MNL48 Weekly 4/11/2018

Shock, denial, outrage. Those were the emotions I went through last Saturday when it was announced that new girls will be joining the Top 48 for a grand total of 75 for the “General Election”

Let’s take it directly from the official updates in the App, quoted verbatim here:

“This week, the audience started to score and commented on each candidate’s performance on It’s Showtime, while the Top 48 aspirants were stunned when the noontime show revealed that seven new candidates will be joining them in the search for the MNL48 first generation idols, to coincide with the announcement of the Top 7 and Bottom 7 aspirants.

Aside from the 7 new challengers who were introduced on It’s Showtime, another 20 girls will be joining them as well as the 48 girls to complete the Top 75 once again.”

What.The.Fuck.

If this was supposed to reinvigorate a fandom that is getting tired and impatient with the audition (it has been running for over a year now), then I guess it worked. Almost everyone hates it now.

As someone who has defended this audition from the start, even through all the changes and questionable steps that has happened, I found it extremely difficult to make sense of it at all. This seemingly callous and pointless act is a bit too much for me to digest and accept making it really hard for me to take something positive out of it.

Yes, I felt betrayed. The realization hitting that I might have been defending a lie.

I have staked my name and reputation defending the unusual audition process, even though various individuals have tried to draw my attention to some disturbing signs. I held on, trusting HHE to make the right decision, because I believed in MNL48 and in what they wanted to accomplish. I convinced myself that HHE will do the right thing, even when they partnered with ABS-CBN, a network with a history of changing established formats especially in Philippine versions of talent searches and reality shows, inserting their talents into these contests, and introducing pointless twists in all their shows. I reasoned that having ABS-CBN’s power as a media giant would be crucial in making MNL48 succeed. Imagine how my world crumbled when it turns out that the nay-sayers were right all along.

Yes, I felt betrayed. The realization hitting that I might have been defending a lie.

What this has done is to further complicates an already complicated and convoluted process. It reinforces the belief among the fans that ABS-CBN is pulling all stops to insert their talents in. It made HHE look like an impotent and minor partner. More importantly, people now have doubts about HHE’s ability to run this whole operation properly.

The announcement has further aggravated an already alienated local wota community. To their eyes, the audition took a huge hit in the credibility department. While this audition has tried to reach out to the masses and not to the wota crowd, it bears noting that the ones who could have been expected to faithfully follow the group, buy its merchandise and attend its events, have almost given up on the group in disgust.

What pains me the most is how this “twist” seems to disregard everything the Top48 has worked hard for. The girls were made to do tasks, had to go through the emotional stress of the eliminations. Now they had to contend with girls who not only joined the audition in its late stages, but were products of a “secret” audition.

Yes, I felt betrayed. The realization hitting that I might have been defending a lie.

The management has added 27 new girls taken from a “secret audition” on the final month of this very long first generation search. Why was there a need to get 27 girls? If they think that the Top48 do not meet their standards, why don’t they just eliminate the lot and start over? If they can produce 27 girls for a fraction of the time spent on the first audition, why did they bother with this audition in the first place?

It doesn’t make sense, and I find it hard to believe that the management added 27 new girls just for them to fail. It almost feels like the two partners decided that they’d prefer other girls, and so they held a second audition and changed the criteria (three times the past week) to give them a decent chance at winning hoping we won’t notice. The tin-foil hat feels awkward, but I’m loving every minute I have it on.

And if that’s not enough, as of writing there are reports that the votes will be re-set to zero and that we can only vote for one oshi this time. So I guess the shit really did hit the fan, but that’s FOUR changes to the mechanics in just two weeks. That doesn’t paint a nice picture of things now, right?

MNL48 has certainly broken new ground – as a classic example of how NOT to do a 48 Group audition.

This audition was supposed to look for the first generation of MNL48 and the real journey begins on Day 1 of the girls being MNL48, and not being chosen itself. I understood – and even supported – them changing the standard audition formats because I thought that making a format easily relatable to the masses could attract new followers. Instead the MNL48 audition has become a reality show of sorts, adding drama and “excitement” where it doesn’t belong.

