I'm moving to Japan just because of AKB

How to Win a Janken Tournament: Lessons from the First Janken Taikai

2011-09-19T10:58:00.004+08:00

After an invasion by zombies, the overlords decide to let one human live and escape. To choose who this will be, they declare a janken tournament. How do you assure your victory?

Okay, I'll stop writing crappy fiction, but AKB's second janken tournament is a few short days away, and I thought I would educate them with lessons from the first one. Of course, you can never tell when this info might be crucial for your survival someday, so read up.

1. Always play rock. Always.

Statistics show that most people will not play paper compared with rock or scissors. (Note: statistics totally made up.)

Think about it. You're about to cast your hand... from a fist... what is the least easiest to convert it as? You play rock, you don't need to do a thing. You play scissors, you just move two fingers. But play paper? You need to move all five fingers! That's more than twice that of scissors! And who wants to go through that much trouble! No one will cast a hand of paper to beat you, the best most will do is draw, until they get sick of the deadlock and decide to raise ~~their middle finger~~ two fingers to play scissors.

In the first janken tournament, it was Ami Maeda who used this strategy. After disposing of Oya Shizuka and Nito Moeno by strictly playing rock, she cruised to Senbatsu to face some other girl also named Maeda.

If a strategy works against Maeda Atsuko, then that's all the proof you need right there.

Acchan: "I told you backstage to play paper! Someone will be punished for their insolence!"

No, seriously, what Acchan was thinking of was...

Acchan: "Why am I still in this thing?! Aki-P promised I would get a break 'cause of this whole thing! Somebody beat me already! Must... get... sleep..."

Of course, if you're going to face the one who will ultimately win the whole thing and beat you in the process, then don't follow this strategy. (Totally useful piece of advice, huh.)

Ucchi: "So, you've been reading that crappy blog huh?"

Ami: "What?! But that blog promised me... I'll get that Silver Rain..."

After losing the chance at the top position, Ami decides to shift gears against Aki Takajo, and guess what Aki plays...

If Ami stuck with the game plan, she would have beat Akicha. See?!

Ami: "Would you stop playing scissors!"

Aamin would beat Aki anyway as Akicha changed gears when she didn't, and Ami would go back to the original plan in her last match against Suuchan.

What can I say. Rock rules.

2. Learn mind control.

It was Haruka Nakagawa who applied this technique for a fourth place finish in the first tournament.

vs. Yonechan

Harugon: "You will play paper."

vs. Rie

"Muahaha. My next victim."

vs. Krisu

"You will play paper."

vs. Akicha

Haurgon: "You will obey me."

"Muahahaha"

Of course, for the strategy to work, your opponent must have a mind, as Harugon failed to foresee as she faced Haruna Kojima.

Harugon: "Uh-oh. Crap. I forgot about this one."

Harugon: "Can't... find... what I must... control..."

Kojiharu: "I wonder what other shoes match this dress."

(I'm kidding, I love Kojima.)

3. Pray

It was no less than the winner of the whole shebang, Mayumi Uchida who used this strategy.

vs. Myao

vs. Lovetan

Aika: "Whacha doin'?"

vs. Ami

Ucchi: "Something tells me not to cast scissors."

vs. Harugon

Harugon: "You will play paper!"

Ucchi: "Must... resist.... Harugon..."

God trumps everything.

Finals, before the match, vs. Harukyan

and after the match...

Pray, it still works!

Acchan Regains Her Throne! Maeda Atsuko Elected #1 in 3rd Senbatsu Elections! Plus More Surprising Results!

2011-06-09T22:48:00.002+08:00

The insanity that is the 3rd Senbatsu elections has just ended, and at its close we find Maeda Atsuko taking back the #1 position as AKB's center!

In one of AKB's most exciting annual events, where [purchasing] fans are able to vote, #1 girl from the 1st elections, Maeda Atsuko, after losing the #1 spot to Yuko Oshima in the 2nd elections, regains her #1 spot this 3rd election by getting 139,892 votes, 17,049 votes higher than Yuko's. I was so concerned that because Maeda has been really busy the past months, with TV shows and movies, that if her rank dropped this year, she would already announce her graduation, but by retaking her throne, I think Maeda should stick around some more. It's too early for her to leave AKB.

There is nothing to smirk at Yuko's results, she got four times more votes than she did last year, as she keeps the position she had in the 1st elections at #2. I think it was great for AKB that Yuko got to take away the #1 position from Maeda for the second elections, but I think it's also great that Maeda gets to take it back this year. Now that that has happened, and it has been shown that they can beat each other, next year should be fair game for everyone!

A huge but pleasant surprise is Yuki Kashiwagi's huge rise in rank, from skirting at the edges of the Skirt Hirari 7 at #8, she goes all the way up to #3! I'm not necessarily very happy that she beat Mayuyu, my oshimen, to become Team B's most popular girl (not that Mayu would mind since she loves Yuki), but since Yukirin is my third favorite girl, hey, if you're going to beat Mayu, you might as well beat everyone else! Yuki's new subunit "French Kiss" probably helped push her some more, but her popularity has been there ever since, so in a way, it's not that surprising she reached #3 this year. I'm hoping she takes #1 next year! Go Yukirin!

Mariko Shinoda is still staying strong, eventhough she drops a rank to #4 thanks to Yukirin. Mayu Watanabe stays with her rank from last year at #5, although I was hoping she would rank higher, I'm glad she at least stayed at #5 and didn't drop a rank. Thinking she would drop out of last year's Skirt Hirari 7, Haruna Kojima actually gains a rank this year by going to #6, as she trades places with fellow AKB original member and No3b's member Minami Takahashi who ranks one spot lower at #7.

The big surprise here is that it was Tomomi Itano who got booted out of Skirt Hirari 7 by dropping from last year's huge leap to #3 to this year's #8. Tomochin had a very successful solo single this year, so I was thinking and even hoping that she would increase in rank, and although I had felt that if anyone would finally break up the Skirt Hirari 7 from the last 2 years, it would be Yukirin who would be able to get in, I did not think at all that it would be Tomochin whom she would replace. Either way, #8 is nothing to scoff at, it's not like she lost votes, her votes more than doubled from last year, there are just way more voters this year than last year, and she has next year to start making waves and go back to Skirt Hirari 7. Although being media senbatsu is hardly something to be sad over.

Another huge leap this year is the girl that I identified would be the girl to watch out for this year; Rino Sashihara leapt from last year's #19, to this year's #9. She's climbing up the ladder, starting as Undergirl in the 1st elections, to Senbatsu in the 2nd, and now Media Senbatsu in the 3rd, the adorable, cute, funny and very entertaining Sasshi is the top former Kenkyuusei in AKB. Her own TV show Sashiko no Kuseni, and her new unit Not Yet probably helped, but really, Sasshi was pretty much destined to climb the AKB ladder, with her charming and very entertaining personality to her very attractive, girl next door looks. When her name wasn't called for a long time, I was already thinking what if Sasshi made it all the way to Skirt Hirari 7 this year?! Maybe next year!

Rena Matsui finally beats her friend Jurina Matsui as the top SKE girl, rising a rank to #10, and being the only non-AKB girl in the media senbatsu. Rena has proven to be a force to be reckoned with, originating from less-pushed beginnings, making a statement that it's not just management push that determines your popularity.

Handsome girl Sae Miyazawa drops 2 ranks to #11, but stays in Media Senbatsu. Aki Takajo is also a rising former Kenkyuusei, like Sasshi; they were both Undergirls in the 1st elections, to Senbatsu in the 2nd, to Media Senbatsu this year. Akicha gains a rank to reach #12 this year. It's worth noting that Akicha's votes, qualifying her as the last at Media Senbatsu this year, is almost as much as the votes of last year #1 ranked Yuko Oshima got from that year's elections, at more than 30,000.

Rie Kitahara would be the 3rd highest ranking former Kenkyuusei. She gained 3 spots this year to end up at #13. Former SKE topgirl Jurina Matsui falls four spots as she drops out of Media Senbatsu to #14 (much to my sadness as she is my SKE oshi). Minami Minegishi stays put in Senbatsu eventhough she falls one rank to #15, while Tomomi Kasai also falls out of Media Senbatsu from its edge at #12 to this year's #16. TomoTomo surprisingly suffered from this election, but don't count that duo out, they can come back next year.

Sayaka Akimoto stays at Senbatsu at the same rank, #17, much to my delight, and I thank everyone who voted for her for continually supporting her. Sayaka Fighting!!!

The 1st election's big surprise, Amina Sato stays put as Senbatsu this year also at the same rank, #18, proving to her detractors that her rank is not a fluke.

Constantly pushed new girl Yui Yokoyama proves she deserved the push by debuting in the elections as Senbatsu at #19. Yui has a prominent role in the second season of the AKB drama Majisuka Gakuen and being included in the unit Not Yet were just some of the push she received in her first year in AKB, and the pretty girl is showing that she does not disappoint.

From last year, it could be determined that there would at least be one new Senbatsu this year, because of Erena Ono's graduation last year, but apart from Yui, Team K original member (now Team B) Yuka Masuda leaves Undergirl status (as she did recently with Everyday, Katyusha) as she rises five spots this year to make it to Senbatsu at #20. Go Yuttan!

Asuka Kuramochi jumps back to Senbatsu as she ranks 2 spots higher as she dropped from Senbatsu to Undergirl last elections. Mocchi is the last Senbatsu at #21.

Centering the Undergirls this year with a 10 spot jump in rank to #22 is Ayaka Umeda! I love Mocchi, but it would have been awsum for Umechan if she had made it to Senbatsu this elections! Center of Undergirls is great though!

Another leap in rank, Akane Takayanagi, the sole KII girl to rank in the elections last year, jumps 12 spots to #23. The very lovable KII leader is still the most popular girl in KII, and personally, I was actually hoping for her to jump so high that she reaches Senbatsu! She could be the first KII girl to become AKB Senbatsu! Maybe next year! Go Churi!

After a successful bid in last year's election to become Senbatsu for the first time in her career, Haruka Nakagawa falls to Undergirl by losing 4 spots to #24. I'm still happy for Harugon, #24 is very high for a group of about 200 girls, and she deserves to rank high. Fellow Watarirouka Hashiritai member Aika Oota slips a little more by dropping 3 spots to #25. From Senbatsu in the 1st elections, to center of Undergirls in the 2nd, I hope Lovetan is not getting discouraged as #25 is still a very high rank. Right after them is their Watarirouka Hashiritai leader Natsumi Hirajima who stays at #26 for the 3rd straight year. I wanted to see Nacchan in Senbatsu, but staying at a high #26 is already very good.

Miho Miyazaki finally drops out of Senbatsu, falling 6 spots to #27. Although her rank has been dropping, #27 out of around 200 is certainly not bad.

New group NMB48's center Sayaka Yamamoto debuts in the elections as Undergirl at #28. After being one of the lowly members of AKB, Oya Shizuka enters the rankings this year at #29, with the Shuukan AKB special episodes about her probably helping. Oya Masana, Team S' #3 girl drops 5 spots to #30 to stay at Undergirls. Nito Moeno loses 2 spots to become #31 and stay at Undergirls. Mika Komori also loses 2 spots to #32, at Undergirls.

Sawako Hata becomes the 2nd KII girl to rank in the elections, debuting at #33. She probably gained even more fans after topping the quiz at Shuukan AKB (which has always so far been topped by an SKE girl) where her shyness prompted the show to do a special on her.

Sumire Sato drops 3 spots to #34. Suuchan is still one of the most popular girls of her generation at that rank though.

9th Gen Mina Oba of newly created Team 4 debuts in the election as Undergirl at #35. The 9th Gen girls are great, and although I wouldn't have thought that she would be the highest ranking girl in 9th Gen, I do love watching Minarun, as I think she is a very interesting and attractive girl.

Becoming Team S' #4 girl, Akari Suda debuts in the election as Undergirl at #36. From someone I thought was a quiet girl beside Yukiko Kinoshita (who was promoted to Team S the same time as her), Akarin kept growing more and more beautiful! I have become one of her fans so I am very glad that she was voted in this year.

While fans were wondering if she would make it in last year, Ami Maeda debuts in the election rankings this year at #37. Also debuting is Sakiko Matsui, at #38, as the hard working pianist's efforts pay off.

Debuting at #39 is the second Team 4 member to make it, top girl from 10th gen and newly promoted Miori Ichikawa. I wasn't sure if she could actually make it in this year, but it seems her popularity is more than hype as she is here to stay. She is adorable, after all.

Rounding up the rankings at #40 is Reina Fujie, who drops 7 spots but stays on at Undergirls. I'm very glad that the very beautiful Reinyan stays on as I adore her.

Sadly, this year, after 2 straight elections, Natsumi Matsubara, Rumi Yonezawa and Haruka Katayama drops out of Undergirls. After ranking well at #27 last year, Haruka Ishida also drops out. Very sadly for me, formerly #3 girl of SKE, Kumi Yagami disappears from the rankings. Although Jurina is my SKE oshi, even her position in my heart is in danger when it comes to Kumi. That's how much I love Kumi. So when the announcement for Undergirls ended and Kumi's name wasn't called, and I really didn't think Kumi would make it to Senbatsu, I was very much disheartened about Kumi. Kumi is still one of my top favorites, and I hope her popularity increases in coming days. Darling Kumi should be one of AKB's top girls.

Another one of my favorites that dropped out was last year's top ranking Kenkyuusei Haruka Shimazaki. Ranking as high as #28, Paruru's push became less and less, possibly because she didn't need it as much, possibly because she was more shy and was less able to speak as well on the mic as her fellow 9th Gen teammates. Her lack of exposure possibly hurt her popularity a lot. I hope this beautiful girl gets more popularity and exposure in the near future. I'm always happy to see her. Fellow 9th Gen Suzuran Yamauchi drops out of the rankings with her.

I'm very happy at the success of the girls, but I was hoping that my KII oshi Anna Ishida would make it in the rankings. As last year, KII center Manatsu Mukaida is absent from the ranking, and unfortunately, none of new Team E made it in this year, not center Kimoto Kanon, nor another E favorite of mine, Kyoka Isohara. Oh, and if there was only room for more Team 4 members! Including my favorite from 10th Gen, Shiori Nakamata! Oh well, when you have so many girls in the AKB family, they can't all be in the top 40.

I'm hoping they shake things up a bit next year. For example, if they made it less than 40 (like top 18 will be Senbatsu, and 19-30 would be Undergirls) it would really shake things up. I know that seems to be counter a growing group, but I think that would make things interesting!

Biggest winners this year were Atsuko Maeda, for reclaiming her throne, a true drama with a great ending, (because even if Yuko lost the throne, it was nice that she would be giving it back to someone she already beat anyway), Yuki Kashiwagi, with her big leap to #3, Rino Sashihara for her 10 spot leap to media senbatsu, Aki Takajo, for making it to media senbatsu, Rena Matsui, for beating Jurina, becoming the top SKE girl, staying in media senbatsu and gaining rank, Sayaka Akimoto and Amina Sato, for hanging tight and proving their popularity, Yui Yokoyama, for proving she deserved her push, Yuka Masuda, for jumping up to Senbatsu, Asuka Kuramochi, for jumping back to Senbatsu, Ayaka Umeda for her jump up to become center of Undergirls, Akane Takayanagi for increasing in popularity, Natsumi Hirajima, for hanging tight to her rank, Sayaka Yamamoto, for proving she deserves to be NMB's center, Oya Shizuka and Sawako Hata, for the leap in popularity, Mina Oba, Akari Suda, and Sakiko Matsui by showing it is their time to shine, and Miori Ichikawa for proving she deserved her push.

Congratulations to the winners! And for those who weren't able to make it this year, we have a whole year to work with, because there is still next year!

(For my summary of the results, view here: http://newsakb.blogspot.com/2011/06/3rd-senbatsu-elections-results-maeda.html)

Majisuka Gakuen Season 2 Episode 3: More References and Nezumi Picspam!

2011-05-03T21:33:00.001+08:00

I enjoyed pointing out references to real life in the first 2 episodes in my previous post, so after watching episode 3, I wanted to point out a few more.

Before that, I noticed Nezumi has a lot more, different hoodies. Mayuyu's turning out to be one of the best actresses of the bunch. And it turned out well for Amina and Yukarin to be Yabakune, now they're getting more screen time. The fight scenes are also getting more interesting.

First off, as classic as the Jurina Matsui vs. Rena Matsui fight last episode, episode 3 features the fight between real life close friends Tomomi Itano and Tomomi Kasai. I love TomoTomo.

A known wrestling fanatic, Asuka Kuramochi shows us some wrestling submission holds and maneuvers.

Mocchi with a devastating clothesline.

Mocchi puts Amina in an abdominal stretch.

Mocchi puts Yukarin in a boston crab.

Yukarin taps out.

Begin Nezumi Picspam.

Again, channeling real life, a face-off between Shibuya and Nezumi. Tomochin beat Mayuyu in last year's Senbatsu elections, taking the #4 rank away from her, causing Mayuyu to drop one spot. If you finished the episode, do you think Mayuyu would be beaten that easily?

Watching this for the first time, I wanted to shout out "SHIBUYA!!! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY LITTLE GIRL!!!"

I dunno if this really references anything, I know Sasshi loves Mayuyu, but I'm just putting it here 'cause this is my favorite scene of the episode.

MAYUYU!!! ;v;

Makes me wanna run over and give her a hug.

This gave me goosebumps. I love Mayuyu and Jurina.

All beaten up and still cute!

Such a gorgeous tandem. I'm loving this duo.

My poor baby.

Oshimen tugs heart strings.

So was Shibuya even a part of this, or was this all Nezumi? Nezumi is my favorite villain ever!

Majisuka Gakuen Season 2 Characters Analysis

2011-04-28T23:59:00.003+08:00

When Majisuka Gakuen ended, I didn’t really think there’d be a Season 2. I couldn’t imagine that they can come up with an interesting storyline that can continue the first season (emphasis on the word "interesting"), especially with what would happen with many of the characters. So I was pleasantly surprised when they did announce that Season 2 would start April 2011! And just basing on the first episode, it already seems that it is very interesting, so they are starting at the right pace!

As the series is ongoing, I will limit myself to characters introduced in the first episode, as there were so many characters introduced (or reintroduced) then. What I want to focus on is something only us hardcore fans would recognize. Yeah, it may be obvious to us, but for the new fans, they don’t realize that a lot of the storylines going on is in part a reflection to who the girls are in real life. I mentioned some of this in my previous summaries from the first season here: http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2010/01/majisuka-gakuen-episode-1-english.html, but I would like to point out a few things for this season for the new fans who may not be aware. I can imagine this is a version of how some of the things in real life were happening in the head of Aki-P, AKB’s producer and the producer of this show. Maeda’s battle with Yuko in Season 1 was a great example of the show channeling real life. Which is why the ending was great.

Team Hormone

Some of the most popular former Kenkyuuseis (Research Students) make up Team Hormone. Upstart, fresh faces, that could lead AKB someday. Yes, I was talking about Sasshi, Moeno, Kitarie, Akicha and Komori as AKB girls, and as Team Hormone within the series as well. They are relatively fresh to be at the highest ranks (media senbatsu, Skirt Hirari 7), but certainly girls to contest with. When the senior members eventually graduate though, guess who’ll be in charge.

The bonds of these former Kenkyuuseis hold up in real life, so for them to appear as a Team in the series is fitting. I especially love that Sasshi and Moeno are reunited here considering how close they were back when they were newly promoted in Team B.

Youran

Formerly Gakuran, since from last season’s second year, she is now in third, she no longer wears a gakuran, thus the name change. The real life reflection of her character? Sae is one of AKB’s handsomest girls, and this fact seems to be played on more highly this season. Sae is popular with the ladies! Then again, she’s popular with guys as well.

Nou-Gyouken Sisters

Formerly Kabuki Sisters, they also move on from second to third year students this year. OK, this probably has no relation with their real life, except that Kasai and Kuramochi are good friends as former teammates from Team K.

Amakuchi

One of the most interesting characters from Season 1 stays in Rappapa’s Big Four as Gekikara was unable to graduate from last year, likely because of her absences since she was held by juvenile hall (or whatever they have over there) at the beginning of season 1. She is now known as Amakuchi. It was cute how Sasshi asked if she was curry (gekikara means spicy, pertaining to the fact that it is known that Rena loves spicy food, while amakuchi means sweet-tasting). It was very cute how Amakuchi/Gekikara confronts Jurina for the first time. I love W Matsui! I compare this scene in my head with their confrontation scenes in Mousou Deka!, the SKE comedy-drama. Do it, it’s cute! So varied! Apparently, as a promise to Yuko, she has to stay sane now.

Her weirdly placed umbrella of course relates to the umbrella she uses in her SKE Request Hour topping solo Kareha no Station.

What surprises me most about this scene is that someone from Majijo is actually studying. Other than Maeda, I mean. Her necklace also says “Pop” now, from last season’s “Rock”, and apparently this will be a sign as to whether we are seeing sane Amakuchi or insane Gekikara.

Shaku

I don’t even remember when it started, but Minegishi is known for always wanting more screen time, in a good way, not in an annoying way. And why not, she is great in front of the camera, as she is one of the most entertaining personalities in AKB (which is why Shuukan AKB ran segments of her interviewing celebrities without a script). As one of the few remaining original members of AKB who is not in media senbatsu, she wants more and more screen time to boost her popularity, and this apparently is well known now as her five-girl team from the Ameba Pigg Team competition (that Team Mint won) was named Shaku ga Hoshii (essentially meaning “I want screen time”).

School body president Minegishi had a nice character from the first season, but it really didn’t get a lot of screen time. Coming up with which characters to develop from last season, I think it was genius to take in Minegishi as this time one of Rappapa’s Big Four, especially considering logically many of the top Senbatsus probably can’t take a major role this season considering what has already happened last season. In the first episode, Miichan keeps talking about many of the characters’ screen time, as her name Shaku would suggest.

