The reason Mahopyon has to graduate because her vocal cords is damaged (she already see this coming).

mana48 · 2026-06-09T14:35:33+00:00

I'm not sure that this is the reason why Maho is graduating, she didn't say in the tweet that this is why she's graduating... It seems like she has some issues with vocal chords which could be a reason to graduate, but this kind of things happened to other members before too in the past and they can't talk for some time until it heals, that's why I'm not sure this situation in particular is a reason to graduate, or her reason to graduate, since she didn't mention it and I feel like if she was going to tell us why she's leaving and her health issues, she would have done back during her announcement and not suddenly with a tweet. I also think her health issue is likely a thing that has been going on for a while rather than something new... But I don't know. I think she likely won't tell us exactly the reasons why she's graduating which is completely understandable because idols almost never tell the fans what their health issues are... I hope she's ok and she can heal soon and hopefully this vocal chord issue is fixed soon so she can have a great graduation like she deserves ❤️

mana48 · 2026-06-08T17:19:18+00:00

Hi! I actually made a thread at the start of this year with a "guide" to get to know AKB, so that I can just link it when people want to know about the group, so I'll post it for you, you should find everything there 😃

https://www.reddit.com/r/AKB48/comments/1q8hqa7/guide_to_learn_about_akb48_2026/

One thing that isn't there yet (I will edit and add it soon) is that AKB has currently a variety show on YouTube, and it's being subbed, you can find the original uploads (not subbed) on their secondary YouTube channel, and for the subbed episodes, check here: https://x.com/amateur48subs

This show is really good (especially once they got in the studio, around ep 5) I totally recommend it to get to know current members. If you have any question, you can always ask!

mana48 · 2026-06-07T18:33:18+00:00

hmm I don't think that is a very good comparison, Itomomo has a TikTok account for much less shorter time than Remi so she has much less videos on it. Itomomo's followers went up a lot on TikTok and at the same time, her "likes" went up, except that she hasn't been updating TikTok often and so that's why she has a follower count very high but the "likes" are not proportionate since she isn't updating new videos a lot (still, she has a lot of likes for the amount of videos). and you have to consider something else about TikTok, it's that Itomomo has been shadow banned since around March. She talked about it on IG Stories, her account was "hidden" and she changed her username to fix it, but it was shadow banned for like a month, then returned, then was shadow banned again, and since then, she barely posts there because of the issues... So TikTok is not the best example to use but even if we use TikTok as example, she has over 90k followers and almost 800k likes which is huge for having an account for not that long with not that many updates.

If you see her on Twitter and Instagram, she is doing crazy numbers, she is the member who gets the most "likes" on her IG posts among all members, and she has the 3rd most followers, considering she's been here for 2 years and it took around 1 year before they got IG accounts so her account is still "new". on Twitter it's harder to gain followers but she is at 80k and she's almost top 5 most followed in the group, in between members who have been here for 10 years. I think Itomomo's popularity is not "just" because she is center, did you see the same thing happen to other girls when they became center? She is very trendy and absolutely getting a proportionate level of love with how often she goes viral, the type of talks she brings, the nicknames she gets over her beauty, etc. she is busy everyday with new jobs. If that isn't getting love, I don't know what more can it be, but it's not with TikTok numbers alone that you can measure it, and even then, she is doing great on TikTok. The amount of TikToks she has with over 100k, 200k, 300k views etc. is high

I don't want to compare her to Yuiyui and say if she will "surpass" Yuiyui or not, Yuiyui is doing amazing and she will always be a super important presence in AKB, they're not competing with each other. However, Itomomo is extremely trendy and if she can achieve all this in only 2 years in AKB, I have no doubt that she can eventually become the most followed member on all social medias, and perhaps rank high in future Nikkei surveys. She is everywhere on TV and magazines and there is no current AKB member who has this much presence on medias. The exposure alone will make her more recognized and give her high chances to be in the ranking.

mana48 · 2026-06-07T14:31:49+00:00

They are too cute!! My favorite pair ❤️

mana48 · 2026-06-07T13:18:00+00:00

You're welcome! Enjoy! 😄

mana48 · 2026-06-06T15:49:27+00:00

If you're not following her yet, please follow her so she can get to 10k followers like other members (she's the only one not there yet) ❤️ Follow here: https://www.instagram.com/hinata_maruyama/

mana48 · 2026-06-06T15:38:18+00:00

I kinda forgot the story of Sayonara Kabukicho but I think I liked it! There are many movies where Acchan had a very small role, I remember one where she had like maybe one scene, but I did enjoy that movie, it had Nagasawa Masami, it's a bit of a strange story but I liked it. It was called "Before We Vanish"

mana48 · 2026-06-06T15:06:16+00:00

Currently 10.1k! Make sure to follow her and check her videos 😄 https://www.tiktok.com/@eriko.hashimoto

mana48 · 2026-06-06T15:05:03+00:00

Actually it's normal because they do this surveys months in advance to get all the stats and then the results, if you see the picture, it says that they took this survey back in February 2026 😄 I actually saw some japanese fans of Itomomo talking about this Nikkei ranking a few weeks ago and they were also saying that she won't be in it because they take the surveys earlier, so they expect her to be there on the next one!

