Do you think there are cases of bullying within the group?

This is something I always wondered. In a group with so many members in a highly competitive environment and most of them being in their teens I wouldn't find it surprising at all if that was the case. I've never actually seen a member address such issue though.
So what do you think? Are there any bullies in the group (individual members and/or cliques)? If yes which members do you think have gotten/are getting bullied? And is there any member that has talked about it?

 

Who knows. I don't think there has been any leak of bullying problem from within the system. Any discussion would be just a conjecture, it's very hard to form any conclusion from what we know (or not know). I would imagine that some friction between members is unavoidable in a group this large, but it'll be impossible to ascertain to what degree it happens without somebody leaking out information.

 

I just remember an instance where a certain girl posted on her G+ that her shoes were gone and a few hours later, they magically appeared.

Another instance, though this one might be better known, was when Murashige had a thick black line drawn across her forehead after she came back from the dressing room. This was I believe at HTK's 1st anniversary. Murashige was pretty active at the MC before it happend and seemed to have pissed off somebody.

 

Oh for sure. Any large group of girls is bound to have at least some amounts of bullying.

 

Agree with @sdn48oshi , maybe some of the 48Group members graduate because of this, like the rumour about SKE's member Takai Tsukina graduating because of Matsui Rena bullying her.

 

@Shiroi_Akuma

Rena? She seems like the last person who would bully anyone.

 

Same here,because of this I think this isn't true

Spoiler

but if Matsui or Takai don't say anything about it, we won't know the truth.

 

This is all that needs to be said about it. We aren't ever going to know for sure unless one of the members publishes a tell-all book after the group disbands.

 

I believe it is a great idea to use this thread to spread unconfirmed (e.g. baseless) rumors, that is what the internet is for after all.

 

This rumor was proven to be false. Rena didn't bully anyone, at least there isn't any kind of proof that she would have bullied someone. What some people thought of being a proof (and so, they started this rumor) was later explained, and it had nothing to do with Tsukina. So Rena is innocent. I know that I don't know her personally, but even from what we saw and other girls said, clearly Rena is far from being the type of person to bully anyone.

 

No, that is how misinformation reaches the overseas fandom and people start believing stuff that isn't true at all. Even when it's clearly labeled as a rumor, such as "it's a rumor that Rena bullied someone out of the group", that eventually crystallizes in memory to "I know I read somewhere than Rena bullied someone out of the group".

 

^I guess you didn't detect my sarcasm. Anyway, I read somewhere that Rena bullied someone out of SKE, is that true?

 

When Shukan Banshun did their massive character assassination of Kasai Tomomi they mentioned that she and Itano would bully Sashiko, but that eventually Itano drifted away from her and stopped bullying. I'm very cynical of the article, of course, but this is the only time I can remember of bullying allegations being made publicly.

http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/4796382.html

 

Haha, you're right. I read it straight. Sorry about that. I should have guessed it was sarcasm but it doesn't always translate well over the internet.

 

^No need to apologize, you did what you thought was right. Also, Kasai bullying Sasshi sounds somewhat plausible to me, when you think of the power imbalance between those two back then.

 

I wouldnt even need to think. And yes, there would at least be one or two cases.But nothing is proven yet, so its kinda difficult to elaborate. I just would like to point out that "XXX is the last person to bully anyone" explaination is dangerous. There are a lot of times where the bully is someone who u never think will bully anyone and the victim might be the one who you never expect to get bullied.

 

I am curious about this topic too. I've been thinking about this whenever I watch Japanese variety shows. Sometimes those shows are too much and yet the japanese find it very entertaining so I can't imagine how scary would it be if those pranks are used to bully someone or to pick on a certain person. People are well aware that these girls love to prank, troll, or sometimes gang up on someone but in a sort of fun way to take their boredom away. But does it ever get personal? I mean like fights? I know some of them do especially in opinions concerning their performances but not in a personal matter. The only thing I am aware of is when Yuko scolded a certain member real hard that made her cry.

All I found out is this article about "unfair" treatment but no bullying... http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3739651.html

 

It's something hard to confirm, as much as we like to think that we know about what's happening between the girls we really don't. Everytime I'm reading a article or a translated MC and the members says "me and X had a fight once" I always get surprised because I can't imagine members having a fight, but...sometimes they do.
I'm curious about this matter too, because I always worry if the girls are feeling alright, I want them to have an enjoyable experience in the group regardless they are popular or not.
A really curious case for me is the graduated HKT girl Komori Yui because the last phrase on the g+ post where she announced her graduation (and was taken down a little latter, probably because it was posted before the official announcement) she did write "I've seen that the world of show business can be a frightening place. There's lots I learned. One shouldn't easily put one's trust in people.". Not a specific bullying case but just to show that there's lots of things going on the backstage that we really don't know about

 

This thread makes me think of SKE graduations in 2013. 9 members graduated at the same time! (I don't count Hata Sawako's case as her case was very understandable. I like her too, but she was 23 and needed to move on.) And they all made speeches like "I want to go ahead...", "I want to follow my dream..." or something like that. But who knows the actual reasons? I just wonder if there was anything backstage that we may never know. There was something that had them leave the group. There were many potential members among the 9 graduated members.

 

^
Iirc someone(I think that was Kuwabara Mizuki) had said that the reason most of them graduated was because the management controlled their outside activities.