Event / Concert AKB48 Group in TDC: Concerts & Request Hour Setlist Best 100 2018 (2018/01/13 - 2018/01/21)

am I the only one who is hell confused on why people are taking things a bit too much here? lmao. and i thought i am the person who always overthinks.

Complaining about a bad single, a bad a-sides, or bad b-sides, bad songs or even the lack of new songs... makes sense. While akb isn't a group which isn't well known for the breath-taking songs, their songs (and their event) is like the thing that complements them.

Complaining about how management treats the members, over-pushing someone (which makes people to hate the member instead... remember mrs. Flower? ) while abandoning other girls.... also makes sense.

But complaining about NGT fans splurging their votes, burning their holes on the wallet.... isn't it a bit too much? Yes, you can argue it spoils market. But I thought that has happened with SKE, so on and so forth?

The only way to prevent such thing from happening is to abolish those events and/or changing the vote system (abolish fanclub votes?). Can you say AKB will do well without SSK and Request Hour? There's a reason why they spend much effort on SSK (esp.) and Request Hour (to a little extent). Because such event draws publics interest (look at the rating as compared to their other shows. and look how the coverage on ssk) and more importantly , allows them to gain money. There is a reason why they hold their SSK on larger venue (because fans are going) when it's obvious that they avoid to hold concert anymore. Even at smaller values. We all know that their only concert they hold is now graduation concerts and AKB Kouhaku. Even with the fanclub votes abolished, ppl are still buying votes to vote their favorites. Otherwise, you can do what Arama did (lmao): banning the winner to participate from the subsequent SSK/ request hour. Idk if the group/members who win #1 will feel good thou. Yes, they win but it's not because of they are stronger than their rivals. But they win because their rivals do not even participate. And will we all be interested in such event? Trust me and mark my words. even with us complaining abt how fans splurging their votes, next year, ALL fans will even be more fired up to outvote each others. Such result will only drive fans to be more competitive, not otherwise. I'm sure Jurina (or sakura or whatever) fans would even spend more effort to ensure Ogiyuka is not above them.

We all should be panics if indeed NGT is found to abuse the system, that is using hacker to vote them. Btw, do u know how Sony and Toyota are doing right now? they have more things to worry than spending money on idols, lol. With the scandals of "Cool Japan" which drags lots of governors into the scandal, .... i'm sure Niigata government knows well that it is a bad idea to spend too much money on idols. Not this time, at least.

 

I have nothing to contribute to the current discussion. I'm just in here until a release date for the BD is announced. Carry on.

 

I sure hope it'll have more cover art by Katomina like last year's.

 

This is wrong and triggering on so many levels. You can dislike Jurina all you want for having been pushed so much for so long but it's downright insulting to say she hasn't experienced hardships when she's been one of the hardest working girls in the entirety of 48G/46G history from a very young age. Name one other girl who had to take on so much from such a young age and not burn out. Techi is the closest we have (she's been compared to Jurina endlessly for good reason) and she's been struggling to manage mentally and physically under all the pressure for the last year whilst already being a lot older than Jurina was at debut.

 

?

 

So they're like the yankees or real madrid during the zidane/figo/ronaldo era or even the patriots and nobody likes these teams? lol. Or more accurately many dislike these teams just because they have more resources. Well, NGT probably need 1 even more dominating showing at the ssk which looks like it's coming. And it's not that they're doing something wrong, it just comes of as "unfair" because nobody else can do it.

I think if it gets to the point where people feel like trying harder will have no effect, then we're probably better off eating that $5 mcdonald's every month. SKe did have surge of some sort in the elections before but I think that was to a more limited extent -- they dominated the undergirls with the matsuis being not at an overly high level. There's also sasshi's dominance at the ssk but it's probably easier to accept 1 person and 1 event dominance (and she is super talented, crafty, idol-savvy, sells out her handshakes, etc.). With NGT it seems as if their entire team is being carried and many of their top members placed much higher in the ssk prelims than even fortune tellers can predict with ogiyuka ending up at number 5.

And it's very noticeable that this surge is selective, doesn't reflect in singles sales, member handshake results, or other metrics. But the hammer seems like it can be dropped at any time, target anything, and with even greater impact than we've seen. Sorta like the death star cannon? Not sure there's too many fans of the death star cannon.

Anyway, more seriously, I think fans are a bit worried that this will take the "fun" out of things. Even saving a bit of money each month to be able to vote just a bit more is fun in it's own way, with some sort of fulfillment when you feel like you've done all you can to support someone/something. But there's nothing to be done about it since it's all (seems) "legit." People probably just have to adjust to this new reality. Maybe the bad thing is it also becomes "fun" for people to hate on the yankees, patriots, and other things that are overly dominant.

