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Unpopular Opinions

Discussion in 'General Nogizaka46 Discussion' started by ひめか, Apr 17, 2019.

  1. ひめか

    ひめか Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2018
    Dish out all of the unpopular opinions you have pertaining to Nogizaka46!
    I’ll give just a few for now to get the ball rolling.
    • Sayuringo is the prettiest in the group
    • Nishino nanase > Shiraishi Mai
    • Ikoma Rina deserved better
    • Love ban is stupid
     
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  2. Jumps_Zilla

    Jumps_Zilla Upcoming Girls

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Oshimen:
    <3 Nishino Nanase <3
    Nanase is my oshi, so I agree with you on Naachan > Maiyan although I may be biased. :)

    Cheers!
     
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  3. Seditious46

    Seditious46 Next Girls

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2017
    Location:
    The north star of Nija
    Oshimen:
    Higuchi Hina
    All right!

    • I hate Skydiving with a passion. I never understood the praise, and I never will.
    • I also dislike Secret Graffiti. I am very sorry Chima, but I wish they gave you another song to center. Luckily you also have My Rule, which suits you much better.
    • I like Momoko's voice the most of all.
    • Maaya and Ayatii are among my favorite members.
     
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  4. tpt13

    tpt13 Member

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2018
    Oshimen:
    horimiona
    IMHO, 2nd Gen > 3rd Gen. Sorry.
     
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  5. gish0046

    gish0046 Upcoming Girls

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2019
    Secret Graffiti is one of my favorite Nogi songs.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  6. ひめか

    ひめか Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2018
    OMG SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME ON THOSE SONGS. They are just so damn boring lol. Skydiving puts me to sleep better than any ASMR video ever could.
     
  7. Conjyak

    Conjyak Member

    Joined:
    Aug 6, 2017
    When Maiyan graduates, Nogizaka is unlikely to grow its audience or revenue further. Which is fine - a successful group, even as successful as Nogizaka, can't grow forever. Post-Maiyan, the question is whether management can maintain its current scale and quality, which will be daunting enough. Maiyan is too recognizable with a very universal appeal and vanilla quality (as in very plain, nothing about her sticks out other than her model-like looks) that is kind of a perfect way to gather initial audiences. Come for the Maiyan, stay for the [insert other member].

    Asuka is currently a risky successor. (This one is long. Apologies.) She is clearly the heir apparent (<-- this part's not an unpopular opinion). But rather than being vanilla like Maiyan, she has become a very "S (sadistic) chara" type, aka sharp-tongued or "poison-tongued" chara. Nanamin was considered the original "S" chara in Nogizaka, but on an "S" scale from 1 to 10, if Nanamin scores 6 or 7 on the "S" scale, Asuka scores a 9 or 10. Now, an "S" chara is probably the hardest to pull off for young entertainers, so I think it's a testament to her variety talk skill that she succeeded at it. But when you look at Japanese variety TV in general, the "S" type female model isn't that rare. In Nogi or Sakamichi, a successful S chara is a rarity and that may be valuable from management's perspective, but from the mainstream, that combination of S chara and fashion model background is not rare at all. It risks Nogi's image - why would a group that is supposed to be "classy" and "elegant" be lead by a girl who has that "bitchy model" chara?
    ・Because she's the youngest gen 1, the other gen 1 members dote on her. In early Nogi era when she still had a cute chara image, older gen 1s would treat her as such. After she became more tsun and sarcastic and stuff, the other gen 1s just go, "Oh, there goes Asuka being all tsundere again."
    Negatives:
    -But in the last 2 years or so, she's passed tsundere and become more or less purely tsun, sarcastic, "S (sadistic)," and sharp-tongued. 1) Once she became the heir-apparent and became center multiple times, the older gen 1s treat her as a cute chara less than before. When older gen 1s don't treat her as a cute chara as much, the tsundere loses some of her dere and becomes purely tsun. 2) But she's still the youngest gen 1, so the older gen 1s still dote on her. "Oh Asuka, you're such an S," kinda like that.
    -The older gen 1s are getting more and more individual work or are graduating. That means that: a) in group appearances, they may be less active in bantering with Asuka's "S" character, especially when she is positioned as the center of the group. IMHO, bantering with an "S" chara is often kinda like providing an assist for the goal-scorer. Unless you are like Manatsu who lives on that kind of variety banter, older gen 1s who are busy with their own stuff may simply not be as eager as before to have to provide those "assists." b) The people around Asuka in group appearances are more and more likely to be gen 2/gen 3s or people further down the sembatsu ranking. Most of these are people who are less likely to or even may never try to tease and bring out Asuka's cute or dere character. (Momoko and Yoda sometimes play that role, but I don't think that does enough.)
    -How this may influence the younger gens. "Oh, I want to be like sharp-tongued Asuka," a younger gen might think. 1) As stated, I think "S" chara is hard to pull off and requires high variety talk skill, so many may simply fail at it. (IMO, Reika and Miria have failed at attempts at being an S chara.) 2) Even if successful, does Nogi really need a bunch of S charas or S chara wannabes?
    -Nanamin's S chara IMHO was perfect. She had a kind of intellectual side to her and definitely had a maturity to her to soften things. Her S talk was also kinda subtle. Asuka doesn't have that sort of intellectual/"mature" side to her IMO and tends to just throw her head back and laugh at anything around her. Again, this works when you're the youngest and doted on by others. But when you're the center role and no longer the youngest, the group image follows you rather than the other way around.
    However (positives):
    +Since Nanamin graduated, the front row S chara role was vacated. Asuka fills in this role.
    +There is contrast or "gap" between her looks and her talk that is endearing to many. (E.g. A cute doll-faced sharp-tongued girl is sassy rather than a total bitch. A hulking, muscular man who tenderly raises his precious daughter appears loving and protective rather than scary and threatening.)
    +She's very popular among current fans. Seems to always be No. 1 or 2 in things like fan voting or fan purchases of merchandise these days.
    +Seems to be popular among young female fans who look up to that certain rebelliousness that she has in her chara. Kazumin once said, "All the girls who are in their 20s like Asuka."
    +Other members tend to make soft or safe comments on shows, so she provides material that is easy for the MC and co-cast to respond to or the director to utilize.
    +I think she is very capable in variety and talk. So if management says to her, "We'd like you to be soft and safe in your comments here," she can do it.
    +I don't think management is stupid, so I'd like to think they're actually aware of all of this. I just wonder if they plan to let her keep going like this or might tell her to slow it down at some point.
    +Her latest blog post shows she has awareness of the responsibility of her center level status.
    ・So until they groom a second heir (Mizuki or Miona?) to be paired with Asuka, I think it's too risky to let Maiyan graduate and have Asuka be the default top on her own.

