For AKB48, it’s said that it’s a place where you personally grow your own appeal. NMB, however, has a grand goal of winning against AKB48, and that strength of unity is really something. Up until now, it’s been said that Kashiwagi doesn’t take an interest in other people, but when I look at how NMB comes together, not only do I think it’s great but I’ve become really interested in them. In the 8 years I’ve been in AKB48, I don’t think I’ve changed that much.When my kennin was announced to NMB, a lot of fans said things like “Her Namba Kouhai will be able to receive a lot of idol power from her.” But in reality, it was the opposite. They did nothing but teach me. Of course, there’s the opinion that senpai teach their kouhai. Once I threw away that line of thinking and let it go, I found the importance of giving everything you have. In 8 years, if you’ve been in the same surroundings and practice in the dark, you forget about the things you can’t see and the effort you used.When I started with NMB48, at the time Sutou Ririka from Team N had also just entered. She was at a level where she didn’t believe in herself and couldn’t do anything at all, like with dance. But she sucked it up and kept practicing. And with that, Keicchi and other senpai members would divide their time and take turns teaching Ririka. I was honestly surprised with that.When I looked at that, I began to think, “I also want to teach my kouhai some things.” That’s why, in March, for the Saitama Super Arena Young Members concert, I went to see them thinking that it would be great if I could praise the kids and help them grow.Honestly, even now I am at a loss when I think about what I can teach to others. When I was in primary school and I researched idols and their strength, there’s no possible way you can easily teach someone all that. But, in real life when someone teaches another, they grow proportionally, and that’s something I understood when watching the NMB48 members.
So I’ve been reading, or have read, a lot of the criticism towards the election and how you should use your money or why you should vote or why you shouldn’t vote, #truefan and all the other fun stuff that exists on the internet.
To be honest, I don’t really care whether you vote or not. I don’t really care if that makes you a better fan or a worse fan or what your position is on the pyramid of ideal idol fan. I don’t care if you can’t vote because you need the $10 to buy lunch for the next day, or if you want to vote with your $10 and eat cup ramen for the next few months. It’s all up to you.
(Granted, from person to person, I’d respect you if you take care of your own stuff first before taking care of other people. But I digress, and it’s not like you should care too much of what I think of you. I probably don’t even know you anyway!)
I think it’s really critical to judge people how they enjoy their hobbies, for better or for worse. Do your own thing and stop worrying about others unless they really impact how YOU enjoy the hobby.
Now, I decided to participate in voting for the election this year, and that is for 2 major reasons.
1: I get to sponsor a friend’s handshake tickets!
Some people online were selling votes for like $7 or so, and some of them were also people I know. And I think they’re cool. So in a way, we both benefit; I get a vote, they get a handshake. It’s all good. I get to spend money on friends.
Without delving too deeply, lately I’ve been thinking about how people who are generous and friendly to others have their brains literally changed to feel happier. So it’s nice to think about how I’m doing good things for a friend. They also get to meet the idol which makes the idol happier, makes the friend happier, and makes me happier for having all that happen.
2: The chance to make the idol happy, if only for a few moments
I’ve declared myself as part of #TeamUuka this year. And you know, it’s nice to be able to make someone feel happy, especially someone who you think is deserved it. Again, I don’t want to get too much into ethics (I tackled Peter Singer’s essay on poverty for University ethics class, which is a good read and still affects me somewhat) and whether the money spent is better spent on actual charitable causes. Still, I think it’s nice to be able to make an impact on somebody’s life like that, just to make them happy for a while.
With that said, this year I’m placing 5 votes lot for Uuka! (and 1 for Aika. *cough*)
Uuka made a blog post about how she never ranked in and how she was traumatized that I translated on the Takoyaki Party Tumblr, and that kinda got to me. She’s been one of the best performers in NMB (top 4, at least) and always getting accolades for it.
But unfortunately, 48G world is a world where performing really well isn’t always rewarded.