Mukuchi

The first and so far only member to be chosen Senbatsu while she was still Kenkyuusei, I suppose Management saw a lot of potential and hope in Komori in her early days. Her popularity hasn’t reached Senbatsu status again, but she is fair fodder of many jokes these days. So Mukuchi coming out as “president” could have been an interesting possibility (as Komori the future face of AKB would have been), but as Maeda would eventually reveal, “not gonna happen.” Mukuchi is still very much Team Hormone though, so everything I said about Team Hormone applies to Komori.

Otabe

Yui Yokoyama is one of the most recently promoted members of AKB, and the very high amount of push she gets from Management is very noticeable. When I first read Yui would be in Majisuka, I was very interested in the role she would play. Making the story very interesting, the newcomer is Rappapa’s new president! No one knows her position in the story, as no one knows her ranking in AKB, as the upcoming Senbatsu election would be able to show how popular she really is. I think making her president was a very smart move in terms of storyline as viewers will keep guessing, especially on how she became president. My guess was she is Yuko’s secret younger sister, although episode 2 seems to disprove that.

Team Fondue

This year’s Team Hormone, except instead of Hormone, they eat cheese fondue. (I want some of that.) Team Fondue is composed of some of the freshest faces of AKB, being part of 9th and 10th Gen. (AKB’s latest generation so far is 11th.) Technically, only Ichikawa Miori is a Kenkyuusei here, as Mina Oba, Haruka Shimada, Haruka Shimazaki and Suzuran Yamauchi have all been promoted along with remaining 9th Gen, but Miorin being the most popular 10th Gen member, it is very reasonable to see her here. It’s really cute to see them less glamorized than we would normally see them as they portray yankees. I’m very happy to see Shimazaki part of this, as she is already rarely exposed, most likely because she doesn’t need the extra exposure, considering she has the record for highest ranking Kenkyuusei in the Senbatsu elections, ranking as high as #28 last year while still being Kenkyuusei that time. I’m surprised that many of the other 9th Gen darlings aren’t here, like Miyu Takeuchi, and especially Anna Mori, who I really think can very easily portray a yankee. Either this isn’t their cup of tea, or they will show up with other roles later in the season. As Team Hormone is composed of former Kenkyuusei that could be the very top girls someday, Team Fondue follows in their footsteps the same way. Also, from Hormone’s green uniforms, Fondue has cheese yellow uniforms.

Showa, Jumbo, Anime and Rice

Hacchan, Tanamin, Nakayan and Yonechan are good friends of Mayuyu, all being part of original Team B. Even though they are original B, these four have not achieved as much popularity as many of the girls, outside from being Undergirls and Janken Senbatsu. They were last year’s Rappapa’s freshmen members, and although as such they received exposure, they weren’t main key characters either. Although Rappapa remains on top, with newer members passing them in Rappapa’s hierarchy (the same way in real life they are passed in popularity by former Kenkyuuseis, for example those that are in Team Hormone), they are left outside the club room, where the popular girls are. It only made sense that they would be recruited by Mayuyu (Nezumi) as they would align with her. Sticking with Mayuyu is the way to go!

The “Where are they now” characters

From the former Big Four, to Daruma, we get previews of where they are right now. Big Four graduated last year, after all. Except for Gekikara, that is. We don’t know if all of them will come back with a major role for this season, but my guess is they will.

Daruma Onizuka

Another blow-out character from last season, Nacchu is out in training. It makes sense to not have Daruma back at once as following around Maeda from the beginning may become repetitive.

Sado

Shinoda is trying to live a respectable life as a nurse, trying to control her temper from what may be a condescending superior.

Black

Yukirin is now a cashier at a store, using her super speedy ability for extra fast service. She carries around her child, to which no one knows the father of, a storyline that was never used but I heard about since Season 1.

Shibuya

Short-tempered Shibuya is now working in I.T. In her scene, she cluelessly presses a key on her laptop as she observes that all data then disappear. Tomochin is funny.

Torigoya

The very sexy Kojima is now doing… sensuous massages. Apparently, she’s popular at it. Understandably so.

The main antagonists

Unless there are more surprises, which I guess there will be, as the ending of the last season alluded to, the main bad guys here to take the top from Maeda is the tandem of Jurina and Mayuyu. In real life, if ever the time comes that Maeda graduates, who do you think should become the new center of AKB? Yuko is relevantly older than Maeda, so whenever Maeda graduates, Yuko will be too old to have the torch passed to her, even more so for Shinoda who would be next in line in terms of popularity. Tomochin and Takamina are about the same age as Maeda, and logically, it would be best for AKB to replace her with someone much younger than her since her successor would likely stay center for a few more years. So who would be top on that list? Jurina and Mayuyu. Which among them would be the best choice? Well, Jurina’s biggest stumbling block is that she is in SKE, then again, by the time Maeda graduates, Jurina will probably be old enough to be able to find a place and leave her family in Nagoya to live in Tokyo, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise for me anymore if Aki-P decides to transfer Jurina to AKB at that point. Of course, the very lovable Mayuyu, the youngest among the Skirt Hirari 7 (top 7 senbatsus), whose personality has much similarities with Maeda, is already in AKB, and has been the center of her Team, Team B, for years now, and the fact that she is still relevantly younger than Maeda and the rest of Skirt Hirari 7, and is still more popular than Jurina, makes her a top candidate. Jurina’s advantage over Mayuyu is that she is still relevantly younger than Mayuyu. So if ever Maeda does graduate, I really believe one of them will take Maeda’s place (unless a new girl will pop up who will become wildly popular, like possibly Yui[?]). Which one of them will it be, I really don’t know, it really depends on how things will go when it actually happens, but limiting it to what we have right now, they are the best options.

Jurina

Surprisingly having only a small role in Season 1, Season 2 is set to make up for it.

When the real Jurina Matsui came on the scene as SKE48’s wonder girl, she was catapulted to the limelight by immediately cocentering her first single with the face of AKB, Maeda Atsuko. She started slow in the first Senbastu election, but reaching #10 in the next one. Her character in the show hardly mattered in Season 1, but she is set for a major role in Season 2. In her confrontation with Maeda at Rappapa’s room, she specifically said she was aiming to be “center,” actually using the English word “center” (which is used in Japanese anyway). Being years younger than Maeda, and having already been thrust within the center of AKB, Jurina is in prime position to replace Maeda as center someday. In the series, she is known for her prowess at fighting. In real life, Jurina is not only known for her beauty, but also for her prowess in dancing.

What I would like to see in Season 2 is Jurina leading a pack of SKE girls to the fray. Jurina is still the most popular girl in SKE and since there was hardly any SKE in Season 1, and Season 2 needs more new characters, seeing so many AKB girls were already used in Season 1 and for some of them, will likely not recur, SKE being used makes a lot of sense, especially since SKE’s popularity has been climbing since last year, and a lot of the individual girls are gaining much more fans. A whole new faction of SKE girls in the series is something I would love to see. It would be interesting how Gekikara/Amakuchi/Rena would handle it though, being SKE herself. More interestingly, how about Kumi? How would her character develop from Dance, Shibuya’s underling from last season? Whatever, I wanna see SKE in this!

Nezumi

Nezumi means mouse, maybe because Mayuyu was mousy cute when she was younger, or maybe because she was the mouse in Team B’s revival of Ame no Doubutsuen. Mayuyu portrays a smart girl who always actually has everything planned out, which is very close to who she is in real life. Mayuyu often plays the sweet, innocent, fun-loving girl, but considering she’s my #1 favorite AKB girl, so I observe as much about her as I can, I pretty much see how smart and calculated many of the things she does are. Of course, she’s so lovable, many wouldn’t notice this, but this girl is a smart one. I think Aki-P sees this as well, so Mayuyu’s role is perfect for her. In the series, she plays a master manipulator who has people in the palm of her hands, but in real life, I can’t imagine her needing to manipulate anyone, as I imagine anyone would just love to cater to Mayuyu, making her the center. As what really happens from what I see.

Such a beautiful smile. I love how Mayuyu interacted with her friends and fellow original Team B teammates, with the goal of recruiting them. It was like she was really happy to do this with her actual friends. And Mayuyu loves her friends.

Although I prefer the orange hoodie from Season 1, I just love Nezumi! I love that Mayuyu’s playing such an ambitious, calculating character, and I just love the character herself! Oh, and the person portraying that character too!

Another thing I love about Nezumi is that so far she has shown that she avoids getting in the physical fight herself as much as possible, as when she was first attacked by the Rappapa foursome, her’s was an evasive, defensive tactic where she easily avoided all attacks. But look out, when she was left with no choice but to fight, just when we thought Nezumi is probably a weakling, she shows us her well-orchestrated, elegant moves and smarts to the tune of classical music she listens to, wiping out the four girls on her own. And I love serious, mean Mayuyu’s stare. She ain’t no weakling, she won’t take you on herself if she doesn’t have to, she has people that can do that for her, but when she really needs to, don’t mess with her, she’ll deal with you!

Nezumi’s angered speech for the Rappapa foursome again reflected reality, when she said that if they maintained the attitude they have, they will always be underlings and always be stuck behind other people, as again the four needs to come out and shine to increase their popularity and take spots at front and center. Coming from someone like Mayuyu, the speech becomes palatable to them.

The main protoganists

Yuko

What would an all-star AKB show be without the current #1 girl Yuko Oshima? If there’s a ghost Yuko, ghost Takamina better be back too. (Episode 2 shows that Aki-P went with a cop-out, but at least put an interesting twist, so instead, I expect Takamina to be part of quintuplets.)

I love how Maeda refers to Yuko as the center, especially considering how Yuko ended up taking the #1 spot from Maeda in the previous Senbatsu elections.

Maeda

Yeah, I know her first name is Atsuko, it’s just that a lot of people refer to her as Maeda. Again, Maeda is disturbed by the death of a beloved friend. Making her Vice President of Rappapa instead of President was a great twist though. And she’s wearing contacts this time, so I don’t know if we’ll eventually see Maeda taking off her glasses again. It was also interesting how Jurina called Maeda “cute as always,” using the word kyuuto instead of kawaii for cute, in reference to her great drama that I just loved that ended a few months ago, Q10 (pronounced Kyuuto), where Maeda played the title character.

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I told myself I’d limit this to episode 1, but since episode 2 has come out by the time I post this, I wanted to point out that it still mirrors many events in real life: Ucchi taking the top spot via Janken in both AKB and the series; Kikuchi as Comeback in the series was expelled and came back, mirroring the fact that she was dismissed from AKB and has come back; Team Under chastising Team Hormone by saying if they hadn’t been promoted, they would be the ones running the show, which is a reflection of what has happened with AKB, with Team Under, although being senior members, taking a backseat to popular new members such as the members of Team Hormone; the what should have been eagerly expected fight between Jurina Matsui and Rena Matsui mirroring their fight for the top spot of SKE (with Jurina narrowly beating Rena last Senbatsu election, and what should be an interesting battle this upcoming election); and Tomochin becoming one of Maeda’s top threats, which is also true in real life, with the relevant leap in her rank last Senbatsu election, and a very successful solo debut single, Tomochin is now a viable threat to take the #1 spot from both Maeda and Yuko.

Many times, a season 2 does not live up to how great a season 1 was, but this is off to a very good start! I’m excited to finish this series!

My Top 10 Favorite Request Hour Set List Best 100 2011 Performances

2011-04-27T01:49:00.001+08:00

OK, so I had the chance to follow the Best 100 2011 results online real time, but it just wasn’t as much fun as watching the results on video for the very first time, so after the first few songs, I stopped following. So as I always had done, I learned the ranking the first time I watched the video. The first time I learned that Heavy Rotation ranked #1 was when I saw the video.

AKB’s fourth annual Request Hour Set List Best 100 was held for four days, from January 20 to 23, 2011, and the official DVD was released a few weeks ago. I wanted to limit myself to a small number so I’m just gonna give my top 10 favorite performances, although a lot more were notable. It was great to see many classics stay in, great to see great new songs make it, and sad to see many favorites drop out. One of the things I love about the Best 100 is bringing back graduates, and this had plenty of graduates. Sure, there were a lot of other graduates I wanted to see back too, but maybe next year. Another great thing about this year’s Best 100 is that this is the first Best 100 after the great Budokan Shuffle took effect, so it was really, really great to see the old teams reunited to perform their old songs. It was great to see NMB48 come out and perform Aitakatta, it was great to see a 9th and 10th Gen version of Bingo! (no, it wasn’t an all Kenkyuusei version since the remaining 9th Gen were technically promoted members by then), it was interesting to see the cute Miniskirt no Yousei, the “Kenkyuusei” (well, actually 9th Gen) song reach all the way up to #40, it was nice to see the subunits alive and kicking with No Sleeves and Watarirouka Hashiritai with new unit French Kiss whose two eligible tracks made it in at #93 and #27, I was very happy that Yuuhi wo Miteiruka?, one of the songs I voted for, stay in at #64, and I was very happy at the solos making it, such as Itoshisa no Accel, Yokaze no Shiwaza, Nakinagara Hohoende, Kareha no Station, Mushi no Ballad and Mayu no Tameni. I was a bit disappointed that another song I voted for, Mayuyu’s solo Yasashiku Sasete, didn’t make it in. Mayu no Tameni is just a very cute song, but I really wanted Mayu to give us at least just one performance of my favorite Mayuyu solo. Interesting also to point out was that none of my oshimen’s stage unit songs made it in; I wasn’t surprised Hatsukoi yo Konnichiwa didn’t make it in, wouldn’t have been too surprised that Pajama Drive wouldn’t make it either, but I would have thought at least Zannen Shoujo would. Mayuyu fans were all over the place, after all, it’s not like we’re voting for a girl, we’re supposed to be voting for a song, so while some fans voted for Team B Oshi, some voted for Shonichi, some voted for Watarirouka Hashiritai songs, while I voted for Yasashiku Sasete, so many of Mayuyu’s songs ended up not get enough votes, considering she has so many. Interestingly, Itoshiki Natasha turns up as the highest ranked stage unit song this year. Not necessarily the definitive Sashihara song, but if you wanted to vote for a Sasshi unit, it seems to be her best unit so far. I’m also a bit disappointed that only Gagaga made it in for SDN48. Then again, it’s hard to vote for stage songs when majority of the fans have never even seen SDN’s stage songs since their stage’s videos are never released. I found it hard to fathom that Heavy Rotation beat Beginner for the number one spot. I guess it does go to show that considering Iiwake Maybe was last year’s #1 that maybe the fans are sending a message that they love the senbatsu elections. I did love the encore version of Heavy Rotation, the one where each of them were wearing whatever last costume they wore before the encore, making it a great, interesting, colorful mixture of AKB goodness! Also, if I could have attended only one day of this series, if I knew the setlists, I would have went at day 1. The day 1 concert is so good, if a non-AKB fan wanted me to show them one concert that would exhibit how good AKB is, without considering how big or grandiose the stage is, I would show them this, as the variety was so good, it was a great showcase of the different kinds of songs AKB performs, plus considering how interesting the fact of how the Best 100 is put together, by fan votes, that is. This was a great sampling; they featured a lot of girls from graduates to Kenkyuuseis. Oh, and with the MC parts, Wota 4 (Mayuyu, Lovetan, Nakayan, Tanamin), the Sato’s (Natsuki, Amina, Sumire) and the Natsu’s (Sato, Hirajima, Mukaida, Matsubara) were a big hit with me. Heavy Rotation ranking #1 also breaks CinDy’s streak as being the only AKB girl to be part of the original performers of all songs that have ranked #1 in the Best 100 (CinDy was in the first three, Sakura no Hanabiratachi, Shonichi, and Iiwake Maybe).

#10 Original members of AKB48 perform Dear My Teacher

That’s First Gen for you, yeah! I love it when the graduates come back, and to have all the graduated original members of AKB48 come back, and to have the original members that are now in SDN and those that have been scattered to various teams all gathered to perform such a classic is a rare treat! Yeah, even if they did do it last year! The fact that they can still be completed is great! Fine, Rina Nakanishi wasn’t there, it would have raised eyebrows if she was, considering her current career choice. Mariko Shinoda was probably her official sub since technically Mariko is Generation 1.5. This song ranked #86, so I have doubts if it will still make the Best 100 next year, but I hope they keep reuniting the original members of AKB48 for whichever of their classics!

#9 SKE48 is living long and prospering!

Not necessarily a whole lot of SKE, but enough to satisfy SKE lovers. Their current stage Seifuku no Me contains a lot of great songs and performances, and although only one team song from that stage made it in, I was glad it was the fun Koi wa Kataru Shijin ni Narenakute that’s really enjoyable to watch that made it. Although the unit songs for that stage were great as well, we would at least be treated to three of them in the Best 100, expectedly the powerful songs Kareha no Station and Omoide Ijou and the very cute Okami to Pride. Since Okami to Pride is becoming really popular and is replacing Wimbledon he Tsureteitte as the Kumi Yagami song, it’s just too bad that we’ll probably never see Wimbledon he Tsureteitte performed again with Sayuki Mori and Tsukina Takai… unless they do it at SKE’s Request Hour. This also wipes out all the songs from their second stage Te wo Tsunaginagara, which is one of the best stages in AKB altogether, from the Best 100. SKE’s single songs did ok though. Another thing that I loved about SKE’s performances from this concert is that this was not just Team S, they were sprinkled with a select bunch of Team KII cuties!

Koi wo Kataru Shijin ni Narenakute. I love SKE, I love this song, and I love this performance!

I’m pleasantly surprised at how well received Okami to Pride is. It is a very cute song.

We can never have too much Kumi.

#8 Tengoku Yarou

This year’s Kurukurupaa, CinDy’s hope from last year’s Best 100 materializes with the first original unit she centers ranking a good #57. I would have ranked this much higher, if CinDy was the one who did the monologue. I don’t understand why it was Korisu who did it when this is the CinDy unit, especially considering she isn’t even really a part of this unit, she took Nakayan’s place. (Nothing against the pretty Korisu though.) CinDy seemed happy that this made an appearance at the Best 100 anyway. This fun song is my favorite unit song from Team B’s fourth stage. Harugon seemed to have a lot of fun going crazy, while Kyururun looked so fine.

#7 Shonichi

Though dethroned as the top team song, the upset #1 song from 2 years ago ranks well at #21. This year also marks the disappearance of all the other team songs from preshuffle Team B. My favorite preshuffle team is Team B, so for them to be able to reunite for only one song was kinda sad, unlike with Team A and Team K which had a lot more preshuffle team songs make it in, giving them more chances to reunite. At least it was nice to see that Team B still be able to reunite with this song. At least their preshuffle unit songs are still ranking and the greatness of old Team B lives on with Shonichi. It kinda miffs me though that they still don’t bring back the Team B graduates for this song. I want the Team B graduates too! Instead, unofficial members Komorin and Ucchi are there (they were Kenkyuuseis for Team B in the past) and Korisu and Kyururun, who actually became members of Team B for their fourth stage (Shonichi is from third stage).

When they started out with new captain Yukirin calling out the Team, my first concern was, “Where is CinDy?! Don’t tell me you’re not bringing out CinDy for this?!” And then someone started the Team B chant. “Wait, is that CinDy’s voice?! That sounds like CinDy?!” And yes, it was still CinDy leading the Team B chant! It would not have been the same otherwise. And check out darling CinDy’s glamorized hair style.

#6 Team Ogi Matsuri!

OK, not really, but it started to seem like it. Not that I’m complaining, since I loved Ogi Matsuri! (I hope they do another one! OgiPro is probably my favorite agency!) #97 featured No Sleeves Kiss No Ryusei, #96 followed with Watarirouka Hashiritai’s Seishun no Flag, #95 went back to No Sleeves with Seishun no Komorebi, and #94 came back to Watarirouka Hashiritai with Shiroi Tulip. For those that don’t understand what I’m talking about, Ogi Matsuri is the concert by talents within Ogi Production, the agency that handles No Sleeves, Watarirouka Hashiritai and all its members.

Lie was the only No Sleeves lead track that didn’t make it to the top 100 (as I would have expected) while Kimi shika’s additional track made it in, the aforementioned Seishun no Komorebi, while although the very simple but very cute Shiroi Tulip stayed in the Top 100 this year, its lead track Yaruki Hanabi was nowhere to be found. Other No Sleeves and Watarirouka Hashiritai songs appeared, better spread out in the Best 100. No Sleeves’ alter ego from Mendol, Persona was back with 3 Seconds too.

I love these serious, no-smile performances. I’m not sure, but this could be the first time Seishun no Komorebi has been performed, and although it is an additional track to Kimi shika, just to make the series of performances continuous, a costume change was eliminated and they performed it wearing the Kiss no Ryusei outfits.

Same with Watairouka Hashiritai, although we have seen the custom-made costumes specifically for Shiroi Tulip from last year’s Best 100, Watarirouka performed it this time wearing their Seishun no Flag uniforms to eliminate costume changes.

#5 Kioku no Dilemma

This is one of my most favorite AKB songs so to see this performed by its original performers most probably for the last time was kinda sad. It was nice to see graduate Mai Oshima back for this (and nice that this fell on the day where the graduates were on) and it was nice to see Yukari Sato and Kayo Noro, who have already been transferred to SDN, rejoin Yuka Masuda. The original version is just a joy to watch and listen to so to see the original four, though already scattered, reunite to perform this is such a nice treat. Since it ranked #100 this year, it will most likely drop out next year, pushed out by newer songs, and it is highly unlikely that the original four will reunite to perform this on any other concert, but at least we got to enjoy it again even if it may be the last time. This was a great opener for the whole concert series.

