[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

It quite is actually. I love giving paid hearts and those red looking things to my favorite 48G members.

 

hopefully red looking tokyo towers?

 

No the red one with the eyes.

Getting a Tokyo Tower....woo wee!. Cost a lot of money.

 

I strongly disagree with that statement. Rather then saying "I'll try harder next year!", they usually say "I'll try harder to repay you next year." Girls have specifically said that they are really thankful for all the money the fans spend in order to promote them, and they want to work harder in order to repay or make the fans happier, not work harder in order to make them spend more.

 

How can people still defend spending money on Showroom if this is true
These girls bust their asses streaming, sometimes when they should be getting some well-deserved rest, and they don't even get paid for it, or they just get beans. All they might be able to hope for is extra popularity (which does seem to be working for some girls, but it's kind of a slow buildup). SR keeping 80% is too much imo. It should be like 50/50 or at the least 60/40.

I don't like it

 

That's the thinking AKS really loves.

If I buy XXX votes for my oshi they will notice her!
If I buy ALL her merchandise they will notice her!
If I vote for her in the stage fighter thing they will notice her!
If I buy towers for her in the show room they will notice her!

Someone upthread mentioned that one fan was basically spending $4500 on his oshi per month. This is - even if he has the money - is a waste. She is not seeing one tenth of that money. And if she doesn't manage to attract a sizeable number of similarly minded fans she is not likely to get a super push. (It would make more sense to wire her the money directly but that would create other problems.)

Management pushes are somewhat mysterious in that they sometimes ignore the people who work well on their own, i.e. making money even without the added spotlight, and keep investing in people who do not show the same results. Buying handshakes is something I get, it's literally the way to connect with your oshi and buying merchandise - to a certain degree - is also fine, I guess. But spending buckets of money on a virtual gesture which only barely benefits the girl in the end is, pardon my french, bullshit. Fine if you have that money but really...is there nothing better to spend it on? If getting your oshi's name out there is the goal, there are much better ways to achieve this. You could literally have an aerial banner with your oshi's name on it flown over Akihabara. Which would land her in blogs, some e-news articles, get her name out there. You could donate to a charity in her name. $4500 a months amounts to about 6-7 dead children (https://80000hours.org/2012/06/dead-children-currency-51/), a school in Africa, a sizeable strip of rain forest...

In the end, everyone can do what they want but nobody should think that this is a reasonable way to show support to a member. It's not.

 

you're right, but like you said in the end people can spend their own money whatever the way they want to. I just thought it's kinda funny when people start talking about reasons/logic within this fandom lol. I'm sure a lot of people outside this fandom would not see 1,000 yen for 7-10 sec. handshaking with a girl "reasonable" loll.

 

I wouldn't call it reasonable either but it's at least understandable as it's a direct connection. People do pay a lot more to see Western Stars whenever they have a meet and greet, they just don't do it as often.

 

I find that buying HS and 2-shot tickets is addictive but while most people would probably think the money I spent on them on my trip last is very crazy, I feel no regrets in doing that - I had a fun time and I've got the photos to show for it. However I'm much more reluctant to throw money at members in any other way and I certainly don't see any point in me spending anything in SR in what seems to me to be a vain attempt to be noticed. At the moment I've suddenly been hit by a series of personal expenses (e.g. car, teeth) which means I've taken something of a reality check so I won't be buying any votes in SSK this year and I've also changed my mind about buying Nyan's grad DVD boxset. Maybe I'm just being a misery lol but definitely if I spend money on members I really need to justify it to myself.

 

There are several platforms in Asia. Notably Afreeca TV (which is probably the most succesful out of all out them) in Korea where all those mukbang shows are streamed.

 

As despicable as this Showroom system looks like, it has no doubt potential for alternative massive income for AKS. Could be higher than Theater net income itself by measuring this thread discussion.

Then again, the girls were never had better income split from before Showroom happened.

