[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

Spoiler: not AKB related but responding to a question asked

Kpop fansigns work with albums as a lottery system, in which fans would buy the albums. Most fansigns are really small like 50 - 500 depending on group popularity, so it's pretty hard to get into. My sources are pretty much from friends who participated in them, because I couldn't justify buying 10+ albums to not even get into the event lol. But they would buy around 50-70 and never get a ticket. You can just look up "kpop fansigns albums" and a lot of people's experiences are there.
And yes I was a Cassie for years, I'm well aware of the groups impact on kpop, hence my initial statement.

 

Chinese languages are tonal as well, but modern songs in Mandarin typically ignore tones when set to music. (Cantonese typically respects them.)

One consequence is that songs in Mandarin are often incomprehensible without the lyrics.

 

Ok - I throw my two cents on the Ace discussion.

Ace = Face + Center of the group as chosen by management, the fans, AND general public. Not just as singles but also in tv show performances not related to a single promo, guests on shows, magazine features etc. I'll argue that there is NOT an ace of AKB48 currently. This title is important and shouldnt just be thrown around to any girl with some theater & handshake popularity. AKB needs an Ace to try to continue to climb back up in the publics eyes. Sure, Ne mo Ha mo Rumor has gotten a lot of tv appearances recently, but its going to take more than just a cool song and dance to get the public interested again.
I would say the last true AKB Ace was Mayuyu. Potentially you could throw Sakura and Jurina in the category as well. They were sister group members HOWEVER they were an integral part of AKB. They both were regular centers for the group and were recognized almost more as AKB than their sister groups. Sakura to the point where she, controversially, centered their 10th anniversary single as sister group member. I would make the argument that she was not an HKT ace, she was a AKB one. She only centered one single as HKT and that was a W center. Jurina however was definitely SKE Ace, though she shared that title with Matsui Rena in that group.
Someone brought up Kojiharu - I wouldn't call her Ace even though she centered 5 AKB singles because she was not the face of AKB. Sure she was famous and had a lot of promo but even while she was center people thought of Acchan and Yuko when they thought of AKB. Mayuyu was sold for so long as future ace by management and when Yuko left she was put at the front of AKB & the fans & the general public. She was their chosen center in everything that wasnt a sister group member. Sasshi won the SSK but she was not managements choice at all and they didnt push her as that, so while she was popular - and the general public liked her she would not qualify.

Right now I don't think we have a future Ace. I think we have centers that have potential to be Ace's. All of them have been in the group too long though, so they arent the future of AKB. They are Naachan & YuiYui. I also think it would be neglectful to remove Hiichan even though she isnt a center (yet?).

Naachan - is obvious, she current center and has had a past single center under her belt. She is getting promo in magazines, although not to the degree of the previous aces, though AKB in general is not getting magazine covers and features right now like they used to. If she gets chosen again & continues in the trajectory she is in, mainly singing competition winner, nona diamonds center(?), magazines, more tv appearances and a, more likely than not, solo debut - she is a lock for current ace.

YuiYui - its obvious that she was at least managements choice at one point. She seems to have inherited the Heavy Rotation center position, which still gets a decent amount of performances on TV. She centered Teacher Teacher and most people believe she is supposed to be the new center of 11gatsu no Anklet (inherited from ACE Mayu) although that song isnt really performed anymore. She has her Larme model thing, and she's done a few other magazine spreads, I think I dont follow her closely - so i could be over or understating those appearances. I think she has a popularity among fans but I don't think most of the general public would recognize her as a member of AKB.

Hiichan - not a center but she is easily the most recognized "new" face of AKB right now. She has a ton of magazine & tv appearances. This push however was not instigated by management so its hard to tell how much they will push her as AKB center/ace material vs just as Honda Hitomi. She could easily go the Sasshi route and be super popular but not an Ace because she isnt center.

IMO management should try to push Naachan for the next year but have Hiichan in the wings to start a center push at the last quarter of this year. Try to get the whole Acchan/Yuko & Wmatsui friends but rivals thing going. This could help them get back into the market & gain intrigue to the general populous. The biggest thing that needs to happen in order for this to work is they need to start releasing singles. No less than 3 this year and they have to be top tier. Unfortunately the general idol type songs are not going to do it right now.

 

I don’t think the issue is about the problem of definition. What I think the twitter user trying to say is that we and management must treat Yuiyui, Hiichan, Zukky and Miu as the representative of AKB48 right now. Treating them as future aces giving the connotation that they will become ace in the future but how long in the future. 1 year? 2 year? Their times in AKB48 are numbered and they are in AKB48 more than 5 years already. If we consider them as the future aces for too long, by the time that they are being considered as the aces, they had loss the interest to become AKB48 members and they want to graduate already. That is what happened to Yokochan, Rei and to certain extend Sakura.

AFAIK Chinese is tonal language. That is why there is this thing called "grass mud horse"

 

Chinese language is actually as tonal as it can get, and not only Mandarin, but basically all of their dialects/varieties as well.

At least in Chinese, they don't give any consideration to the tone when it comes to songs, since you know, how can one create the song that must match the language tone, it's just not possible to do.

 

Your answer:

Can confirm that Cantonese songs typically respect tone and those that don't usually get treated as jokes. It is a totally possible thing to achieve but of course the lyricists have to work on it.



But yea Team SH and Team TP (and SNH back then) sing in Mandarin and fan complaints about lyrics translations are seldom about tone (afaik — I only check these groups occasionally). More frequently they are about the translation not rhyming (another major difference between Japanese and Chinese pop songs; though I believe this happened more in the early days and most TSH/TTP songs rhyme now). Or having too many words in one line / generally awkward phrasing / the wrong style. There are also translated lyrics that are generally well received though, for example TTP's version of Mae Shika Mukanee.

