'Eight AKB48 Members Will Be Demoted' - Akimoto

It seems Akimoto, the troll that he is, has gained a new habit: demoting members that (in his opinion) aren't pulling their weight.  The man who started the trend of adding and graduating idols.  (If you didn't know, he was the producer of the popular, '80s, idol group Onyanko Club.)  He surprised fans in late 2010 by demoting members of SKE48 to make room for new members in Team KII (at the same time that he formed Team E).

Unlike their sister group (SKE), AKB48 received some cheerful news on their 5th Anniversary: eight trainees would be promoted to be full-fledged members of AKB48.  However, fans started to speculate (since the girls have yet to be added to teams) whether that meant graduations would be on the way.  Eight new members, means eight members graduating in order for AKB48 to stay at 48 members.  After the news, and the talk of graduations I made my own predictions.  But it seems that this is a whole different kind of beast.

Read the tweets from bottom to top (sorry). Via: akb48journal's twitter

So eight members will be demoted. . . which would likely lead to graduations.  I'm not surprised by the members who are demoted graduating.  It is kind of insulting, even though it sounds like Akimoto just wants to motivate them.  It is unlikely any of the senbatsu members will suffer a demotion.  However, Akimoto does like surprises so I wouldn't exclude Undergirls being demoted out of the realm of possibility.  I don't think he'll demote the members that were added during the shuffle. . . then again, after seeing them as official members he might of been disappointed.  I also think that members who have an agency to back-them up are less likely.  Here are a list of members that I can see because of either lack of popularity or little push from the producers:

Team A:
Chisato Nakata
Sayaka Nakaya (is getting outside work as a voice actress, so maybe not)
Natsumi Matsubara (has a role in AKB's mini drama, released a DVD)
Shizuka Oya (had a couple of episodes of Shukan dedicated to her)

Team K:
Miku Tanabe
Misato Nonaka (released a DVD recently)
Tomomi Nakatsuka (added during the shuffle, and was in the 19th single)
Reina Fujie

Team B:
Manami Oku (Akimoto has called her his secret weapon and has released a solo single)
Kana Kobayashi (included on the 19th single)
Mariya Suzuki (added during the shuffle)
Rina Chikano (won the AKBingo! competition)







If I had a gun to my head and I had to demote eight members: Kana (B), Rina (B), Mariya (B), Misato (K), Miku (K), Shizuka (A), Chisato (A), Natsumi (A).
Note: These include members that I like so don't take it personally if you are a fan because I am too.
Who do you think is going to be demoted?