She’s gotten some spotlight, most notably, being Top 3 next to Sayaka and Milky in the Kamonegics 2015 remix performance for the Arena Tours this year. Her Faint was #10 or so at Request Hour last year and a lot of people have said that the old B2 Faint Unit has been one of the best units, that it changed the way they looked at the song, that Faint IS Uuka. She also gets a lot of compliments for her spin in Saigo no Catharsis that she also gets to demonstrate in Team N’s Doga to Ballerina.
I might just be dreaming, but I really would like her to rank in if only to show that good performance is worthwhile in the 48G, that some fans do appreciate it. And because I’ve always liked her, even though she’s struggled a lot on variety, anyone who charms me with performance first definitely gets a lot of credit from me.
I will put in a vote for Aika, for that Oshi bias. But I think she has a bright future ahead and doesn’t have the same urgency as Uuka this year. And the 2-Oshi in Jo gets no votes. As much as I like Jo I think needs to do a little more before she earns votes from me.
So, those are my thoughts on the election this year. I always #TeamUuka but the reality is that I expect no fans to vote for her based on my influence anyway, haha.
In terms of status quo, not much has really changed for NMB. A couple kennins were revoked, some new kennins were established, and some were kept as they were.
However, I do think that their latest kennin business simply shows how incompetent AKB is at developing talent and managing talent, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t impact NMB, but it does and it does interrupt my enjoyment of the group.
1: New kennin/continued kennin
With Sayaka retaining her kennin to K, Nagisa retaining her kennin to Team 4, and Milky kennin to Team B and Miru to Team A… do you see what’s happening? That’s all of the top handshake sellers from NMB to AKB. It appears there is no shame as they pluck the talent from NMB.
Of course, you have to ask what kennin means and what they actually do. Theater performances are sparse. However, the members still introduce themselves as part of their kennin’d group (except Yukirin, apparently, hurhur) and they do get involved in big concerts and team concerts, along with some extra work from the other group as is appropriate.
It’s obviously been a big year for Sayaka and with additional work all over the place she hasn’t been around the theater much, but I can’t help but think that her kennin also contributes a fair bit to her not showing up in the theater. And you can tell that a lot of the girls in NMB really look up to her, and you can see that her lack of appearances have, for better or worse, made JK and Akarin step up to captain the rest of the team.
Milky struggles to make BII stages as it is, and I imagine with Miru they’re just going to pack her schedule with Team A crap when she should be helping lead a struggling Team M. (Both M and BII, without senbatsu members, have had to reach deep into the cancel machi lines. Team M compensates by doing a lot of stage shuffling.)
It’s easy to see the negative impact this has on NMB fans.
You may wonder why I didn’t mention Nagisa, and that leads to the second point.
2: Cancelled kennin to AKB
Nagisa benefited from Tentomuchuu and seems to be getting small pushes from AKB every once in a while. However…
Fuuchan and Ripopo have had their kennins revoked. And thing is, what exactly did AKB give them? Not much. Why would you even bother to have them kennin? Fuuchan wrote in a blog about how she had to learn 3 different stages, as it switched from Mariko A to Yokoyama A to whatever it was after the Daisokaku. That’s a lot of work. And she really got nothing out of it, no promotion or anything. If you look at the kennin from the prior point, you’ll notice that all the girls are contributing to AKB, but how much did AKB contribute to the girls’s individual careers? Not much. It seems very one sided. Discarding Fuuchan and Ripopo without really giving them much for both of their tenures just shows you how one-sided the kennin situation is. Ripopo wrote on Twitter something like, “Yup it’s over. I dunno where I’m gonna go, that’s me!” and no one on their teams really cares that they’re not there anymore. Whereas you look at the people that were cut from NMB…
3: Cancelled kennin to NMB
Yukirin, Shige, and Churi have had their kennins cancelled.
Say what you will about their inclusion in senbatsu or them taking up spots, but a lot of the NMB members seem broken up about it. Churi said she was crying backstage with Konomin and wrote a pointed G+ about how she wanted to perform with them but it was unfortunate that she had the musical and lost a lot of opportunities. Shige made a post on G+ that just said “Kennin revoked. ;_;” then made another post about how she wanted to perform more KokoTen. Even Yukirin said she was a lot more lonesome than people think. A lot of them posted about how they got a flood of text messages from their respective teams.
