On: AKBGroup Election Results Part II

*Part I*

Undergirls

Continuing on from my last post, I will share my reaction and general thoughts on the results of the 2016 AKBGroup Election. Undergirls is a group that SKE48 has dominated for a number of years. I fully expected the same to happen this year (and actually expected quite a few SKE girls to rise into senbatsu itself as well) but SKE didn't dominate nearly as much as they had before. Neverthless, it was nice to see Souda Sarina (SKE), my favorite draft member rank so high. Churi dropping out of senbatsu was sad, but I kind of expected it. Nao dropping in rank rather than rising into senbatsu like I had hoped just sucked. Nao is a younger member of SKE and will be one of the members to support Jurina as a front girl in the years to come - SKE really needs some of these younger girls in senbatsu or at least high Undergirls. *sigh* But hey, Takeuchi Saki ranking so high was a definite plus in SKE's ranks - maybe the fans are hinting that they want Saki to take the center lead rather than Ryoha? 

NMB having two members rank in Undergirls is definitely an improvement but they really need a second name in senbatsu. Shiroma Miru may be the best bet for next year. Nako ranking in was nice, poor girl works so hard (and she's super young still!). Mio dropping was meh for me. I knew she didn't have a good year and I don't like her, but I was a bit surprised to not see her higher. Her fans seem to be extremely loyal to her. Regardless, I was pretty ok to see where she was. It's not a terrible position, but it was clear from her speech that she expected a higher rank for sure. Undergirls overall though, was a win for AKB in my opinion. Oshima Ryoka, Kawamoto Saya, and especially Komiyama Haruka show that they're definitely the future of the group, jumping straight into Undergirls. Kato Rena rises - just a bit - but she keeps her position as a lead member of the group. Iriyama Anna, although this is her last election, managed to rank at #18, her highest yet and Kojima Mako gracefully took the #19 spot showing that she is poised to enter senbatsu by next year. Overall, I was satisfied with Undergirls and so happy that this shows that the main group's girls may not be as overshadowed by sister group members after all. 

On: 2016 AKBGroup Election Results Part I

THE. RESULTS. ARE. IN.

Regardless of who you voted for or if you voted at all, there is no question that this year's election had a wide array of surprises for many. It's an election that many thought they could predict and in the end, fell into (generally) complete chaos. Girls who had always ranked didn't rank. Newer girls ranked in. SKE's voting power was acknowledged but did not impact rankings as it had for years. NMB took a stand but ultimately, was unable to compete with the sister groups and HKT is a whole mess of drama and rivalries on their own. So let's get started on my general reactions shall we? We'll start with the member(s) that didn't rank and that I think totally should have. 

TANO YUKA! If I have any serious gripe with this election it was this - Yuka. did. not. rank. HOW?! Tano Yuka is my 3rd oshi in AKB and in terms of sousenkyo voting, is posed to become my #1 by next year. I didn't vote for her this year because I thought, "she'll surely make it into at least Next Girls. She always has and she's awesome. I. was. wrong. And I'm so utterly sad and disappointed. Yuka is a future ace. She can sing, dance, act and has that quirky personality where she says whatever is on her mind. Even though she may come off as rude, I love her outspoken personality and the fact that she's not afraid to say, "Yes, I'm good at what I do." She deserves a comeback next year and goodness, please don't graduate because of this~!! 

Ugh. Ok, now onto the results themselves (yes, I only really care that Tano didn't rank in. Disappointed in myself really). 

On: AKB48 2016 Election Prediction(s)~

The faces of the 48 groups from left to right: Kato Minami (NGT48), Matsui Jurina (SKE48), Sashihara Rino (HKT48), Watanabe Mayu (AKB48), and Yamamoto Sayaka (NMB48)

IT. IS. TIME. 

THE. 2016. 48GROUP. SENBATSU SOUSENKYO IS HERE!

What is the senbatsu sousenkyo you ask? Well, as I explained in my more detailed post last year here, the election gathers all the members of the 48groups that are eligible and choose to participate into what is essentially, a popularity contest. There are 80 spots available with over 200 girls from AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, and NGT48 competing for a spot. Ranking not only is a huge honor, but often brings attention to girls that management had ignored or had not promoted as much. Ranking in senbatsu, "the chosen ones" which is the top 16 spots, allows you to promote the next AKB single, and opens up various new work opportunities which helps the girls solidify their careers for after they graduate. The #1 girl or center, is giving mass media attention and essentially, reaches a legendary status within the group itself. 

