AKS Master Post 012

Well there have been various changes for NMB48 recently so this is probably long over due.

First up at the NMB48 Request Hour it was announced that Yamada Nana will be transferred to Team M from Team N. It was also announced that Kenkyusei Koga Narumi and Nishimura Aika were to be promoted to Team N.

Melos no Michi post (English)

Then at the AKB48 Budokan concerts we had some intergroup shuffling.

The cancellation of concurrent memberships included that AKB48 member, Yokoyama Yui is to be taken out of NMB48 to return to be only a member of AKB48. Kotani Riho of NMB48 is being taken out of AKB48 to go back to only being a NMB48 member.

New concurrent members from AKB48 to NMB48 is Team B member, Ichikawa Miori, who will now also be a member of Team N.

Then from NMB48, Team M's Yagura Fuuko will now be also a member of AKB48's Team A.

Melos no Michi post (English)


I feel these little line-ups shuffles for NMB48 deciding to start correcting the imbalance of popularity with NMB48's teams. Since the start Team N has been the most popular team as they got to enjoy being the only team and getting special focus for that. Yet because of that the other teams have not really been able to rise up to close to their level. It was not so bad at first for Team M because the had Jo Erika who got massive pushing from the agency but when she graduated it felt like Team M lost any steam it had. Of course it was not like they had nothing to offer as there are some true gems in Team M, but they no longer had that Ace to pull people in with. So in that sense moving Yamada Nana (Nana) to the team fixes that problem as she is going to bring a good chunk of fans with her. Not only that but the rising Ace of Team M, Yagura Fuuko (Fuuchan), is getting strong pushes, and her also being in Team A of AKB48 could do great things for her. And as she rises so should the rest of Team M.

Team BII probably was left alone from the shuffling as they are the newest team so it is hard to tell if they will end up in the same situation as Team M or not. If anything I think it is telling that they do not have a strong main Ace like Team M did starting up. And Yoshimoto probably wants to see if their plans will work for Team M before taking a look at Team BII.

Personally I am fine with the shuffling. It will be strange to see Nana not with Yamamoto Sayaka (Sayaka) and Watanabe Miyuki (Milky) on Team N, but with Yokoyama Yui (Yuihan) leaving she stands a good chance of returning to the top 3 again. I do not see Ishikawa Miori (Fresh Lemon) displacing her, but perhaps being in the top 4 just to remind fans they have a AKB48 member in the group. But then again I know next to nothing about Lemon, just that she is one of the newer AKB48 members.

I still think the group is in need of a complete shuffle, but until then this is at least a start and hopefully Team M will end up benefiting from these changes.