A month ago I knew nothing about Nogizaka46, now I'm at ep 160/180 of NogiDoko and at ep 290 of NogiChuu. Some thoughts and AMA!

[u/thai130898]

Okay so title is a bit clickbaity. I was into AKB48 around 2014-2015 and binged AKBingo in the same fashion, but gradually lost interest around Kokoro no Placard as my favs were all gone. I did know Nogizaka46 as a sister group then, member wise I knew Ikoma and Maiyan, but nothing more than that.

Then early this month pics of AKB48 20th Anniversary Concert were all over my social feed, I got the urge to watch Idol contents again, and since Nogizaka had their variety show from the beginning I figured it was a good idea to watch them from debut. From the title you can probably see I got hooked. Right now I'm at ep 290 of NogiChuu and to be honest I don't have the confidence I can continue for much longer, so here's some my thoughts on the shows as well as the group from 2011-2021 (where I'm at) in no paticular order.

• MC: Bananaman are goated.

• When it gets good: The show needed Manatsu, and even then it only got consistenty good around after 6th single campaign, with introduction of many staple themes Horror stories, insider stories from families, romance delusions, non-senbatsu members appearing on the show..., IMO that's when the show found its identity, with it basically NogiChuu 0.5.

• Senbatsu announments: I hate those and would watch all at double speed since I feel bad watching it every time. Though the one when they changed 5fukujin to 10fukujin was pretty funny since all of them figured out second row getting called fukujin or not was just arbitrary and didn't matter.

• Member episodes at the beginning of NogiChuu: Hit or miss, but the good ones were extremely funny, sad to see they stopped doing it.

• Missed potentials: The Himetan hotspring episode is no 1, the premise was 10/10, delivery was meh, understandably they were still idols. Another missed opportunity is again related hotspring incident, this time the call back to it in ep 255, the storytelling was perfect but got barely any screen time, I felt like no one on the sets remember it anymore.

• Favorite moments: There's a lot but I'll just list some of the ones that I can remember on top of my head: Asuka's valentime rejections, Wakatsuki's Hashi-kun, Matsumura's gift to Himura, Himura's Influencer arc, Manatsu's trial, Himura's shopping episodes and HK3, Shinuchi's drama, Mizuki and Asuka dynamics, Riria's stunt episode.

• Newer gens: I didn't care for 3rd gen when they were introduced but I gradually warmed up to them, but for 4th gen, as of ep 291 (start of 2021) with most 1st and 2nd gen going away (or stop actively paticipating) none of them interests me yet (maybe Mayu), it's getting kinda hard to continue watching.

And since I think a new fan willing to grind through old contents is pretty rare, if you're curious about my perspective on anything related to the shows, songs, members,... I'll try my best to answer them.

[u/Nibu-chan]

You might want to try watching Nogizaka skits. I also felt pretty disconnected with the 4th gen when they joined. They didn't have much screentime on Nogichuu but they had their own show. Can't blame you for losing interest though, the OG members were monsters XD. Their sister Hinatazaka is similar though, if you're craving more of that desperate comedian vibe lol

[u/thai130898 → u/Nibu-chan]

4th gen feel very vanilla (I can't think of a better word) for me, so none of them stands out. The only ones I can remember at this point are Mayu (her voice), Tsutsui (her face is unique), Seimiya (for better or worse, I'm not a fan of her genki shenanigans).

Also for some reason I keep thinking Sakaguchi is 4th gen and almost wrote her down, guess her lack of presense goes beyond the group lol.

[u/nemo0401]

Time to grind nogiasobi and other personal show like Kubo's channel and Yakubo's heya🙂‍↕️. Also, I believe Under members used to have their own show but not sure about the title 🤔

[u/thai130898 → u/nemo0401]

I do plan to watch Nogibingo, for other smaller shows and channels will have to do a research session later since there's so much of those. Right now I'm subscribed to Ikuta's YT channel though, her covers are nice.

[u/Blackisrafil]

Ever think about getting into their sister groups, Sakurazaka46 and Hinatazaka46?

[u/thai130898 → u/Blackisrafil]

My plan is to finish Doko and Nogibingo then watch the Keyaki show, if I'm still not burned out by then. Before watching Nogi stuffs the only song I knew from Sakamichi groups is Silent Majority so there's that.

[u/KS-Wolf-1978 → u/thai130898]

Early eps of Keyakitte Kakenai are super funny, i remember times when i couldn't breathe i was laughing so hard. :)

[u/KS-Wolf-1978]

Welcome ! :)

My JPIdol road was the opposite way: Nogizaka and sister groups first and then after watching all the eps of 46s variety shows (at first reluctantly because i didn't like the MV for Heavy Rotation) 1/0ji fun, AKBingo! and some of the 48 sister groups shows.