On top of that, many members wrote about how bummed they are. Chiho wrote about how she was happy to finally get promoted into BII, but was disappointed about how she hasn’t performed with Churi yet, Jo was hoping to become better friends with Shige and perform with Yukirin, Haako dedicated a blog to Churi…
It’s really strange that they like being here, they’ve contributed greatly to the group and in the case of Shige, she’s improved a lot, and then you just send them on their way. I don’t get it unless they have greater plans for them, since it’s another case where it seemed to work out for everyone.
(Yukirin is her own special case, but again, another example of AKB just taking stuff and not really giving back. And yet you could tell she still liked NMB.)
It’s kind of hard to tell what the impact will be of all these kennin since nothing’s really happened. But it is easy to see that it introduces a lot of stress and uncertainty in the current moment, and not in a good way. I’m not particularly pleased and am losing confidence in AKB’s future and that negatively impacts how I enjoy NMB.
Let me put on my serious face first. This will probably function as my post on why I’m a fan and what I get out of it.
Okay.
For me, one of the cool things about the handshake system is the fact that you can actually make a real impression on them. I very much remember my handshakes with Sakipi, Naru, and Yukitsun because it felt as if they were excited and thrilled to see me, and I think that’s really cool; that as a fan I’m able to give back to them, to let them know that their work is not vain, that there are people that enjoy what they do even if they are as far away as America. And that is my favorite part. It’s not so much that I get a handshake so that I’m the main beneficiary, but that we can mutually get a great experience out of it. THAT is what I love about being a fan of the idol system.
As Ririka said in her speech when she undered for Cameron, the fan-idol relationship is one of reciprocating love. When you’re a fan, the best thing to get is having your idol succeed, and when your idol succeeds, they’re able to give back to you. Now, Ririka quoted all these philosophers and I don’t quite remember which ones and how, but that was the core idea of her idol theory and to me it made perfect sense. With that in mind, a handshake event is not just for the fan, but also for the idol.
It extends beyond that as a fan too. When you have a good conversation, it’s fun to share that with other fans and it feels like we all grow together.
When I say I’m not worthy for Sayaka, I frame it in that idol-fan relationship. Sayaka really is a great idol. For my handshake, she seemed really locked in and interested in me as a fan, and yet there were a lot of fans of all flavors behind me and in front of me. Young, old, male, female, handicapped; it seemed that when everyone walked out, they had the biggest smiles on their faces.
And Sayaka did too.
To think that she treats all the fans as well as me is really something.
With that in mind, as a fan, I don’t feel like an offer as much to her as she offers to me. For Jo, I felt like I made her day just because we have the same name. For Sayaka? I don’t think I can ever do that. She’ll make you feel great as a fan, but it just seems like you can’t give that back.
And that’s okay, but it’s not what I prefer to get out of a handshake event. (This is also why I’m not particularly fond of the shamekai event; the photo is mostly for the fan, doesn’t really do much for the idol unless you somehow come up with a pose that they find genuinely amusing, made even more difficult with the table.)
I still like Sayaka. Don’t get me wrong, she’s one of the preeminent members of NMB and manages to entertain whether on variety or performing on stage. But as a handshake, I just don’t feel like I will make an impact on her the way that she does on me, and so I’d much rather visit the other girls.
With that said, that’s just how I treat handshakes. Everyone’s different. Unless you share the same non-standard, atypical views as me, then of course you can visit her and be stunned at how great she is. That’s fun too, and I’m happy (if not a tad jealous) that other fans are able to enjoy the handshake experience in that way.
Anyway, this felt nice to write. I’ve never really thought about this so it was nice to think about what it personally means to be a fan and why I enjoyed the handshake event as much as I did.
