Event / Concert 37th Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo (2014/06/07)

You are a perfect person, don't ever change!

 

Thanks! I don't think I could change that part of me even if I wanted to lol

 

Hmm... A lot of people to vote for in HKT... My sense is that for the kennin girls the core votes come from their home sister group, so competing for attention vs Sakuratan, Sasshi, Meru, Mio, Madoka, Natsu. I would have thought if we got 2 into senbatsu it would be Sasshi and probably Sakuratan then Haruppi. So maybe UG. There is so much attention on the MeruMio though that she ends up nearer 30 than 17.... Dunno... My two cents

 

Due to the increasing number of members participating
and the increasing fragmented resource allocation (each sister group has her own show, concert and event);
I have a feeling that our general perception on UG needs to be changed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the way I think most people view the ranks of the election are :
senbatsu>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>UG>>>NG>>>FG

I think the general election this time will be more like :
senbatsu>>>UG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>NG>>>FG>>>Upcoming Girls

What I meant is that I think we will start to see the ranks of UG starting to stabilise from this year onwards.
In other words, we still start to see a pattern of the mainstay of UG.

What does this means to the girls?
It means getting into UG is almost as hard as getting into senbatsu.
An UG is a no lesser achievement than a senbatsu ranks.

 

Here I share some of my hopes for the election:

- I would be so happy if Paruru ranks in Top 5 . If not I only hope that she ranks higher than last year.

- I hope that Tsuchiyasu Mizuki could rank for example in "Upcoming Girls". Honestly I think it's unlikely that she will rank, but I will vote for her because I want to support her.

- I hope that some more members of 9th gen members and higher can rank now. For example Shimada Haruka, Takahashi Juri, Hirata Rina, Iwata Karen, Kato Rena, Abe Maria, Iwatate Saho, Aigasa Moe and more. For sister groups I hope that Shibuya Nagisa and Azuma Rion will rank.

- I hope that Tano Yuka and Nagao Mariya can rank higher than last year and enter Undergirls.

- I hope that Okada Nana, Kojima Mako and Nishino Miki can rank in Undergirls or in Next Girls.

- I would be so happy if Kawaei Rina would enter Senbatsu.

 

I wish I could like this 100 times (surprised the like buttons aren't implemented yet...). There's a lot of people who come across like they think being critical of their own oshimen is tantamount to blasphemy, when really it's just caring about her doing well/being better than she is now.

Unfortunately, I think a lot more people think of Sakura when they think of HKT. She's definitely the most popular girl after Sasshi. Even though Haruppi was more front and center. I like Haruppi a lot more, but the majority seems to prefer Sakura between the two.

Interesting ranking. It would be really unexpected if some of those happened. I think most people still haven't put Miichan back into senbatsu in their predictions, but I wonder if her scandal is 'over' enough that her Team 4 captaincy can draw her out enough votes for a senbatsu position?

 

I hope Ikomachan at least makes Upcoming Girls Not sure how nogizaka wota feel about it though

 

Maybe I'm a bit late but I agree with rka about casual voters. I mean, how many copies of the single do they get? I believe it's not as much as wota. I mean like, if they feel like want to buy AKB48's stuffs, including singles, they'd only buy 1 since they think it's enough for their collections? I was once like that too. So, they might affect the votes number, but not as significant as wotas do. Do you guys remember that this sousenkyo thing is one of the way how the management measures members' fans wealth?

 

I agree with this so much. Due to all the graduating members, and the increase of popularity from the new gens (who aren't going anywhere anytime soon), we will be seeing a stabilized senbatsu and UG. Undergirls is the getting super hard to rank into, and I can see some of the girls actually using it as a goal. saying "My dream is to rank into UG" rather than senbatsu. Senbatsu is like the "all star's" rank where you know you are the face of all 48 groups once you get to that stage, and that you will get the ultimate push constantly. the only people you need to battle are the ones in this rank because you know the others wont reach it anytime soon

 

I am certainly with you on the first perception where most people consider a big wall is separating under girls and senbatsu. But using number as consideration won't only make the under girls rank harder to get, but that goes to next and even future girls. I believe the age of pattern in AKB48 nowadays is not the same as in old days. The way they work with more focus on marketing, the condition where more youngers (which is their focus recently) stepping up to the top, I totally believe we will still see more surprises in the Under Girls structure and in this case might even be the senbatsu. Last sousenkyo there was only one hype promotion with Ricchan wandering around from place which most people judged as nowhere. Look where she got, the under girls. All ranks are going to be screwed and more younger members will filled the ranking position. After the event of 32nd senbatsu sousenkyo, we have been facing a condition where more senbatsu / older-gen members graduating. Hence, we come into a new concept of adding Upcoming Girls. The purpose is to fill and give more slots for girls to rank because the 48 family are getting larger in number. The system is adapting the condition

 

I can agree with you who says that it is hard to get into UG but it has no effect on management. All lights are on senbatsu, UG gets no attention.

 

Yep, they sure don't get a (usually well-funded) PV and their song on (almost) every type of the election single or anything. Boo-hoo, poor UG, getting more promotion than all but senbatsu.

Senbatsu gets the most media coverage because they can't have 500 girls being displayed to the public at once. Nothing would sink in and it would be a mess. That's kind of the entire point of a ranking system to begin with. Let the fans vote up the top 16 girls to appear on TV and whatnot. I'm sorry your oshimen falls into UG but it's not like UG gets nothing. You go ahead and keep treating it like that, though, and the rest of us will be over here abstaining from wearing our standard-issue tinfoil hats.

 

It also depends on WHO is the girl ranking in the UG.

For Ricchan and Annin it seemed to be all the approval management needed from the fans to put them into Heart Ereki's senbatsu.

 

I was not thinking about her, Silenka. It was more a common thought.

UG and the other subgroups are treated like a big mass and management are picking whoever they want to push. Some years ago there was specific UG songs, for exemple Kimi Suki which became more popular than River. There are more great UG songs but never more.

 

That's why! That's why I think you've been blaming the management! It's because your oshimen was in UG last year and since you don't like UG and other subgroups, you blame them! Well, UG and the others aren't that useless or as what you said earlier "a big mass". For some members, it's precious and an achievement for them. Beside that, UG is important. Just take a look at Paruru's rank in 2012, it was #23 but her pushes continue or maybe even stronger sorry gotbild if you find this offensive.

 

No no, you are misunderstanding me but dream on.

I correct myself. For the sousenkyo single it has meaning with all groups but after that it's all a big mass, so why pay a lot of interest for it?

 

@gotbild: Sorry, what exactly are you complaining about regarding UG?

 

Because it's kind of a hint for fans to know which members will likely be pushed next or sometimes the management wants to push more than 16 members, so 16nin senbatsu won't be enough, then they'll put their top 16 out of those pushed members and put the rest in UG being the center or front girls. In my mind, it's as SIMPLE as that.

 

How to explain? I don't have something against UG, I'm just questioning the whole system. In sousenkyo there is only one thing that matters, senbatsu or not senbatsu. UG, Future girls, Coming girls, Leaving girls or what they are called are nothing. They each get their own song but that is soon forgotten. There is nothing that says UG got a better song than Future girls but it doesn't matter. Look at YouTube. KFS has more than 15000 videos, Ai no Imi wo Kangaete Mita 3. Everything focusing on senbatsu. Regarding future singles management pick the girls they want and skip all subgroups. Better?

 

So what would be your ideal system?