 

Hello, I'm sorry if its OOT here.
I am new to Online HS, so I missed "lottery" period, I didn't check my email properly when it said they closed the period just now (Today 23:59) Japan time

So what if I missed that lottery? Now I know I can't change my nickname nor get decided (either Sign Kai/Talk)
Does it mean I can't join HS at all?
pls help i am very panic now. thank you

 

You can still join, you just need to connect your chara-ani and withlive accounts using the External Site (外部サイト連携) option @IBMRP

 

It's too late to take part in the lottery or change your nickname for the talks on 1/29 but not for 1/30, you've still got until 23:59 JST tomorrow (1/25). However I can't see any reason why you can't take part in all the talks you've bought, all that will happen is that the members will see your name in the surname/forename form that appears in your account.

 

Thank you! I will try to do that

@David61 Ah! Too bad mine is 29/1
If the disadvantage is just member can see my surname/name that’s totally okay for me (no problem at all)
I thought because I missed the lottery, they disqualified me (I am still learning about HS).

Thank you all for kind words! Will practice my japanese for upcoming HS! Wish me luck

 

Personally, I haven't had a radio or a CD reader since 2019 when I moved out from my family home, and I've still been buying albums for AKB48, =LOVE, ≠ME, some Kpop groups, Sayanee, and actually loads of western groups as well. I may be part of the minority, but I genuinely enjoy having a full collection of my favourite artists.

I also want to throw in my two cents on the ace discussion, even though it's over But I think Yuiyui, Naachan and Hiichan are still only future ace potential. I think we've only had a few aces in AKB48, and that is Maeda Atsuko, Sashihara Rino, Watanabe Mayu and maybe Shimazaki Haruka. I count Rino even as an HKT member because she repeatedly won AKB's general election. Yes, Jurina also won it once and may have centered even more AKB48 singles, but I'd only count her as an SKE48 ace (alongside Matsui Rena, nobody else in that group) because of how passionate she always was about SKE48 being the #1 idol group in Japan.

Basically, I'd say these are the only aces we've had:

• AKB48: Acchan, Sasshi, Mayuyu (and maybe Paruru)
• SKE48: Jurina, Rena
• NMB48: Sayanee, Milky
• HKT48: Sakura (and maybe Haruppi, Meru??)
• NGT48: Ogino Yuka
• STU48: Yumirin

Being a center doesn't make you an ace, tbh. Naachan could be the next ace, I think, but that depends on whether the amazing feedback from Ne mo Ha mo Rumor continues in the future. She'd need to be the center at least once more, ideally twice, to really cement her position with the group, and at that, the songs will also need to be received well so that she will be recognised immediately as "Okada Nana from AKB48".

And yes, like others said, don't worry! I've always done it on time, and never won a sign, 1-shot or 2-shot lol so your chances may have been low anyway. I also forgot to change my nickname a couple of times, but the members still called me by my first name, which was nice enough

 

Vinyl records are still sold and it seems that cassettes are coming back and are obsolete systems.

 

Some SGO48 songs sound weird because they didn't care about tones when translating the lyrics. Especially Koisuru Fortune Cookie, it is barely intelligible to me.

 

This has made me think about how I use the term ace...which honestly I never gave it much thought. I just use it in whatever way management decides to at the time lol. Curious if the wiki has an article about the history of aces across the group, or if another website has such information?

 

I don't think the wiki does because, as I can see, it's quite subjective. I don't really know what the Japanese equivalent of "ace" is? I feel like I've heard them use エース (literally ace) but apart from that... also, there are probably too many sources where AKB might have called someone of the group an ace just to sound more impressive.

 

Here are some comments on Yuiri and Nana in BNK48's 12th single https://pantip.com/topic/41230007

- Naachan to write lyric, Yuiri to choreograph. Who will compose/arrange music?

- Many of you must be curious too, who will translate the lyric?

- The next question is, who will design the costume? Praying circle.

- No need to worry over choreography. The song may be come out better than expected. This song is made to be turned into Thai song, not just another Japanese song translated into Thai. Someone from this side may collaborate in the process. Highly likely, it will be the same old face translating the song but, they will have a say from the beginning. For sure, it will turn out better than just a translation of an already completed Japanese song.

- Don't worry over something yet to come.

- They won't do the task absolutely by themselves. Certainly, they will have helping profession hands behind them. Rina said she would like to help. Rina has been in Thailand for 5 years. She has a level of understanding in Thai language, Thai culture and Thai music taste. She will be helpful to Naachan and Yuiri to some degree.

- I wanna know why on earth the company make AKB48's girl making music. Do they not care about music anymore? Just release whatever after they got the election money? Do these 2 have any experience? Have they written a hit song? Have they choreographed a viral dance? Do they have any idea what the Thai jams to? Why does the company entrust on to them to produce for BNK48, the group with most nitpicky fans? Besides, they are foreigners so, the lyric must later be translated. Have they asked if our girls want newbie producers?
This is the song fans pay for their faves to be in the MV. So, it is very important.

Still, she is not a good dancer. And, what iconic choreography those dance training staff created?

And, where did you get that the idea of K-pop fansign was borrowed from handshake event? I think it might be borrowed from Johnny's. If I remember correctly, I read somewhere about Tokio using random fan party ticket gimmick for album sale.

 

Doesn't matter

Doesn't matter either.
It only means the two aren't working alone.

 

Very bad news
Michieda Saki is close contact with someone infected with corona.
As a consequence all the concerts scheduled on 02/05 and 02/06 are canceled
Which means: the current teams final, the new Teams start and the coupling RH
https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12724047944.html