[GENERAL] The Sakurazaka46 / Keyakizaka46 Thread

#5 4ki Revealed!

Meguro Hiiro, 19 years old
Saitama Prefecture

Another veteran dancer joins sakurazaka! She likes sweets and r&b!

Meguro Hiiro Thread


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

The 5th girl broke the "younger and younger" streak!

 

After Pon graduated they wanted another dance machine from Saitama. The others' skills as idols are hard to tell for now because they give impression of yamato nadeshiko idols and this is the first 4th gen member to be more in the traditional Keya/Saku vein.

This is the fifth member they announced and I'm curious about that bob cut member if it's both good at singing and dancing by herself on stage. Someone with dignity and confidence who has that star quality. They are rare to find nowadays. I guess Keyakizaka got lucky with Hirate, Imaizumi and Nagahama which management took for granted and teared apart.

 

What I'm most curious about is if they found an English speaker, considering Sakurazaka's management is clearly aiming for some kind of international recognition.

 

@watash.Iwa I agree about the age thing, which is one of the reason I couldn't follow 48 groups more than sporadically.
...but then I remember Ten was the youngest we ever had, and look at her, she became one of our best members.. so I guess it depends on what is asked to the girls and how much time they have to be pushed forward.
15/16 feels like the best age to start.

I rarely play the resemblance game, but this time Hiiro reminds me a lot of Nijika, with more confidence in herself

 

Sorry to say this but The new 4ki is average...... we already half from the reveal, but none tell me a center aura yet. Anyone can tell me?

I see nogi's 6ki, and yada, mitsuki and mirine gives aces aura. If I need to pick for now is wako. But with how high the competition to enter senbatsu.... well... this is lackluster

 

Imho, there's always that one generation that more than half of the members are deliberately chosen to fill 2nd team spot (under, hiragana, backs). For me, it's Nogi's 4-ki, Hinata's 4-ki and this one might be for Sakurazaka

Not to mention, if they persists on making 14-member senbatsu, without any graduation, and with some settled/permanent Sakura-8, then, we already know how small the door would be to enter senbatsu.

 

@RedBug Nogi 4ki at least has Ensaku, Kakki, Mayu and Ayamen in every senbatsu (despite the fact that they are quickly losing space to 5ki). If there is a 2nd team gen, it was Nogi 2ki, outside of Miona and maaybe Hinako, the rest got no chances (And honestly I´m on the team that would argue that even Miona and Hinako were done poorly).

About Hinata 4ki, it´s a bit soon to call them a 2nd team spot gen. With almost all 1ki gone and 3ki being only 4 members, they have a chance of getting more spotlight soon cause it will take a while for 5ki to stablish themselves. This gen was hella pushed, I don´t think they did all of this just to keep most of them in HinaGana.

And Sakurazaka desperately needs a 16-18 member senbatsu. S&F is so flexible with Hinatazaka senbatsu but refuses to do the same with Saku.

 

14 senbatsu is good. I don't think saku needs 17-18 member senbatsu. Especially if they want to cater international fans and looking at their dance routine & choreography. I prefer 15.

Nogizaka in other hands needs big group because their performances looks good, not because of the dance routine, but because of .... what is it called? Dance formations ? Their choreography mostly simple.

We are now 33 (so 16 members looks doable) but I still believe we will have more graduation this year or early next year, that is why we get 9 new members. And if a member needs to take hiatus, having more members is good. Personally one of the reason why 48 was falling down aside from ace's graduation, but because having too much members. Everything was good when they have aces to cover up other members that is not profitable.

I am hoping the last 4 of 4ki to be great. Having more members than 15 in senbatsu just means we have more back dancers.

Even with 14 members the distribution of appearance is already awful. If they want to add members, let it be 15-16 the most. For now 2ki has 5+1 perma, 3ki has 7 aces airi, shizu, miu, mio, yuzu, yu, itoha. so 13 members, 2-3 more slots

current 4ki rank: wako, hina, chihiro > others. But hiiro face kinda unique

 

Well imo it was the same when 3rd gen appear, none of them give center aura but look how they've grown. So I would give them at least a lot of chance to grow until some singles. Tbh I also a bit worries for these girls, I hope Snf give fair treatment for new member of hina and saku

 

#6 4ki Revealed!

