Sasshi vs Nogizaka46 – The 1st Day Sales Are In

So today was the day when we’d find out who would come out on top in the much publicised and hyped-up battle between everyone’s favorite wota girl Sasshi and the new kids on the block and AKB48’s official rival Nogizaka46.  To be honest I’m kinda surprised how the sales results have come out. I expected the figures to be much closer than what they are but congratulations are in order to Nogizaka46 who triumphed with sales of 111,222 compared to Sasshi’s 56,879. One thing in Sasshi’s  favor is she did even better than Mayuyu’s debut and sold 6k more than her so congratulations are in order to her.

I would have thought that all AKB48 fans regardless of whether Sasshi is their oshi or not would have bought her single in order to beat their upstart rivals.  Perhaps there will be a counterattack by AKB48 fans tomorrow who will go out and buy Sasshi’s single? This battle isn’t over yet.

COME ON SASSHI, I’M PRAYING FOR YOU TO WIN THIS FIGHT!

 

Nogizaka46 vs Sasshi Is On!

The first head to head chart battle between a member of AKB48 and their official rivals Nogizaka46 has now been given the green light! On May 2nd Nogizaka46 release their 2nd single whilst Sasshi also releases her debut solo single. This is going to be an interesting fight as I’m sure AKB48 fans will try to not let their newest rivals win this contest. As for myself, I’ll be in Sasshi’s corner all the way. Let battle commence and may the best one win!!

Nogizaka 46’s Version Of Aitakatta

I’m not going to make a habit of posting about Nogizaka 46 as I’m concentrating solely on the 000 groups but I just had to share this Youtube video which shows the group performing their own unique version of Aitakatta (which they call Aitakatta Kamoshirenai) on their Japanese TV show Nogizaka tte, doko?. It’s really good IMO – slightly more rockish than the original, sounds a little bit different but still very enjoyable. I wonder how this so-called rivalry with AKB48 will pan out in the future especially with Nogizaka 46 about to launch their debut single at the end of February. This version of Aitakatta is likely to feature on that single as one of the c/w tracks.

Click on the link to see and hear the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONX98QRqvJ0

SDN48 Don’t Want To Lose To Nogizaka 46

Yesterday saw SDN48 hold an event at Yomiuri Land for their latest single ‘MIN MIN MIN’.

They performed 7 songs during the event which was attended by 2,500 fans. The inevitable question about Nogizaka 46 came up by reporters. Serina seems to think that the 2 years experience they have over Nogizaka 46 will hold them in good stead so they won’t be able to pass them. SDN48 don’t want to lose to them. Unfortunately Serina, it looks like SDN48 is going to lose easily to them and they haven’t even debuted yet. Nogizaka 46 will have a big publicity machine in Sony behind them who will make sure that they’re going to be on the news and in the papers. Plus the rivalry with AKB48 will be enough to generate plenty of newspaper columns in the months ahead.

I’m just waiting for the first Nogizaka 46 member to fire a shot across the bow at AKB48 and say something bad about them. If this is supposed to be a proper rivalry then let’s get the claws out and start ripping into each other. There’s no point pussyfooting around and say ‘we really like AKB48’ etc. If they want plenty of attention and plenty of headlines, then they’ll have to throw down the gauntlet to AKB48 and just say ‘we’re here and we’re going to take your crown away from you’.

AKB48 Official Rivals – Nogizaka 46 Members Announced

Sony and Aki-P’s newest idol group and the official rivals to challenge for AKB48’s dominance have been unveiled and announced. Over the past weekend, the final round of auditions took place at the Sony Music Entertainment’s Nogizaka Building. 36 spots in the group was up for grabs and 56 girls were in contention. Initially 38,934 girls tried out for auditions for the group. As well as the 36 spots, the provisional 16 senbatsu members for the group have also been chosen. The average age for the group is 16 years old – the youngest member is 12 years old and the oldest is 21 years old.

The members names, how old they are and where they come from are as follows:

Top 5 Center Members

Yoshimoto Ayaka, 14 years old, Kumamoto (Rival: Tomochin)
Sakurai Reika, 17 years old, Tokyo (Rival: Eguchi Aimi)
Akimoto Mantsu, 17 years old, Saitama (Rival: Kojima)
Ichiki Rena, 15 years old, Chiba (Rival: Acchan)
Hashimoto Nanami, 18 years old, Kanagawa (Rival: Sasshi)

Other Senbatsu Members

Ikoma Rina, 15 years old, Akita
Ikuta Erika, 14 years old, Tokyo
Miyazawa Seira, 17 years old, Chiba
Takayama Kazumi, 17 years old, Chiba
Shiraishi Mai, 18 years old, Kanagawa
Matsumura Sayuri, 18 years old, Osaka
Yamato Rina, 16 years old, Miyagi
Nakada Kana, 16 years old, Saitama
Hoshino Minami, 13 years old, Chiba
Wada Maaya, 13 years old, Hiroshima
Hatanaka Seira, 15 years old, Oita

The rest of the members are:

