Can Rena Nozawa Survive in AKB48 ?
Rena Nozawa could be said as one of JKT48 first generation members who can directly catch fans’ attention. This is due to the fact that among other first generation members, Rena is the only pure Japanese girl. With her shy attitude, still deep ‘Japanese tongue’ when speaking Indonesian language, along with an unique voice make this Nagoya-born girl, May 6th 1998, gets more attentions from her fans who often called as “Renaissance”. However, on June 18th 2013, Rena had to go back to Japan since her parents had decided to go back to their neighborhood town. Then Rena was ‘forced’ to go along with her parents’ wish and in the same time, she was given a double team status (AKB48 and JKT48).
Slightly, it can make Rena’s fans feel such pride because their oshimen is valued worthy as an AKB48 member. But in the same time there’s an anxiety feeling appears since that means the chance to meet Rena automatically will be decreased. Not to mention that Rena officially has become Team K member, the ‘most sadistic’ team in AKB48. It’s predicted to be a bad impact for Rena’s carrier in 48 Family if she can’t ‘compete’ with her new acquaintances in Team K AKB48.
First, let’s see the profile of Team K itself. Team K is often called as the ‘Hurricane’ or ‘Military’ Team, since Team K is a team (among Team A and K AKB48) with the hardest dance training. It’s not uncommon for Team K members to become so tired by the hard training given for them. Not to mention a common opinion that Rena’s popularity in JKT48 is because of her Japanese heritage also gives an assumption that Rena will have a difficult time to reach her success with AKB48, which is in obvious fact filled also by Japanese-born members. It’s predicted to be Rena’s hindrance to become one of Front-liners again as she has been with JKT48.
But if we see the composition of Team K itself which seems to be weaker than the previous one can give a hope as well as a gap for Rena to reach her success. Surely Team K is still filled by two members of Kami7 AKB48, Oshima Yuko (Team K AKB48 captain) and Matsui Jurina, and also by senior members such as Maria Abe, Ktahara Rie, Sato Amina, Shimada Haruka, Maeda Ami and Miho Miyazaki. However, Team K had recently lost its twin towers (Miyazawa Sae and Akimoto Sayaka) which had been the foundation of Team K with Yuko. Miyazawa Sae who chose to focus in SNH48 until she left her status as Team K AKB48, along with Akimoto Sayaka’s graduation from AKB48 makes the main power of Team K seems to be ‘only’ held by Oshima Yuko and Matsui Jurina. The loss of one of Team K’s main charm points and Rena’s joining with her status as Team J member of JKT48 which also catch 48 Family fans in Japan are assumed as Rena’s advantages compared with other Team K members.
It feels that to beat members such as Yuko, Jurina, Rie or Miho is still a hard task for Rena. However she still can learn more from her seniors. Not to mention Team K which often called as the team with natural dancing talent, it can be used by Rena to sharpen her ability to a better level. The minimum amount of members in Team K should be an advantage for Rena to shine with Team K. By her young age, it’s supposed to be easy for Rena to learn to be a better idol from her seniors, since Rena is only one year difference with the 48 Family Wonderkid, Matsui Jurina. It should be an advantage point fo help Rena in reaching her success in Team K. The expose from media because of her status as the first JKT48 member who succeeded to be an AKB48 member should be able to used by Rena to shine brighter than other Team K members, at least from non-mainstream members in Japan. If she can take an advantage from that, it’s not impossible for Rena to become one of Team K front-liners or break through the Kami7 position in Team K.
For Rena’s fans in Indonesia, perhaps one day Rena will have a chance to get her position back as JKT48 member. But to see that Aki-P only allows members in minimum age of 20 (in Rena’s case, because of family matter) to be Kaigai Team member, so perhaps Rena’s fans in Indonesia have to wait until Rena reach age 20 or more to be an ‘active member’ again in JKT48. But if that’s what will happen, of course the Rena who comes back to Indonesia will be the different one from what’s used to be remembered and seen by her fans. She will come back as the Rena Nozawa with better experience and ability as an idol than before.
“I can’t be here without all your supports. I can’t be able to express myself as I was a year ago. I’ll work hard to keep moving forward and become more mature.”
–Rena Nozawa. Team J JKT48 and AKB48 Team K–
My Opinion :
I’m not really following AKB48 and other sister groups, so I’m not really sure if I can give better opinion about Rena’s current position in Team K. But she seems having fun being in Team K, if we can judge from what she’s been writing on her G+ and Twitter. Also, when she performed on a show in one of Indonesian national TV, she really looked different than how she was before transferring to AKB48.
It seems that Rena surely has been taking a lot of advantages from her position in Team K. She must be learning a lot there and it’s showed in her improvement in dancing and personal appearance. It’s great to see that Rena has matured
Obviously, we can’t compare Rena with her seniors yet, because I think that’s kind of unfair since factually Rena is still young and need more experience. Whether she could survive or not in AKB, actually depends on Rena herself. And we as her fans can only give our highest supports to her, at least from the simple thing such as being nice to Rena. Even before she was transferred to AKB48, already the fans made some rumors regarding to her heritage and lack of fluency in Indonesian language.
