As I'm part of the fandom and everyone seems to keep asking questions about them, let's open this thread up. You can ask me any questions or bring up any societal ills that you think these girls cause or contribute to.

(Though I am a fan, I'm not a diehard fan, and there's a lot of stuff I disagree with. Including the sexualization of minors.)

The original AKB48 show was decent but the new members are lame.
Naruhodo High School is okay.
Takahashi Minami is hot.
Most AKB48 songs are terrible.

I guess it is sexualising women and turning them into sex objects but I don't think it is anything new!

That original thread that offtopiced (quite badly) was quite an amusing read. Be interesting to see what else can be brought up.

Why did you have to pick on Mayuyu
I think that's a whole separate subject on things like age of consent and adulthood, in the UK the age of consent is 16, but adult content is 18.. but if you're active with a 16-17 (legal) yr old.. are you supposed to close your eyes? Your allowed to touch but not look? wait what...

(I'm joking obviously)

Did someone say AKB48? I like the shows & the music. Come at me bro. Who's your oshimen?

オタク・イズ・ビューティフル
http://www.geocities.jp/ihsorih_55/otaku2.jpg

I like their tv shows (though depending on the plan for the episode... I skip some episodes like for akbingo. same with akb kyouwakoku same with shuukan akb) and I like the members based on their personalities.

I love sashiko no kuseni, sashihara pride, and lots more.

I think the editing for akb kyouwakoku especially, is exceptional. It's just really enjoyable to watch even from that standpoint. It's also one of the reasons I can't stand korean talk/variety shows because of their obnoxious sound effects sometimes or obnoxious editing... but chinese shows are worse (as far as I can tell). They have a good... head on their shoulders. they just go soooooooo overboard in korean/chinese ones sometimes.

I pay more attention to their sister group NMB48 than them, but I still like them. Mayuyu being my oshi.
Watching the tv shows helped my listening comp.. they don't cover extremely difficult or random topics, so it's easy to get a handle on what's going on for lower level learners.

Yeah I felt the same way as you did. except for me it was arashi shows (himitsu no arashi-chan/shukudai-kun/dame arashi mote arashi etc) like 2 years ago. I don't think they air arashi shows anymore or not as much as they used to...

AKB48 shows are pretty accessible good. talk/variety shows just are in general. really fun and good way to learn daily conversation/vocab.

I think most of them are beautiful and others super hot.

Another thing, the price they pay for becoming 'sexual objects' is not that expensive for them given that there are thousands of girls casting and dreaming about becoming an AKB or whatever. Why is people so sweaty about the whole sex issue over and over again?.

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:I like the members based on their personalities.

i think this is the reason why i don't think it's THAT sexualized, mainly because i don't find them physically attractive. or at least they don't try to beat that into your head, a lot of them are just slightly above average in the looks department.

everytime i see akb appear in another variety show and there's a model or something, the model usually puts them to shame in the looks department.

but then, the magazine racks in japan are almost always filled with half-naked AKB members anyway...

Gingerninja Wrote:Why did you have to pick on Mayuyu

of the top members she's the youngest and has her own photobook. and she's naked, or at least looks like she's naked on the cover. everyone else is at least 20, which is adult age.

well it has to do with the japanese culture too since they have gravure stuff like models and magazines for that.... as well as fuuzoku and soap jous, and that service where the girl comes to the guys house (I forgot what that was called... it starts with a "H") and all that crap so...

Sashihara was on the cover of playboy recently (she was wearing a pink bikini). she wasn't naked though lol. I don't think the japanese playboy is the same thing as the american one.

also akb that had that scandal where somebody released unedited gravure pictures of members.

I agree with Gingerninja and howtosavealif3. After I started watching akb's variety shows regularly every week my ability to watch and enjoy TV shows increased quite dramatically.

oh yeah, kitarie is my oshimen.

kainzero Wrote:everyone else is at least 20, which is adult age.

You know, you could look up stuff before you write it. Just saying. You obviously have the internet.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=akb48

Tzadeck Wrote:

kainzero Wrote:everyone else is at least 20, which is adult age.