My suggestion would be to watch the shows and episodes in order of their air date - no need to stick to it 100%, but IMO it is better that way or you will sometimes not know what they are talking about or even who is the girl talking.

Nogizaka Skits is a good introduction of the 4th gen which is a strong pillar of the group now - you >>will<< fall in love. :)

Also don't pass on all seasons and generations of Star Tanjou if you like watching how they grow as idols and as singers - there will be tears if you are sensitive to music (few of the less of a singer type girls will make your ears hurt a bit too, hehe).

Brace yourself for the brutality of "Bingo!", there are scenes and corners there you will not like very much especially if you are not yet tuned in to the "Japanese entertainment" mood (Iku-chan says it best in her song).

[u/thai130898 → u/KS-Wolf-1978]

Yeah my first mistake was starting with NogiChuu first since I didn't know Doko existed, so my first experience with Nogizaka was Nishino doing random stuffs with animals for 10 minutes with zero introduction, I was like wtf is happening. When I finally figured out it was way too late, but since I still want more 1st gen contents I started Doko.

Other than that I do watch all of them in release order without skipping, just at double speed if I find the episode boring.

Noted about 4th gen shows, will look them up to watch later.

About Nogibingo, I already watched 2 episodes already, and since I start with AKB it felt like home tbh, NogiChuu was tame by comparison.

[u/KS-Wolf-1978 → u/thai130898]

Imagine me being silly enough to think "i will just watch the single prayer campaign episodes" of Doko and NUC. :)

I got dragged in like by a black hole.

re. NogiBingo: You will know what i meant. :) Nogizaka is like high class oujousamas from private schools, not like AKB cabaret girls (some of which i also like), so there are some things you just don't do to them, lol...

[u/Pitiful-Lecture-8091]

Still a lot of classics yet to come. The leftover 1st-3rd gen members will carry the show until you possibly warm up to some of the 4th gen. 5th gen members arguably rival the titans of the 1st gen in some fans opinions. I am bias toward the 1st gen but they don’t call them the super 5th gen for nothing. If anything, it’s worth seeing all the grad eps for the 1st/2nd gen. They are quite good!

[u/thai130898 → u/Pitiful-Lecture-8091]

Yeah I also heard of 5th gen being great so will try to wait, either way I plan to watch till end of 2021 at least.

[u/nabongie]

Welcome!!!!! I kinda understand losing interest around 4ki because gens 1-3 are just really full of comedic gems. I really love Kakki though.

[u/thai130898 → u/nabongie]

Before the 4th gen introduction episodes I googled a bit about 4th gen and Kaki and Endo name came up so I know they're popular. In the show I remember Kaki from the magic show and game episode (or was that Kakehara?) which she did well but that's about it, hope she gets more screen time later.

[u/AlvinLHistory]

Hey there! Favorite members? Favorite songs?

[u/thai130898 → u/AlvinLHistory]

I don't think I have an oshimen, even though I like all of them.

If i had to choose top 3 members that I always look forward to during the show it's prob Asuka, Mastumura, Manatsu. Asuka is naturally funny, Matsumura and Manatsu IMO know how to make their parts entertaining.

Song wise, to be honest I don't think Nogizaka haves a really good discography but I do have some of their songs in my playlist, my top 3 is Kizuitara Kataomoi, Nandome no Aozora ka? and Sing Out.

[u/AlvinLHistory → u/thai130898]

Do you like any 3rd Gen members?

[u/thai130898 → u/AlvinLHistory]

There's a few:

• Mizuki: Best first impression, but I didn't see her much on the show since she was prob too busy, I like her devilish/sly character and her mutual bullying relationship with Asuka.
• Yoda: Normally I don't like heavily pushed members by producers so I didn't give her and Ozono much attention, especially her only personality early on was just wasting money. By now I quite like her, one of the prettiest in the group history IMO. Side note, just the other day I realized the main character of the drama Ryosangata Riko was her, I watched the drama first a while ago and never made the connection, good show.
• Umezawa: Serious characters in Nogizaka is actually pretty rare, I find her willing to try anything attitude quite endearing. Also very pretty.
• Riria: Her skit with Ikuta at the beginning was cute, fell off the radar until the stunt episode, that was fun. I also like the 1 2 3 live performance at Matsumura grad concert with her cameo.