#4 Temo Demo no Namida

They actually brought a Team B graduate back! And what’s most interesting about this is that even though French Kiss already has their own version of the song recorded in their first single, with Akicha even already performing this duet last year even before the French Kiss unit was announced, this year Yukirin is rejoined by her original partner Mikachi! Fans really wanted to see the original version, and bringing back Mika Saeki was just a good idea by Management. This song is still ranking well at #30. Now that they finally brought Mikachi back, I wonder how well the song will fare next year. I bet it will be higher, but with new songs in the competition, who knows.

#3 Tonari no Banana

Now that Erena Ono has graduated, and since her graduation was too recent to bring her back, who would take her place as Tomomi Kasai’s partner in a performance of this rather old song? Ichikawa Miori, the very popular 10th Gen Kenkyuusei! I have to say this was a genius decision. This is probably the first time Miorin performed on a big stage with the spotlight on her, and she made a very good impression, pairing off with someone like Kasai, no less. The performance suits her too, although I think Erepyon’s bag wasn’t a perfect fit for her. Her catch phrase “Fresh Lemon ni naritai no!” (I want fresh lemons!) is indeed a winner and is just so adorable no wonder it catches so many hearts. This was such a great idea, having her perform such a fitting song where she can properly do her catch phrase! If you’ve never seen Miorin do her catch her phrase, this is a great watch. Just look out for your heart as you’ll probably soon be going “Awww!” Her voice is so cute! It’s kinda hard to imagine that someone like Kasai would end up as if she was taking a back seat to a Kenkyuusei on her own song. But Kasai is cute too! What am I saying, Kasai is a beauty.

#2 Sakura no Hanabiratachi, graduates version

An all graduate version of Sakura no Hanabiratachi! Now that’s a treat! Sakura no Hanabiratachi is the first single AKB released and they have been performing it since their first stage, so graduates performing this classic is such a great idea. This song was also the #1 song of the first Best 100. Graduates from Team A and Team K who performed earlier in the night in various songs converged for the night’s last song (not counting the encore) as this ranked #76. The interview at the end by some of the remaining original members was pretty funny too.

The graduates are still looking good. I hope we get to see more of them.

Takamina: “Kaorin is really pretty isn’t she?!”

Kaorin: “Really?”

Hana (talking to Takamina): “You sound like an old woman.”

Acchan shows Shiho much love.

Kayano Masuyama is pretty taller than most of the girls now. She was AKB’s original little girl, but now if anyone will have that title among the original members, maybe it will go to beloved Takamina.

Takamina (to Kayano): “Who are you?!”

MaiMai (to Takamina): “You’re wearing your high heels, right?”

Acchan (to Kayano): “You used to be this tall, right?”

#1 Team B Oshi

I haven’t noticed the girls this excited to rank so well since Shonichi ranked #1 two years ago. I guess ranking as the top stage song of the year has that effect. The modern day Wasshoi B! ranked very high at #5, beaten only by singles’ lead tracks. I have to admit, that among corny songs, this would be my favorite. Yes, I think the song is corny, but I would be lying if I denied that I love this! Some people could classify this as a novelty song, but the performance is such a winner, it exemplifies what I’m talking about when I say AKB is more than just a song and dance group, they are a theater group, and in this case, very theatrical indeed! And with the extra excitement of top ranking stage songs, I think this is the best performance of this song that I have ever seen! The girls had a lot fun and it was really fun to watch! No gimmicks on this one, I think new Team B’s joy that this could be a sign that they could be the number one Team just made it extra special. And the theme of Team B Oshi, the same way the theme of Shonichi when it ranked #1, just fits the situation. Too bad only three from original Team B remain with Team B, but I’m glad Mayuyu, Yukirin and Nacchan get to have that again. Team B favorite!

My Top 20 Favorite AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri Karaoke Tournament 2010 Performances

2011-04-23T00:34:00.000+08:00

The AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri was held on October 9 and 10, 2010 and the DVD was released weeks ago, and although I haven’t done one of these in a while, even if the past concerts were great as well (Yokohama, Yoyogi, Ogi Matsuri, SKE concerts), I couldn’t help myself from making another one for this.

One of the best things I love about AKB is that they are so innovative. You get to see things they haven’t done before in past concerts. And although the Tokyo Aki Matsuri Evening Performances were good as well, it was the Karaoke Tournaments before them that made this a spectacular event. There were two “Karaoke” Tournaments (even though not all of the entries were karaoke performances), one for each day of Tokyo Aki Matsuri. One of the best things about this was that they performed non-AKB songs, not showing any lack of confidence in performing songs from even their rivals; they are not insecure to acknowledge other artists exists, and that they even like them. The various live performances were impressive.

I’m going to say early that I didn’t list any of Yuka Masuda and Natsuki Sato’s songs. I know Yuttan has one of the most powerful voices in AKB, but I think her song choices were poor. Yes, I think the lyrics of the songs were great, but they didn’t showcase her powerful vocals as much as “Maria” would have, for example. Of course, performing a song she normally centers would have been uninteresting though. Nacchi’s voice is so beautiful, but I thought her song choice was rather boring. And this is interesting considering the duo performed my favorite AKB song as a duet. I guess this wasn’t the best venue for them to do it. Special mention goes out to Sasshi, Myao and Kitarie performing Wimbledon he Tsureteitte. Normally, I wouldn’t give a thumbs down to a performance of my favorite SKE unit song, but this was so funny, the judges immediately raised their X signs and they had to apologize to SKE in the end. And who would have thought Reina Fujie and Rina Chikano’s song for that commercial they did with the cow costumes would ever get performed in an AKB concert. Special mention also to Minegishi’s vocals on Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~. I was also so hoping that someone would sing an Utada Hikaru song.

Here’s my top 20 favorite performances.

#20 Mayu Watanabe, Aika Oota, Sayaka Nakaya and Miku Tanabe Perform Happy Material

Wota 4 materializes and performs an opening theme to the anime “Mahou Sensei Negima”. Wota 4 has been an unofficial group of manga and anime superfans between members of original Team B for years now so to see them come out and perform a song like this was such a treat! Very, very cute! I hope they do more!

#19 Mariya Suzuki and Sakiko Matsui Perform Tonari no Banana

What I loved about this was how much they tried to suck up to the judges and host by placing messages on the bananas they gave out while performing; messages like how much judge Maeda was their #1 favorite member, how much they want to see Hawaii (which was the tournament’s prize), and how handsome host Ijirii is. They got all X marks anyway. Cute and very funny.

#18 Yuki Kashiwagi and Sae Miyazawa Perform Infinity

I wasn’t fond of the idea of Yukirin and Sae entering a song they performed in Infinity in a Karaoke Tournament, but I’m sure a lot of people wanted to see them perform it again. The vocals and performance were still beautiful.

#17 Misaki Iwasa and Aika Ota Perform Oshibe to Meshibe to Yoru no Chouchou

The judges were complaining about how this wasn’t enka, but I was so excited to see Wasamin and Rabutan perform this. I was hoping they would finish the song.

#16 Suzuran Yamauchi, Manami Oku and Haruka Ishida Perform Tenshi no Shippo

I wasn’t quite fond of the idea of AKB songs being performed at this tournament as I thought the selling point was that they got to perform songs from other artists, but this version was just good. Not as great as the original but I loved the vocals. Very cute. I agree with judge Shinoda though, I wanted to see dancing.

Harukyan is getting prettier.

#15 Oya Shizuka and Mayumi Uchida Perform Suirenka

What I liked about this was how much Shiichan, Ucchi and just about everyone else enjoyed the performance. They had a good time.

#14 Minami Takahashi, Haruna Kojima and Minami Minegishi Perform One Night Carnival

Awsum funny! No Sleeves performance of this Kishidan song was so good on so many levels!

#13 Tomomi Itano, Tomomi Kasai and Atsuko Maeda Perform Choo Choo Train

What J-pop fan doesn’t recognize the opening dance to Exile’s Choo Choo Train. The good friends had a lot of fun with this one, especially Acchan, who loved keeping in role. The dancing was great, of course! Such handsome boys!

#12 Tomomi Itano and Tomomi Kasai Perform Go! Go! Heaven

Sang on the second day, this was the second Speed song they performed. It was a bit harder for them to sing than their song choice for the first day but I still enjoyed it.

#11 Tomomi Itano, Tomomi Kasai and Atsuko Maeda Perform Heavenly Days

Heavenly Days was just a hard song for these three good friends to sing, but it was a beautiful song choice regardless, and the concept of this trio, also three of AKB’s top Senbatsus, singing a Yui Aragaki song is just a treat, considering how Yui is one of my favorite J-drama actresses as well. I want this trio to rehearse this song more and perform this for us again.

#10 Haruna Kojima and Yuko Oshima Perform Melodies

The two lovers, I mean, good friends chose such a good song for their duet! Gam’s Melodies was a great fit! This was such a great performance! This is a must watch for those who love the Yuko-Kojiharu pairing. Yuko going for Kojima in the end was especially funny. This was brilliant!

#9 Mayu Watanabe and Yuki Kashiwagi Perform Wasshoi B!

What is a duet version of Wasshoi B! like? Mayuyu – Yukirin – Mayuyu – Yukirin B! B! B! Wasshoi! Mayuyu – Yukirin – Mayuyu – Yukirin B! B! B! Wasshoi! Only these crazy girls can come up with something as funny as this! This was such a great opener for the second day. It was also funny how even though they are part of the original performers of this, they still forgot some of the lines, considering how long ago they last performed this. This concert was just good times!

#8 Tomomi Kasai Performs River

Tomo~mi played the intro to River on a Taiko, a Japanese drum. She was really good, I wanted her to play more. I wanted to see more of these talents we’d never know about without these kinds of events.

#7 Yuko Oshima, Kayo Noro, Ayaka Umeda and Natsumi Matsubara Perform Nageki no Figure

Original Team K members who perform Endroll and pride themselves as one of the best unofficial dance units treat us to an original tricked up hip-hopish dance version of a remix of an old AKB song, Nageki no Figure. No singing in this one, this original dance that stayed faithful to the theme of the original version was a huge treat. I’m so glad we got the opportunity to see this. Very good.

#6 Tomomi Itano and Tomomi Kasai Perform Wake Me Up!

I love the TomoTomo duo and the style of Speed’s Wake Me Up! just fits them. Nice song choice. I hope they release more Aki-P songs with this style as a duo. Probably not gonna happen again because of Tomochin’s successful solo single but at least we have Love Wars and Summer Lips.

#5 Mayu Watanabe and Yuki Kashiwagi Perform a Dog Show Skit

Cutest thing! Yukirin plays the trainer while Mayuyu plays the dog where she has to perform tricks with her trainer in this adorable and funny skit! Mayuyu’s barks were so cute!

At one point, Yukirin tells Mayuyu to strike a sexy pose, which Mayuyu cutely refuses. A fan shouts out something not very audible, something to the effect of “I wanna see that!”, which causes Mayuyu to cutely, angrily point and bark at the fan.

The second to the last bit where Minegishi asks for a flying kiss was really cute and funny, and so was the ending where Yukirin asks her to do a stunt she keeps saying she can’t do.

#4 Yukari Sato, Minami Minegishi, Oya Shizuka, and Rino Sashihara Perform Imitations of AKB Members

Very funny bits that the members themselves loved.

Yukarin starts off with a Minami Takahashi impersonation.

Miichan continues with Aika Ota singing Kanpeki Gu-no ne. Mii already did this in the Shuukan Pool Games Special though. This is especially funny for Ota since Mii is Rabutan’s oshi.

Shiichan does some of Haruna Kojima’s common gestures.

Sasshi continues with Asuka Kuramochi’s arm fetish, and then quickly walking away as if nothing happened when called.

Although not really forgotten, Yukarin is an original member of AKB who was transferred to SDN, and when Yukarin imitates Kenkyuusei as they meet the very popular Tomomi Itano and herself…

Kenkyuusei (very excitedly, coming up to Tomochin): “Tomochin! Good morning! Please support us!”

Kenkyuusei (turning to Yukarin): “Who are you? Wazzup?”

Kenkyuusei: “No way! We would never do that!”

Miichan impersonates Tomomi Kasai and her chiyuu.

Shiichan impersonates Aki Takajo’s dancing.

Sasshi impersonates Yuki Kashiwagi’s exaggerated reactions.

Yukirin tries to knock Sasshi’s block off for it at the end of the concert.

#3 Yuki Kashiwagi and Haruna Kojima Perform Koi-ing

This normally would be an odd pairing, but Yukirin was cut in her audition for Morning Musume before she auditioned for AKB, while Kojiharu is known for an old AKBingo episode where she acknowledged how much she used to want to be in Momusu, so how fitting is it that at the top of AKB’s career, they would sing a Morning Musume duet. Their vocals were so beautiful, I could listen to this over and over again. I hope they do more duets. This is confidence from AKB.

#2 Mariko Nakamura Performs Tairyo Matsuri

Tairyo Matsuri is a 2008 song originally sung by Maya Sakura, the preteen enka singer Minegishi interviewed on the Feb. 28, 2011 episode of Shuukan AKB (who was already 12 at that time). Enka is a popular Japanese music genre reminiscent of older, traditional Japanese styles, and this was a very impressive performance, especially of such an old-style song. These girls can shut up their critics. Nakamura performed this 2 months before her surprise promotion along with the other remaining 9th Gen Kenkyuusei.

#1 Misaki Iwasa Performs Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyugeshiki

Just when I thought Nakamura was impressive, Wasamin gives us more enka, this time a song by Sayuri Ishikawa. Many fans are aware of how powerful Wasamin’s voice is, and her prowess at enka. This performance deserved the win it got.

AKB48 2010 Super Summary, and Let's Speculate: AKB 2011

2011-01-31T23:20:00.007+08:00

AKB48 dominated in 2010. Here's a quick look.

Continuing from the previous year's River, AKB's first #1 single, all five of their singles released 2010 hit #1 on the weekly Oricon charts, the second of which, Ponytail to Shushu, had first week sales that went over half a million copies, followed by Heavy Rotation performing the same feat, placing AKB with the ranks of jpop legends Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru as the only three female artists to have two consecutive singles sell over half a million copies on the first week of its release (and the first female group to do so). Beginner would also sell half a million copies... on the first DAY of its release, which would eventually become AKB's first single to sell over one million copies. Beginner was also the highest selling single in Japan of that year. With Beginner, AKB48 moves ahead of Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru by being the first to sell over half a million copies each of three consecutive singles (very impressive in this age of piracy). Beginner also holds the record for the highest first week sales for a single for a female group, selling over 827,000 copies its first week, and the third highest first week sales for a single for a female artist, just 1,000 copies below second placer Amuro Namie's "Can You Celebrate?" (released February, 1997) and first placer Utada Hikaru's "Addicted to You", released November, 1999, which sold over 1,068,000 on its first week. AKB continued its half a million first week sales with its next single Chance no Juban, making their record four consecutive singles. AKB also became the first artist in the past 32 years since Pink Ladies to have five singles hit #1 on the Oricon charts on the same year. All five singles were in the top 12 of the Oricon yearly singles rankings with Beginner at #1 and Heavy Rotation at #2.

AKB48 released their second compilation album, Kamikyoku Tachi, which ranked #1 in the Oricon charts, selling almost 300,000 copies during the first week of its release, despite containing only two new tracks, while relations with former record label Defstar start to look up with the rerelease of Kanzen Ban, their first compilation album, rereleased with two new tracks. Nogashita Sakanatachi, released along with Kanzen Ban, also broke the DVD opening sales record for a female group by selling 81,000 copies on its first week.

The shuffled teams' stages finally debuted 2010 after much delays. First came Team K's Reset, then Team B's Theater no Megami, and then Team A's Mokugekisha.

AKB performed at various countries including the U.S., Russia, and Singapore, and they had numerous successful concerts including the ones in Shibuya AX, Yoyogi, Yokohama and the Zenkoku tour. The biggest concerts did not disappoint as we were treated to a lot of new things as AKB continued to innovate and be creative. I would love to show videos of these concerts even to non-AKB fans.

TV shows were successful and increasing! The year started with the much anticipated drama Majisuka Gakuen, which did not disappoint! Long running shows continued on, such as AKBingo!, Shuukan AKB and Nemousu TV, while new shows came such as AKB Ariyoshi Kyowaku (prominently featuring AKB Kenkyuuseis), SDN48's Suppon no Onnatachi, SKE48's Dera SKE, AKB 600 Seconds, SDN48+10, and so many others.

Even the subunits were very successful. Watarirouka Hashiritai became the first AKB subunit to place a #1 single within the Oricon charts with Akkanbe Bashi. A special unit, Team Dragon from AKB48, featuring seven of the top eight Senbatsus, also ranked #1 on the Oricon charts with their single Kokoro no Hane. Watarirouka Hashiritai also released their first album, Rouka wa Hashiruna! AKB's two active units, Watariouka and No Sleeves, were joined by new unit French Kiss, featuring Yuki Kashiwagi, Aki Takajo and Asuka Kuramochi. Watarirouka also became a five-girl group with the addition of Ayaka Kikuchi. Various temporary units were also much anticipated, such as Team Mint.

SDN48 also released its much awaited debut single, Gagaga. The first (and hopefully only) male 48 group debuted, OJS48, consisting of men whose average age was 61.

We were treated to the second Senbatsu election, shaking the AKB world when Yuko Oshima beat Atsuko Maeda by a narrow margin. SKE48 now has its own Request Hour, the first one having the Best 30. We were also treated to the first Janken Senbatsu Tournament, which gave all members of AKB the chance to become Senbatsu for a single, the champion of the tournament who became center of Chance no Juban was Mayumi Uchida.

This year we were fortunately treated to very few graduations! AKB bid farewell only to beloved Erena Ono, who plans to pursue more acting and studying english, while SKE saw the departure of beloved Rina Shinkai and Sayuki Mori. SDN48 also saw the departure of Sakura Fukuyama, due to poor health.

Promotions included Yui Yokoyama, promoted to Team K to replace Erena Ono, and Yuria Kizaki and Rumi Katou, promoted to SKE's Team S. The December anniversary show at the Akihabara Theater gave the surprise announcement of the promotion of eight Kenkyuuseis to AKB, although their teams are still to be decided. The eight new members are Haruka Shimazaki, Mina Oba, Haruka Shimada, Miyu Takeuchi, Mariya Nagao, Mariko Nakamura, Anna Mori, and Suzuran Yamauchi. The year also saw the creation of NMB48, based on Namba, Osaka, and the surprise creation of SKE48's new Team E, which produced a minor shuffle with a few members of SKE's Team KII.

Merchandise was abundant, a few encountered changes, a few got postponed, while others were still unreleased, such as the anticipated Jurina Matsui photobook which was postponed indefinitely. AKB also released its first video game, for the PSP, Idol to Koi Shitara. Solo endeavors outside AKB by the girls were also immensely numerous.

AKB was also formally recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest pop group. Of course, they performed at Kouhaku for the third time.

Unfortunately, we weren't treated to another Grand Sportsmeet, but instead we did get special sports competitions thanks to Shuukan AKB with their pool competition, jumprope festival, and the ball competitions. Some results made fans less than enthusiastic, such as the predictably top songs in the 2010 Request Hour Setlist Best 100, although the tradition of surprise announcements at the end of big concerts has continued, this time with much happier announcements, making the sight of Togasaki, AKB's theater manager, a sight for sore eyes.

My favorite single released during 2010 is Gyu! Seriously! I'm not talking about just the lead track, but all the tracks in the single, so I'm taking the single as a whole. Gyu in itself is a great track, but the accompanying track Tenohira, which featured other AKB girls within Watarirouka Hashiritai's agency, made the single a winner. And this is even considering I compare it with AKB's monster single Beginner. OK, so you might say, Gyu is Watarirouka Hashiritai, how about I limit myself to just AKB, in that case, my favorite single is of course Beginner. The lead track is itself a winner, but all the tracks were too; Kimi ni Tsuite is a great track, so is Nakeru Bashou, and Boku Dake no Value, though is already the least popular track in the single, is still an excellent track with superb lyrics.

My favorite album released 2010 is Rouka wa Hashiruna! OK, so there were only three non-stage albums released by the AKB family, but what made Rouka wa Hashiruna! so great was that it had so many new tracks! And the five new tracks aren't just tracks that aren't even worth listening to, they could have been released on their own! Especially Doji!

My favorite song released in 2010 is Tenohira! OK, we went through this two paragraphs ago, Gyu's accompanying track is just so awsum, but again you'll say that's Watarirouka Hashiritai, so if you ask me to limit myself to AKB only, then I will again say Beginner, although there were so many great songs released in 2010, especially when you count the accompanying tracks in the singles.

My favorite PV released in 2010 is Gyu! Even when compared with the original version of Beginner. Gyu is Watarirouka, so if I limit myself to AKB only, again it will be the original version of Beginner, although Boku no Yell's PV is a top contender.

Let's go to stage songs, my favorite team stage song that was still being performed on a regular stage until the end of 2010 is actually Goukaku Kiss! OK, that's SKE48, if you want me to limit myself to AKB stages only, my favorite would have to be White Day ni wa... from Team K's 6th Stage, Reset. For stage unit song, my favorite is Kokoro no Hashi no Sofa, also from Team K's Reset. My favorite stage that was still being performed until the end of 2010 is Team K's 6th Stage, Reset, as it had the best performances, although SKE's 3rd Stage, Seifuku no Me, had excellent songs.