You know, you could look up stuff before you write it. Just saying. You obviously have the internet.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=akb48

He meant the senbatsu members, of which 3 are underage (being 14,17 and 17) and the rest are all 18+. Of the members to release photobooks, they're probably over 20, although I'm sure some of the members probably released photobooks when they were younger.

Lots of the non senbatsu are under 18, but as they receive barely any screen time outside of B roll footage, and theatre performances, what they do is much less visible and not what people immediately associate with the main body of the group.

Tzadeck Wrote:

kainzero Wrote:everyone else is at least 20, which is adult age.

You know, you could look up stuff before you write it. Just saying. You obviously have the internet.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=akb48

or you could read my post where i said top members.

unless you're really a hardcore fan thats pissed because i left out the 19 year old sashihara rino, i don't see the reason for your sarcastic post.

I could have been out of line phrasing it so sarcastically, since you could interpret your post in such a way that it is basically correct. But I think it's a bit of a stretch...

I genuinely can't understand why any male adult would be a fan, when they're obviously targeted at young teenage girls.

Do you also follow American acts like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber; or is this another example of something being cool just because it's Japanese..

Tzadeck Wrote:I could have been out of line phrasing it so sarcastically, since you could interpret your post in such a way that it is basically correct. But I think it's a bit of a stretch...

i'll take this as an apology. =)
i'll also apologize for being vague in my post. my intention was to say top members and yes, i did do my research, even looking up who is in the media senbatsu and confirming all their ages, including a sigh of relief that Matsui Jurina (15) is one spot out of media senbatsu, lol
i just felt insulted as a fan that someone's telling me to google my own fandom.

but yes, let's be civil about this. it's all good, no need to dig at each other.

aphasiac Wrote:I genuinely can't understand why any male adult would be a fan, when they're obviously targeted at young teenage girls.

Do you also follow American acts like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber; or is this another example of something being cool just because it's Japanese..

i don't think they're targeted at young teenage girls at all. just look at gravure photoshoots, do you think any girl would be interested in that? how about the dating videogames?

people choose different angles to like them. i like the variety shows, which feature some degree of improv humor. i've also noticed that as my japanese got better, i began to understand more jokes, which in turn made them funnier. and it's not really teen humor either, but humor that everyone can understand. it really validates some of my japanese learning. i also like watching them get better too. sometimes they have performances that make me cringe, and yet they pick themselves up and continue to improve and get better.

some people like the surrogate girlfriend angle which creeps me out. some like the surrogate daughter which i feel is also creepy. i think neither of those things are accepted in the US and thus aren't really marketed like that either.

but yeah, tl;dr version -- it's not marketed towards teenage girls, and thus there are different things to like about them. it's not at all like Bieber Fever or Miley Cyrus.

(also, justin bieber gets an insane amount of hate. all he does is sing songs and girls like him... that's pretty much it, but somehow a lot of people hate him.)

kainzero Wrote:

aphasiac Wrote:I genuinely can't understand why any male adult would be a fan, when they're obviously targeted at young teenage girls.

Do you also follow American acts like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber; or is this another example of something being cool just because it's Japanese..

i don't think they're targeted at young teenage girls at all. just look at gravure photoshoots, do you think any girl would be interested in that? how about the dating videogames?

I think you're both wrong AKB is heavily targeted at teenage girls, and successfully. I saw a teenager in Kinokunia excitedly showing her mom an AKB bikini calendar that she wanted and that made me kinda sad.

But yes, males are far and away the main target of the AKB marketing angle. Their exposure in print media is by far more prevalent in men's magazines and comic periodicals than in stuff aimed at females.

kainzero Wrote:i'll take this as an apology. =)
i'll also apologize for being vague in my post. my intention was to say top members and yes, i did do my research, even looking up who is in the media senbatsu and confirming all their ages, including a sigh of relief that Matsui Jurina (15) is one spot out of media senbatsu, lol
i just felt insulted as a fan that someone's telling me to google my own fandom.

but yes, let's be civil about this. it's all good, no need to dig at each other.

(^_^)v

Not exactly my most elegant or humble apology. ごめんなさい！

JimmySeal Wrote:I think you're both wrong AKB is heavily targeted at teenage girls, and successfully. I saw a teenager in Kinokunia excitedly showing her mom an AKB bikini calendar that she wanted and that made me kinda sad.

