I was pondering why 0048 was successful. It had the successors (arguably the most popular members from the first three gens, plus relatively popular members as background successors) that we know and love, with a slight change, but no dramatically so.
Then we have the KKS. I wonder, if they hadn’t been voiced by actually AKB members, would the show still have been as successful? Mayuyu, of course, has a massive fanbase (being 2nd in sousenkyo at the time) and her being one of the main characters didn’t hurt.
As someone who wasn’t a fan of AKB48 before watching the show, I think that having that connection to AKB48, more than just “yeah we’re the future AKB yay~” made me curious. I think it gave not just the show, but AKB48 as a whole, a lot more credibility and depth.
//outofmiyu: I kind of came at it with a different perspective, since I’ve been a fan of AKB for a long time and before the show. I knew that actual AKB members were voicing the characters, but I didn’t really pay attention to whom was voicing whom until I noticed that Chieri’s voice sounded really familiar xD I think what got me, as an AKB fan already, into the show was the point you made about the main successors being, arguably, the most popular from the first 3 generations. I watched quite closely to see how well they could pull off the successors reflecting the original’s personalities, and I feel as though they did quite well.
Acchan’s always portrayed as a bit of a loner, just like the Acchan 13th in 0048. Yuko’s quite high energy in real life too, Takamina always gets picked on by the other members but is still, most definitely, the captain of AKB, just as she shows the leader-like qualities in 0048. Sayaka and Sae are those ‘Twin Towers’ who everyone thinks are athletic, Nyan-Nyan’s a bit of an airhead, Tomochin has that signature pout that everyone could associate with her character in 0048, and Yukirin’s the queen of reactions xD The only one I didn’t really like was how they portrayed Mariko in Tsubasa - the original Mariko was always a bit of a troll and a joker. No, I digress. The original Mariko was a HUGE troll, and I don’t feel as though they did a good job with her in the two Mariko successors in the show.
And oh god I wrote too much I’ll stop now.