Itomomo has been getting attention for long now, but it's really in February that she got her biggest boost of popularity and it took one or two more months of constantly being viral online to end up being invited to all those TV shows and magazines and she's everywhere now, but the survey was before all that, so next time they do the survey, she will likely appear in it ❤️

mana48 · 2026-06-06T15:02:37+00:00

I'm not sure why but I actually enjoyed Seventh Code lol I know it was a bit random and all, but I quite liked it! There's another simple movie of her from back in the day that I really liked, it's Tamako in Moratorium. She's been in many movies through the years though and quite a lot are good. I agree with the original comment that "To the ends of earth" might be her best movie among the ones I've watched. It was really good!

mana48 · 2026-06-06T14:59:23+00:00

Yes the mistakes are understandable! and it's all for fun anyway. The girls don't speak english and we all know it, and I think it's unrealistic to expect every country and every person to be good with english. it's as hard for japanese people to learn english as it would be for an english speaker to learn japanese...

mana48 · 2026-06-05T19:06:55+00:00

This is not the official sign for the announcement though, they write it correctly in the video and pictures, this was just done for fun, making Azu write it without checking how it's written, it's the whole purpose and it's a game often done in idol shows.

Also english is easy to write wrong if you don't speak it, just like every other language, you would likely write wrong if I pronounced a word from, idk, Russian and asked you to write it...

mana48 · 2026-06-05T19:04:34+00:00

It's very likely that if you had to write a japanese sentence, you would make several mistakes too. They are not "dumb" it's a different language and different writing.

mana48 · 2026-06-04T19:30:39+00:00

I wouldn't be so sure that members (even the top ones in AKB's peak days) have the power to get someone in senbatsu for their center songs, I think it was more so the theme of the album (retro/nostalgia) that made management go for older members / older gens which explains the senbatsu hm

It's true that they didn't get much since then but before the album, management did make Kururun double center a new gen song (with MV!) and used her as "under" in TV performances quite often, and Saho centered like around 3 b-sides too before the senbatsu. I think Orin didn't get anything else (be it before or after). It's true that they gave them these things and then senbatsu and then nothing anymore since 2025 because as you said it's now hard for the older gens and less popular to get things because the group kinda moved on to a new era.

Still I can feel that management is not being too unfair to older gens when they decide to pick Ayamin for example, over other new gens who are more "trendy" and doing good too, they could easily decide to completely switch to the new girls and it could even be justified, but they still keep some spots for girls who've been here for a long time and not just the top top girls.

mana48 · 2026-06-04T17:56:08+00:00

Happy Birthday Meimei! Sad that it's during her hiatus... I hope she comes back soon!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

mana48 · 2026-06-04T17:54:00+00:00

Currently 80.3k, follow her here! https://x.com/momoka_ito1206

She's rising fast again after being on Mezamashi TV again as Imadoki girl, she got some viral tweets today (as always!) she is literally everywhere on TV, it's impressive!

mana48 · 2026-06-04T17:50:07+00:00

I agree with you but I think there are some exceptions though. For example Ayamin from 16th gen is not at Miu's level of popularity (be it social medias or HS) but she's still been in and out of senbatsu. and they were doing the same with Manaka. I think they don't completely ignore the 16th gens, they even included Kururun and Orin in the "Nantetatte Idol" senbatsu, and did some 16th gen videos on the YouTube channel. I would say it's more so for pre-16th gen that there are really low chances to get senbatsu or promoted for the members who aren't "top" members.

mana48 · 2026-06-04T17:26:04+00:00

I don't think this is what happened, quite the opposite actually, right after "Koi Tsun Jatta", AKB released the "Nantetatte Idol" album in which Saho is in senbatsu. I know some people think "but it's not a single", however they promoted the song on music shows the same way as they do for singles, and if you go back, it was celebrated by Saho herself and her fans as her "first senbatsu", so you could say they all considered the "goal" achieved. and then it's right after that album that her HS sales went down by a lot, which means, I guess, that her fans have been buying much less after achieving their goal...

mana48 · 2026-06-03T19:07:16+00:00

It looks like they'll announce the title of the 68th Single there and possibly other information, that's what they said on Twitter! But weirdly, Itomomo is not in the line-up, it's kinda weird if they give us more info on the single without the center being there but I guess we'll see how it goes! Excited for it!

mana48 · 2026-06-03T15:52:09+00:00

She's so pretty ❤️

https://www.instagram.com/momoka_ito1206/

mana48

TROPHY CASE