So on NMB’s channel, they started a new program. The prior one was the one with farming, and I think there are 4 or 5 episodes. The new one is headlined by Takano Yui, who wants to do sports, I guess.

Meet our loyal crew of four.

For some reason I feel bad for Konomin. Everyone else is Team M and pretty close. Then there’s this outsider, lol.

Also they enjoy playing with cocks.

Today’s plan is spearheaded by Aapon, who wanted to do double dutch jump rope.

Seem familiar? It might.

Of course, it doesn’t have the same flair and recording that Docking did, and the all-star trio of Sayaka, Ainyan, and Rikanyan.

Also these guys have a funny name.

A really funny name.

And the story is actually pretty cut and dry. Aapon tries some new techniques and excels, everyone else looks silly.

These two silly cats.

The ace.

It’s funny, I really don’t have much to write about other than saying it’s exactly like the jump rope docking episode. Even the tricks are the same. And there’s no real story, other than Aapon succeeding. Doesn’t even look like much of a struggle.

Probably the only silly thing is Airi failing her leapfrog.

The other 3 only have this one trick and they kept failing their  one jump.

The previews seemed interesting.

Relax and come chill.

Man, I thought I had a lot more to write about, but I guess not. Tune in next time, I guess.

Oh Renapyon…

I didn’t bother watching the news part. I’ll probably go back to it later, something about weather and clouds and stuff.

Instead, we get more Renapyon. God, her character is so awful. I’m hoping that she turns it into something later… it’s kinda why I like BKB, he’s very aware of how fast his routine gets cheesy and he incorporates it into his comedy routine.

She looks like she’s gotten bigger here. Or maybe I just took a bad photo.

This is not the pizza.

I didn’t watch the first dominos episode which seemed legendary, but seriously, why would they make them do such a horrible and torturous task?!

Twice, no less?!

Momoka sounds all serious to start with, but it’s pretty clear that she hates this.

Maybe it’s just me but Momoka seems kinda confrontational lately. She’s still hilarious, but sometimes it’s like… really cold. When I skipped through the episode it did seem like she was pretty aggressive towards the teacher. Hopefully it’s just her variety personality.

As expected, hours are being spent building some strange domino structure, and then we all laugh when they accidentally knock one down.

To break up the monotony they have to do little minigames and are punished if they don’t do it correctly.

Not only are you tortured by having to use sock puppets and mittens, but you also have Renapyon using sock puppets.

Occasionally Momoka goes in the back and trashes on Renapyon’s character.

But then, occasionally Rena will do something silly like this… and I really feel she has to be somewhat intelligent. There’s no way she’s convincing us that’s she udon princess from udon country. She has to know comedy.

Momoka leaves for 20 minutes, so you think she’s taking a nap like last time, but as it turns out…

More of Team M is here to help!

I feel like this is just a disaster waiting to happen. It’s missing Aapon’s random enthusiasm, and Ayabaa is usually hopeless and useless, lol.

For all the knocking that I give NMB48 for not performing live, they actually appear on live comedy/play-type stuff. I think that’s really cool. Actually, I think that’s just cool in general. We spend so much time watching things on TV that are highly produced and flawless, so it’s nice to see that stuff in theaters is still going. Maybe I should check out some stuff at Yoshimoto next time I go.

(Come to think of it, I didn’t get to try that one beef noodle thing that’s really famous. I’ll be sure to do that next time I visit Osaka.)

Anyway…

Ahh, the fresh faced ones.

It’s one thing to develop variety, but it’s another thing to develop your live performing skills like this. Now, Riichan and Momoka aren’t exactly carrying this show, as that’s up to the comedians who dedicate themselves to this, but I like that they’re gaining experience.

Momoka was given a few comedy lines, but for the most part they’re just observers. Riichan isn’t really given much at all.

Glasses for every occasion.

The summary for this episode is that they just concluded a sports festival, and all of a sudden Riichan’s bloomers are missing, so they try and figure out who stole them, and there’s a mock trail. They also slip in a number of cool improv sections, like this part. They search through people’s bags trying to find the bloomers and some of the comedians have to do an improv mono-boke.

Like this guy. They took all this baseball stuff out of his bag, and this became his catcher’s mask.

“If you wanna look through my bag, you have to get through me!” Then the teacher beats him up.

I’m actually impressed with this one guy whose name is Imabeppu Naoyuki. A lot of the shows seem to focus on him, very funny guy. He even confesses to Momoka when the teacher finds his confession letter in his bag.

As soon as he even says her name after collecting himself and the music box background music starts playing…

Instant rejection.

In the process, they discover that one of the comedians, Murakami Kenji, took pictures of the girls in their bloomers, so now he’s accused of actually stealing the bloomers.

OBJECTION!

There were a number of comedy scenes, like asking him to state clearly what his intentions were… in a loud voice! Then a small voice! Then as another comedian!

No one can really account for his whereabouts, until some guy comes in says he took voyeuristic pictures of his girlfriend while she was changing.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING

This actually corroborates his alibi, so he’s free to go.

So who did it? All of a sudden, Imabeppu is acting suspicious.

Uh…

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING

As it turns out, he bought those bloomers online because they’re not even the same color as the school’s.

And in the end, Momoka finds out that Riichan didn’t take her bloomers off and had them on all along.

To be honest, this is one of the reasons I enjoy following idols, because as a non-Japanese it bridges the gap to comedy like this. Like… how do you even find this stuff? Not even your typical Japanese person will tell you about this, and there’s no way you would even study this kind of stuff in a class. It’s like a real life version of Wikipedia, one moment you’re reading about a plant and all of a sudden you find your way to reading about World War 2 just by clicking links.

Another episode where I skip through a lot of things. I do that a lot lately. Man, I’m lazy.

With comedy!

The comedy skit featured what seemed like Miichan and Team 4? I think. I’m so not used to Team 4, and I only see them in passing either by seeing them on AKBingo or other such things. I have to say, Okada Nana really stands out to me. She has a unique look. I don’t know if it’s because I think she’s cute, or because she’s (Tupac) shakure, but for what little exposure I get of Team 4 I seem to see her a lot.

This burger skit was actually quite funny. Well, it feels juvenile, but I don’t care. Also, the comedian’s tsukkomi was actually kinda scary. It’d be something like this:

-”Are you eating here or taking out?”
-”Taking out.”
-”Are you bringing it back home?”
-”Yeah, I’m taking it home.”
-”Are you eating by yourself?”
-”Uh, yeah, that’s right.”
-”Man, you are one lonely person.”
-”LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE.”

It makes me think about how much I like Jinnai’s tsukkomi. I also like Yamada Nana’s tsukkomi, but that seems to only work for her. Doesn’t help that she tennen boke’s too much.

