Tashima Meru (Meru) / 2nd Generation

I bought 40 votes for Meru through the forum admin this year. Last year I gave her 21, but I figured she would need a boost this year... however, I was extremely disappointed with her rank in the prelims... if this keeps up we might see her dropping in rank even more... Nothing out of the ordinary happened to her this year, so I don't feel confident at all that she managed to increase her voters... I do hope her current fans did pull together more resources and decided to invest more this year... I have no idea about what goes on with her fandom in Japan, I wonder if she has some sort of organized fan club that organized a voting fund for her or something...

 

Can anyone link to the website where we enter our vote codes? I can't find it this year...

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Thank you! I should have read my voting cards, it had that site on there. Finished voting!

 

@fildzahat Oh wow! That's a first right? I definitely want to watch that!!! So cute!

 

Previously she had performed this unit in concert with paruru & rena. But that was before she puber

 

Meru is now on twitter
https://twitter.com/meru_chan_07

 

@fildzahat is it possible that you'd have a link to that performance?

@ForrestFuller Thanks for the info, now I have a reason to create a twitter account!

 

I think that one and second generation members must Twitter account for all of them. I have not been on google + for months.

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Started 4 minute ago
https://twitter.com/meru_chan_07/status/873157634567708672

 

First Official Tweet (Along w/Pic): https://twitter.com/meru_chan_07/status/873157634567708672

 

What is this?

 

Her Twitter account was long overdue. Seeing how active she's always been on 755, hopefully she'll maintain that pace on Twitter as well

 

oh wow.. her pics of Sasshi, Madoka, Natsumi, and Aoi are just so good. That's the best pic of Madoka I've ever seen.

https://twitter.com/meru_chan_07/status/873520828578619393

It's surprising she was allowed to get a Twitter account. HKT has been probably the least SNS friendly group in 48g lol

 

@fildzahat

She got to do a recommendation/review for that book. And it's going be posted in other places and media. It's also the main reason why she got to start a twitter, to initially spread this around and later her own other book reviews.

So the twitter will stay, and she says that she's going to try make it a tool to spread her reviews around more than only relying on G+ itself (We know the spread of G+ in general.. lol)

So she'll link to her posts on twitter, and in that way more publishers and people can take notice of it. I.e. to increase her work in that area.

Btw, that shows that for HKT there are three ways of getting a twitter. You have an agency other than AKS, you have a kennin with AKB where girls can just get an account or you get a job that requires/uses one and keep it.

 

Oh thanks for the info @DeJure!! I'm so glad Meru is finding new ways to promote herself and specially that she got something that is within her interest area: books! I hope she is successful in this new endeavor!

In a different subject, how well do you guys believe she will do in this year's sousenkyo?

 

Sigh.. honestly speaking, I get this gut feeling she isn't going to even rank. She hasn't really done all that much this year, except for her photography. Her pics are brilliant but it's not known outside G+. Plus, with the rise of the 4th gen, I think they will take a lot of votes from other girls. If Meru ranks, I can't imagine it be anywhere but 80-70 range. I really hope I get proven wrong and that she will rank

 

A lot of fans say that is true that 4th gens like Aki have a fanbase which consists of capable fans who came from other girls. Why she instantly can count on organized support.

I don't think they all come from Meru though, or even mainly.
I do think that Meru herself is still on a somewhat downward trend, and that not a lot has changed about her when you look at the entire past year. Things that really could've turned it around. So personally I think the chance is quite big for her to rank lower than last year.
Not rank at all is a big much if you ask me, she still has good support.

Twitter, reaching out more to other members and this book stuff is a good start to turning things around again. Not everyone may agree but I do not feel a center or a kennin would help much now. I see those things mainly as amplifiers, so it'd be better to amplify a Meru with new fresh aspects to her. Otherwise I feel like ppl will say, "Oh it's Meru again okay whatever." Needs something from herself to spark that interest again.

 

Sadly me too I believe that she will rank down!I hope she won't take it as hard as last year!

 

Unfortunately, I also have a feeling that Meru will rank lower than last year... I still think she might stay in Next Girls, though she is really close to the bottom now. If she does rank lower, I have no doubt that she will take it very hard, possibly worse than last year... There is just no indicative that she has any justification for ranking higher, although I'd be pleasantly suprised... Her G+ doesn't attract a lot of people, she has lower numbers than both Nako and Miku. I don't follow much on 755, but from everything else, I think she is doing pretty bad... Even if Meru would get a center, she is still missing something that she had before and doesn't have anymore. She's changed a lot, and I don't think it's just related to maturing, she is missing the spark and passion she had before. If she doesn't find that back soon, we might just be looking at a downward spiral... Sad, but its looking pretty dire...

PS: one thing that came to mind was reading old news on Meru saying that she applied to HKT48 auditions because they were close to home and that Tokyo was too far for her. So I was wondering if perhaps the fact that she never got a kennin in AKB48 could've been due to her parents not allowing her to go to Tokyo in those conditions. I don't think management would announce a surprise kennin to a child without first getting approval of her parents, so maybe it wasn't that management didn't want to give her a kennin, maybe they simply couldn't because of her parents opposing... The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. She could've blossomed and done so great if around the time she was 14 she would've gotten a kennin in AKB48. Somehow her staying behind and seeing Mio and most of TTMC being more succeful could've broken her passion ...