Graduation announcements thread

I generally agree with your post but just wanna point out that she did perform Aitakatta. They didn't list members for that song on the website, only says young members and many kenkyuusei (it was kenkyuusei and some Team 8 kids btw). Moeka actually centered the song. But yeah, it was only 1 song, far from full stage. Most of the kenkyuusei only did that 1 song though.

She has done Pajama drive only 2 times, shonichi and 2nd performance in November 2018. Also I'm pretty sure she skipped a few songs there (I remember watching the LOD and noticing Zunchan singing solo for the part in Futari nori no jitensha where she should have been singing with Moeka, and as far as I can tell she wasn't on the stage for that song or Gokigen naname no mermaid, maybe others too). So the only stage she has ever really done in full is Idol shugyouchuu, but Pajama drive was pretty close to a full appearance. Imho it's quite weird she didn't do those songs in Pajama drive on shonichi though, was it too difficult for her to learn the songs in time but AKS wanted her to appear in shonichi? But other draftees were able to learn all despite most of them being less experienced than Moeka (who was an idol before joining AKB already) so it's a bit weird.

 

"Sustainable" song with its center to soon begone. Welp.

What investment? Training? No. PS? No. The premise of AKB is the member can leave at any moment. Might she be around for 2 years or 6 months, she could rightfully quit for whatever reason.

Juri is a traitor only because she left to Korea. I doubt she had received the same level of flak switching to LDH. (It doesn't help that she shaded AKB/glorified K-pop.)

I guess it's both. Her chance to bounce back is slim thus, she finds the stress from countless pejorative comments isn't worth it. Also, I guess she loves to be on top, disliking to stuck at mid-tier or even lower. Her pleasure is to be the center of attention, not the performance.

Why is it wrong to "do it as a hobby"? Should not you blame AKS for not able to make members thinking the group worth to be taken seriously? AKB's idol job is short-live, unstable and, to most members, not so well-paid. Neither it is an effective gateway to other fields of showbiz. Why will members want to take this kind of job seriously? AKS also doesn't take it seriously pushing a girl not taking theater performance seriously to the center.

Develop the idol? In what field? Nowadays, AKB competition is mainly on visual and character (as Juri commented that being AKB's idol focused on being cute).

Develop the team? I believe AKS already has moved toward this direction, election cancellation is a part of this movement. To reduce the competitiveness is a key to materialize this idea. And, to reduce the competitiveness, AKS needs to create many more quality jobs for the members and cut the number of members.

How? The employment contract for a specific period of time is extremely normal.

 

Thanks, I should have mentioned that I didn't have time to independently check the songs that didn't have full member lists.

Remember that we're talking about Japan and not Korea. I know you get confused sometimes.

 

Not really……

Spoiler

http://www.asianjunkie.com/2018/09/...broadcast-reveals-salary-furthers-her-legend/

https://hallyuplus.net/threads/ex-a...ealed-her-salary-during-her-time-in-akb.6449/

Moreover, keep in mind that most of the girls join during their high school. Is there any job for high schooler in Japan that can provide better pay?

 

Moeka leaving so soon is a bit of a surprise but like others have said, not that shocking. I can see all the hubbub around her and her centership becoming too much for her. Her schedule and not appearing in the theater are mystifying, but perhaps her parents just wanted her to focus on her studies. At least she's got the experience now to judge if she wants to continue with the entertainment business after school (if possible).

Hopefully AKS will find a new member from the gen 16/3rd draft pool to push, preferably without getting her a bunch of haters...

 

A proper history of AKB/AKS by an unbiased third party needs to be written because I reckon it would be fascinating. From what we do know, we could divide AKB history into the "True AKS" era and the "Yoshinori-AKS" era, by 2014 the original founders of the 48 group empire had sold there stakes but Yoshinori had inherited a company which had perfected the handshake-selling business and to some extent you could say that by 2013/14 it was a no-brainer.

Handshakes really came in with King Records and I think we can credit them with a lot of AKB's success. Also TGSK apparently came up with a lot of the ideas that became staples of AKB in it's golden era like the SSK and Janken which Yoshinori inherited. It's awfully coincidental that TGSK got Bunshuned around the same time that Yoshinori got her hooks into AKS and at the Dai Sokaku matsuri in 2014 he got emasculated.

