Let’s choose the Later-Han dynasty as the first empire which served as a prototype for all empires. Furthermore if we apply Morning Musume and AKB to the era of the three kingdoms after the Later-Han dynasty you could come to the composition that
- Morning Musume who picked up the concept of Onyanko Club which made the amateur feeling their salespoint, but put the emphasis on dance and musical composition, improving the level of performance and transforming the members into “Proidols” and thus crushed the “amateur illusions” of Onyanko and became successful, is the kingdom of Wei and
- AKB which was revived by Akimoto Yasuishi who thought “Let’s give the amateur illusions of the Onyanko Club another go!” and seeks success in the scenario of idols with the girl-next-door feel growing into adulthood is the kingdom of Shu-Han.
- “The most extreme one is Idoling with it’s race games where the male staff serves as obstacles for example! In any case there’s lots of contact with the opposite sex. I don’t know what the wota think about it, but the content is interesting to that extent.” says a male AKB fan.
Idoling’s main show is being broadcasted through several media e.g. CS, internet, terrestrial television and is also one part of Fuji TV’s “Digital Media Crossing Project”. For that reason they haven’t picked up a typical business model targeting idol otaku yet, which on the contrary might be the reason for their success. In other words, Idoling could be compared to the kingdom of Wu which administrated it’s political power from the rich riverlands of Jiangdong.
On this page we want to give a summary of the facts of these “three kingdoms” divided into several categories. Now which group will get to control the era of the three kingdoms where the law of the jungle reigns?

Let’s make sure of it with the eyes of a wota!

They fight for the leadership putting their survival on the line!

Morning Musume

Country name: Morning Musume
Founding date: September 1997
Emperor: Tsunku♂
Number of military commanders: 9
Race: Upfront Agency

Ever since SPEED broke up in 2000, Hello! Project has defeated their numerous rivals and reigned at the top of the world of female idols. Their figurehead Morning Musume can be compared to the kingdom of Wei of the tale of the three kingdoms. If we include the graduated members, the H!P kids C-ute and Berryz Koubou which make up the main force of H!P nowadays and the lower branch of H!P egg members, we get a large family whose number of members lightly surpasses the number of AKB members. It has an abundance of talented members and the administration holds back the discharge of wota by cleverly entwining the alternation of generations.
However, due to the continuous scandals of former and current members last year, their image deteriorated and one can’t deny the feeling that this nation’s power and influence is decreasing. With the addition of Chinese members, live concerts in Taiwan and South Korea, they aim for the Asian market, but will it work out?

Live activities:

The agency they belong to manages enka artists too, but the heart of it’s business is “show business” and “sale of goods”. The live concert which used to take place in Japan Budokan before takes place in Nakano Sun Plaza now etc. It’s noticeable that the scale of everything is decreasing, but even now the concerts are still completely sold out, as one would expect of them.

Fanservice:

The “MoWota” who are proud to be the group of fans who have the highest number of members in the world of idol business. Lately some of the MoWota went over to the junior units Berryz Koubou, C-ute or to completely different idols, but the wota activities are safeguarded by measures like making it possible to watch the PV of the new singles on the official site etc.

Awareness of rivals:

In last year’s Kouhaku Utagassen the current leader Takahashi Ai said regarding AKB who were interviewed at the same time: “We don’t want to lose to them!” and thus declared AKB as their rival. On the other hand regarding Idoling, MM member Michishige Sayumi declared that she’s a fan of them, so we have the impression that they have a friendly relation.

Media situation:

Haromoni@ broadcast time and date: 12:25~ every sunday
Broadcasting office: TV Tokyo
This show which is the reduced version of the forerunner “Hello! Morning” is their only main TV program. The fans found it hopelessly boring and the viewership ratings of the broadcast on May 4th fell below 1%.

AKB48

Country name: AKB48
Founding date: December 2005
Emperor: Akimoto Yasuishi
Number of military commanders: 48
Race: Horipro, Ohtapro, Production Ogi and others.

We’d like to compare the kingdom of Shu-Han which was founded by Liu Bei who called himself the descendant of Liu Sheng from the Han Dynasty with AKB48 who claim to be the legitimate successors of Onyanko, the empire from the 80s, both produced by Akimoto Yasuishi. Following the principle of “idols you can go and meet” the distance between the idols and theirs fans is close. Aiming for a live performance in the Tokyo Dome, AKB performed live everyday in a private theater set up in Akihabara and steadily gained more and more fans. At the end of last year they finally managed to perform in NHK Kouhaku Utagassen.
However the propaganda video used to make fans buy multiple copies of CDs for the “The evil handshake event” posed a problem and was bashed in the internet. The truth is that other idol groups do the same kind of thing, but maybe it was too provocative in this case. The ruler Akimoto Yasuishi might have simply misread the fastidious disposition of the modern internet wotaku. Well, the fans in question don’t care too much about it though.

