Hi there It's something that i've been wondering for month now. Why a girl is considered here or there a failed push ? We know that 48 groups rosters are changing all the time, girls arrive, girls leave that's the life of an idol group after all. In each recruitment wave, the management decide base on their own criterias to push more some girls than some other and put them more on the spotlight. Then they look how the girl, the fan react. sometime, the girl really meet their expectations and they keep pushing, her, including her in senbatsu, giving her more solo works and so on. And sometime the girl's popularity never takes of and the management more or less focuses on someone else. I'm wondering about lot of the girls who used to be heavily pushed when they debuted and are now from translucent to invisible. Are they really a failure or there was something else ? One of the most obvious exemple for me (though i was not in the fandom at that time) is Kobayashi Kana. She was choosen as ori Team K ace and was pusehd accordingly. Even releasing a solo DVD. But she hardly ranked in the election and her popularity is just terrible. The management quickly switched to Yuko. I think we can consider this girl as a failed attempt. And what about the case of Miyazaki Miho ? the Team A kusogaki before the actual kusogaki. An entertaining girl who also disapeared from the view in a few months. Was she a failure too or the management had some other reason to drop her ? IMO she was one of the first "victim" of the 9th and 10th generations. I mean after firing the 8th gen, the management had little choice and couldn't stay on the dark gen fiasco. So, they choosed to focus more on the freh faces and some girls from the previous gens recieved their shadow. Let's talk.
I don't see miyazaki miho as failed push. her push worked well. she was popular back then. IMO the problem is, when management slowly pull out their push, she didn't develop her character into something else, she was sticking with kusogaki character. I think stick with same character is a double-edge sword. public may like it or don't like it. another reason perhaps, she didn't use the peak of her push to gain even bigger popularity. and when fresh members push kicks in, she was swept away. in my example, I will compare two girls, kitarie and sasshi. kitarie was really popular back then, regular senbatsu while sasshi is still undergirls. but why now their rank has big difference? sasshi has big popularity because she is entertaining and her talk is interesting, results in steady increase of rank in sousenkyo, hence management maintain her push. while kitarie character seems didn't really have appeal to public anymore. so, management slowly pull out her push. in kobayashi kana case, I don't know what really happen to her. perhaps her character is not unique for public? I don't know. I don't really follow her. I think better example for failed push is kato rena. she was pushed with kawaei and iriyama back then, and failed to rank in 2013 sousenkyo while kawaei and iriyama ranked. luckily management didn't give her up. and good thing her push is starting to work now. In my opinion sousenkyo ranks really affect the girls push, because it is an indicator whether their push is work or not, OR their push is not worked anymore. take akicha as example, when she swept away from senbatsu on 2012 management slowly pull out her push. same with paruru, when she didn't rank on 2011, management stops push her for awhile (please correct me if I'm wrong)
I don't really think "failed push" is the right term, especially since all that happened is certain girls in particular get swept away in the influx of new girls. Things in this fandom are always changing. From what I can tell Myao had her days and she still has her fanbase. Her center song, Arashi no Yoru ni wa, has done very well at the Request Hour for the last couple years. It's just that, from management's perspective, they chose to focus on other girls instead. Just because Myao wasn't a frontrunner doesn't mean her push failed. It's not like they're doing it to keep them in the front for the rest of time, because we'll never again have another Atsuko eternal center. My point is: there's always gonna be a new girl coming up, so I don't like to assume that a push is meant to cement a girl in the front row for the rest of her career. Look at Naanya and Mako. They certainly got their push. And when Naanya didn't rank last year, everyone kept calling it a failed push... but....no... I don't think anything about Naanya could be considered a failure because she's like the most notable girl out of her generation now, besides Mion. Mako on the other hand, has a solid position these days. She's a thing, and is definitely an up-and-coming candidate for senbatsu lock once some of the older girls are phased out, even if she's not necessarily in every senbatsu ever right now.
Depends how you define fail. Miyazaki Miho wasn't really a failure as during the time frame she was popular, companies profited from it well. But I'm assuming you are asking more of why some girls can't stay popular. Partly it is correct that the girl in question may simply not have enough talent. The showbiz is constantly shifting and some cannot adapt to the trend. Yet, we shouldn't be quick to put the blame solely on the girl because rivals, competitions etc also impact the outcome. (ie. Paruru wouldn't be AS popular if there were many similar paruru characters around. ) Then there are stuff like business direction. Ideally, the management pushes the girl's strength. Reality is that they push for what they think would sell. This may not match with the character of the individual. Thus, she cannot sustain the role for long. Lastly, be it new products or new ideas; new idols are highly appealing. Like artists, they have a time frame to utilize. Even Oshima Yuko or Maeda Atsuko would become stale after some time.
