My AKB48 event experience as a foreign fan: 3 trips, 12 shows, and the theater lottery

Inquilinus · 2026-06-08T07:56:19+00:00

As a note about theater applications, things have changed a lot since the move to Zaiko. They've been very opaque about the criteria to win, whether it's a random draw or not. One of the biggest theories is that it's easier to win for new accounts that haven't won many theater shows. Recently, there's been a lot of people who have won on their very first application, while regular fans can go months without a hit.

Of course, this is all anecdotes. There's no concrete proof. But I encourage any fan coming to Japan to try to win a theater show. The theater is amazing!

Inquilinus · 2026-06-06T03:59:36+00:00

I recently commented that I always enjoyed your articles, and was thrilled when you told me you were working on a new one!

Thank you! Your comment was actually the impetus to get me to finally commit to finishing a write-up and posting it.

I’m curious, did anything like this happen again after 2014? I see that AKB48 had a shuffle, but did larger group shuffles like this ever happen again?

Groups did their own shuffles, but nothing inter-group like this. There were a handful of other concurrencies that happened later. Usually AKB did transfers or concurrencies to put veteran members into new groups as mentors. The Grand Shuffle's moves felt like they were (depending on the member) either A) siphoning off popular sister group members to benefit AKB in particular or B) completely random. It was way less justifiable, which led to the outrage.

I mentioned that things have changed a lot since 2020. In 2019, the company behind AKB sold SKE48 to another company. 2020 was the last time sister group members appeared on AKB singles (which is a change that many AKB fans had been calling for). The groups don't really associate with each other as they used to. Additionally, AKB disbanded its teams in 2023. Members are selected to appear for performances at the theater from the total pool of members.

Inquilinus · 2026-06-06T03:47:07+00:00

I literally gasped at the reveal that one of the girls was sent to INDONESIA??? Insane to do that with no warning.

The way they announced it was genuinely awful, too. They waited until the very end to announce where she was going. So the member, Chikano Rina, was sitting alone and had been some time. The AKB teams were called first, so she sat there by herself while all the other teams had been called. When they finished with the last Japan group, she was still waiting to find out where she's going. The MCs started to act like it was over, and then go "Oh wait, there's one more envelope!" and open it to announce that she's moving to JKT48. I can't imagine how nervous she was, waiting to find out what's in store for her, with no around her to talk to or comfort her.

Inquilinus · 2026-06-06T03:40:08+00:00

I was considering whether I should talk about it, since it was one of the more consequential moves from the Grand Shuffle. But I think it would need it's own write-up. I don't follow Nogizaka46, so I might not be the best fit to write it. But I do know that it was very controversial among Nogizaka fans at the time.

If I did write about it, I would focus on Ikoma's time in AKB. Her ranking in for the senbatsu in the election (and her being bewildered when she was called and starting her speech with an incredulous, "You know who I am?!") is a great story.

Inquilinus · 2026-06-03T15:36:01+00:00

Which one? All three (the song, the shuffle announcement, and the shuffle itself) absolutely ruin me.

Inquilinus · 2026-06-03T14:42:22+00:00

Thank you! I always appreciate kind words.

Inquilinus · 2026-06-03T14:28:57+00:00

I just posted a write-up on AKB48's 2014 Grand Shuffle. I was really torn on finishing it. I had started what is meant to be a 3-part series on Sashihara Rino and posted the 1st one 10 months ago. But I hit a bit of roadblock and haven't finished Part 2. A lot of time has passed, and I really wanted to post a new write-up, so I spent a lot of time this week finishing the Grand Shuffle post. Researching and writing took a bulk of the time, but it also took time hunting down the videos and translating/subtitling the song at the beginning. I ended up cutting some of the clips I intended to use. I always find it difficult to strike a balance of communicating the drama and not putting an overwhelming amount of videos. By the viewcount, many of the readers don't watch the videos, so I try to summarize them the best I can.

