History YMMV / Nogizaka46

* FaceOfTheBand:
** During their early years, Rina Ikoma, having centered their first five singles.
** After Ikoma, Mai Shiraishi and Nanase Nishino grew to become very popular members, both often pairing up for double center singles.
** Asuka Saito is slowly becoming this, her mysterious, un-idol-like character being the driving force behind her rise.

* PeripheryDemographic: Many Music/BabyMetal fans who came from the metal scene became interested in this group after they learned that Himeka Nakamoto, Su-metal's sister, was a member. It also became a GatewaySeries to idol groups in general aside from Music/SakuraGakuin, which was a relatively small junior idol group.

*** Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's most problematic tweets without context and pass off the rest as youthful indiscretions, pointing at her anti-bullying and other tweets and individual documentary to argue that she's thoughtful and well-read, and is likely a decent person overall. Even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member, many fans also believe she could still redeem herself.

** At worst, the tweets can be interpreted as ableist (she made jokes about whether "vegetable people" can photosynthesize; it's a derogatory term for comatose people in both English and Japanese, but she could also have been simply referring to any fictional PlantPerson, and previous posts suggest that she'd recently watched ''Film/TheFreakmaker'') and racist (she's afraid of being kidnapped by black people in Harajuku; it's a known issue that many shops in Harajuku particularly employ black people to aggressively "invite" customers, even physically pulling them in). There were also pictures of underwear, and she less ambiguously posted that current Nogizaka members (i.e. her future seniors) looked ordinary.
** She was also a freelance model, and her photographer clients jumped at the opportunity to sell photos from her past sessions. While some other Nogizaka members also had prior modeling work, some more risqué than others, this is made worse when combined with the previous allegations, and even gave rise to suspicions of CompensatedDating with the photographers.

*** Detractors in general believed that their actions had tarnished the group's reputation and compared the scandal to that of Trivia/NGT48 in 2019 which lead to that group's collapse, especially when rumors came out that somebody in management had said internally that the public would eventually forget about it. There was also the closer to home alleged bullying that brought down [[Trivia/Sakurazaka46 Keyakizaka46]].
*** Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's problematic tweets at face value, pointing at her past anti-bullying and other tweets and individual documentary to argue that she's thoughtful and well-read, and is likely a decent person. Even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member, many fans also believe she could still redeem herself.

** At worst, the tweets can be interpreted as ableist (she made jokes about whether "vegetable people" can photosynthesize; however, previous posts suggest that she'd recently watched ''Film/TheFreakmaker'' and might have been simply referring to the film) and racist (she's afraid of being kidnapped by black people in Harajuku; it's a known issue that many shops in Harajuku particularly employ black people to aggressively "invite" customers, even physically pulling them in). There were also pictures of underwear, and she less ambiguously posted that current Nogizaka members (i.e. her future seniors) looked ordinary.

** While the Aruno controversy was still going on, it came to light that ''another'' fifth generation member who had not been officially introduced, Hina Okamoto, had a publicly accessible Instagram account where she leaked videos from the group's rehearsals and MV production, and made fun of another fifth generation member and group captain Manatsu Akimoto. She was then suspended and the management stated that they would "educate" her about proper member behavior.

** Of course, fans have various opinions (it wouldn't be a controversy otherwise). Detractors in general believed that their actions had tarnished the group's reputation and compared the scandal to that of Trivia/NGT48 in 2019 which lead to that group's collapse, especially when rumors came out that somebody in management had said internally that the public would eventually forget about it, not to mention the closer to home alleged bullying that brought down [[Trivia/Sakurazaka46 Keyakizaka46]]. Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's problematic tweets at face value, pointing at her past anti-bullying and other tweets and individual documentary to argue that she's not a bad person, and believed that both of them deserved a chance, even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member (there were also those who only supported either one).

** Of course, fans have various opinions (it wouldn't be a controversy otherwise). Detractors in general believed that their actions had tarnished the group's reputation and compared the scandal to that of Trivia/NGT48 in 2019 which lead to that group's collapse, especially when rumors came out that somebody in management had said internally that the public would eventually forget about it. Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's problematic tweets at face value, pointing at her past anti-bullying and other tweets and individual documentary to argue that she's not a bad person, and believed that both of them deserved a chance, even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member (there were also those who only supported either one).

** Of course, fans have various opinions (it wouldn't be a controversy otherwise). Detractors in general believed that their actions had tarnished the group's reputation and compared the scandal to that of Trivia/NGT48 in 2019 which lead to its collapse, especially when rumors came out that somebody in management had said internally that the public would eventually forget about it. Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's problematic tweets at face value, pointing at her past anti-bullying and other tweets and individual documentary to argue that she's not a bad person, and believed that both of them deserved a chance, even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member (there were also those who only supported either one).

