[AKB48 Sousenkyo]HKT48 Sashihara feigns tears and begs fans not to ditch AKB48

“Because of these incidents(outdoor concert cancellation), the AKB now is losing trust and i’m really afraid of fans leaving. With my friend graduating, i’m really worried about the future. We will work hard so pls don’t ditch AKB!”

Warning: Ending part is a ‘lets give this a touching ending’ skit but in fact it will make your skin crawl

I’m disgusted with yet another superficial speech from Sashihara. The problem with AKB doesn’t begin with a concert cancellation or a gradation. Of cos, what would she know when she doesn’t even see the problems with herself?

Excerpts from 29th Feb episode of Momm!

In this week’s Momm!, the new generation of AKB48 makes a guest appearance to promote “Kimi wa Melody”. Below are interesting excepts from the show.

---

Paruru and her surprisingly warm attitude towards Nakai

Translated this segment as Paruru used to shy away from her interviews with Nakai. I remember in last year’s UTAGE, she actually told Nakai to refrain from talking to her.

Paruru: Nakai san, how are you?
Nakai: Yes, how are you? Did you lose weight?
Paruru: Yes! You noticed!
Nakai: What did you do?
Paruru: It was stress. *very bright smile*
Nakai falls over and says: But everyone has stress!
Nakai then notices Mayu/Sasshi/Minegishi serving drinks.
Nakai: What..so the seniors are doing work while the juniors sit?
He points at Mayu and says: Just now you put on a scary face!
Mayu:No! It was just a good face.
Nakai to Paruru: This is stressful too? The stress from the higher ups being enthusiastic.
Paruru: No….but today i came because i was curious if Nakai is fine.
Nakai: You came because of that? Isn’t it because of the new single?

---

Payuyu relationship during New Generation Introduction corner

*Skip Yuria,Kojimako,Juri*
Nakai to Sakura: I haven’t met you?
Sakura: Yes, i came here before. With HKT48…
Nakai: Oh i have a deep impression from that time.
Sakura: What do you remember?
Nakai: Um…i don’t know…(*everyone laughs) Sashihara, who are you closest with?
Sasshi: Sakura
Nakai to Mayu: What about you?
Mayu: Eh…..everyone! (*laughs sheepishly)
Sasshi: She’s really bad at this! (*referring to interacting with members)
Mayu: But we’re all friendly!
Nakai: Tell us the charm of the members.
Mayu: Eh……(*tries hard to say something)
Nakai: Do you know who is who? Have you girls talked to her before?
Minegishi: Do you have someone whom you promised to have a meal with?
Nakai: Ah…Shimazaki and you definitely don’t have a relationship?
Mayu: Not really. Our hometowns are the same, Saitama. We’re also the same age.
Nakai: But don’t you go out for meals?
Paruru: She’s my senior, so no.
Sasshi: Paruru entered AKB because she looked up to Mayuyu.
Paruru: Yes. I can’t call her ‘Mayuyu’. It’s ‘Mayuyu san’.
Nakai: But you’re the same age. You’re scary, Watanabe!
Mayu: It’s not because i’m scary.
Nakai to Paruru: Ah, you fell sick because of Watanabe!
Mayu: That’s not true right? Please let me off!
Nakai to Mayu: If you don’t get closer to them, you won’t have any friends!
Mayu: I do have friends!

---

Members and their cleanliness habits

Minegishi: I placed a bottle of vegetable juice on the side table. It expired after a short while and it was difficult to find a timing to throw it out. I thought i’d do it later, but one day when i was in the bedroom, there was a sound of something exploding. I was so scared thinking there was someone in the house that i creeped out only to see my sofa turning green. It was troublesome to clean it so i just draped a cloth over it.

Minegishi: There was a time when i wanted to cook nabe,so i took the pot out but it dropped. Then the leftovers from a previous nabe spilled out.