Live activities:

AKB performed almost everyday in their private theater in Akihabara and at the end of last month they’ve had their 1000th performance since opening. The charm of AKB is the closeness to the idols. But since the fans are fundamentally used to watch while sitting, there are lots of fans who want a live in a concert hall which hasn’t happened since July last year.

Fanservice:

It’s a gathering of people who have been underground idol wotaku for a long time. The fans and the management have a close relation and regular customers have advantages such as receiving goods and reserved seats which makes new fans want to stick to them. However since the tickets have been sold on a subscription basis through the internet, there are signs of a decline in sales.

Awareness of rivals:

After hearing what Morning Musume’s Takahashi said in last year’s NHK Kouhaku, leader character Ooshima Mai commented in a composed way: “I’d like all of us to do our best and enjoy it together.”
However there are many AKB members who joined the world of show business because they admired Morning Musume.

Media situation:

“AKB 0ji59fun!” broadcast time and date: 24:59~ every monday
Broadcasting office: Nihon TV
As for terrestrial tv shows this is the only one, but they have 2 shows broadcast through satellite including the new show which started in July. Horipro’s Ooshima Mai and other members who belong to the major agencies have solo work too.

Idoling!!!

Country name: Idoling!!!
Founding date: October 2006
Emperor: Yoshida Masaki
Number of military commanders: 17
Race: Nabepro, Box Corporation, Shochiku Geinou, Horipro, Production Ogi and others

Idoling which is an alliance of several idols belonging to different productions can be compared to the alliance of powerful clans, the kingdom of Wu. The girls’ main TV show “Idoling!!!”, which is also their “home”, is Fuji TV’s first tv show being broadcast through the internet. Fuji TV puts quite a lot of strength into Idoling and has a first-class staff led by general producer Yoshida Masaki working on it. The content of the show is pretty much like a “frontal attack” with games like having to put your hand into the trouser pocket of a male announcer and gues the object in the pocket. It contains a lot of stuff you’d never get to see if it was a real idol show. “The quality of the show is extremely high for a variety show” is what the fans say. On the other hand there are people who say their skill as singers and dancers is low compared to the other groups.

Live activities:

The heart of their activities are their TV shows, so they had only 2 real live concerts so far. However they often perform in all kinds of events like “Bouken’ou” organized by Fuji. You can also watch the filming of the show live on-location as they accept guests at any time. This way you can watch live performances in the studio.

Fanservice:

Since they’re relatively new and the satellite and internet broadcasting is a good weapon, the number of H!P wota and wota of other idols among the Idoling fanbase is quite high. The fans and idols are very close, so there are also cases where wota of other idol groups get tired of the desperate wota life and stick to Idoling.

Awareness of rivals:

There aren’t many opportunities to perform in front of an audience and Idoling is a gathering of talents who belong to different productions anyway, so if there’s an awareness of rivals, it’s amongst the Idoling members themselves. Identically to AKB48, there are quite a few Idoling members who are H!P fans.

Media situation:

“Idoling!!!” broadcast time and date: 17:00~ from Monday to Friday
Broadcasting office: Fuji TV 721
This TV show broadcast through satellite is the heart of their activities. There’s also a terrestrial broadcast of a summary of the episodes late at night on Thursdays. The show gained popularity through it’s comedic elements like the “Pie throwing game” etc.

Serifu no Jidai (July 1st, Shogakukan “Serifu no Jidai” summer edition)

Ebira Kaoru (Takarazuka Revue)
Takahashi Ai (Morning Musume)
Takahashi Ai, born in Fukui prefecture in 1986. After passing the audition in 2001, she joined “Morning Musume” as a 5th generation member. In 2003 she joined “Mini Moni”. In June 2007, she was inaugurated as the leader of Morning Musume. She played the leading role of “Ribon no Kishi the musical”(Shinjuku Koma theater) in 2006 and her skill as a singer and her acting were highly praised.

Morning Musume x Takaradzuka “Cinderella the musical” (Rodgers & Hammerstein’s work, Sakai Sumio production, dramatization) August 6th to 25th, Shinjuku Koma theater.
The actors are Morning Musume, Asaji Saki, Aika Mire, Kou Akemi, Ebira Kaoru and others.