Failed push would be something like Yuihan imo. She was given big push everywhere in 2010-2011. She was literally pushed in Acchan place . Replacing Acchan in performances, majisuka gakuen role. The push never stops. Even now her position is a push. But her HS sales arent that great. And given her heavy push in akb, her ssk push didnt give her justice Myao was very popular when pushed by management, but the push was far from Yuihan's level. Heck Kana's push is nowhere as Yuihan's. Myao's drop in popularity is a given when management decide to focus on the younger gen
I think Myao also said in one recent episode of akbingo, that her ksgk character cannot be kept as she grows up. She can no longer throw insults at her big senpais (like mariko-sama, 8 years older) because all those senpais have graduated and she herself is the old one now. Well Ikoma Rina did manage to rank into senbatsu last year... though that doesn't mean that her push was a true success
I wouldn't call Ikoma a failed push, since I don't follow N46 at all, so I don't know how the management treats her in her own group; but for sure i see her as a failed experiment to boost the sales. I think the staff expected a more visible result.
But most of her votes come from Nogizaka46 hako-oshi not her own. And Ikoma is quite hated in the Nogizaka fandom itself. Her HS sales are one of the lowest despite being the group's center. And not just reguler low, but only sold out a total of 2 blocks low. But, she is also one of the most known Nogizaka46 member besides Shiraishi Mai. I say her push is a failure because it's not just any push, but a center push.
Sakura... she wcentered an AKB single, an HKT single, a 48G jdrama and is in the 3rd spot for the pre-sousenkyo single. What needs to happen for that push to not be considered a fail?
I don't think Jo was a failed push. The idol industry revolves around striking while the iron is hot, and she graduated...and then came back, and it's like they tried to paste her back in but it didn't work because people had moved on. No matter how much they try to use her, I don't think she'll stick. It's all about timing. I bet if Sakura doesn't make Kami7, everyone will be labeling her with the "failure" sticker... everyone is so overdramatic.
For Ikoma, I think it's quite difficult to understand. She can be considered as a popular member, as casual fans can name her or can recognize her well. We can say her push works for that. But for those who follow Nogi, and as for the fans, she can be considered as a failed push. Centering 5 consecutive singles, yet not selling enough in handshakes looks like a fail one.
lol so true. it's quite hard for relatively new face to enter Kami7 so quickly by beating the old established veterans. Even paruru with her push took few years i don't know about this year but next year, it is pretty much guaranteed she'll enter to stay.
I don't think Ikoma's push is a failure - while her handshake sales are truly abysmal compared to other centers, she is still quite well known throughout the fandom. Jo's push never had a chance to fail. She graduated before it could materialize into anything. That being said, I think Jo's on her way to another strong push - clearly management wanted to airdrop her right back into Team M in 2014. Her status on Team N will probably increase, especially now that yukirin is gone.
LOL @ Sakura being a "failed push". Yeah, if you call being the highest ranking native HKT member for three years straight with NO contest and being one of the strongest HS sellers in 48G a failure than sure. She's been rising rapidly in popularity despite having a much milder push before in comparison to the other HKT centers. With the momentum she's shown, chances are she would have ended up inside the Top 10 this year with or without the massive push she's getting now. That is the complete opposite of a "fail" though I'm sure that won't stop the Sakura hate brigade here from trying to spin it into one if she doesn't reach Kami 7 this year. IIRC Jo was considered a failed push before she left but I believe it would have been eventually successful had she stayed. She's more than likely going to get a second big push so we'll see if that one yields greater fruit. The Ikoma case has been discussed to death in the Nogi threads. A particularly heated one (which I participated in) can be found in the newest Nogi single thread if anyone is interested in getting some detailed views on her push from Nogi followers. All I'll say on it here is that her push has indeed succeeded in getting her high recognition in the public but for whatever reason it has not translated into popularity. She's by far the most pushed member in the group but is arguably less popular than some backrow senbatsu/UG girls in the fandom. In that regard, her push can be considered a failure. But certainly mgmt has figured this out by now, so perhaps they consider her push successful in the regard that she's able to generate heat and controversy. @souchan48 I honestly don't think the intention was ever for her to become center or reach Acchan status. I feel like Yuihan's push was more because at the time K was lacking in young prospects and it was also the start of the "new gen" push so they wanted to get her popular as quickly as possible. She hasn't fallen out of senbatsu after only 1-2 elections like Myao, Akicha, Mocchi, etc. have before her so that's already a good sign. Personally, I think she may end up with the Sae/Chiyuu effect where she doesn't really ever move forward but she'll probably stay in senbatsu until she graduates.
given that Yuihan is given much bolder push than Mocchi, Akicha and especially Myao or even Chiyuu, it is relatively less successfully push. I have to agree that it is not a failed push at all. Sakuratan is indeed definitely not a failed push. She was shoved to everyone's face but result is shown. Or rather, Her fans are working hard to make up for what she is lacking