Nakai: No wonder, i always thought that you smell!
Minegishi: But i do clean myself properly.
Nakai: What about Sashihara’s house?
Minegishi: She has a room which she told me not to enter. When i opened the door to it, it was so dirty inside!
Sasshi: I put everything inside.
Nakai: Do you live alone? What about the rest?
Paruru: It’s a secret. (*Nakai is shocked.)
Nakai: Please ask me the same question! (*He mimics Paruru’s expression when she answered his question.)

---

Watanabe Mayu and her love for cosplay

Minegishi: Mayuyu just said that she doesn’t play with the members, but i got attracted to danso cafes previously. It’s a place often seen in Akihabara where girls will dress as guys and serve customers.When i told her, for the first time Mayuyu said she wanted to come along.

Mayu: I love things about the neutral gender.
Minegishi: She also does it herself. I think she loves cosplay.
Nakai looks at a photo of Mayu cosplaying as Anna from movie “Frozen”
Mayu: During this Halloween event in Disneyland, customers can cosplay to enter, so that’s what i did in my private time. I stayed in a hotel close to Disneyland the night before, woke up early to do my makeup. That’s all my personal clothes.
Nakai: If your boyfriend knows about it, he’d be so shocked.

---

Paruru talks about getting recognized in the streets

Nakai: Shimazaki don’t you get recognised when you go shopping?
Paruru: At this time, i’d pretend not to hear anything. When they touch me and ask if I’m Paruru, i’d say no.
Nakai: But they’d insist you’re Paruru?
Paruru: When i say no, they’d just clear off.

---

Performance below

AllThingsJpop Top 10 headlines of the year

Since 2015 is coming to an end, i might as well conclude with the Top 10 headlines of the year. These articles are ranked according to their viewership. Articles from 2014 and earlier have been left out.

1. Bunshun leaks pictures of AKB48 Kashiwagi Yuki and NEWS Tegoshi Yuya..a Hakone date?
This scandal was published in June 2015 and i guess the huge picture of Yukirin and Tegoshi, arms wrapped around each other, was a huge shock. No proper news sources would report it (for Yahoo it took a few days before article was posted) but the story was already all over the Internet. Though both parties remained largely silent, to this date, we’re still getting epilogues on the mysterious relationship between Yukirin and Tegoshi.

2. AKB48 2015 Senbatsu Sousenkyo ~Unpredictable Rankings, The Tumultuous Night~: Final Results

3. Back Number sings OST theme for drama “5-ji kara 9-ji made”
This comes in as a surprise because i had no idea “5-ji kara 9-ji made” would be so successful internationally. I’ve had readers asking me for titles of tracks which i had no idea of. But no worries, CDJapan now has the OST for sale!

4.  Kisumai Fujigaya Taisuke revealed to be dating Miori Takimoto for years
I seldom post about Kisumai let alone Fujigaya so the spike in numbers for this was quite surprising. I guess Kisumai is really huge, or there could be much more shippers of the couple from “Ikemen Desu Ne” that i’m aware of.

5. AKB48 General Elections 2015: Final look at China fans’ campaigns
This article ended up being published in a Japanese matome kinda site for 48 fans, and for some reason they’d misquoted the facts. So if you read the matome sites, please be aware that not all info passed around there is TRUE.

6. Horikita Maki gets married to Koji Yamamoto after 3 months of dating!
Title is enough to let everyone’s jaws drop in shock. Their love story is even juicier.

7. Tanaki Koki sends Taguchi message of support and talks about life after KAT-TUN
I would actually rank this way higher because it was just published. Surprised that people are still interested in Koki.

8.  Akimoto Yasushi touches on AKB48 Kashiwagi Yuki’s recent scandal

9. Oh no! Arashi’s Ohno snapped living with ex-actress 10 years his junior

10. Netizens discover signs of Shimazaki Haruka interacting with Johnny’s Junior, Sashihara dating Kisumai Senga?

---

Thanks to everyone for supporting my site this year! There are busier days ahead and i won’t be posting regularly but i’ll be here when there’s important news! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

Netizens discover signs of Shimazaki Haruka interacting with Johnny’s Junior, Sashihara dating Kisumai Senga?

