Honestly , ARASHI's latest single Ai wo Sakebe should have sold a bit more as for the 1st time in a very long time , all the songs in the single are great and the last single when they released which was an all rounder great one was 2013's Calling / Breathless as the B-sides in their singles are quite notorious to listen/remember unlike in the past where their B-sides were really good

When I went back to Tokyo at the last week of 2014 , when I was at Ueno waiting to cross the road , there was suddenly a van that pulled up that contained a big ARASHI promo for their show they host & many people (including male adults) scrambled in front to take photos even though it's not the real group themselves lol

And Johnnys who host their own TV programmes do play a part in their sales . Kanjani8 in the beginning weren't very popular (even though their older works are still better to me as it had an unique heavy Enka sound) but the TV shows they host , help them gain new ground

Also most Johnnys TV shows that they host , they tend not to take themselves seriously which's different from the image they portray to fans onstage and in their music

Likewise for the other senior groups that're still popular up to now . SMAP is still going strong after 24 years and V6 celebrates their 20th anniversary this year

If Johnnys start to mimic the same way that AKB48 market themselves (likewise for their sister groups) , I will leave the fandom immediately , no joke about it but since I've been in the Johnnys fandom from mid 2008 until now , I don't see this will ever happen (I hope)

^I really like Johnny's style of promoting their groups. It's more about the real talent than just crazy gimmicks. :)

A lot of Johnny groups can really sing though. AKB48's sales mostly come from perverts and little girls.

Yep , fangirls are poor by nature . The only other ways in making them more poor is them buying shop photos at the official Johnnys shops and/or concert goods (which by Johnnys standards , the costs are considerably cheaper as compared to other artistes)

Generally most Johnnys can sing well if not sing live , it's too bad ARASHI lip sync even when comes to their tours and/or even during 'live' shows :no

I don't understand why because even the other groups that're more senior than them , they don't do that . Heck SMAP's leader Nakai is tone deaf in nature but despite him not able to sing/carry a note well , he doesn't lip synch

The only thing ARASHI cannot fake via lip synching is when Sakurai Sho raps . But I understand why they lip synch (that goes for ballads even D: ) is because in reality they sound horrible . If not why back then when they performed at FNS , it was considered a big deal when for once they didn't lip sync but turns out they sound really really really bad

Tokio is really the only group I respect from JE. But not the only group I like. I like Yamapi, and I used to like Kat-tun before all the members left lol. News was good too, and I still listen to classic V6 songs.

But I'm certainly not the demographic and the new JE stuff doesn't appeal to me haha.

And personally I loathe SMAP.

Tbh I lost little interest I had in JE some years ago when NEWS split. Still like some of their and tegomasu's old song and occasional arashi track from their peak.

I loathe smap and no one will ever be able to convince me they can sing lol. Over all the idol industry stopped appealing to me, even AAA which I stopped following recently.

I thought this is an Ayu thread, so I don't know why we're talking Johnny's...

But I do have to agree. I'm still irked though why they're restricting on online material, such as no official online downloads (e.g. iTunes) or pictures outside of Johnny's sites (generally), but that partially is the reason why Johnny's sales are pretty much high-end, and add to that, the REAL talent rather than those AKB girls. (And that's probably also the reason why the boys keep winning the Kouhaku in recent years compared to the girls...)

TOKIO is unique as they're the only Johnnys that do not dance (I can count KinKi Kids in since Domoto Tsuyoshi looks awkward when he dances unlike Domoto Koichi)

I don't listen to SMAP but I can understand why they're still popular up to now as vocally they might not be the best but it's their non music activities that're able to still draw people in as leader Nakai is a very good host (although singing & cooking wise it's a different matter lol)

AKB48 might be deemed as idols but it's somewhat ironic that whenever member/s leave the group , who's decided will be the centre of the cover of their next single/album & also who will be in the top 48 or whatever nonsense , these are always been capitalised which I feel it's quite hypocritical

AKB48 members are not allowed to date and all that but the above mentioned matters are supposedly ok ? :irked

And frankly the whole yearly 'general elections' thing is so fake , it's not as though they're changing the world or something every time this's organised if not broadcast live on TV :no

The solo lines always sound live to me. It's the group singing parts that seem lip synched, but that's not surprising as that's how it is for pretty much every group out there.

All Arashi members can actually hold a tune and Ohno is pretty exceptional actually. SMAP on the other hand....the only one that can sing is Kimutaku, lol.

Lots of people know who the true Queen is.

Oricon? Just a number.

Position 93, 621 copies sold this week. Total 42,304

Oh, so it's under 1k already... Guess it should be expected, it was one week earlier than A ONE.

Still hoping for 45k :)

Me too!! It's so close to it

45k by December!

the competition though is harder than the competition was in April. i dont think it will least so many weeks. it will stop at 43.900 i guess :P

It surpassed 42k copies, that's already great

And Johnny fangirls who writes explicit fanfics about the boys having oral sex, they are pervert too you know? :rolleyes

i don't get why people get this harsh about akb48, let them girls get rich, ayu already has her million dollar account

^ For me, I'm just tired of seeing oricon's top selling singles all being AKB48's every single year, I feel like I have to get pass all those so I can actually see how the ranking went, because abk48 doesn't really count imho (since we all know at least 2/3 of those sales are due to the well known gimmicks).

^ the only thing not sertanejo on brazillian billboard singles top 10 this year was Anitta ^^ and we do have a massive variety of great musicians that aren't sertanejo. This is how business work, ayu doesn't have a commercial appeal since ages, that's why she doesn't sell. The same people who keeps sertanejo owning top 10 here are the "same people" that keeps AKB48 selling millions there.