 

Ogiyuka wouldn't have gotten into the kami 7 and "only" would have placed 10 just 2 years ago so the notion that your votes don't matter is pretty much nonsense. NGT are clinching these high voting ranks because people are voting with less intensity than in the past so actually the opposite of your post is true. If anything this should be an incentive for fans to vote more than ever if they truly care so much.

And nah, NGT won't be hated since they are are an fucking adorable group of sincere girls, at least not in Japan. And the things they release are actually good as well as their performances. Most people aren't as petty as you think. I was only joking lol.

 

This encore was my favourite number!! 3 of them are great performers, this unit is as good as AKB could get now. Unless they absolutely need to distribute the talent around, I'd love to see them perform together again.

 

Agree with this. That's why I said they need to disclose the numbers to have better outcomes out of this issue.
It may dispel the negative accusations and firing up the other group to vote more. Hence more money for the management with minimal backlash.
It will be more organised voting, yes, but the issue is there are lots of conspiracy theories because of the last RH (and possibly SSK to some extent). So, we'll see.

Again, for those uber-rich NGT wota. Please also powervote Katomina
My Mayu's votes obviously will go to eitos

 

Probably me you're responding too right? I only said if it gets to the point where it seems your votes don't matter -- it needs to happen more as it is easily dispelled by counterarguments such as yours. Probably need at least 1 even more dominating collective-NGT result and preferably right now so the events are in succession.

I think ogiyuka's prelim placement and votes (combined with honma and takakura) had more impact than where she ended up (at 5 eventually) and re the votes/placement now vs where it would've been two years ago, is I think more reflective of who was competing at that time with more top-heavy contenders present. But the result was still out of nowhere -- from ssk hopeful she's now in the same or almost the same class as jurina/sakura. Which is a great result and something to be happy about I guess.

 

Yes mine too! I thought it was sharp and sophisticated, as expected of seasoned pros. And it's a terrific song too. I hope the trio continues, I think Yukirin and Sayanee performing together is a great idea.

 

Are you a Rikachan fan too then?

 

Watch out. Simply looking at sales figures can be misleading.
48G CD sales are mostly driven by Handshake / 2-Shot tickets sales. Naturally there is a limit on the amount of tickets one can buy. If the members you want to see have sold out you don't have much benefit to buy more CDs. Also there is a hard limit on how many members you are able to see during an event simply due to time constraints.
In this system the group with more members, more HS dates and longer events is bound to sell more CDs, provided that the ratio of highly popular : popular : somehow popular : 'what was your name again?' members is somehow comparable across the groups.
But there are more variables to the equation, like how convenient HS dates are placed (i.e. around public holidays) or where the event is held.

So if you want to really see how well a group is doing via CD sales you would rather need to compare average ticket sales per member, per slot and also take into account location and dates.
Unfortunately we are missing quite some variables in this equation so it's more like comparing apples to oranges and wondering why the banana wins.

This however does not apply to voting competitions. Here your only limiting factor is your budget since the supply of codes is 'endless'. Also you have more (sometimes cheaper) ways of voting like fanclub, mobile apps...
Time limit isn't much of an issue here since it would normally only apply if you buy a metric shit-ton of CDs and need to get the codes out of the cases. This however directly translates into a budget problem since you could just recruit more people into your sweatshop. The rest of the process can be automated.
Also, if you can source your CDs directly from the warehouse you can start the process of unpacking and scanning around 1/2 ~ 1 week ahead of the plebs.

 

Guys

13. Gikochinai Tsugaku Densha
12. Koko de Ippatsu
11. Nani ka ga Iru
10. Get you!
09. Seishun Dokei
08. Tsuki to Mizukagami
07. Midori to Mori no Undokouen
06. Romantic Byou
05. Max Toki 315-go
04. Hana Uranai
03. Shita no Na de Yobeta no wa...
02. 47 no Suteki na Machi e
01. Sekai wa Doko Made Aozora na no ka?

Just look at the odd numbers. Coincidence?

 

I am tired of repeating: NGT had 10/25 members ranking in SSK 2017 while HKT & SKE each has more than 25 members ranking in. SKE had 5 girls in Senbatsu, HKT had 2 (with Sashi -1st and Sakura-4th), NGT had 2 (5th and 13th). You can sum up and compare whether NGT wota spent more money than the others. I leave NMB out since their fans do not care about SSK. A big advantage of NGT is that they have much less members than the other groups. People have impression that NGT dominated SSK 2017 due to the prelim results (which was due to the fans' crazy strategy) and the lack of NGT exposure before SSK.

