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!

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