Tsubaki Factory’s Budokan Show Sells Out to the Back Row in General Sale — 5ch: ‘We’re Starved for Hall Concerts’

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The story

When Tsubaki Factory put tickets for their Budokan show on general sale, reports online that “even the back row sold out” became a hot topic. Since Hello! Project doesn’t officially announce attendance figures, fans have a culture of cross-referencing seat-position reports to gauge how well a show is selling, and because some past tours fell short of a sellout, this news drew a strong reaction. In the thread, opinions split between those who saw the strong sales as a sign of rising popularity and those who suspected the agency was giving it a push ahead of Tanimoto’s graduation concert planned for next spring, with the discussion also touching on attendance comparisons against other groups within the same project.

Urakawa

@hip2020teamcute

Picked up my ticket for Tsubaki’s Budokan show now that general sale has opened. Got 2nd floor, row X.

Source: x.com / original post here

What people said

2AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:16
They were promoting like mad — guess it actually sold?
4AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:18
The only one left with empty seats is "Gokijurumu" (a slur blending "cockroach" with Angerme's name)
8AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:24
DDs (fans who indiscriminately support every idol) who got sick of Angerme are coming over to Tsubaki!!
12AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:32
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSvp186aYAAZfPy.jpg
You can see Koshi Inaba's band bassist in action
13AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:33
Juice=Juice and BEYOOOOONDS sold out in no time and opened standing-room right away — so how many more times do we have to keep promoting right up to the day of the show?

Come to Tsubaki's Budokan show, Morning Musume otaku, Angerme otaku, Juice=Juice otaku, BEYOOOOONDS otaku, OCHA NORMA otaku, Rosy Chronicle otaku.
I'm begging you.
14AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:34
The reason they're pushing promotion so hard this time is that if they fill the venue, it means they can get Yokohama Arena for Tanimoto's graduation concert next spring
18AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:37
It's a stretch to do a big venue like this before they've even properly pulled off a successful hall tour
19AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:37
After promoting like crazy, they've only just about gotten the Budokan's initial allocation near sellout (ticket outlets still show some availability) — I'd rather they not hand Yokohama Arena to this group ahead of Juice=Juice, the most popular group in the lineup.
Juice=Juice can fill a venue even without a graduation to push sales.
44AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:01
Re: #19
Don't worry, Juice is doing K Arena [Yokohama].
Yokohama Arena is going to be fought over by Morning Musume (Nonaka's graduation), Angerme (Hashisako's graduation), Tsubaki (Tanimoto's graduation), and BEYOOOOONDS (Hirai's graduation).
Maybe it'll go to OCHA NORMA if they manage to poach some flashy new reinforcement — someone like Manaki Suda.
20AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:38
I want to go, but ¥9,800 for the back row is a bit much…
Of course I know Tsubaki's performances and the venue atmosphere are amazing, but still.
21AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:39
If they fill it all the way to the top of the south side, that's good enough, right?
22AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:41
If they fill the Budokan, that's basically the peak, isn't it?
Might as well disband next spring.
23AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:42
The reason the tour has so few dates is to help fill the Budokan
and then move on to Yokohama Arena.
Now that BEYOOOOONDS has done Yokohama Arena, Tsubaki has to do it too.
Tanimoto's graduation next spring is the biggest chance for that.
24AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:43
Re: #1
Seriously?
Since this is the first time they've used Moala ID verification (an anti-scalping ticket check), I figured the first-round presale would sell poorly,
but I can't believe it's selling this well from the second round onward, lol.
25AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:44
@I'm no expert on how the different ticket outlets allocate seats, so I can't be sure, and the rows in front of mine might not be full, but a few years ago general sale was opening around row R on the 2nd floor, so it's clearly selling better this time — that much is a fact.

Sales numbers aside, there's no doubt they'll deliver an amazing show, so I hope a lot of people come.
26AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:44
Rows G and N probably aren't even on sale.
If it's bad, maybe as many as 1 in every 4 seats has been thinned out [left empty].
27AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:51
For Niinuma's graduation show, desperate promotion pushed general sales up quite a bit,
but I think it still only reached around row U on the east and west sides.
Maybe as a backlash from that, live-viewing screenings barely sold at all.
Yagi's graduation sold nicely, with the south side reaching row W,
and live viewing was also the best-selling in Tsubaki's history — so if some chunk of the Tokyo-area live-viewing crowd had pushed to come to the Budokan instead, it might well have sold out.
28AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:51
Isn't it just filling up because they only opened half the Budokan [reduced seating setup]?
31AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:52
Well, there's the arena floor setup and seat-thinning to factor in, so we won't really know until the doors open.
32AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:53
So they can properly hold graduation concerts twice a year,
it needs to sell out, or there's a problem.
35AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:54
Well, with the band there, the main stage is probably pushed forward more than usual.
38AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:55
I want the kind of shocking twist where it turns out only the south, southwest, and southeast sections were actually in use.
40AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:57
Hiding the numbers is basically Juice's trademark move.
45AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:02
Re: #40
[LMAO] Angerme's Nippon Budokan show, attendance numbers undisclosed wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
https://kizuna.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1782219972/
41AnonymousOct 12, 2026 19:58
Ah, so they're cutting arena-floor seats because the band's there.
43AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:00
So that's why Yofuu Nishimura hasn't updated their blog…
46AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:09
Re: #1
We're starved for hall concerts.

Even on a weekday, Tsubaki can fill a hall decently these days.
56AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:31
Re: #46
It didn't sell out, but for the autumn tour's Zepp Daiba show, part 1 sold around 1,800-1,900 tickets and part 2 around 2,100-2,200.
58AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:34
Re: #56
Isn't 2,200 for part 2 just impossible?
Max capacity is 2,100, and in Hello! Project where the fanbase leans heavily male, I don't think they'd pull numbers like that.
If it really sold 2,100 to 2,200, the second floor would've been full and it would've been a sellout.
60AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:36
Re: #56
I got into part 1 as standing room, but when my number, in the 1400s, was called, there were only about 100 people behind me by eye.
62AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:39
Tsubaki doesn't sell out Zepp or Toyosu, but they do sell out Hachioji or Zama.
That's how disliked live houses [smaller club venues] are among their fans.
64AnonymousOct 12, 2026 20:43
Re: #62
Hachioji and Zama have smaller max capacities than Zepp or Toyosu.
For Tsubaki, there's a brutally high wall right at the 2,000 mark.

Background and Key Points of This Discussion

Hello! Project doesn’t officially announce attendance figures for individual shows, so fans have a culture of cross-referencing seat displays and ticket-pickup reports to estimate how well a show sold. For this Tsubaki Factory Budokan performance too, opinions diverged on whether it was “really” full, given factors like thinned-out arena seating and whether the stage was pushed forward to accommodate the live band. Where the thread split was over whether to credit the strong sales to genuine popularity or to the agency giving things a push ahead of Tanimoto’s graduation concert planned for next spring — a “favoritism” theory came up more than once, though without solid evidence behind it. Attendance was also repeatedly compared to other groups within Hello! Project, such as Juice=Juice and BEYOOOOONDS, and the fact that shows with different seat counts and venue conditions can’t simply be compared head-to-head is a point that’s easy for outsiders to misread.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “[Shocking] Tsubaki Factory’s Nippon Budokan show apparently selling all the way to the back row wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”

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