Unpopular Opinions

i've tried but im not sure what so unpopular from me instead being so different and obscure maybe one need to contemplate more

now take a little bit more in serious manner, this. tbh, for the most i dont really get the vibe of "girl you want to protect" narrative which one can guess led these idol business so festive, the need for un-chanelled masculinity' idk. but im not here to analyze nor criticize this notion, more like self realization about how timid and weak oneself is, the anxiety. watching/following this stuff is more like pat on my shoulder , "pull yourself" experience.
so as far as i like nanase an other girls i dont see them as thing mentioned above. those girls are strong willed and independent already and they may the one that encourage weakling like me.

 

I see you are a nanase oshi! What made you get into her?

 

I guess you are trolling but this is truth. I personally never listen to Girls Rule on my music player, it's so generic idol summer song.

To be honest I start to feel this way this year. But the reason is because mgmt is slowly but surely signaling that her time is up.
She should graduate while still on her peak.

And some more:
- Nogizaka worst A-side is their debut "Guru guru curtain", hideous song and hideous outfit.
- Denchan is among my least favorite 3rd gen, so obviously I don't understand why she is being kept in senbatsu.
- 4th gens kinda lose momentum on me, have to agree that I'm not feeling them the way it was for 3rd gens.

 

GURU GURU CURTAIN IS GREAT WHAT. I agree with the outfits though lmao. And 4th gen is trash honestly. Been saying this for a little bit now. Maybe they will get better in the future? And I'll throw in a few

• Oide Shampoo is trash
• I like Nanase, but I can see an argument for her being overrated
• Sakurai Reika's "capitan" role is borderline useless.

 

Wow I had no idea quite a few people didn't like this song! I actually love the song whether or not maiyan centered it or not which is the only reason why I disagreed with your post, maybe I'm just a sucker for generic summer songs

 

Tbh, now idk which is their jokes or their true feelings lol

 

Ahhhh, it's fine! I should have picked up on it

 

Kazumin is one of the most beautiful girl in Nogi.

 

This. Her beauty is so underrated. Maybe because of her image as one of the variety queens in Nogi? I hope people would appreciate her more. One of Iz*one members (Choi Yena) has almost similar features with her. That’s why when I saw her for th first time, I was like “she’s so pretty like Kazumin” lol

 

how about Bemiho?

 

Oh God, this thread is gold.
Or following the trend, should I say.... trash?
I wish the downvote could be disabled for this thread. This is where we all spill the tea!

Now time for the divisive opinion: Ikoma = Nishino.
Not bashing on Naachan, but seeing people comment how 'overrated' she is, I sort of can see where they come from. Still, let me elaborate a bit. People hated on Ikoma for taking a lot of center roles, but to be honest if they do that, they should hate Nanase as well. Which they didn't. This is a double standard.
Both are chosen by management to be center for a number of singles. Both are 'extremely' pushed compared to any other member. Both, while served great services during the time they were still in the group, are also the reason of the groups' setbacks; in my opinion Nogizaka would soar higher today if they never had these two phases. Not hating on them, these are pure management decisions and I will say the same to any member put in their positions, nothing personal.
Simply put, they hogged the spotlight too much. Other members who initially had the same (or bigger) potential were left behind just because of this. Other members had to work harder to gain a small recognition, they just had to exist and smile and voila jobs came for them. To the argument 'Nishino is interesting/cute so fans love her, Ikoma isn't' while I personally pretty much agree, is subjective to their respective fans and doesn't disprove my point above. The extreme case of the same situation is still happening in our beloved sister group.

I hope Asuka (or any other member) is not and will not be the third one of their kind. One ace/face is not a good idea, when we could achieve way more with multiple aces/faces/whatever-term-you want-to-use in different areas.
(Just so we are clear, I am not saying we should hate Nishino (she's one of my oshimen), I am saying the hate towards Ikoma was unfair. I am not even an Ikoma fan. It's in the past, but because this narrative is still a favorite of Sakamichi's management and can still happen again, I think we as fans can learn one or two from this).

