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Trivia / AKB48

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  • Ascended Fanon: The "Gachikoi Koujo" ("True Love Chant"), originally created by Team 8 fans to chant during their song outros, is acknowledged by the team's members and occasionally used in their TV shows.
  • Contractual Purity:
    • Many Idol Singer groups in Japan, both male and female, have a no-dating rule to keep up the image of being attainable. AKB48 has become one of the most common examples, especially after Minami Minegishi's scandal in 2013 (where she was caught spending the night at EXILE member Alan Shirahama's home) made international news. A year before that, Rino Sashihara's alleged ex-boyfriend sold her out to the media by releasing intimate details about their relationship, which almost nearly ruined her career and caused her to be transferred to HKT48. Fortunately, both girls were able to pick their careers back up after that, especially Sashihara, who now consistently ranks high on popularity polls.
    • Minami Minegishi shaved her head out of her own desire to show remorse and the management initially didn't want to publish the infamous video, but they did anyway in the end, and the rest is history.
    • 48 Group members (including Minegishi, years after her incident) and even Yasushi Akimoto himself have acknowledged in several interviews that the "love prohibition rule" is more of an unwritten rule or "understanding", and it was only strictly enforced around 2010 to 2012 and only very few members were let go explicitly for breaking it during that time. However, many fans expect it to be followed nonetheless, and even a slight indication that a member might be interested in a boy group (usually one of those under Johnny & Associates) could spark heated arguments in fan circles. In the end, what matters is whether the member is still able to face her fans after her indiscretion is exposed and whether the fans are still willing to support her.
    • Several segments in Sayonara Mouri-san outright state that the love ban doesn't exist (without specifying whether or not it ever did in the past) and even offer tips on dating and love life fortune telling for the members. In response, several members declared on the show that they're not interested in romance in any case.
  • Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
    • Maybe the most common one is reporting that they actually have 48 members.
    • Graduation is an euphemism for "fired". Members who willingly resign to pursue other careers or retire from showbiz are actually also said to either graduate (they get a graduation show to properly end things) or "withdraw from group activities" (leaving without fanfare, with a simple blog or SNS post to say goodbye).
  • Fan Community Nickname: Team 8 fans are simply called Eito.
  • Lying Creator: The case of Aimi Eguchi. Yasushi Akimoto, AKB48 producer, announced that he had found the ultimate AKB48 girl at NMB48's second generation audition, instantly adding her to AKB48 as 12.5th generation. Turn out, she was unreal.
  • The Merch: Plenty of them- from files to T-shirts to posters, the list goes on...
  • Paying Their Dues:
    • Although the group had been around for a few years, success didn't really come until they released "RIVER" making a slew of number one hits follow. Their first show in the theater was only attended by seven people.
    • In addition, Kenkyuseis have to work for months or even years to prove that they are worthy of being full-time members, and wait for an open position that the management considers fit for them. Shizuka Ooya waited over 2 years to be promoted, and Mai Homma was promoted 4 years after joining. The record is currently held by former SKE48 member Kaori Matsumura, who was a Kenkyusei for 5 years.
    • The group was on the verge of disappearing until "Oogoe Diamond" came out, starring SKE48's fan favourite Jurina Matsui. The managers are so grateful to her that she's appeared on practically every cover song of the group's singles.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Many members of the group were huge fans before joining.
    • Rino Sashihara has performed the wotagei dance in AKBingo!.
    • Saya Kawamoto's room is shown to be full of founding members' posters in her documentary.
    • In her documentary, Okada Nana related how she had few friends in middle school until she joined the AKB fandom.
    • A handful of members' younger sisters have joined the group, such as Rei Jonishi (former NMB48 member Kei Jonishi's sister) and Orin Muto (Tomu Muto's sister).
      • Kasai Tomomi and her sister Rion auditioned together, but only Tomomi passed. Rion eventually became a solo idol.
      • In the sister groups, there's Fu Yabushita in STU48 whose older sister Shu is formerly in NMB.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Before she auditioned for AKB, Minami Takahashi was a finalist in Horipro's talent contest, and she found out about AKB from a flyer that was distributed outside the building where the contest took place. One of the contest's judges was Yasushi Akimoto. Whether Akimoto deliberately failed her to get her into his group is anyone's guess.
    • Yuki Kashiwagi auditioned for Morning Musume before joining AKB but was cut from the third round. Ultimately, things turned out for the better for her as captain of Team B but one can't help but wonder how she would have worked in Morning Musume...
    • Sumire Sato also auditioned for Morning Musume, but failed the audition.
    • Ayaka Umeda also auditioned in the Morning Musume Lucky 7 Audition and passed the first round.
    • In one Shoujiki Shougi segment on AKBingo!, Minami Minegishi presents the statement "truthfully, you would rather be in Morning Musume" to Haruna Kojima. She fails the lie detector test and can't keep a straight face when insisting she likes being in AKB.
    • Mayu Watanabe auditioned to be in AKB's 2nd generation but failed, missing out on being in Team K which has a completely different image from Team B. She did mention that this was for the better in retrospect, since she believed her weak stamina wouldn't be able to keep up with Team K's powerful style.
      • Speaking of Mayuyu, it was her who was to be the WCenter of UZA alongside Jurina Matsui; however, her stamina didn't let her keep up with the exhausting choreography, so Mayuyu gave the spot to Yuko Oshima instead.
    • Yui Yokoyama (the General Manager, not the Team 8 one) originally auditioned for SKE, but failed the audition. She tried again with AKB and passed.
    • Sarina Souda first auditioned for AKB 3rd Generation in 2006 and took a couple more AKB auditions after that. She finally became an SKE member at the age of 20 through the Draft system in 2013. Four years later, she ranked #8 in the Senbatsu Elections. According to her, she probably wouldn't have come that far if she had passed the earlier auditions.
    • Hinatazaka46 member Yuka Kageyama was a 3rd Draft candidate.
    • Hina Iwata tried out for AKB and several other idol groups before she was finally admitted into STU48 in 2017.

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