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The story
A thread that started with the question “Why has NiziU lost momentum?” quickly split into two camps. Harsh voices argued “they’ve never really taken off since debut” and “they never even got off the ground in the first place,” while others pushed back, pointing to Oricon album sales data showing six consecutive No. 1 albums since their 2021 debut album, with the latest release moving 192,000 copies in its first week — proof, they said, that the group’s popularity hasn’t faded. The discussion also touched on how a hit pre-debut song earned them a Kohaku Uta Gassen appearance before they’d even officially debuted, followed by four consecutive years on the New Year’s Eve show. The core of the debate became the gap between gut-feeling buzz and the actual sales numbers.
What people said
Back when they were doing stadium shows, they were genuinely popular
Back around 2020 they were seriously popular with young people and hit No. 1
A true believer in the rankings
The group that beat Shinzo Abe
TV people really do think TV is the whole world, huh.
Their pre-debut song was a hit, so the appearance was legit
after that their CDs sold fine for a few years, which is why they kept getting invited back to Kohaku
Only a handful of groups in history actually sold that well
the rest is just a boom within otaku circles
Four straight years on Kohaku is impressive though
An audition-born group lasting 6 years counts as a solid success
HANA, which has Korean members, is popular in Japan — Korea's probably proud of that
Look at the charts, nobody's actually listening
They're clearly selling fine, liar
NiziU scores 6 straight No. 1 albums from debut — 2nd girl group ever to do it
https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2447158/full/
NiziU's latest album "GOOD GIRL BUT NOT FOR YOU" debuted at No. 1 on the latest Oricon Weekly Album Ranking, announced April 7.
It marks their 6th straight No. 1 since their 1st album "U" (released December 6, 2021), and 6th No. 1 overall.
First-week sales hit 192,000 copies, topping the 174,000 copies their previous album "New Emotion" sold in its first week.
Apparently it's year 7 now
way too long-lasting
HANA's being pushed hard too
I only ever hear their name from influencers
HANA's the No. 1 most popular girl group right now
that's the power of Chanmina, who's half-Korean 😂
Idol fans split into two camps: the skill-focused HANA and the cute-type Furuppā (nickname for the idol group FRUITS ZIPPER)
I don't get what's so great about them though
That's because it's the comeback project of Lee Soo-man, the ousted "founder of K-pop"
the reviews are basically "yeah, this is exactly what we wanted"
though part of it is simply that people got tired of K-pop too
It's less that people got tired and more that there's always been ups and downs
the momentum's cooled off, but they've locked in a solid core fanbase, so it's now in the phase of quietly carrying on
right now even Johnny's-style idols are sinking, and it's the era of gimmick acts like Milk
Speaking as someone who knows idols well
this group actually counts as a solid success
huh?
they locked in a fanbase and can still pull off arena-scale tours today (once a group falls off, they're stuck doing hall tours only)
there are tons of similar groups that flopped and vanished within about a year
Really? They're still doing fine now?
what they've got now fits their actual level just fine
Exactly that
right after debut they were just abnormally overhyped
this matches my gut feeling for real Re: #32
their senior group ITZY is still selling better
Nah, even with serious promotion, most groups vanish within 3 years
like ME:I, another Korea-style group — nobody even remembers them
OP's writing style really has that nanJ vibe (nanJ = 5ch's "Whatever Live" board, known for its Kansai-dialect posting style), nice
LOL, 12 shows for 120,000 total attendance
that's mid-tier at best — try filling a dome or something
Background and key points of this discussion
NiziU is a group formed in 2020 out of Nippon TV’s “Nizi Project” audition show. Because their pre-debut lead single became a hit, they landed a spot on NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen before they’d even officially debuted, and went on to appear for four consecutive years afterward. What split the thread was the gap between “felt-sense buzz” and “actual sales data”: some read the drop in online exposure and chatter as them “losing momentum,” but the numbers tell a different story — six consecutive No. 1 albums on Oricon since their 2021 debut album, with the latest release topping its predecessor at 192,000 copies in its first week. The fact that their arena tours are still drawing steady crowds was also cited as evidence a solid core fanbase remains. That said, claims about K-pop overall losing steam, or comparisons with other groups like HANA, remained largely impressionistic and should be read with caution, since they weren’t backed by hard data.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (“Whatever Live G”) thread “[Mystery] Why NiziU lost momentum.”
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