I think AKB's breakout star of 2010 is none other than Rena Matsui. From being elected as Undergirl in the 2009 Senbatsu elections, her popularity rocketed in 2010, starting off with her excellent portrayal of Gekikara in Majisuka Gakuen, then being elected as high as #11 in the 2010 Senbatsu elections, plus her solo Kareha no Station being elected the #1 SKE song from SKE's Request Hour Setlist Best 30 2010. From being Undergirl to Media Senbatsu in just one year, Rena was the biggest breakout star this year. You might argue that it should be Yuko Oshima, since she went from #2 in the 2009 Senbatsu elections to taking the top spot away from Maeda Atsuko in the 2010 Senbatsu elections, but a leap from #2 to #1 is not really as high or as unexpected. Third would probably be Haruka Nakagawa, who became center of a track from an AKB single this year for the first time in her career, with Boku no Yell, and then being elected as Senbatsu in the 2010 elections when she didn't even reach the top 30 in the 2009 Senbatsu elections. Harugon has been getting a lot of push and opportunites this year, and deservingly so. Fourth and fifth would have to be Akane Takayanagi, for beating no less than Manatsu Mukaida in the 2010 Senbatsu elections by being elected Undergirl, and Oya Masana, for outranking Kumi Yagami in the same election, both of which SKE girls. Oya ranked as high as #24, while Kuumin, one of my top favorites, only got #38. Akane became the first and so far only Team KII girl to be elected in the Senbatsu election, ranking at #35, while considered center of Team KII, Manatsu, was unable to make it. Both Kuumin and Manatsu had been receiving more push than Oya and Akane, but thanks to this, Oya and Akane have also noticeably been receiving more push.

I'm not going to speculate as much as I did last year since, for example, none of those I thought would graduate actually graduated, VERY THANKFULLY SO! We can kinda expect that there'd be more graduations this 2011 than there were in 2010, considering there were so few graduations in 2010 to begin with. Who they will be may be interesting to see; who would have guessed that Erepyon would graduate in 2010 anyway.

Of course, I'm hoping for more record breaking sales, more smash hits with merchandise and TV shows, and just a whole lot more of AKB! I'm hoping and kinda expect the second installment of SKE's Request Hour Setlist Best 30. I expect all active subunits during 2010 to continue releasing singles and fluorish, while at the same time it seems more subunits will be formed. I would like to hope that some old teams get new stages, like SDN48 and Team KII. I really doubt that Teams A, K and B will get new stages this year, and I don't think they should yet though, as the new stages aren't that worn out yet. I also wonder if a new 48 group will greet us this year, after NMB48. Of course, I expect more innovative concerts, activities and TV shows, and a whole lot more of Togasaki and his surprise announcements. AKB expectedly will perform in various countries and the largest concert venues in Japan. I hope that their streak of #1 singles and half a million first week single sales continue for all their singles in 2011. I hope that the subunits become wildly successful, as well as each girl's individual endeavors. Fans are also hoping that Defstar will finally release the missing stage albums, A4, K4 and B3, along with the two Himawari-gumi stages. We can easily expect the 3rd Senbatsu elections this year, as fans will be curious if Acchan can retake her crown, or will somebody else take the throne, and I'm hoping for another pure random-chance tournament this year to select Senbatsus for a single again, whether it be Janken again or something else, as long as it is still pure random-chance. And more Team competitions, whether it be on Shuukan or anywhere else.

Here's to another great year for AKB48 and the whole 48 family!

The biggest breakout star for AKB during 2010... is from SKE! I wonder when Aki-P looked at Rena Matsui and thought, "Yeah, she can do crazy." Cheers to your success, Renachan!

My Favorite Ending Videos from AKB's First Video Game, AKB 1/48 Idol to Koi Shitara

2011-01-09T19:46:00.000+08:00

AKB48's first ever video game, AKB 1/48 Idol to Koi Shitara, for the PSP, was released just a few days ago, and although I'm not going to talk about the game itself, I just loved the in-game videos! So if you wanna talk about them and don't mind reading spoilers, or you wanna look at a few nice pics, here you go!

Each of the 48 members of AKB has 3 ending videos each, one where they confess their love, another where they react after their love is accepted, and one where they react after their love is rejected. I loved how varied and nicely thought out the scenes were.

Apparently, I loved the rejection-reactions most, not that I want the girls to be rejected, but the reactions were just more enjoyable to watch. It was more interesting and had more depth! I wanted to shout, "Sayaka, don't run away from me!"

I think my favorite pout is from Reinyan!

Kojiharu, AKB's queen of pouting

Awkward Yuttan

Crushed Natsumi

Nakayan was ridiculous with the puppets... but bitter Nakayan was absolutely adorable!

Of course, there were a lot of what the heck moments.

Umechan... Tokyo Tower... OH MY GOSH!!!

Of course, Yuko with the paparazzi and Mayuyu's rejection were what the heck moments, but nothing beats Acchan's!

Seriously, I was... what the heck?! You gotta watch it yourself!

Sakippe on piano is a definite must watch, but her partner Micha was absolutely beautiful!

Wow

Mariko in a playful and slightly naughty scene.

Oh, and this isn't Lovetan's rejection scene...

...This is!

Nacchi, nervous in her confession scene... and her rejection scene looks like something she would do in real life!

Myao, rambling to get the words out.

Miichan's was one of the funniest! After arguing with herself about how idols shouldn't fall in love, after she gets rejected, she basically says, "But I'm AKB!"

Tomochin's was the funniest. After she and the meal that she made was rejected, she takes a bite on one of her food items, and she says, "Tastes terrible!" with a smile. This is especially funny considering how, thanks to AKBingo, she is considered the tasteless girl in AKB, and that no matter how bad food tastes to the other girls, she still ends up liking it, so for her to say it tastes terrible... haha!

I thought the one with Kitarie was the worst. Why? Because there was hardly any Kitarie in them! When I watch a video with Kitarie, I want to see a lot of Kitarie! Her fans must be disappointed. And I was hoping Moeno would give the finger on her rejection video.

In terms of totality of the three video set, my third favorite set would be the one with Suuchan. All three of the confession, acceptance and rejection were interesting and very different. This is from the acceptance.

My second favorite set is the one with Ayarin. When she said those three magical words, I got goosebumps.

My favorite set is the one with Sasshi. Her execution is what made it a winner.

Sasshi, get up from there! You don't need to kneel before me!

Sasshi's unbelief that her love was accepted.

And her rejection video was just... wow.

The Idol to Koi Shitara videos was great work for AKB! Watch them if you have the chance!

AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and SDN48 Members List

2011-01-08T17:13:00.000+08:00

As of January 8, 2011. Click the images to enlarge.

AKB48

Team A

Team K

Team B

Promoted Kenkyuuseis (Teams to be Announced)

SKE48

Team S

Team KII

Team E

NMB48

SDN48

1st Gen

2nd Gen

Team Kenkyuusei

AKB48 10th Gen Kenkyuusei

AKB48 11th Gen Kenkyuusei

SKE48 Kenkyuusei

In Defense of Maeda Atsuko

2010-12-31T23:30:00.119+08:00

I’m not the biggest Maeda fan, so I will leave the fanboying to the experts. Maeda is not even my top favorite, but I do like her a lot. One thing I really don’t like though is when fans hate on her for reasons not her fault. Let me explain.

Some fans have hated the fact that Acchan has always been the center of AKB, as if it was her fault. It’s not, it’s Management’s decision, as I will explain later, but first I want to point out that it’s not even true that Acchan had always been the center.

In AKB48’s first ever stage, Party ga Hajimaru yo, Maeda has stated there was no clear center yet, but if you will watch the two songs that would become their first singles, Sakura no Hanabiratachi and Skirt Hirari, you will see that Maeda is not at center. Literally, Maeda is not standing at the center, Minami Takahashi is, but more importantly, in Skirt Hirari, which has solo lines, Takahashi has twice more solo lines than Maeda. My point is: The center of AKB at the beginning was not Maeda, it was Takahashi. This should not be a big surprise to hardcore fans, it is common knowledge to us that the producer of AKB, Akimoto Yasushi’s favorite member is Takahashi, and Maeda herself has mentioned that Aki-P didn’t even take much notice of her at the beginning. Takahashi was and is considered the captain of the original team and the current AKB afterall.

Things changed by the second stage though, the stage titled Aitakatta. In an excellent interview of Maeda at QuickJapan after the release of River (English translation by Stage48’s wazawai6318, download complete translation here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AFSO3578 [used with wazawai6318's permission]), when it was specified that she would be one of the centers and would be the center of Nagisa no Cherry, currently what may be considered by some as THE Maeda Atsuko song, she stated that she hated being the center so much, she burst into tears. Nagisa no Cherry focuses on the lead vocal, where the other three in the unit clearly relegated to backdancers. This apparently caused some disheartenment between the members, and Maeda felt the pressure. In the closing day of that stage, Aki-P told the members to say what they felt, to the audience, during the MC. To quote the translation, Maeda said, “At the last performance of our 2nd stage, Akimoto-san said to us, “Please tell each other everything that you’re thinking.” On the stage of our last performance, in front of all our fans, we were all made to say “At that time, I felt this way….” For example, things like “I didn’t like being behind Acchan.” I too spoke my mind and said “I didn’t want to do ‘Nagisa no Cherry’”. For us, that was an important moment. It took a weight off our shoulders, and also allowed our fans to understand what we were thinking."

People assumed that Maeda was like basking in some glory, enjoying or maybe even pushing Management to make her center, when the truth is, this interview is one of many proofs that the center position was thrust upon her, probably because Management was noticing how popular she was. Even when she was center for many singles, starting with being featured prominently in the PV of their third single (first from a major label), Aitakatta, she considered herself as just one of the girls. She said “… I’d felt that “Even though I’m in the centre, everybody doesn’t think about me anyway.”” Even when Maeda had to share the center position with newbie Jurina Matsui at Oogoe Diamond, she thought little of it, until it was the fans that made a big deal out of it. She said, “It’s not that I was particularly composed, but I didn’t really take it to heart since we aren’t even of the same age. But it was talked about among the fans way more than I had predicted, and we were compared. When I found that out, I was a bit surprised, and I started to worry. I thought, “What should I do….” At that time too, Akimoto-san got angry at me many times. “If you continue on this way, Matsui-san’s going to take your place.” During that time, I myself struggled and worked hard. Starting from the time of “Oogoe Diamond”, Akimoto-san started to ask me about my will each time. “How are you?” He would send an e-mail. “How are you? Can Maeda do it?”… ““I can do it! I want to do it!””… “But starting from “Oogoe Diamond”, I feel like I’ve started to understand the meaning of my own place little by little.”

The first Senbatsu elections in 2009 proved to be a great encouragement for Maeda, her Management-decided-center-position now became the fan-decided-center-position, showing her that she was at her rightful place at #1.

Then, one year later, on the second Senbatsu elections, she would suddenly be edged by former second-placer Yuko Oshima by only 597 votes. (Acchan got 30,851 votes while Yuko got 31,448. Votes were limited to fans who purchased specific items like singles or subscriptions.) Losing the #1 position for this election meant a lot for her; when her name was called, she said in her speech (translation from Nihongogo’s Ready2), “…I'm a little bit relieved. I think that in the end I wasn't cut out for being the first place. Last year after getting first place I thought that being in that position I must try the hardest to push AKB... But... seems like I couldn't do a good job at it. (Team A pioneers shook their heads when she said this, as if to say, “no, that’s not true.”) This year... So it's like this. I couldn't meet your expectations last year. But being here for the 5th year and being a 1st generation member I still feel like I have to push the members. I'm sorry. I want to do my best this year also in this place. I feel like I'll have to work even harder to get the recognition of even more fans so that maybe I'll be able to get back first place. And if I do get back to first place I'm confident that I'll be able to push AKB48 a lot more. Everyone, thank you very much!” Her heartful speech was, even to me, surprisingly inspirational. Given everything, being that honest, she still says she will try harder to try to regain her position.

Center position would be fair game after that though, as they would soon thereafter announce the first Senbatsu Janken Tournament, a random chance tournament that gives every member of AKB the chance to become the center of a single, something even Maeda smiled about when it was first announced, the winner of which became Mayumi Uchida. Maeda seemed happy to share the center position and to give others a chance.

Maeda is often criticized for looking like she doesn’t try hard enough or that she doesn’t care. She probably doesn’t look as outgoing or friendly or smiling like the rest, she doesn’t crack as many witty jokes as the others, but when I watch her, my conclusion was actually, she is an introverted, shy girl. In the QuickJapan interview I’ve been quoting, when she was asked if she didn’t talk during the MC parts of the stage during her earlier days, she said, “I think I wasn’t able to talk. I didn’t want to talk. I think I was really bad at having to be the centre of attention. So even for things like our self-introductions, it took me a long time to get used to it.” I read a fan report that said that although Maeda appears unfriendly at times, when there was a chance this fan was able to talk with her, she’s actually very nice and friendly, just really shy. She and the other members are quite familiar with this perception of her, and some do defend her, but in the AKBingo! July 29, 2009 episode, this became fodder during the Maeda vs. Kojima Haruna Shoujiki Shougi (Truth Chess Battle), when Kojima asked, “Fans sometimes say you look like you’re not into your job (and Maeda nods in a “Tell me about it!” kinda face)… but sometimes you really aren’t,” and the supposed “lie detector” needle spiked when Maeda said “no.” Maeda just said she sometimes do things at her own “pace” (a popular phrase in Japan) and had a good laugh at herself. At the same QuickJapan interview, she says, “It’s often said about me that people don’t know what I’m thinking about. The members say that about me too. Even though we’ve been together for four years, they say that they don’t know what I’m thinking about… It could be that I’m not thinking about anything at all (laugh). I’m the type that acts without thinking at all. There are a lot of members who properly think about what interesting things they should say during the MCs between songs at the theatre, so once in a while I reflect on how much trouble I cause them during times like that. I think that that’s one of my flaws... I have tried participating more actively. But, I think that by now it’s already come to the point of “Acchan is like that, that’s good enough”. Of course, other than that, it’s also thanks to the members. I think of myself, “Ah, not good enough”, but after all, “there’s people here who help me.” Even though people may say that there’s something different between Maeda Atsuko and the Maeda Atsuko of AKB, there’s nothing different. I’m really just that way. I’m very thankful to the fans and the members who have accepted/forgiven that.”

I love the way Acchan appreciates the fans who have accepted her personality flaws. Yeah, haters hate that about Acchan, but we have reason to hate just about everyone if we wanted to, it’s just a matter of understanding and appreciating what can be appreciated on another person. Yes, Acchan may not fit the stereotype of an idol celebrity who always smiles, extroverted and always has something clever to say, but actually, her nerdiness is one of her charm points. Fans love her girl-next-door image, and the fact that she’s as awkward and dorky as many of us makes her even more appealing. Yeah, she’s cute, and pretty, and has a great figure, but the fact that she acts so naturally and is so human makes her more endearing to the fans. Her dorky laugh and her natural reactions are always a treat to watch.

Maeda is human, who has flaws, but has worked hard to get her center position, a position that was thrust upon her, and one she did not necessarily want. And yet she remains very much human and tries to be just one of the girls. We hardly have any real proof that Queen Acchan tries to impose stuff or whatever. She’s just her, and people really need to stop making her out as if she was some bad guy when there isn’t even any proof as to why people hate her so much other than her personality flaws which she freely admits. She’s just being herself. And that’s what her fans want.

Her dedication and love for AKB is also inspiring. She said in the QuickJapan interview, “I had a period when I said “no” to everything too. During that time, I was allowed to star in a movie for the first time (Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata (How to Become Myself)), but I really didn’t like it. It was terrifying, and I was so lacking in self-confidence. Even at the studio itself, all I kept saying was things like “I want to return to AKB as soon as possible.” Performing at the theatre was my only joy….” I love how many of the girls consider the Theater as their second home.

It doesn’t matter who eventually replaces Acchan. Maeda could be replaced by Yuko Oshima, Minami Takahashi, Mayu Watanabe, Jurina Matsui, or even Mayumi Uchida, but Maeda Atsuko will forever be perceived as the original face of AKB.

In the August 22, 2010 episode of Uchikuru, Acchan gets shown her audition footage, shown here when she was age 14.

Maeda, in AKB's very first stage, Party ga Hajimaru yo. Yeah, even Aki-P made fun of her helmet-looking hair.

Maeda, not the center of Sakura no Hanabiratachi.

Maeda, not the center of Skirt Hirari.

The first time Maeda is featured prominently is in the PV of Aitakatta.

Maeda, in her old "private" video. In this great video, Maeda also teaches proper Japanese enunciation. If Maeda had a series on learning and mastering Japenese, I'd be an expert by now.

In the April 28, 2008 episode of AKB 0ji 59fun (predecessor of AKBingo!), Acchan has a little fun at Yuko's expense. The two love each other.

The May 19, 2008 episode of AKB 0ji 59fun is one of my favorite episodes, where the psychology test provides us with a lot of great laughs.

Acchan likes to downplay herself, as shown in the January 8, 2009 episode of AKBingo!, another one of my favorites. Here, she says she has no skills.

Sata points out,"Of course, you do! You can skip!", an old running joke involving Acchan and Takahashi.

The July 29, 2009 episode of AKBingo! featuring the Shoujiki Shougi (Truth Chess Battle) between Maeda and Kojima, where Acchan just laughs at what had happened when the needle said she was lying about always being into her job.

I love it when Maeda is having fun.

Although she frequently downplays herself, she knows when to bite the bullet. In the October 8, 2010 episode of Shuukan AKB, they explore the gutsiness of Maeda. In this screenshot, she throws away her floating device and swims fast to help her team win in the Shuukan pool special, eventhough she used a life buoy in an earlier individual game. She explains that when she went to Thailand, she almost kinda drowned, and she's been afraid to go to the water since.

On the same episode, they looked back on another Team competition where she single-handedly beat the opposing team in a bobbing-for-apples type of game. This time, she says she wouldn't even think of revealing her forehead (by moving away her hair), if it wasn't necessary.

My favorite solo image DVD has been that of Maeda Atsuko in Phuket. My favorite part is when the stewardess asked her in english if she wanted chicken with pasta or chicken with rice, and I can watch the look on her face when she didn't understand a thing a thousand times. She had to look at her crew and wonder, "What did she say?"

She laughs at her dilemma.

When she finally chooses rice, the stewardess confirms, "Rice?", she answers, "Yes," in english, and she was so happy to answer in english.

I could watch this segment a thousand times, and if I had been counting, I probably already had.

AKB doesn't hide everything from us. In Maeda's episode of AKB 600 Seconds, she is openly shown removing hair extensions.

Maeda, after being revealed #1 in the first Senbatsu elections.

Maeda smiles bravely when her name is called as the #2 girl in the Second Senbatsu elections.

Even so, she cannot hide her tears for long.

Maeda smiles at the surprise announcement of the Janken Senbatsu Tournament, during the July, 2010, Yoyogi Concert.

The original face of AKB48, Maeda Atsuko

My First AKB48 Live Experience: Singapore, December 10-11, 2010

2010-12-20T15:53:00.005+08:00

AKB48 performed live at the Singapore Toy Games and Comics Convention at Singapore’s Suntec Convention Center on December 10 and 11, 2010, and I was there! Yes, I flew in to Singapore just to see AKB! Allow me to share some experiences, thoughts and pictures. (Excuse my pics, I botched a lot.)

AKB was to give two performances, the first, actually just a scheduled appearance, but they gave us a performance anyway, was on Dec. 10, Friday, 4:00 – 4:30 p.m., on the stage of the main venue of the convention, and the second, the actual “AKB48 Meet the Fans Session,” on Dec. 11, Saturday, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m., at a more private theater.

I know a lot of people complained about the lineup that we got because none of the regular Senbatsus came, but hey, we got the Janken Senbatsu, I am not complaining at all. Yeah, I would have been happier if Nacchi made it, as originally scheduled, but with Haachan replacing her a few days before the event and being the only non-Janken Senbatsu to go, I am not complaining at all, and as it turns out, I was very happy Haachan went. Heck, I would have been happy even if we were sent an all Kenkyuusei lineup, if that meant Haruka Shimazaki was coming too. I love everyone at AKB, I’m not just a fan of a few girls, I love the whole group, and I’d be very happy to see any of them.

In the end, scheduled to perform were eleven of the Janken Senbatsu, plus Haruka Katayama, who had to replace Natsuki Sato, so twelve AKB members overall. The eleven Janken Senbatsu who came were Chance no Juban’s center, Mayumi Uchida, followed by Haruka Ishida, Tomomi Nakatsuka, Haruka Nakagawa, Rina Chikano, Kana Kobayashi, Miku Tanabe, Ami Maeda, Sumire Sato, Sakiko Matsui, and Asuka Kuramochi. Also, I should note, Chance no Juban, the single that features them, was released the Wednesday of that week, debuting on the Oricon charts at #1.

If you want a complete AKB live overseas experience, waiting for the girls to arrive at the airport is a fun treat. While fans awaited the arrival of the twelve girls, they monitored airplane flights from Japan to Singapore and the girls’ blogs. Obviously, they weren’t going to announce at which flight they are on, but if you know which flights from Japan are arriving, and check the girls’ blogs about around what time they are boarding the flight, you’ll have a very good estimate of which flight they will arrive on. Protip: If you’ll attend one of these, coordinate with various fans, especially the most established and known ones, especially if your nationality has an organized fanbase, so that you’ll be kept in the loop.

Fans were wondering why the girls’ had various stuff going on on December 9, Thursday, the day we thought they would arrive, but we would later learn that the Friday appearance would only feature three girls, Mayumi Uchida, Haruka Ishida, and Tomomi Nakatsuka, and that these three would be the first to arrive at Changi airport at wee hours of the morning of December 10, Friday. True enough, the girls posted on their blogs that they were leaving for Singapore the night of Thursday.

Fans awaited Ucchi, Harukyan, and Krisu, and when they did arrive, it was fun virtually walking the girls from the arrival terminal to their shuttle bus, taking pictures of them and speaking to them once in a while.

Ucchi

Krisu and Harukyan

Chance no Juban’s center

Hey, I got a lucky fan a free three-shot

Yeah, I was walking this close with them

Harukyan waves as the three girls board their bus

Krisu on the bus

Ucchi on the bus

Krisu was so much more beautiful in person than what we see on videos. I’m also very happy with how the fans conducted themselves, with hardly any barricades and only some staff, we kept ourselves in line making sure the girls were well. There were times I had to avoid bumping into Harukyan, not that I would have minded if I did, but I’m pretty sure a lot of people would.

