Graduation announcements thread

tbh i think this is exactly what happened. Sometimes I really think a lot of you guys here forget that most of these girls are quite young and still have to answer to their parents. I've seen many people here just assume she's not attending theater performances because she doesn't want to and then proceed to bring out the pitchforks, but she's only 14. She clearly loves being an idol so it's logical to think her actions are not by her own choice and rather her parents. It's a similar case to Shimamura Uta from Country Girls who was the center of the group but quickly got pulled out by her mother. It's sad but at such a young age, it's expected.

AKB needs to go the Nogi route and promote 2-3 new faces at the same time so the weight and pressure isn't all on one girl, and then if one decides to leave, they still have another member to promote confidently. The fact that we continue to have popular girls leaving before their time says so much about AKB's management.

 

Whenever an "ace" leaves, guess what happens. Someone will rise. Naachan wasn't the main push in the beginning and look at where she is right now. Personally, I'm sad to see Moeka leave. However, this is her own decision and I wish the best for her. However, now is the time to pay attention to the new-gen and see who will rise. While I want Hitomin (my new AKB oshi) to be center, I just want a girl who cares for the group and will lead it to new heights.

 

Yuiyui... Moeka... Okada...

 

lol, don't actually know why i wrote 14 lmao
but the point still stands. expecting a minor to have complete control over her schedule is illogical.

I don't consider girls who joined over 4 years ago as new faces.

 

You said four and not three or five just because Yoda Yuki and Yamashita Mizuki joined three years ago. Had they become nogis four years ago you would say five. How on Earth is pushing Yuiyui and Moeka (with Okada) not pushing young gens?

 

I said 4 to be generous. I don't consider any idol to be a new face after they've been in the group for 3 years. I didn't even care to consider when 3rd gen joined. But you kinda proved my point anyway because I don't think anyone considers 3rd gen nogi to be new faces anymore. Yuiyui joined AKB in 2014 and Naachan in 2012........ they've been solid senbatsu members for years (At least one year for yuiyui)............how is that new??? If you're comparing new faces to the likes of granny Yukirin then yeah sure, they're definitely new lmao but clearly your idea of a new face is different from mine lol

But that's a complete other story which you pulled away from my actual point.
Yuki and Mizuki are in the same generation. So are Sakura, Ayame and Haruka. What D3/16th gen member flanked or co-centered with Moeka? Pushing the new faces together allows for the weight to not be put solely on one new and inexperienced member who could easily crack under the pressure. It's why pushing NakoMiku together worked so well but Hana still rubs people the wrong way. It's why sister groups found it easier to promote their groups with two aces in WMatsui and SayaMilky. AKB continues to not do this and then wonders why all their pushed new gen fall through the cracks into wota critique hell, never to be seen again as they perform in the theater for the nth time until they pack their bags. You would think that AKB would learn from their mistakes but they continue to do it. that was my point.

 

Yuiyui is still 17, Moeka was 16, even Okada is just 21. It doesn't matter how long they've been in the group. Berin joined AKB at the same time as Yuiyui and she's older than Okada. And yet, no one even thinks of the possibility of Berin graduating anytime soon, while some kids don't even last two or three years. She's being pushed too. Okada centered Jabaja, then we had Yuiyui. Sashiko won the Sousenkyo, therefore she was center. NWM was a Produce 48 product (tee-hee! xP). Sashiko graduated and got a new center. Finally Moeka. Out of the few non-Sousenkyo or non-Korea singles that AKB had in the last couple of years, most went to young kids. When would you want them to give the 16th gen or D3 a center or even to be side-by-side with the center? There are girls that were selling more than those 16D3 girls years before and weren't given anything close to that. You see, in Nogizaka any frigging nobody does pretty well in handshakes, while in AKB any 16D3 struggle except Moeka or Zukkii.

You said that AKB needs to follow Nogi's route of pushing 2/3 girls, you didn't say anything about generations or drafts or how long they're in the group, only afterwards in the following quote. And AKB was pushing 2/3 girls, just like Nogi.

