>>86108706He spoke after the talk about Kizuna Ai, so it did make sense for him to use AKB just as an example of a group project for contrast.
My personal rrat is that interview itself was, at least partially, what pushed them towards increasing idol-poi activities. As in that Homelander scene - he didn't mean it that way but liked the public reaction.
Towa was complaining in Holotalk (i think) that she stated clearly during her auditions she intends to participate in apex etc. tournaments and everyone was okay with that, then suddenly at the debut it was NG. Which fits the timing of this panel around autumn 2019.
And if you look at who they've got for the previous gen, you can't seriously say they were intending to go the idol route at the time. To this day only Flare can sing out the five of them, not to mention dancing.
