Bokutachiwa Tatakawanai and side-B tracks since way back to UZA.

Being heavily pushed on AKB is different than being heavily pushed on one of the sister groups(at least for now). That's why management keeps putting sister members into AK48 shows and AKB48 Singles. They know it's their most powerful pushing tool. Kojimako clearly had the better push.

 

There is a difference between a young ace of a sister group and a hopeful AKB indeed.

It's easy for mangement to push someone from the sister groups. Give her centers in her own group, put her on all the sister group TV shows, plus get her kennin and senbatsu with AKB and get her into the AKB shows, job done.

But even if management wanted to push someone from the AKB young members, there is simply no way for management to do that. Between old generation AKB and sister group centers, there simply is no room for a young member of AKB to join senbatsu.
Any push that management can do for AKB young members, ends in B-sides or Undergirls.

Because if you look at AKB senbatsu, since 2012 until today, it's mostly the same names:

Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami, Watanabe Mayu, Kashiwagi Yuki, Matsui Jurina (SKE), Matsui Rena (SKE), Shimazaki Haruka, Kawaei Rina, Iriyama Anna, Yokoyama Yui, Yamamoto Sayaka (NMB), Sashihara Rino (HKT), sometimes Watanabe Miyuki (NMB), sometimes Minegishi Minami, sometimes Suda Akari (SKE), sometimes Ikoma Rina (N46) and nowadays Miyawaki Sakura (HKT), Kizaki Yuria and Kato Rena who seem to be permanent senbatsu, replacing Kawaei Rina and Iriyama Anna.

Management was simply unable or unwilling to put AKB's young members in senbatsu.

As for Kojimako's push, her push basically started in 2013 with the founding of Tentoumuchu and ended shortly after the last sousenkyo in 2014 where she ranked #36.

In that time, she had two shows with Tentoumuchu, which were cancelled after one season. Kojimako and the Three Musketeers were the focus of AKBINGO, but that was already back in 2013, 2014. Since then, the main focus of AKBINGO are the young members of AKB and that is generally speaking everyone from the 12th to the 15th generation. And Kojimako is only one of them. Sakura, Paruru and Mayuyu appeared a lot on AKBINGO as well.

During the time of her push in 2013-2014, Kojimako had her own center in Team 4, which was exchanged for a backseat in Team K in the 2014 shuffle, where sister group members hold both the center (Jurina) and the number two spot (Sayanee). Sakura got the number two position in Team A, Kodama got kennin with Team K and Ikoma got kennin with Team B. With the 2015 AKB shuffle, Kojimako is going back to Team 4 but that shuffle hasn't taken effect yet.

Before the 2014 sousenkyo, she was in a lot of magazines with the three musketeers but because of the 2014 shuffle, the term Three Musketeers itself disappeared. From then on there were only a few magazine features here and there, while especially Sakura started a real gravure blitz that continues to today.

For the flagship AKB projects AKB49 and Majisuka, in AKB49 the stage version Mako and Naanya got key roles. But for Majisuka the stage version and the TV version, the version most people actually watch, Sakura and Paruru got the lead while Mako and Naanya got minor roles.

After the 2014 sousenkyo, Kojimako's push continued (only) as part of the general push the AKB young members from the 12th generation and later got. They all appeared together on TV shows and concerts. But without graduations, or without a renewed focus on AKB48 members in their own singles, the mild push of the AKB young members can't go anywhere. Their push ends on B-sides and in Undergirls at best because senbatsu is still full with AKB old gens and sister group members.

 

You can't blame management for Kojimako ranking low. Management favor doesn't matter as much compared to fan appeal when it comes to ranking in the sousenkyo. Sousenkyo is decided by fans regardless of management-- more so hardcore fans who attend events. You can see expert handshake girls like Akarin and Shibata making senbatsu while getting little to no TV opportunities while Kojimako, who receives many TV opportunities, ranks in Next Girls. I heard that Kojimako is moody sometimes during handshake events, and that kind of hearsay will give her a bad reputation among hardcore fans who in turn, won't vote for her. She is adorable and entertaining on TV so I'm sure she will still receive many jobs from management--she just won't rank well in the sousenkyo.

 

So what you're saying is she should be able to pull it off entirely without management favor? Well that's what she did before she was promoted and before Tentoumuchu started. The Kenkyuusei back then rarely showed up on TV and were mostly in the theater. They still were extraordinarily popular at handshake events. And as for those people who rely on hearsay and those people who only go for those fake sugary idols like Akarin, Mayuyu or what have you, I won't shed a tear if they don't go for Kojimako.

 

I agree that management is unwilling to promote AKB members in sister group shows, but I think they believe it is ineffective. They take sister members and put then in AKB shows to promote them because the AKB shows are much more popular than the sister groups own shows. To take AKB members in place them in sister shows is going backwards(this could change in the future). For Sakura, she did get a BIG push after the Janken(Sept 2014); cocenter with Mayuu and colead of MG4, but that's because she became extremely marketable - she blossomed. Before she cut her hair short the centers for HKT48 were Haruka and Meru - she wasn't even the center of her own group or getting much photo shots until after the janken in late 2014. However, I don't see those AKBG TV appearances as big pushes for Sakura because whatever AKB show Sakura has been in, it was always been in with other hkt members and also usually included SKE and NMB and the pushed AKB members like Mako.