 

• If you spend (enough) money on a girl via SHOWROOM, they'll learn your name.
• If you spend enough money on a girl's HS events, she'll learn your name and face eventually.
• No matter how much money you spend voting on a girl in Elections, she'll never know it was you.
• No mater how much money you spend on a girl's merchandise, CDs, DVDs, BDs, etc, she'll never know it was you.

So, logically speaking it seems the most stupid way of spending your hard-earned money on an idol is voting for her, or buying her merchandise, don't you think?

I'm pretty sure $4500 per month won't even give you a 24 hour board on Akihabara with your oshi's name on it And yeah, let's make everyone think about the thousands of children dying while they spend money on entertainment, that's low.

Regarding SR keeping 80% of the money, remember that they need to pay Google and Apple for handling payments, royalties to JASRAC (which I bet are pretty high), the infrastructure to keep this running relatively without glitches (including a studio) while, at the same time, getting enough money to justify continuing investing and making it free for both watching and streaming, without ads. They might also share the money with event sponsors (for example, SR approaches a company which is going to hold an audition for getting a few models on a web ad campaign telling them to use their platform instead for it).

Of course they don't say "I want more money from you all" straight out, this is Japan, but ultimately the Elections is like the end of their "fiscal year" for them, when fans votes not only for the girls they like, but also for the ones that gave them the best impression since the last election. So, it seems correct to think they work hard → fans vote for them, and not fans voted for them → they repay. Wouldn't make much sense if it were that way, it'd mean someone who doesn't rank like Haruu has nothing to repay. When Yuumin had nobody coming to her handshake, she probably thought she had to work harder so that fans could notice her (and start spending money on her) since she had nobody to repay.

And now that you mention it, very few girls actually say "I'll work hard to repay you", most of the girls just say "I'll try harder next year". From the last senkyo, between the undergirls only Ryoka actually said she wanted to repay fans. The line "I'll work harder" which is so common (ganbatte ikou/ikitai) obviously implies an effort from now onwards.

 

It's a message board, a discussion and a discussion point. It's not low to offer a perspective in a general way but it is rather interesting that you're feeling attacked by that.

That's one way to look at it, if your only aim is to be noted by the girl.

However, most people claim to want to support the member in question in which case SSK has the best response rate, i.e. you know which rank gives what result and you can make a member appear in a favourable position which might end up boosting her career. I say might because future rank in non-SSK single is obviously not guaranteed but people keep saying that a rank up usually results in more side jobs, which is a net positive for both member and fans. Whether it's reasonable to spend $1000+ on vote slips to help a Japanese teenager be featured in the backrow of the 3rd b-side is another question altogether.

Merchandise is something that is connected to your oshi so the incentive should be in the purchase itself, not anything else. If you like Yui, you should probably find Yui merchandise interesting in itself. If you don't...why would you want to do any of the stuff you listed anyway?

Clearly, it's a charity. Let me donate to these poor people asap!

Sarcasm aside keeping 80% of streaming income without offering any substantial assistance in the production (and hence no help with the production costs) is a pretty good deal for them. They aren't strongarming anyone to use their service so that's fine. No need to twist oneself into a pretzel to make it sound like that share is forced upon them by the situation. Nobody is attacking the service per se but we are saying that using money to "support" the girls this way is essentially useless since they're not really getting anything out of it.
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if fans want to spend XX thousands of dollars voting for your oshi, i am sure they could make a mini-documentary to record opening all the CDs to enter each code manually. #MakeYourOshiNoticeYou

 

People spend money on Lamborghini's, they spend it on Lange & Sohne watches, they spend money on lots of things that are not necessary.

Also, using the "look at the poor dead babies" point is right up there with "Well he's worse than Hitler and the Nazis" as a underhanded way of trying to win an argument, it's a cheapshot basically.