NakoMiku worked because they were lolis being heavily pushed by Sashiko. How come Mion and Naanya didn't work in the same way? How come of the three muskateers only Okada was actually successful? Why did Lala fail but Banana didn't? They pushed Katomina with Okappa and that worked really well.
The 48 Group had its peak. Then some fans stayed, others moved to other groups or just left idols behind. Let's say that they decide to make a new single with a Zukkii/Naamin double center. Do you think that the number of people at handshakes would suddenly raise? That everyone would forget the current situation? That young girls wouldn't graduate? I know this might sound surprising for a lot of people, but AKB also had many graduations before 2012-13, but since Maedas and Yukos were still there nobody cared. Moeka didn't graduate because of how bad AKB currently is, she graduated because she messed up big time! As far as I know, most of the eitos that weren't nobodies are still here, most of the 16 gens are still in the group despite how bad things look for them, and also D3s. AKB has a lot more members than it used to have, people will graduate. Some will be Moekas, others just girls that no one cares about. But you want pairings? Aren't they pairing Yuiyui with Berin? Zukkii with Naamin? Unless you want them to just suddenly push every new generation or draft with a pair in the front row of a single. Moeka and Mahopyon would save AKB... Not.

I don't like how they do things either, but it's not like they're completely ignoring the new kids. Moeka had Twintail, Nagi had Ohayo, Rei had Generation, and now Naamin had Capo and Zukkii was double center with 557 in Monica.

P.S.: The 16th generation will soon be three years old. I guess only D3s can be pushed from now on.

 

^@Aka I quite clearly said 2-3 new faces, and we've already established that your idea of a new face and mine are different, so there isn't really anything else to discuss, you're just picking at every detail to make points that are unrelated to the original point I made, and then generating your own conclusions to what i said, and went off on a tangent based on that, thus going completely off topic, so I rest my case.

 

Sustainable HS sales (as of October 16), 16D3 who have sold out at least 3 slots:
Taguchi Manaka 5/30
Honda Sora 3/9
Kobayashi Ran 3/11
Omori Maho 17/21
Asai Nanami 7/24
Inagaki Kaori 4/22
Yoshihashi Yuzuka 4/11

And some D2s because that's still young gen as well:
Nishikawa Rei 14/19
Kubo Satone 30/35
Hiwatashi Yui 7/19

Comparison of some rather popular (but not Naachan, Yuiyui etc. level) senpai, some of which have senbatsu experience:
Kato Rena 5/27
Komiyama Haruka 3/28
Minegishi Minami 1/27
Iwatate Saho 6/30
Sasaki Yukari 4/27
Taniguchi Megu 5/23
Fukuoka Seina 13/28
Omori Miyu 0/15
Kawamoto Saya 2/30

We have some D2s with excellent sales, and even just looking at 16D3 (since that's what your post was about), Mahopyon has HS sales comparable to top AKB members. Naamin and Manaka who have been among secondary pushed 16th gens have decent sales too, comparable to senpai like Renacchi, Saho, Komiharu etc. Kaori has never received much push (other than being in 2 B-sides, but not very good positions) from management (probably due to her age at debut) but still has solid sales, imagine how much they could grow if she was pushed. Ran had some theater push but not pushed on TV like Moeka, Mahopyon and Kyon on AKBINGO when they still did it. Sora and Yuzuka didn't even get that, they are among the last D3s to not be promoted to teams, but have still managed to sell out the same number of slots as Komiharu and Yukarun. If these girls had more TV appearances, push in theater, more B sides where they'd be either center or it was a small B side with only a few members, etc. their sales would probably even increase. But Mahopyon, Satopii and Reichan already have great sales so don't give me the "AKB young gens can't sell HS" line.

 

Glad that she's doing well, she has the most theater appearance among 16/D3 girls and yet to be promoted to A. Now, we don't need more graduations (she's the oldest D3 and is a uni student), management knows what to do.

 

She's my personal fave among AKB's draftees since the beginning and such a good performer live too (I have seen her a few times at the theater). Went to her HS once soon after her debut and she was nice, too. So I really hope she can do well. Even without the management push, if she keeps working hard at the theater she might become popular as the "goddess of theater" (I believe that is her goal), like how Yuiri did. Unfortunately though she's getting bullied by "fans" online a lot, saying she's ugly. Everyone knows 5ch and similar places are full of people writing shitty comments but the ones about her were among the worst I've seen, so I really hope it doesn't get to her.

 

I think kpop professor is (more) correct because it's possible to have a fixed-term labor contract without an early termination option from the employee.
Of course no one can force the employee to work but he/she will likely be liable for damages for breaching the contract. But the contract itself is normally not against the law.

Anyway, I think I agree with whoever said that they should have attempted to promote several girls (three musketeers, naanya&mion, etc) and not just one girl. And in hindsight it was probably a wrong decision to have her solo-center right after the scandal (I may have the timing wrong as I don't remember which came first). The scandal is a big red flag for her commitment imo. Anyway, I wonder what they'll do next. Wouldn't be wrong to have more yuiyui.