A friend of mine asked about whether you need to spend a lot of money to keep up with being a fan. I got a little incensed so I wrote this:
Last year, when I went to the 3rd Anniversary, aside from not having a splendid time I was also a bit peeved over all the money being spent. Photos, pins, oshi towels, oshi this, oshi that. People decked out in full oshi gear. I hate it. I hate the exploitation that these groups do, the #truefan-ness of needing to collect everything, that makes you believe you are a better fan, etc. And to top it all off I hate that they are willingly exploiting the nature of humans to collect things, to complete sets, and to pressure fans like this. That is why I don’t collect photos or anything of that nature and why I refuse to support the election. I only buy functional things and/or items that I wish to support. I’ll buy Blu-Ray concerts because I support concerts, I’ll buy TV series on DVD/Blu-Ray that I like because I want to support that TV series, etc. And personally I only do that after taking care of myself, taking care of my bills, taking care of my investments, and figuring out my excess money.
This year, I took “The pilgrimage” to go to a handshake event (and not get 4th Anniversary tickets nor win a theater show). Travel fees + an extreme amount of singles = lots of money. This is something that Japanese fans won’t have to put up with, they don’t have to fly across an ocean, they might not have to pay for a hotel, it’s much easier for them. They can make a day trip. I have to take a full vacation. If I were to play the game to keep up with Japanese fans, I will lose.
As for the actual handshake, my overall goal is not only to get a good experience but also to give them a good experience as well, and in general that’s how I want to treat all people. I don’t want to say things like “You’re cute” or “I like you, go out with me” etc., that’s lame and boring for both sides. It’s also why I liked seeing the low-tier members because they probably felt cool that this guy from the US came to see them. I’m still on the fence on whether I’d do it again, but it’s definitely a unique experience and it’s way more worth it to me than some photos. And it’s super expensive, which I guess I could afford because I didn’t spend so much money on collecting things.
Meeting them is great, but as an international fan you need to realize that it’s a completely different experience than being a domestic fan. It costs way more money, you can’t see them on a continuous basis and develop that sort of steady fan relationship, there’s a language barrier, we can’t go to the theater whenever we want, and so on and so forth. There’s no way you can “keep up” with domestic fans, so embrace the international side. It’s very extreme for an international fan to be able to attend events. This club makes it look like it’s normal for international fans; it’s not normal at all and it’s really extreme in the first place to be an international fan.
Ask yourself what you want to get out of being a fan and things will fall into place. Do you think any person would truly be happy with a fan who spent all their money to be poor just to shake their hand? Unless they’re heartless, no, they shouldn’t be. Take care of yourself first and be a person that they would want to meet, don’t devalue yourself and rely on them to give your life meaning, give your own life meaning first and use them to augment it. That’s what bothers me about this “obligation” word, as if there’s something about some idol that’ll complete your life, that’s just wishful and desperate thinking that won’t pan out.
One thing I hear often from more general 48G fans is the concern over NMB48 being really imbalanced in terms of popularity. They’ll look at the handshake numbers and see Sayaka towering above all, Milky not far but still behind, Miru catching up, maybe Nana because of the graduation…
Then a huge gap.
I think some of us fans have tried rationalizing it one way or another, I know I’ve probably used all of these.
“6/35 slots could be the same as 15/15 slots.”
“Popularity varies city by city.”
“It’s not fair because they can just see them at AKB handshakes anyway.”
“Albums are expensive.”
“They probably used it all up on the other events like the autograph one.”
But when I think about it, it really doesn’t matter to me whether it’s imbalanced. What I do know is that the girls I do like are getting work. And I like a lot of the girls. And the work they’re getting is pretty decent too, it may not be national, they may not work with top of the line talent, but the content is usually interesting.
I’ve never believed popularity should be a goal. It’s such a nebulous goal, especially in show business. You could get on TV for weeks saying something dumb like “I didn’t do it,” and then the next day no one cares about you and you’re off the Krusty show.
Instead, you should strive to boost your skills in being entertaining. You should get better at talking and telling stories. You should get better at dancing when you need to dance, singing when you need to sing. Are you modelling? Can you strike the right poses, give the best smiles? How about social media, are you connected as best you can with fans? Are you giving fans what they enjoy seeing, whether it’s silly jokes or good pictures or funny videos?
All of that is what I want to see them get better at. That’s something more concrete that they can work on. Not “Fuuchan needs to become more popular.” I mean… how? What?