 

I am so glad you are enjoying the thread! I’m glad I made it . And I also really enjoyed reading your post. I never thought about comparing nanase and ikoma rina. You made some great points.

 

Wow really? I think Gundan / unit song is better than solo song from a member just because she has many fans or management favorite not based on potential (Which I think the one that waste of coupling song, and the live performance didn't really good actually). But it's ok if they are going graduate.

I really like some of the unit line up eventough they didn't have official unit name, just like Hoka no Hoshi Kara, Sakanatachi no Love Song, Arakajime romansu, and Otona e no Chikamichi. They have many potential about what they could do with those member and what kind of theme they would represent it (based on song).

Also those are better than the song for each gens which I don't like the way they create the wall among others.

 

Heh, Nogi is the last group on Earth to face this problem. Actually, their ace candidates are just too many to choose, especially from their 3rd gen. That gen is a golden gen.

 

No one should want to see their "true selves." Their true selves are probably a lot more relaxed and quiet than anything ever seen on camera. But what they show on camera aren't "lies" either. They are hyped up versions of some part of their true personality. The "real true" Sayurin is extremely smart and capable. The "camera" Sayurin is a hyped up version of her "anime-like," "comedic," and burikko characters because that's part of her true personality. She truly likes anime, burikko, and variety/comedy. But if you shoot a camera at her backstage without telling her, she's most likely going to be sitting quietly reading the show's script or doing her make up, or chatting to another member about the weather or food and that's about it. So maybe the director will edit it so that only the really interesting stuff is shown on Nogichuu. So what we're shown is good entertainment. We don't need anything more than that.

I think there is a "camera" version of an entertainer, a "true self for the camera" version, and a "real true self." We don't need to see the "real true self." Let them have that for their private lives. But there is a "camera" version and "true self for the camera" version that we get to see. The "camera" version is what we see on Nogichuu and other MCed shows. We saw a lot of the "true self for the camera" version on the third 46 hours TV when the different groups went on trips. They were supposed to show their "true selves" on those trips but they either held selfie cameras or their hotel rooms had cameras all over the place. So they're still very aware that they're on camera even though part of the purpose of that whole thing was to show their "true selves." But some members I think thought they really can just show their "real true selves." These members disappeared in those segments. During the Suika segment, Junna and Kawago disappeared because they figured "I'll just be my true self." I think an entertainer's "real true self" isn't for the cameras, and we shouldn't even be interested in what their "real true self" is like, either. What they show on camera (whether the "camera" version on Nogichu or the "true self for the camera" version on 46 hours tv) is all we need. But again, that doesn't mean what they do show on the cameras are lies. They're just hyped up versions of some parts of their true personality.

They should get rid of AkiP writing the song lyrics. He has a tendency to stick too many syllables in a line. I like Kaerimichi. It's a slow to medium-paced song. But from the first line of the verse, it sounds like they tried to cram a rap song into it.

yamerarenai manga wo tochuu de tojite
in like 3 seconds. That's like 5 syllables per second.

Sometimes, his lyrics are good. But this tendency to put too many syllables in a line, I don't like. Nogi is part of Sony Music, so I'm sure they can find other talented lyricists

Agree

I think what happened was there were Japanese fans (I don't know about foreign fans) who thought Ikoma didn't deserve her high positions relative to her fan popularity. If you look at Nanase's handshake popularity, she really was No. 1 or No. 2 with Maiyan during a lot of those singles when she was a consistent center candidate. If you look at Ikoma's handshake popularity, it's at similar levels to row 3 or even under. (I'm generally talking about 6th single to 20th or so. I think 1st to 5th single is a special case. Management just wanted some stability to Nogi's image during that time so that prospective fans don't get too confused.) Of course, management has complete control over how it makes its sembatsu decisions. I think we can observe that it's some weighted mix of: fan popularity (e.g. Nanase), ability to be "the face" of Nogizaka (e.g. Maiyan, Ikoma), variety (e.g. Manatsu), song and dance, future potential (e.g. Miona, Yoda, and Momoko center), and "near term potential" or in other words pushing those who need pushing more than those who don't need pushing (e.g. Maiyan doesn't really need to be pushed after a while since she's become so famous, so others like Nanase and Asuka are center). But it's up to management how they weight these on each single. (Handshake popularity and merchandise sales are some of the only relatively objective measurements that management (and fans!) have to measure members' fan popularities.) The argument for Nanase getting multi center is her fan popularity and boosting her over Maiyan since Maiyan didn't really need any further boosting. The argument for Ikoma's relatively high positions was she was the face of Nogi (along with Maiyan). I think we are entitled to our opinions on whether these were good or bad sembatsu/center decisions by management, but I can see management's logic for them.

