Just Nagisa for the full sized, I think she's still on Amazon US if you're in the States! The mini figs were lottery prizes, it looks like? I bought one on Amazon and they were described as lottery prizes figures. They come with a little glidder to stand them on and a 3D paper scene.
suddenly the hashtag #BoycottAKB48Voting started popping up in my twitter feed ..... and I went huh? what .... why .... wtf? But from what I currently understand, a KPop group's management has decided to copy the SSK concept .... and now the fans are royally pissed off .... and have the hashtag #BoycottNCTVoting And it seems they'll have an 18 member senbatsu, leaving 5 in the cold ...so, I see where they are coming form They also worry it will split the fandom, but as we AKB fans can tell them ..... that will never happen ... right? Anyway ... AKB/JPop fans decide to troll them it seems ....
OMG that's my tweet lol. BTW, SM has decided not to go through with their election. As usual, us AKB fans will have nothing
You only have to look at the stage48 elections to realize the effect that elections had on AKB fans LOL there is not much unity and people don't hesitate to downvote other 48G girls while you don't see this with other 46 groups (except a little with Keyaki). Anyway I don't mind elections, and I actually miss it. At least it was an event that made everyone excited and helped some members to get noticed and become more popular... well I miss everything though, like AKB having a lot of variety shows, events and most importantly SINGLES!
This whole debacle make miss SSK, especially the anticipation and the excitement. The hole in the wallet they left behind, not so much.
The vast majority of downvotes in S48 elections were for scandal girls rather than political voting though.
Miichan and Miion were guests today on Takamina's TOKYO FM radio show along with music journalist Takahashi Yoshiro: https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20200924-1333738/ Takahashi presented a countdown of his favourite A-sides in which Takamina and Miichan took part and the result was as follows: 5. Baby Baby Baby 4. Labrador Retriever 3. Everyday, Katyusha 2. Beginner 1. River
It's like they photoshopped Takamina's co-host into that pic ..... until you realise Miion and Takamina are just that small (he's still half a head larger then Miichan though ... so maybe he's just pretty tall anyway)
I was thinking more of the fact that with Nogi, the most popular girls (look at the ones in top 10) and even the new pushed girls all got no downvote at all. For 48G fans if a girl is pushed, has a scandal, or even sometimes for absolutely no reason, they get downvoted. Of course the ones with scandals get a lot more (which is also exaggerated anyway) the point is that 48G fans are very competitive and easily dislike members. it probably has to do with elections or the fact that 48G has so many girls so the competition is big and fans hate any possible rival.
I don't know much about SNH48 group so I might have misunderstood the system, but from what I've seen it seems like they are doing a SSK for everyone together where they pick the members for SNH48 single, and then the highest ranked from each group become the senbatsu for their own group's single (for example, top 16 ranked from BEJ48 form BEJ48 single senbatsu, but only those who ranked in top 16 total are in the SNH48 senbatsu). I think this system would be nice for AKB48 too, and maybe the AKB48 one could be a double A side single with one of the A sides being top 16 from all Japanese 48 groups and and the other one the top 16 from AKB48 only, with other sister groups releasing singles with their own top 16. That way, we could still get a single with the top 16 from all the groups but the lower ranked ones would get a single too if they were ranked high enough within their own groups, making it a further incentive for people to vote even if their oshi couldn't make AKB48 senbatsu if it meant it improved her rank within her own group.
Idk why but new wota nowadays seems like trolling kpoper, and the funny part is, some of new wota who like to drag akb and troll kpoper is a kpoper too my twitter is now full of them manifesting nct48. What a joke, even funnier than the one who said izone mermanent
There's nothing wrong in enjoying the 48G and Kpop, you know. The whole Japanese idol industry seems to have come to a halt due to covid (no HS, etc.), so it's no wonder people are following Everglow and the LOONA comeback. When will my husband AKB come back from the war? We just don't know. At least we have their music now on Spotify. I haven't listened to anything else this past week and my stats are already a mess ññ
It may be that Nogi girls are generally more placid and inoffensive so they don't generate dislike. Or perhaps there's a different male/female skew in the fandom demographics, AKB with a male skew and thus more competitive and Nogi a female skew and less antagonistic, or some other demographic skew perhaps? As you said the Japanese idol business is reliant on handshakes and live shows to promote whereas KPOP's main method of promotion is the tv Music Shows which probably did even better during Covid because more people watching tv. btw those that would like a more akb-ish high-school style group but with Kpop polish should check out Weeekly
I think the main outlier here is AKB. The rest of the groups (SG48, Hinatazaka) are still releasing singles and whatnot cause... why not? ññ But AKB is not going to release a single if they can't secure the million. And I don't think that'll happen until they clear whatever remnants they have from the Sustainable events plus all those from Shitsuren, Arigatou. So... comeback single by May 2021 linked to the first SSK in 3 years that results in a 3 million selling single and everyone's happy!
I think if AKB can't release a physical single because they're scared of lower sales, then why not release a digital single? They need to give new songs and music videos to fans... To think that AKB used to have 5 singles a year and now we'll end this year with 1 single, I know there is the pandemic, but last year had 2 singles only so I feel like it's not just the pandemic... I wish they release a digital single, a Christmas song, anything. with a music video of course, and if possible, promotions too. They might not earn a lot of money but at some point they'll need to do something :/ I'm also wondering if it would cost a lot for management to hire a production team to record a regular variety show for AKB with AKBINGO!-style but air it online instead. This would help for the group... and yes bring back elections next year, or even Janken, at this point we need anything to give activities to AKB and 48G ;_;
Last year was the NGT scandal, so they had to save face as the mothership. A(nother) digital single would be nice, but seeing how late they were to the Spotify game, I'm not sure if they trust that market. I think I'd rather have new stages, even if the theatre is still deserted. It would give the girls something new to learn and they wouldn't feel like they're wasting their time waiting around. They could always broadcast the stages on YouTube or whatever to gather interest. But they won't.
From october 1st, the AKB48 theater will increase it's current audience capacity and will be able to welcome 91 persons. 60 seated and 31 standing. https://www.ameblo.jp/akihabara48/entry-12627410887.html
AKB48 will perform Aitakatta and Everyday, Katyusha on MSte on 10/2: https://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000189578
if the video does not show watch the video here Seriously... Shitsuren, Arigatou and Jabaja would do just as fine.