Top 48G Members Mid Year 2017

I haven't really been following 48G this year. Me following 48G was always contingent on me buying their singles and albums for my collection, but because I just haven't had the money recently to do so, I've been paying less and less attention to the groups. It also doesn't help that releases have been few and far between for all of the groups.

AKB48

Neither of their singles this year have done anything for me. The B-sides have been meh (minus that SakamichiAKB song). The group has been kind of meh in graduation announcements. I'm semi-excited for Sousenkyou, but if Sasshi wins again I'm going to be disappointed. From my list in December, I lost Kira Takahashi. She should've been promoted and maybe she would've stuck around. AKB has a lot of KKS that really need to be promoted already. Surprised that Miichan hasn't announced yet. She really should (as should Mayuyu and Yukirin). It's time for the original members to leave.

#1: Minami Minegishi (-)

#2: Mayu Watanabe (+1)

#3: Mion Mukaichi (+1)

#4: Nana Okada (-2)

#5: Hijiri Tanikawa (-)

#6: Yuki Kashiwagi (-)

#7: Riona Hamamatsu (NEW)

#8: Nao Nomura (NEW)

#9: Saho Iwatate (NEW)

#10: Hinana Shimoguchi (NEW)

SKE48

SKE has been a non event this year. Sure they released an album, but that was way back in February and still no single yet this year. They were also a non event last year (though I loved Chicken Line). I actually completely forgot that SKE recruited an 8th generation. That's how little I've been paying attention recently. I'm actually surprised I haven't lost anyone from my list last year. I thought for certain I'd lose at least one or two. I guess the graduation torrent from SKE has slowed this year and they're starting to stabilize with the younger gens.

#1: Rara Goto (-)

#2: Oka Suenaga (+3)

#3: Jurina Matsui (-1)

#4: Ryoha Kitagawa (NEW)

#5: Akari Suda (+1)

#6: Marika Tani (+3)

#7: Haruka Futamura (NEW)

#8: Ayaka Ota (NEW)

#9: Natsuki Takatsuka (-2)

#10: Sarina Souda (NEW)

NMB48

Still thinking Sayaka will graduate this year or at least announce. Especially because she didn't participate in Sousenkyou. Has NMB released any singles this year? I can't remember if Boku ga Igai was this year or last year. Shows how much I've been paying attention haha.

#1: Sayaka Yamamoto (-)

#2: Rina Yamao (+2)

#3: Ririka Suto (-1)

#4: Narumi Koga (+6)

#5: Kanae Iso (+4)

#6: Fuuko Yagura (-3)

#7: Rurina Nishizawa (+1)

#8: Mizuki Uno (NEW)

#9: Azusa Uemura (NEW)

#10: Ayaka Yamamoto (NEW)

HKT48

Sasshi can leave now. I'd be good with that. Especially because they're making her be part of HKT, STU, AND AKB songs. Just leave already and leave spaces for girls who need it gosh. HKT released a single this year right? It was that bug song I believe. I don't think I've listened to it yet. Oh well. I'm slightly surprised I lost Haruka from December. Wasn't expecting that. I think Meru's going to be gone by year end. Don't know why, just a feeling. Anna will certainly be gone too. I can't imagine she'll hold out much longer with all the drama surrounding her.

#1: Meru Tashima (-)

#2: Nako Yabuki (-)

#3: Nao Ueki (+4)

#4: Mio Tomonaga (NEW)

#5: Miku Tanaka (NEW)

#6: Haruka Kodama (-1)

#7: Emiri Yamashita (-1)

#8: Maria Imamura (NEW)

#9: Anna Murashige (NEW)

#10: Sakura Miyawaki (-7)

NGT48

I still haven't listened to their debut song. From what I've heard about it, it seems like it will just be meh anyway. We'll probably see one more grad this year, after Sousenkyou. Still surprised that Mizusawa left so soon.

#1: Yuka Ogino (-)

#2: Tsugumi Oguma (NEW)

#3: Rena Hasegawa (NEW)

#4: Reina Seiji (-1)

#5: Mau Takahashi (NEW)

#6: Minami Kato (-)

#7: Miharu Nara (+2)

#8: Ayaka Tano (NEW)

#9: Riko Sugahara (NEW)

#10: Anju Sato (-5)

STU48

Cuca joined a group! I'm so happy for her! Too bad she wasn't included in their debut song, although the song was incredibly boring so meh. Hopefully they do a dance number soon and she gets to shine! I'm predicting one grad this year before a team is formed. They're all new so no positions.

