Graduation announcements thread

The last round of 62th single online meetings and handshakes.

 

Yes, I agree. After moving to Universal, members now have to participate in all HS schedule of their last single. So from now on there will be 2 (at least) graduation seasons a year.

Finger-crossed

 

It appears the difference now is that members finish their scheduled events before having their graduation stage, so that we have a chunk of graduation stages just after the final online/offline event for each single, and none in between.

 

Okabe Rin announced her graduation on X. She will stay until the Spring concert.
https://twitter.com/Berin_official/status/1721542964269498442
https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12827626195.html

 

AKB46 now.

 

With the graduation of Rinchan, there are exactly 8 members of Original Team 8 left and 2 members from their last audition (Remi and Hiyuka).

 

everyday seeing this grad announcements news like "oh well", "oh well", "oh well"....

 

Same. At this point i'm just waiting to see who is the next one from the list. AKB Graduations aren't surprising anymore, it's just another day like the others.

 

Favorite comment from Xitter in response to bae-rins announcement

 

So who's going to be number 40?
Looking at my oshimen-list, how safe are Yurina, Naru and Megu?
And how many will it be by the end of 2023? 45-50?

 

More kks than full members soon ?

Naru ? No worries as long as DH believes in UNLAME

 

According to the bingo card (aka the list of members with schedule conflicts for events many months in the future), #40 should either be Macharin or Yukarun.
Not going to guess how safe your oshis will be, and I think we'll get a maximum of 45 announcements by the end of the year.

 

For Macharin, I was hoping she would get the chance to wait until her 10th anniversary. Maybe I'm wrong but considering how long she's been in the group now, part of me thinks she may want to stay in Japan. If she graduates now (or in 2024), she will have to pay for a working visa or find another job to sponsor a visa for her. If she got to stay until 2025, she'd have been in Japan for 10 years, which makes her eligible to stay without having to pay for one.

 

Okay thank you for clarifying, in that case I'm less worried for her

 

Oda Erina announced her graduation from AKB48 at the theatre today.

 

So she's number 40, another Eito.

 

thats 5th member graduating from the latest single senbatsu. 5/16 members the management "trusted" to be faces of AKB. excluding Yukirin, something is not adding up.

 

Berin is 27, Oonishi and Odaeri are 26, Hiichan is only 22 but next year is her 10th year anniversary in the group (and for the other Eitos too). So I don't see anything weird about their graduations, personally. It doesn't really make any sense to remain in the group in your late twenties when you've pretty much already accomplished all you could there, and Hiichan leaving while she is one of the more popular members is also a good idea for her since she has outside jobs too.
The truth is management should have pushed them more many years ago, but instead chose to let time go by while stuck between the new and old gens. That's why most of them were only now getting their chance at senbatsu and thus on the surface it seems like they were meant to be the faces of AKB for a good amount of years still, but in reality their careers have been quite long already.