The Morning Musume x Takarazuka collaboration “Ribon no Kishi the musical” was talked about a lot because of it’s high level of quality which exceeded the idol standards. Two years later as the second collaboration they’ve decided to challenge themselves on the famous work “Cinderella” by Rodgers & Hammerstein. The one who’ll play the role of Cinderella is Takahashi Ai who delivered a good performance in the role of the main protagonist Sapphire in “Ribon no Kishi” who possesses the soul of a man and a woman. We visited their studio on their first day of practice and asked her to talk about the tracks of mental growth with Ebira Kaoru-san from the Takarazuka Revue who are going to support the girls this time again like in the previous work.

A promising attitude for a theater actress

Takahashi: Today’s the first day of practice for “Cinderella the musical” and I was really looking forward to meeting Charu-san again. You played the role of my father last time in “Ribon no Kishi”, right?
Ebira: It’s been already two years now, huh? Brings back memories..
Takahashi: The Morning Musume line-up has completely changed too.
Ebira: This time former Takarazuka top stars like Asaji Saki-san, Aika Mire-san and many other Takarazuka graduates will appear in the musical, so it looks like it’s going to be lively.
Takahashi: Yes. I’ve been a fan of Takarazuka since my childhood days and I often went to watch performances in the Takarazuka Grand Theater. That’s why last time when I got to meet Charu-san for the first time, I was planning to tell you “I watched ‘Natasha of the Rainbow’!” (starring Ebira Kaoru) no matter what. I was extremely nervous. (lol)
Ebira: Noo, I was nervous too. I thought “Uwaa, it’s Morning Musume~!” and was nervous like I had turned into a first year student again. (lol)
Takahashi: Eh, really?
Ebira: It’s because I’m used to seing people from the world of showbusiness on TV only. I was brought up and stayed in Takarazuka all the time and it was a long time ago since I was on the stage together with people who don’t belong to Takarazuka. That’s why I think it was a very precious experience for me.
Takahashi: For me too. I’ve learned really a lot from working together with Marcia-san and Charu-san. I strongly felt the earnest attitude you two have towards theater. Charu-san also taught me “You mustn’t sit down when you’re playing a male role.”.
Ebira: Right, right. Your trousers and skirt would get wrinkled, so you never sit down behind the stage when you’re waiting for your turn to come.
Takahashi: I watch a lot of Takarazuka shows, but I didn’t know about something like that. I was surprised to know that you have to be that careful behind the stage in order to look good on the stage.
Ebira: Aichan did her best not to sit down no matter what happened. When I took part in “Ribon no Kishi” I didn’t see you all as idols, but as theater actresses. That’s what I felt when we started practicing together. As fellows I create a theater play together with.
Takahashi: Thank you very much. Taking part in a real musical was a new challenge for us, so we were full of worries at first.
Ebira: Yeah, at first I felt many things like “If they could only bring out their voices a bit more…” or “If they would only try to speak louder…”. But I also felt that I should watch over you girls, so I didn’t mention anything and kept watching…
Takahashi: In concerts we’re used to speaking into the mic right in front of our eyes. I think that’s why we ended up saying our lines in a normal way at first. But after watching Marcia-san, Charu-san and the others sing and act, we realized that it doesn’t work like that and learned how to speak on the stage.
Ebira: I think that’s amazing. Your instincts or should I call it the youthful energy you all have in you kept growing and you’ve become able to interact with the scene on the stage. Your senses are sharp and most importantly you all gave it your all which I thought was amazing for you girls as actresses on the stage.
Takahashi: I worried a lot on how to create the character. It’s a popular work of master Tezuka Osamu, so there were many people who had the image of Sapphire from his anime in mind. I worried about how to play the role without destroying that image.
Ebira: The script was an original work, so no one had ever played the roles before and we had no choice but to play the roles by following our own senses. But Aichan and the others, while being lost, managed to grasp it and kept becoming gradually bigger. Watching that was fun and promising too. Did you feel that you kept on gradually changing?
Takahashi: More than anything I was desperate. But during the performances I acted while thinking “Maybe it’s better to do it like this.”, “Maybe it’s better to do it like that.” regarding particular movements and lines. Maybe it’s thanks to that, but there were many people who said that I made a totally different impression on them in the final performance than in the first one. I think I might have improved while playing the role.
Ebira: I think it’s good like that because in my opinion theater actors grow by piling up performance after performance.
Takahashi: I think I like live performances. I love concerts and I love the deep emotions you can only feel on the stage too. Every time my own performance and the reactions of the audience are different and that’s what’s fun about live performances. “Ribon” was performed for one month, but in the end I thought “Eh, it’s already ending? I want to perform it tomorrow too!”.

