Murashige Anna (Aanya) / 1st Generation

Towards the end when they were leaving the stage there were some members of the audience doing Mentaiko probably in support of Murashige

 

Today's Kato Yuka post comes with Aanya in the pic.
https://plus.google.com/116300481938868290370/posts/9krXXVYq59x

 

not very welcoming (duh she had a scandal) but its not hostile either so its okay i guess

 

i hate how people believe in rumours even when they don't know shit, like really guys (and i'm talking about the whole Mentaiko in Team N stage)

 

Yes, it's a constant problem on this forum. Person A says one thing without any source to back it up, Person B reads it as truth and comments on it as such, domino effect from there.
Hell, if I wanted to bad enough, I could probably have a good number of people believing by the end of the day that Aanya did in fact get booted from the group (she didn't though, okay? lol). It wouldn't even take that much effort tbh.
It'd be nice to have some kind of rule for the forum saying that any news posted has to have a valid (non social media/2ch) source. That would keep at least some misinformation from getting around.

It's just a bad enough problem that it should really be addressed in some way soon - because rumors, if believed, can color perceptions in the fandom for the rest of the group's life. How many people do you think are believing that NMB fans are dicks right now because of that rumor about them being cold to Aanya? I'll bet it's not 0. And bad impressions last far longer than good ones.

 

Man by being silent i think its pretty obvious for the fans already that theyre plain couples who had/have been dating for a while... if its something tamer like "First date" or whatever I think they could definitely pull something off... and her apology might still be accepted. It's not like they could just lie either since they're probably scared Bunshun still have additional evidence they haven't published yet. AKS: "Hey fans its a date just for few hours no biggie" Bunshun: "Pictures of Murashige Anna walking out of her boyfriend's APARTMENT, AKS corp. is LYING" AKS: "oh, shi..."

 

It's likely that management has her google plus phone so she cant post. Maybe they will only give it back on the condition she doesn't say anything.

 

You must have a really strange definition of 'obvious'.

It's been stated multiple times in this thread already that this is how all of the scandals since Miichan's have been handled - with no reply whatsoever. This is no different.

FFS, they weren't even holding hands in the pictures.

And, if I recall correctly, the situation you hypothesized was a story they were telling when Sasshi had her scandal - that they had more evidence but they agreed not to release it because her scandal was acknowledged. Don't think we ever found out if that was true.

Strongly agreed. People getting so salty over scandal issues especially that they'll toss out any kind of wild information, which in this case, was 100% able to be fact checked as totally false. Not only do we have fan reports that she was cheered, but we have video evidence.

Hopefully this issue is dying down. I don't remember how long it was before Milky posted on her G+ again, but hoping we'll see something soon.

 

Milky never stopped posting on her G+ (though she didn't mention the issue directly on it either). It was her blog that she didn't have access to until recently.

 

Ah, my bad. Thanks for the correction. I knew it was one of the two.

 

I dont remember any other case to be so silent? Especially with proofs as concrete as these? At this point murashige posting nothing (and having her posts controlled) is like confirming that something -was- going on.

And really? I think the situation was pretty clear without them having to hold hands. Rest of HKT at their hotel. Went out at night for a few hours sticking with each other. Person in question being silent. Guess some people are still in denial and they at least need pictures of their idols kissing in the street with their boyfriends to acknowledge it as a date i suppose.

 

Its just any conjecture at this point is fruitless and not based on reality. Making up scenarios isn't changing the facts.

This is a situation between Shige and the management and has nothing to do with the fans.

I don't know where idol fans (in general) get the impression that it is normal to be so heavily invested in the private lives of the entertainers. I mean, its one thing to say "ooh, she went on a date, I wonder what that was all about", but idol fans seem to think "she went on a date, why would she do this to me?" is perfectly acceptable when it is not at all.

The sense of entitlement, saying "she owes us an explanation" is such a strange reaction to me. She owes us nothing about her private life.

I voted for her in the election because she makes me laugh. The Anna Murashige on TV shows, theater performances, handshake events and concerts is the one I am invested in as a fan.

The Anna Murashige at home with her family or at a restaurant with friends or at school or even on a late night stroll in the park with some dude is none of my business. That part of her life is not an open book unless she says otherwise. And if you think that part of her life is your business, sorry you are wrong.