    Misa's semi-scandalous post-graduation (she met privately one-on-one with her current bf before they began officially dating - I don't think it's been clarified whether they met privately before or after her graduation. The fact that she or her agency has not clarified that probably means that they did indeed meet privately before her graduation) has damaged Nogi's image in an awkward way. With Sayurin (though hindsight is 20/20), at least there was closure (full apology in different outlets - blog, radio, live event, and also discussed or mentioned in other places like the Nogidoko sembatsu announcement and the Nogi documentary) and redemption - she's currently undoubtedly one of the most important members and one of the few who is as accomplished in all three of these as most any other member: modelling (CanCam), variety, and acting (Kakegurui). Misa has graduated already, so there can be no "redemption" in the same way. What happened with her before graduating is also kinda vague and unclear, so she and her agency (which is Nogizaka LLC) probably feel there is no need to apologize for it directly - which is an understandable decision for them to make. After all, what is there to apologize for when there is no clear and obvious wrongdoing? But that means there may be no sense of closure. Some fans may disagree with the no dating rule anyway. But aside from that, there are fans who emphasize that breaking the rule (or getting close to it) disrespects all the other members who still follow the rule. So if there is no apology or "punishment" from management/agency, is what happened accepted by management? Can every graduating member "meet in private" with prospective dates before graduating? This is how this incident has awkwardly damaged Nogi's reputation.

    Skydiving is one of my favorite songs. The music and choreography both have a "flying" theme. The lyrics combine the metaphor of skydiving and "falling" (get it?) in love. And skydiving itself has a special place in Nogi, with it being done twice in single release campaigns (Manatsu for Kimi No Na Wa Kibou and Ikuchan for Harujion).
     
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  8. sambelteri12

    sambelteri12 Next Girls

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2018
    Ikuta is the better heir than Asuka.
     
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  9. Halyup

    Halyup Future Girls

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2016
    Location:
    Singapore
    Kiichan is better than Miona
    Miona is too boring for me
     
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  10. TargaK

    TargaK Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2018
    Sometimes I am amazed by how childish people are : someone makes a thread about unpopular opinions and... guess what? People downvote posts. Like what did people think they are gonna find here lmao.

    Anyways,
    I will present more serious and controversial unpopular opinons. I have very strong conservative opinions on a lot of issues (generally politcally speaking), so I could fill this thread with a bunch of unpopular opinions. For example I am not a fan, to say the least, of feminism and I am strongly in favour of traditional family roles. As a result I have a tendency to support members who endorse the feminine side of things by cooking, knitting, wearing skirts and dresses instead of jeans, acting cute and so on. I also dislike boyish and "variety" members (Ikoma, Mukai e.g.). However, I do strongly dislike other members (Matsumura and Yamashita) more for other reasons (mainly due to what I think is their over the top fake, lying attitude but I could write an essay on them and I wouldn't be done so let's stop at that)
    I also have quite the hard time watching the "talking with the transexuals" episodes (as i feel strongly uncomfortable) and I wish they would stop doing them.
    And switching topics, I also tend to be more neutral when company-idols conflicts appear a.k.a I don't believe everything the idol says. I tend to look at things from both the company and the idol perspective and until conclusive evidence appears I keep neutrality on the issue.
     