One point over looked is that today's senbatsu only guarantees the members position in one single. All the other singles for the year are at the discretion of management. Even worst, the Janken doesn't even guarantee an single. So Management can put any girl they want into the single regardless of their senbatsu ranking. As for senior AKB girls, most of the power houses have graduated or will graduate shortly so I don't see them blocking out AKB members from the top.

I agree Mako's photo shots have gone down but that's a two way street. Both the AKB management and the magazine have to want to place the girl on the magazine so that fact that Kojimako isn't doing much photo shots lately doesn't mean management is not pushing her, the magazines want the hotest faces on their pages to sell copies. AKB management can't force a magazine to include a girl. As far as AKB shows go, overall I see no change in the spot light Mako gets, specially AKBingo, but I do agree that last years Sousenkyo had impact on how the management views the marketability of Mako. I think a bad 2015 senbatsu can hurt her push. Luckly for her - as others have mentioned - shows are not the only source of popularity. Blogs, Handshakes, performances, and non AKBG shows are all sources to gain popularity.

 

I don't think it was a coincidence that shortly after Janken 2014, Sakura got a gravure blitz, got her double center with Mayuyu in Kibouteki Refrain, her center with HKT, her own solo song and the lead in Majisuka Gakuen 4 the TV show. That's just too much of a coincidence. I think at least the general idea to give Sakura a super push was decided at the same time as it was decided that Sakura would get a kennin in Team A. And that was before the shuffle that took place back in february 2014. Sakura was supposed to become a rival for Paruru, that's why she got kennin in A and that's why they were portrayed as rivals in Majisuka 4 later but for that to happen, a big push was necessary. So that's what they decided to do.

Whether the sousenkyo 2014, where Kojimako placed 36th and Sakura placed 11th, was a deciding or an additional factor to push Sakura I do not know. But at least in terms of management favor, since the shuffle or sousenkyo, it was as if Sakura and Kojimako switched places. I felt like I was in the wrong movie.

Kojimako was dropped from Senbatsu (her first was MSM), and she came to a new Team where she didn't know anybody and felt isolated, Tentoumuchu as a unit became inactive, she was rarely featured in magazines and antis on 2ch started to get vocal about Kojimako. They started to invade her 2ch thread saying shio this, shio that and started negative threads about her for months. It's all still in Kojimako's old 2ch support threads if anbody is interested.

All of that negative campaigning culminated in the absurd story that Kojimako was interested in Gan-chan. That story got huge play even though in the very same Mechaike SP, Sakura said to AKB-staff that she was worried about 'her center single' breaking the million streak only because of Takamina's scandal and what that would mean for herself instead of worring about Takamina's and AKB48's future. Those tears that you see here, those were about herself not about AKB48 or Takamina. But that picture was paraded around as proof how cute Sakura is! Again, I felt like I was in the wrong movie.

The next thing Aki-p comes up with is Team Sakura where Kojimako and Naanya are Sakura's 'henchmen' and fans and the girls themselves actually go along with it and go on about 'Team Sakura, Team Sakura'. Sorry but that's where I draw the line.
I mean after all than has happened, with their careers taking the totally opposite direction, Sakura taking Kojimako's place as next generation ace (at least that's what it seemed like to me), Kojimako suddenly getting a large number of antis and negative threads at the same time that Sakura's push started to get real...

But at least according to this Nikkei survey, Kojimako is still more popular with the general Japanese public than Sakura even after all her push and all that negative campaigning against Kojimako on 2ch.

Nikkei entertainment survey
http://ent.nikkeibp.co.jp/ent/monthly/2015/06/index.shtml

2015
http://ww3.sinaimg.cn/large/a76aad40gw1erp7jtp7obj21kw15m4p2.jpg
2014
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/a76aad40gw1efzkkvtovcj21kw16vx4l.jpg

Miyawaki Sakura (16% recognition in the Japanese public / 66% interest among those who know them among the Japanese public)
Kojima Mako (18% recognition in the Japanese public / 66% interest among those who know them among the Japanese public)

The absolute climax of this whole Sakura-Kojimako-conundrum would be Kojimako falling out of ranking and deciding to graduate as a result of it. But well let's not engage in that discussion until after the final results are out. The Japanese fans can still save her if they vote for her. If not, that might have just been the end of Kojimako already. That's a thought that has been with me for a while now but got a lot more traction with me when she fell out of ranking in the prelim report.

Well I guess I had to write it down once. Thank you for indulging me.