I’ve seen so many comments about her “forgetting” JKT48 and Indonesia just because she prefers using Japanese more than Indonesian. I think it’s an unfortunate manner from fans, because we all know that Rena’s been doing her best as JKT48 and AKB48 member. So, please everyone, keep supporting Rena by treating her nicely. And also, may us always keep cheering for her success in both JKT48 and AKB48. Ganba-Rena!
レナはみなさんの誇りなのですね。
そう思われるレナもそう思ってくださる皆さんも
私はすべてを尊敬します。
彼女は一見華奢に見えますが、
実は賢くて強い女性ではないかと思っています。。
Rena is your pride.
I respect Rena whom you all cheer
and the people like you supporting Rena.
She is still young but she is clever and tough girl.
Even if she looks delicate.
She still looks delicate though already in Team K. Maybe because of her age, though as I said in the post, she looked matured when coming back to Indonesia for last HS event. Some fans also commented that she looked different. So the question about whether she could survive in AKB48 or not is already aswered. She really can do that.
I found this, from mayumi uchida
ganbarena
ah, I forgot the picture link. this is it
pic.twitter.com/zu7S0SIXQ4
I can see Rena there but.I’m not sure if I can understand. Something like rating or something?
Kore o chekku
https://plus.google.com/u/0/101821083794257042424/posts/HgJz7A4Sejg
That phrase… LOL.
When was it taken? hmm… But I’m sure members are interested with Rena. Just keep cheering her.
still don’t understand
so this mayumi is trying to be sarcastic to rena
Trying? Like?
So it’s a joke or something?
then it’s an unfunny joke she try to do
I believe she was only joking around, since Rena is still considered as a new comer in the team.
It’s a relationship chart and pretty standard a thing – generally as a fun gauge of how the members see each other; sometimes they write “love interest” “rival” “best friend” etc.
Not meant to be taken seriously whatsoever… unless you ship <3
When new Team B was formed (not Umeda Team B but before that) there was a clip of Masuda Yuka crossing out Kitahara Rie's love heart and line pointed at her... it was because Yuka was "mad" that Rie kept rejecting her: "Stop clinging/hugging to me!"
Here's Ucchi’s Chart (translated by arifer-48)
(She wrote “noisy/annoying” under Hirari and Haruu lol)
And for comparison, Fujita Nana’s Chart
Ah, now I get it. Well, at least Rena’s placed under “Anta Dare?” note, not other bad notes. Joking or not, it’s member’s opinion about Rena. I think it’s interesting, so if anyone have more like this, I’d really love to see them.
Kana’s chart and then Google image the name of the actress lol
(Also, she’s a fluent English speaker – Australian)
LOL will do. I’m not really following Rena though, but sometimes I become curious with Team K members opinion about Rena, and also with AKB48 itself. But at least the main point that she seems enjoying her times there so far.
Anta dare? oh i see, she’s still not recognize rena.
The blog is incorrect in “only members over 20 y.o. can be kaigai member” because de jure it’s official that Rena is both Team J and Team K member…
Thanks for information Enrico. Maybe he didn’t do much browsing on that part because actually I was also confused with it. But, at least the author wanted to tell us the possibility of her carrier as AKB48 and JKT48 member. I’m sorry for the incorrect info in this post, though. I think I also should do my own research before publishing it.
Ah, The Kaigai part actually means for the Kaigai member who works in two different country. Like Aki Takajo, Haruka Nakagawa, Miyazawa Sae and Suzuki Mariya. In Jurina’s case, she works in AKB48 and SKE48, which takes place in Japan.
Well, maybe that’s my fault for not specificially explain the “Kaigai’ part :))
*P.S Sorry for my bad english
the thing about team image is, it’s completely abolished when the second shuffle was announced.
powerful K was akimoto K image, not oshima K. since now the members were evenly spread between 3 teams now
I wouldn’t worry much about Rena. In fact, I think Team K is perfect for her. Although I might be biased because I’m a Team K oshi. XD
She already gets along well with Hilary who also speaks English. Yuko, Kuramochi and Shimada can give their guidance and lead her through AKB and its ways. Same age/peers as Rena could get along well with her like Jurina, Nao, Tomu, Nana etc. Rie and Aamin is known for being friendly and Aamin was already interested in JKT even before Rena joined.
If anything, I’m just sad that Rena didn’t have the opportunity to learn more from Sayaka as their time together was cut short with Sayaka’s graduation.
Let’s just say, Rena still have a very long way to fit into Team K. But she actually doesn’t have much problem being in Team K, I think. It’s not that she has a language problem and though sometimes her performance looks kinda messy, she must be learning a lot in Team K. As I said, and most people also had noticed, that Rena seems so different after she joined Team K. So we can assume that she really took the advantage of her position in that team by improving herself. I’m not saying that she can’t do that in JKT48 though… But we are talking about AKB48, who is a million time more experienced than JKT48. I honestly never really minded what team she would be in when she was announced to join AKB48 too. To me, it’s not about what team she joins in, but her effort to show that she worth as both AKB48 and JKT48 member.
You’re right about Rena. It’s not about what team she joins, but her effort to do as best as she can as AKB48 and JKT48 members. Fans especially J-fans would want to see her effort and that would be god enough to catch their attention. As the first transfer from overseas group, she would be getting attention from them, but I think that she would do just fine as long as she shows her true self and don’t give up achieving her dream.