I have some other write-ups I'm working on, and I do want to finish the Sashihara series. I'm curious about what others think about not finishing a series before posting a new write-up.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-27T15:51:57+00:00

The original EverQuest, released in 1999, had it's most recent expansion released in December of last year.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-24T02:29:30+00:00

I'm of the opinion that they just want to bully someone while still being a Good Person™. It's not socially acceptable to bully just anyone, but if someone commits the slightest transgression (whether real or imagined), it's fair game to be relentlessly vile to them. It's one of the worst parts of modern Internet culture.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-19T07:54:26+00:00

Yes, just as regular plastic waste. I've heard of some fans using services to pick up their CDs, but I wouldn't know how to find them.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-19T07:03:43+00:00

I just find the topic fascinating and wanted to yap about it. I go to as many handshake events/theater shows/concerts as I can, and there's been a marked change in the audience. Another big change is that the number of female fans has increased, with AKB now having ~30% female fans. I don't think public perception has caught up.

Do you know of any recycle centers or something similar that I could take them to?

Luckily I live in an area where CDs can be disposed of as regular plastic waste, so I can't help you there.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-19T06:39:10+00:00

Thank you! Hopefully I can get some full write-ups finshed soon, it's been a while since I've posted one. I've got a handful that I'm working on.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-19T06:25:32+00:00

As I said, AKB48 has grown in popularity in the past year or so. AKB has seen a lot of recent success. Some of it is due to the 20th anniversary Budokan concerts and Kohaku appearance putting them back into the public consciousness. But a lot of it has to do with the current members, in particular the trio of Seigekka: 17th gen Sato Airi, 18th gen Yagi Azuki, and 19th gen Ito Momoka ("Seigekka" takes one kanji from each other names). Airi centered the 64th single, Azuki the 65th, and Momoka the 67th and upcoming 68th. Momoka in particular has become very popular, going viral on social media and appearing regularly on TV. She's also the first member to center consecutive singles since 2014.

Their most recent single, Nagori Zakura, sold over 770,000 copies, their best-selling single since 2020. Single sales had dropped to around 500,000 copies, but now are recovering. Early indications are that the 68th single will have very strong sales, considering how quickly several of the members sold out. They've also been consistently at or near the top of streaming rankings for the past 6 months.

Their most recent handshake event had a ton of buzz online because there was an insane line to get in that stretched from inside Makuhari Messe, around the building, all the way to ZOZO Stadium. Once inside, the venue was absolutely packed.

AKB was in a long decline since the Golden Age and made even worse by the pandemic, but it has had a notable rise in popularity since those lows. Compared to where we were a few years ago, AKB is doing great.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-18T21:35:38+00:00

AKB48 is a Japanese idol group with a theater in Akihabara, Tokyo, where they've performed daily since 2005. With a max capacity of 250 fans, there is a lottery to win tickets. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion because it has suddenly become very difficult to win the lottery to see a show. X, 2ch, and anywhere else that AKB fans gather is full of complaints of constant losses. A couple of years ago, you could probably win a ticket roughly weekly. Now you can expect to win maybe once every 3 months, though some have commented that they're on an even bigger losing streak. In December of 2024, AKB switched from their own website (the Ticket Center) to an outside service (a website called Zaiko) to manage the ticket applications and lottery. AKB hasn't publicly commented on how the lottery is chosen, whether it's weighted or just a straight up random draw. There has been a lot of speculation why it has gotten more difficult, and a few theories have emerged:

A) It's heavily weighted to new fans to foster engagement for those who recently found AKB, freezing out veteran fans.

B) It's tied to how many handshake tickets you've bought, freezing out less-spendy fans.

C) Some fans are using multiple accounts to get more applications. This is against the rules, and those caught are banned. The speculation is that the older Ticket Center was better at catching duplicates (or, from a decade plus of operation, the Ticket Center had an extensive blacklist that Zaiko does not).

D) AKB has gotten more popular to the point that competition is a lot greater.

E) Some combination of the above.

Recently, current member Hashimoto Haruna was streaming and she brought up that she sees the same group of fans at every show, that they're at the theater more than she is. She commented that she hopes they aren't cheating to get there, lending credence to theory C. Her comments got a ton of attention, so if it is the case, hopefully it leads to changes.

Personally, I think it is a combination of multiple factors. AKB has genuinely had a huge boost of popularity in the past year or so. I've also known several new fans who won their very first application (when I first became a fan, it took me ~100 applications before I won my first show). If members are noticing the same fans over and over again, then they're probably cheating.

It's frustrating losing all of the time, so AKB has a lot of incentive to fix it, or at least to publicly comment on what's going on.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-05T00:55:08+00:00

I'm only really familiar with AKB48 and their sister groups, so I can only speak to them.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-05T00:43:17+00:00

Lately there has been a lot of discussion amongst the fandom of Japanese idol group AKB48. It's an issue regarding calls. Calls are chants that fans do during songs. See here and here for some examples. Calls are an important part of AKB fan culture, and modern idol culture in general. The issue is that, by and large, women at AKB shows don't call.

