Minegishi Minami (Miichan) / 1st Generation

Miichan was a guest for Asakusa Koji No Bar Eyes on Ameba TV on 02/11

http://www.bilibili.com/video/av8622986/

 

Miichan cried a lot during Kojiharu's Graduation Concert. I felt sad watching her.

WMinami behind Kojiharu. No3b



From Miyabi's twitter


From Miichan's twitter and instagram.


*****

Hawaii trip with Kojiharu part 3

http://48videodouga.net/index.php?poste=3851

 

She's the last of the First gens...

 

Miichan and Kojiharu's Hawaii trip last part

http://48videodouga.net/index.php?poste=3917

 

Miichan appeared in Moshikashite Zureteru? on 02/20

http://48videodouga.net/index.php?poste=3933

 

Not gonna lie, I'm prepared for her graduation announcement any day now. It'll probably be after Senbatsu though, but in my honest opinion and everyone in this thread knows I love her. AKB is no longer the place for her. I think if she gets into senbatsu this year, she'll graduate because it'll be her peak again. She deserves better then what AKB is treating her.

 

^^^ this. All of it. Not the first time I say it either.

Also, I find her much less interesting than she used to be, and while some of that probably comes from inside, I feel a lot comes from the pressure of being an oneesan and captain, and her feeling she must for the rest of her AKB life make up for 2013, and her management (that's not really a real agency!) pressuring her to behave. Really, what I want is for her to sign with a proper agency… but graduation will help too, and both is even better.

As I've also said before, “I want her to graduate” is a weird thing to say about an oshi… but what can I do, Miichan's situation is a weird one.

~~~

As for senkyo, she said she wouldn't run, let's see. Then again everyone and their parrots from older gens said they wouldn't run… it's going to be an interesting year if at least half of these people make good on that promise.

Edit: I know she's always said she wants to go on to variety, but my dream is she picks up another former idol and form a manzai combi I'd pay a lot of money to see that. (I'm prepared to bet that's what's going to happen to Chori+Machun when Chori eventually graduates.)

 

I too, believe that AKB has become too small for Miichan. She clearly isn't as essential as she was before, and her outside gigs are the push she needs to push her career with more freedom. Stuck as a borderline Theater girl her talent is going to waste, and it seems like a compromise from Management when she keeps being thrown to the very back of Senbatsu every single time. I don't want her to end up like Akicha, so darling and talented yet so overlooked. Miichan loves AKB more than AKB loves Miichan.

 

For me, even her outside TV gigs are beneath her. That phone prank was good but it was what, 2 years ago? The hamachanga thing or whatever it's called last year was horrible (seriously they could have picked any random girl off the street for that), the Moshikashite Zureteru? was totally playing her off as a has-been… don't get me started on the children show last year. I haven't seen her being Miichan-level funny anywhere in a long time. She needs space/freedom to spread her wings.

Has anyone been watching K stages? Is it better on MC there? Because in the RH MCs she was not Miichan at all.

And I really don't feel that she changed, mind. Every now and then there's that little hint that she's holding back. On the up side…if she is, when she's able to release it, it will be a flood.

 

Miichan has been holding herself back. She use to be hyper, and a bit loud. She use to give an entire room a personality, but now she is quiet, I know she is allowing the younger gen to shine, but she needs to remember she needs to shine herself.

 

I agree with everything said before. AKB48 has become for me something 'strange' with a lot of names I don't recognize and I miss a lot of old members who have graduated. I guess Miichan feels (in a way) like this too, and she's been feeling more and more lonely. One thing is to play to be the mother of the younger members, but I'm sure she needs more (in tems of a career I mean) and now that she's the last one she will leave soon too...

 

Miichan does not appear in AKBingo since chapter 398.
She has more experience than anyone else in this show, and Sata often supported his MC on Miichans interventions.

This is a screenshot of AKBingo 397 where you see the importance that she is going to have.
Look at the difference in size of the images. But it's not just that, She had very few opportunities to participate.

After so many years she knows very well the intentions of the managment. So, being in the shadow of Acchan, Yuuko or Kojiharu is difficult, but being relegated by kids who do not know how to talk to the camera is a bit uncomfortable.

I think she simply does not want to continue in those conditions.

Hi Lalo,
please, could you explain what is the situation with her agency?
I am very interested.
Thanks

 

Ogi Pro is a very small company. It was the first partnership AKB had, where they signed members provisionally until they could move on to other agencies, before they started using AKS for that purpose. (Note, partnership: Ogi isn't affiliated with or owned by AKB, they just used to work together way back then.)

They're known for not shopping their talent around at all, so any work the talent gets is from clients that specifically came looking for that person.

The current roster has 44 names, some of whom I know to be retired. 4 of those are 48G members, another 3 are former: Takamina, Kojiharu, Urano; Miichan, Mayuyu, Lovetan, Miorin. If you look at it, all severely underpromoted members (except for recent months for Kojiharu).

I've heard they're very nice, which might explain why some of the talent doesn't move on, but as far as doing actual agency work… I'm not impressed.

 

I didn't know that Ogi Pro wasn't a real agency. I only follow three of the members from Ogi Pro... with all the regular work Takamina and Kojiharu have, I wouldn't have guessed that Ogi wasn't an actual agency.

@Lalo Martins Thanks for the info.

 

Well technically, or literally, they are a real agency. But not “real” in the sense you would say “so and so isn't a real actor”. They do like 30% of what a talent agency in Japan is normally supposed to do, so “not real” in my book.

Takamina and Kojiharu get work based on their own, rather significant network of contacts. Even Mayu doesn't get a fraction of what she should with all her charm and history.

 

where did you get this info from?
OgiPro is actually pretty solid agency.
it is placed 14th in top 100 agencies
http://geinoupro.com/top100.html

 

Lalo Martins thanks for the info.
It is very interesting the information, now I understand better the situation of Miichan.
I believed that the participation in shows, films and everything else was handled by AKB directly.

fatrain, being the # 14 agency is not too good either. It's the same difference between Sasshi and Okada Nana.

 

I have to wonder what their ranking criteria are, if the big “success stories” they cite for the agency are Takamina, Kojiharu, and Mayuyu.

I'm always willing to be proved wrong, but I have no idea who these people are, and no reason to believe them more than the information I already have…

And putting everything else aside, rumours and hearsay, here's what we know for sure: their current roster. It's publicly available information (you can check in their own website). It's insanely small for an Japanese entertainment agency (a serious agency has about this many people or more in any given field they work in — actors, models, comedians, seyuu, etc), and not a single one of them seems to be a big deal. (I might be failing to recognise someone in the list, as my knowledge of entertainers is not too solid, but… if you search Ogi and you get “they're the agency that manages Takahashi Minami and Watanabe Mayu”, they probably don't have any names bigger than that.)