#1: Miyu Sakaki

#2: Akari Fukuda

#3: Miyuna Kadowaki

#4: Yuri Torobu

#5: Aoi Hyodo

#6: Saki Sugahara

#7: Yumiko Takino

#8: Chiho Ishida

#9: Ayumi Ichioka

#10: Nonoka Shintani

Nogizaka46

If not the end of this year, next year there's going to be a mass grad of a lot of first gen. They've been in the group for, what, six years now? A lot are probably thinking about the future at this point. Influencer was ok as a single, haven't heard the B-sides. Then they released an album, which I also haven't heard anything from. Hopefully once things settle down for me I'll be able to catch back up.

#1: Rina Ikoma (-)

#2: Minami Hoshino (-)

#3: Maaya Wada (-)

#4: Miria Watanabe (NEW)

#5: Manatsu Akimoto (+1)

#6: Erika Ikuta (+2)

#7: Sayuri Matsumura (NEW)

#8: Asuka Saito (-1)

#9: Sayuri Inoue (NEW)

#10: Reina Sakurai (-1)

Keyakizaka46

It's the only group that I semi-payed attention to the music of this year! Fukyouwaon was AMAZING. More like that for 48G please. I do predict more Keyaki grads by the end of the year. Maybe from the weird Hiragana system. I wasn't a huge fan of Techi when the group first started but gosh she's a perfect center.

#1: Yurina Hirate (+1)

#2: Yui Imaizumi (-1)

#3: Mizuho Habu (NEW)

#4: Mana Takase (NEW)

#5: Memi Kakizaki (NEW)

#6: Kyoko Saito (NEW)

#7: Nanako Nagasawa (-4)

#8: Rina Uemura (+1)

#9: Yuuka Kageyama (NEW)

#10: Nijika Ishimori (-4)

SNH48

I'm still not sure what to think on all the China48 groups. I haven't heard any of their new music this year. I'll get around to it eventually. I'm actually surprised that more of my positions didn't change from December.

#1: Mengying Lv (NEW)

#2: Beiting Qian (+6)

#3: Yi Zhang (NEW)

#4: Xinwen Sun (NEW)

#5: Jiaying Chen (+1)

#6: Jiongran Liu (NEW)

#7: Rui Sun (-3)

#8: Xiaoyin Kong (-1)

#9: Zhilin Shen (NEW)

#10: Wanqing Hao (NEW)

BEJ48

#1: Xinyi Ren (+5)

#2: Xian Liu (NEW)

#3: Xiang Li (NEW)

#4: Congcong Niu (NEW)

#5: Shuli Tian (NEW)

#6: Shan Sun (-2)

#7: Xiaohui Hu (NEW)

#8: Shuxian Liu (NEW)

#9: Hongyao Li (NEW)

#10: Yixuan Duan (NEW)

GNZ48

#1: Lirong Huang (NEW)

#2: Yirui Long (NEW)

#3: Siyue Wang (NEW)

#4: Cuifei Wang (NEW)

#5: Yuanjing Gao (NEW)

#6: Yuqi Chen (-1)

#7: Lifei Liu (-3)

#8: Qiulin Du (NEW)

#9: Qianqian Liu (-6)

#10: Yihong Li (NEW)

SHY48

#1: Xiao Yang

#2: Feiyan Wang

#3: Siyu Guan

#4: Jiarui Zhao

#5: Yunhan Yang

#6: Shihan Feng

#7: Jiale Han

#8: Zixi Lai

#9: Zhixian Gao

#10: Mengting Gong

25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #21: Top 48G 2016

I've already talked about both the music & the members from this year, so let's just jump right into the countdown!

#10

Keyakizaka46 - Futari Saison

#9

HKT48 - Make Noise

#8

AKB48 - High Tension

#7

NGT48 - Kimi wa Doko ni Iru?

#6

NogizakaAKB - Mazariau Mono

#5

Keyakizaka46 - Silent Majority

#4

Tentoumu Chu! - Seijun Tired

#3

AKB48 - Love Trip

#2

SKE48 - Chicken Line

#1

Nogizaka46 - Harukanaru Bhutan

25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #4: Top Nogizaka46 & Keyakizaka46

So. I've noticed that all 3 of the entries I've done so far besides this one I've screwed up the title. Wow. I clearly am not having a good week lol. I've been sick all week so that's my excuse.

Nogi & Keyaki are together in this because Keyaki doesn't have enough releases yet to have their own spot.

