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

I remember that. Tsukina was my oshi at that time. I doubt that rumor is true though.

 

This is all just assumption, but I'm pretty sure that it's there, especially if you take the senpai-kouhai relationship prevalent here into account. While it'd be none of the extreme like bullying such as violence, you'll have things such as shunning, turning a cold shoulder, etc. You'll have inclusive groups in place that don't quite treat everyone the same, etc. It's next to impossible to avoid with such a large group. Of course, aside form a few concerts, you have to take into account that a lot of the members don't interact unless they're part of the same generation, same team, or same agency.

You can kind of look at the extremely uncomfortable interaction between Kasai Tomomi and Watanabe Mayu on "UTAGE!" a few weeks ago. It was really awkward when Nakai Masahiro asked about their relationship together. They were able to pull out that they were on the same team for a few years, but that seemed to be the only real interaction between them. Nakai even suggested they go out to have dinner together sometime and their wavelengths were just flying in different directions.

 

@hikki

OMG I just watched it and it was so awkward. You would think that two members that have been in the group for more or less the same amount of time would be less awkward with each other. And they were also in the same team for like 3 years and both of them were regular senbatsu members as well. Well, to be fair, from whar I see their personalities are not compatible at all but still you'd expect them to have a more friendly (aka less awkward)relationship considering the amount of time they spent working together.

Tomo~mi's personality seems kind of iffy to me. There are way too many rumors about her and she has also done things I find rude/disrespectful so I wouldn't find it surprising at all if she used to bully (to a bigger or lesser extent) younger and weaker members (I'm not talking about Mayu, just generally).

 

I think Takamina was bullied or prank by other members.
but I think Takamina don't feel upset at all.
I wonder why Takamina don't feel angry about other members make fun of her.

 

I discovered AKB48 through AKBingo and, back then, I used to think a lot about this bullying subject when I watched the Shoujiki Shogi matches. Sometimes there were some harsh questions, comments and finger pointing and I used to think to myself "Gee, if some things go like this in front of the cameras, I wonder what goes between these girls on backstages". Also, before some contests, I remember they used to do "mic performances", and some of those were quite awkward, the girls watching at the back would laugh but you could clearly see that the contenders were uncomfortable.

And, I'm pretty far from being an expert or a psychiatrist, but we know that ego is something that really affects girls. Imagine lots and lots of pretty young ladies competing among themselves for screentime, staff attention, coreography position, senbatsu etc etc.. I mean, the enviroment is totally propitious for this kind of thing. I want to believe that this doesn't happen, I want all girls to have fun or, at least, a fair and square game among them, but in reality... I don't know, lol.

Anyway, we'll never know, right? Management and staff must control these events with iron hands and, if something happened (or happens), it will probably remain in the shadows.

 

This is just speculation but I always seen Yuki as a bully. Isn't her nickname "black heart" and there was an AKBingo scene once where it was revealed she is quite the gossip? Again, it's just gut feeling so if that comment is too inappropriate, let me know.

Rena being a bully to Tsukina is prob an ill formed rumor but part of me always goes "but what if." We all don't really know what the girls are really like. But with all things in life, we can only take what we are shown and make an educated guess. Most likely it's correct but one can never be totally sure.

 

Maybe there are some things like teasing in the dressing room:

if the video does not show watch the video here
This one is also a little fishy. She doesn't look happy not having a chair:

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Oh my,i remember this case
Miichan didn't want to share the chair with Ayaka just because the bag?

and i find something about Acchan bullying http://majide2ch.blogspot.com/2014/04/celebrities-who-change-once-camera.html

 

^ Well, the Acchan part is written by a gossip magazine writer, so I wouldn't consider it true.

But wow, Miichan is such a xxxxxxx.

 

where there are teenaged girls theres probably bullying. Its a sad thing to say about human nature, but I would be surprised if there wasnt bullying in an environment like this. Probably nothing severe though.

 

I have to admit she was an arrogant kid but in her defense shaving her hair, degraded to KKS and promote to T4 captain made her grow up. She has a different aura, a kind one, now she is absolutely non arrogant and she focus on her kouhais ^^

 

Taking someone's chair is very annoying, but it's not bullying unless the girl who's chair she took gets picked on repeatedly. Same goes for telling someone they'll get fat if they eat cake. Some of these "examples" remind me of a conversion I had with a girl about serious bullying when she said how she's been a victim of bullying as well, cause some guy once told her that the shoes she was wearing looked better on someone else. Not saying it's fun to get remarks like that, but seriously?