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  11. NyanNyan's Pet

    NyanNyan's Pet Next Girls

    Joined:
    Mar 10, 2016
    this is the one (maybe the only) thing about asuka that really annoys me.

    EXACTLY...:lol:

    I have a lot too but some folks are no fun. So maybe later...:D

    This, I'm very interested . . . :shifty: because . . . :whistle:
    Looking forward, if somehow you change your mind.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  12. gish0046

    gish0046 Upcoming Girls

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2019
    I wouldn't be surpised if Ikuta graduates before Maiyan.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  13. sambelteri12

    sambelteri12 Next Girls

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2018
    But i'm surprised Nanase grads before Maiyan.
     
  14. baymon

    baymon Next Girls

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2014
    Oshimen:
    Shiraishi Mai
    - Momoko is the prettiest 3rd gen.
    - Miona's long hair is miles better than her bob hair.
    - Miona does not look like Sakura at all.
    - Umezawa is nowhere near Maiyan in terms of beauty. Maiyan has both gorgeous model look and sweet idol look, Umezawa only has the former, and she doesn't look as good in motion.
     
    • Agree Agree x 5
  15. Heelo

    Heelo Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2018
    Location:
    California
    I don't like Kimi No Na Wa Kibou.
    I think that the majority of personalities displayed by the girls are fake. It's probably just my paranoia, though. And if they are fake, it's admirable that they can keep it up all the time.
    I don't really like S characters, and for that matter, Saito Asuka.

    Also, same as TargaK, I tend to prefer more feminine members, like Ikuta, Ozono, and Shiraishi. Not to say that I don't like Ikoma or variety members.
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2019
  16. jujuchuu

    jujuchuu Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2014
    Oshimen:
    itomarika
    how embarrassing.

    you should probably continue keeping this to yourself :flower:
     
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  17. Conjyak

    Conjyak Member

    Joined:
    Aug 6, 2017
    Ikuchan has a special position in Nogizaka that puts her separate from the center role. She's too important not to have in the front row, but she's too busy with musicals to become center. If it weren't for her doing so many big musicals, she'd probably have been center multiple times by now lol. Ikuchan's singing voice is extremely important to giving Nogi songs that "pure, classy, elegant girl" feeling. While I still think Maiyan's posterchild image is more important for Nogi management, the second most important thing to Nogi I think is Ikuchan's image and voice. But... she's just too busy with musicals, so I think both management and Ikuchan herself are both in agreement that she won't be the heir, but will always be in the front row. Also, Kubo looks like a good heir for Ikuchan's "pure, classy, elegant" voice and image thing.

    If you look at fan votes, fan merchandise purchases, and even something like the "the number of twitter users who have an Asuka pic as their header/profile pic vs other Nogi members" (I saw this data somewhere but I can't find the link), Asuka's current fan popularity is un-disputably No. 1 or No. 2 after Maiyan. So it's understandable that management considers her the heir. But the long term effect of her chara on Nogi's image remains to be seen.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
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  18. Generic_User

    Generic_User Under Girls Stage48 Donor

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2016
    Location:
    Isulando
    Oshimen:
    The Ikuta Erika
    Me: Meh. These are just personal preferences.
    @Conjyak (After several hundred words of insightful commentary): There's nothing special about Maiyan. Asuka isn't suited to be the Ace of the future. Misa's dating scandal is damaging to Nogi's image.
    Me: [Grabs some popcorn!]
     
  19. kanjo

    kanjo Stage48 Moderator Staff Member Stage48 Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2012
    Location:
    Ireland->Shimane
    Oshimen:
    Nishino Nanase
    I dunno about profile pictures, but you can search profile text for keywords here: https://twpro.jp
     
  20. Ikutafan

    Ikutafan Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2016
    Oshimen:
    ikutaerika
    -The best thing Sony did was naming Ikuchan as “The Greatest Treasure”. The title says it all.
    - Of all Nogi members, Ikuchan in my opinion is still the best center the group ever had. It’s such a shame that she has been so busy (even busier than Maiyan back during her busiest days), so the management can’t give her another shot for it.
    - Nogi might need to record a lot of verses and choruses of their A-sides once Ikuchan graduates. Her voice just dominates their songs even when she is not performing lol.
    -Matsumura’s dating scandal was more damaging than Misa’s. I admired the guy for being a professional by respecting Misa’s field of work before asking her to date.
    -I still wonder why Kimi No Nawa Kibuo was not an Ikuchan center.
    - I don’t really like their single songs since the 21st single.
     
    • Agree Agree x 8
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