My ears…

As much as I’ve been liking B2 lately, I’m really on the fence with Shuu. She’s got an infectious cute smile and a hilarious bratty personality that’s funny on variety, but her dancing seems kinda meh and her voice makes me cringe. Like… it’s terrible. She has to work on that.

I see this performance and I’m like, man they’re cute and all, but it’s lacking substance. Obviously you’re not gonna win any singing awards with Tonari no Banana but with that said, it’s cringy.

I really want to like Shuu though, I really do.

Yuihaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Under the guise that they were going to perform a skit for NHK, they invited NMB up and as it turns out it was really for the press conference to announce their Kouhaku entry. It was fun to see the normally stonefaced (I guess you can say stoic, damn weird English to Japanese to English nuances) Sayaka burst into tears. Also fun to see was Yui laughing at her at first, and then realizing the gravity of the situation and crying too.

I’ve said this a billion times but I still miss Yui in NMB.

She was also chatting with Riho and Yuppi. Makes me wonder if they had a good relationship too.

I’m always curious to see how popular members treat non-popular members. I remember being somewhat surprised at the NMB documentary because sometimes you’d see Milky go absolutely nuts for a KKS or Team B2 member and you wonder if it’s just for the camera or if she really likes them but just doesn’t have time to hang with them. I always like it when a senior member helps bring up juniors.

The final musical performance was awesome.

I don’t even know who you two are, but you did a damn fine job.

Two girls perform an excellent Piano+Sax rendition of Kareha no Station. Now, it’s not the greatest, but it’s still pretty damn good. This is why I want to follow the group, because when you see stuff like this that they’re capable of, it’s really a treat. I remember reading somewhere that less than 0.05% of all pianists actually become concert pianists. It’s fiercely competitive and you need to practically be a god to be able to do it.

When I see things like this, I think that for a moment… pretty good people can shine. Give them their 10 seconds of fame and reward them just for being very good. I definitely enjoyed this.

Ready for a surprise?

Ah, good ol’ cheesy Nana.

WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR

Well, I heard she dyed it back for now, so that’s good. Man, what a disaster.

And stop making those funny faces at me!

This was a pretty short section this time around. All they did was put makeup on. Okay, so they actually explained the rationale behind their makeup and it does make sense, kind of. They use optical illusions to balance their faces and stuff.

AND THEY’RE THE SAME SIZE! NO WAY!

Basically, if you want to make your eyes look bigger or smaller, you play with your eyebrows and stuff.

Heh , she looks funny when you can see her forehead.

And so they do some magic on her.

Does this scare anyone?

I’ve probably said this a billion times, but man, makeup scares me sometimes. It’s kinda trippy how some people wake up in the morning and look completely different than during the day. I guess it’s cool that they have Nana do this since she takes makeup-less pictures and posts them on G+ nearly every day. And she doesn’t look that great without makeup, so I applaud the effort. In some ways you can look at it and think that she’s prettier because she doesn’t look like everybody else.

Or maybe I’m just going crazy.

Dat forehead though.

They also put makeup on the other girl.

Skirts are short.

Aaaaaaaaaaand we’re done.

She had a nose complex, so they did that one trick with the inverted arrow.

This one.

By applying make up in a pattern like the top arrow, they are able to make her nose not look fat.

And that was it. Really. I told you it was a short episode.

Really? Cards? Don’t you have any loftier goals?

Ohta Yuuri wants to play cards. for her NMB channel special. Uh, that’s great, I guess. Couldn’t you have chosen something that requires more effort or something?

Still, look at that face! Isn’t she adorbs?!

Meet the team.

Renacchi, Mako, Uuka, and Ohta. Kinda wish they mixed it up and got more members from other teams. Also, they’re playing in a room that either looks like they’re gonna have a sleepover, or a prison.

Anyway, since Mako’s finally not showing her forehead her looks seemed to have improved dramatically. She also seems to developed her talking skill, and if I’m not mistaken she also has connections within the industry. I see potential.

I also want to like Uuka, I really do. But sometimes she’s too burikko for me. I guess it makes sense because she’s only 15, but I like it when she looks and acts cool instead of cute. Oh well. I’m also fairly certain she’ll be a bombshell when she grows up.

I also know nothing about Renacchi. Sorry.

Oh God, Uno.

I remember one time I was getting with boba with friends, and they had Uno lying around. This was also when I was a college student and accordingly was quite poor. The boba place was next to the arcade we frequented and I didn’t have money to play so us 4 decided to play Uno.

The game would’ve went on practically forever. I’m sure we were playing one game for at least 30-40 minutes. Some people got tired of it and allowed others to cheat. Those bastards! I think in the end everyone laughed at me because I was salty. I wasn’t REALLY salty but I acted like it. Good times.

I don’t think this game will go on for 30-40 minutes.

And everyone is so friendly too. They all let each other put cards down.

See, when I play, I play for blood. Okay, not for blood, but you know how it is, you want to try and be a jerk to whoever is going to finish and try and see what color they want to put down, or you can save your skips and reverses when they look like they’re going to go out, etc.

Not here.

They’re all giggly and friendly.

Well, that escalated quickly.

You know what else is creepy? It feels like I’m watching a bunch of girls at a sleepover. It looks like they got all their stuff scattered around. Maybe after this game they’ll do each other’s hair and talk about what guys they like.

I am too old for this.

Anyway, Renacchi and Uuka go out quickly. Surprisingly, they didn’t use the Uno rules where you can call Uno before the other guy does and force him/her to draw 4 cards.  That gets people hella riled up. They made up some rule where they had to say Uno in a funny way, which seemed funny if you were a teenage girl.

I am too old for this.

Why’d you lose? You wanted this.

What did the two fingers say to the arm? Slap!

Well, I hope it gets better. Maybe they’ll be more bloodthirsty next time.

Since I’m bored and I need more content, I think it’s time to start a new series in which I’ll highlight a random member that I’m into, and talk about some of their interesting points.

What’s funny is that I can probably say with 99.9% certainty that the fans for some of these girls are non-existent overseas. We can look at B2 and think that they’re not selling and how it’s hard for them to make inroads on an already saturated market in Japan, well, good luck having fans in other countries.

I also noticed my traffic decreasing. I’m almost certain that I can subtitle or translate stuff from SayaMilky and get the hits but come on, I wouldn’t want to sell my soul to the devil like that. Right?

I JUST SAID NO!

NO, I SAID!

So let’s start with Kusaka Konomi, who I’ve taken a liking to recently.

日下このみ（このみん、えのき）
Kusaka Konomi (Konomin, Enoki)

I used to be an idol, until I took an arrow to the forehead.