But yes, males are far and away the main target of the AKB marketing angle. Their exposure in print media is by far more prevalent in men's magazines and comic periodicals than in stuff aimed at females.

I strongly disagree with this. In its original incarnation it was very heavily focused on middle aged men, primarily the obsessive otaku type. The fact that teenagers happen to also like them is merely unintended consequence; but I would not put it past Akimoto to have planned it out like this. The only reason why they have risen to fame is because they've sold millions of singles and albums and hit the top on music charges CONSISTENTLY. How was this accomplished? By marketing the girls and creating an incentive for the obsessive fans to buy hundreds of CDs for the handshake tickets.

Then, setting up their theater in Akiba and running shows on a weekly basis. Akiba, renowned for the capital of people with obsessive habits. This is not coincidence. Had they never had a theater, never been started in Akiba, never had the crazy handshake tickets, and never have carefully picked the groups; they would have raised to fame and had the same kind of following that Morning Musume had and then fall to the backlight. These kind of groups abound in Japan but none have reached the same kind of continual momentum and lime light that AKB has. They also would of had fewer creepy fan followings.

This is great timing actually.

NSFWAKB, mouth to mouthNSFW
This is an article on Sankaku. To add on to my prior post, what about this screams "targeted at teenage girls?" Unless you believe Japan has an underground movement to turn all girls lesbian or something.

That said, the thing I will take issue with on the article, is that its not the girls doing it for money, so much as they keep their job. But its the agency forcing the girls to do it. I think this particular set was brought on by SKE's steamy bathroom makeout kiss in a music video. And the oh so popular "Have a baby with an AKB girl." thing...

vix86 Wrote:I strongly disagree with this. In its original incarnation it was very heavily focused on middle aged men, primarily the obsessive otaku type. The fact that teenagers happen to also like them is merely unintended consequence; but I would not put it past Akimoto to have planned it out like this. The only reason why they have risen to fame is because they've sold millions of singles and albums and hit the top on music charges CONSISTENTLY. How was this accomplished? By marketing the girls and creating an incentive for the obsessive fans to buy hundreds of CDs for the handshake tickets.

Then, setting up their theater in Akiba and running shows on a weekly basis. Akiba, renowned for the capital of people with obsessive habits. This is not coincidence. Had they never had a theater, never been started in Akiba, never had the crazy handshake tickets, and never have carefully picked the groups; they would have raised to fame and had the same kind of following that Morning Musume had and then fall to the backlight. These kind of groups abound in Japan but none have reached the same kind of continual momentum and lime light that AKB has. They also would of had fewer creepy fan followings.

This was one of the things that caught my interest in the first place. Their business model. You can't deny that it's a stroke of money making genius. Regardless of what you think of the different groups of fans that listen/go.. which include teens male and female, older people, kids, a huge spectrum.. the fact they literally print money and physical sales wise destroy every other musical act in the world, is quite amazing. Especially in a time when piracy kills most things dead. I've said before, and I'll say again, while they can't copy the idea wholesale, music execs worldwide should be sitting taking notes from the different marketing strategies that they use. Akimoto (the producer) is a marketing visionary. It wasn't an immediate success, but he knew he just had to put the pieces in place and believe in it, and it would be.

i dunno, i think there's a lot of stuff about AKB48 that there's nothing wrong with, or is even good, such as the idea of picking normal looking girls.

I mean, there's really nothing objectionable about a group of girls singing and dancing or doing theatre, or whatever (... i actually don't know much about them since it's not my taste in music anyway). But anyway, it's not like they shouldn't be around or anything.

It's far more the marketing of them and creating a fanbase with creepy older man and heavily oversexualised stuff that is more problematic.

The marketing policy appears to be to appeal to every possible fanbase, which yes, makes money. However, there would still be a huge market for a group like this without the more creepy exploitative stuff, so there's really no need to do it.

And it's not just Western people who think like this... i found this video:

NSFW
3 million views, overwhelmingly Japanese men aged 25-54, 2:1 dislikes to likes, and plenty of comments in Japanese about why.

Marketing^^