The afternoon of that day, the three girls would make an appearance at STGCC’s main venue. Much to our delight, as some had expected, they performed Zannen Shoujo and Tsundere! Krisu and Ucchi are original performers of Zannen Shoujo (from Team B’s 4th Stage, Aidoru no Yoake, where Ucchi was the permanent Kenkyuusei for that position that time), while Tsundere! is just a staple performance for an AKB trio performing overseas.

Zannen Shoujo

Tsundere!

Did I mention how much more beautiful Krisu is in person?

It was a huge treat for me to have my favorite stage unit song performed live right before my eyes. Yes, I was at front row, and they did sing both Zannen Shoujo and Tsundere! live. The host’s ad lib showed she didn’t do enough research; she mentioned that AKB is so popular these days that they now have a performance on their very own theater everyday. Uhm, yeah, sure, that’s the reason why it’s everyday. =/

Right after the 30 minute appearance by the trio, fans rushed to the airport as the remaining nine who are still to arrive were arriving around that time. True enough, we were able to catch them and give them a nice welcome!

Harugon and Tanamin

Mocchi

Suuchan

Kana, Harugon, Tanamin, and Chikarina

Tanamin

Uhm, so, yeah, I mostly followed Harugon around. Harugon, Chikarina, Kana and Tanamin lead among the nine girls, with Suuchan, Haachan, Aamin, Sakiko, and Mocchi right behind them. Apologies to Haachan, Aamin, Sakiko and their fans, I botched at picture taking, and now I see I didn’t get a single good pic of them. Also, I blame Harugon and her adorableness. Suuchan was unbelievably stunning in person. Videos do not do her justice. She had such a model-like figure. And Mocchi was so beautiful. Yes, even with her mask on. Her eyes were so mesmerizing. I could have been hypnotized. And when she was on the bus and our eyes met and she waved at me, let me tell you, if this was the first time I learned about AKB and this is what made me a fan, Mocchi would be my oshi right now.

The girls walked faster to their bus than the first three girls that arrived before them; they were probably a bit intimated at the whole thing. When Harugon and the girls were being surrounded by fans (from a safe, decent distance) and there were no barricades and only enough staff, when they stopped right after they entered the area where the fans were, Harugon started saying “Yabbai… yabbai kore…” repeatedly (“This is bad… this is bad…” is what she was saying). I should point out that although there might have been a hint of concern, Harugon was saying things also in jest, the way Harugon normally does. I wanted to assure her by saying “Harugon, daijoubu!” (“Harugon, it’s ok!”), but the tsundere in me got the better of me. Eventually, it seems a fan did say “daijoubu” because Harugon playfully said, “Daijoubu janai!” (“It’s not ok!”). Even behind her face mask, we could tell Harugon was playing. It was so fun! Now you see why I couldn’t leave Harugon’s side.

Once on the bus, Harugon enjoyed the “Harugon!” chants from us outside. By the way, if we use the most recent Senbatsu elections as basis, Harugon is the most popular member among the twelve that went.

Here, Harugon takes a pic of us fans outside. With her on this pic is Mocchi. Most of the girls did take pics of us fans when they were already on the bus. A few of them posted those pics on their blogs. And yes, I am on two of them!!!

Haachan, Haruka Katayama, posted a pic she took of us on her official blog: http://ameblo.jp/harukatayama/entry-10732827699.html , and yes, I am there!!! My face can be fully seen, so I will not say which one.

Mocchi, Asuka Kuramochi, also posted a pic she took of us on her official blog: http://blog.watanabepro.co.jp/kuramochiasuka/archives/2010/12/post_216.html , and I’m there too!!! My face can also be fully seen, so I will not say which one.

Yeah, I’m on the girls’ official blogs!!! So awesome!!! I’m so glad I went to the airport!!! This was such a great experience!!! And no, this isn’t even the main event yet!

The main event was on Friday, Dec. 11. The miniconcert would start 7:00 p.m. and last until 8:30 p.m. The official queue would start 3:00 p.m. Of course, an unofficial queue started much earlier. I arrived around 1:00 p.m. where there were probably 20-50 people in front of me. Not bad, I thought. Pretty soon, this unofficial line would be as good as dissolved as newcomers would just sit with their friends ahead of the queue. And when 3:00 hit and the staff opened the official queue, people at the back of the unofficial queue started running to the front of the queue, and that’s when the unofficial queue completely disappeared. With some pushing and warnings from the staff, an official queue was formed with some of those arriving earlier screwed. In the future, to avoid such incidents, some people within the groupings in the various fanbases need to stand up, coordinate with each other well ahead of time, and organize the whole thing. The various fanbases have some more recognized members among them already anyway. After a good wait, I ended up sitting fourth row, center column, a pretty good seat.

While we were being seated, the five PV’s from Chance no Juban were played consecutively on the big screen. Even before Overture was played, I was already on super fan-mode, the fan I was with, she was probably wondering, “hey, are you still there? Earth calling Silver Rain! Hello?” So yeah, I just took everything in and enjoyed the whole event like a superfan that I am.

Here’s the setlist:

Overture
River
Ponytail to Shushu
Beginner
---MC---
Heart Gata Virus (by Ami Maeda, Sumire Sato, Sakiko Matsui)
Wagamama na Nagareboshi (by Kana Kobayashi, Haruka Katayama)
Himawari (by Rina Chikano, Haruka Nakagawa, Asuka Kuramochi, Miku Tanabe)
Tsundere! (by Tomomi Nakatsuka, Haruka Ishida, Mayumi Uchida)
---MC--- (by Tomomi Nakatsuka, Haruka Ishida, Mayumi Uchida)
Aitakatta
Bingo! (English version)
Oogoe Diamond (English version)
Heavy Rotation
---Encore---
Chance no Juban

During the first MC, the girls introduced themselves in English. Some memorized their lines better than others, with Kana the first one to show she forgot hers and kept looking at her hand, and soon enough, anyone else who did that was playfully called out by the fans and her fellow members. I appreciated a lot of the members’ efforts, especially that of Ucchi. I could see how much effort she put in trying to speak in English, likely beyond her memorized lines, and she did put in a lot of effort during the song numbers. Much respect to Ucchi and these girls. Worth noting since it’s funny, when Harukyan was reciting her memorized lines in English about how they went to Sentosa (a popular tourist spot in Singapore), she apparently forgot the English word “yesterday,” so instead she emphatically said “today,” eventhough they actually went the day before. For the other MC’s, an interpreter came out.

Did I do the chants? F, yeah! I probably would have ended up hoarse since I chanted “Encore! Encore!” really early. I was hoping for a double encore, but nobody was chanting encore again after Chance no Juban. I guess everyone was excited about the high-touch (high-five) event right after.

The MC had to remind the audience that it was a high-touch, not a handshake, as the first guy shook Ucchi’s hand and the ones behind him followed suit. When it was my turn, I wanted to just smile at the girls, but when they were all saying “Thank you” every time we did a high-touch, I couldn’t help but say “Thank you” too. I didn’t mind, since I really just didn’t want to end up saying or acting all stupid, which is highly likely. The high-touch went really fast; yeah, I was able to get a high-touch from all twelve, but most of them I remember hazily, the ones I remember the most are from Harugon, as she said “Thank you” with a playful smile, and Mocchi, as she was still amazingly beautiful and her eyes were still mesmerizing.

Some fans were lucky enough to win an autographed poster (it depended on what the symbol on the souvenir card given to us had). I had the paper symbol, so when Ucchi cast scissors when it was time for Ucchi to play janken against the fans, the rocks won.

See, even stormtroopers love AKB

Fans didn’t know what to expect from this “Meet the Fans Session,” but I am personally glad that it turned out to be a simple mini-concert. I guess it was a format that was just easier for them to do, and I’m very happy I got to see and be a part of the whole thing.

Special thanks to many members of Nihongogo and Stage48, a few I will mention here: cisumechan for giving me the heads up on the event and a lot of tips, ruru and melos for a lot of great info, inwe and her friends for excellent company, and whiteknight for lots of help on Singapore and pointing out we were on the girls’ blogs.

It was great to see and support the Janken Senbatsu, even if they aren’t the regular Senbatsu. Heck, if these are the less popular members of AKB, no wonder AKB is so great! These are the less popular members of AKB, and yet they were gorgeous! They were even much better looking in person. No wonder these girls became members! And they were very interesting, nice, fun and entertaining. All the members of AKB are awesome, I wouldn’t throw a single one of them away, and I’d be happy to see them again and any of the other members.

May each AKB fan gain at least one AKB live experience in their lifetime! With everything they give to us fans, it’s a great experience.

AKB Just Got Featured on a Philippine News Show

2010-11-17T23:00:00.000+08:00

A friend just sent me a message. AKB just got featured in a local news show a few minutes ago. News on Q, at channel 11, owned by one of the two biggest TV networks in the Philippines, talked about AKB48's Guinness World Record and their upcoming concert in Macau.

Hmm, I hope this bodes well for ties between AKB and the Philippines.

I'm happy!

Ponytail to Shushu and Heavy Rotation

2010-10-05T19:30:00.005+08:00

This post is a continuation of the AKB48 Discography post (here's the first post: http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2010/01/akb48-discography-actually-just-list-of.html)

18. Ponytail to Shushu
( ポニーテールとシュシュ)

Ponytail to Shushu continues the successful streak of AKB by being their first single to sell over half a million copies within the first week of its release, of course ranking #1 again in the Oricon charts. "Ponytail and Scrunchie" is an upbeat love song, whose PV was shot in Guam, where only for the second time in AKB's career, the Senbatsus don bathing suits.

The second track, Nusumareta Kuchibiru ("Stolen Kiss") features another batch of AKB Undergirls, and is a slower-paced love song.

Continuing what they started in Sakura no Shiori, both versions again contained different third tracks.

Version A of the single contained Boku no Yell ("My Yell" or "My Cheer"), another of AKB's encouraging songs, this time containing AKB Theater Girls. The PV is soccer-themed, and prominently centers Haruka Nakagawa for the first time in her career. Fittingly so since Harugon is one of AKB's sportier girls in real life. This track is my favorite in this single and its PV is one of favorites from AKB.

Version B contained the track Majijo Teppen Blues, featuring the cast of AKB's finished TV drama, Majisuka Gakuen. The song is a rock riff containing quotes from the show, and the PV contains scenes fans would have wanted to see in the series.

The single contained off-vocal versions of its tracks, and was released May 26, 2010. It also had the biggest first week sales for a female artist since Utada Hikaru's "Can You Keep a Secret", released in 2001.

Ponytail to Shushu

The PV contains a sexy-comedic opening featuring a funny, pervy dog, as some fans like to refer to him.

I believe this is the first time they adapted a move from a PV to alter dance steps.

Although they didn't totally eliminate this step (bursting star effect thingamajig)...

...they replaced most of it with this one (conductor hand thingamajig). You'll notice that they never do this step during the dance shots on the PV, and if I am not mistaken, they don't perform this step in their earliest performances of the song, only later, such as with AKBingo! If what I observed is correct, it was a good alteration, proving AKB can make modifications midway when necessary.

Nusumareta Kuchibiru

The PV contains a lot of beautiful shots

The lyrics contain a description of the feelings of the girl after a stolen kiss from a guy she likes, and the PV contains depictions of this scene where the girl is talking, then the camera focuses on the girl's lips, signifying the guy going in for the kiss, and the girls' cute reactions after the kiss.

Boku no Yell

Majijo Teppen Blues

19. Heavy Rotation

(ヘビーローテーション)

Ranking #1 again within the Oricon charts, Heavy Rotation is the second single for AKB to sell over half a million copies within the first week of its release, aligning AKB48 with no less than Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru as the first three female artists to sell over half a million copies within the first week of its release for two consecutive singles.

For the second time after Iwake Maybe, the Senbatsus for Heavy Rotation were chosen via fan votes, and for the first time in her career, Yuko Oshima centers an AKB single as a result of the votes.

Heavy Rotation is a fun, upbeat love song, where the title "Heavy Rotation" is descriptive of an old vinyl record playing nonstop.

The PV is maligned by some eventhough it is the first PV showing some of the members in lingerie, although the clothes themselves are no more revealing than swimsuits many entertainers wear. Many misinformedly claim that in this PV, underage girls should not be appearing in lingerie, where in fact, within the lingerie scenes, only the top ten Senbatsus were in lingerie, and among them, only Mayu Watanabe was underage, at 16, and what Mayuyu was wearing wasn't even lingerie, as I liken it to something a ballerina would wear. The lingerie scene was only one of three kinds of scenes in the PV, the other one being the one with the dance routines in the Heavy Rotation outfits with the mic stands, and the third being the one with cat suits, which I found had the funniest, most adorable scenes, eventhough the lingerie scenes had plenty of cute and funny scenes also. The kiss scenes were also by close friends, not much different as when two close female friends would kiss, although I could understand why the typical person would still find this hot.

The fact that Ponytail to Shushu and Heavy Rotation hit #1 has also been used to malign AKB and its fans, saying this is how they became #1 (by wearing swimsuits and lingerie) when in fact, it was River that hit #1 first and Sakura no Shiori that hit #1 second, where they wore fullbody camouflage suits and fullbody kimonos respectively, and neither of which were love songs.

The second track is performed by AKB Undergirls, this time the girls who ranked #22 to #39 in the 2nd Senbatsu elections, centered by #22 Aika Oota. Namida no Seesaw Game (Seesaw of Tears Game) is a love song that is a throwback to hip music from a few decades ago, something also featured prominently in its funny and enjoyable PV. This is my favorite track of this single and has one of my favorite PV's in AKB.

Again, two versions of the single contained different third tracks, both of which were used for advertisements.

Version A contained Yasai Sisters (Vegetable Sisters), a theme song for a vegetable juice drink, and is one of the cutest children's song AKB has had since Honehone Waltz and Akkanbe Bashi, accompanied with a cute, kiddie PV where the girls dress up in various veggies.

Version B contained Lucky Seven, a theme song for a retail chain store, another of AKB's encouraging songs, where this time the girls dress up as pirates.

The singles contained off-vocal versions of its tracks and was released August 18, 2010.

Heavy Rotation

Namida no Seesaw Game

Yasai Sisters

Lucky Seven

In the Age of Piracy, Why Fans Still Buy Official Merchandise

2010-09-28T17:48:00.003+08:00

Some people think that most people buy singles and albums because people like the songs in that single or album. Then again, if you just wanted the songs, you could easily download those essentially for free on the net. So there is some flaw in that concept. Why is it that in this day and age where it’s so much easier to download pirated material off the net that AKB48 can still sell half a million copies of their singles?

It’s no news that these days, much of what artists release can be downloaded off the net essentially for free, from MP3 to videos, to scans, software and games. If we can download everything, why buy?

Fans have different reasons why they buy official or licensed merchandise. Some like the thought of true ownership of a copy of that song. Some like the idea of owning an impressive collection. Some want something tangible they can touch and see in person. But I just wanted to focus on one reason.

We can easily presume that every one of us own some pirated material. (I mean, if you have the means to read this, then what are the odds that you don’t.) I’m not here to bash on that. There are a lot of sites available where you can download AKB48 material, for example. Is AKB48 Management not aware of these sites, which is why these sites are still around? I hardly believe that. It wouldn’t be that hard for AKB Management to find these sites. But what would happen if these sites didn’t exist? Then it would be very hard for their fandom to spread. If it weren’t for pirated material, I most likely wouldn’t have had any material to win me over and become an AKB fan. And from using pirated material, I now also purchase official AKB merchandise. AKB needs these piracy avenues to let themselves be known to more people, and hopefully, these people will become buyers of their stuff. AKB didn’t get popular in an instant, it took months and years of material to sell from 20,000 copies per single to half a million a single, and it cannot be denied that these piracy avenues help spread the appeal of AKB. (If you’ll notice though, some of these avenues, like forums, have threads where members can show off the stuff they buy, to show anyone, including AKB Management, that hey, we’re doing a good thing here, we’re buying your stuff, and we’re encouraging people to buy your stuff, not just download everything for free.)

Now, if you can download everything, why buy? If every one of us just downloaded everything, the artists wouldn’t get money from what they do. What they do is many things, but let’s not forget it’s also work, and for many artists, if they don’t have money coming their way, some of them may have to get other jobs! More importantly though, material don’t get published on their own, if nobody buys AKB products because everyone is just downloading them, AKB’s record label will no longer produce and distribute their material. Meaning if no one buys their stuff, there eventually will be no more new stuff to come. So some of us need to buy their stuff if we continuously want more stuff. Someone has to buy their songs if we want more songs, some of us will have to buy their DVD’s if we want more videos, some of us will have to buy their mooks if we want more mooks, etc.

I actually have a theory that when AKB’s first major record label, Defstar, dropped them (I guess around 20,000 copies sold per single wasn’t great enough for a big record company like Defstar, so they felt that it was ok to drop artists they felt wasn’t going to go anywhere), AKB’s fans may have panicked. They may have thought, “oh no, this could be the end of AKB! We better start buying their stuff or else AKB will disappear.” So when AKB was picked up by their second label, King Records, sales became more than double on their first single at King Records (Oogoe Diamond) and after that (10nen Zakura), 100,000 copies became a minimum, with sales steadily increasing up to half a million copies sold each by the last two singles at the time of this writing (Ponytail to Shushu and Heavy Rotation).

Going back to my opening paragraph, some people think all fans buy AKB singles because the songs are good, knowing full well they could download them for free. Why do we buy? To support the artists. To give money to them in an acceptable way. It is specifically instructed that AKB members cannot accept monetarial gifts from fans. Can you imagine the conversation? “Hey, I love your work, here’s thousands of dollars cash for you.” “Uh, why?” “Because I love you! Isn’t money one reason why you’re working? Here’s cash right here!” “Uh, what do you expect from it?” “Nothing at all!” “Uh, yeah, I think I’ll pass.” Besides, if the girls get money directly, it means their agencies and publishing labels aren’t getting a portion of it, which means more money for the girls, but also means the girls won’t have any more published material for us 'cause the publishing companies et al. aren’t getting any money from publishing it. And would the girls prefer that? I really doubt the girls are just doing this for the money. OK, I’m also just fanboing now. Well, there are things like popularity, fame, living your dream, etc.

It’s not just about the money, the number of items sold also matters. From Oricon to Billboard charts to whathaveyou, copies sold is a very important indicator to the industry; it’s a tangible measure of success and popularity which can be used as barometer for further exposure activities (like being invited again to Kouhaku). Thus, fans want their beloved artists to be #1 for the whole world to see, and since the artists would be happy for such achievements, their fans do what they can to bring some happiness back to the artists that brought them such happiness. I, for one, was happy that when AKB hit #1 for the first time in their career with River, that I was one of thousands who helped them do it, by being one of those who bought the single. I’m happy that coincidentally, I have preordered all the singles they have released that have hit #1 up to the time of this writing, including those by AKB subunits. Yes, preordered, meaning I am one of those thousands listed under first day sales. Yes, first day sales, meaning the very first day the single was released. Meaning I even preorder the singles without knowing a single thing about the single. I don’t know what the songs will be are. I don’t know who the Senbatsus will be. I don’t know what the cover looks like. I don’t even know what the title is, as AKB frequently doesn’t announce the title on the first day the single is announced these days. I buy it because I support the artists and I am basically telling them, produce more stuff, and I will buy them. Now, AKB isn’t the first one I’ve done this for. Without talking about local or English artists, I used to buy Utada Hikaru albums without knowing anything about the album. I just wanted to tell the publishers, if you make more available, someone will buy them, specifically me, so produce more. Of course, I only do this if I really like the artist, or much of the material the artists come up with, so one-hit-wonders are out of the question. But with what I do, what happens if the artists start releasing stuff I really don’t like, even though I already preordered them? If it’s to the point that I lose my interest, then I stop buying their stuff in the future. So it can also be said that the current releases dictate future sales.

I mentioned in another post that I was disappointed to learn that my second favorite AKB song, Iiwake Maybe sold less than its predecessor, Namida Surprise; I thought people didn’t like it. But when it was voted as the #1 song in the Best 100 2010, I started to think, maybe it’s because Namida Surprise didn’t have a great reception. River’s sales was around double that of its predecessor, Iiwake Maybe, does it mean people like River more? As I said, it was Iiwake Maybe that ranked #1 in the Best 100 2010, River was #5. Also, former releases like fanfavorites Bingo! and Boku no Taiyou sold about a measly five percent of the sales of either Ponytail to Shushu or Heavy Rotation, does it mean Ponytail to Shushu and Heavy Rotation are twenty times better than Bingo! or Boku no Taiyou? I really doubt that, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the Best 100 2011 to find out. But few can deny, past and current releases dictate sales of future releases. It’s not just about how good the current release is, it’s how good the previous releases were that can affect current releases sales a lot. “Hey, AKB is good, they have another single coming up? I think I’ll buy that.” Not a whole lot of, “hey I like that old AKB song, I wonder where I can still buy that old single.” Well, not unless you’re a collector, that is.

Of course, I encourage fans to purchase official and licensed goods, as I do so as well, but I’m not bashing on pirated material or those of us who are very dependent on piracy (which is in all probability all of us). Unless the price of licensed material drop to a few cents per item, I really don’t think a hardcore fan, unless he’s a bazillionaire, can afford to buy all releases of his favorite artist. We will download stuff, because we can’t afford to keep our fandom solely on buying stuff. And pirated material can eventually encourage us to purchase at least the licensed material we can afford to buy. I certainly won’t encourage someone not to eat just so he can buy more AKB stuff. But in Business, we have the term “disposable income,” a part of a person’s income that the person would, under typical conditions, spend on non-essential items. If the question now became, do you buy cigarettes and booze, do you spend all your money on a bar or some vice that won’t be great for you, or do you spend the money on AKB instead, then I would encourage you to save your money and support the artists that bring you so much of whatever you enjoy and get from them. If you don’t have a lot of money to buy AKB stuff now because you don’t have disposable income now, like say, you’re a typical student, then that’s fine. Once the time comes that you do have disposable income, your heart will have to decide as to where it goes. And if AKB has made such a great impact on you, then by all means, send some of your money their way by buying their stuff, so they can produce more great stuff for us fans and future fans.