Starting with her intro:
「お好み焼きとこのみんどっちが好み？（このみん！）皆さんの好みのこのみんになりたい！」
“Between Okonomiyaki and Konomin, which one do you like? (Konomin!) I want to be a Konomin that you can all like!”

The quick explanation of the humor behind in her introudction is that her name is a pun for “like/liked”. I think you can figure out the rest. She also gets a nickname of enoki for her resemblance to enoki mushrooms, even changing her G+ banner picture to enoki.

For whatever reason, I find her introductions hilarious. Maybe it’s just the look in her eyes. She’s often said to be sleepy, so even though she could be really excited she doesn’t look like it at all. In fact, it was her first introduction during the BII 2nd Stage when I took note of her.

Her personality can best be described by the Japanese expression “My Pace.” Usually when you think of My Pace people you think of people like Kojiharu or Komorin who are not only spacey but also give an impression that they are, to put it lightly, a little less intelligent. Konomin is a little different in that she just seems spacey without giving off the impression that she’s slow. Thankfully, she’s also not spacey to the point where she’s completely weird either (so no Alien Invasions, Ayabaa), so she strikes a moderate balance between weird and hilarious.

How does she stack up performance wise?

Well, her singing is nothing to write home about and she said it was her weak point in the NMB book. (I’m surprised you can actually get away with saying that you suck at singing in a group that is all about singing and dancing.)

However, since her future dream is to open up her own dance studio, she’s absolutely aces at dancing and continues to take lessons at a local studio to stay fresh and build up stamina. You can watch her messing around with Uuka or performing UZA.

She does possess a really unique character in MCs, like the time Uuka was talking about how she was interested in English lately.

So why do I like her? For me it’s her carefree personality. I don’t think she’ll ever be something like center of NMB, but at the same time she occupies a nice spot where she just does work, she seems pretty happy, she’s steadily improving, she has a clear goal in mind, and just overall has fun with what she does. And to me, that’s awesome to watch.

Once again, I skip the educational part. I think they were talking about the Sengoku Jidai or something. Basically, history in Japan that I don’t really care about. I mean, I’ve tried to care about it, but it’s kinda hard to care when you don’t really have any vested interest in it. It’s hard enough when it’s not Samurai Warriors.

Let’s go back to playing with dominoes!

Good Lord, the pain doesn’t end.

5 hours and they’re not even halfway done. This seems like the most annoying thing in the world. You can just feel it getting into everyone’s heads.

Even the cameraman is going mad!

Momoka beats some sense into him.

One of my favorite parts of Renapyon is when her character breaks. And oh, does it break.

She starts complaining about why the rest of Team M isn’t there.

I swear, the penalties for losing the games in between are some of the most vicious penalties ever. They’re already trying super hard not to screw up on their own, and they still do. But to unleash more problems? That’s just cruel.

NMB: Where the Roomba becomes your mortal enemy.

Momoka telling Ayabaa to take care of her pet Roomba better.

But the ROOMBA CARES NOT

They play another punishment game, and lose on the first try, so back to more ridiculous looking things.

Huh?

Ayabaa clearly gets the worst.

And finally, they finish their dominos! Well, not really, but time ran out.

I thought the goal of the whole thing was just to build the picture, but nope. Turns out they actually have to destroy it.

That has to suck. You spend the entire day trying to make a picture with dominos, knowing in the end it all will mean nothing. Perhaps we can sum up the vagaries of life as somewhat of the same thing.

Here we go…

The NMB logo part looked pretty cool.

And they call it a success, though it’s like the Spurs win in 1999: It needs an asterisk.

Sometimes you just have to feel bad for people. This is one of those moments.

And poor Natsumin, she’s always crying but wants to be on TV, lol.

I haven’t been watching Manabu-kun religiously. In fact, you might even say, I don’t really watch it at all. However, with that said, at the end when they give out their awards, it turns out that someone completed a set of 5.

Was there really any doubt? She doesn’t even have any idiot awards.

What kind of great prize does she get?

Oh my goodness: Green Tea Gelato.

Damn, that looks amazing. One reason I’m partial to Japanese desserts is because they’re not really too sweet. American desserts are just incredibly sweet to where I can only have a spoonful before I need an entire mug of coffee or something. And Filipino desserts are the sweetest things I’ve ever had. Do not recommend. I bet they wash it down with a spoonful of sugar or something.

Apparently one of these is $55 and she gets 5 of them. Damn, that’s a lot. Maybe it’s like those watches that they sell where they’re always 95% discounted. Original price $500, pfft.

Sayaka’s teeth are sure enjoying it.

Shimarena shows off a “Lucky Bag.”

Hope everyone had a good holiday season!

I had guests up until last week and I’m just still trying to catch up with all the new stuff, hopefully I can get a couple entries out this week. I didn’t forget you guys, don’t worry. Actually, I subtitled the BKB appearance on Mechaike, but I need a place to upload it… Youtube rejected it right away. (The reason I subbed it was because I was teaching my 2-year-old nephew the BKB and the “Hiiiiyah!” and my cousins were perplexed as to what BKB was, so I subtitled it for them, lol.)

With 2014, I feel like I need to change up some things. I should really find someone to redesign my site and make it more Osaka-ish, but I’ve been saying that for 2 years. Maybe this is the year?

I also feel like I can do a better job of somehow spreading the gospel of NMB. I think that it’s exceedingly rare to find any English-speaking fans of NMB, so I always want to do my best in trying to find stuff or translate stuff or otherwise cover girls that may not get a lot of exposure. The NMB Spotlight seems like a decent idea, but is there anything else? I actually got used to subtitling again so I can subtitle short clips, but something like Naniwa Nadeshiko or a full episode of Manabu-kun would be way too much.

I dunno.

I’ll keep thinking, I guess.

Until then, stay tuned for more 2014 NMB goodness!

Team BII comes out swinging with a performance at the new Makuhari Aeon Mall in Chiba!

Now, unfortunately, I don’t know enough about malls in Japan. I went to an Aeon Mall, but it felt like going to Sears, so maybe this one is bigger? The only other mall I’ve seen was actually right next to a Costco, which was funny because Costco was virtually the same as the US. I was so tripped out that they carried almost all the same products. Even the food court was the same with the hot dog combo deal and the pizza!

But I digress.

Looks like a decent theater, though.

After attending the Osaka Jou Hall concert and reflecting on all the past concert experiences I’ve had, I’ve resolved to only go to performances in small settings. At first I was thinking, “Man, they’re just performing in the mall,” but on the other hand, this is the kind of performance I should enjoy.

So… to be honest, Team BII has become my favorite team as a whole. The reason I like them is because they have the underdog angle, that it feels like they all have to work super hard if they have any hope of breaking out. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Team N, but I don’t think of them as girls that need my support. They are amazing talented and it’s a joy to see them perform. BII, however, has a lot of fantastic girls with potential, and I really enjoy watching them grow their personalities and find new ways to stand out, not just individually, but also as a team.