A “Cinderella” version only we can create

Ebira: The origin of “Cinderella” is a famous musical from overseas and it was already performed by pupils of Takarazuka several years ago (in Shinjuku Koma theater), so there’s already existing material we could use as a reference. But since the actors are different this time, I guess we have to create it from zero after all.
Takahashi: Yes. Before reading the script I got to watch the existing versions and I felt that I don’t want to be told “The Takarazuka version was better.” afterwards…
Ebira: Oh!
Takahashi: I wanted to watch more because I like Takarazuka, but if I had watched more, it’d have definitely influenced me. I want to try to create the character in my way.
Whenever I watch a theater play, I try to think “If I had that role, I would like to play it like this.”. “Cinderella” has been performed by many different people before. But because of that I discovered my desire for more and more and I think this is a different challenge for me than my role in “Ribon”. I want us to create a “Cinderella” version which only this cast is able to.
Ebira: That’s right. I think especially fairy tales with a happy end like this are definitely worth being performed by Morning Musume. When we were performing “Ribon” we were so much into the roles that we couldn’t imagine the individual roles being played by others anymore. This time too, I think it’s going to become a cute play which anyone can enjoy.
Takahashi: Cinderella is a bit too cute for me though. (lol) Normally I don’t act very girly.
Ebira: Which reminds me, you were very embarrassed when you had to play the girl with flaxen hair in “Ribon”. (lol)
Takahashi: That’s right, it was easier for me to play the role of the prince. Cinderella is a girl from a magical world for me, so even when we were reading out our lines today, I had no idea what kind of tone to use and ended up feeling awkward. But I’ll try to play the role of the cute girl in an even cuter way than the original! This will be my most important task this time.
Ebira: I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of cute girl it’ll turn out to be.
Takahashi: There are many tasks for me this time, but since it’s a [acronym=a play in a big hall maybe?]long-distance play[/acronym] I have to be careful not to overstrain my voice…
Ebira: You were alright during “Ribon”, right? I think it’s amazing how you could hang on for one whole month even though it was your first play.
Takahashi: Sometimes my voice ended up cracking. (lol)
Ebira: But you didn’t get a rough voice, did you? Actually I was very worried about it because you had the leading role and had to keep on singing.
Takahashi: I always had an inhaler with me and tried to keep my throat moisturized all the time. The traditional Chinese medicine with honey Marcia-san showed to me helped a lot too. Since there are two Chinese members in Morning Musume now, I often ask them to buy it for me. What also helps is cooling your throat. That’s what Ebira-san taught me.
Ebira: Right, cooling down. Your throat is heated up after singing, so you cool the front and backside of your neck to get it back to normal temperature as quick as possible. If you do that you’ll be able to preserve your voice for a lot longer.
Takahashi: Yes. That theater actors take care of themselves in such a way has been a lesson for me too.

I want you to become a splendid actress in the future

Ebira: Morning Musume is a group, but all of you have plenty of personality and star appeal in my opinion. As for a theater actress I think plenty of sensitivity and power of imagination is necessary, but I feel that kind of talent in all of you. Your power as a group is important, but you have to shine as an individual too.
Takahashi: The current members are very close, maybe it’s because we’re close in age too. But when I joined Morning Musume, there was a big difference in age and a big distance to the senpai. That’s why I wonder if it’s better to change the current atmosphere in the group.
Ebira: Ahh, we’re the same in that aspect. We can’t just keep on playing around with our close companions.
Takahashi: Yes. My senpai often tell me “You should see each other as rivals a bit more or you all won’t improve.”.
Ebira: They probably don’t mean that you shouldn’t be close, but that an independent spirit is necessary. I think people like that work well in an ensemble too. Exactly because they have an independent spirit, they can adjust themselves to other people on the stage.
Takahashi: You’re right. We’ll try to continue without forgetting that we’re rivals in a friendly way. I’m really looking forward to standing on the stage this time with the Takarazuka members I love. I wonder if it’s ok that so many of my dreams are coming true. (lol) All the more I think I have to do my best.
Ebira: I’m sure the fans already know it, but Aichan is really skilled at singing and dancing. All Morning Musume members were at a higher level than I had expected, but I think Aichan has the power to work on as a theater actress.
Takahashi: Thank you very much! I’m very happy to hear that from Ebira-san.
Ebira: I want you to learn a lot from many people in “Cinderella” this time, refine your sense a lot and become a splendid actress. Let’s have fun and do our best again.
Takahashi: Yes! Please teach me lots of things this time too! I’ll be in your care.