My AKB48 Merchandise

2010-09-11T16:48:00.003+08:00

Here's some AKB merchandise I own! These are, of course, licensed / official merchandise. Click to enlarge!

I'll start off with Theater pics, BLT's, Gachas and, well, pictures! (My albums are arranged by old teams.)

Mayuyu <3

Yukirin!

Nacchan!

CinDy!

Sasshi!

Moeno!

Harugon!

Team B!

Mikipomu!

Matsuyuki!

B! B! B!

Watarirouka Hashiritai Cards

On to Team A:

Tomochin!

Nyannyan!

Takamina! Reinyan!

Reinyan!

Akicha! Amina!

Acchan!

Acchan! Mii!

Team A!

Mariya! Wasamin!

Thunderous Team K Time!

Sayaka!

Erepyon!

Nacchi!

Yuko!

Tomo~mi! Team K!

Shimazaki!

Costume cards and trading cards (Upper right is non-AKB: Idoling!!!'s leader Endo Mai, but since she has appeared on AKBingo!, January 8 and Junuary 15, 2009 episode, and since Idoling!!! is close to AKB's heart, she's cool with me)

SKE48!

Jurina!

Jurina! Kumi!

Anna! Shinkai!

Yuimin! Rena! Haruka! Oya!

Wimbledon! Tsukina!

SKE!

Unless you're willing to throw wads of cash at me or make me an offer only an idiot would refuse, the above pics are not for sale! The pics below are, because some are duplicates. I hesitate to part with my precious silver Mayuyu pic, even if it is a duplicate, so I would only sell that if the amount is too good to pass up.

Tanamin, Korisu, Eiko Maeda, Shimazaki, Nakanishi

Gussan, Narita, former Kenkyuuseis

Naruse, Naruppe

Naruppe, Matsuyuki

Matsuyuki

Naruse

All the singles released after my fandom started (which is sometime after the release of Iiwake Maybe). I preordered all the singles they have that have hit #1 up to the time of this posting. The first single I preordered was their first #1 single, River. Maybe I'm their lucky charm huh. Also included are both the albums they have released.

Unopened Theater versions (originally sold exclusively at AKB's Akihabara theater) of all the singles released since my fandom started, including Iiwake Maybe, and Kamikyoku Tachi. (Still buying Heavy Rotation though.)

Watarirouka Hashiritai's singles, all preordered, starting with the first single that hit #1 for them, Akkanbe Bashi. Again, it's interesting that the first Warota single I preordered is their first to hit #1. Also included is Watarirouka's first PB, Akkanbe.

Watarirouka Hashiritai's first album, "Rouka wa Hashiruna!", and their first image DVD (added Nov. 2010)

Mayuyu merchandise. Still to arrive are her official solo trading cards. My Kokoro no Hane below is also the Mayuyu version, of course.

Mayuyu's first solo calendar (added Nov. 2010)

CinDy's first solo calendar (added Nov. 2010)

More singles. One reason I love the Michiru Hoshino CD is because the girls wrote the songs in it.

The early AKB48 Welcome books from their first two stages.

Complete four-piece set of the original AKB Visual Books of 2008.

Complete three-piece set of the second version of the AKB Visual Books of 2010

More mooks! AKB48 Jump & Cry, one of the oldest AKB PB's, shown on AKBingo!, the first SKE48 Complete Book, and the first AKBingo! Official Book. All of them are actually pretty good!

More merchandise, including an Amina Sato Team B shirt.

3D Cards and Viewer!

Unopened posters that came with my singles. I will either sell these or post them when I move somewhere permanent. You know, because I'm moving to Japan just because of AKB. (In my dreams!)

Sayaka Akimoto

2010-09-01T19:58:00.006+08:00

As a Filipino, I can’t decide if I like Japanese or Filipina beauty more. Why choose, when with Sayaka Akimoto, you can get the best of both worlds.

Sayaka Akimoto is an original member of AKB48’s Team K, the second team to be created. One of Team K’s frontgirls, she has been chosen Senbatsu roughly half the time, which is more than can be said for over half the girls in AKB. She also is one of the few and first girls to be given a solo song for a stage, Team K’s fifth stage’s Mushi no Ballad, and was in the first AKB unit to release an album, Chocolove from AKB48. She was also chosen to be one of four girls to lead AKB’s first stageplay, Infinity, and is frequently included in many of AKB’s endeavors with an important role, such as their first movie, Densen Uta, and their TV drama Majisuka Gakuen. She was also chosen as the first Captain of Team K, an accomplishment I am quite proud of. (The captain of one of the three main teams in AKB has Filipino blood!)

Sayaka’s mother is Filipino, making Sayaka half-Filipino. More so than the fact that she is half-Filipino, I am very proud that she talks about this fact very openly. In the Nov. 29, 2009 episode of Sanma no Manma, Sayaka casually mentions her Filipina heritage, which sparks a very interesting conversation between her and the host, who, as it turns out, is quite an influential celebrity in Japan. (See this video here: http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2009/12/sayaka-akimoto-mentions-shes-half.html and a discussion of how much Sanma was impressed by her and why this is important here: http://www.saeyaka.com/2010/05/sayaka-and-sae-are-top-idols-not-top-10.html.) Ange of Saeyaka.com has told me that Sayaka openly talks about her Filipino bloodline and her family even during the MC portions of their stages. Admitting that one is Filipino has very little benefits in it of itself. Our race has had so many hiccups, I’m not surprised that many of us deny our nationality when we’re in another country. Thus, I am so happy that Sayaka is not ashamed and actually openly chooses to acknowledge any Filipino heritage she has, making me so proud of her.

One of the favorite stories I read from Ange’s Saeyaka.com blog is the story of how much the director and creator of AKB's first stageplay, Infinity, admired Sayaka. Although Sayaka is one of the top-tier members of AKB, the director was surprised to see Sayaka sweeping the floor of the backstage area herself. After the director pointed out that 'shouldn't lower ranks do that?', Sayaka just said, “Whoever sees it first should be the one to do it.” Sayaka’s very admirable attitude is one of her most endearing traits. (Read Ange’s post here: http://www.saeyaka.com/2009/11/what-sayaka-showed-us-in-infinity.html and much more about Sayaka on Ange's blog dedicated to Sayaka Akimoto and Sae Miyazawa here: http://www.saeyaka.com .)

I also love the fact that she remembers her interactions with fans. Sayaka has a lot of fans and it is easily forgivable that most of the AKB girls wouldn’t be able to remember a majority of the fans they interact with, and although these could also just be important stories to her, which is why she remembers, I’ll tell two interesting anecdotes.

Nihongogo’s zabitan can be deduced as an American when you see him, so during the Shashinkai two-shot event (March 13, 14 and 22, 2010), where fans can get their picture taken with members of AKB, Sayaka talked to him about how things were being a foreigner living in Japan, to which he expressed his difficulties. Usually, such chats in hurried events where the girls meet hundreds to thousands of fans would be easily forgotten, but days later, in a radio show, she was able to talk about zabitan and this chat. (Read posts at Nihongogo here: http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?showtopic=3715&st=120&p=98137&#entry98137 and here http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?showtopic=3715&st=200&p=104253&#entry104253). Zabitan met her again in another event (autograph event on May 23, 2010) and she was able to recognize him and they were able to continue the previous conversation, discussing zabitan's hardships living in Japan (See post here: http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?showtopic=1939&st=800&p=109300&#entry109300). Sure, zabitan would stick out in an Asian community, but still, he’s one lucky gaijin.

It would almost be a sin for any AKB fan with Filipino blood to not love Sayaka. (See my other post here: http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/will-philippines-ever-love-akb48.html .) Sure, we could have different #1 oshimens, but Sayaka would be in our list of top favorites. In the second AKB48 Manila Fans Meetup, Stage48’s Youkokurama, a Filipino who is an official MVP at the Akihabara theater who has been a fan of theirs since the early days when they weren’t as popular, who has literally seen over 100 theater shows (and the number one reason I can’t call myself the number one Filipino AKB fan), came for a visit to our home country and took a picture of the Filipino AKB fans. He told us that he would give the photo to the Akihabara theater staff to be passed on to Sayaka. In a handshake event, after Youko greeted her in Filipino, Sayaka was quickly able to tell him that she got our photo, and that she and her Filipina mother were very happy about it. (See a post about the event where we took the picture here: http://stage48.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2142&start=145 and see Youko’s report on what Sayaka said here: http://stage48.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2142&start=194 and here: http://stage48.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=113&start=5164) Sayaka has seen me! I’m the one in the pic who is the cutest! Okay, there are no cute ones, sorry to disappoint you Sayaka, but we love you!

Another endearing quality to Sayaka is her toughness. She is tough and she likes to act tough. But… deep inside, she’s still a girl who prefers to be called cute more than cool. (And Sayaka is cute! And beautiful. And sexy. And funny. And entertaining. And interesting...) Read more in the screencaps below:

In the first episode, January 24, 2008 of AKB 1ji 59fun! (predecessor of AKBingo!), Sayaka adamantly defends why she didn’t eat the rice included in her meal, as the hosts quickly notice her strong and forceful will, and of course are quick to joke about it.

In the first episode, April 7, 2008 of AKB 0ji 59fun! (version 2 of AKB1ji 59fun!), the Bad Boys mention that fans love Sayaka’s face because it is exotic. As a Filipino, I don’t consider her face exotic; I remember the first time someone mentioned to me that there was a half-Filipina in AKB, I could easily tell it was Sayaka, her face is so Filipina, with a tinge of Japanese.

In the April 28, 2008, AKB 0ji 59fun! episode, it is revealed that Sayaka took home some of the excess meals allocated to AKB at their first appearance at Kouhaku. This was so Filipino, I do it every chance I get.

Sayaka likes to put an image of toughness, but at the conclusion of the Megumi Ohori Amai Konkansetsu Challenge (November 27, 2008 episode of AKBingo!), where Meetan had to sell 10,000 copies of her debut solo single or graduate, after being called out by the Bad Boys, standing besides Meetan, after keeping a strong image all that time, Sayaka finally breaks down into tears as she is unable to hold back her love for her teammate, where she is teased about the immediate change.

In the January 1, 2009 episode of AKBingo!, Sayaka was the victim of a prank as she had to eat inhumanely salty datemaki supposedly created by a small girl who was a fan of hers. She not only said good things about the datemaki after the first slice, after MaiMai coaxed the little girl to ask Sayaka to eat more, Sayaka said she would eat all of the datemaki for the girl. Sayaka loves her fans.

In that same episode, it was Sayaka who rescued Meetan’s phone in the hotpot, which was, well, hot.

In the March 26, 2009 hypnotism episode of AKBingo!, the concept of Mai Oshima and Atsuko Maeda fighting over Sayaka is funny enough, but Sayaka’s brilliant comments make it absolutely hilarious.

A must watch for Sayaka fans, the April 9, 2009 episode of AKBingo! pitted close friends Sayaka Akimoto and Sae Miyazawa in AKBegas.

The ending of Mai Oshima’s graduation marathon challenge, to which Sayaka joined MaiMai in the marathon, was also the inspiration to the ending of the Iiwake Maybe PV. (May 20, 2009 episode of AKBingo!)

Sayaka in the June 24, 2009 fashion show episode of AKBingo! In my opinion, she was the best dressed there, nevermind what the fashion expert said.

In the Sept. 2, 2009 episode of AKBingo!, the captains of Team A and Team K, Minami Takahashi and Sayaka Akimoto, pair up for their team in Cooking Stadium.

Another must see for Sayaka fans is the September 16, 2009 episode of AKBingo!, where the Twin Towers of Team K faced off again, this time, Sayaka Akimoto and Sae Miyazawa dueled to Shojiki Shogi (Truth Chess Battle) where the girlishness of Sayaka again comes out as she admits she would rather be called kawaii than kakoii (cute than cool).

After so much from AKBingo! (what can I say, Sayaka just adds so much value to a show; and no, I didn’t at all include all the episodes she was in), let’s move over to Shuukan AKB, where on it’s third episode, July 24, 2009, she leads Rie Kitahara in a race, where she again throws in a lot to make things interesting. (Hey, look a castle, let's go to it! I know, let's take the bullet train!)

Of course, we can’t forget that Sayaka suggested and lead the AKB Basketball team challenge which became a four-parter for Shuukan AKB; episodes December 18, 2009, December 25, 2009, March 5, 2010, and March 12, 2010.

Sayaka’s feminine side resurfaces on the July 30, 2010 episode of Shuukan AKB where apparently she can’t take scary rides. There, there, Sayaka, come here and lemme give you a hug.

I was wondering why Sayaka posted a picture of her Filipina mom and grandma in her blog (you may see this post here: http://www.saeyaka.com/2010/05/akimoto-familys-great-meeting-sayakas.html), but when I watched her episode of AKB600sec, I saw that she was going to get shown in that episode anyway.

Sayaka and I have a lot in common: we have Filipino blood, we both rarely use emoticons, and we both drink Milo almost every morning (shown here in her old Private Video).

Sayaka is an obvious choice to take in concerts outside Japan, especially in English-speaking countries, as she is one of the best in English among AKB, shown here in their New York 2009 Concert, where she prominently MC'ed.

Sayaka played the male lead role for AKB’s first stageplay, Infinity, which she performed very well.

Sayaka kicks butt! Literally! In the third episode of AKB1ji 59fun, Feb. 8, 2008 episode, Sayaka kicks the “perverted” Ijirii Okada who was brought in to mess up the game for her team (and to make the show funnier).

On the May 10, 2010 episode of Genin Hodo where Sayaka guested, she is challenged to use her Aikido training to kick twins who reportedly have butts of iron that whoever kicks them will have their foot hurt instead.

In the January 9, 2010 Mechaike Special, Sayaka saves the rest of the AKB girls with an excellently timed kick to this crazy guy who was chasing them all over the place in this hilarious episode.

She does it at two separate instances in that episode.

Sayaka was in the 1st AKB unit to release an album. Chocolove from AKB48 features Sayaka Akimoto, Sae Miyazawa and the now graduate Rina Nakanishi. Their 1st single was Ashita wa Ashita no Kimi ga Umareru.

Sayaka in Chocolove’s second single, Mail no Namida.

Sayaka’s first original stage unit is the Team K second stage unit AKB classic Blue Rose, performed with Sae Miyazawa, Yuka Masuda and Megumi Ohori, performed here at the Shibuya Best 100, 2010, ranking #52 three and a half years after it was first performed.

Sayaka performs her Team K 3rd stage unit, Kimi wa Pegasus, at the Yokohama, March 2010 concert, along with Sae Miyazawa, Natsuki Sato, and Kayo Noro.

Sayaka’s Himawari-gumi 1st stage unit song, Himawari, debuts at the first Shibuya Best 100 2008 at #14, performed with Noro Kayo, Mai Oshima and Megumi Ohori subbing for Mariko Shinoda.

Sayaka performs her Himawari-gumi 2nd stage unit Confession at the Budokan August 2009 concert with Tomomi Itano, Mariko Shinoda, and filling Yuko Oshima’s spot is Amina Sato.

Sayaka’s Team K 4th stage unit is Return Match, performed with Kayo Noro, Ayaka Umeda and Risa Naruse, shown here performed at the Shibuya Best 100 2009.

Sayaka performed her Team K 5th stage solo, Mushi no Ballad, at the Shibuya Best 100 2010.

Perhaps Sayaka’s most girly stage unit so far is the Team K 6th stage unit Ashita no Tame ni Kiss wo, performed with Ayaka Kikuchi, Miku Tanabe and Sakiko Matsui.

One of my favorite parts in the Team K song Sougen no Kiseki is Sayaka’s solo lines, performed here in their April 2009 NHK Hall concert.

Sayaka leads the girls sitting in the background to let loose and dance with the rest of Team B in Minasan mo go Issho ni at the Shibuya AX Best 100 2010

One of my favorite Team K 6th stage songs is Uhho Uhhoho, centered around the Team K captain supergirl powerhouse Sayaka Akimoto. I know that Sayaka has blogged about being uneasy with the roles AKB is putting her in, girly one moment, and brutishly unfeminine at another, but for fans like me, I love and appreciate the different Sayakas that we see, all of which are sexy.

At the NHK Hall April 2009 concert, where two Kenkyuuseis graduated, including the controversial former member Miki Saotome, Sayaka thought that the 1st part of the concert series which ended with the graduation of the two needed to end on a happier tone, thus, on her own, while the other members were giving their messages, Sayaka ran backstage and convinced the people there to play Aitakatta once the graduating girls gave the cue, so, when it was time to end the graduation, Sayaka said they should perform one last song, and while Minami Takahashi was talking, she whispered to the graduating girls what she had planned, and thus after, when asked what should the song be, the two stated they wanted to perform Aitakatta one last time, and thus an impromptu performance of Aitakatta was given by everyone.

In the "Making of" video of the NHK Hall 2009 Concert, while the graduation ceremony is ongoing, Sayaka is shown running to the back.

Back on stage, Sayaka airs her suggestion.

After Takamina speaks, the camera catches Sayaka still whispering to the graduatees.

This impromptu performance of Aitakatta is one of my favorite performances of this AKB staple.

In the first Senbatsu election, where fans voted for the first time who would get included in the recording of the next single then, I believe Sayaka was skeptical about her chances of being elected Senbatsu. When her friend Sae Miyazawa was called at rank #14 while Sayaka’s name hasn’t, it seemed to me like she gave up. Many signs pointed to the idea that Sae was more popular than Sayaka. But when #12 was announced to be her, her friend Sae seemed to be happier for the success of her friend than her own. (Shown here in the first Senbatsu elections announcement night where she is called #12.)

Sayaka is named the captain of Team K at the Budokan August 2009 concert.

Ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to introduce you to the sexy, the beautiful, the very impressive, Sayaka Akimoto. We love you and we're rooting for you!

The Success of AKB's Additional Tracks and Why Senbatsus Via Janken Makes Sense

2010-07-21T13:10:00.001+08:00

The first additional track in an AKB single to get a PV was Tobenai Agehachou. I loved Tobenai. The song was great, the performace was great, the PV was great; it was great. Prior to Tobenai, First Love, an accompanying track to Namida Surprise, was very well received by fans, and would eventually be voted #26 in its first year in the Request Hour Setlist Best 100. Of course, First Love, to a certain degree, may have been an afterthought, since it was created as the theme song for an anime, unlike Tobenai Agehachou, which was specifically designed to be an accompanying track to Iiwake Maybe. Tobenai ranked #67 in its first year in the Best 100, but that pales in comparison with the accompanying track of the single that followed it, River’s Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara. River was a great song, excellent for mainstream audience, and yet surprisingly, it was Kimi no that ranked second in its first year in the Best 100, while River ranked fifth.

I, as well as a few other fans, loved First Love more than Namida Surprise, and Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara outranked River with fan votes, so gone are the days when additional tracks were just that, added to a single where only the title track would be the one to get a lot of attraction. Even with Watarirouka Hashiritai’s first #1 single, Akkanbe Bashi, the title track itself was met with some criticism by fans like myself, and yet its additional tracks Yasashiku Sasete and Wakage no Italian are awsum, and although Kanpeki Gu-no ne is a great song, my favorite Watarirouka song for now is its accompanying track, Bouken Etcetera. Aki-P and AKB Management further experimented with accompanying tracks with Sakura no Shiori’s competing accompanying tracks, Team PB’s Enkyori Poster and Team YJ’s Choose Me!, and when fans criticized the title track of Sakura no Shiori, they did give positive comments on the additional tracks.

The additional tracks have greatly improved from tracks just added to a good title track, and these additional tracks have been proven to be very good, at times even better than the title track. Which leads to another interesting point. You have to remember who performs the additional tracks. The additional tracks are usually performed by nonSenbatsus. Sure, you can say that the Undergirls and Theater Girls have members that have become Senbatsu at some point in the past, but by definition of Senbatsu, they weren’t Senbatsu on that particular single. And yet, they shine as much, and at times, even more than their Senbatsu counterparts for the single.

Point is, fans have shown their support for songs even when the song had no Senbatsu. Fans love the nonSenbatsu girls as well. It’s not like Shonichi ranked #1 in the Best 100 2009 simply because Mayuyu and Yukirin were there, and songs like Temo Demo no Namida and Heart Gata Virus have outvoted unit songs of Senbatsu election leaders Acchan, Yuko, et al. Thing is, Aki-P and AKB Management can’t just shake up the Senbatsu line up without disappointing a few people, maybe including the frequent Senbatsus as well. Having fans vote for Senbatsus has been done already, and it’s not like it gives chances to many of the other girls anyway. So why not randomize? A tournament where no real skill is involved would lead the Senbatsu line up to total chance, so it would be nobody’s fault. Sure, this is another dare on Aki-P and AKB Management’s part, but history has proven, fans would support AKB and their songs regardless of how many Senbatsus (or in this case I should say front girls) there are on the song. And what if the front girls don’t make Senbatsu this time? They’re already assured to appear on the single, if not Senbatsu, then as Undergirl or Theater girl, and since Undergirl songs have outshined Senbatsu songs before, this would be the Senbatsus chance to outshine the Undergirls as Undergirls. Crazy isn’t it? Besides, when accompanying tracks have shown to be as important as the title tracks, then it's not really too big a deal anymore if the frequent Senbatsus end up in the accompanying track and not on the title track. More great and interesting experimenting on the part of AKB Management, indeed!

