A thread titled “Can we just settle it — this year’s female idol MVP is AKB48’s Ito Momoka, right?” popped up on 5ch’s Hello! Project (“Haropuro”) board. “Suki-ish,” the single centered on Ito Momoka, reportedly beat FRUITS ZIPPER and the Sakamichi-series groups to take the No. 1 spot in first-week CD sales among female idols in 2026, with its music video said to have topped 10 million views. But board regulars didn’t just nod along — objections poured in, from “if we’re talking buzz, it’s Juice=Juice’s Danbara Ruru” to “isn’t the real MVP Morning Musume ’26’s Kawashima Mifu?” Opinions split hard over the legitimacy of the “multi-copy bundle” sales tactics propping up those CD numbers, and over how to read the MV’s view-count growth.
It's obviously Kawashima Mifu.
Strip out the paid ad views and the MV's numbers are guaranteed to be lower than the last single's, and for the CD they're not even bothering with the usual bonus-item trick anymore — they're still running a straight-up 3-copy bundle deal to pad the count.
https://shop.akb48.co.jp/selection/detail/102507
https://www.akb48.co.jp/lp/68th-single/bonus_item.html
The MVP is Hayashi Nina.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQjh58RboAA_XNv.jpg
That's because nobody else is running 3-copy bundle deals.
And yet nobody's actually talking about it.
And by the way, no Juice member would make the shortlist either.
The moment you say "no Juice member would even make the shortlist," it kind of gives away that you're already assuming she's a hit, huh.
Not a single one. Just people dropping in from other boards.
Apparently they're locked in for Kohaku again this year [TN: Kohaku Uta Gassen, NHK's New Year's Eve singing show].
No way that's true. They got absolutely slammed with criticism last year.
10 million MV views
No. 1 in first-week female idol CD sales
Kohaku is even starting to look realistic
For one idol to lift an entire group this much is honestly kind of insane.
The "glam shot" [TN: slang for an especially flattering/eye-catching photo or clip] that used Kawashima as its thumbnail got 14 million views, so isn't Kawashima actually ahead?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQopBQ6aUAA2PTb?format=webp&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9QfaBNa8AAt9El.jpg
It's a pretty strong look, so I think it's divisive even outside Hello! Project.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnfrUC8bAAAEtsL.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5uAT-yawAAmAsP.jpg
Wait, isn't that literally the same person?
Their noses are basically identical lmaooo
If you throw NMB into the mix, add Sudo Ririka too.
To each their own, as they say. Really, truly.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
CD sales for AKB48-affiliated groups have long drawn criticism over bonus-item and multi-copy “bundle” sales tactics that push fans toward buying several copies of the same single at once, and this thread’s claim of a “No. 1 first-week sales” result is disputed on the same grounds — namely, how much of that total comes from bonus-driven bulk purchases rather than organic demand. The MV view count is similarly contested: posters disagree over how many of those views are “genuine” once paid advertising placements are excluded, and the 10-million and 14-million view figures cited in the thread are not official numbers from the artists themselves, just posters’ own back-of-envelope comparisons. It’s also worth flagging that Ito Momoka’s supposed spot in this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen lineup (NHK’s flagship New Year’s Eve singing show) is unconfirmed chatter within the thread, not an official announcement — an easy point for readers to mistake as settled fact. Finally, this thread appeared on the “Hello! Project board,” which draws mostly Morning Musume and Juice=Juice fans, so opinions of AKB48 voiced here may carry that board’s particular slant rather than reflect a neutral consensus.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Can we just settle it — this year’s female idol MVP is AKB48’s Ito Momoka, right?“