Someone called Antan oobaka and she looked PISSED, lol. Is this a joke? I hope so!

I feel like I haven’t seen Rikako at all since watching BII perform. Maybe I’m just out of it.

So the twist with this performance?

There’s a lot of live singing! (No way!)

And with that, we have two big winners.

A winner is you!

Renacchi and Yuuri came out big. I really enjoyed this performance, which is funny because I’ve always skipped watching this. Renacchi has a great singing voice. Prior to this, she hadn’t really grown on me and I didn’t know why she was considered highly in BII… but this performance opened my eyes. Yuuri did pretty well too, looking adorbs as usual. This is why I love live singing, because then you get great moments like this.

Of course, my honeyz in the Faint unit also nailed it.

Anchu doesn’t even look like Anchu.

The Faint unit has easily become my favorite. Uuka looks sizzling and has great chemistry with Konomin, and Anchu surprisingly looks like an idol. Look how cool she looks in that shot! Uuka’s been impressing me more and more performance wise, though her talk character has been pretty one dimensional to me. I hope she gets more opportunities to strut her stuff. I really hope they keep this unit together, it’s sooooo strong.

Of course live singing isn’t kind to everyone, and you can tell some people weren’t used to it. The Junai Cresecendo unit in particular seemed like at the end they were all tired and just started yelling instead of singing, mostly evident with Emichi because her voice is so distinctive.

Rikako’s reaction when Ijiri confessed that she dropped Yuuri’s chapstick in the toilet is golden.

When I think about it, not everyone on the team necessarily has to be a good talker as long as they have a couple great ones to bring out the rest of them… and Makopon is absolutely fantastic at it. And that totally surprises me, given that she’s only 14. This might not be the best example, given that her voice was cracking (due to puberty? Man, I am terrible and old) but her MCs always bring such interesting topics and she hosts them like a pro. Very impressive.

Equally entertaining is the Emichi/Hako pairing.

I don’t know why, but I like watching Emichi paired up with Hako. It might be the fact that they both possess infectious smiles, and Hako’s smile is absolutely hilarious to me. Emichi’s push has gotten me to like her smile and her laughter; if I can be frank, her physical appearance isn’t that attractive, but then she smiles and laughs and I can’t help but like her.

Anyway, it gets to the singles and the group singing, and it does kinda hurt the ears… honestly, those songs were not really composed for singing live, heh. Especially Kamonegix, or Kamonegics, or whatever you want to call it. Come to think of it, if I write “Kamonegics”, it reminds me of Abenomics…

And at the end, Anchu declares that Uuka’s ass and Chiba are the best.

From the New Year’s performance, the short skit before Team B2′s performance:

The rest of the New Year’s performance was fantastic, by the way. The KKS song “Sunglasses to Uchiakebanashi” somehow shot up my charts and I’ve been listening to a lot, and the performance is really cool. You get to see the horrid N3 outfits, Akarin’s crab monomane, Fuu-chan’s failed monomane of something (lol) and the dance remix of Kamonegics among other things.

Does this really look like a person who wants to go airborne?

Even though Nana was in tears when she was, err, “selected” to go skydiving, there was something about her that made me think this was going to turn out really well. Maybe it’s because she hilarious reactions. Maybe it’s because she looks and acts like a lazy bum, but when it all comes down to it you know she’s good ’till the end.

Whatever the reason may be, here she is!

And so, this had to be one of the most entertaining parts of Manabu-kun I have ever seen.

Even Nana’s tsukkomi is on point.

Her reaction ability seems to have improved remarkably, perhaps an effect of working on Ohayo Asahi Desu for so long. Her tsukkomi timing is really good, but it’s a natural tsukkomi. (We’ve all seen what happens when she tries to tsukkomi for comedy on Geinin.) She even came up with some quick-witted jokes… for example, skydiving here costs ~$500 (!!) and she declared with pride that her Osakan blood is enjoying the “free” discount.

“Looks like an old plane.”

Nana, expectedly, is not too psyched about jumping out of an airplane. They try and get in some basic practice before they actually go up in the air.

The instructor demonstrates how to get off the plane.

Practicing that flying form.

I remember the first time I went skiing, which was two years ago. I didn’t get off the ski lift properly and, according to my cousin, I “got some air” as I fell off the lift and faceplanted into the snow.

Good times, I guess. =)

One of these days I’ll go skydiving. I feel like once you actually jump off the plane it ain’t no thang, but right before you do it is when you would have to deal with some of the nastiest butterflies ever. It looked pretty fun here.

They played a flashback of Nana’s great memories before she did the jump.

…along with hilarious captions.

Nana acted exactly as I would expect to act myself: frozen from fear from jumping off the plane and holding on to the side of the aircraft only to have the instructor force it off and jump.

Just jump.

Saying that feels so liberating. Perhaps skydiving is in the cards for me…

Nana shows us her non-idol face.

But in the end, she’s entirely elated.

“It was so fun!”

Again, I’m not exactly sure why, but having Nana do this segment feels right. I feel glad for her and it feels like something I wanna do soon.

Sayaka’s commentary actually looked like she wanted to go skydiving herself, she seemed to really enjoy the whole thing. Maachun just seemed to laugh at Nana’s funny faces, lol.

The rest of the Manabu-kun special seemed fantastic, though admittedly I only watched this part and the part with Shimarena/Kinoshita H./Renapyon. Renapyon is soooo good, that’s all I have to say about that.

To the people lining up since yesterday to offer congratulations, thank you very much.❤️

It was probably really cold…
I’m really happy though. (T_T)

After receiving many cheers of congratulations I was able to happily attend the coming of age festival.

Everyone has their own opinion of what coming-of-age is,
For me, even though I may not be ready,
With the support of everyone,
I want to become better and outstanding person, so I want to experience more and learn every day.(^o^)

As I turn 20 years old,
I will also become an adult as an idol.

Because of that, using the things I have learned, my strength of expression in performances, my talking ability,  and with other abilities I have cultivated until now,
I want to lead the way for NMB48 and AKB48!
（´-`）.｡oO I have to level up!

Also, I want NMB48 to appeal nationally!

I graciously received entering AKB48 Senbatsu and holding a concurrent position in Team B,
And by receiving personal work I am able to help people find out about me,
And with that opportunity I believe it’s important to love NMB48.

With each opportunity to work, I can’t waste it.

2014 is a year that the groups shall battle.
There is no way we will lose.

If NMB48 can become bigger,
We can make everyone’s dream come true.

I’m excited thinking about it!

