[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

AKB will perform a new song by Yasushi-kun on Best Artist 2019, this Wednesday: 「愛する人」(Aisuruhito).

https://twitter.com/musicday_ntv/status/1198922673885106177

Congratulations, Yuiyui...

http://www.giogio48.com/archives/56124424.html

 

The 9th generation, 10th anniversary live will be broadcasted on Niconico
11/29, 18h30 jst
https://ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12548714379.html
https://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv323081829

And Best artist 2019 will be broadcasted live on Niconico
(actually it is an extra room with artists from the show)
https://twitter.com/nicolive_PR/status/1199214544167436288

 

STU are not selling out their theater shows but sell out their concerts. Me and my friend applied for both Tokyo and Hokkaido concerts with fanclubs and ippan and couldn't get any so there must have been many applications. So popularity of theater shows and concerts is not the same.

 

Is there a reason for that? Forgive me, but I always thought that a theatre performance is just a smaller/cheaper concert.

 

STU's stage is a snorefest, for the second half of the show. And tickets are more expensive, compared to the other SG's theater shows. Fans maybe think it is bad value.

STU concerts on the other hand are a ton of fun.

 

Because theater stage done repeatedly. If you miss 1, you can always apply like next one, next week, or next month.

For STU, their problem is the area they are in is not population center except Hiroshima. And it is still far away from city center as they have to perform at a harbor. When the ship come to Tokyo, basically they easily sell out the performances.

When I went to their stage in Okayama, it was in a rural area around 1 to 1.5 hour from city center by train.

 

Last year I went to two of their stages on consecutive nights in Shunan in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Neither show was completely sold out although I'd say that the number of empty seats each night was in single figures. According to Wikipedia, Shunan has a population of 143,959 which makes it one of the largest cities in Yamaguchi but still much smaller than somewhere like Hiroshima.

 

Maybe because most of STU fans are from Kanto region?

 

From what I can tell several problems (some of which were already mentioned by others):

• Unpopular stage - many non-48 songs, bad costumes etc. Also as far as I know no omiokuri which is disappointing to many fans who are used to it from other 48 groups.
• Location - recently they almost always perform in Hiroshima, only rarely in other locations. Most of the locations are far from major cities, I guess Kobe is the best in that respect since it's part of Kansai (easy to come to from Osaka, Kyoto etc.) and also relatively closer to Tokyo, Nagoya etc. by shinkansen than other locations. Many of those other locations don't even have shinkansen access. The ports are far from the city center in most cases so extra time to get there needed. And since the stages finish in the evening, it's too late to go back the same day in many cases, so the people coming from far away would need 2 consecutive days off and spend extra money on accommodation on top of the transport.
• The price is a lot more expensive than other 48 theaters - add up to the transport and accommodation and you're spending tens of thousands of yen on just that one stage if you're coming from a bit further away like Tokyo. Even for locals, due to the price they might go less often than they would if it was a bit cheaper.
• Only STU mobile members can apply - many casual fans who might be interested in going to see the stage once or twice don't have STU mobile, meaning the pool of people applying is even smaller. I think allowing non-members (even if the number of seats allocated to those is rather small) to apply is good practice since they might go see the stage once and if they like it, they might go again or even become STU mobile members.
• Ship theater problems - people complain feeling sick etc. on the ship so it might discourage some people from going.

 

Not really. Needs another day or several to reach the level of Shinobu-era announcement delays. e.g. the 10th anniversary was announced on the night of the 27th, and earlier ticket center rounds for regular stage performances frequently got skipped or pushed forward with profuse apologies.

 

I remember it being pretty bad back then, but I was more concerned with who was performing than when theater applications were opened, so I may not be thinking of exactly the same thing you are.

As for pending seitansai, back then a member getting her seitansai within a month of her birthday was nothing short of miraculous.

 

Hey, um, sorry about this, but I tried googling it and no luck and really wanna know; so what is "omiokuri"?

 

It's a send-off that's usually takes place right after the theater ends.

 

You can say the same with SKE, NMB(both 2 are no longer most as their local support is on even ground now) , HKT(acclamating on local but still leaning on capital area fans) , and heck NGT as well.

 

Not even close to the same degree as STU though.

 

Basically after the stage ends (in other 48 theaters, and sometimes after 48 concerts as well) fans will walk by the members performing that day and each of the members will say thank you to each fan, or sometimes make even more conversation (especially if the girl knows you from HS events or if you catch her attention for some reason like being a foreigner, your clothes or whatever). It's pretty fast so even when the members say more than just a thank you it's usually like 1 sentence but it's a nice thing after a performance and it feels much more personal when they do it.

Well, SKE and NMB (and probably NGT but never checked transport connections there) are also closer to Tokyo than STU and HKT. If you are able to finish work a little bit earlier than usual you can make it to SKE theater on the same day and go back after if you're from Tokyo for example. STU and HKT would need 2 days off though. And they are still able to fill the theaters, well I'm not sure about NGT nowadays since they lost support after the scandal but they were able to before the scandal. HKT seems to be easier to win than SKE and NMB, but still selling out completely.

I'm applying about 3 days a week (weekend + Tuesday) for SKE and NMB and have only won 1 SKE stage and no NMB stages since I started in September. Obviously, weekday shows are easier to win, especially for enpou applications. But what I'm trying to say is that even other groups that are far away from Tokyo like HKT don't have empty seats leftover in their stages, so distance is not the only reason, but it obviously affects the number of applications.

 

Do you think the new song will become the 57th single, like Negaigoto no Mochigusare before? The title doesn't seem singleesque tho. Maybe it's something like the two old ladies' song.