** Of course, fans have various opinions (it wouldn't be a controversy otherwise). Detractors in general believed that their actions had tarnished the group's reputation and compared the scandal to that of Trivia/NGT48 in 2019, especially when rumors came out that somebody in management had said internally that the public would eventually forget about it. Supporters in general chose not to interpret Aruno's tweets at face value and believed that both of them deserved a chance, even though Hina broke the group's rule after she became a member (there were also those who only supported either one).
* PeripheryDemographic: Many Music/BabyMetal fans who came from the metal scene became interested in this group after they learned that Himeka Nakamoto, Su-metal's sister, was a member. It also became a GatewaySeries to idol groups in general aside from Music/SakuraGakuin, which is a relatively small junior idol group.

** At worst, the tweets can be interpreted as ableist (she made jokes about whether "vegetable people" can photosynthesize; however, previous posts suggest that she'd recently watched ''Film/TheFreakmaker'' and might have been referring to the film) and racist (she's afraid of being kidnapped by black people in Harajuku; it's a known issue that many shops in Harajuku particularly employ black people to aggressively "invite" customers, even physically pulling them in). There were also pictures of underwear, and she less ambiguously posted that current Nogizaka members (i.e. her future seniors) looked ordinary.

** Many wondered how two individuals selected from ''87,000+ auditionees'' could ignite two scandals only weeks after they were announced.

** At worst, the tweets can be interpreted as ableist (she made jokes about whether people in vegetative state can photosynthesize) and racist (she's afraid of being kidnapped by black people in Harajuku; it's a known issue that many shops in Harajuku particularly employ black people to aggressively "invite" customers, even physically pulling them in). There were also pictures of underwear, and she less ambiguously posted that current Nogizaka members (i.e. her future seniors) looked ordinary.

** While the Aruno controversy was still going on, it came to light that ''another'' fifth generation member who had not been officially introduced, Hina Okamoto, had a publicly accessible Instagram account where she had leaked videos from the group's rehearsals and MV production. She was then suspended and the management stated that they would "educate" her about proper member behavior.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The 29th single was originally centered by fifth generation member Aruno Nakanishi, just a few weeks after the generation was announced. At first, a few fans were only wary that the song was a bit too similar to those of Music/Keyakizaka46, with Aruno also having short hair and edgy look like Yurina Hirate. But then her old personal Twitter came to light, which had some less-than-wholesome content…
** At worst, the tweets painted her as ableist (she made jokes about whether people in vegetative state can photosynthesize) and racist (she's afraid of being kidnapped by black people in Harajuku; it's a known issue that many shops in Harajuku particularly employ black people to aggressively "invite" customers, even physically pulling them in). She also posted pictures of underwear (implying CompensatedDating), and less ambiguously posted that current Nogizaka members (i.e. her future seniors) looked ordinary.
** She was also a freelance model, and her photographer clients jumped at the opportunity to sell photos from her past sessions. While some other Nogizaka members also had prior modeling work, some more risqué than others, this is made worse when combined with the previous allegations.

** Inevitably, the single's English title, "Actually...", is humorously claimed to refer to Aruno's past by the fans.

** With the change in formation, the MV was also redone for general publication, but the original was still included with the physical release, and it's quite HarsherInHindsight. It starts with a short film, in which Yama locked Aruno in a studio room for an entire day because she had a bad feeling that she would bring about unwanted changes to the group in some way. Asuka calls her out for this, but later admits that she feels the same after talking with Aruno herself, who believes that she's a loner who wouldn't fit in with the group. This MV was most likely produced before Aruno's past was exposed, but in either case, it depicted Yama as someone who would mistreat her junior, and the other members as indifferent to Aruno's absence.

** With the change in formation, the MV was also redone for general publication, but the original was still included with the physical release, and it's quite HarsherInHindsight. It starts with a short film, in which Yama locked Aruno in a studio room for an entire day because she had a bad feeling that she would bring about unwanted changes to the group in some way. Asuka calls her out for this, but later admits that she feels the same after talking with Aruno herself, who believes that she's a loner who wouldn't fit in with the group. This MV was most likely produced before Aruno's past was exposed, but in either case, it depicted Yama as someone who would mistreat her junior, even though she regrets it afterward.

** With the change in formation, the MV was also redone for general publication, but the original was still included with the physical release, and it's quite HarsherInHindsight. It starts with a short film, in which Yama locked Aruno in a studio room for an entire day because she had a bad feeling that she would bring about unwanted changes to the group in some way. Asuka calls her out for this, but later admits that she feels the same after talking with Aruno herself, who believes that she's a loner who wouldn't fit in with the group. This MV was most likely produced before Aruno's past was exposed, but in either case, it depicted Yama as someone who would mistreat her junior.