Last year I voted - a lot. But this year, I decided to vote a lot less and chose to place all votes for one girl: Watanabe Mayu. Last year, she fell to the #3 spot and this year, the preliminaries placed her at barely taking #1, less than 1,000 votes above the #2 spot, Sashihara Rino and approximately 6,000 votes away from the #3 spot, Matsui Jurina. Now, it wasn't my intention to vote at all this year, but after watching the preliminary, I felt that I had to vote. I just really want Mayu to keep her lead and while I know it's a longshot, with the fact that Sashi has an extremely loyal and powerful fanbase, I hope to contribute at least a bit in bridging that gap. 

On: Visiting the AKB48 Theater and Shop

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently traveled to Tokyo and spent some time completely freaking out in Akihabara (ok, so it wasn't that bad, but like, Akihabara is the the holy ground for any AKB48 fan and coupled with the Hello!Project shop that's also in Akiba, I was having the time of my life, haha). I visited Akihabara twice and it was only on the second visit that I gathered enough courage to head to the 8th floor of Don Quijote in order to see the AKB theater in person.

My younger sister headed up with me and one of the first things I noticed (aside from all of the AKB promo decorating the outside of the building), was that there are images of the various AKB CD covers plastered on the walls which you can see when you're taking the escalator up (or down!). There are tons of covers and they're all HUGE! It was really neat for a fan like me and definitely built up the anticipation I had to get to the theater itself.

On: AKB49 Musical Renai Kinshi Jourei

From left to right: Suda Akari (SKE48), Owada Nana (AKB48), Miyazawa Sae (SKE48), and Kojima Mako (AKB48)

Y'know those moments when you should be doing homework, but stumble across something really awesome that you just HAVE TO WATCH? Ok, maybe you don't actually have to do it, you can put it off until after the end of the semester, but life is short and I love musicals so I screwed myself over on schoolwork and just watched the AKB49 Musical Renai Kinshi Jourei.

So, some quick background on this before we jump in. AKB49 is a manga series and is largely considered an "official" manga title of the super mega Japanese idol group AKB48. Of course, it's a bit AU because a lot of the stuff that happens in the manga wouldn't happen in real life but it's a neat concept, similar to the "official" anime, AKB0048 (which I quite liked and still wish we could delete the last 5 or so episodes because that was a silly way to end the anime and there was so much potential for something greater~!! I should type up a separate post about the anime...) Anyways, the stars of the musical are Miyazawa Sae who play the male lead, Minoru Urayama; Suda Akari as Ai Okabe, who plays the main antagonist; and Owada Nana and Kojima Mako, who both play the female lead Hiroko Yoshinaga (they take turns portraying her character throughout the stage's run). I watched the version with Owada Nana as the female lead.

Now for a quick synopsis: Minoru always wanted to be a great baseball player, but due to an injury, he was forced to give up his dream. One day, while in class, he founds out that the girl (Hiroko Yoshinaga) he likes is a huge AKB48 fan and that she plans to take the audition to become a trainee. Deciding that he wants to help support her, Minoru decides to become Minori Urakawa and also audition to become a trainee. When the staff members announce who has passed the audition and Hiroko's number is called, Minoru decides his job is done and turns to take his leave. Right before he leaves however, his number is called and next thing he knows, he's a trainee of AKB48 alongside Hiroko!

2015 Election Results + Reactions (part 2)

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So, the election~! Before we get into the top 16 ranks, there's a few comments I want to make about the lower rankings. I was happy to see more NMB48 girls rank at higher places this year, although I'm not so fond of not having seen Nishino Miki rank again :/ Ryoha ranking in the lower categories was good enough for me. She's in the rankings. Now, if she could only open up more and improve her character, she may start the climb up like many of SKE's girls. Sato Sumire ranked this year - and she got a center position! I was really happy to see that, although sad that members such as Maeda Ami and Iwasa Misaki were out of the ranking altogether. Also, Souda Sarina ranked! She was my favorite member from the first AKB draft and while I knew she was popular I wouldn't have expected her to rank in her 2nd election - you go girl! :)

Now, onto the reaction for the top 16 spots!