 

In that article about Acchan whether it's true or not, is not bullying at all. It's just that she has this constant mood swings that occurs every now and then. It's not like she's picking on a certain person, she just randomly expresses her "irritation" to everyone around her. I think this is also what Tomochin meant when she said that Paruru is like Acchan. Paruru is salty sometimes, and Acchan is moody. If I'm not mistaken, Aki-p already said something regarding Acchan's mood swings. Maybe she's too stressed that she gets irritated easily or its just the way she is. Same goes with Miichan. Why didn't she took the chair beside Miichan that is empty? I can't understand the whole conversation but maybe the bag is there because someone told Miichan to reserved that chair.

 

Well I actually I came across a video on dailymotion about Miichan at Janken Taikai and if you pay attention the bag in the video above is not Miichan's bag, which she brought two of them, one is black and one is cream-coloured. So there is high chance that the bag belongs to someone else and Miichan was telling Ayarin that seat was already taken by the owner of the bag. So sorry for my crappy English

 

I remember Ohori Megumi saying that she had overheard some girls making fun of her solo single. I want to give Kasai the benefit of the doubt, because she was always one of my favorite members, but she totally looks like the type of girl who could be a "mean girl" especially when she was one of the main senbatsu members. Tomochin and her had a falling out that wasn't solved until Kasai graduated, which also makes me wonder. I could guess Kasai was jealous of how Tomochin managed to capitalize on her image despite of her declining popularity at the time while Kasai was never really able to go back to being popular after she was moved from Team K.

I also remember a Shoujiki Shougi episode of Kasai vs Yuko where they were said to be close friends by one of the MCs and Yuko promptly corrected him and said that they were just in the same team, but I kind of took it to mean that she wasn't that close with Kasai. Not saying this means anything in particular, just saying that Yuko seemed like the kind of girl who got along with everyone, so her making that subtle distinction was telling for me. They seem to have gotten closer after graduation, at least all of 2nd gen seems to be really close now, and it warms my heart.

I don't think that 2 girls not being close despite being in the same team is that bad though, sometimes your personality just doesn't click with someone else, and it doesn't mean you hate each other or whatever. I'm only close with one of my classmates, and I'm pretty neutral towards the others.

Let's not forget the bullying rumors surrounding the demotion of all the former KII members, Kito Momona, Uchiyama Mikoto, Saito Makiko and I don't even remember who else Iguchi? Those were some pretty big rumors back then, but who knows if they are true.

 

I definitely think it happens. It happens in other idol groups--in Morning Musume's early history, it was said that Nacchi and some of the other members bullied Asuka, which contributed to her leaving. I've even heard that Yuko was the only one who was actually nice to Asuka out of the 1st gen members. The 2nd gen also received friction from 1st gen at the beginning because 1st gen was kind of bitter about members being added. And that was in a much smaller group. There was also that fiasco with T-ara and some members bullying Hwayoung a couple years ago.

Due to the fact that nothing too major has come out about bullying within the group, I am inclined to think that it isn't that bad/prevalent. You know gossip magazines would totally jump on any chance they could get to ruin a member's (or the whole group's) reputation due to this sort of thing. I also think that, in some cases, having lots of members would help this sort of problem. You have more people that may stick up to the person/people doing the bullying. There are also some members in the group who I could see having a zero tolerance policy about this sort of thing, like Takamina and Yuko, especially concerning their kouhais. Probably because of their leadership positions.

And yeah, two people simply not getting along =/= bullying. I was in my high school's color guard and there were a few girls who I simply didn't click with, but there wasn't any bullying or anything going on.

 

I think that being such a large group probably has its benefits too, even if there's a "clique" that excludes you, there will probably be a lot other girls willing to be your friend / stand up for you (whereas if you are in a group of 5-6, if everyone picks on one person then she's more likely to be excluded and bullied), if that makes sense?

I feel like one effect of the shuffles is that they probably forced a lot of girls out of their comfort zone and put them in a position where being friendly to more people than just your team/generation was necessary (especially the first shuffle). Shuffles might also tear apart some cliques in teams if there are any?

Sorry I'm mostly rambling my thoughts lol.

 

I read through most of the posts here and thought about the topic title. My first impression is that….what do yo define as bullying?! Like something asides from the media? Because like at every sleep over at a Guam Hotel is an invitation for many pranks and antics.

I can interpret "cliques" as being a way that girls can feel isolated or separated. Wether it's just sousenkyo senbtasu, generation, team, and personal friend cliques. It makes me wonder who really feels left out? It's all intertwined in one huge family that really, it's like working for a job or going to a all girls school. Thats my impression. It appears to me all girls love their jobs (hate the word job but using it as a word for now) and who they are spending their time alongside with.

So yeah, No to bullying. And if there is, lol then that sucks.

 

i think bullying is something latent in japan (their senpai kouhai relation) and girls are tend to do that (cuter girls bully less cute girls)
i'm imagining girls like mariko, tomochin, kojima do that to girls like myao and sashiko in the past

 

Anything could happen behind cameras, this is why I don't believe what they say on television.