And then, not to be hipster or anything, but it’s actually quite nice to like an unpopular member. You can get a better relationship with them at handshakes since with less fans they’ll tend to remember your name and what you talked about with them unless you’re absolutely memory god-tier like Sayaka. You don’t have to wait in line, you can just go at your own pace. That’s not to say that once they become popular it’s time to move on, or that you’d actively oppose them becoming popular, but at that early going rate, as a fan, it should be enjoyed and it should be more fun! Why complain?
If Sayaka/Milky ever leave, I’m not sure how troubled NMB48 will be, but at the moment all of their members seem to be improving and becoming more skilled and comfortable on camera and a lot of them have really bright futures. Aika/Yuuri/Shuu/Nattsu are all incredibly young and have yet to even hit their prime, so it’s an exciting time to be an NMB fan right now. There is no need to be concerned about the future.
Actually, I don’t care.
I’m a pretty opinionated person, don’t get me wrong.
I used to be all “rah-rah love ban sucks lol” but now… now I just don’t care. I’ll debate with people if they want to hear it but I don’t need to wear it on my sleeve anymore. Everyone expresses their opinion, nothing really happens, people just end up getting angry at each other. The only time I get really mad is when people are ignorant and make up stuff even when the truth is right there, with failed Japanese translations being the hardest offender. Then it’s my job to snuff it out!
But I… I don’t care anymore. People are too pent up nowadays. Better to be relaxed and enjoy things instead of yelling at random people on the internet for some reason over how you think society should be run.
Good thing I’ve matured. I think.
After the debut of the new AKB single, I started reading comments on 2ch. They were mostly negative, though the thread I was reading was something like “Hahah this song sucks” so of course, it would be negative. Anyway, there were a couple of comments saying something about how releases this year were pretty crappy among all the other groups but Nogizaka’s were particularly good.
I decided to update my tired old playlist and put the new single on it as well as some other stuff. (AAA is always nice and reliable. What a great group!)
I found this song I really liked called Nanimo Dekizu Soba ni Iru. The instrumental arrangement was great, it has a good melody, the lyrics were awesome and really touching… but there was something about the vocals that kind of bothered me. It all made sense when I watched the performance.
When I listened to it, in my mind I envisioned a band playing and a soloist singing. You know, like if you showed up to a bar and they were playing music, it could be that song. It was that kind of sweet song. What I got instead was that. The reason why the vocal performance bothered me is because it used the infamous AKS technique of having everyone sing at once, making a good live performance practically impossible even though the song is screaming for it.
Even the older AKB songs had distinct groups of members singing, with Oogoe Diamond being the classic one because of how prominent Kojima Haruna’s voice is. But now it just seems like they want to lump everyone in together and create this muddy, artificial track, robbing any hope of musical identity that they could hope to have.
And I’m sure they could pull it off in the way I envision it too. I don’t know anything about Nogizaka but I bet there are some really talented girls in it. I can totally imagine Sayanee doing an acoustic cover of this song and slaying, but I have to use Sayanee as the example because I only know NMB members.
The dance adds nothing either. It just looks like typical idol dancing.
I’ve read some background around the song too, some members are calling it Meikyoku (which I suppose is one level under Kamikyoku?) and I can totally see why, because it is a great song. If only it had that final push to make it legendary.
But alas.
As someone who started watching stages since 3rd Anniversary, it definitely looks like Yamamoto Team N is struggling, especially compared to Nana Team M (whose core didn’t change and was only bolstered by the addition of the rising star in Mirurun, experience in Reinyan, and young crazies like Anchu) and they aren’t gelling nearly as quickly as Team B2, which was an eclectic group on paper but an exciting group to watch on stage.
If I were to give my own personal reasons as to why I think N is struggling, I would say this:
1 – A lack of leadership from Yamamoto Sayaka/Jonishi Kei
Sayaka is at the theater fairly often, but I do feel as if her AKB kennin is distracting her from growing the team. Make no mistake, Sayaka is the de facto leader for all of NMB, and the general impression is that that all of NMB is still in awe of her. Her presence seems to make the team a little bit happier during MCs. But with her career starting to take off, AKB kennin, and solo work, it’s tough on her to also captain a team.