I’m gonna give it everything I’ve got!

I’m going to do my best to make everyone smile, from all the members of NMB48, to the staff, to all the fans that have supported us!

Finally, please continue to watch over as I come of age! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ笑

I like it.

NMB got Kouhaku, and that’s great.

Now we have to dethrone the other groups. Let’s go!

Here, enjoy a subtitled MC.

Jou definitely looks more confident and polished compared to her earlier days. Her laugh is still adorable as ever, but she also seems much more comfortable and at ease talking to people, talking to the crowd, etc.

I believe her Junai no Crescendo was live voiced… I think. If that is true, then even her singing ability has improved tremendously. I’m actually eagerly awaiting her push back to the top, and the stars of the NMB young generation in Aika-Jou-Shuu-Nagisa seems like a bright future for NMB.

As for Konomin’s birthday, she managed to impress me more than she had. Great comedic timing on the MC (especially when she put her hands to cover her eyes, lol), great reactions to the letters being read, especially the surprise one from Murokana, and her Faint center was fun to watch along with the enormous calls she was getting. Even her intro was great, in which they modified the response–

“Between Okonomiyaki and Konomin, which one do you like?”

“ENOKI!”

And then all her fans held up these signs about Konomin’s dance studio, which is her dream career. She also mentioned she wants to choreograph an NMB song one of these days, so that’s something to look forward to.

I can’t believe I’m enjoying Konomin this much, who would’ve thought…

I’ve been trying to write another one of those NMB spotlights, but it’s really tedious when you want to include video clips and subtitle them. It’s like, it’s in wmv, but you have to convert it into avi, but sometimes you have to convert into mp4 first, and… arggggh.

I should be able to get it done this weekend.

Anyway, the latest program on NMB48′s channel features an interesting cast.

Team N, yeah yeah but WHAAAAT EMICHI?

Not only is Emichi appearing alongside studs like Milky and Keicchi, she’s also the lead of this segment. Her wish was to ride horses or something because she really likes horses, Milky wants to play little baby chickens, and Keicchi wants to play with lizards. Uh, you do that…

Milky’s wind-battered hair is hot.

If there’s anyone who I always switch sides on, it’s Milky. When I see her perform, sometimes her lip-synching is just terrible and it seems like all she wants to do is look cute. Her singing ability is questionable and nasally. On Geinin 2 she seemed to fail almost all of her jokes but got away with because she was cute (or wasn’t as bad as Nana).

But then sometimes she shows this really passionate side of her. Like that translated post, where she wants to bring NMB to be competitive. I’m almost certain her work ethic is second-to-none, and you wouldn’t expect someone like her to be able to pull off something like UZA with World Order, but she does it. When she’s on variety, she’s unrelenting. If you look past the cuteness and observe her a little more closely, you can see her absolutely dedicated to steering topics and jokes to the way she wants. And that Milky is awesome.

So, our lovely trio takes a trip to the farm.

Milky pointing with her middle finger was a little bit disturbing though.

Milky’s belief that horses look like and think like a pervert all the time.

The talk inside the car was actually pretty interesting. You get to see how Milky and Keicchi interact with Emichi, and it’s not very often you see that (which is kinda sad, but that’s another story).

I probably wrote about it before but I’m glad that Emichi and NMB in general is taking full advantage of her push and luck from Janken. You look at Harukyan and Uchida Mayumi and they weren’t really able to take the Janken single anywhere, but Emichi is getting a huge push and helping to carry B2.

I also really like her infectious cheery demeanor. I wish I could be that happy-looking all the time!

Keicchi is a big fan of how Emichi looks in a swimsuit.

Another interesting thing that came out of the van conversation was that Emichi wants to become an actress. I mean, a lot of people want to be actresses, but one thing that surprised me was that she participated in a musical before. There may be hope for her yet!

I do remember the topic of acting coming up once in a discussion on S48. It is kinda sad that the only drama acting experience was Keicchi in Poison, a late late night Kansai drama, and now Nana in another late late night Kansai drama.

We’re here. Nice duds, Milky.

Nothing really happens at the farm in this episode, except for constant outpouring of KAWAII by all the girls.

Even this dude, who was “#1 scariest dog” gets KAWAII treatment.

KAWAII

KAWAII FOR THE CAMERAMAN

The next episode seems to have Milky playing with the chicks, Emichi riding horses, and Miru showing up for some reason.

I, Umehara Mako, hereby announce my graduation.

As I did a lot of activities and experienced many things with NMB48, my thoughts towards a certain dream of mine that I held for a long time have strengthened.
The more I continued with NMB, the more I felt that I couldn’t chase that dream.
But, with my personality, it was difficult to keep doing both, and I thought that I would be half-heartedly doing both of them.
With all of this on my mind, I decided to graduate from NMB48 and pursue this other dream.
I will become a high school student this spring, and I want to work hard and study towards my dream.

Even though I never made senbatsu, I’m really thankful to everyone that cheered me on. I was really fortunate to have worked with NMB48 and to have fans cheer me on.

Please continue to support me in NMB48 so that I don’t leave with any regrets.

Miorin:

Good luck pursuing your dream!

It takes a lot of courage to graduate and choose a new path with determination.

But taking that first step is necessary to change!

While I’m still a concurrent member, I want to treasure the time I have with Mako.

Oota Yuuri:

My favorite Mako-chan announced her graduation.

I heard it about it just before, so I was able to prepare myself, but still, when the time came I became incredibly sad.

Everyone is bawling…

But that’s the just way it is.

I also cried when Mako told me over the phone.

There’s still time before she graduates, so until then, no, even afterwards, let’s keep hanging out like we still do❤❤❤

Much love, Mako!

Aapon:

So, Makopon is graduating ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)･ﾟ･｡

The Makopon that I liked, who would always talk to me with a cute and radiant smile!?

Emichi:

Makochan announced her graduation.

It’s a graduation meant to bring her closer to her dreams.

So, I’ve decided to support her.

I have feelings of uneasiness and of loneliness, but…

“Congratulations on graduating!”
… is how I want to send you off.

I love you, Makochan!!!♡♡

Anchu:

I was surprised by Mako’s graduation.

But I think that that Mako is really cool!

She’s got a great smile

Akarin:

Makopon(´；ω；｀)

I’ll miss you…(´；ω；｀)

I really liked your impersonations(´；ω；｀)

*sniff*(´；ω；｀) I’ll miss you (´；ω；｀)

Uuka:

There was announcement that Mako was graduation tonight.

I knew about it beforehand.

But still, I wasn’t able to collect myself.

As the stage performance was ending, I really felt uneasy.

It’s the first graduation from B II.

We overcame a lot of things…

I’m gonna miss you.

I really like you, Mako…

I love BII.

