So I did a thing. A rather time-consuming and insane thing
. I was filled with curiosity about how the line distribution is now that Riho is gone. So I went ahead and did a line count of the girls, by syllable/beat. It ended up with some pretty interesting results. I will go in reverse order, since Utakata was hands down the most interesting results to me. My interpretations of these are of course my opinions and I have my own way of thinking of things. Words like center or lead could be interpreted in different ways.
Tokyo to Iu KatasumiFor this song, Sato and Oda are definitely the vocal centers of the song, both of them singing 53% of the song, the next highest percent being Mizuki at 42% and Ayumi at 39%. Solo-wise, Fukumura has the most at 45 beats, while Ishida is at 36, and Sato and Oda are at 33. Those four are the
Leads for sure. Kudo is the
Sub-Lead at 23 beats, while Ikuta, Suzuki and Iikubo could be considered
Support. The 12th Gen are the undisputed
Backgirls of the song with no solos and singing only 32% , but they get their time in The Vision.
While Sato/Oda are vocally center, Mizuki/Ayumi are the dance centers. Kudo is also often placed near the front or center even when she doesn't have a solo, so she could be considered a visual center.
In conclusion: Sato/Oda and Ayumi/Mizuki act as double centers and leads, though vocally Sa/Od are more prominent throughout the song. After that Kudo is the focus. Ikuta/Suzuki/Iikubo are the Support and Ogata/Nonaka/Makino/Haga are Backgirls.
Stats:Out of 528
Sings Most
281 - Sato
281 - Oda
224 - Fukumura
206 - Ishida
185 - Kudo
182 - Ikuta
182 - Suzuki
182 - Iikubo
174 - Ogata
174 - Nonaka
174 - Makino
174 - Haga
Solo Count
45 - Fukumura
36 - Ishida
33 - Sato
33 - Oda
23 - Kudo
8 - Ikuta
8 - Suzuki
8 - Iikubo
0 - Ogata
0 - Nonaka
0 - Makino
0 - Haga
The VisionLess disputed about is who are the center and
leads to The Vision. Sato and Oda evenly sing 64% of the song, almost 20% higher than any other girl (Nonaka is third at 47%). Not looking at solos Nonaka/Makino/Haga are all in the upper 40%, while Ogata/Suzuki/Iikubo/Kudo are in the lower 40%, with Kudo bringing up the rear at 44%. So other than Sato/Oda, everyone's contributing to the song about equally.
Solo-wise Sato/Oda are at about 31 beats, cementing them as the leads, while 12th Gen are the only other ones with varying amounts of beats. It seems to have been passed out based on vocal ability as Nonaka has the most (10) and Ogata has the least (4). You might be able to say Nonaka is the closest thing to a Sub-Lead in this song, but they way they're presented, it's probably closer to say that Ogata/Nonaka/Makino/Haga are the
Support. Suzuki/Iikubo/Kudo are
Background.
Mizuki/Ikuta/Ishida are obviously the dance centers, but the amount of focus on them might argue that they are the visual centers as well. I'd give them as much weight as Sato/Oda in the song.
In Conclusion: The main focuses of the song are the Sato/Oda vocals and the Dance Team. 12th Gen have been given a significant visual/vocal push as well, although in reality other than the leads, everyone sings fairly the same amount.
Stats:Out of 496
Sings Most
320 - Sato
320 - Oda
235 - Nonaka
232 - Makino
232 - Haga
225 - Ogata
220 - Suzuki
220 - Iikubo
218 - Kudo
Solo Count
31 - Sato
31 - Oda
10 - Nonaka
8 - Makino
8 - Haga
4 - Ogata
0 - Suzuki
0 - Iikubo
0 - Kudo
Utakata Saturday Night!Singing the highest percentage of the song is Suzuki at 41%, but it's not be as big of a gap as the other two A-sides, with Oda singing the next most at 39%. It is big enough for me to count them in different tiers, so it can be argued that Suzuki is the vocal center of the song. After that it gets interesting. After Suzuki, the next group (of very similar amounts) are Oda/Nonaka/Makino/Iikubo, their voices can be heard the most throughout the song. Oda and Iikubo both benefit from starting that final "Do it Do it", while Nonaka/Iikubo also are paired with Suzuki for the chorus, so they get that benefit. The next group which hovers around 35% is Sato/Ishida/Kudo. The fact that Sato is so low is interesting since she has the second most solo beats after Suzuki. Last are Ogata/Haga/Fukumura/Ikuta. Fukumura and Ikuta only sing about 29% of the song, making it the least we've heard of Fukumura for a long while.
Solo wise, Suzuki once again wins with 29 beats of solo (this is not counting her monologue by the way, which is pretty long and I've guessed around 80 beats). Oda/Sato are next at 21 beats. This has led me to decide that Suzuki/Sato/Oda are the
Main Leads of the song. After that the solo beats have been evenly distributed, with everyone else getting 3 or 4. Everyone is gets a vocal moment to shine, so you could argue that everyone else is
Support. Combining both stats, the closest we have to
Background Vocals are Fukumura/Ikuta/Ogata/Haga.
Non-vocally, Suzuki is given the most screen time and has a long monologue in the middle. She is the main event of the song and video. Ishida is given a Dance Solo and Fukumura has been prominently positioned in the dance several times, despite not singing as much as the other girls, leading me to believe that she's being considered the Visual Center for the song. Sato is also given the only other freeze-frame moment after Suzuki.
In conclusion: Utakata is amazing in that it's given EVERYONE a moment to shine, while pushing Suzuki to the forefront in a natural way. In the other two songs, the percentage people sang after the leads was pretty much the same, so I found it interesting that in Utakata, the solos were what was pretty much the same, while it was in the percentage sung where things varied drastically.
Stats:Out of 527
Sings Most
219 - Suzuki
206 - Oda
201 - Nonaka
201 - Makino
200 - Iikubo
190 - Sato
189 - Ishida
184 - Kudo
163 - Ogata
159 - Haga
151 - Fukumura
151 - Ikuta
Solo Count
29 - Suzuki (+80)
21 - Oda
21 - Sato
4 - Iikubo
4 - Fukumura
3 - Nonaka (+2)
3 - Makino (+2)
3 - Ogata (+2)
3 - Haga (+2)
3 - Ishida
3 - Kudo
3 - Ikuta
One thing that has rung true through this is that MaaSaku are the new centers for sure, being huge in all three songs. Masaki has been figuring out how to be an Ace as well, so she might step forward from Sakura, but at the same time, they work so well together, management may not choose to do focus more on her. They also seem to be experimenting with changing around the support and the background singers, giving everyone a chance to try. Obviously for 9th and 10th Gen vs 12th Gen there is seniority so overall on a single, 12th Gen Back Girls will probably get the least overall, but it's nice that they're giving them something.
Also why did I spend hours of my life doing this LOL I'm probably the only one who found it interesting.