A couple of other english sites have already translated this…

AKB48 Shimazaki Haruka x Johnny’s Junior Yasui Kentaro interactions on Instagram

Alleged Yasui Kentaro: Second shot. The height of cuteness
Paruru: I want a child
From Paruru or Yasui(?): No way..lol

Paruru: Flirt
From Paruru or Yasui(?): I have work LOL

So apparently Johnny’s wotas are angry at Paruru for “fishing” while on medical leave and ousting Yasui’s account. She has since deleted all her posts and locked up her instagram account. Yasui Kentaro on the other hand, will probably suffer some consequences for using SNS.

Source, Source

HKT48 Sashihara Rino’s couple items with Kis-My-Ft2 Senga sparks dating rumors

1. Pink Bulldog Smartphone Case


Some questioned if the phone is really hers but she’s actually seen carrying the phone in a recent photo.

2. Kirimi Smartphone Case

3. Rolex watch captured in Sashihara’s twitter pic(dated September), often seen on Senga.

4. Italian brand shirt

There are a few other allegations which didn’t look convincing enough so i didn’t post here. Netizen reactions in below links.

Source, Source

Showbiz professionals talk about HKT48 Sashihara Rino’s attitude problems

During the 17th August episode of “UTAGE!”, there were scenes of Watanabe Mayu, Yamamoto Sayaka and Sashihara Rino talking about their graduation plans. Sashihara Rino(22) in particular has also been revealing the same thoughts to various media.

In the 17th August publication of “AERA”, said mentioned “It’s about time. But it’s not a situation where i can easily quit. People who have public recognition are disappearing everyday. I believe i’m one of the recognised ones, so i can’t quit now.”

Sashihara is one member who has been receiving a “gorilla push” since 2009, from her agency Ohta Pro and overall group producer Akimoto Yasushi. However, it was her scandal in 2012 which was the biggest contribution to her fame. Her relationship with a fan in 2012 was exposed by tabloids and she took the responsibility by moving to HKT48. After that, she used the scandal as a stepping stone to getting more exposure in the media.

“The fact that she jokes about her scandal in variety, and its gap from AKB’s most popular position made the media interested. But within these couple of years, people around Sashihara have been voicing their complains,” says one reporter.

“After the Sousenkyo, she skipped an interview with a sports newspaper and went off. The reporter was troubled. But because it was Sashihara, her managers found it difficult to say anything,” says same reporter.

Her “ue kara” attitude applies for TV interviews as well. (“ue kara” ~ diva)

“During the period when AKB was selling well, Maeda Atsuko(24) and Oshima Yuko(26) also had attitude problems towards magazine interviews. However, when it came to TV interviews, both were still conscious of the fact that they were receiving an “opportunity” and responded properly. But Sashihara, as if fearing nothing in this world, showed zero enthusiasm at a certain recording, giving off short responses like ‘yeah’,’yes’ and finally adding a cynical remark ‘by the way, can this really go on air?’ while sniggering away.” – Wide Show Director

About her snobby attitude, the Wide Show Director says “She thinks she’s Akimoto Yasushi’s favorite. People around her probably feel envious?”

In the ending of AERA’s interview, Sashihara apparently mentioned “Actually, i want to test my skills by graduating.” But will she be able to say the same when Akimoto Yasushi and the management drops her from their “favourites” list?

Source

Meanwhile on GirlsChannel:

[+930] Please do (graduate)
[+1126] Please don’t.She’s ugly unlike the typical idol.
[+806] It’s fine if you quit.
[+791] As if nothing can be established without her. In a way, her way of thinking is sugoi.
[+738] Not everyone recognises you just because you ranked first. Some humility will be good.
[+582] Those who talk about quitting typically don’t.

