They need to pay the travel expenses somehow. I can't wait to see them all doing stage plays in Hakata.
Announced today: Request hour (top 50): January 19-20 Group concerts: STU: January 18 (morning) NGT: January 18 (noon) HKT: January 18 (evening) NMB: January 19 (morning) SKE: January 19 (noon) AKB: January 21 Solo concerts: Tanaka Miku: January 23 (evening) Ishida Chiho: January 24 (evening) Suenaga Oka: January 25 (morning) Umeyama Cocona: January 25 (noon) Honma Hinata: January 25 (evening) Kubo Satone: January 26 (morning) Yamauchi Mizuki: January 26 (noon) Oguri Yui: January 26 (evening) So, looks like we are getting request hour (plus some extra concerts) after all. It's only top 50 but better than nothing. I guess next single announcement should be coming soon too?
Story with supporting details: AKB48 announced at the handshake event held at Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama on the 23rd the outline of the concert “TDC Hall Live Festival” to be held at TDC Hall in Tokyo next January. It was decided that eight young members of 48 groups will perform a solo concert. Oguri had her first solo concert 3 years before (2017). Although Honma has performed solo performances at the NGT48 Theater in Niigata, this will be the first concert that pops out of the theater. Other members challenge the first solocon. https://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2019/11/23/kiji/20191123s00041000212000c.html
Update to my previous post: they posted the voting methods for Request Hour on AKB's Ameblo and so far it's all sorts of fanclubs, eizo website membership, DMM membership, AKB mobile etc. that's eligible to vote. No word of a voting ticket included in a single yet, unless they'll announce it later. But unless they announce the single in the next few days then I doubt it will include voting tickets.
I can guarantee that there won't be any single release. There's not enough time right now for everything to ship in time for the RH voting period. You usually need at least 40-50 days from announcement until release. The resale of Sustainable is also going on for another week also.
I’m guessing the RH itself will be on the 20th? The 19th seems to be full with group concerts. Can’t wait for NGT to flop!
The schedule listed here is incorrect. The correct schedule is listed in the dedicated event thread. (AKB48-Group Concert is on the 21st, not the 19th)
I can see one possible reason for this change, the voting ballot business. Mangement are not blind, they must have seen that thousends or even millions of CD:s are being garbage after the voting ballot is removed and then selled. Or very rich fans votes on their favorite thousends of times. Mostly on SSK but also on RH. 2015 I bought 400 votes for Akicha and Futari dake no kioku and brought her into the top list. It must have been a shock for management but what could they do? If I told you how much I've bought votes in SSK for her you would faint. But inside I knew this was wrong. Management maybe think the same. They can't release a record named Sustainable and at the same time produce tons of garbage.
Fixed. I was quoting one of the matome sites who posted the dates and didn't double check with the official website. Also AKB's anniversary is coming up soon and anniversary stage seems like a good opportunity to announce a new single. If they announced the new single at the anniversary and started the sales on Chara Ani on the same day, would that still be too late to include the voting ballot?
Unless they can go from ordering to shipping in 10 days, it's too late. And even if they can, it just doesn't make sense from marketing point of view.
It'd be funny if NGT, the king of RH, can get to top 10 or something. I know it isn't likely (no single release for a long time) and many people are hoping for their failure.
There are no negative votes in Request Hour, so it doesn't matter how many people are hoping for their failure. Their remaining fans just need to rally behind one or a few songs.
We'd never see any evidence of it though. TDC holds around 2000 people sitting. Considering how rare non-stage concerts have become even NGT shouldn't struggle selling that. Management will certainly see a drop in applications though.
Wasn't 2019 RH already showed the downfall of NGT songs? I mean, their top song was #10 where the previous RH they got #1 and they "only" managed to rank 11 songs where the year before they ranked 26 songs. (Overture and Hokori no Oka setlist included) that was the year where RH was practically NGT concert.
In more Kouhaku news, if you live in Southern California, you can watch on Channel 44.1, KXLA. "On New Year’s Eve, December 31, Japan Hollywood Network will air “The 70th NHK Red and White Music Festival” at 12pm noon. The program will re-run on New Year’s Day, January 1, at 12pm noon." It's tape delayed for the West Coast, but it is all there. Japan Hollywood Network also lists all the artists in English. RED aiko(14) Ikimono-gakari(11) Sayuri Ishikawa(42) AKB48(12) Midori Oka(3) Keyakizaka46(4) Fuyumi Sakamoto(31) Ringo Sheena(7) Aya Shimazu(6) Superfly(4) Yoshimi Tendo(24) TWICE(3) Nogizaka46(5) Perfume(12) Hinatazaka46(New) Foorin(New) Seiko Matsuda(23) MISIA(4) Kaori Mizumori(17) LiSA(New) Little Glee Monster(3) WHITE Arashi(11) Hiroshi Itsuki(49) Official HIGE DANdism(New) Kanjani ∞(8) Kis-My-Ft2(New) King & Prince(2) King Gnu(New) Hiromi Go(32) GENERATIONS(New) Junretsu(2) Masaki Suda(New) DA PUMP(7) Kiyoshi Hikawa(20) Masaharu Fukuyama(12) Hey! Say! JUMP(3) Gen Hoshino(5) Daichi Miura(3) Hiroshi Miyama(5) Keisuke Yamauchi(5) Yuzu(10) http://jhollywoodnet.com/en/program/kohaku2019/