Asai Konomi, 20 years old
From Saitama

A Saxophone girl! She is a Run oshi and went to the place Ikutsu MV was shot to film her vlog!

Asai Konomi Thread


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

well, I don't want to judge early but just compare their introduction video with nogi 6ki or saku 3ki or nogi 5ki. It's like the management themselves doesn't take much consideration to debut them. (CMIIW, I don't follow new gen before haha) they post it in sakurazaka second channel with less subscribers, not their primary one

Just give assignments to them to record a vlog and use that for introduction video because they don't prepare anything for them. For the members themselves, with good styling I can see some of them could be cool and pretty (wako, hina, chihiro) and hiiro could be the next mio after losing some weight and good styling.

nogi 6ki

if the video does not show watch the video here

saku 3ki

if the video does not show watch the video here

nogi 5ki

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Well, actually Saku 3-ki was also introduced with vlog format. Those video you attached were their solo PVs from single bonus content.

This is Shizuki's

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Wow shizuki first introduction video is the same as now lol. Just like hikaru's before debut face. They look the same before and after debut. Some member like karin and mio needs a make over (good styling)

still, they put it on primary youtube channel and not the secondary youtube channel for 3ki vlog.

With this time line, I think they will make 4ki enter senbatsu by the end of the year

edit: after checking some of 3ki vlog, finger crossed the remaining 4ki will be good...... I will add 15 members senbatsu as 2025 prediction

 

Nogi 6ki and Hina 5ki were also revealed in their secondary channels, both which have less subs than the main one.

 

The Sakurazaka46 secondary channel (Apr 2023) was made after 3ki's debut (Jan 2023), which explains why their vlogs are on the main channel and not the secondary one.

That being said, it seemed just yesterday that we were getting excited over 3ki's debut and their push subsequently, to their Shinzanmono and then inclusion into senbatsu. What a whirlwind 2 years it has been!

 

Reading @JaeRoler post up made me remember how much happy I was when 3kis video started coming out and then the documentary and then omotenashikai (which I still can't write right) then their first appearance in SokoSaku.. so I went back to page 676 and read what I wrote back there lol

And the final verdict is that 3kis are incredible.
I couldn't really chose an Oshi back there, and still today when everyone of them does something I'm sold again (looking at you Mio)... Yuzu is still a bit over the others and Shiichan a bit below, but I think this is the best group we got so far, and it will be very hard for another generation to be this well balanced. I remeber I thought mngmnt chose them exactly for this purpose back there, and it's not different today. If anything I'm even more convinced about it.

Maybe I could say the same about 2kis if they were put on Sakura together and not divided in two parts... but I feel members gap is more noticeable with them.
So far, I chose to not compare new kis with old ones because it is really too soon to know what kind of idols they would be, but one thing I know - because I went back to read it right now - is that by the third or forth presentation video I was already sold on 3kis and this is something I can't say with 4kis so far.
I'm not in a hurry, but I hope the next girls will give me that something more... I don't even know what, but I know I got that feeling with 3kis video, even though they had us fooled in thinking they were not variety-material lol

Another thing I'm noticing, because I'm catching up with SokuSaku right now, is that the 2kis-3kis collective is really, really funny.
2kis grew up a lot and had an impact on the program we barely got before. Ten, for example, is so different from how I remember, I think she left her shell on another planet, while TakeYui and Marina went in the opposite direction and polished what they had in abundance...
And 3kis match them perfectly even when they aren't "there" yet.

Right now I'm quite satisfied with what I'm seeing and even if I read not-so-positive comments here and there, and I know they are valid too, don't get me wrong, I feel Sakurazaka is in good hands.

This makes me very proud and happy to be honest.

 

Yes, I agree totally that our current 3ki is a magnificent bunch that lived up well to their hype. Hopefully 4ki as a bunch can also find the same level of success amongst fans.

I do think that the management did a pretty good job to collectively push the 3 new generations (Nogi/Saku/Hina) that came out together and that they may be doing the same thing again this year.

 

#7 4ki Revealed!

Yamada Momomi, 16 years old. She is the youngest so far.
Okayama Prefecture

She is a Mio oshi who is into knitting and seems to be athletic!

Yamada Momomi Thread


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

she's a sports girly, was in the track and field club for for years
she is also into crocheting and admires to be like mio