MNL48 was supposed to jump-start the J-idol culture in the country. But how can you pioneer a culture when the girls haven’t even performed to a single AKB song since the Top 200 announcement? The girls were made to perform to western songs that had nothing to do with being an idol. People can’t figure them out because they didn’t know what they’re supposed to be. People find them too cutesy, but that’s what idols are supposed to be. And so, the girls are being rated by people who had no idea what they’re about in the first place!

Instead of being the standard with which future J-idol groups in the Philippines will be measured, it seems that MNL48 has certainly broken new ground – as a classic example of how not to do a 48 Group audition.

So…what’s next?

I think it’s time that MNL48 try to be an idol group instead of whatever it is “It’s Showtime” made them into. We can’t change what happened, and we’ll all probably live with having 27 girls air-dropped center-stage (some of whom, if reports are to be believed, currently have boyfriends or are under a talent manager….both grounds for disqualification, but I’m sure HHE and ABS-CBN are praying we won’t care), but it is clear that the management needs to reach out to the fans again.

The management doesn’t have to follow each and ever demand the fans throw at them. If we go down to the essentials, HHE isn’t obligated to follow our whims and some fans can feel downright entitled, but now, more than ever, HHE needs to get the local wota community to back MNL48 once more. That’s not going to happen as long as the local wotas perceive this audition as an anomaly and a disgrace to idol culture. They may be small in number but they knew how the culture works. They know what “support” in idol terms truly means.

No 48 Group has ever had an audition whose process has been so questioned, so criticized, and whose credibility among 48 Group fans have hit an all-time low.

An outsider doesn’t know – nor understand – that a single dedicated wota can spend 10 to 20K worth (possibly even more) of idol merchandise especially if we’re talking about high value items. They purchase multiple CDs to balloon the group’s sales because the high sales count will translate to good publicity and can potentially open more doors to the group.They do that because the sales numbers of the group and their idol’s merchandise can make or break her career. They know what being an idol fan truly means.

Connecting with the fans doesn’t even need to involve another Fan Meeting (which might degenerate to shouting matches given the current mood). HHE just needs to have their own Community Managers who can be the official link between the fans and the management. People who can help gather observations and the general mood of the public and report it to the management which can help them in making decisions.

No 48 Group has ever employed community managers because there wasn’t any real need to. But things here are different and MNL48 is in a situation that no other 48 Group had ever been in. No 48 Group has ever had an audition whose process has been so questioned, so criticized, and whose credibility among 48 Group fans have hit an all-time low.

Many of my friends have given up on MNL48. All my instincts are telling me to give up on MNL48. But for the sake of those girls whose dreams I still follow, and for the sake of the girls whose dreams this audition shattered, I really want to keep the faith. But it’s getting so difficult to keep positive when everything seems so frustrating.

Is MNL48 doomed?

For MNL48’s reputation to recover, they need to prove that they are credible idols, not ABS-CBN celebrities. They would have to convince everyone that they are not pre-ordained demi-gods that got in due to ABS-CBN’s influence and connections. Lastly, they would have to convince the wotas that they deserve to be idols as much as those who are part of the community but were eliminated. That’s a tall order, not only because the wota community has been alienated far too long, but because there are now at least two idol groups that look so much more promising in the eyes of a wota who is just looking for a traditional idol group and not the hype.

Is MNL48 doomed? I don’t know. I’d like to say no, but these days you can’t really know anymore. Maybe once the first generation has finally been unveiled and we see the girls doing what they were supposed to have been doing all these time, maybe all these things may be worth it. What I’m sure of is that things must move. Progress must be made. But with barely three weeks left, many fans fear it might be too late.

And with that, I’ve decided to temporarily close this blog until after the audition is over, or until we get to see the management doing something positive for a change, whichever comes first. I’ll still report on news and updates (something I now feel I should have stuck to doing), but my attitude towards MNL48 right now is too negative for me to continue writing a blog about it. There is still a small glimmer of hope in me that MNL48 will eventually do well, and for the sake of that hope, I’m taking a step back, enjoy the wine, and let the world be the world.