True enough but there is plenty within AKS control, they're treatment of members mental health is definitely in question, not only in Moeka's case but look at Haruppi who was injured in a wrestling show then got mental burn-out and eventually graduated, or Jurina who got mental and physical burn-out and had a long hiatus and more absences since. Then of course there is how they "took care of" Maho but that's a whole story of it's own with a 100+ page thread lol.

although they sometimes force them out against their will (Maho and friends)

I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think there's especially a case that the early gens of a group are hungry and more determined overall.

It would be interesting to see a class survey of the generations of these groups, it seems like the early gens were moreso from working-class/lower middle class families whereas over the later generations a lot more members seem to come from richer families (who could afford to pay for singing/dancing/music lessons before they joined). I think it was actually TGSK who said that later generations were more polished than earlier gens but not as hungry, there may be something in that.

I had to go and rewatch those stages and you are right. She leaves the stage at the end of Hisatsu Teleport and misses the next two songs. It's amusing though that she reappears at the start of the intro MC's wearing the Futari/Gokigen costume and whereas all the other girls at out of breath and sweating like crazy Moeka is there with perfect hair and makeup lol.

Watching her perform those 2 stages though reminded me of what a charming stage aura she had, if only she'd stayed performing stages and learning the craft rather than been given the rocket push by AKS.

 

This is really sad because i really was starting to warm up to Moeka,she was so cute in sustainable also.

 

I suspect that the new draftee push will be Mahopyon. She got a lot of exposure on AKBINGO before it ended, was the first draftee to debut in a team stage and one of the first ones to be promoted (and unlike Moeka, actually regularly performing both team stage and Pajama Drive, and Yukirin produced stage as well), and she does Seichan's position in B stage when Seichan isn't there which is one of the top positions in the stage. I guess it also makes sense that they would want to push someone from B since B lost its ace with Juri leaving.

Probably also gonna go back to pushing Zukkii as the 16th gen ace, she was kind of overlooked once the Moeka push started.

This is just my personal opinion but I think promoting Moeka to full member so early was such a huge mistake. She actually performed regularly in Idol Shugyouchuu when she was a kenkyuusei, and back then she really stood out among the draftees. She was definitely the most polished one in D3 from the beginning (probably a combination of talent and her past idol experience). But once she stopped performing while other draftees kept doing Pajama Drive several times per week, the rest started to catch up while Moeka wasn't improving and growing as an idol. So I think nowadays, many draftees can perform better than Moeka (again, only my opinion so don't attack me if you disagree lol) but if she kept on performing regularly like others did she could have still been one step ahead of the rest and could be one of the top performers in AKB by now.

 

But, the person talked about the contract for the member to not resign within a period of time, not the contract for the agency to not fire the member within the given time. Besides, when the contract has the limited period specified, the employee is notified from day 1 when she/he will have to leave.

But, I wasn't confused and I talked about employment in general, not specifically music industry, the hotel hiring temps in high season, the researcher hiring assistants for a research project.

The articles you linked supported my comment. They pointed out that unpopular (full time) members were paid around average wage. I've also seen a video of sister group members discussed they had to eat cheap food to put ends meet. Some fans assumed members' wages might correlate with seniority, the longer a member had worked, the higher her base salary was. This is the system often used in regular Japanese companies.

Even if this is a very good pay for a high schooler, it doesn't conflict with my idea that it likely wasn't good enough to keep continuing after high school.

Your hope is not realistic one bit. More fame equates to more hate. For every 1 new fan an idol gets, she gains 4-5 more new antis. This is a price to pay to be popular.

It seemed like the one Moeka closest to in AKB was Juri? Perhaps, the departure of Juri is a factor, no one important to her in AKB anymore.

 

Perhaps, but they can push a new gen without making the push as hard as Moeka's. Pick one or a couple of girls and give them opportunities like being featured in videos on the AKB YouTube channel or being regulars on whatever show may replace AKBingo, feature them in B-sides and when they are ready performance level-wise put them into senbatsu, but for god's sake don't put them right in the center and push them as the new Acchan OR savior of AKB. Basically, be more careful with the push.