With all that said, I hope she makes a return to posting on the internet whenever her and the management are ready for her to do so. And I hope she can do it with a smile on her face.

 

Huh? Are you serious, part of the how the 48-group works is that the fans get heavily invested in the girls, that's why there's a daily blizzard of information from them, that's why there are regular handshake events, it's expected that the fans show dedication to the girls and the girls are dedicated to the fans and to their career.

But hey, if she breaks this rule then maybe she can go and break a few more, maybe she can start smoking and drinking too eh?

She's an idol, there are expectations on how idols act. Lots of companies have rules on not bringing the company into disrepute and if personnel break them there are consequences.

 

Yes.

Might want to be careful about breaking real laws (such as if there is a curfew in place) and wandering the streets at night in general, but scandal? I hope this all works out okay for her and she has my continued support, though sure I know I'm in the minority vote when it comes to this kind of incident. To fans who feel that this spoils their enjoyment of Anna the entertainer and betrays their support for her, I don't know what to say. Sure. Okay.

Probably a good thing nobody has come up with a toilet-ban rule for idols yet.

 

AKB works in having you invest in the public image of the idol. The character you see on TV, at handshake events, etc. There is still a barrier between public and private that is usually respected by the common fan that for some reason Super Wotas seem to think is okay to cross.

This is a straw man. Walking around the park with a Johnny Jr. does not lead to drinking or whatever other snowball of nonsense.

Whatever rule she broke or didn't is up to management and her to resolve. It has nothing to do with us. If they choose to address it they will, and if they don't they don't.

If you don't like it, stop supporting her. It is your choice to do so. But coming in here clutching pearls is absurd. I am sure there is another thread on this forum for righteous indignation, but its not this one.

I saw Yukirin going into a ladies restroom. I demand an explanation!

 

This isn't a private life issue. She's a public figure. As soon as she's on the outside / in a public place where she can easily be seen by others it's not her private life anymore, but an issue of public image. The latter isn't only what you do on stage.

2-3 in the morning isn't the appropriate time for a 15-year old to be outside. People in Japan care about that quite a bit. The police is likely to talk to kids when they see them loitering around. It's perfectly possible for your school to suspend you. I myself definitely do not feel comfortable seeing high school girls etc. in town after eleven or so. Not that it's dangerous here or anything. It's just a question of morals really. That AKS is all hush-hush about that rather than putting down their foot doesn't make them look good as a management that's in charge of overlooking hundreds of underaged girls make their first steps in the world of show business.

@Silenka The issue is that a lot of people simply have no sense of what's valid and what isn't. To a lot of kids today who grow up with the medium, Tumblr is just about as "valid" as the Financial Times. It's tricky to make a rule out of that because people will have to rely on something and not everyone can speak Japanese, but I've definitely got that in the back of my head.

In that same vein though: AKS wasn't "heavily criticized by law experts" for anything. People thought the shaving thing was (way) over the top and that was all. It was weird and off-putting but in no way a problem involving law. Of course there's always going to be the odd one out trying to put some kind of weird spin on it. But just because you saw one article using big words like "human rights" and "discrimination" mentioned somewhere by people trying to use it to further their own anti-AKS agenda doesn't mean you need to take it any more serious than what you see on sites like Arama and similar.

Never did Akimoto say that the love ban was "more of a joke" either. That'd be just about the last thing he'd say. You know, it's important to get the technicalities right there. He's always been very vague about the issue and he avoids giving clear answers because he's trying to keep it that way. You can't be anything but vague about an issue like that when there's no set "punishment" for cases. If Murashige feels like staying in the group, she's staying in the group.
Japanese can be hard to translate (which is why you see so much inconsistens information at times like this). It's wonderfully easy to be vague in Japanese and beat around the bush and unfortunately not everyone is able to not only translate literally, but correctly interpret what a person is actually saying.

We'd be having an issue if that was the case. We're a forum of AKB48 fans so the majority is bound to not have an issue with it. Of course we're more diversified than the Japanese fandom. Most people though you won't even see commenting in this thread because it's the same old story every time a scandal happens.

 

The days that you choose an oshiment was the day that you CARES about yout oshimen. As a wota there was something important than blamed your oshimen cause of her action. We have to support her and STRONGLY BELIEVE againts our idol. When you begin to doubt your idol, that'll the time you lose your credibility as a wota....