Some people don’t like the idea that the Senbatsus (those who will take part in the recording for the title track of the single) for an upcoming single of AKB will be decided by a Jankenpon (Rock-paper-scissors) tournament to be held on their upcoming concert in Budokan a few months from now, the bracketing of which was decided via random draw held on their Yoyogi concert held a few days ago. I have different feelings towards it, but I do think it’s a very exciting idea. I would so love to watch that tournament live. It would be so nice to see live who would get a possible once in a lifetime chance to center an AKB title track. It would be a classic moment. Can you imagine one of the original members of the original Team K or Team B who have rarely if ever been Senbatsu before suddenly becomes center?

I guess Aki-P is going back on his idea when he said in a press conference last year that the reason he or AKB Management kept choosing the same people as Senbatsus is to make it easier for casual fans to put faces on the AKB name, to make it easier to increase the fanbase. But when your single is selling over half a million copies, I guess you can take a few chances.

Maybe the song Aki-P has prepared for whoever will become center via the Jankenpon tourney is a great underdog song, making the whole thing very fitting. Why not, remember the lyrics to Shonichi?

What is an Idol: The Ayaka Kikuchi Story

2010-07-01T01:21:00.008+08:00

The word idol is obviously an english word, but the Japanese have also used it for a subclass of their entertainment industry. (They use the katakanized word aidoru, which I will sometimes use in this text for emphasis.) Not everyone in the Japanese industry is classifiable in the subclass idol, for example, my first love in Jpop, and perhaps Japan's most successful recording artist, Utada Hikaru, is said to have avoided the idol road and went her own way, achieving success without really taking part in the idol scene. You might be thinking that the Japanese definition for idol would be the same as the definition for other countries, but that does not seem to be the case. But what exactly is a Japanese aidoru?

Wikipedia tells about how Japan started using the word idol. Apparently, the word idol came from a 1963 French film, Cherchez I'idole. According to Wikipedia, the term was used on any cute female actress or singer. I suppose we will never get a definitive definition of what an aidoru is, even the AKB48 girls themselves, who are in the aidoru subclass, were caught off guard in the February 8, 2008 episode of AKB 1ji59fun (predecessor of AKBingo!) when Junji Takada asked the girls if they knew what the word idol meant, leading him to making up a definition that idol meant "I'm a doll", which almost everyone there thought was true, but he later admitted was a lie.

Some would say an idol is a person you dedicate your life to following, which would make sense to English speakers since that is what the English word means. Fans of these idols would know as much as they can about their idol, buy everything released or related with their idol, and would even try to follow them around as much as they can (physically, if it was possible, but anti-stalking laws would prohibit that). Because people like these invest so much in their idols, they have a sense of ownership over their idols, and they have certain expectations about their idols. Thus born also the “surrogate girlfriend” theory, that the idols are pretend girlfriends of their fans, which sometimes are pushed by the idol’s agencies as can be seen with the kinds of fanservice that is given through videos, TV shows, blogs, etc. Thus, certain expectations are demanded on them.

According to wikipedia, there was a time (after World War II), upon the rise of aidorus, when these aidorus would display a life on media that was far from their true lives. This was to project an image of a lifestyle most commonfolk would want to achieve, although in reality, it wasn’t uncommon that the seemingly lavish lifestyle these aidorus displayed was far from their plain life. Some bits and pieces about the personal lives of these aidorus would be released, but at times, even these were planned, what tidbits would be released, and where, for example, in official fanclub material or certain media. Aidorus were not free to be themselves, they had to live up to an image, they had to appear perfect. And as some fans today feel, especially those that would adhere to the surrogate girlfriend theory, aidorus had to put up a “virginal” image. Thus, the rule for aidorus: they cannot have boyfriends. From what I’ve read, apparently, many aidorus have been forced to leave (or fired) from their aidoru groups and careers because it was found out they had secret boyfriends, and such scandals have left a bitter taste in fans’ mouths, whether it was because they could not accept the “betrayal”, or they are angry at the rule and have to be left by their aidorus because of a rule they disagree with.

The aidoru scene has been around in Japan for decades now, and things have significantly changed since then. Aidorus don’t need to project certain images like before; they don’t need to act like affluent celebrities, and they can act like themselves. In fact, sometimes, the more they act like themselves, the cuter they are perceived. The limitations they now have are little different from other celebrities. However, one ruled stayed: aidorus cannot have boyfriends.

There could be a lot of takes on what the word aidoru means, but I’m not here to discuss all of them. I just wanted to discuss enough to show how this subclass, and the treatment of it, affected a girl named Ayaka Kikuchi.

Ayarin isn’t one of my favorites, at least not yet. She was already fired from Team B when I got to know AKB, so she hasn’t had the chance to warm up to me, although I do think she’s a very pretty girl. But her story is one of my favorite stories in AKB.

Part of AKB48’s Team B when they started, Ayarin received some success with the group. After not being chosen as Senbatsu for Bingo!, the first single released after Team B’s debut, and after a two-single streak when only their team’s topstar Mayu Watanabe was chosen Senbatsu, Ayarin would get the chance to become Senbatsu on the next single, Romance Irane, where only she would join Mayuyu for the recording of the single. She would stay Senbatsu for the next two singles, Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008 and Baby! Baby! Baby!, and would be the center of her own stage subunit in Team B’s first original stage, 3rd overall, Kagami no Naka no Joan da Arc. Ayarin was receiving push from AKB Management, something many girls from AKB were not getting.

Then tragedy struck. A picture, posted by what has been said was her boyfriend, was posted on said boyfriend’s blog. How damaging could this picture be such that she would get fired from the group? How scandalous could it be? Here’s that picture:

That’s it. No nudity. No sex. Nothing suggestive. Just her with a boyfriend. The text on the purikura says it’s for their third month together. So it’s clear that she was only fired for having a boyfriend.

I don’t think there was an official admission that this was her boyfriend, but there is little reason to not believe it was since she never denied it. Personally, I admired Ayarin because of this. She could have denied it to death, but she didn’t. She suck it up and took what came. Granted, it would have been difficult to deny, since her intimate friends would have probably known the truth and those that knew could confirm it, then again, who’s to say none of the girls in the aidoru genre today have friends who keep this very same secret.

At first, when the picture and the word spread through the internet, she wasn’t fired immediately, they just didn’t let her perform. This was the first time an AKB girl was found out publicly that she had a boyfriend. Inevitably, AKB Management did fire her, with the official statement that she was “lacking in self-awareness”, a politically correct term (as Japanese culture would tend to use), implying she did things she wasn’t supposed to do, and she was not self-conscious enough to avoid them. Ayarin’s fans petitioned AKB Management for her to stay, but that didn’t work.

A lot of fans would agree with AKB Management’s decision. Some would say a rule is a rule, and it must be followed, no matter how absurd it is, since they knew about it when they signed up for it. Those who agree with the surrogate girlfriend theory would be very much for this, again, fans spend a lot of money on them, so they should live up to certain expectations. I am not going to argue with what fans expect out of the aidorus they spend money on; fans will spend as they want, and if they expect something out of it, it’s their right to expect it, and if their expectations are not met, they have the right to withhold their money and their support from them from then on. I, however, do not adhere to the surrogate girlfriend theory. (I know this is hard to believe, so bear with me for a moment, but I can get a girlfriend. Maybe not someone I really, really want, but I can get one, but I’d rather hold out for something better.) Personally, I treat my number one favorite AKB girl like the little sister I sort of never had. I don’t seriously imagine her to marry me someday as I would want her to have a better life! (Note I am only talking about my number one girl.) For a few of the others, maybe they are more like friends. So I have no qualms about them having boyfriends. So if an AKB girl gets fired because she has a boyfriend, I’m like “What the F?!”

Many fans doubt that such beautiful, young, endearing girls wouldn’t have boyfriends. Many of them probably don’t, but I would guess at least a few are just hiding them very well. And fans realize that and they are fine with it, as long as the illusion is kept. The difference with Ayarin is that she was found out.

Eventually, though, months after, Ayarin would audition again as a Kenkyuusei for AKB, and would pass the auditions. I admired Ayarin for that as it shows the determination she had, and was willing to start at the bottom again, and at the same time, was willing to take in every negative reaction that expectedly would come her way for wanting to return from the group that fired her because of her “scandal.” She had guts.

She would often Kenkyuusei for Team K, though, to disassociate her from her original team, Team B. In the great Budokan shuffle of 2009 (August), she would be one of many Kenkyuuseis promoted to a main team, Team K, finally reinstating her in the main roster as a member of AKB48.

A few months after her promotion, she would cause a few more waves when she was added to the popular AKB subunit Watarirouka Hashiritai, making the foursome composed of Mayu Watanabe, Natsumi Hirajima, Haruka Nakagawa and Aika Oota a fivesome. Successful on their own, releasing three popular singles, Hatsukoi Dash, Yaruki Hanabi, and Kanpeki Gu-no ne, Ayarin would be added to Watarirouka on their fourth single, Akkanbe Bashi. Interestingly enough, though criticized by even their fans as a children’s song, Akkanbe Bashi would debut in the Weekly Oricon chart at #1, making Watarirouka the first AKB subunit to get a #1 single from Oricon. Arguably, there were many factors why Akkanbe Bashi hit #1, such as the competition for that week, riding the success of AKB itself, among others, but at least, it also showed that Ayarin’s addition to the group was not very ill-received and the sales of Warota did not suffer. The bonus videos in the Akkane Bashi DVD also documented the reactions of the original Warota foursome upon being told Ayarin would be joining them. Ayarin was openly welcomed, most especially by Harugon, who are actually close friends in real life. The five girls belong to the same agency, and it is rumored that Watariouka was originally supposed to have Ayarin as a five girl group, that was, until she was fired because of the scandal. So if that rumor was true, she was merely brought back to Warota. In Warota’s first photobook, Akkanbe, I was glad that most pictures did not include Ayarin, as I love the original Watarirouka Hashiritai foursome and I felt that their first photobook should be about the original foursome, but at the same time glad that Ayarin was in a few of them as I really didn’t want Ayarin left out either. Ayarin is now a permanent member of Watarirouka Hashiritai (as some fans were wondering if she’d be there only for Akkanbe Bashi), as she is part of the fifth single, Seishun no Flag. Seishun no Flag is also released on Ayarin’s 17th birthday, and so although I was hoping to celebrate the second #1 single of Watarirouka, consider this post an Ayarin birthday post anyway. I was also thinking Ayarin would make Undergirl in the second Senbatsu elections, and although she didn’t make it in the end, it’s nice to point out that she had received 641 votes during the time the second partial results were released, so she still has fans who support her well, not counting those that like her but just didn’t vote for her as their number one favorite.

Oh, and if you ever hear about the “Onigiri” rumor, it’s not true. It started right after the pic with her and her boyfriend spread. A website in Japanese posted an article about it, but since it was in Japanese, the only thing us gaijins (non-Japanese) could read was the word sex, written in romaji. Over at Nihongogo, one of the two biggest pro-AKB, English-speaking, online communities, which places humor above just about everything else, members were looking for a translation of the post, and when one member pointed out that the article implied that in the boyfriend’s original blog (which apparently has been taken down since) where the picture was posted, the boyfriend also implied, using a secret language, that the two had sex, members wanted to know what the exact words were.

Before I continue, I want to point out a few things first. I don’t doubt at all the translations given so far, but even if it was true that the boyfriend implied, or even directly said that they have had sex, my first question is, why should we believe any of it is true. Let’s analyze the boyfriend first, why did the boyfriend post the picture in the first place. I can only think of two feasible reasons. First, the boyfriend is stupid. Why would you, having an aidoru as a girlfriend, post a picture of you and her together in your blog, knowing its taboo in your culture, and it could destroy her career, and even worse, imply that the two of you are having sex? You think you’d be a rockstar to all your friends? But what would your girlfriend think? She’d break up with you, that’s what! What kind of love and stupidity is that? My second possibility makes more sense. The two had a fight, maybe Ayarin had already broken up with him, and posting the picture was a way to get back at her, knowing very well that she’ll get fired for it. In this state of revenge, he could have implied that they had sex, but again, why should we believe an idiot or a guy seeking revenge?

Back over at Nihongogo, Happosai, the first of two handsome official summary writers for AKBingo, posted that the words used was, “Ayarin loves to munch on my big fat onigiri while I eat up her sushi!!!” (See actual posts here: http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=143&view=findpost&p=2687.) Even more so than Gogo members, summary writers are supposed to be funny (in my case, emphasis on “supposed to”), but there are reasons why we are summary writers, not translators. Personally, I don’t think Happo ever intended to lead people to think this was what was actually written in the post, like I said, he wasn’t one of the krew’s translators, so as he usually does, I think he was joking when he made the post. The problem was people believed him. So when it seemed people didn’t figure out he was just kidding, he clarified that he was only joking (actual post here: http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=143&view=findpost&p=15912). But the Onigiri nickname has stuck and became as popular as the Aki-p BLT’s. Don’t think people at Nihongogo are a bunch of creeps for the Onigiri fiasco, I would also like to point out that it was Happosai himself that brought to Nihongogo’s attention the picture below, which was met with disgust from the same people who jest about Ayarin.

The pic (at the middle) was taken in the Shashinkai 2-shot event held in March 2010, where fans could get their picture taken with AKB members. One idiot fan decided it would be funny if he would bring a sign containing the text on the picture that got Ayarin fired, with the bottle-like thing in his mouth. I assume the cameraman didn’t know what it was about, while Ayarin bravely put on a smile, not wanting to cause a ruckus. If I was there, I would have been outraged with this guy and would have informed security about what he was trying to do and would ask them to not take the pic with the paraphernalia. See how much the Nihongogo people wanted to kill that guy here: http://forum.nihongogo.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3715&view=findpost&p=98553

Some fans have commented that the song Renai Kinshi Jourei (Rules Against Love), the title song to Team A’s fifth stage, could have been written by Akimoto Yasushi, AKB’s producer and excellent lyricist, with Ayarin specifically in mind. If there’s one producer who could understand Ayarin’s predicament, it would be Aki-P, afterall, he ended up marrying one of the girls from his 80’s aidoru group, Onyanko Club. Even besides Renai Kinshi Jourei, Wakage no Italian (Italian Curiosity), an accompanying track to Watarirouka Hashiritai’s Akkanbe Bashi, the lyrics about making mistakes and moving forward seems to be again for her, and fans have commented about this especially considering it is Ayarin which delivers the last lines, “konna watashi na no ni, hontou ni arigatou” (it let me grow despite what I am now, I am truly grateful).

A lot of people criticized AKB for taking Ayarin back in. But personally, even more so than my admiration for Ayarin, I admired AKB48 for this. I already admire the girls, but I also admired Management for taking her back. It shows that they are willing to overlook old and unreasonable “rules” if fans want it. AKB is nonconformist! Who cares about the rest of the industry, we’re trailblazing and doing things others haven’t done nor weren’t willing to do! It’s one of the traits about AKB I love the most. They really are not stereotypical, not just in this one instance, an instance that as far as I know was unheard of in their industry, but in many other instances as well. AKB48 rocks!

Early episodes of AKBingo (AKB 1ji59fun and AKB 0ji59fun) have had many funny tongue-in-cheek episodes of teaching the AKB girls how to be idols. They were taught how to act, and proper responses to questions like “what are your measurements,” “what is your favorite food,” “what made you interested in being an aidoru,” and that idols never defecate, nor have ever held hands with a boy. When somebody from the audience (if I remember correctly, in a press conference outside Japan) asked the girls if any of them had a boyfriend, someone from AKB staff responded for them, something like, “I hope not.” AKB ain’t your grandpappy’s idol group.

I don’t know when Ayarin had that guy as a boyfriend, maybe they were already together even before Ayarin auditioned for AKB, and that pic is old, or maybe they got together when she was already a member, but as far as I’m concerned, Ayarin’s only fault was having an idiot for a boyfriend. The guy is also ugly.

Ayarin is an entertainer, and as long as she entertains me, with her personality, performance, and whatnot, I don’t really care if she has a boyfriend; idol genre, my foot. My favorite girls could have boyfriends and it’s fine with me. As long as the guys aren’t idiots.

If you want to read English translations of Ayarin’s blog, which is a part of the blog of the rest of the members of Watariouka Hashiritai, indigoskies translates them here: http://watarirouka.wordpress.com/category/kikuchi-ayaka-ayarin (or for the whole of Watarirouka Hashiritai: http://watarirouka.wordpress.com)

At the bottom are a few pics of Ayarin, but here are English translations of the two songs I mentioned, Renai Kinshi Jourei and Wakage no Italian, from Studio48:

Renai Kinshi Jourei
(Translation: Rules Against Love)
(Originally performed by Minami Takahashi, Minami Minegishi and Miho Miyazaki)

It’s been just over a year since we started dating…
None of our friends know since everyone’s always together

“Inside this circle, we have rules against love”
They make too much of a deal about this joke of a rule

I love somebody somewhere
Even if I can’t do so at my own convenience
If it has to be let go,
It’s not real love
This is so against the rules

Isn’t it lonely being single? I wanted to make it a secret
If I send out a mail on my cell phone, soon nothing but love comes back

Unconsciously I’ve been charmed, and he’s become such an important person to me
I only have myself to blame – feel the strings of fate!

I love somebody all the time
I can’t stop the affection
If a boy and a girl are together,
There’s definitely something going on
A chemical reaction

I love somebody somewhere
Even if I can’t do so at my own convenience
If it has to be let go,
It’s not real love
This is so against the rules
Romance’s fuse
Because I have to hide it,
Passion only builds up
It’s so likely to go off

Wakage no Italian
(Translation: Italian Curiosity)
(Performed by Watarirouka Hashiritai: Mayu Watanabe, Natsumi Hirajima, Haruka Nakagawa, Aika Oota and Ayaka Kikuchi)

To live
Is a very difficult thing
I can't go forward
On a straight line

Got lost in the streets
Fell in the manhole
Crashed on the walls
On a detour

I made mistakes in life
Many times
I tried to remake my life
Many times
With an eraser of tears

Italian curiosity
Those days of errors
Are embarrassing until now
I was young
Italian curiosity
With repentance and reflection
It let me grow
To the full course meal of success
A smorgasbord of failures

To live
Is expending nuisance
I can't grow into an adult
By myself

Have been worried about
Have been scolded
Have been lost interest at
Burned with care

There were friends who cried with me
People who cheered me on
Somehow I can stand firm

It is carelessness
I did not see
Such important future
Those days were mistakes
It is carelessness
From various experiences
With these
I was able to learn

It is a start from now on
Italian curiosity
Those days of errors
Are embarrassing until now
I was young
Italian curiosity
With repentance and reflection
It let me grow despite what I am now
I am truly grateful

Appropriately, Ayarin was first Senbatsu in the single Romance, Irane

Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008 (rightmost)

Baby! Baby! Baby! (left, in green)

Ayarin in the third episode of AKB 1ji 59 fun (predecessor of AKBingo!), aired Feb. 8, 2008

Ayarin, on the 1st episode of the Team B show AKB48+10!, October 2007

A video featuring Team B front girls: Ayaka Kikuchi, Mayu Watanabe, Aika Oota, Yuki Kashiwagi, circa April 2008

Ayarin, upon her return, from the Akkanbe Bashi Type B video, on a Team B stage

Ayarin brought back on the main roster at the Budokan August 2009 concert

Ayarin joins Watarirouka Hashiritai, from the Akkanbe Bashi Type A video, Harugon playing with Ayarin's hair

Version 2 of Watarirouka Hashiritai: Haruka Nakagawa, Aika Oota, Ayaka Kikuchi, Mayu Watanabe, Natsumi Hirajima, from the Akkanbe Bashi Type A video

Here's an interesting AKBingo episode. On the May 26, 2010 episode, where Ayarin gets to play again on AKBingo, for dodgeball, Sasshi targets Ayarin. Ayarin catches the ball instead and eliminates Sasshi's close friend Moeno instead. It was Rino Sashihara who replaced Ayarin at Team B when Ayarin was fired, and Sasshi was promoted to Team B almost at the same time with close friend Moeno Nito. Although Sasshi had nothing to do with Ayarin's firing, she did possibly benefit from it, but Sasshi could not eliminate Ayarin, as Ayarin can catch the ball, in this dodgeball episode, I mean.

Ayarin with the rest of Watarirouka Hashiritai in their first photobook, Akkanbe

Ayarin with the rest of Warota on the cover of the normal version of Watarirouka Hashiritai's fifth single, Seishun no Flag

Ayarin on the Akkanbe Bashi PV. I’m glad Ayarin is back. I don’t mind she’s in Watarirouka either, and I love Watarirouka. Anyone Harugon loves that much is good in my book. I hope Ayarin continues to earn success.

2nd Senbatsu Elections Results: How the AKB World was Rocked Again, This Time by the Fans

2010-06-09T23:31:00.001+08:00

In case you haven’t seen the results of the 2nd Senbatsu Elections, they’re over here in my news blog (http://newsakb.blogspot.com/2010/06/2nd-senbatsu-election-results-yuko.html).

Quite a number of interesting things happened in the announcement of the results of the 2nd Senbatsu elections, but all were overshadowed by the fact that YUKO BEAT ACCHAN! That’s right, Yuko Oshima, Team K center and last year’s 2nd placer, got 31,448 votes to beat Atsuko Maeda, AKB48 and Team A center for the longest time, and last year’s number 1, who received 30,851 votes this year, short by only 597 votes.

Remember that voters are paying fans who pay through purchasing the latest CD, via becoming official paid members of the AKB48 fanclub, via being official subscribers to AKB’s Live On Demand Service, among others. Acchan didn’t necessarily lose votes, there were just much more voters this year as AKB’s fanbase has increased. (For example, Acchan only got 4,630 votes to take last year’s first place.)

Partial results were released twice during the span of the voting period, which was two weeks, and for both of them, Acchan lead Yuko by a brief margin, but it seems Yuko fans were just waiting for the right time to cast their votes for the surprise win. Either that, or Yuko fans went crazy with buying CD’s at the last minute.

