Comments on: On AKB

By: Valerie

Valerie — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:14:39 +0000

^Are you serious? Akimoto has been around from the 80’s, working with many people of the mainstream jpop industry. I’d say he has more respect than Tsunku himself, based only on the variety of groups and artists he has produced and how long he has been doing it.
He even wrote a song for EXILE.

By: Warladin

Warladin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:59:06 +0000

^ AKB’s target is solely the wota. And as such, it is a lowly and not so respected group.

By: Michikodesu

Michikodesu — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:26:13 +0000

I too feel the same way you do about AKB48. I’ve never really seen the draw about them except for the tactics that they use to exploit the girls. I guess I don’t like the way that they are pushed to be loved. I almost feel like I’m going to be flashed any moment while watching a PV or performance. And for me (especially since I’m a female) that’s a DO NOT WANT!!

But, one of the main reasons I’m sticking with Morning Musume because I feel that they are respected as a group by many in the music world. They have collaborated and worked with different groups/troupes/shows….you name it. Just recently this year they worked with some guys and girls from the music industry (one that I recognized is one of the writes for SADE’s old song Smooth Operator). How many people have collaborated with AKB48 that are respected musicians?

By: Matt_D

Matt_D — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:29:45 +0000

I feel that AKB went over the hill mid last year, their best performers rarely show up to lives becouse they have better paying jobs and I havn’t been enamoured by any of their recent songs. I went over to Japan and saw the last few Himawari stage b got a good 10 or so shows in before the end of the lining up.

However I may very well suffer the same problem former H!P fans suffer, once your main girls don’t show up much you lose interest. Their losing money hand over fist aswell - although I can’t see how - maybe the cost of the theatre really is just that high. Or someone has his hand in the piggy bank.

One of the problems with their initial line up is unlike UFA all the girls were on their own management agencies and once they got more popular they did their own things instead of AKB things.

By: Warladin

Warladin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:57:22 +0000

They get enough.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:19:55 +0000

^I don’t know how much their payment is, but I’ve seen several non-popular girls wearing expensive clothes and accesories (Rina Nakanishi with a Louis Vuitton bag, and I remember a kenkyuusei wearing a Liz Liza dress, which isn’t cheap). So their payment mustn’t be that bad. Many of them come from wealthy families, so it isn’t a problem, but they aren’t exactly hungry.

By: celestia

celestia — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:54:44 +0000

@warladin- they get paid per event? I`d be very interested to know what X,Y, and Z are. I once hear it quoted as “barely enough to cover their train fare to commute to work and back” though I doubt anyone would stay in the group if it was really THAT bad. What about staring in a drama or a photobook? That`s got to be different than a single photoshoot or radio appearance.

By: Jasey

Jasey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:39:28 +0000

On average the singing being better in H!P is the only thing they have over AKB for me, but I don’t really care about lipsynching so it isn’t a big deal to me. I can understand why other people don’t like it though. I do agree that AKB has some singers that match or around the level of H!P’s best, though.

I can also understand the aversion to the sexy stuff like Meetan (who’s my favourite as well xD) but I’d rather them do that with the older girls than put them in a permanent evening gown and having them perform dinner shows all the time the second they turn 24 that makes them seem they’re more like 40.

“Not to the concerts or stages, as they reuse the same costumes over and over and over again, and there are next to no stage effects.”

I don’t understand this though. They only do their concerts 1-3 times so they can’t make a whole set of new costumes for every song. They have stages where they regularly perform a song so the costume becomes linked with it just as much as the lyrics or the girls performing it, so they reuse the costume whenever it’s performed.

In the latest stages, each girl has 6 costumes (7 in B4) so that’s 96 (112 in B4) costumes for a stage, and each stage has 16 songs. So every 10-11 months (how long a stage lasts) they have to make & design over 96 costumes and 16 songs, for each team. I also reckon (apart from H!P’s costumes for PVs, which are pretty nice) that AKB’s costumes are much better than H!P’s.

By: Warladin

Warladin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:46:23 +0000

Hmm, can’t edit…

“Also, I know that last time a girl left a team, they announced it to the team for the first time on stage, in front of fans, to many tears all around of course.”

They ALWAYS announce it out of the blue.

By: Warladin

Warladin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:44:49 +0000

“I mean that if some girls don`t have the charisma or whatever to pull in more fans, then maybe they don`t have any business being idols. I know that sounds harsh, but it`s still true.”

True. For example, being the frontgirl as she is, maeda ALWAYS gives EVERYONE that “I’m better than you, fuck you, I wanna go home” look. Same for Itano. Oku (fat one in team K, young and ugly) basically doesn’t give a shit. She gets paid, so…

By the way, the girls get equal payment. X en per performance, Y per photoshoot, Z per outside events (radios and such)