Source

Kashiwagi Yuki makes first public appearance after scandal, continues to be shielded from media

 

48 Group members Kashiwagi Yuki and Sashihara Rino appeared for a Baitoru press event today.  Reporters were initially allowed to a on-the-spot interview with the members but the format was suddenly changed to one where only the commercial director was allowed to post questions. The event ended without any followup to the scandal.

Usually, for commercial press events, even though organizers would request for reporters to ask more questions related to the event, reporters have freedom to ask a variety of questions. For this event, reporters were informed that only the commercial director will be allowed to question so queries from reporters were not acknowledged. The organizer also mentioned that if any reporters try to pose questions outside the scope of this event, they could be stopped.

Source

“I want to work hard for 1 year”

When asked if she about next year’s Sousenkyo, Kashiwagi Yuki said with a smile “I want to work hard for 1 year.However, i have seen how thick Sasshi’s wall is.”

Sashihara Rino also expressed interested in aiming for a 3rd win. “I want to get a straight win but what happens next year is a question mark.”

Source

 

 

Akimoto Yasushi touches on AKB48 Kashiwagi Yuki’s recent scandal

On the 13th June 2015, Akimoto Yasushi appeared on a radio show and talked about AKB48 Kashiwagi Yuki’s scandal with NEWS Tegoshi Yuya.

The MC first showed some care by commenting “It has been tough for you.”

Akimoto then opens up,”Yes, various things have happened. What should be done about it…everytime it happens, the members of AKB are of course living things, so somehow when I create a format for everyone to follow, not all can accept it. You can’t predict it can you?”

When asked what will happen to Kashiwagi, Akimoto said “What will happen? I also don’t know. I am asking the same to my staff.”

With several scandals having happened to the other members so far, Akimoto san has always managed to twist the situation around and turned it into a plus. “It was interesting,but the days when i can do this and that is over. Up till now, there has been smart(or stylish?) ways to extend the careers of underground idols when negative things occur. But increasingly, whatever you do it doesn’t seem that way anymore. It’s difficult to make it interesting now,” he said.

On the string of scandals that have occurred – “It is tough but when people get together and work towards the same goal, different things will happen. Some(fans) will cheer you on whilst some will fault you, “said Akimoto, indicating that he has no choice but to let fans decide how they want to receive the scandal.

Source

Edited the last sentence becos apparently some are taking the word “judgement” too literally. 

---

In the radio show, Akimoto san also talked a little about Sashihara and Shimazaki Haruka. I could not catch everything but he said Sashihara’s successful stint in HKT may or may not be a good thing. Several years ago, he thought Shimazaki Haruka was promising but one day a magazine described Paruru as “salty” on their cover and he learnt from the theater managers that she had no enthusiasm so she went through a pitiful period.

AKB48 2015 Senbatsu Sousenkyo: Aftermath

Sashihara on her most treasured member Sakura “I was the one who raised her.”

In the after concert of AKB48 Group 2015 Senbatsu Sousenkyo, Sashihara Rino declared that Miyawaki Sakura was the most important member to her.

Miyawaki Sakura is the 2nd member from HKT48 to rank in Kami7. Commenting on this, Sashihara said “It’s Kami7, right Sakura? I think i’m the one who raised you!” Sakura looked troubled by this comment and laughed bitterly.

After that, Miyawaki also revealed a tidbit about her 4 year old brother’s reaction to her ranking. “My brother has a girlfriend…Somehow she also congratulated me and he acted all cool about it.”

Source

Background of SKE48’s rise in Sousenkyo

AKB48 41st single will see a huge influx of members from SKE48 participating due to their great performance in Sousenkyo this year. A total of 27 members including SNH48 Miyazawa Sae have ranked in. Behind this is the hidden story of  passionate SKE fans and their anger at SKE’s management.