I’m utterly confused by Kei. She seems to have good rapport with many of the members and not just Team N members but Ms, B2s, even KKS. But in terms of stage shows she seems to disappear during MCs, which is far from helping the younger members get better.
On the other hand, I do really like Akarin stepping up as the “3rd Captain”, she really seems to do her best helping everyone out and has a tendency to turn around some of the MCs. I’ve been enjoying her growth a lot lately.
2 – Nandomo Nerae wastes a lot of talent
The original version was great. Maachun’s silly faces, Moka punching, the general confusion on Ripopo’s face… the song was so unique for all those members. Now it looks completely weird. I have no idea why Murokana is there. Keila went from her high ranking Kataomoi to this strange position and then to graduation. Sakipi is Moka punching, and I’m not sure why. This unit completely backfired due to the shuffle.
3 – Where is Yukirin?
Yukirin only showed up twice; Shonichi, and for her birthday. And her birthday stage was really fun, but she just isn’t around enough to help grow the younger members. I appreciated Uuka and Yuuri making fun of her for not showing up and all that, but if she’s not around, doesn’t really help the team.
4 – The strange perma-subs
Megumin has probably performed Zipper more than Milky at this point, Rururin subs in plenty for Aika when she moves to do Yume no Dead Body in Sayaka’s absence, and Yuumin has stepped in for Keila since her graduation. But during MCs it seems as if they are shut out, and of course they wouldn’t appear with Team N for their tour. That kind of hurts.
5 – Their talkers aren’t as crazy as the other talkers, and they all have the same style
Rika, Sakipi, and Yuppi are all good MCs, but more like hosts. I would have them MC my wedding, but if I want to see some comedy and them getting all crazy, it’s just not going to happen. Furthermore, the way they talk is very similar. This especially hurts during the post-unit MC when they have to talk with Aika and Naru, with Aika being super shy and Naru being the only boke. Compared to M’s unit with Nana’s general MC strength (which doesn’t decrease too much when she subs out with Ayabaa/Aapon) and B2’s absolutely brilliant unit with Haru/Konomin/Umechan/Churi or Haako or Ayatin, N’s is just kinda ho-hum.
6 – Medley seems weak
While I like the selection of Boku ga Maketa Natsu / Mattemashita / SeiRap it just seems like a weak grasp back to 1st-gen when the landscape has already shifted dramatically. They should be given better songs. I guess it’s kinda cool that Sayaka does Mattemashita instead of Boku ga Maketa, but still, I’d rather have songs that are either just straight singles, or encompass more of the members.
Team N right now is lacking the craziness that the other teams have, as well as the chemistry. But I do think N has a ton of great upside as well.
1 – The B2 commentary was voted best show on YNN
Aika, Naru, Kei, and Ririka formed one of the coolest talk units. The combination of Naru’s absent-mindedness, Kei’s random fangirliness, Ririka’s nerdiness, and Aika being super serious and made fun of for that was great entertainment. I do think it only worked because of the format allowing us to explore their characters (I don’t think Aika looking all serious for a 5 minute MC will make for better MCs), but if they can somehow leverage those skills I think we’ll have something good going on.
2 – Ririka might be able to save MCs
Ririka is such an X-Factor. Her oddity and wota-leanings should really be able to boost MCs once she’s healthy and back performing, especially with Rika/Sakipi/Yuppi. They can only pick on Naru for so long, and then she just spaces out anyway. She may have the courage to break the kouhai/senpai wall that is most visible in Team N.
3 – Tremendous performance level with even more potential
No words have to be said about Sayaka. Aika has those days where she sings Yume no Dead Body phenomenally, and she’s a great dancer too. I’m happy to finally see her in HajiHoshi. And as much as I like Aika, Chuba taking her position in Kono Sekai was amazing. The other day I was watching ONEW and I remember watching Uuka and I was impressed with her dancing ability even though it’s not even a song with great dancing in it. Yuuri is super cute and has went from clumsy dancer who can’t crack 3rd-gen KKS to ably performing Fumo, and she hasn’t regained her MC form that she ably captured with old B2 so there’s room for her talk skill to grow. And I think Murokana can still do something, even though I’m not sure if she’s found what her calling is. She seems pretty popular for not doing much in stages.
