HKT48 new Kenkyuusei Stage to start on October 1st, 2023 with a double feature. Shonichi Members (12:30) Ikuno Rina, Ihara Hanna, Kitagawa Hiiro, Shibui Mina, Fujino Kokoha, Morisaki Saaya, Yasui Hina (17:00) Ishimatsu Yuina Ikuno Rina, Ouchi Rinka, Oba Risaki, Tachibana Kokoro, Fukui Karen, Fujino Kokoha, Yasui Hina Setlist (12:30 line up) 01. 1! 2! 3! 4! Yoroshiku! 02. Go Bananas! 03. Chance no Juuban 04. Takane no Ringo 05. Gomen ne Jewel (Fujino Kokoha, Ihara Hanna, Yasui Hina, Ikuno Rina) 06. Kimi to boku no kankei (Kitagawa Hiiro, Shibui Mina) 07. Mushi no Ballad (Morisaki Saaya) 08. No Can 09. Aitakute Iya ni Naru 10. Tsubomitachi 11. Koi no Keikou to Taisaku 12. Tanpopo no Kesshin Encore 13. Ne mo Ha mo Rumor 14. Hatsukoi Butterfly 15. Ima ga Ichiban Spoiler: Announcement Video if the video does not show watch the video here Source
I wonder why they didn't have a real KKS stage when there used to be more KKS. Actually, I wish that they gave the Pajama Drive revival stage to the 6th gens before, I really enjoyed it when I watched their performance for their first anniversary of their debut! But yeah, that wasn't their stage. Now some of them got promoted to teams (and deserve it of course) so they can't be all together, but for the remaining KKS, I think it's nice that they're given this stage! (even if it happens quite a while after debut). Considering that some of these girls are really young (kids lol) it's nice to have a stage for them where they can grow as performers (and also just... grow XD). and also for the other girls, some of them seem ready for promotion tbh, but it's alright. I think that, for now, they might shine better being "the best" among the KKS rather than being in the other teams and not getting the spotlight... So it's a 7 members stage! Seeing the two different line-ups, I think the center positions might be Saaya and Karen. it would make sense. (I would love to see it!) I hope Urara can get better soon and join them in performing this stage! I like her. I read that she's now on hiatus for being injured ._. I hope she recovers fast...
Good thing I checked here, the translator on twitter insinuated that this was a one time thing. I'm looking forward to this. I was almost even expecting it. The KKS weren't gaining experience fast enough with the 7th gen looming in some future announcement, they really need their own stage. I think they liked some of the things from the Hakata Nanairo, Lit Charm, and Hakata Refresh with the smaller number of members and it wouldn't surprise me to see more stages like this in the 48 group universe.
When they had their own PajaDora I also thought it was going to be an ongoing thing, even with the promoted members, I mean, it's Himawarigumi affter all. I rewatch their 1st year performance all the time because this group is so strong and they have a lot of chemestry together. As for the stage I don't really know what to expect... I thought all of them were getting promoted in the upcoming concerts because both teams have spots available for promotion... maybe they'll open the auditions for 7th gen towards the end of the year and since auditions take around 6 months they can promote all the 6th gens around next summer? (And don't even get me started on 3rd gen turning 10 this November and I fear a mass graduation after that). Btw, the theater schedule for October is out (Source) and after the shonichi they also perform this stage on October 7, 10, 14, 19, 25, 28 and 29. I feel KKS members will be working a lot this month. Check it out: H6: 1 performance KIV4: 2 performances Himawarigumi: 3 performances KKS: 7 performances Even with the tour starting this month, there are only 2 performances of that and yet that schedule for the theater is kinda weird.