Helmed by Matsui Jurina and Matsui Rena, the group whose popularity is right behind AKB has the least media exposure in the entire 48Group. NMB48 and HKT48 have their own TV shows in their hometowns, but SKE48 has none. Even HKT48, the youngest group in the franchise, has regular shows in the Kantou area.

Other than their theater shows, fans also think SKE48 has too little live events in Nagoya. NMB48 and HKT48 have already gone on tours within 2 years of debut. But it took 7 years for Team KII of SKE48 to go on a concert tour. “Because SKE48 does not have live shows, the fans only have Sousenkyo to spend their money on,” said one fan.

SKE48 also has a rule whereby members are not allowed to take on solo activities. This is because the flagship group AKB48 takes priority. In AKB’s handshake events, the sister groups are all expected to take part so that their reputation of “CD million sellers” can be kept. Because SKE48 members are occupied with these, fans think its the reason why concerts can never happen.

These reasons have ignited the fire in fans’ hearts, leading to the their great showing in this year’s Sousenkyo. How will the management repay the fans?

Source

Akimoto Yasushi scraps original plans for 41st single because of Sashihara’s win

According to the Akimoto Yasushi’s messages posted in SNS application 755, it was revealed that the song for AKB48 41st single will take on a different style because Sashihara had won.

“Yoshimasa, Sashihara is No.1 so the style will change. I need something that is different from the demo tapes i’ve received up till now,”said Akimoto in instructions to the music composer.

Sashihara herself has requested for version 2 of “Koisuru Fortune Cookie”.

Source

Sashihara on Chinese fans

“When we talk about China votes it sounds bad. Not only me, other members have it too. It sounds bad, but i feel China’s favor.”

When asked if she sees China fans in her handshake events,she replied “They really exist, 20% of them are from China.”

Source

Misc interviews from Oricon

Q:What will your next year be like?
Akimoto told me “Even if you are first you won’t be center for subsequent songs.” I will enjoy the next 3 months and use it for myself.

Q:Where would you like to shoot your MV?
Somewhere in Oita. My house is nearby so i can return home.

Q:When will you graduate?
I can’t confirm but if I’d stay for as long as possible.Like Kojiharu san..but my looks won’t allow me to do that.

Source

 

Shinoda Mariko reveals she voted for Takamina

Shinoda Mariko had apparently voted for AKB48 Group Manager Takahashi Minami for this year’s elections, and had sent her a message over 755(mobile app) to inform her. In return, Takamina said “You are too kind, Mariko sama.”

Fellow graduated member Maeda Atsuko made a surprise appearance during the Sousenkyo to present her with flowers. Itano Tomomi and Akimoto Sayaka also sent her encouraging messages.

Source

 

Miyazawa Sae says this is her last Sousenkyo?

This was supposed to be my “last” Sousenkyo. There’s no deep meaning to the word “last”, but no one knows what will happen after 1 year. The Sousenkyo is an annual event where fans come together to determine ranks and votes. I don’t want to hastily decline participation without warning, so i’ve already told everyone that this would be the “last”.

I made a clear aim this year — to get my highest ranking ever and Kami7. Even though i didn’t get into Kami7, i received my highest rank together with a personal best in votes. This is a beautiful end.

 

Rest is just words of gratitude

 

Who will win if Sousenkyo implements a 1 person 1 vote system?

According to Sashihara herself, 20% of fans come from China.

“Rumors of the ‘chinese bombs’ started from long ago. This year, a picture of a China fan buying 10,000,000 Yen worth of CDs  to vote for Sashihara made its rounds on the Internet, causing a heated discussion. Amongst the fans, it is said that they are aware of ‘rich wotas’ who are willing to do that much for Sashihara. Her confidence is probably due to that.” said a writer for idol magazine.

In recent years, the Sousenkyo has become an event where rich wotas can influence the rankings, resulting in other fans being rather apathetic.

“These are Japan’s idols, but the results is being decided by the rich in China. The small votes are like trash. Honestly this is becoming stupid,” says a veteran fan in his 40s.