It seems that most Japanese fans actually agree with this, but the hardcore wotas who go to handshakes regularly don't go for her as much as other fukujin. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because hardcore wotas tend to go for more girly types.


I think from management's perspective, the gundans are vehicles to boost lower gens. Sayurin and Manatsu are Nogi's top variety members. They were there to help give those gen 2s a bit more spotlight. Sayurin's group was more organic, so they continue to hang out and produce content. Manatsu's group, well... precisely because I think it was pushed by management to help the gen 2s, it only lasted while management set up stuff for them to do. If management doesn't tell Manatsu to do stuff, Manatsu won't do anything because she's busy enough. But management doesn't need to tell Sayurin to do anything because Sayurin (and/or Karin lol) will do stuff proactively for the group. And with this logic, you can see why the Wakasama group failed. Two of the gen 3s became regular sembatsu members. There was nothing much to boost, so management left them alone, and nothing much happened.

There are groups that don't follow the above model of course and that are more organic, like Inumen, Suika, Puddingkai, but these tend to either be within a generation and not across generations or not led by a fukujin variety member. And that's why management doesn't push them as much as the above groups, I think.

IMO, I think a successful gundan that should get songs and shows from management does need to be led by a fukujin variety member. Otherwise, there simply aren't enough fans tuning in, and their shows simply won't have enough quality variety/talk to last. And I like the cross-generation style. I think it's good to have a bit of "management" in there. Without it, when the group is too purely organic like Puddingkai or Tulip, I don't know. It's no longer a "gundan," but rather becomes purely about a group of friends. Which is fine, but I don't think management should push *too much* these exact groups of friends as they exist, because these groups change over time in terms of activity level, friendship, and it can also start to look too cliquey. Hmm, I don't know. I think the gundan concept (where a gundan is established enough to get songs and shows from management) is a good idea in theory but hard to execute well long term. IMO only the Sayuringo Gundan has succeeded there.

 

Well, here goes nothing I guess.

1. I can't really see the argument for Ikuchan being a better face of Nogizaka than Asuka when she seems so detached from Nogizaka lately. I'm happy she's flourishing in musicals, and I'm sure she's set for a good career once she graduates, but lately I think of her as Ikuta Erika than as Nogizaka's Ikuta Erika (if that makes sense). Everyone in the 23rd single thread said that the only way she gets another center is if it's a graduation single and I know that's on management, but her busy schedule also plays a part in it. I'm not saying she should give up on her musical career, just that it seems like it has taken a larger space than before (I'm proud of her though!).
2. Out of all the centers we've seen, nothing comes close to Ikoma in Seifuku no mannequin. Her presence there is unmatchable and I say this as a Maiyan/Asuka fan. I love Asuka but I can't watch the performances where she centers Seifuku no mannequin.
3. With Hinatazaka46 now being a thing, they should ditch SakamichiAKB and just make a Sakamichi group collaboration. 6 members from each team and you get an 18 number senbatsu. And while we're on the SakamichiAKB topic, Asuka should have centered the second song instead of Neru.

 

I honestly really like the vocals of both Matatsu and Apple. Sure, they could use some polishing in the technical department but I don't think it's as bad as some people say it is (or themselves for that matter, as I am pretty sure a part of it is an act). For me, their voices work for the songs, including the serious ones (Boukyaku to Bigaku and Chopin no Usotsuki, for example). I value emotion more than technical perfection.