To me, Nogi hasn't had a super stand out year. Quite frankly all of their releases from this year blend together and I actually had to sit for a couple minutes to even remind myself what they'd released. I haven't enjoyed any of their title tracks this year and their album wasn't interesting outside of Erika Ikuta's solo either. I guess Nogi's music style is not for me at all. However, they do manage to release some really awesome songs once in a while. Like I said on my Top J-Pop post, when Nogizaka releases a good song, it's not just good, it's stellar. They did that this year. Their B-side Harukanaru Bhutan. Whoever did the music for that song, I just want to congratulate them on creating one of the most gorgeous pieces of pop music I've ever heard. I'm so upset that it was a B-side and didn't get a whole lot of attention. It's the best thing that any 48G group has ever put out. It's just too bad that the rest of their music is so bland. As for Nogi themselves this year, I'm actually a little shocked at how strong they are going right now. It looks very possible that they will beat AKB within the next year or two, as long as the idol market doesn't completely crash.

Keyaki is a bit of a mystery to me. I can't figure out if I want to like them more than Nogi or not. Their very first single, Silent Majority, absolutely blew me away. Such a style difference from Nogi's more reserved songs. I loved it and the B-sides weren't that bad either. However, I've been disappointed in their next two singles. I like that they're keeping the faux military concept, but I HATED Sekai ni wa. It's a song. There's not supposed to be that much talking in a song. Make a freaking drama if you want to talk over music don't ruin the song. The B-sides were okay, all though I did really like Yurina's Parco solo. That was cool. Although I don't hate Futari Saison, I find it bland like Nogi's material and the B-sides were very lacking too in my opinion. The group seems to be easily matching AKB's sister groups in sales and will likely surpass them by next year. One thing I do wonder though is how long people will like Yurina being the center. I think she's a rather good center, but as we saw with Nogi, will people start being resentful that she's the only one centering like Rina was? There's already some talk on forums that I've seen where people are wishing for a new center. I'm curious to see if management will stick with Yurina or if they'll try someone new next year.

On to the song countdown! Like last year, it's unlikely that all of the songs will be linked because it's harder to find 48G material online that aren't download links sadly.

#10

Nogizaka46 - Sono Saki no Deguchi (2014: Natsu no Free & Easy, Type A) (-4)

#9

Nogizaka46 - Yubi Bouenkyou (2012: Seifuku no Mannequin, all versions) (-2)

#8

Nogizaka46 - Popipappapa (2015: Ima, Hanashitai Dareka ga Iru, Type A) (-)

#7

Nogizaka46 - Natsu no Free & Easy (2014) (-4)

#6

Nogizaka46 - Barette (2013) (-2)

#5

Keyakizaka46 - Silent Majority (2016) (NEW)

#4

Nogizaka46 - Girl's Rule (2013) (+1)

#3

Nogizaka46 - Seifuku no Mannequin (2012) (-1)

#2

Nogizaka46 - Koko ni Iru Riyuu (2014: Natsu no Free & Easy, Type C) (-1)

#1

Nogizaka46 - Harukanaru Bhutan (2016: Harujion ga Sakukoro, all versions) (NEW)

Only one Keyaki on the countdown...maybe next year they'll feature more.

Top 48G Members [First Half 2016 Edition]

December's Ranking: Click Here

It really pains me to say this, but in contrast to H!P this year, 48G's music has been utterly fantastic. Not so much AKB, but the sister/"rival" groups. They've had a lot of impressive songs come out this year so far. They've also seemed actually interesting this year. I find myself checking up on news about them more often than usual. I think it's because the big older members are finally starting to leave (like how Takamina FINALLY got the heck out of the group. That was the single most pointless graduation drag out I've ever seen) and new members are beginning to fill the ranks. It's a fun transition time.

AKB48

-It's actually kind of sad how AKB manages to be so mediocre compared to their sister groups. Kimi wa Melody was an ok song, and had some fantastic B-sides, but the B-sides weren't even by AKB except for La La La (which was boring as crap). And Tsubasa wa Iranai & it's B-sides is AKB's management really phoning it in. I applaud them for resisting going back to bikini singles, but gosh can we at least have something with some energy? And if that preview for that new song is actually the Sousenkyou single then I'm giving up on any A-side being good this year from AKB.

