Tuesday, September 14, 2010

NMB48 auditions and their effect on Morning Musume



Akimoto Yasushi has been holding auditions for AKB48's lastest sister unit NMB48. I'm sure most idol fans out there have known about this for a while. And rightly so, because AKB48 first announced the new group at one of their concerts in July. But I am literally just hearing about this today.
As I've said several times before I don't follow AKB48, SKE48, and SDN48 as closely as I'd like to. Mostly because I'm super new to the fandom and there is a lot of girls, music, history, and general information to sift through. So much at times it feels like my head is going to explode. Right now I still can't remember all the girls names. From memory I still only know about half the AKB48 girls' names, no SKE48 girls (besides Matsui Jurina and Matsui Rena), and no SDN48 girls. Every time I start to really remember the girls something happens in H!P and JE that I focus all my attention on. It's a vicious cycle. But I'm ok with my AKB48 fandom for now. You can't imagine how hard it is to try and focus on every single Japanese idol group out there. But this is getting completely off subject now.

Since the auditions have been going on for a while now they are already on their secondary auditions. They narrowed 430 girls down to 106. And on September 20th they will be holding the third audition. Now I haven't watched any of the NMB48 audition videos. Mostly because I can't be bothered to search for streaming videos that could take hours to find. I'll only do that for Morning Musume's 9th generation auditions. But what I did watch is a video of the top 106 girls. Here's the video.



I gotta say a vast majority of the girls are pretty unattractive. Don't get me wrong there are a few cute girls. There are girls who reminded me of Kitagawa Keiko, Kusumi Koharu, and Ogawa Makoto. But most of them resemble horses. And I know that might sound harsh, but we're talking about idols here. Who are based on looks over talent, being added to an agency that lip sinks nearly every performance. Do you think wotas watching this are thinking "hmm she's ugly, but she might actually be a good singer," or "WTF? Keep this horse face out of my group,"?

Now because I overanalyze everything and am extremely H!P biased, my immediate reactions to these auditions are, "how is this going to effect Morning Musume's 9th gen auditions?"
I know Morning Musume, NMB48 seemingly unrelated. Except, not really. You have to factor in that these are the same girls that will most likely be auditioning for Morning Musume. The rejects of this audition will most likely audition for Morning Musume as well because the auditions are in close proximity of each other.
If a girl really wants to be an idol she'll pretty much settle for any group. Let's not forget AKB48 and SKE48 members have auditioned for Morning Musume before their respected groups. AKB48's Satou Sumire, Kashiwagi Yuki, and Umeda Ayaka as well as SKE48's Furukawa Airi and Momona Kitou.
I know some of you might not realize, or don't want to admit, but these auditions will have a big effect on Morning Musume's auditions. Wether the effect is a positive or a negative is up in the air.

There are two possible effects this could have on the Morning Musume auditions. Let's start with the positive. This could definitely boost the turn out for Morning Musume's auditions. I'm sure a lot of the heartbroken girls whose dreams have been crushed will most likely try their luck with the 9th gen Momusu auditions. Like I said before, an idol group is an idol group. If they really wanted to be an idol they wouldn't care what group they were in.

And now for the negative possibility. And the one I personally find more plausible. Some girls might brush off the rejection and wait for another AKB48 or sister unit audition, rather than audition for Morning Musume. AKB48 and it's sister units are extremely popular, a lot more popular than Morning Musume. They are pretty much the top idol groups in Japan right now. 7,256 girls auditioned for NMB48. I'm going to say that Morning Musume will be lucky if they get half of that.
I'd figure a lot of girls would want to be in an extremely popular group over a not so popular group. And would probably hold out for that. It seems like AKB48 takes new members frequently. AKB48 is on their 10th generation of Research Students. That's pretty mind blowing. Considering Morning Musume is only on 8th gen currently, and H!P doesn't take that many Eggs.

I don't know, I try to look at Morning Musume's future in an optimistic way. But honestly anymore it seems kinda dim.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plus, they are only looking for 20 members for this one. So they'll only have one team. That is at least two more teams to go and two more auditions until they get the basic set. AKB48 and the sister units have a lower standard towards looks than Hello Project does. By the way, the right hair cut and make up can do wonders.

AimxAim said...

Really? I had no idea that they were only taking 20 girls. That is another factor to take into consideration.

I wonder why they have a more low standard for looks. AKB48, and etc, are hardly focused on singing ability. You'd think they'd have a higher standard since it's their main factor.

I agree about the hair and makeup, that of course will add to a girl's beauty. Also aging helps. The girls in Morning Musume weren't extremely pretty until they were members for a few years. Take Miki and Risa for example.

CiaoAmare said...

Just thought I'd say that Momusu 9th gen auditions had over 12460 applicants. :3

AimxAim said...

Over 12460 applicants? I haven't heard about the actual number of applicants before. Where did you hear this from? XD