2015 Election Results + Reactions (part 1)

Guess what? I woke up this morning at 3:30 am (after having gone to bed at 12:30 am) and didn't go back to bed until 8:30 am. Why? I wanted to watch the AKB48 election live! I voted this year more than I have any other year and I wanted to see how my favs would do (both those that I did vote for and those girls who I didn't have enough funds to vote for but still support). This year, I split my votes 4 ways; I joined a campaign for Watanabe Mayu and one for Tano Yuka. For Watanabe Mayu, my donation bought roughly 5 votes for her. For Tano Yuka, my donation bought about 1.5 votes for her. For the final two members I voted for, I used a proxy service. I sent money to a member of the Stage48 forum that was in Japan during the election voting period and he bought the votes for me at a super cheap price ($9 a vote! Had I bought the CD's from my go-to place, YesAsia, the votes would have been about $18 each. So by using the proxy service, I got two votes for the price of what would normally be 1.) In return, my proxy buyer got to use the handshake ticket that came with the CD to meet one of the girls (something that I wouldn't have been able to use anyway since I'm way over here in the U.S. so it's a win-win situation) This was one of my best decisions this year because I was able to buy 10 votes. My proxy buyer took a picture of the voting codes and sent them to me through email. I inputted the codes and voila! I had voted for two girls. I sent 8 of the 10 votes for my favorite member - Yokoyama Yui. I sent the final two votes in for my favorite NMB48 member Watanabe Miyuki.

2015 AKB48 Election~!

I've mentioned before in several blog posts that I'm a pretty big fan of the Japanese pop idol group AKB48. They hold many yearly events, the most popular of which is the Senbatsu Election. "Senbatsu" is the term used to symbolize which girls are "chosen" to promote a single. These girls are the ones that appear in the music video of the song, on the cover and also the ones that perform and promote the song through tv appearances and performances.

The 16 girls chosen to promote the group's newest single, "Bokutachi wa Tatakawani"

Getting a spot in senbatsu is a huge deal for the girls because with it comes increased exposure and basically indicates that a girl has amassed enough popularity that the management is willing to invest in increasing that popularity and having the girl become one of the ambassadors of the group. There are many girls who are "staples" in senbatsu, meaning that due to their high popularity, they are always chosen to promote a song. Then, there are girls that are newcomers and those that may be giving a spot on one single, only to be dropped from the roster for the next single. This can be very frustrating for fans that have a favorite member and want to see her in all the releases/gain more popularity. And of course, there are also many girls that fans feel are deserving of a spot in senbatsu but are never given one by management. 

Majisuka Gakuen 4

Between seasons of American and British tv shows, I oftentimes pick up a Japanese drama or two.  Way back in late 2010/early 2011, when I first started following the Japanese pop group AKB48, I read tons of online recommendations urging people new to the group to watch the drama Majisuka Gakuen. I decided to give it a try and boy was I blown away! At the time, I was used to seeing idol groups play innocent, princess-like characters. In Majisuka Gakuen, the girls of AKB48 portrayed "yankee" high school students, a term which in Japan refers to a delinquent. The all-girls high school named Majisuka houses some of the roughest and toughest yankee students in the area. And while they often fight territory wars against other high schools, there is nothing more interesting than the fight for the top within the school itself. 

The first Majisuka Gakuen featured many of the most prominent girls in the group back in 2010. Its sequel, Majisuka Gakuen 2, had many of these members return with new girls, (who were being touted as the "future" of the group) also being introduced. Majisuka Gakuen 3 took place in a prison and diverted completely from the storyline that had been introduced in the school setting. Majisuka Gakuen 3 wasn't too popular so for the 4th installment, the producers decided to move the setting back to the school and have the girls play student delinquents once again (instead of just you know, delinquents).