I’m actually a bigger Yuko fan than I am an Acchan fan, but even I preferred Acchan to take the #1 spot over Yuko. In a time where AKB’s popularity is fast increasing, I thought a change in center might be a risk and too much of a change for the group. Possibly, the center would only change for the next single, as is what is promised anyway, but if Acchan’s speech was accurate, then the one who ranked #1 is actually pushed as the #1 girl all through out the year. We wouldn’t know that until we see if Yuko gets center position the rest of the year since Acchan was center even before the 1st Senbatsu elections. Acchan’s speech was very humble, how she felt that she didn’t meet the expectations of being the #1 girl last year, but she will continue fighting to get more votes. When Maeda was making her speech, I was concerned that she might announce her graduation. I don’t want Acchan to graduate yet, but if she wanted to, this would have been a great time to, to fully pass the center position to Yuko. Acchan has a lot of things going for her outside AKB, although I believe AKB is still the most important factor of her popularity. I don’t think it would be good for Acchan’s career to quit AKB right now, but the timing would have made sense, but I was relieved that she didn’t announce her graduation yet.

Yuko fans have much to rejoice about! The crazy, cute girl finally gets to become center of AKB48, if not for just one single, then a whole year. For any conspiracy theorists out there, don’t think there’s much rivalry between Yuko and Acchan on a personal level, they are actually good friends.

I was a bit saddened by the fact that my favorite AKB girl, Mayu Watanabe, dropped a spot from last year’s #4 to this year’s #5. The reason why I chose Mayuyu to become my #1 Oshimen was precisely the Senbatsu elections. When I was trying to decide who my #1 favorite girl is, I thought, if I could vote for the first Senbatsu elections, or if there would be another one (and as it turned out there would be), who would I vote for, and I decided the girl I couldn’t let cry if her rank went down because I didn’t vote for her was Mayu. So this time I could vote, I did vote for her. And she still ranked lower. At least it was only one spot, and since it was Tomochin who beat her, I find it acceptable. I was surprised about Mayu’s speech, how she said the CG Revolution would be put on hold this year, (CG = Mayu, CG Revolution was what she used in her appeal video), apparently, CG Revolution meant she wanted to be #1. She really seemed serious about being sad about not being #1; I thought she was fine with just ranking really high. Originally, I was thinking, if I had a lot of votes, I would cast some for her, and the rest for Nacchan, since Nacchan needs it more than Yukirin or Tomochin, for example, but because of Mayu’s hopes, if ever I get more votes next year, all my votes will be going to Mayuyu! Mayuyu for #1! And I was actually thinking all this time, if there really is only one girl that can replace Acchan as the center of AKB, it is Mayuyu. And since Acchan has been dethroned this year, it makes the election for the #1 spot next year more exciting! Mayuyu may really have a shot at being #1, if not next year, then eventually!

It’s also interesting that the Skirt Hirari top 7 remained the same. At first, I thought the Skirt Hirari 7 was something I made up, since I noticed that it was always the top 7 in the Senbatsu elections who performed Skirt Hirari in the big concerts, but when Haruna Kojima remarked that she was glad she remained in the Skirt Hirari 7, I said, wow, the Skirt Hirari 7 does exist. Haruna mentioned that she prepared a speech to being #10, since that was her rank in the first partial result, (although she was #7 is the second partials) but I’m glad Haruna stayed in the Skirt Hirari 7, and am happy that they remain the same.

Tomochin outranked Mayu, Takamina and Haruna (all three ranked one spot lower because of Tomochin), from last year’s #7 to this year’s #4, and since she’s my second favorite, I’m happy for her too.

If anyone was replacing someone in the Skirt Hirari 7, I thought it would be Yukirin over Kojima, but I’m glad Yuki made it one spot higher this year to #8.

I’m very happy that Jurina Matsui this time made it to the top 10! I was disappointed she was only #19 last year, and from the first and second partials, Jurina only ranked #18 and #15, so I’m very happy with Jurina’s high rank this year. Also, I’m glad Jurina beat Rena! Don’t get me wrong, Rena is one of my favorites too, but I just love Jurina much more, and I couldn’t bear the thought of Rena outranking Jurina and possibly replacing Jurina as the center of SKE. Jurina should stay the center, and when Rena was finally announced before Jurina, I thought there is order in the world! (Little did I know the shocking revelation between rank #1 and #2.) Since Rena is #11, she also is in the media Senbatsu, the top 12 which would be used for media appearances. Rena’s victory is also very remarkable, from a #29 Undergirl to this year’s #11 Senbatsu. Rena predictably did very well this year. The Jurina-Rena match up was close too, Jurina beat Rena by only 86 votes.

Sae and Tomo~mi did predictably well too, Sae climbed from #14 to #9 this year, while Tomo~mi stays in the media senbatsu by dropping only 2 spots to #12. No big news on Mariko, she stayed at #3, which was also predictable.

Besides the media 12, we still have the 9 other Senbatsus.

One of the biggest news for me was Harugon finally made Senbatsu! For the first time in her career, she becomes Senbatsu, and through fan votes, no less, following in the footsteps of “big sis” CinDy. Hooray for Harugon. Only Harugon (#20) was the Senbatsu I didn’t predict would make it (http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-speculate-2nd-senbatsu-elections.html), I was able to predict non-Senbatsu from the last elections Sasshi (#19) and Rena, and even Akicha, would make it. Really glad those three made it, and I was very pleased Aki made it all the way to #13; she’s one of my favorites too.

Sayaka also made Senbatsu, yay! In the partial results, Sayaka ranked in the lowest Senbatsu rank at #21, and at the first partials was even tied to last year’s Senbatsu Lovetan, but I’m glad Sayaka went up to #17 to stay Senbatsu. This is five spots lower than last year’s, but I’m relieved she made it.

Miichan was happy to rank higher, from #16 to this year’s #14, and I was happy as well for her, but Erepyon ranked lower, from #11 to #15. I don’t mind, as long as she made Senbatsu I was happy for her. Kitarie dropped from #13 to #16, last year’s miracle girl Amina dropped from #8 to #18, while Myao dropped from #18 to #21, all three were former Kenkyuuseis.

My predictions (again here: http://filipinoakbfan.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-speculate-2nd-senbatsu-elections.html) were pretty good for the Senbatsus, except for Harugon, which was a pleasant surprise, I got them right; I even suggested Yuko could possibly beat Acchan, and I was right that Lovetan and Mocchi would have a hard time retaining their Senbatsu status, as they dropped to the top 2 Undergirls. It’s interesting that Harugon is now more popular than Lovetan (even Sasshi is, although I predicted that, I mention Sasshi because of her Sashiharasment stunts on Lovetan), but at least this should mean Lovetan will center the Undergirls. The drop was disappointing for Mocchi, but at least there’s next year.

The Undergirls were very hard to predict. I got Nacchan, Yuttan, Yonechan, Haachan, Natsumi right, although the last three ranked low, eventhough they were Undergirls last year. (Although I really wanted Nacchan to make Senbatsu this time.) I also predicted Moeno, Umechan, and Kumi, but I was surprised Kumi only ranked #38, I thought she would have ranked much higher, although I’m relieved she made it in after her name disappeared in the second partials when her name was there in the first. I picked Harugon to be an Undergirl, but was glad she made Senbatsu instead. I’m disappointed Nacchi didn’t make it, and her name never appeared in the partials. Nacchi is one of my favorites and deserves more support. I thought Ayaka Kikuchi would make it, and she even ranked in both partials, but I wasn’t very surprised she didn’t make it. Another big surprise to me was that Team KII center Manatsu Mukaida didn’t make it, and her name never ranked in the partials either, but instead it’s Akane Takanayage, who would be the only KII girl who would make it in. I’m as interested in this Akane-Manatsu development as I am the Yuko-Acchan one. Who will center KII on their 3rd stage? This is smaller scale so they could easily make changes so I’m very curious who SKE management would now focus on. AKB might not change their face after the next single, but what about KII? It seems order was only maintained with Team S.

I also guessed that Komori and Reinyan would make Undergirls, and I’m very happy for Reinyan, but I guessed wrong on Maachan, Chikarina and Krisu. I predicted Nakayan and Tanamin would be the only original members of their original teams who wouldn’t make it, but they are joined by Nacchi, and Maachan, and I almost forgot about dear Kana. I hope Nacchi doesn’t decide to graduate yet because of this as I predicted she might be the next to graduate.

Big surprise was Team S’ Oya Masana ranking high at #23. I knew she was getting a lot of push from SKE Management, but I didn’t expect her to beat Kumi by so much. Haruka Ishida was another surprise for me, I didn’t know she was that popular, but I guess she is, ranking up at #27. I thought none of the Kenkyuuseis would make it again this year, so I’m surprised three made it, but I’m glad it’s my favorite current Kenkyuusei Haruka Shimazaki who topped them, ranking high at #28. If there were only 9 Undergirls again, she would be the first and only Kenkyuusei to make it, but as is, she is also joined by Suzuran Yamauchi (#36) and Atsuki Ishiguro (#40). Lastly, I like Sumire Sato, but I didn’t expect her to rank well at #31.

Here are some stats:

Team name (number of members in Senbatsu, number of members in Undergirls

Team A (7, 4)

Team K (6, 4)

Team B (6, 5)

Team S (2, 2)

Team KII (0, 1)

Team Kenkyuusei (0,3)

My top ten biggest winners of the 2nd Senbatsu election, in order of degree of success (in my opinion):

#1 Yuko Oshima (for beating Acchan and becoming #1)

#2 Jurina Matsui (for making it to #10 this year, and remaining the top SKE girl even if the partials suggested Rena would beat her)

#3 Rena Matsui (for being elected as media Senbatsu and ranking high at #11 from last year’s #29)

#4 Haruka Nakagawa (for making Senbatsu for the first time in her career)

#5 Akane Takayanagi (for being the first and only KII girl elected as Undergirl)

#6 Aki Takajo (for ranking #13 despite being and Undergirl at #23 last year)

#7 Rino Sashihara (for being elected Senbatsu despite ranking #27 as last year’s Undergirl)

#8 Haruka Shimazaki (for being the top Kenkyuusei, ranking high as an Undergirl at #28)

#9 Tomomi Itano (for beating 3 of the Skirt Hirari 7 to be #4 from last year’s #7)

#10 Sayaka Akimoto (for staying Senbatsu at #17 despite ranking #21 from the first two partial results)

I don’t want to call anyone losers, but I believe there is most disappointment (meaning they are disappointed in themselves, not others are disappointed in them) in Atsuko Maeda, for ranking only #2 and being dethroned by Yuko for the first time, and Natsuki Sato, even Manami Oku, Sayaka Nakaya, and Miku Tanabe, for being in the organization for so long and be beaten by even Kenkyuuseis, and Manatsu Mukaida, for not making it, but having another KII girl, Akane, make it, perhaps putting Mukaida’s position as center of KII in jeopardy. Lovetan and Mocchi might be disappointed in their positions as Undergirls as they dropped two spots each from being last year’s Senbatsus. Girls who expressed disappointment from ranking lower than last year include Nacchan, Yonechan, Myao and Amina, but I’m just glad they hung on. I also hoped Kumi would rank much, much higher.

It should be interesting what happens now. I really don’t think there will be consequences as a result, like I don’t think their sales will drop or they will lose fans, but I’m most curious about how AKB Management will deal with the current results. We know what will happen with the next single as that is what this election is all about, but what about the single after that? Will Yuko be center for a year instead of Acchan? Will Akane be center of KII instead of Manatsu? Will Harugon get a lot more push?

We have to remember that although Amina ranked very high last year at #8, this didn’t mean she got more push than the girls who ranked lower than her. AKB Management gave us control of who would be Senbatsu and Undergirls for one single. And that’s all they promised. After that, AKB Management gets to decide again, so it should be interesting to see if any changes will take place after the next single because of the results of these elections.

Yuki Kashiwagi

2010-05-13T10:04:00.001+08:00

Yuki Kashiwagi failed entering Morning Musume. If not for Mayuyu and Tomochin, Yukirin would be my absolute #1 favorite AKB girl, so don't be miffed by the opening statement, I need it later on.

I was never a fan of Morning Musume, so I really can't say much about them, except that in their heyday, they were the top group of their genre. They've been around over a decade (started in 1998), and other AKB members have admitted in various ways of wanting to be a part of Momusu at some point in their lives.

I don't know how they do things in Momusu, but Yukirin auditioned for them (8th gen, from what I read), and was cut (in the 3rd round, around July 2006). I don't know how that went on (was there a reality-like show, or did the auditions last for weeks) but nonetheless, she gained a following from that. Even so, try to imagine yourself in her shoes. Joining the top group in that genre would be a dream for a girl her age (she just turned 15 that time), and eventhough she made advancements towards that dream and gained a following, her dreams were cut. Must have been a sad and disappointing day for dear Yukirin.

However, she didn't resign herself to failure. A few months after (December 2006), a new girl group that was making waves in their industry for almost a year then held an audition for their third team, AKB48's Team B. Yukirin would audition for this new, upstart and unknown team and this time would make the cut, making her fans from the Momusu auditions happy.

For Team B's first stage, I firmly believe she was setup to be the front girl of Team B. She takes Yuko Oshima's place (front girl for Team K) in Team B's first stage (for Kinjirareta Futari), while Mayu Watanabe took the place of Erena Ono (who are of the same age) in Ame no Doubutsuen. In AKB's first concert tour (second concert), while Team B was still rehearsing and was still to debut, Yukirin was one of two girls from Team B who were utilized in the concert, even before their Team actually debuted; Yukirin filled in for Yuko Oshima (again) while Naruppe filled in for Sayaka Akimoto. Yukirin was also among the first three members of Team B to be included for the recording of a single, Bingo!, with Mayuyu and Nacchan. It made sense for AKB Management to put their chips on Yukirin; she already was known from her Momusu audition while most of the other Team B'ers were absolute newbies to the industry.

Then, by Team B's second stage, the revival of Team A's second stage, Aitakatta, it wouldn't be Yukirin who would take the place of Team A front girl Maeda Atsuko for Nagisa no Cherry, but Mayu Watanabe, signaling the start of Mayuyu becoming the front girl of Team B. Now, AKB Management are smart people, their choices were not random or biased, using various methods available to them (merchandise sales, surveys, etc.), they were able to determine that new girl Mayu Watanabe had a larger following than Yukirin, so Yukirin had to step back for Mayuyu. By the next single after Bingo!, only Mayuyu would represent Team B for Boku no Taiyou, and again for Yuuhi wo Miteiruka. After which was Romance Irance, and this time, it was only Ayaka Kikuchi who was added with Mayuyu to represent Team B. Again, try to imagine what Yukirin must have felt this time. One of my favorite AKB girls has gotten a lot of disappointing spots in her career, not that she has disappointed her fans, but the chips were just not falling in her favor.

Sweet-imaged Yukirin would continue steadily though, and she would get included again in the single Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008, and would become a part of the recording for every single (up to the time of this writing) since then, and would rank #9 in the Iiwake Maybe Senbatsu elections voted on by the fans, all proof of her now established popularity.

For me, Yukirin is the best dancer in AKB, better than Jurina, Nacchan or Takamina, and those are some of the best dancers in AKB right there! If you aren't distracted by her beauty and actually observe her dance, Yukirin's steps are very precise, they are intentional, from her footsteps to her facial expressions and any other body movement. It also seems like she can learn any dance in the shortest amount of time as she seems to be one of the first choices to be a substitute for anyone who is unable to perform. Granted, this may also be since she has only two original stage subunits (pre-Budokan shuffle), and less participation in singles in the past, she doesn't have as many of her own performances as her fans would like so they keep sticking her as a sub whenever someone is unavailable for their concerts for maximum Yukirin exposure. And whenever she does sub, oh, how beautiful a sub she is! Her gracious dancing is always a treat for me, not to forget to mention her beautiful face. Also, I think Yukirin is the most professional girl in AKB, not only with the things I've already mentioned, sticking with things even though they weren't going in her favor, but you can see her professionality when she dances, as she pretty much emanates the emotion that she needs to convey in the song with her facial expression and her motions. She knows that when it's time to be serious, she's serious, but when it's time to go crazy, look out!

Yukirin is also one of most fun girls in AKB. She's so silly, funny and cute, no wonder she's one of the most endearing personalities in AKB. Many of the AKB girls love her; Yukirin is also very close friends with her team's topstar, Mayuyu, who adores her so much. It's no wonder that when CinDy got transferred to SDN48 fulltime, it was announced in the Budokan shuffle that Yukirin would take her place as the leader of the new Team B. Mind you, this is not the same Team B she started with, but this will be a Team composed mostly of former members of Team A and K, with about half of them being her seniors!

Yukirin's story is inspirational, when you think about. With all the disappointments she faced, she didn't give up and kept on going. Now she's in the top group of her genre (Obviously, I believe AKB48 has already surpassed Morning Musume as the best group today, with the sales of River and Sakura no Shiori as one proof), and not only that, she's leading one of the main three teams. These would have never happened if she made it at Morning Musume. She would have realized her dream, but would end up in the #2 group. But instead, she became a part of the group that beat the best group. If Yukirin passed Momusu, I would have never known her. I'm so glad she failed. God works in mysterious ways when you don't give up and continue to try hard.

A few screencaps of Yukirin:

Though not a lot of focuses, Yukirin's first PV is Bingo!

After missing Senbatsu status for three singles, Yukirin would get chosen again for Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008, briefly shown here with a few other Team B members

3rd single to include her, Baby! Baby! Baby!

Oogoe Diamond

Her posistion in Baby! Baby! Baby is similar to her position here, left (facing us) and almost in the back of the pack

10nen Zakura, position improving (2nd row, behind Jurina)

More focuses on her on Namida Surprise

After ranking #9 by the fans in the first Senbatsu elections, she is now undeniable, as she has a much better role in Iiwake Maybe

After being announced the new captain of the new Team B weeks earlier, she takes a much more prominent role in River

Still Senbatsu in the next single, Sakura no Shiori, she also centers Team PB in its accompanying track, Enkyori Poster

In AKB's first concert tour, Yukirin was the sub to Yuko Oshima, even before Team B debuted, shown here in the "the making of" video

Just before she entered the stage with the rest of Team K, shown here with Sae Miyazawa

Since Rina Nakanishi had graduated, Yukirin substituted for her in Boku to Juliet to Jetcoaster in the Shibuya AX Best 100 2009

Perhaps to somewhat distract her beloved teammate, CinDy, along with Nacchan and Kojiharu, sitting behind the performers, waves at the performers, mostly Yukirin, when the performers faced them. The professional Yukirin was unfazed though and continued with a straight face as the performance required.

Since Reina Noguchi graduated on Pajama Drive's Senshuuraku, when Tenshi no Shippo was performed after it at the 2009 NHK Hall concert, Yukirin joined Lovetan and Nakayan as Gussan's sub

Because Yuko Oshima was out due to an operation, Yukirin subbed for Yuko for Yuuhi wo Miteiruka? on the same concert series

Yukirin subbed for unable to perform Yuka Masuda on Tobenai Agehachou for their Budokan 2009 concert

Yukirin would take center as Mai Oshima's replacement in the Team B - Team K version of Kioku no Dilemma at G-Rosso, Sept. 17, 2009, one of the best renditions of one of my favorite AKB songs

Her first stage subunit is Kinjarareta Futari, with Nakayan, where Yukirin takes Yuko Oshima's place

Her first original stage subunit was the top subunit of the Setlist Best 100 2009, Temo Demo no Namida, with Mikachi, shown here being performed at Budokan 2009, at Mikachi's graduation, where professional Yukirin can be seen trying to hold back her tears due to her injured partner's graduation

Yukirin's second original subunit is the very popular Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate, with Nacchan and Lovetan, shown here performed at the Shibuya AX Request Hour Setlist Best 100 2010

One of Yukirin's earliest most eventful segments on AKBingo! was the Shiritori Fast Word Battles.

A must see for any Yukirin fan is the Feb. 19, 2009 episode of AKBingo!, where she was prominently featured in a prank.

Another must-see for Yukirin fans is her battle with close friend Mayu Watanabe on Shojiki Shougi (Truth Chess Battle) on the Aug. 12, 2009 episode of AKBingo!

Dubbed "Reaction Queen" for her very funny reactions, Yukirin shares this title with Sae Miyazawa, paired with her here on the Aug. 26, 2009 episode of AKBingo!

In the Team B show AKB48+10, if Team B leader CinDy was not present on the episode, it is usually Nacchan or Yukirin leading the show, Yukirin shown here judging the competition on its 4th episode, aired Jan. 1, 2008

In my favorite Yukirin clip, she cutely approaches the camera on the "the making of" video of the NHK Hall 2009 concert

Really having nothing serious to say, since Moe Yamashita and Rena Matsui were passing by, she decides to introduce them

While Yukirin was about to talk about her hairpin, as Harugon tends to do, she interrupts Yukirin, where Yuki playfully displays annoyance. The two are actually good friends.

She messes around a bit with Hacchan while performing Shiroi Shirts on the same concert, something I rarely see her do while performing, but enjoy seeing her do

Announcement of the first Senbatsu Election results, 2-3 seconds before Yukirin's name was called

Ranking #9 in the first Senbatsu elections, proving her worth to the whole AKB

She takes no less than #1 AKB girl Maeda Atsuko's place in Yuki's performance of Kuroi Tenshi in the Budokan 2009 shuffle concert with Nakayan and Hacchan

In the Shibuya AX Best 100 2010 concert, she joins Minami Takahashi and Sayaka Akimoto as the captains of thier respective Teams to start the concert series, wearing their most classical Team uniforms, where Yukirin wears her Shonichi uniform.

Yukirin learns for the first time that she will be the captain of Team B in the Budokan 2009 concert

As CinDy leaves Team B, I am happy that Team B is at least in good hands. I will continue to support the new Team B along with its new Captain. Way to go, Yukirin! Continue to do great, and may more of the best go your way!