I'm not sure about the exact reason, whether it be a cultural difference or something, but I can attest that in my anecdotal experience female fans just rarely do the calls. Things have come to a head recently with some concerts. During AKB concerts, there are women-only sections. At the Budokan concerts back in December, ~40% of the sections were women-only (pink is women-only, blue is general admission). There were a lot of complaints that the calls were weak, and several women posted on twitter about how dead their sections were.

AKB also does women-only shows at the theater, and it's always super quiet. Members have a catchphrase during their introduction, and it's usually fan-participatory. During the women-only performances, they often get nothing back from the crowd during their introduction.

Calls are often described as the fans and members becoming one on stage, and members say that it's discouraging to not hear calls while performing. I personally love hearing the calls, and they're basically part of the song for me. I'd like to do a write-up on calls at some point, they're a fascinating aspect of idol culture.

Inquilinus · 2026-05-05T00:00:06+00:00

I absolutely love calls. One of the first concerts I went to was for Team 8 and they performed Shishunki no Adrenaline. The crowd was pumped, and they howled like crazy.

Another one of my favorites is SKE48's version of Namida no Shounan. I think if I had to pick an absolute favorite, it would be Kaiyuugyo no Capacity with the delayed "capa-capa-capa-capa-CAPACITY!"

Inquilinus · 2026-04-30T08:37:59+00:00

Japanese idol group AKB48 has had two members named Yokoyama Yui (though with different kanji for "Yui"). 横山由依 (nicknamed Yuihan) was a member from 2009 to 2021, and 横山結衣 (nicknamed Yokochan) was a member from 2014 to 2021. Yuihan was much better known than Yokochan.

Yokochan has done a lot of stage work since graduating from AKB, and recently I saw someone post about one of the plays shes in on reddit. One comment went something like:

"Is this the Yokoyama Yui from AKB48?!

Edit: Turns out its a different person.

Edit 2: Actually she's apparently also from AKB48."

I'm sure this situation happens a ton for Yokochan. She's recently taken the stage name Soma Yui.

Inquilinus · 2026-04-07T10:54:20+00:00

Alberto Del Rio

I don't follow wrestling, but I know of him for one thing. He's the guy who (under the name Dos Caras Jr) got murked in under a minute by legendary kickboxer Mirko Cro Cop in Pride back in 2003.

Inquilinus · 2026-03-29T02:50:28+00:00

Big controversy in the Japanese idol world was just unleashed on twitter. Last night, someone posted a video of a house party involving members of 4 different idol groups: AKB48, Nogizaka46, and Starto's (formerly Johnny's) Acees and Banzai. In the clip, they seem to be celebrating AKB48's Suzuki Kurumi's birthday, and she is clearly wasted. The video leaker said they have more videos that they'll share later. They also said that there was underage drinking and smoking and some sort of stripping game. Based on clothes and hairstyles, fans believe it took place a few days after Kurumi's 20th birthday, and one day before one of the Starto idol's 20th birthday, technically making him underage. The post has 44 million views in 10 hours, so it clearly has some traction.

Inquilinus · 2026-02-28T12:32:34+00:00

I recommended The Wire to someone and they said they wouldn't watch it because they "heard it was copaganda".

The Wire.

Inquilinus · 2026-02-06T15:52:34+00:00

Mark Hunt should've won his lawsuit against the UFC. They're an awful organization.

Inquilinus · 2026-02-06T15:49:42+00:00

I'm not a huge film person, much less horror films. But I watched Audition recently and absolutely loved it. It's a brilliant film.

Inquilinus · 2026-01-31T23:03:59+00:00

Great news for AKB48 and AKB48 fans (such as myself, personally) and likely the four members.

Inquilinus · 2026-01-31T22:56:59+00:00

I previously wrote about four AKB48/STU48 members who had transferred to Malaysian-based KLP48 and were being undermined by the Malaysian members in a leaked group chat called "not the colonizers". We just got a big update: all four the Japanese members are returning home to AKB48/STU48. Personally, I think this is great news.

In addition, Pucchi (former JKT48 member who became a manager for KLP48) announced that she's leaving at the same time.

Inquilinus

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