finally, a long awaited KKS stage is here I don't know what's taking them so long (more than 1 year) to create a new stage for KKS? anyway... Noon Show (Morisaki Saaya, Shibui Mina, Kitagawa Hiiro, Ihara Hanna, Fujino Kokoha, Ikuno Rina, Yasui Hina) I don't have any complaint about the performance. they already doing a bunch of stage performances before. even Hiiro will doing her 100th appearances soon. I'm more worried about the MC session. there were a lot of silent & awkward moments. But Hiiro (as the oldest) did her best to carry the MC. I usually skip MC section coz I don't understand Japanese, but it seems that they were relying too much on their seniors all this time. Needs more effort to improve their MC skills. Unit song Gomen ne Jewel (Ihara Hanna, Fujino Kokoha, Ikuno Rina, Yasui Hina) they all did well. my favorite here was Hanna. Kimi to Boku no Kankei (Shibui Mina, Kitagawa Hiiro) to me, Shibui is the MVP of this show. I like her style and her voice Nigamushi no Ballad (Morisaki Saaya) she could add more expression to the song. but it was a decent performance. good job. Night Show (Oba Risaki, Fukui Karen, Tachibana Kokoro, Ouchi Rinka, Fujino Kokoha, Ikuno Rina, Yasui Hina) Fujiko took Urara place and Ikuno took Yuina's. It was more lively than the previous show, probably because there were a lot of "genki" members here OBA, kokoppe, Rinka, and Karen did well for the MC. they got a decent laugh from the audiences. with a lot of shows that awaits, they will be a good talker in the future. Unit song Gomen ne Jewel (Ouchi Rinka, Fujino Kokoha, Ikuno Rina, Yasui Hina) Rinka did great here. I like her confidence. Kimi to Boku no Kankei (Fukui Karen, Tachibana Kokoro) this is my favorite among all. Karen's beauty and Kokoppe's expressiveness have been perfectly delivered here. Nigamushi no Ballad (Oba Risaki) eventho she already did great. I think she could do more. That is how big my expectation is of her. MVP of Shonichi: Oba Risaki She was shining as a center. her energy and her smile was a mood booster. and she was also good at MC. she will definitely be the next member to be promoted. Lil bit surprised with the choices of the songs. they started the first section with SKE, HKT, AKB, and NMB's songs. Should add NGT and STU songs too for the perfection One thing that bother me was the costumes were pretty plain. Mercury is too picky for not allowing KKS to wore the original costume Overall it was a good successful shonichi! Congratulation!!
I finally watched this stage! I watched the 2 shonichi performances! My thoughts: (12:30) Ikuno Rina, Ihara Hanna, Kitagawa Hiiro, Shibui Mina, Fujino Kokoha, Morisaki Saaya, Yasui Hina This was the first performance that I watched and I didn't read the setlist before so I got to discover it here. Overall, I think the setlist is very nice! All the songs are good and it's easy to watch! The stage is also not too long (both performances were around 1h40), it has quite a lot of MC parts btw. This first performance was centered by Saaya, one of my favorite 6th gen! She looks so pretty, I'm really glad she got this chance! She did great at every song, her dancing is really good, her expressions too. and for the units, she got the solo song, "Mushi no Ballad", I really like her outfit there, I don't think I've seen it before. She looked so good in this outfit, the hat and all the accessories. I also liked the 2 other units! Btw, all their outfits in this stage don't seem to be new but they also don't look old. I thought they all look really good, like for the "Gomen ne Jewel" unit, the colors look so bright (maybe I'm too used to 2007 outfits being re-used haha). Overall, I think all the girls did good. Of course, I noticed Saaya the most, but also Shibui! I've watched 6th gen content before (especially their YouTube videos) but here she gave me a different impression than what I've seen of her before. She was very cute and playful during the MC parts. She didn't say or do something specific but it was her behavior in general, her expressions, little comments, gestures etc. She was very cute! Also her eyes have a pretty shape. I found her nice before but now I think she might be among my favorites ^^ One little thing that I think was lacking a bit in this stage, it was the MC skills. They actually have quite a lot of MC parts in this stage, but it had some silences or awkward moments, but maybe the girls were just nervous. I was thinking that they should prepare games in advance to do during MC and apparently this is what they do now so it's good ^^ For this shonichi, it was mostly Hiiro trying to lead the talk, and it didn't seem easy. Saaya got confused quite a lot of times in her words, which was cute but also XD I think it's part of her personality (she's kinda clumsy) but also maybe because it was the shonichi. Hiiro did say at the end that Saaya and Shibui were acting strange during this stage lol. (17:00) Ikuno Rina, Ouchi Rinka, Oba Risaki, Tachibana Kokoro, Fukui Karen, Fujino Kokoha, Yasui Hina The second performance, on the same day! with different members. However, Ikuno/Kokoha/Hina performed again here, at the same positions as in the first performance (which are the lowest positions). Apparently Ikuno was here to replace Yuina. and apparently Yuina still didn't perform the stage until now, she's not ready yet. (she's a kid T_T can't imagine her dancing Ne mo Ha mo Rumor tbh lol). Another member who couldn't perform was Urara because she's injured. I hope both of these girls will be able to perform before the year ends >.