Audition Part-Time AKB48 (53 members passed)

@Starshard ah maririn.. from akb48 cafe waitress into the always senbatsu and KAMI 7
@hjr1891 will be disbanded.. very soon but i bet Aki-P will salvage some potential girls

 

It's possible that they'll keep those who are interested and be a full member soon. For now, I'm not liking this decision.

 

@kevin_vin Mariri was the otona member from AKB's Papico tie-in. And also the reason why I wrote "for now" on my previous post. She was awesome in the short time she was around.

Shinoda Mariko was the cafe girl turned full member/ senbatsu staple. Miss her and her trolling ways.

 

@hjr1891 so she has 2 nickname maruru and mariri ? similar to shinoda nickname maririn
Mom I Like to Fans

 

Hmmm...just seems like AKB is trying to get rid of auditions and generations and actually earn more money through brand deals to get new members...even though only temporary. I don't mind the concept as something new, but it's annoying as you get to know and like the members, and then their contracts run out and they go away. Why can't we just have normal auditions and 16 member teams anymore?!

 

This deals (Toyota and Baitoru) might have just come up at the same time.
Maybe by next summer everything will go back to normal, so I wouldn't worry much about everything being crammed.
Although the next draft might be around the corner and it's going to look a bit like that lol

I reaaaaaaaaaally doubt management would let go of any girl who might bring $$$ into the franchise. Be it Ikumin from Team 8 or whatever 11 yo idol that appears every 1000 years that comes out of this.

I feel suspicious about this, but I'm trust the lord AkiP, so let's just wait and see.

 

I don't like it. I can't help but think the whole idea with temporary members, not just this but also team 8, is a way of dealing with the problem of girls who don't get ahead but refuse to graduate. If one of the "part time workers" showed enough promise, AKS would probably have no problem offering them a permanent spot, and meanwhile, it's easier to get rid of the rest.

 

Over the past few years management have made a number of decisions that have made AKB less unique and special, the idols less special, and the notion of quality in performance relegated to more crass money making opportunism. Short term-ism among management to maximize return but at the expense of evolving AKB into just another generic idol group...

The act and culture and performance and 'specialness' of AKB 2009 and now is widening gap.

The notion of hiring part timers....just selling the notion of it devalues the brand, another small step in the process.

 

Yeah yeah things are never as good as they were in the good ol days. You'd fit in well in Dad's Army


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

It doesn't really help if management is all about the money and not even about the group anymore. The decisions that they make can really make or break fans. I'm not sure if it attracts new fans or not but so far I don't like it. Management does get into brand deals for easy money. At this point they're not investing much on the current girls but instead go for lame gimmicks. They have a tunnel vision ahead of them.

Let's see:
Draft Girls - It's an excuse not to hold next gen audition but what we get is a bunch of raw girls who definitely need more training. The kenkyuusei actually performed better than the draft members post the actual draft event. It did add 20 more members to the group. Some girls got through just fine, others have not shown their best yet.
Team 8 - It was gonna come to this assuming more members from AKB48 would come in through auditions. The idea first crossed my mind 2 years ago when Aki-P probably wanted a Team 8 to be formed of the kenkyuusei that didn't get promoted that time and now it happened. I thought AKB would have just had to shuffle to that but instead had an audition which added 47 more girls.
Otona AKB - It's just one but is on her way out anyway. It's been fun since she did have supporters.
AKB Arubaito - It does devalue the group by having part timers. So if it happens, the rules still apply to them even if it's outside AKB right? Whether we'll have interesting girls from this bunch might tell something. It doesn't seem special when you hear someone saying, "I work part time for AKB48."

 

The management is about money, sure - it's a business after all. But why should that mean it's not about the group anymore? They can be about money AND still take care about group, you know? After all, money doesn't rain down from the sky and they need money to maintain the group or push the group in general and girls in particular - it's not cheap to push a girl, especially a girl without agency (most of the new gen girls fall into this category).

You guys ask them to push girls. Without money and connections / tie-ins, how are they supposed to do that? I don't like this idea (neither do I hate it), but I can't see why would there be all the doom and gloom for it. Just put it in one of the hundreds AKB campaigns that we don't know / don't care about.

 

To be honest I don't get the idea part time akb members what about we like them do much they become full members

 

Contrary to a lot of the negative comments here, I believe that this new recruitment drive of part-time low ranking idols is a continuous evolution of the 48 franchise that will appeal to fans' interest overall. Remember the time when they had only 48 official members ? Then it grew to 64, and now there is a large Team 8 that is virtually the size of the original group. The bottom line is, people get bored easily. That's why to keep their interest, constant evolution is necessary, such as the continuous expansion of AKB48 . And for those people who say that this current phase of expansion will devalue "48" brand name, you should remember that Japan is not a small nation. It also seems to have a surplus of females, most of whom would likely grow up to be low ranking corporate workers or housewives. To be an idol, especially in one of the world's all time greatest idol groups, is certainly no simple competitive task, just like finding worthwhile employment in one of Japan's renown world class companies.

 

Perhaps there's a belief in management that a girl off the street, helping shoulder the group's responsibilities, might change their image and give a more down to Earth feel that makes them seem more relatable. Depends how they approach this, and highlight the members. If they're treated like actual members it will be interesting to see what happens.

Still don't agree with it myself, but the portrayal of part-timers sounds like something that could attract interest and maybe even some sympathy for their hardwork and willingness to fit in. We sound negative right now, but who knows, maybe we'll warm up to them when we get to know them.

 

It seems they've selected 53 girls to be part of... this, according to Oricon.



Time to move this to the News section? lol

 

Wonder if are all for AKB or the sister groups are involved too? Anyway 53 more members is too many IMO, I'll give them a chance tho.

 

At @Trinu's suggestion, I've moved this to the News and Releases section now that it's more "official," although honestly it remains to be seen what comes of this. Another Team 8 that the majority don't care about? =/

The average age of the girls who passed is 17.8, with the oldest being 25 and youngest being 12.

 

*scratch his head*

Since team 8 i've lost a little bit of what was going on.... Maybe i'm little bit too conservative.

Back in the days, you had to do almost 1 year of training before being promoted to a team

 

More than that, isn't SKE holding auditions for 6th gen? I have no idea what the hell this is about.

Though Team 8 is seeming more and more permanent, now that they've been signed to not one but several more promotions

 

This one looks pretty similar to Jurichan


Aside from that, I wonder what is their marketing strategy by adding more number into the group instead of improving current quality. I guess this part time members will have more use to entertain people in weekly event such as handshake or the last natsu matsuri-kind of event (where most game stand have at least a team 8's member accompanying it ), it makes crowd and I guess quite people are attracted to it. The first time contract ends by end of February next year anyway, so I think only a few will remain by the three-months contract renewal policy they put.

and by "few", I meant those who're popular and favored by management
http://photo.sankei.jp.msn.com/highlight/data/2014/09/24/04akb/