I love you guys like a family.

That’s why, I’ll continue to cheer you on.

I’m going to treasure the remaining time I have with Mako, and the BII before the reshuffle.

Somehow,

I didn’t think I was going to write such serious things about Mako, lol.

Is this a prank? lol

—-

About Mako,

She seems like a frivolous person,

But deep down she’s amazingly mature

And I think it’s really cool that she sat down and discovered her own path.

Nagisa:

I was really surprised by the graduation announcement.

But, I will always fondly remember the kind and funny Makopon-san.

I want you to keep running towards your dreams!

Me too, I don’t want to lose!

Ripopo:

I just learned about Makopon’s graduation announcement.

We’re both from Kyoto, and I think Makopon is a really funny person, so I was looking forward to doing some location shoots together..

To graduate for you dream…

Good luck, Makopon!

As someone who comes from Kyoto, work hard and give us something to represent, Makopon!

Sayanee:

At today’s B II performance, Makopon announced her graduation.

I thought she was still a young kid, but to take a step towards pursuing her dream, I think that’s really cool.

As the first person to graduate from BII, I was really shocked and I’ll miss her, but it’s those things that strengthen both of them, and I think they will both grow as a result.

Fight on, Makopon!

Fight on, Team BII!

Shuu:

When writing this blog… there was Mako’s graduation announcement.

Mako ;_;

I know there was nothing I could do, but I really want to perform tonight.

Finally, there’s someone graduating from BII ;_;

It’s heart-wrenching…

I really like Mako

We’d always say dumb stuff, and joke around…

And have serious talks…

When we’d have work over multiple days, we’d always spend time together…

This hurts ;_;

It’s so sad…

I honestly hate this…

I’ve thought about this and that with Mako, and I, along with all the other B II members, know that it’s the right thing to cheer you on.

Yeah…

Cheering you on.

It’s not like we can’t meet.

Heh.

I will definitely show up for the graduation performance, Makochan.

There’s a lot more, but you get the picture, I think. That’s a lot of stuff to translate, lol.

I’m definitely gonna miss her. She was a leader of BII, a great MC, always cheerful. I thought it was only a matter of time until she would breakout and start doing good work, as she was one of the better talkers and was developing an interesting side, like a Miichan. I think it definitely hurts more to see a leader graduate, especially someone so young and seemingly unfulfilled, but girls gotta do what they gotta do.

AIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

AIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I quite like Aika. She was the fastest promoted member, yet strangely because of her fast promotion to Team N, she’s missing out on a lot of the hype that the KKS team is getting right now. It’s sad to see when she writes about how she wants to perform at the KKS performance, and it seems as if she wishes she had more time to spend with the 4th gens.

On top of that, Team N performances are few and far in between. It seems like there’s one a month, if that, so while her KKS friends are getting experience subbing for Team M and Team B II, she seems to be missing out on that push.

She also randomly gets bad luck, as recently somebody was arrested for credit card theft, and he was using those credit cards to buy tickets for none other than Aika-chan. Sad stuff.

Nevertheless, here she is, with Kanakichi and Maachun. She also appeared on Kanakichi’s fishing program, so maybe… incoming pair? Maybe.

The teacher has a cool jacket though.

I’ve actually been spoiled already to the results of this since it was in some of the news. Essentially our 3 girls are picked to perform a tap dancing number to open for a musical/play. The theatre is actually right next door to the NMB theatre.

The play is based on Americans or something. “American Variety Bang!”

Funny story, when I was in Osaka last October, I did see advertisements for this, and, as an actual American, I am always genuinely curious as to what other people think about us. Especially me, because I forget how culturally diverse it is here, and when I identify myself as American in Japan it causes slight confusion at first.

Obviously, I won’t be able to watch this musical.

It has black people and a Michael Jackson impersonator though!

Of course, you should be quite used to the pattern. Girls learn something new, struggle through it, minor crisis and all that.

Aika being the only one who has experience.

The two girls laughing at Maachun’s steps.

They all fall down.

Footage was available a few weeks ago, so you can find the results if you look hard enough. However, the results on Manabu-kun are coming on in the following week.

Still, I really like the fact that Aika is getting some push now, and I definitely want to see her get more stuff.

Last week I went on vacation, and this week I came down with a terrible stomach virus.

But now I’ve had some time to catch up. Or rather, since I took sick leave, I can catch up, lol.

Aika and Kanakichi practicing while filming for something else.

We get to see the conclusion of the tap dancing segment. It’s kinda funny because it’s fairly predictable… like Dragon Ball Z. They train all hard and it’s difficult but then they manage to train well and succeed! I thought it was cool with the jump roping thing, but it feels a bit overplayed on Manabu now.

Sayaka comes by to troll. Interesting clothing choice by Maachun too.

Milky comes by to dispense advice.

I thought Milky’s advice was totally the advice that she’d give, which is that they need to watch their facial expression… that’s something she takes a lot of pride in and always seems to mention it interviews. I think she overdoes it sometimes though, especially at the expense of actually looking like she’s singing. Then again, I wonder if that’s the whole point of this idol business…

All dressed up!

Getting nervous before the big performance.

When I watch this stuff, I kinda miss performing on a big stage. Or on a stage in general. Granted, my performances were limited to uh, DDR tournaments, but still, I miss being able to do stuff in front of a crowd. I still can, I guess, but no one will come out to see me. But yeah, I miss all that stuff, the feeling of being nervous before something big, practicing so damn hard to perfect your small little thing, looking out into the faces of the crowd as they stare at you… that stuff is so cool.

I suppose that’s one reason why I love watching this stuff. Living vicariously through them…

Uuka why so salty, lol.

So as expected, especially since it was in some news outlets, our NMB girls perform admirably and succeed. You could also see Kanakichi’s expression during her solo part look really strained at worried so everyone laughed at her, then as the song went on she relaxed and looked the part.

All in all it was a decent segment, though I guess I’m just saying that because AIKAAAAAAAA. I swear, Aika is going to go places real soon…

And for some reason I kept thinking that the teacher looked really cool, haha.

I’m actually very bitter over the shuffle. Like, I wanna quit the group-level of bitterness. I’ll try to avoid that and keep my thoughts to a later post.

I was really curious when reading BII Members’ G+ about something they were doing, with BKB and on Idol Revue… whatever that is. But it seemed fun. And here it is!

… I hate you. Why would you bring that up now.

Ok, so in reality, they’re gonna do plays/live action.

Supposedly they did a horrible skit during the Osaka Jo concert (they certainly didn’t do it on the day I saw it) and we should remember the skit they did for New Year’s, which was laugh-at-able, not laugh-with-able… except for Yuuri, who was somehow the funniest without saying anything.