2015.05.21 Team K - Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai with Kojimako as center

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@Togasaki thanks for detail story about Kojimako and the rise of Sakura. I think this SSK will give us a good indication of how popular Kojimako will be among the young members. I dont want to make a prediction but not getting ranked in prelim result doesnt looks good at all. Now only her wotas could saved her.

 

It is unfortunate, but if you catch the biggest boss' eye (legitimately, despite the Mechaike flub and later minor 'scandal' about an outing with that boss and how that looks)... chances are his preferences will outrank other idols' mgmt fans.

Hmm. Sasshi screws up, Aki-P sends her to Fukuoka. She ends up being instrumental in quickly making HKT as profitable as much older sister groups. Interest in Fukuoka and Kyuushu among the general public is high. One of Sasshi's more promising students becomes marketable and ends up surpassing Kojimako in mgmt support. So I wonder how influential Sasshi's actions were -- or are -- in setting up Sakura's rise to challenge Paruru (who to me is still an enigma she's as high as she is... but was also an Aki-P favorite long before Sakura).

Gosh, with Togasaki's analysis Koji's future seems bleak indeed... her claims of moodiness at handshake events are justified, if only making things worse.

 

Fixed that for you.

Sasshi gets more credit than is appropriate, IMO. Yes she has done ALOT for HKT. However, She is not the one saving grace. The girls down in Hakata have always had the potential to be something great. Just they were saddled with crappy management from the start. This has been fixed when Ozaki was moved to HKT in the 2012. Ozaki, and the management he leads down in Hakata, has been outstanding in securing opportunities for these girls to really showcase what they can do. Now if Universal Japan would get their act together...... But that is a rant for another time and place.

Don't read to much into what @Togasaki wrote there. It was an interesting read. However, It misses two things. One, Makotin's push is still very much a real thing. And second, Sakuratan has been a favorite of Aki-P's since before Makotin's push. Sakuratan's push to the front of 48G was going to happen, it was only a matter of timinig.

Lastly, all this talk about Makotin's prelim rank. I hope you all have or are voting for her, the more the better!!!!! I know I did.

 

There's always more than one way to view a situation. Mako got a serious push in the beginning, and as they often do, is now getting a "mediocre" push to see if she can hold on to her fans. They might (very likely will) push her again if it fits, like they did with Renacchi, Paruru and others. But even if the push is only "mediocre" it's still much better than what the vast majority of the girls are getting.
She's centering two songs on the last release, she's on the election guidebook's cover, she was in three songs on Green Flash.

Anyone who thinks that Mako is being neglected by management needs to take a step back and look at the bleak reality for 95% of AKB group members. And anyone who blames a girl for her push, no matter who she is, should re-evaluate their life choices. No girl should be flamed for being pushed. Not Paruru, not Sakura, nobody.

 

Naruhodo! My intent wasn't to give Sasshi *all* the credit (as that's just impractical, esp for an idol)... but for giving Sakura the tools she needed to even be considered for a push. Only after that was present and functioning, would mgmt look into backing her. That said, yes -- Ozaki's role in this wasn't as apparent to me until you made the connections to promotion opportunities -- which match a huge perception of their rise in popularity in the following year after mgmt's arrival. Thanks!

Not sure what prompted the comment about 'evaluating life choices' when you oppose an idol's push... tell that to the fans who spend far more than anyone here, and the mgmt who consider it an inescapable part of the game -- it's reality, and also a far different culture than the US.

I applaud the passionate words about equanimity... but it seems awfully naïve at the same time to ask *everyone* to accept everyone else's push, esp when it seems nepotism or other subterfuge is involved. If it happens, depending on if it has validity or not, I either listen or no, rather than attack others' stances on how they feel -- that's a logical error in debate called ad hominem, where the arguer targets the opponent's person rather than their counterargument. Most here who see same on this board, I've noticed... just ignore them based on this. No need for indignation. *shrugs*

 

Not sure where to post this, but Mako imitating Sakura at the sports fest

 

^SpoFes was literally one Sakura dig after another... poor girl.

Yuiri did get KM in the sprint (as an earlier post mentioned)... but as someone else pointed out she does anticipate the gun repeatedly, catching her twice -- which while she still beat Mako I was glad that her cunning did finally get aired on national TV.

I do wish push and ranking somehow correlated with body alignment, as the above gif shows the two extremes in 48GP, pretty much!

 

^Mako took second!

 

^ She did! Fairly, at that. Yuiri is too competitive when it comes to the sprint ... but extend that to 50m or 100m... I think Mako would take her! I'd love to see that.

 

^I'd love to see them bring back the pool undokai like they did in Shukan AKB.

I like to see Kojimako Vs Naanyan battle on the floating pads!

A Juri Vs Yuria would be good too.

 

Since it's 30th May here in my country....
Happy birthday my favorite girl out of the bunch of great girls!
I hope mako will get a great spot in this year ssk, as a birthday gift and overall she stays healthy and happy

 

Happy birthday kojimako or otter-chan
I hope that she ranks higher too, i want to see her on stage next week in the elections