Imaizumi Yui (19/20) has sold out the same number of slots, but has one extra slot remaining. Hirate Yurina has sold 18 of 20, and three members have sold 17 of 20: Nagahama Neru, Watanabe Risa, and Kobayashi Yui. Watanabe Rika has sold 16 of 20 slots.
Overall, the results are fantastic. To get a chance to attend one of these handshake events, fans have to pre-order (and pay for) the group's second CD through a special site, specifying who hey want to meet. Then there is a lottery, so only some of the people who bought CDs actually get to go. The cash registers are ringing away.
Here is a translation/romanization of the chart going the rounds in Japan (explanation below):
There are five possible handshake slots per day. The little circles mean that a member will be present for a particular one. When a circle is filled in, it means that member's slot is sold out (over 200 people may shake her hand in a 1.5-hr slot, each getting only a few seconds with her).
The blue colour means a past lottery period. The yellow colour means the just-finished lottery period. The numbers inside the circles tell which lottery period (1 through 6 or 7) the slot sold out in. I've added little orange X's in slots that were not offered in this lottery, but have been added for the next one. Yokohama and particularly Chiba are very close to Tokyo.
The most striking advances are by Watanabe Risa and Koike Minami. Uemura Rina continues to be far more popular than her position in the third row suggests. Nagasawa Nanako, too. Nanako uses her blog for more-or-less non-stop fishing, and the method seems to be catching quite a few fans. Myself included.
It's striking that now Watanabe Rika, who was the first member to gain immense otaku popularity, has slipped to the bottom of the front rank. Watanabe Risa has jumped ahead of her now. But for the next lottery, Rika has had four slots added, and Risa only two, so this will likely change.
Suzumoto (8 of 17 slots sold out) is getting a bit more interest than she was, but I still need to keep supporting her, lol. Even Nagoya, in her home prefecture, doesn't seem that interested. Personally, I think she is the most beautiful member, and definitely the best dancer.
Harada Aoi, Habu Mizuho, Ozeki Rika and Yonetani Nanami have sold out only 2-4 slots. And Nijika, Oda Nana, Fuu-chan and Satou Shiori continue to have a hard time selling out any.
Why is Yukkaa so popular? 2channel has some suggestions: she's beautiful and nice; people like to have some contact with a real ojou-sama (high-class young lady from a rich family); her occasional slips and awkwardnesses are endearing and make the ojou-sama more approachable; her cat Tom. And the story about her wearing white pantsu, and particularly Hello Kitty! pantsu, caused an immediate rush of interest: purity and simplicity make a charming gap with her ojou-sama quality, especially with the story's slight tinge of salaciousness thrown in.
No comments:
Post a Comment