Kashiwa Yukina, 16 years old, Kanagawa (a former member of Momoiro Clover)
Saitou Chiharu, 14 years old, Saitama
Itou Nene, 14 years old, Tokyo
Itou Marika, 15 years old, Tokyo
Inoue Sayuri, 16 years old, Saitama
Etou Misa, 18 years old, Tokyo
Saitou Yuuri, 17 years old, Tokyo
Andou Mikumo, 18 years old, Kanagawa
Fukugawa Mai, 20 years old, Kanagawa
Wakatsuki Yumi, 17 years old, Shizuoka
Nishino Nanase, 17 years old, Osaka
Kawai Hina, 13 years old, Fukuoka
Saitou Asuka, 12 years old, Tokyo
Higuchi Hina, 13 years old, Tokyo
Iwase Yumiko, 21 years old, Saitama
Nagashima Seira, 17 years old, Aichi
Nakamoto Himeka, 15 years old, Hiroshima
Kawamura Mahiro, 16 years old, Osaka
Asou Ririko, 16 years old, Kanagawa
Yamamoto Honoka, 13 years old, Aichi

The senbatsu center member below which is Ayaka Yoshimoto is supposed to be Tomochin’s rival.

Aki-P has also revealed that they’ll be holding concerts by the end of the year and as previously mentioned will have their own TV show in October. Nogizaka 46 concerts will have a surprise in them in that there will be 2 halves seperated by a break. During the break, concert goers will be able to choose who they want to perform in the 2nd half. Aki-P feels this is unique as it will be like holding a senbatsu election every day. It’ll also make each performance different and more entertaining from the previous one as you’ll never know who will perform. They haven’t mentioned anything about having their own theater although I’m sure they’ll have their own place most probably at the Nogizaka SME Building. Aki-P has also stated that this group will do things that AKB48 cannot do – like what for example? 

To check out more on the member profiles, go to the Nogizaka 46 website: http://www.nogizaka46.com/top.html

It’ll be interesting to see how this rivalry will start to shape up – whether they’ll be able to challenge AKB48 as the biggest idol group in Japan. It’s also ridiculous that 1 Nogizaka 46 member has Aimi Eguchi as her rival even though Aimi isn’t even a proper AKB48 member and is only a CG idol.

No Sleeves React To The News About Nogizaka46

No Sleeves held a release event for their new single Kuchibiru Fureze yesterday and they had some words to say about the official announcement of the formation of AKB48’s rival group Nogizaka46. I don’t know if they were feigning ignorance on their part but it seemed like they didn’t know anything about this new idol group. Surely somebody at work would have mentioned something to them or they’ve heard the rumours on the grapevine. Apparently all 3 members shouted “Whaaat?” when the media asked them about Nogizaka46. Miichan even said she’d never heard about it, Takamina asked if the news was true and Kojima thought it was a joke even after seeing an item about it on the TV news that morning.

However Kojima and Miichan are a little worried about this development. They weren’t happy with the revelation about the 46 part of the new idol group’s name – “Although there are fewer members than AKB48, they will not lose”. Kojima said that perhaps Aki-P is thinking that AKB48 is lacking something for him to create a rival to them. It’s nothing to do with that. It’s all about the money and monopolising the idol industry. It was left to Takamina to show her maturity and composure when she confidently said “I’m happy. It makes me look at them with the eyes of a loving mother.”

Whatever happens in the future, it’s bound to start a war of words between fans of the 2 groups.

Nogizaka46 – New Information Revealed

Although I still have suspicions about this new “official rival idol group” to challenge AKB48, yesterday saw news that Nogizaka46 has now been confirmed as true. Open auditions for the idol group will start on July 20th. The auditions are open to any female in the 12-24 age range and even overseas people can apply.

Aki-P and Sony will hand pick the members of the group’s 1st generation. An explanation about the group’s name has also been revealed. Nogizaka comes from the location where the last auditions will take place – the “SME Nogizaka Building” and the 46 idea is “although there are less members than AKB48, they will not lose”! A rather lame explanation for the 46 part of the name I think.

The first auditions take place on July 20th with the second auditions taking place in 7 cities across Japan (Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Okinawa) on August 6th and 7th. The final round of auditions will occur on August 20th and 21st. The 1st generation of Nogizaka46 will have 20 members and Sony hope they’ll be starting in October. Those that succesfully pass the auditions can look forward to appearing on various variety shows and have a CD debut through Sony Records.

Nogizaka46 even have a website of their own: http://www.nogizaka46.com/

What do you guys think about all this? What is the reasoning behind Aki-P’s decision to create a rival group? Has he given up now on HKT48 or are they still going ahead? Is this a new trick to fool the fans once more? I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Nogizaka46 – Aki-P’s Supposed Rival Group For AKB48

There are various rumours floating about that Aki-P is going to unleash yet another idol group but this time not under the AKB family. The press have latched on that Aki-P is masterminding a rival group to challenge AKB48 for Sony Music which has been called Nogizaka46. Apparently there will be auditions over the Summer for the idol group. Nogizaka46′ name is a reference to Sony’s headquarters which is in Nogizaka, Minato Ward in Tokyo.

There’s no confirmation or anything yet about this new group but this week’s new Weekly Playboy magazine is supposed to shed new light on the information. It could well be another publicity stunt by Aki-P just like the Aimi Eguchi one. Could it be a CG idol group? I’ll have more on this when news comes out.