So they gathered up all of BII and had them “audition” to be separated into teams.

Either this rapping fellow’s team…

Or this guy’s team. He kinda looks like a character from Advance Wars.

The audition process consisted of some improv acting and some rapping.

The thought of Konomin rapping makes me giggle.

Sakipi’s voice and rapping is just… heh.

“They have nothing but cuteness.”

Hiphop-man makes a good point. It would be nice to actually develop their talent through things like this play, increasing their confidence and rhythm and dance skills and singing instead of, oh, I dunno, moving people around to other teams and/or cities for some unknown reason. Certainly, people would be even more attracted to talented and cute girls, right?

Shuu started tearing up because she felt that she half-assed the audition. Gotta love the “don’t wanna lose” mentality of BII.

Team split, with left side being the dramatic side and the right side being the hip hop side.

Then we see them get their scripts. Most surprising is Anchu’s reaction.

She starts crying after flipping through the script because she’s worried about memorizing her lines.

All of us who’ve seen Geinin 2 remember a lot of Anchu’s entertaining NG scenes, but man… she took it pretty hard when she looked at the script. In the NG scenes you could tell she felt really guilty too, even though everyone was trying to cheer her up (I believe Milky mentioned that she fell asleep because of the multiple takes though) and I guess she really felt it here. And she didn’t even attempt to act it out yet, she just flipped through the script.

Tough times for a TEAM to overcome. Sure would be nice if they all STUCK TOGETHER and helped each other through it.

Mako is our star for the drama.

They included footage of Mako’s graduation announcement. Curiously, in this segment, she mentioned that one of her dreams was to become an actress.

Could it be, that Mako graduated because NMB was taking time away from her to become an actress? It would be curious if that were the case, as she also announced she was going to high school, and in a stage show prior to the graduation announcement she also mentioned she got the highest score on a math exam. Is it school, or is it acting? She never really mentioned it.

Improv acting!

I took acting class twice, in high school and in university. Both teachers I had, had roots in improv acting. And let me say, it’s really fun. You play a bunch of games and loosen up in the beginning. Come to think of it, I really did enjoy acting. Maybe in some alternate world I became a starving actor in Hollywood doing low budget plays in janky theaters. But for now I’m some boring government employee with a title of engineer. Meh.

Anyway, this teacher looked pretty cool and fun.

On the other hand…

The rap group was centered with Murokana, and I dunno why but they made the coach look like a dick. Non-stop criticism and off-hand sarcastic comments. No one looked like they were having fun. It was pretty awful.

They had these funny looking guys do funny looking dances.

No reaction though.

Muro is struggling, so they decide to take her to the mean streets of America-Mura in Osaka to level up her rapping.

Oh jesus

They looked pretty salty, but this is Japan. I would not want to bump into people dressed like that in LA. They were actually pretty friendly. One of the guys had a “Neighborhood Watch” hoodie on, and I would’ve been super impressed if that was a Dilated Peoples reference. But alas, it was not.

After some initial coldness, she did pretty well, so then they suggested to go outside and try it.

That face though.

Have you tried freestyle rap? It’s pretty hard. I have pretty good rhythm and people are impressed when we go Karaoke and I can rap flawlessly, but freestyle is like… man, how do you even come up with that stuff so fast. A few years ago I bought the Rapstar game for 360 and my cousin and brother crushed the regular mode, so we were bored and just started messing around with the freestyle mode. For some reason I turn into Nate Dogg when I freestyle. Go figure.

She gains confidence when people are impressed by her terrible rhymes. And the guy in the car in the back was like “WTF”

The thing is, when you’re terrible, if you’re still having fun it’s all good and it loosens you up and your audience. That might be why we had so much fun with the freestyle mode of Rapstar, we were just messing around with rhymes and ended up terribly rapping for 3 hours. So good on Muro.

WTF we’re starting already?

He tells them that they still suck, 15 minutes before the performance.

Uh, not very inspiring, are we.

The crowd starts to gather.

Hey, I know that guy in the audience.

And I know that MC also!

The play was surprisingly well done.

Luckily, Anchu didn’t miss any of her lines, and they acted quite well. You’d have never known, compared to their prior skits that they did. As a Team of BII. Before they did their Team BII song. Almond Croissant.

The hip hop dance team thingy!

The other team really just needed more time to gel. They missed a lot of dance steps and it seemed like they didn’t have enough practice. Still, Uuka, Sakipi, and Konomin were awesome rapping. Actually, in general Uuka was just killing out there, time and time again she’s proven that she’s a stud performer. The Faint unit looks different when Konomin centers in Uuka’s absence, and even though Konomin’s more than technically proficient, Uuka adds so much soul to Faint and elevates everyone else too.

It would be nice if they were able to just get her more songs and performances to boost her stock instead of, oh, I dunno, putting in random people from AKB into the group to shove her out of senbatsu or something.

Konomin’s role was to play the clown and get people hype. That might be why I like Konomin so much, she reminds me a lot of me when I was in improv class and I was the clowny one. Which is funny, because I’m really an engineer. Or maybe I’m really a clown.

Mako’s team wins.

“It’s great that as Team BII we can pull off something as big as this.”

That’s great, ain’t it, Emichi. Ain’t it.

And in the only move that seems non-dickish, the guy gets Muro some spring rolls because she rapped about how she wanted to eat some in an improv session.

I think the hiphop team would’ve been way better if it didn’t seem like the guy was a douche all the time. He really didn’t need that and they didn’t really need that. Overall the performance was actually quite fun too, and the whole thing was really fantastic to watch for BII fans.

Why I’m bitter about the Shuffle:

I was joking with a friend earlier, saying that “Hey, you know that big Japanese girl group that I shamefully like? Well, tonight is do-or-die time so I might not like them at all after what’s going down.”

Well, I was actually unprepared for the die portion.

I absolutely hate this shuffle and am thinking of quitting.

Let me go over the reasons, but in short, all the changes seem to have to have wiped away the identity that NMB48 and the individual teams seem to have built for itself.

1 – Intrashuffling of the teams destroys the identity that they worked so hard for.

As fans, we suffered through at least 3 years of delays regarding N3′s original stage. We were so eager to see N3 because we wanted to see Team N with its own songs, its own identity, singing things that were tuned and tailored to their ability.

And we got it, and it was fantastic. Fans of any of the girls, whether they were fans of starlets SayaMilky or less pushed girls like Rika and Yuppi, were rewarded with great performances all around and songs that let you know who they were.

… and now it’s gone. Only 3 months have passed since Shonichi and with only 10 performances to their name, the benefit of having an original stage is wiped away, the equivalent of Santa taking his presents back. It’s strange that I’ll be watching the rest of the Team N stages with a bittersweetness.