 

whenever they chose to push new gen, they should push with 2 or 3 girls once. they always make the same mistake. but then, due to sister group inclusion, they didnt want to waste extra spot for akb members.. so the sister group should be excluded from now on,, then they can push several members of any gen they want to push rather than one member per gen.

 

So, because management utterly failed to push them from the moment they joined, suddenly they shouldn't anymore? Anyone who hasn't been a senbatsu regular, or at least a drama/tv show/special event face, for several years is a new face.

Also, AKB is significantly larger than Nogi, and significantly further into the generation gap. They need to push 6-7 "fresh" faces, not 2-3. (I'd argue Nogi's 2-3 may end up being too few in the long run as well.)

They used to. Remember AnRiRe? Two 10th gens and one 11th gen, the next big pushes after Paruru and Yuihan. Then there were Juri, Karen, and Tano in 12th gen; Ryoka and ... and... uh, Ryoka in 13th gen. It wasn't enough even at the time, but it was what you and others are suggesting. However it all fell apart when the saw attack interrupted the order of succession. (Ryoka was impacted by that too, although she wasn't injured so I think most people forget.)

 

I think the number of sister group members in senbatsu should be lowered but not completely excluded. If there are no sister group members in senbatsu, it also doesn't make sense to have them do AKB HS instead of just their group's HS. And we know AKB needs those girls to reach the current sales number, no way they would be selling over million copies without the sister groups... So maybe put 1, maximum 2 members per sister group in AKB singles as that group representative. That's how it used to be in the old days, and even now AKB has more sister groups, if the sister groups altogether contributed 5-8 members, and they do 20+ member senbatsu, that would still leave plenty of spots for AKB members too.

 

For some reason I can only see up to Article 121? And then the supplementary provisions is only up to 134? -- this is just from a quick google. Also, I do agree that an employee can quit anytime as no one can be forced to work against his/her will but I don't think the law you cite (I couldn't find it) covers damages from breaking the contract as this would be governed by contract law and not labor law. But my point was that a fixed term contract is not against the law as many sports-related contracts are probably like that, for a fixed term. Of course I'm not from Japan like you but it sort of doesn't make sense that a fixed-term contract longer than 1 year is unlawful.

Just using logic (and perhaps an extreme example), it's hard to imagine that say steph curry can just give a 14-day notice without incurring any sort of liability as the entire franchise would lose a lot of money. So just substitute curry with the star pitcher of the seibu lions I guess. Article 14 also exempts something like a specific project and I'm not sure if "time as center" can be analogous to the project referred to but I think a contract can be crafted to fit the exemption. And because it's a bit off-topic I'll refrain from replying again but feel free to point out flaws in my line of thinking -- and I only replied because I found this side-topic somewhat interesting haha.


As for promoting brand new pushes, I think put them in the front row first instead of the center.

 

Mmmm, just a thought.

Should this talk move to general thread?
I mean the topic that is not directly related to grad announcement.

 

Will it work? NMB and SKE also have lost their potential young members for different reasons despite more gradual pushes.

You forgot that being idol is more costly and this job is unstable. They have to invest on grooming themselves and they have to quit this job before they get old. Besides, how you addressed many members found the wage wasn't lucrative enough to stay after high school support my idea.

More members? Really? Other sister groups can work with much less members. To dissolve Team 4 is a better choice.

Was it just online comments? You're oblivious if you truly believe that's the case. Her popularity has dived and the chance for it to bounce back is very slim.

If her parents were rich and supported the agency hard enough, they could influence the agency without meeting any executive. For example, Umji was the visual and vocal hole of Gfriend but, it was well-known that, in the group's early struggling days, members lived in a nice apartment paid by Umji's dad. It's pretty obvious why Umji could debut.

This statement had some weight only if Moeka had spent much time in the theater. A premise of AKB is that the member can lessen her workload for personal reasons. She could take a whole year hiatus to focus on study and may announce graduation after she could successfully enroll. And, unless her field of study will be scientific/involving many lab classes, she can resume her idol activities after she have adjusted to collegiate life. Like, nearly half of BNK48's members are collegiate students and their school schedules actually is more flexible than those of high school members.

Legally speaking, labor law is above employment contract. Any clause in the contract that is oppose to the labor law is null and void.

However, there is no Article 137, no where in the Labor Standard Act nor Labor Contract Act of Japan rules an employee can just leave after 14-days advance notification. Imagine a drama is set to be filmed within 3 months and, after 2 months, an actor says "I'll leave in next 2 weeks.".