 

WrapUp is WrapUp. I wouldn't be surprised to run into information there that's simplified to its very bones. Tolvo just so happens to be me. This guy, too, argues that the translation is questionable.

Looking at the article now, it looks as if WrapUp edited the article to include "(or fun stuff that makes it more captivating and marketable or make more gaga)" at the top aftwards. In any case "neta" is not a "joke". Not in this context.
The owner of WrapUp doesn't make a secret out of the fact that he dislikes how AKB48 as a whole is being run and that he has no understanding for the whole idols-you-can-meet / fans-buying-dozens-of-CDs aspects that come with the group, so I'm not surprised that he's trying to put the most negative spin on it that he can. The article is kept in a style ("What a farce! LOL") that's obviously trying to discredit Akimoto.

What WrapUp of course doesn't mention is the part of the interview where Akimoto clearly talks about how the penalty for breaking this rule is something that's up to the girls to come up with - that it's them who need to think about what they want to do in order for their fans to forgive them.

Members hardly ever get kicked out. They can't really do that so easily. Of course there are some examples where a girl HAD to go, but they mostly leave because they choose to. There was a time where I too, like others, used to think that "leaving" was just a euphemism for getting fired but when you look at the cases one by one you'll see it's (usually) pretty much just like they tell us.

A lot of people tend to think that this "leaving the group to focus on studies" is BS too, but really... try Japan for a while. I was in high school here myself. It may sound like a really lame excuse for someone in the US or so (what? quit a pop group for school??), but schools and parents put a lot of pressure on kids here. They have them forgo all kinds of stuff to focus on studies. Because yeah... they're kids after all. They still got parents to make decisions for them.
There are many many Japanese kids these days that say they have no time for a girl/boyfriend because they "have no time" or are "too busy" (in school or otherwise). It's pretty normal and you hear that a lot. And yet you got people wondering why there's a love ban.

I wrote about what people call the "inconsistency" of member punishments back here. In the end it all goes back to people still having Nacchan and Rumi in the back of their heads and thinking that that's how everyone else needs to be dealt with too.
That commenter on WrapUp put it pretty well: "[It's] more about damage control than punishment. Girls that could (and wanted) to survive, stayed, girls that couldn´t survive the bashing or just wanted to leave, left."

Now, sure... management has been ignoring most of the recent scandals. At least they didn't give any public statements. They will have talked about it with the girls of course. There's a whole bunch of factors that play into whether or not they want to open up that can of worms. The biggest question these days is how profitable it is and how much you can actually "make" out of the scandal and turn into something fruitful. The incentive for doing something like a fan vote these days is rather low and there's no gain for management in firing their own members. Sometimes getting caught itself is already punishment enough for the girl. It only needs an article like this for some people to jump the boat.

 

I think this is an interesting point. 48 family has evolved to a point where not every fan is only in it because they want to date the idols. Some members are popular among gay men and some members are known to have a large female fanbase. When I listen to Furukawa Airi's radio show, fan letters from girls are just as common as ones from guys. These fans may not be the majority contributors of SSK votes and handshake sales, but they are a pretty significant group and I'm sure management wouldn't want to turn them away.

But even with that said, walking around openly after curfew with a Johnnys guy is a pretty poor move as an idol. That's like me going to a job interview wearing torn jeans and stunna shades. Is it breaking any written rules? Maybe not, but it shows I don't take the job seriously enough to confirm to the established culture of the place (unless I'm interviewing to be a rapper). And yeah, idols not dating until they graduate IS part of the established culture. Maybe in a few years it would change, but it's definitely still there now and many girls are working hard to upheld it.

Love ban is a huge inconvenience and hard to live with. I know I could never do it and if I had a daughter, I wouldn't want her to go through with it either. But just think about all the girls that were eliminated during HKT's auditions. How many of them are willing to give up a few years' worth of relationships just to be in Anna's place? I bet there're a lot of them.

 

That illusion has been broken long time ago - now it is just a play - we know they don't date openly, but if a few are 'caught in the act' every other month then clearly a much bigger number successfully date secretly. So in effect those who are better at hiding it are held at a higher standard.