Fans of Team M have to be heartbroken. Team M was tumultous from the start, facing graduations before they even debuted as a full team, facing the graduation of their superstar in Jo, and enduring a gargantuan amount of criticsm on why they’re not as good as Team N. They persevered and they were rewarded with their own tour, announced during the Osaka Jou Hall Concert, causing Momoka to collapse with joy. They titled their tour, “We’re done warming the bench,” indicating that they were finally ready to emerge from their cocoon and blossom as stars in their own right.

… and now it’s gone. What was supposed to be a breakthrough tour for them is now a farewell tour. What should’ve been one of the happiest moments for Team M is now filled with tears.

Team BII, who quickly rose to become my favorite team, was a team that was mostly ignored. Whereas Team M was full of misfits and compared to Team N constantly, Team BII just lacked any presence and it was magnified when they were the only team on the Revival Stage tour that failed to sell out.

But they didn’t sit their crying and whining. They recognized their difficult situation. They campaigned on the streets, something that the old Teams from AKB HAD to do to stay relevant. They challenged themselves through the “Almond Croissant Keikaku,” a series of challenges that included playing their Team song on instruments, or learning the dance of UZA for one performance. For the last few weeks, BII members shared an undeniable bond, with so many posts of theirs declaring “I love BII!”

… and now it’s gone. Now that the ignored were finally getting some attention coming their way and working so damn hard to prove that they aren’t some no-namers, their name is stripped off and their members cast into different teams.

Last year, the entirety of NMB was driven by one singular goal: To make Kouhaku, to prove that they are on the same or better level as SKE and AKB. And they did it in spectacular fashion, executing a wonderful dance performance of Kamonegics with every single member. The underdog teams combined together to prove that this group shouldn’t be overlooked.

… and now it’s gone.

All of the things that I’ve wanted and supported for many years seems to have just gone up in smoke.

2 – Establishing a new identity in these times seems nigh impossible.

When it comes to teams, there are very few things that actually build team spirit within a group like NMB. First and foremost are stages and concerts/tours.

Guess what? Team N had N3, Team M has the M tour, and Team BII was still working on their newly received Tadaima Renaichuu. They did it well, though some of us would’ve liked to see M getting something instead of still doing Idol no Yoake.

Now, let’s get something straight: There is no hope for new original stages any time soon for M or BII, let alone Shin-Team N. They will probably continue to rehash the same tired AKB stages that have been done time and time again. As much as I like BII’s Junai no Crescendo, it’s unmistakably a no3b song because it was their song to begin with. The lack of original stages won’t help any of the girls regardless of the shuffle and in fact, puts them on worse ground.

What else builds identity? Struggle. The foundation of corny sports movies are teams that struggle to gel, overcome their failures through training, and emerge as contenders. M and BII were still going through the struggle, and the whole of NMB struggled for their Kouhaku appearance. The new teams won’t have the feeling of struggle like they did beforehand. “Oh, BII has Milky, they’re a lock now.”

There’s still hope that there will be team activities like what I wrote about yesterday when Team BII did their skits. Still, team pride pretty much went out the window in AKB after they stopped making original stages, and the shuffle for NMB feels like they’re trashing them too.

3: While the new identity is being built, there’s a bunch of transfers and temps that have confusing roles and interfere with the development of original NMB girls.

When I look at the transfers, were they to join the already established teams, it would’ve been sweet. Yukirin performing Zipper, Sheegs on Nandomo Nerae , Churi and Umeda in BII with their awesome performance ability, Reinyan… well, I dunno where she’d fit in given all the Team M unit shuffles, but still. All of them could’ve offered both an identity boost to the current team and built up their individual fanbase at the same time. A win/win for everyone.

Instead, since it’s concurrent with the shuffle, the girls are not merely supplementing the group but have to be considered core for the revival of the individual teams and the group as a whole. And I don’t like that. Many of the mid-tier girls looking for their breakout roles, like Shimarena, Ayabaa, Uuka, Yuuri, Saeppi, Momoka, Yuipon, etc. are now shunted to the back in favor of the more popular transfers. Senbatsu becomes a fortress, and it makes me cringe to think that the 10th single may have so many members from other groups. I don’t like thinking that the latest song has a bunch of second and third-tier AKB girls instead of NMB girls looking for their big break.

So, even if they do build themselves back up, they might not be re-made in the image that I originally came to love, and they might be around a core of girls that I haven’t cared about and would be hard-pressed to care about now.

Aside: I keep talking about image and identity… why is that important to me?

When it comes to supporting teams and companies and such, fans want the ability to identify with and support things that they feel resonates and reflects with who they want to be. It could be for simple, geographical reasons (I like the Lakers because I live in LA) or because I like the way a team thinks and operates, or I like a company because of their philosophy and approach to product design.

Whatever it may be, there’s a big reason why fans of teams and organizations tend to say “We” instead of “They”.

I fully identified with NMB as well as each of the smaller teams. It’s no secret that I liked them all, I liked the talent and the way they were developing, I liked what they stood for, and I wanted to continue to support them as they are. When that image breaks up, it makes it very difficult to continue supporting them when they stepped on the things you liked.

4: Handling the Jo situation.

Jo is due to come back and in a big way. There’s no denying her star power, but she carries a burden on her back for having left the group due to all the pressure. For some people, she also left at a time when Team M needed her the most.

Her comeback was supposed to signify mistakes that were made from everyone and that they would work through it, figure out where they went wrong, and resolve it for the future. As for Jo, she was actually doing work and bridging a significant gap between generations, bonding with many 4th-gens. Her chemistry with Ayatin was great, and she would do silly things like spam her G+ with over 40 messages.

Management decided to drop the bomb on her and promote her to Team M.

That was probably one of the worst decisions you could make. You’d bring her back into a Team where members and fans are still somewhat salty that she left. You promote her before other KKS, especially experienced, hardworking and talented ones like 2nd-gens Hirorin and Yuumin who have more than proven themselves to be capable by subbing for all the stages.

Now, Jo has since decided to refuse the transfer, which brings her to the other side of the miserable situation. Now if other KKS get promoted, they can’t help but feel that it’s because “Jo let them get promoted.” If they don’t get promoted, they’re stuck thinking “Why is she still here? Why did she pass up an opportunity that any of us would’ve taken in a heartbeat?”

No matter what Jo chose, it would do nothing but increase the level of awkwardness, and it’s management that put her in this sorry situation.

With nothing left to support, and with confusing decisions being made from the top, I am stuck here wondering whether it’s still worth it to watch, with a lot of the answers tending towards “No.” To be honest, in entertainment, you never really quit something by declaring it to be over, you simply just get bored of it. I’ll be curious to see if they can somehow maintain the same level of entertainment they did for me.