 

Not really. Your statement that I quote gives general statement that “the member is not well paid” not “the member is not well paid if they stay after high school”. It might be not enough to keep continuing after high school but if you read the link you will realize that they stated that:

It shows that it is quite common knowledge for AKB48 fan that the member graduated from the group usually after the end of high school. Hence, if the girls join the group during junior high school, being pay for that and if she is forever stuck in theatre without any prospect in the entertainment industry, she can graduate during the end of high school and pursue other things. That is pretty much a decent life for me.

 

I don't think a graduation announcement has left me this surprised since... I don't know, Ricchan? Paruru?
Moeka had all the ingredients to become a huge presence within the group and maybe even outside of it.

I don't agree with the way she was pushed (promotion, solo concert, senbatsu, PB and center in less than a year ñññ), but it just shows how much management wanted her to do well. But one would think that they'd learn not to put all their eggs in one basket after 14 years.

I don't really pay attention to the theatre until they debut new stages (lol), so I didn't know she had missed basically everything. I guess her parents decided a lot for her? It would explain why management gave her a center, as if to show them she could do well or something?

The way she announced it tells me she really didn't want to leave, so it really sucks.

At this point, management would make a safer bet pushing for Shiichan or Myao, cause they sure ain't leaving anytime soon.

Renacchi center next pls

 

Hopefully a few, because if they just push one and that girl also decides to graduate for whatever reason (school, health, scandal, better opportunities elsewhere) they still have others.

There are literally so many members in D2, 16th gen and D3 that I can personally see being potential senbatsu regulars in the future (Satopii, Reichan, Zukkii, Naamin, Kururun, Manaka, Satomina, Zunchan, Mahopyon, Sora, Kyon, Hitomi, Senatan, Ran...) but they need management's support. And some of those girls have been getting in but the others not despite their big popularity among fans (Satomina and Zunchan in particular come to mind). But I also think that many of the young gens with a lot of potential are in either A or 4, so I hope the girls from K and B also get more push to keep it more balanced (unless management wants to be doing a shuffle every 2 years).

But considering some teams are having trouble getting 16 people to perform even including the Eito kennins and kenkyuusei and need to actually use other team's kenkyuusei, is also a sign that there might be a need for a new generation. Obviously right now is not AKB's best time and a lot of people might be against them holding auditions but the reality is that once the rest of the D3s are promoted they'll either need to use other teams' full members, or at least have the new Eitos perform a lot at the theater. And I don't want them to rely on Eitos too much since most of them live far from Tokyo and already do the Team 8 stage, so I think recruiting a new gen soon is inevitable if they wanna keep 4 teams (+ Team 8).

 

Doubt they interfered in any of management decisions, if that's what you mean. Poor Yukina if so ñññ

Moeka was anticipated since she popped up on Showroom during the 16th gen audition. Management knew it and tried to comply with what the fandom asked for when she finally got in. But they can do nothing about online comments and how they affect the girls and/or their families.

It all sounds like the parents don't really approve of the whole idol thing and just let the daughters try so they'd shut up about it.
Maybe they saw how much time the theatre performances took from Yukina's studies and didn't want Moeka to waste that kind of time?

And on top of that, she's being dragged through the mud because of some pictures? Of course they'd force her to get out.

Oh, well.
Another unfulfilled prophecy like Ricchan, Paruru, Kojimako, Naanya, Ikumin...

 

Not trying to be funny here, but isn't it what they are doing for the other younglings and yet not that many eyes turned to them?
Videos on AKB YT channel mainly feature the young theater staples, Satone even has her own mini series there.
Feature in B-side. Well, one of the best B-side in recent singles is Generation Change, and the center is a middle schooler who has years of experience under her belt already. In Sustainable, that "Wake up Monica, it is morning already" song centered by Zukky. Moeka actually center a B-side as well with the other hopefuls in Strongest Twintail.
But only Moeka sales skyrocketted after the push. So yeah...

 

Exactly, they should continue doing that. I think Moeka's sales got so good because she already had buzz from her last audition, so when she got in and started getting pushed people naturally became curious, and then she had good results so more people got interested, and she got Strongest Twintail and etc. Moeka had consistent buzz around her, they need to generate some for the rest of the newer members. Preferably positive

I would love it if they could get a new variety show and maybe split the members into groups by their teams or generations (multiple in one though!) with some competition, it might help boost their relationships to each other.