#1: Minami Minegishi

#2: Mayu Watanabe

#3: Nana Okada

#4: Hijiri Tanikawa

#5: Mion Mukaichi

#6: Nana Owada

#7: Kira Takahashi

#8: Yuki Kashiwagi

#9: Moe Aigasa

#10: Kiara Sato

SKE48

-I honestly expected SKE to not catch my attention as much after Rena graduated, but really they've been more interesting than most groups. Rara is totally adorable and I'm glad that she's getting the push she's getting. Musically, SKE has released one of their best songs ever this year with Chicken Line. While most of the B-sides to the single were pretty standard pop fare, Is That Your Secret was really great too. I hope they get an album/original stage this year. It's been too long since both.

#1: Rara Goto

#2: Aya Shibata

#3: Nao Furuhata

#4: Jurina Matsui

#5: Kaori Matsumura

#6: Ruka Kitano

#7: Akari Suda

#8: Natsuki Takatsuka

#9: Oka Suenaga

#10: Marika Tani

NMB48

-NMB had some great title tracks last year, but this year's Amagami Hime wasn't really up to par with songs like Must Be Now & Don't Look Back. It's good, but not that good. The B-sides were also rather disappointing. I'm hoping that their next singles this year are better. With NMB, I feel like they're really beginning that major transition phase that SKE seems to be starting to come out of. The phase where older members & popular members are wanting to move on & pass the baton to younger girls. With Miyuki leaving (and in my opinion I believe Sayaka will be gone by the end of next year too), they will have to make the transition to new gen sooner rather than later. They are doing better on that front than SKE did when they began the transition though.

#1: Sayaka Yamamoto

#2: Rina Yamao

#3: Ririka Suto

#4: Shu Yabushita

#5: Fuuko Yagura

#6: Miru Shiroma

#7: Konomi Kusaka

#8: Kanae Iso

#9: Rurina Nishizawa

#10: Ayaka Morita

HKT48

-I've all but given up hope that HKT will ever release good A-sides ever again. Or B-sides for that matter really. However, their B-side on Kimi wa Melody was incredible. Make Noise is the best thing they've ever done. They should totally do that style on an A-side just to shake stuff up because of how boring they usually are.

#1: Meru Tashima

#2: Nako Yabuki

#3: Chihiro Anai

#4: Sakura Miyawaki

#5: Emiri Yamashita

#6: Haruka Ueno

#7: Yui Kojina

#8: Nao Ueki

#9: Haruka Kodama

#10: Aoi Motomura

NGT48

-Well, they haven't really done anything yet so I don't have a whole lot of thoughts on them. Their B-side releases for AKB are pretty boring though. And I really really don't like Moeka. She feels like such a poor choice for center over the amount of girls they have who could pull it off much better. I still can't really rank them with any certainty because they haven't released a single yet.

#1: Yuka Ogino

#2: Minami Kato

#3: Rika Nakai

#4: Reina Seiji

#5: Nanako Nishimura

#6: Yuria Otaki

#7: Mau Takahashi

#8: Marina Nishigata

#9: Rie Kitahara

#10: Hinata Honma

Nogizaka46

-Honestly, Nogi releases music more boring than HKT. They really do. However, as a group they seem to have much more personality. Although Nogi's music borders from bland to blander, they have managed to release one of the best Japanese songs of all time this year. No I'm not kidding when I say that. Harukanaru Bhutan is probably my favorite song to ever come out of the 48Gs, and at this point it's very very close to becoming my favorite Japanese song of all time. The composition and production of that song is just absolutely gorgeous. The alternating between the guitar & the traditional instruments before that last chorus is just a beautiful piece of music. So powerful. When they have songs as good as that in their arsenal, why the heck are they constantly releasing snoozefests? I can't remember how any of their A-sides go as far back as Natsu no Free & Easy because they're all the same flavor of boring.

#1: Rina Ikoma

#2: Minami Hoshino

#3: Maaya Wada

#4: Mai Shiraishi

#5: Manatsu Akimoto

#6: Karin Ito

#7: Marika Ito

#8: Nanase Nishino

#9: Erika Ikuta

#10: Himeka Nakamoto

Keyakizaka46

-I was so incredibly surprised by their debut single. It was so different for the usual 48G stuff! This is what they need desperately. Curveballs. It seems like the Japanese public loved the Silent Majority concept too so that should provide incentive for them to comeback with another great song. I'm still not 100% on my ranking, but my top girls are more or less decided.

#1: Yui Imaizumi

#2: Miyu Suzumoto

#3: Manaka Shida

#4: Aoi Harada

#5: Yurina Hirate

#6: Yui Kobayashi

#7: Nijika Ishimori

#8: Mizuho Haba

#9: Neru Nagahama

#10: Nanami Yonetani

So here's my thoughts, agree, disagree?