With this system, you can’t say that the rankings in Sousenkyo equates to popularity. What happens if a 1-person 1-vote system is implemented? The same writer makes his predictions.

“Many will nominate Watanabe Mayu but she received 35,000 votes from China as reported by Chinese media, so she’s also supported by rich wotas. Kashiwagi Yuki is known for her reputation as a Handshake Queen and in comparison has less China votes. With her ranking in 2nd this time, she’s most certain to win. Dark horse would be Yamamoto Sayaka. In the magazines which feature 48Groups on their covers, hers sell the best,followed by Kashiwagi and Shimazaki.As magazines are cheap, it is a good barometer to gauge popularity.”

Source

---

 

Watanabe Mayu’s portrait goes on display in AKB48 Senbatsu Sousenkyo Museum

AKB48 Senbatsu Sousenkyo Museum opened to the public on the 2nd June and members Takahashi Minami, Kashiwagi Yuki, Yokoyama Yui, Sashihara Rino and Miyawaki Sakura were present for the ceremony.

It is tradition for the museum to be open to public before the elections every year and this year the opening period is from 3 June to 21 June. Inside, you can see election posters, costumes and the portraits of winners from yester years. On this day, the portrait of Watanabe Mayu, who won the 2014 General Elections, was unveiled for the first time.

The members were unable to hide their excitement when they saw Mayu’s portrait, exclaiming that it looks exactly the same as her photo. “So cute! As expected, if you’re a beauty it turns out beautiful,” said Takamina. Sashihara retorted with “Who are you calling ugly?” (This is in reference to her portrait beside which supposedly comes from the same painter.)

During the opening ceremony, the members also wrote down their feelings about the upcoming elections.

Yukirin: I want to cry.
“I’m don’t get emotional whether it’s a happy or sad situation.This year i want to cry from the happiness of seeing good results.”

Yokoyama: I want to make a speech in the best condition.
“I’m aiming for Kami7, but during the preliminaries i was ranked 20. If i can improve my results, it’d be overwhelming so i hope to maintain my physical condition first.”

Sakura: Crush the Kami walls.
“I’m aiming for Kami7 this year, so it’d be good if i can get in.”

Sasshi: I won’t lose to Yukirin.
“Because this year she was ranked No.2 in the prelims. Actually we are so friendly recently that there’s no sense of rivalry at all.”

Takamina: I don’t know if I should say the words “Hard work will definitely be rewarded”
“I don’t know if i should say it during my graduation live or at the sousenkyo. Afterall the speech u leave during sousenkyo is important.”

AKB48 General Elections 2015: Final look at China fans’ campaigns

Final Edit – Final votes reported for all except Jurina. (Don’t read if you think it’s gonna be spoilers.)

---

I thought i’d give the international fans a deeper understanding on how the Chinese campaigns work, since last year it was widely reported that the Chinese fans had a hand in pushing Watanabe Mayu to the throne. This suggests that the elections are no longer a domestic affair, but how much support will the Chinese fans give this time?

Below is a list of Group48 members who have got significant campaigning going on in the Baidu Tieba threads(fyi that is where the activities are concentrated). I have ranked them based on how much funds their fans have contributed so far. *Note that these funds is not all-inclusive since there may be other campaigns who don’t report their earnings, and there will be fans who choose to vote directly instead of participating in crowd-funding. Fan clubs will announce the number of votes they’ve contributed before final results.

7. Yamamoto Sayaka

Amassed funds: 125,000RMB
Reported Votes: 2500  4647
Sayanee entered Kami7 last year and is now the handshake queen of 48G. However, her explosion of popularity in Japan is in stark contrast to the growth in her chinese fanbase. Much like the fans from her hometown of Osaka, her chinese fans seem apathetic and not at all interested in pushing her to the top.