And we still haven’t seen performances like Sayaka/Rika acoustic Mushi no Ballad.
I’m not sure why, but I would declare Team N as my favorite NMB team right now. Maybe because I like underdogs. Maybe because I’m a recent oshihen to Aika, who just barely beat out one of new favorites in Uuka, and they still have my old oshimen in Sayaka. Maybe because Sakipi was one of my old favorite B2 MC leaders when she would run the quizzes with Mako and Honori, maybe because I’ve come to really like Naru’s silliness, and because Ripopo will always be one of those dark horse girls that I love to cheer for–and she’s been looking great lately. Plus there’s just tremendous growth coming out of Akarin. And we still haven’t seen too much of the Ririka beam.
I wouldn’t count them out just yet. They’ve got an amazing amount of potential and upside that just needs to be brought out, and it appears they’re slowly getting on track.
So today (or yesterday, I guess) was Shibuya Nagisa’s 18th birthday. I’ve moved past my Nagisa-phase already. That killer smile and her looks reminded me of the feeling you get when you had a crush in high school, and just like high school, I grew out of my crush.
I think she’s still cool though. Just not face-on-pavement when I see her cool.
But, I have to say, the development of Nagisa has been quite interesting to watch. Let’s ignore Tentoumuchu and focus on how she’s grown in NMB, specifically in regards to how instrumental B2 was to developing her skill.
Team B2 was the most mysterious team coming out of the shuffle. They shuffled most of their members out, they added a lot of wild cards (Lemon, Umechan from AKB, 4th gens like Chihhi, the 2 sisters of the Baka Shimai, the ace Milky) and they looked like they were the team that had the least amount of thought put into their chemistry.
And we were wrong.
In my opinion, they are the overall strongest team of NMB. I’d take Team N’s performances and Team M’s MCs, but for the complete pacakage it’s hard to mess with B2.
However, one thing that was very instrumental to Nagisa’s growth was B2.
First of all, she was given Mushi no Ballad. And let’s be honest, when she came out, it was terrible on the ears, nothing but a screaming mess of a song when it was known for such powerful singers like Akimoto Sayaka and performed by other strong vocalists of AKB like Takahashi Minami.
Of course, we all heard it. I was arguing with a lot of Nagisa fans about how bad it sounded but they were deafened by their love of Nagisa. (This is why you don’t argue with fans with the intent of winning.)Doubt rippled across our minds. Maybe she only got it because she was favored, gori-oshi, massive push, etc.
But, if you listen to her now, she’s decent! She’s nowhere near as good as Akimoto Sayaka, but she gives a spirited performance with a live voice. And that’s incredible, that out there one of the girls who is no doubt going to be an ace of NMB in the future, has grown this much and accepted this challenge and conquered it. In my opinion, she deserves her senbatsu spot after this stunning turnaround.
The other part of B2 that helped her out was being surrounded by great talkers. During her time with the KKS, she relied way too much on “Nagisa-mae ni machiawase ya de!” to bail her out of any situations in MCs, and it was a bit annoying and grating and one-note.
During the MC she is helped out a lot by Kinoshita Haruna, who is one of the best talkers in NMB and manages to bring out the best in other people. (She is also key to the growth of Chihhi in B2.) Not to mention, Milky and Shuu practically mocking her Nagisa-mae saying and getting a little boost by her more popular senpai.
Speaking of which, she has managed to forge a friend with Shuu and thus her Kusogaki/trolly side is starting to come out and it’s really improved the way she’s talking. She’s developed a lot of charisma on stage because of that influence, and she’s been able to challenge her senpai when they talk.
If you watch her birthday stage, she’s in tears when she talks about how she loves B2 and how they’ve supported her and helped her become who she is. It’s really hard to deny that she was put in a really good environment to grow in, and now she’s gearing up to be a future ace and may someday break the stranglehold of SayaMilky.
(Now, if only Aika could catch up, then we could have the second coming of the rivalry/love-story of SayaMilky…)