>>89097637Those three, front and center, in the PV image - for an event scheduled for the anniversary month.
You're absolutely right. It was done on purpose. It couldn't have NOT been done on purpose.
The least stupid possible reason for this is that it's a Springtime For Hitler gambit: for whatever reason (contracts with third parties, tax purposes, etc.) management is legally obligated to at least pretend to put forth a bit of effort to make an EN show happen at Nijifes; but for whatever reason (looking for an excuse to sack one or more of those three, looking for an excuse to Yumenographia the EN branch, etc.) management is trying to tank the show, and are using the trio's overwhelmingly negative reputation among overseas fans to do it.
The company knows THAT those three are the most reviled active members of the EN branch, and they know WHY those three are so reviled - like you said, the company is not that tone deaf. But at the same time, those three have high enough subscriber counts and all-time streaming revenue that the company can pretend not to know that those three are less popular overseas than gas station sushi. Putting those three at the front of the poster means that fans of the five in the back, who might otherwise have purchased tickets to watch their oshis perform on stage, will instead be much more likely to choose not to buy tickets; and if the overseas branch fails domestically after having already catastrophically failed overseas, they'll have an excuse to fire either one or more of those three (for "causing" the branch to fail) or the entire branch (for actually failing)
The second-least stupid possible reason is that this is show is an ash can release, with a sole purpose of either keeping the EN branch nominally open until at least that date; or because at least one of the eight in the poster is in the graduation queue and management wants to force them to stay until that date before being allowed to graduate. Particularly if one of them turned in their papers on Feb 6 or Feb 13, and ESPECIALLY if one of the black screen trio turned in their graduation paperwork on Feb 13.
....actually that might explain Elira's two month "stealth" suspension right after the black screen.
