Trivia / Nogizaka46

• The Cast Showoff: Many members do activities outside of the group, ranging from musicals and stage plays, to television dramas and modelling. Mai Shiraishi, for example, played softball in her high school days. She got to show them off a few times, and even had a role in the group's TV drama, Hatsumori Bemars.
• Contractual Purity: As with many idol groups, the members are not allowed to date.
• The Danza: A slight aversion. Nanase Nishino played Nanasemaru in Hatsumori Bemars.
• Fan Community Nickname: There's no official one yet, but since the members often call the fans with the rough pronoun omaera during concerts (which contrasts with their "graceful" image), some fans occasionally address each other as such.
• Follow the Leader: The group was formed after Sony executives saw that AKB48, which was signed to them from 2006 to 2008, managed to become a national phenomenon after they parted ways, and asked Yasushi Akimoto to produce another group for them.
• He Also Did: Ijiri Okada used to host the erotic late-night show Gilgamesh NIGHT and its revival Gilgamesh LIGHT, which influences his perverted persona in Nogibingo. He even reveals that he was asked to limit his signature tongue flapping gag in Nogibingo.
• History Repeats:
  • A short haired girl, the face of the group, and the main center for some time, graduates from the group after 7 years. Am I talking about Atsuko Maeda or Rina Ikoma?
  • Nogizaka won the Japan Record Award six years after their formation, the same amount of time AKB48 won their first Japan Record Award in 2011.
• Hostility on the Set: In May 2023, Seira Hayakawa revealed in a radio broadcast that their usual concert director, Seigo, is very strict and became foul-mouthed when he's upset, going so far as calling the members ugly and wishing that they drop dead, and even blamed Sayaka Kakehashi's accident on stage the previous year on them. This caused quite the outrage among fans, many of whom demanded that he be fired immediately; however, there were also several former idols (both from Nogizaka and other groups he'd worked with like HKT48) who spoke up in defense of him and criticized the current members for being weak-willed and not suitable for the harsh showbiz (for what it's worth, Seira herself claimed that she wasn't personally offended, being a thick-skinned Kansai girl, but sympathized with many of her fellow members who were). In the end, Seigo tendered his resignation and posted an apology on his website, and the Nogizaka management also released a statement confirming most of what Seira claimed, but denying that he blamed Sayaka's fall on the members. Later, =LOVE (a group produced by former HKT48 member Rino Sashihara, who had admired Seigo in the past) also announced that it has parted ways with him. Seira herself also then announced her graduation from the group and retirement, and fans were split on whether she was forced to because of her revelation, or she made the revelation because she'd already decided to leave and wanted to do a final favor for her fellow members (the fact that she got to release a farewell photobook photographed overseas in Singapore supports the latter).
• Paying Their Dues: With the group being advertised as AKB48's official rival, there was initially some pressure on them to reach their rival in terms of popularity and success. Come 2017-18 and they have outsold AKB48, have many members appear on various tv shows and stage plays, had a Tokyo Dome concert, and won the Japan Record Awards twice.
• Promoted Fanboy: Some first generation members that joined the group were either fans of AKB48 or other idol groups. Some members that joined after the first gens were fans of Nogizaka46 itself.
• Real-Life Relative: Mao Ioki is cousins with Hinatazaka46's Yoko Shogenji. Both of them are also from Hyogo Prefecture and have rare surnames.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Karin Ito originally auditioned for Nogizaka46's first generation but didn't make the final 36. She tried again when the second generation auditions came along and made it in the group.
  • Rina Ikoma was originally going to be the center for the 20th single ("Synchronicity") for what would be her final single. She refused the offer, saying that she didn't want the single to be a graduation single.
  • Former 8th generation AKB48 kenkyuusei Nanami Nishikawa briefly joined Nogizaka as a second generation member. Unfortunately, she didn't last for too long.
  • Fourth generation member Yuri Kitagawa was briefly a kenkyuusei in AKB48 during early 2018.
  • hololive En Generation 1 -Myth-'s Takanashi Kiara auditioned for Nogizaka46 and actually made it past the first round before she decided not to pursue it.
• Word of God: Producer Yasushi Akimoto has stated that the "46" in the name is meant to be a direct challenge to AKB48, in that the group will succeed with less members.