I wonder if people who complain about NGT handshakes really check the numbers?
AKB 50th single: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?...no-anklet-17-11-22.20162/page-59#post-1382893
AKB 49th single: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?threads/akb48-49th-sukinanda-17-08-30.19451/page-33#post-1355015
AKB 48th single: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?...chigusare-17-05-31.18663/page-45#post-1317766
AKB 46th single: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?...h-tension-16-11-16.16223/page-62#post-1242949
AKB 45th single: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?...ve-trip-shiawase-wo-wakenasai-16-08-31.15331/
In the 45th single, NGT started to have the highest sold out percentage among the groups. In the 46th single, they sold 55% and their total number of sold out slots were greater than SKE and HKT despite having a third number of members. I could not find the number for single 47th but I remember that it sucked for all SGs (since fans were saving money for SSK). HS sale in the 48th single was a bit out of picture, where NGT had about the same sold out percentage as other groups (though, it was a voting single so the HS numbers were ridiculous). With the SSK hype, NGT dominated the 49th single in both sold out percentage (53%) and the total number (except AKB). In the 50th single, they still had a very high sold out percentage and only a bit less
than SKE & HKT in the total number.

After their good results in AKB HS, their 2nd single suddenly showed a poor performance in both HS and sale. They sold ~100k copies less than the other sister groups. But it was the time for RH voting.

Yes, coincidence. It shows that the competition was fierce. Why did not you show Top-16 or more?
If it is intended, there must be an insider. But that insider should be very stupid to make the list look suspicious for nothing.

 

I am confused about your text here. What is not fitting here? NGT fandom had ~ the same financial power as other groups, so they could invest effectively on a much smaller number of members in SSK. And they scarified their single sale to push RH, while other sister groups did not.
If NGT fandom does not grow significantly, the dilution effect is unavoidable when having more teams.

I always complain about it. I think it is not a proper move. The same as SKE fandom for years.
But I can understand their purpose. Not to piss off the other fandoms but to create news and grab attention. Particularly when Niigata people want to advertise their prefecture through NGT. At the end, NGT is still a new group and was not promoted much before mid 2017.

 

I appreciate the data. For me, NGT's still a relatively new group so is it happening a bit fast? Or was there some trigger from late 2016 and 2017 for them to become this popular? Yes HKT (I'll only use HKT since they're the newer group as compared to SKE) had 25 members rank compared to 10 for NGT but in 2016 HKT had 23 rank and NGT had 1. Not counting sasshi, when HKT started they had sakura rank at a considerably high rank of 47 and the following year they had sakura again and 4 others with modest rankings, with one of them being lovetan. So the 2017 results don't mirror what we've experienced with new groups where you start with a few ranking and then more and then the few that ranked early on get higher and higher results. Here their top member is already a candidate for the top spot with several others candidates for the top 16. So it seems like their financial power is lower but already somewhat comparable with the other more established groups.

Re the handshakes, I disagree with the % sold out as a basis but am just looking at things rather simply that considering the ssk ranking of some of their members, they don't have a consistent auto-sold-out or almost sold-out girl like a mirurun or an okada nana or even a mion(?) which the other groups have considering that they do have someone at number 5 and number 13. It just doesn't seem as if the voting power (ssk and RH) that they demonstrate is reflected into having the proportionate number of fans(?) -- financial power, yes. And I'm not complaining, good for them actually. It's just that their growth doesn't seem to be happening "normally" (normal being what we've seen from the other groups).

 

I got really nothing more to say then...

 

SSK 2016 was 6 months after NGT theater debut; the members were still new to even Niigata fans. Fans also need to plan for SSK by saving money months before. Hence, we cannot rely much on NGT performance in SSK 2016.
The rapid growth of NGT fandom can be explained by some reasons:
- NGT 1st gen is pretty good and close-kint. They have many strong personalities with different characters.
- NGT has a strong bond to their local fans. Many NGT releases and activities were to promote Niigata, as can be seen in their first songs and single. Niigata governors also want to use NGT as the medium to attach people come to Niigata. Niigata locals consider NGT as their representation. As you can see in Niigata Friends, many old Niigata people can recognize the members, even the theater ones.
- NGT had a underdog image back then before 2017. They had to wait 1.5 year to have the debut single & 6 quiet months at the end of 2016. It triggered fans to support the girls. It is the same as SKE. SKE fans had a joke that they had nowhere to spend money (concerts, tours...) outside of SSK. So they converted their rage to vote making SKE theater girls rank higher than NMB senbatsu members.
- The previous sister groups were formed at the golden time of AKB, when AKB legends still shined brightly. NGT was formed when the other groups were declining.