6. Takahashi Minami

Amassed funds: 228,817 283,476 RMB
Reported Votes: 4576  5957
Takamina wants to aim for No.1 this year before she resigns in December. Her fans are reportedly quite happy now that they have amassed funds equivalent to last year, but they are equally aware that this amount will at best keep her in 9th place, not any higher. Lets just say that the Japanese fans will have much work to do if they want Takamina to see her wish being granted.

5. Shimazaki Haruka

Amassed funds: 462,601 RMB
Reported Votes: 9252 12,675
Paruru’s fans are the most creative when it comes to running campaigns. One of them is so fun that i’d find it hard not to participate. Basically they’ve created this imaginary restaurant called “Paruru Cafe” and the menu only has 2 items – the Salty combo or Sweet combo. The Salty combo consists of Shio Ramen,French Onion Soup, Croissant, Salty Popcorn and Salt Soda Drink while the Sweet combo consists of Borscht,Sukiyaki,Melon Buns,Almond Sweets and Juice. Each combo costs 111 RMB, and whilst you don’t really get to eat anything, you can see eventually which combo is more popular amongst fans – guesses anyone?

4. Miyawaki Sakura

Amassed funds: 400,000 RMB
Reported Votes: 8000 12,591
I previously posted that Sakura had only 10,000RMB worth of amassed funds. It turns out that she had more than that. The entire Sakura camp(including Japanese fans) are working hard to land her at Kami5 this year. It is said that her vote count will reach 80,000.

3. Sashihara Rino

Amassed funds: 661,345 674,898 RMB
Reported Votes: 13,226 14,046
Sashihara has the smallest fanbase amongst all the other Kami level members in 48 Group. According to her site, the 35,000 number of followers is only about 1/7 of Takamina’s followers. However, it seems like they are the ones proving that action(and perhaps wealth) is what matters, since they’ve easily surpassed Takamina’s funds more than 3 times.

Sashihara has promised to do a swimsuit concert this year if she wins the elections.

2. Matsui Jurina 

Amassed funds: 760,000 RMB
Vote Equivalent: 15,200 (*No final report.)
Much of the lobbying this year is centered around talk of Jurina turning 18, how they don’t want to make her cry, and how after this year she’ll have no more excuse to use her age as the reason for aiming No.1. There is not much fanfare about her campaigns, simply pleas asking fans to help fulfill the target.

Meanwhile, Jurina herself has promised to take on the “punishment” of riding on what may be the world’s scariest roller coaster – ACROBAT, if she does not take the crown this year.

1. Kashiwagi Yuki

Amassed funds: 1,200,000 RMB
Reported Votes: 24,000  38,000
If we were to talk about the fanbase who will go all out for their idol this year, it would probably be Yukirin’s. Ahead of the sousenkyo preliminary results announcement, her chinese fanbase have already surpassed last year’s standards and are even making Mayu fans panic.

According to Yukirin’s interview in the Sousenkyo Guidebook, it was mentioned that she has never specifically asked for a position as she wanted to “leave an exit route for herself”, in case she fell. Now that she’s one of the older members and probably wouldn’t have much chances to participate in Sousenkyo anymore, she wants to “push herself to the edge” and aim for the top. Yukirin has promised to challenge an event worthy of Sashihara’s swimsuit concert if she wins the elections.

0. Watanabe Mayu

Amassed funds: ~930,000 RMB in May 2015
Vote Equivalent:18,600 (*No final report.) 34,000 (Updated as of June 2016)

I didn’t give Watanabe Mayu a ranking because her campaign results is quite a mystery! What i listed here is the funds accumulated in May 2015. How much they’ve accumulated in the dark is unknown.

If you ask me how Mayuyu’s campaign is faring so far, i’d say that the enthusiasm is still there, judging by the variety of campaigns which started in the New Year. My favorite campaign is one where fans donate private items(cosmetics,anime collectibles etc) to those who participated in the crowdfunding.

However, there are lots of complaints about sabotaging going on, or journalists harassing the big voters, fans withdrawing their votes etc. Their team has decided to keep the results private this year.