< So this time, the center was Risaki! This surprised me, I honestly thought Karen would center this. But I'm very happy for Risaki! Karen got the 2nd position, then Kokoppe and Rinka had the next two best positions. I feel like, while the first performance centered by Saaya gave a more mature/pretty feeling, this performance centered by Risaki gave a youthful/cute feeling. Both versions were good! I really enjoyed this one. The girls all did great again, I think Risaki did a very good job at centering... and I actually really enjoyed her "Mushi no Ballad"! I think she was expressing the lyrics quite well with her expressions... there was a bit of awkwardness in some moves but I'm sure she'll do it better (kinda funny when she touched the wall, and the camera did a close-up on her hand haha). Hm, I feel like she expressed this song a bit better than Saaya but I know both of them will keep getting better (it's not an easy song) and I also wish to see the other girls trying this song ^^ Btw I also really liked the "Kimi to Boku no Kankei" unit here with Karen and Kokoppe. it was very suitable for them! As for the members who got my attention the most, well, my favorite here is Karen. I just love her face lol. She sometimes has expressions that remind me a bit of Tomochin. Like she's unintentionally looking a bit uninterested, but it's just how she looks lol (I like it XD). She's actually so sweet and smiles a lot, her speaking voice is so cute too (and she cried when all of them did a speech at the end >.<). I love her! then, I have to say, I didn't notice Kokoppe too much before but I found her so nice here. She has a very nice smile! I like her. I also like Rinka. Bob hair girl, eyebrows girl... she stands out for many things haha. I like her face too XD and lastly Risaki, she did so well through this stage, she surprised me! She is such a cute and positive person. I'm really glad she got this chance to center! So basically I liked everyone lol and of course also the other 3 members who performed again. I wanted to say, about Ikuno, I'm happy to see that she opened up a bit... when I saw her in videos before or in the theater, she looked so scared, she had a very hard time to speak, she cried easily etc. Now she's still not talking a lot but she actually make comments sometimes, she does something funny, she talks more than before, overall she seems a little more confident and it's nice ;_; She's so young and it made me feel bad to see her like that before. So yes I'm glad she's doing better ^^ Lastly, I wanted to say, the MC in this stage were easier to watch than the first performance. I think among the girls who performed on the 2 performances, Risaki is the one who's most comfortable with talking. She just talks naturally, makes comments, she speaks before there's an awkward silence... She's good! She was quite funny too with her comments. The other members were pretty good too, Kokoppe was quite comfortable, and maybe because the atmosphere was like that, everyone seemed to talk more easily, Karen and Rinka too, and even those who performed in the first performance. Of course, there was also a bit of awkwardness, but generally it was fine. If I had more time, I would have loved to continue watching the performances of this stage and see the evolution of these girls. They're all very "KKS" in a good way, they work hard, it's really nice to see them all perform Ne mo Ha mo Rumor and being proud of it. I'm sure they'll continue improving! They're all very nice girls, I hope many people will support them!
HKT48 announced the other day that this stage will do a "chiakiraku" on Dec 27th which means "closing festivities". I've never heard that term used before but Saayachan used the word "senshuuraku" at the end of the Dec. 9th stage which means "last show" so I'm not sure if this is just a hiatus because of promoted members advancing or the stage is finished. Hopefully they will elaborate at some point. I've enjoyed every stage so far, this is my favorite stage happening right now. I will be sorry to see it go.
The correct word is Senshuuraku, and it effectively means the last show. Chiakiraku is a bad transcription from auto translators Well, it was a short stage.
I don't understand the decision to end this stage :/ First, they uploaded a short documentary-style video for it where the girls cry and work hard. I'm sure they worked very hard to learn songs for this stage especially "Ne mo Ha mo Rumor". All of this for the stage to last 2 months only...? I watched the 2 first day performances of the stage and I liked it, it has a very nice setlist. I feel like this is just a waste... I think it's a bit weird how they promoted some KKS just around a month after starting a KKS stage, and now deciding to end the stage suddenly... There are still some 6th gens who are KKS. I think they should have continued this stage with the same girls, promoted and non-promoted, until the 7th gen joins, then they could stop it and start a new KKS stage that would have the remaining non-promoted 6th gens + the 7th gens. But I feel like it's unfair to the non-promoted 6th gens to lose their stage, it's a double loss, they don't get promoted and they lose their stage. I also think it's a loss for the promoted ones, I don't think they will have better positions in their teams than they did in this stage. I don't know... I guess this is the result of many wrong decisions. :/ I really think this KKS stage should have started when 6th gen was new, and continued until 7th gen joined. it would have been nice for the 6th gens to have a stage all together, and not wait until 4 of them are promoted to give a KKS stage to the others really late, and then end it after 2 months since more girls got promoted, and leaving the 6 remaining KKS with no stage that is theirs, and many are very young (= they would benefit a lot from having their own stage where they can improve together). if they did a 6th gen stage (not just "KKS" but for 6th gen) then even when members got promoted, they could continue performing in it. That would have been nicer. Oh well... :/