Yes, HS is just 1 measure, it shows a part of the picture. I just gave the numbers to prove that NGT HS was decent, not as you (and many others) thought.

There are many other factors affecting SSK results. Some fandoms are aggressive (SKE, NGT), some are not (NMB). Some support individual members while some support a group as whole (hako-oshis)... I think Ogiyuka is not necessary the most loved member by NGT fans, she was just chosen as their representative.

Do you really think that there is a stupid insider that did it on purpose? Is he not afraid of being caught by AKS? Why did he make the list suspicious while it is not necessary but casts doubts in fans and AKS? Do you think that AKS would not investigate when seeing this pattern? A shuffled list with NGT songs on top is safe and enough. Or do you even think AKS shoot themselves by scripting it?

 

Is it really the best arguments we could come up with after all these pages? Sounds like I was right when I said that the debate basically boiled down to being careful not to make the wotas of the other sister groups feel insecure and inadequate about themeselves, because despite being all in their 30s by now they still have the same thin skin of a newborn baby.

>"Ethically", because it was about showing how large their e-peen is.
Unless the fans had a 100% certainty that the songs they voted for would have ended up ranking at all in the end -- which is absolutely impossible to surmise when there's no numbers to take as a reference of how much effort is needed for it -- I don't see how self-bragging has anything to do with it.
By the way, considering that you are blatantly arguing in favor of throwing away oodles of money into buying multiple copies of the same single (in the order of 10s or 100s), I'm amazed you didn't realize the sheer irony of your argument. You are speaking as if forcing a CD single at the top of the Oricon chart for one week only -- just for the sake of proclaiming "We are first on the weekly chart! Whoo!" -- isn't seen in the same way as a matter of self-bragging. The main difference of course stands in the fact that the gratification coming from it is much less and more ephemeral for everyone, compared to the gratification fans and members can get by enabling the group to perform their own songs at the Request Hour venue, together, in front of everyone. Especially when it comes to songs which actually hold a special meaning within the group's history. Seeing as how even the members talked about crying and hugging in happiness as these songs were announced one by one, there's a reason to it that goes beyond a mere question of "bragging".

>Strategically, because it apparently pissed other fans off.
Which in concrete terms translates to what? "I have come here hoping to listen to the same old shit as last year. What are these new songs I'm hearing? I'm so pissed off about it, me confused ooga booga"...? The other detractors are right, if this is what they really had in mind when they watched the concert, they might as well have not bought the ticket at all ...they could have stayed at home to watch the DVDs from 2017 or 2012 or 2009 and just call it a day. Heh. "Ruining the concert for them" by not having the members perform the same rehashed crap like every time... sounds like the most ridiculous pretext to chimp out I have heard. Excuse me if I let out a laugh.
Also, seeing where the complains "apparently" come from, even just by reading this thread, it just looks like another bad case of poor sports not being able to concede victory to others, even though there was no competition involved except in their mind. I wonder if they would have felt the results as more "agreeable" or "deserved" or "par-for-the-course", had the first place been taken by that 47 Prefectures nursery rhyme or that 4500-dislikes song whose name I forgot, nevermind that both songs are absolutely meaningless inside the narrative of their respective groups.
Seeing as how they act, those aren't the people who I should be respectful to so as not to hurt their feelings.

>Financially, because it hurt NGT's income from their 2nd single.
http://blogs.itmedia.co.jp/udagulliver/2014/07/post.html
It should be common knowledge by now, but the artists get a fucking pittance from their CD sales in any case. How extremely disingenuous is it to believe that the music industry works like any other form of commerce and you get "income" directly from selling CDs, the same way a farmer gets money from selling a bag of potatoes? There's a reason why even normal artists actually make more money out of contracts and merchandise sale, and some even come out saying that they never got any royalties from the songs they sung. Knowing Japanese business, I'm pretty sure idols are even paid a lump sum during the production and nothing else.
Really, you are literally better off throwing Tokyo Towers on Showroom at random members if you are really so concerned about them getting a proper income. Excuse me if I let out another laugh. So, even for a (pretty hypocritical and self-serving, indeed) attempt at persuading any hypothetical fan not to vote for their own group's songs at RH (a proposal which is absurd in itself) by appealing to pity, it is not a really effective attempt either.

By the way, at the end of the day, no one commented about the quality and content of any of the songs they whine about, which means that either nobody watched the concert (despite claiming otherwise) or are actually perfectly fine with the performance as it is, so... ┐(´ｰ｀)┌