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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Inquilinus on 2025-01-30 16:17:40+00:00.
Warning: Discussion of substance abuse and mental health issues.
On January 30th, 2013, a video that shocked the idol world was uploaded. It featured AKB48 member Minegishi Minami with a crudely shaved head, tearfully apologizing to the members, staff, fans, and her family, and begging to continue being accepted as a member of AKB48. It was widely reported on in Japan and throughout the world, one of the few times AKB48 has gotten exposure outside of Asia. I want to explain the story behind it. First, I’ll start with a primer.
Terminology
AKB48: AKB48 is an idol group founded in 2005 by Akimoto Yasushi. The concept was “idols you can meet”, with a theater where they perform every day. AKB48 has a large number of members as each theater performance is conducted by a team of 16 members, and there are multiple teams alternating on different days. AKB48 also founded sister groups throughout Japan with their own members, teams, and setlists and who perform at their own theater. Akimoto Yasushi writes the lyrics for all of the songs for AKB48 and its sister groups. Members are added in numbered generations.
Theater: the AKB48 theater is a tiny venue on the 8th floor of Akihabara’s Don Quijote, a discount supermarket chain. It has 6 rows of benches and standing room in the back, with a total capacity of 250 people. There are also two massive pillars that block the stage for most of the audience. AKB48 has been performing there almost uninterrupted since December 2005. They’ve performed roughly 6600 shows there at time of writing. The members are divided into teams, with the classic teams being Team A, Team K, and Team B, and the teams perform their own setlists, known as stages.
Senbatsu: the members chosen to participate in a single. While the size of the senbatsu varies, it’s generally around 16 members. Considering AKB48 (and it’s sister groups) has hundreds of members, it’s often seen as the ultimate goal of many members to enter into the senbatsu. It features members who are the most popular, or are being pushed by management to become popular. Usually, AKB48 singles were a kind of “all star” lineup with the top members of each sister group being selected (the sister group’s singles would feature a lineup of just their own members) alongside the top AKB48 members.
Center: the frontwoman for the single. Only very few members ever become center. Occasionally, a single will feature multiple centers, with the members sharing the position.
Graduation: when a member leaves the group, it’s typically a graduation. They announce graduation publicly, then graduate a few months later. They have a graduation performance at the theater as their last activity. Sometimes members withdraw or are terminated, which is not considered a graduation. This has only happened a couple of times, typically for criminal behavior.
Kenkyuusei: literally “research students”, kenkyuusei are trainees. They perform their own stages at the theater. After they have proved themselves, they are promoted to full member and assigned a team. It typically takes a couple of years for a kenkyuusei to be promoted. The fastest so far has been 68 days; the slowest 1958 days. The first 3 generations of AKB48 did not participate in the kenkyuusei system.
General Election: In 2009, AKB48 started the General Election, where fans could vote for the senbatsu of a single once a year. Due to the huge number of members, many fans would complain to the management that they were choosing the wrong members for the senbatsu. So, AKB48 created the General Election. The single preceding the Election would contain a voting ticket. For each CD you bought, you received a vote that you could put towards your favorite member. The members who received the most votes would be in the senbatsu, with the one who received the most being the center. Initially, it was the top 21 members, but was later reduced to the top 16.
Love Ban: The love ban is probably the single most misunderstood part of AKB48. It’s commonly reported that AKB48 members are contractually banned from dating. This is not true. However, some fans will become extremely upset if a member is caught dating. It’s huge fodder for tabloids and sometimes develops into a big scandal. AKB48 came into unprecedented popularity in the early 2010s, so uncovering a dating scandal was guaranteed big news. Some members have graduated after tabloids published pictures of them with a man. However, for most members, nothing happened and it just blew over.
Minegishi Minami
Minegishi Minami was born in Tokyo on November 15th, 1992. She grew up dancing, doing ballet from the age of four and hip-hop dancing from the age of six. She took singing lessons throughout her childhood and had a great singing voice. Growing up, she always wanted to be a performer because, in her own words, she “liked to stand out” and “had unfounded confidence.” She also loved idols, especially Morning Musume, and even auditioned for their children-affiliate Hello!Project Kids, but failed. In mid-2005, she saw an ad for a new idol group with a theater called Akihabara48 and didn’t really understand what it was, but her mother encouraged her to apply because it was produced by Akimoto Yasushi. First there would be an initial screening and then an in-person audition. Minegishi failed the initial screening. However, when reviewing the failed applicants, one of the managers noticed that she has the same birthday as him, and decided to pass her on to the audition. She passed the audition, and became a member of AKB48’s 1st generation.
Early Days
The early years of AKB48 were rough, popularity-wise. Their first show was on December 8th and had an audience of only 7 fans. At first, Minegishi had trouble finding her character. She originally wanted to be called Minami, but fellow member Takahashi Minami had already taken it. She considered using a stage name, but settled on the nickname Miichan, which I’ll be using from now on. She wanted to be considered a cute and pure “traditional idol”, but she thought others outshone her in that regard. She tried wearing glasses to stand out, but that didn’t work. However, she eventually found her footing. AKB48 stages have dedicated talk sections, called MCs. The MCs are an important part of a stage. The members will tell funny stories, make jokes, or do skits. Miichan was really good at leading the MCs and became known as “the funny girl”. The thing is, Miichan hated being the funny girl. Throughout her career, Miichan has always been described by herself and other members as a very negative person who is extremely hard on herself.
On February 1st, AKB48 released its first unofficial single (they had yet to be signed by a major label), featuring all 20 members of AKB48. They added the 16-member 2nd generation later that month, and the 1st generation became Team A with the 2nd generation being Team K. Because they had so many members and it was difficult for fans to keep up, the management decided they needed to make one member the star. They chose 1st generation member Maeda Atsuko (nicknamed Acchan) as their star. This became apparent in April, when Team A started their 2nd stage. It included a four-member song called Nagisa no Cherry, which featured Acchan as the center, and three members as back-up singers/dancers. Miichan was one of these backups. At first, she refused to do it. She asked the management why Acchan, who was the same age and generation as her, should stand above her. She only relented when she saw Acchan crying to the management, begging them to not make her the center.
In June, AKB48 released their 2nd unofficial single, Skirt, Hirari. Skirt, Hirari was the first single featuring the senbatsu system. Only seven members were selected. Initially, Miichan was one of these members. However, at the last minute, management decided that she didn’t fit the concept and replaced her with someone else. The seven members became known as the “Sukahira 7” and were poised to be the ones to lead AKB48. Miichan was devastated and her self-esteem was destroyed.
In late 2006, AKB48 signed to DefSTAR records and released their 1st official single, Aitakatta. Miichan was included in the senbatsu. She would be a regular senbatsu member from then on. She became extremely close to her fellow Team A members, especially the aforementioned Takahashi Minami (officially “Minami”, but I’ll use “Takamina” for clarity) and Acchan, and another Team A member Kojima Haruna (Kojiharu). All three of them were members of Sukahira 7, and Acchan centered every single of the era, occasionally co-centering with Takamina or Kojiharu.
For several years, AKB48 continued putting on theater shows and releasing singles, but still hadn’t reached popularity. In January 2008, AKB48 got its first variety show, AKB1ji59fun, which was later renamed to AKBingo. Miichan, who already had developed a comedic persona during MCs, thrived on AKBingo. She became well-known for her guigui character, someone who will do anything to get screen time, and her being someone easy to make fun of.
In November 2008, AKB48 created the subunit no3b, consisting of Miichan, Takamina, and Kojiharu. No3...
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