I suppose it depends on how you determine what is value for money and what you get from it. You can spend €3000+ to see a space launch which is visible for about 60 seconds

 

I don't feel attacked by it, I just think it's low to try to prove a point by using the "think of the children" mantra. It's not different as using reductio ad Hitlerum: Anything that can be said to justify spending money on entertainment is shadowed by the fact that such money could be used to save children from death. Of course, you realized that and did it anyways. Basically what Reveen said.

Let me ask, what's the difference between a teenager Japanese girl remembering your name and face after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on her for months or years, and having her remember your name and avatar? Will she greet you if you nonchalantly cross her path? Will she ask you for your phone number eventually? Will she tell you where she'll be on her next free day so that you can meet her? Back to your words, does that actually benefit you on anything but enlarging your e-peen between your idol peers?

Meeting someone in person for such short bursts doesn't even let you know if all you see through the media is just a facade or if she's really that charming, pure girl you think she is. So you cannot even argue that you go there personally to confirm she's a good girl worth supporting.

I understand why (some) Japanese people would support idols, cause "unlike real-life companions, with whom there is always the potential for conflict and loss of friendship, pop idols smile and appear to be friendly all the time. [...] In short, idols "never say no" to their customers". Also, "the combination of life-sized plus cute has the effect of engendering in idols' fans feelings of warmth and protectiveness." (Japan Pop, p313) In a society so conservative where it's hard to show emotions to others, where the social structure is so rigid, idols are a way to express their true feelings, even if it's via a delusion. Now, why would a foreigner thousands of miles away from them feel exactly the same as those Japanese fans? Do they also live in a similar context, a conservative society where it's hard to display feelings? Don't you have artists worth supporting in your country?

So, after many trips to Japan she finally remembers your name, your face and from where you come from. What now?

If I were really cynic I'd even argue those girls actually speak more frankly via SR than in person, where they have their adlib pretty well studied. The mental barriers they have prepared for HS events are not there when they are in SR and, if they feel like the moment is right they'll say stuff they could have never dared to say anywhere else. AKARIN saying she dislikes fans who tell her she's their second oshi? Seina crying because she can't buy the tasty food other members can? Girls talking about how much money they can earn from it? Rikachan (oh, my, that girl cries in every other broadcast) crying because she was, well, bullied by Katomina and Noepii and had to leave the room they shared in the hotel and rent another? Mikurin saying she would buy a house if she had all the money people spent in Elections?

As you, I don't judge people spending money on whatever they want. But I don't try to justify spending money on something just because some other option is worse, because there are probably better options as well. Personally, I don't vote in Elections, I don't go to handshake events and I don't buy merchandise. However, if I find someone entertaining or interesting in SR I throw them some gifts just as people would cheer or applaud live, as a way to let them know someone in the audience approves what they just did or said. This isn't restricted to 48G only, but also other broadcasters. I see it more like throwing some coins at the hat of an artist performing on the street, just as I do in real life, but no thinking in that the money I put will make them buy food, but instead that it's a small way of thanking them for the entertainment.

 

Wow so many "Walls", I think Trump, Y2J and Pink Floyd all got stiffys.

Sorry, it's a nice day... I'm going back outside. Everyone enjoy your "lecture" on the "entertainment" world by Prof. (Insert name here)

 

As JFK memorably said, "Ask not what your idol can do for you, ask what you can do for your idol"

 

Hard to decide, why not ask your college or coworkers what they find creepier, sending a tip to someone streaming like they do via YouTube, Twitch, etc, or buying a few dozens CDs that you'll throw away afterwards to shake hands with Japanese teen girls in a place where other people masturbate in bathrooms after shaking hands with them, just because there's the plus of finding them alone in a corner where you could grope them...

Okay, that was low, I admit it

In the end we don't think that differently from each other. We don't care whether they are good persons, or if they bully other members, or if they fake their smiles at people during handshake events, or if they are being forced to touch ugly, fat wotas, as long as we get the entertainment we want out of the money we spend~ So, nothing to continue discussing about~