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The story
Reports that the matinee performances of Morning Musume’s autumn tour sold out in regional cities like Aichi, Fukuoka, and Sendai became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Even though these are small regional venues (capacity of roughly 1,600), some were surprised at the unusual turnout — but that was quickly met with pushback: “the evening shows are empty” and “they probably only sold the front section and closed off the second floor,” sparking a debate over whether it really counts as a sellout. The thread also got lively comparing drawing power with other Hello! Project groups like Juice=Juice and ANGERME.
What people said
792 Anonymous 2026/10/04 (Sun) 12:42:12.68 ID:3s8naZVu0
Guess it really did sell out, huh.
There are plenty of groups that can't even fill small regional venues, you know.
From the performers' and agency's point of view, the ideal is for general tickets to sell out quickly with just a slight overflow of demand.
That's the scary part — it's totally possible.
NiziU 2026 attendance → 240,000
=LOVE 2026 attendance → 220,000
FRUITS ZIPPER 2026 attendance → 200,000
CUTIE STREET 2026 attendance → 180,000
AKB48 2026 attendance → 170,000
Morning Musume 2026 attendance → 150,000 ←←←←← this
Juice=Juice 2026 attendance → 100,000
ANGERME 2026 attendance → 90,000
Momoiro Clover Z 2026 attendance → 80,000
@ANGERME Fukuoka, 17 minutes before showtime. From what I can see from up top, it looks a little over half full. Wonder how much more fills in with just over 10 minutes left.
Going by bar-event turnout (バーイベ, a small bar-venue meet-and-greet), she might actually be more popular than Inoue Haruka.
Fukuoka Civic Hall matinee: sold out
Sendai Sun Plaza matinee: nearly sold out
If the evening show is empty, then overall it's still empty, right?
Quit cherry-picking just the matinee and calling it a sellout.
Fukuoka and Sendai probably have the third floor closed off anyway.
Fukuoka might even go front-rows-only and close the second floor too, if we're unlucky.
Re: #20
So even a "secondary hub" candidate city can't sell out the evening show either, huh…
Doing two shows in a day is the unusual part — normally filling just one show would be plenty.
Juice=Juice would sell out both the matinee and evening shows in a snap, you know?
Juice is in tears lmaooooooooo
Well, at least in cities where both groups tour, I'd bet they're both selling over half the house without exception.
Say that after they've actually done it.
Depends on whether they even get the chance to try, really.
They've just lost some of their old momentum compared to their peak — their popularity is actually stable.
It only feels like a dark age because there was a time they sold even better.
It's just like the Yomiuri Giants — in 2nd place but still giving off an "it's all over" vibe.
The fact their MVs still have strong first-day numbers proves casual fans and DDs (idol fans who follow multiple groups at once) are still interested.
Their MV first-day numbers aren't even that strong anymore, are they?
Even I, who argues Juice=Juice should go all-in on hall shows, think Shizuoka has to go to Morning Musume.
Though Juice=Juice could realistically aim for Act City Hamamatsu, you know.
That's only like a 2,000 capacity.
If you're gonna talk domes and Kohaku, at least aim as high as ECOPA.
In Shizuoka, Juice=Juice's only actual track record is at Marinart, though.
The first-day numbers really are strong.
Not that different from Juice=Juice right after "Moremi" went viral.
It just doesn't grow over the week though.
Really is first-day-only.
It used to be standard that they'd blow other groups away, at least on day one.
Actually, Juice=Juice hasn't put out a single proper new-song MV since "Moremi."
Things were genuinely rough in Kyushu and Sendai after Eripon and Ayumin graduated.
Thank goodness for the 18th generation.
But checking Pia (the ticket site), the evening show is still empty, isn't it?
Re: #54
And wasn't Nagoya's evening show also empty, with the fourth floor closed?
10/10 (Sat) Morning Musume '26 Autumn Tour at Hiroshima 👈
10/10 (Sat) ANGERME Hashisako & Nagano Hello! Shop Event at Osaka
10/10 (Sat) Juice=Juice Autumn Tour at Osaka 👈
10/10 (Sat) OCHA NORMA Autumn Tour at Fukuoka
10/10 (Sat) Rosy Chronicle Autumn Tour at Shinjuku
10/10 (Sat) M-line Miyamoto Event at Shibuya
10/10 (Sat) M-line JP Room Thanksgiving Festival at Shibuya
Background and Key Points of This Topic
A “sold out” label for a regional hall show doesn’t always mean every single seat is full — it can also reflect a management decision to sell only the front section (a practice known as “mae-fami,” or front-rows-only release) or to close off upper floors and shrink the total seat count in the first place. That means a sold-out matinee doesn’t necessarily line up with the evening show or with attendance across the whole venue. The 2026 attendance figures cited in the thread (Nogizaka46 at 500,000, AKB48 at 170,000, Morning Musume at 150,000, and so on) aren’t official numbers either — they’re 5ch-user estimates, so readers should note that the calculation method and time period behind them are unclear. Comparing drawing power between groups is a perennial topic among Hello! Project fans, but it’s worth keeping in mind that these figures tend to get stated as fact even when their sourcing is vague.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Morning Musume apparently sold out both the matinee and evening shows at a regional venue, which is rare.”
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