Jpop Mix: Yasashiku Suru Yori Kiss O Shite -やさしくするよりキスをして

Welcome to the third Music Mix post! (Yeah, I'm doing a lot of these...I recently bought quite a lot of brand new CD's so I'm trying to review them all as quickly as possible). This time up is Miyuki Watanabe, who celebrated her solo debut in December of 2014. I decided to start off right away with the video for the song because I love the 80's super idol vibe she is channeling through her music video. Yeah, I'm a total fangirl, haha.  Miyuki is actually a member of NMB48, another of the sister groups of AKB48. Many soloists are produced from their ranks, but I don't generally follow them unless I really like the song. All in all, I think I have like 4-5 singles from their soloists, which is not that much considering they have quite a large number of them. Anyways, Miyuki is known for her flirtatious personality. While her singing is not the best, she is a very good dancer and is quite charismatic on stage. She currently claims the title of my favorite member in NMB, so it's not much of a surprise that I bought her first solo single.

Jpop Mix: 12gatsu no Kangaroo

Hello and welcome to the second installment of Music Mix! As I warned in my first post here, most of the music I listen to is Japanese pop music or just Japanese in origin. So, I'll likely be posting quite a lot of reviews of Japanese pop music, although I will try to add rock/classical/etc. when I'm able to :) This time, we take a look at SKE48's December single, 12gatsu no Kangaroo or １２月のカンガルー. The name of this group must sound pretty familiar right? The first music release I reviewed was one by a group named AKB48. SKE48 is AKB's sister group, founded 3 years after AKB was formed. Both groups have their own theater's where members perform nearly everyday. AKB's theater is located in AKihaBara, in Tokyo. Meanwhile, SKE's is located in SaKaE, in Nagoya. Just a quick explanation as to why they're so similar in name and structure. 

Jpop Mix: Kibouteki Refrain

What is this? A new post category? Why, yes, yes it is. Welcome to my MusicMix post, where I review a new CD/single I have bought or maybe a song that has caught my attention. I will try my best so that this category doesn't end up filled solely with jpop, but as a forewarning, most of my music is jpop. I listen to a wide range of jpop artists, from idols to classic artists so even if I don't seem to break from the jpop bubble, I'll try to present a slice of my varied music tastes. As a heads-up, in addition to jpop, I listen to a fair amount of cpop, kpop, indopop, Spanish pop & rock, and in terms of American music, it's a little bit of everything. My iTunes has tons of soundtrack music from American movies and television shows so I may review a few soundtracks from time to time. Please be aware that not all the music I review will be the latest release, but I will try to make sure the music is no more than 1 year old. :) 

So, with that out of the way, lets get started! First up is the single, Kibouteki refrain (希望的リフレイン) by Japanese mega idol group AKB48. The first picture on the left is of the front cover of this single which features the members in various phases of running. The second picture is the back cover, featuring the following members, from left to right: Mako Kojima, Sakura Miyawaki, Mayu Watanabe, Nana Owada, and Rena Kato. One of the first things I want to make clear is that AKB48 is huge. HUGE. This is literal. AKB48 is a girl group made up of tons of members. The original concept was to have 3 teams: Team A, Team K and Team B. Each team consisted of 16 members (thus the 48 at the end). Why so many girls? The girl group has its own theater where they have shows daily for fans. In order to not overextend the girls, each team takes turns performing. In addition, the girls hold handshake events and meet-and-greets with one main goal in mind: increased access. The idea behind this group was to create a group that was easily accessible to their fans and therefore a group that everyone could relate to. Of course, since their indie days they have grown into the bestselling girl group in Japan. They also now have 5 teams (Teams A, K, B, 4 and 8) and boast waaaayyyy more than 48 members.

Diving Back In

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to dive back into my Tobira textbook for a while. While I haven't picked up the textbook, I have finally started reading a book I have owned for a good 4 years or so. I bought the pink book below, when I first started becoming interested in the Japanese music scene. At the time (and arguably until today) one of the most well known artists was AKB48. I had watched some of their television shows and found them interesting, so I decided to buy this book thinking, hey, I know hiragana, katakana and about 200 kanji, I'm sure I can read a good part of this. Yeah, no. I got the book and immediately set it aside for the "future" where I would be "better" at Japanese and recognize more of the kanji.

I definitely recognize more kanji, but I've also forgotten a ton of them. So, despite these drawbacks, I decided to start reading it this week. It has been a very very very slow start. I feel like the second picture says it all....especially taking into account that it took me like 3 hours to get through the prologue. Jeez! Luckily the next page was not that bad and I actually got through it pretty quickly (pretty quickly being in about 1 hour and a 1/2). The third page was the easiest because it has words said by the members themselves. I find it a lot easier to read dialogue so that went by pretty fast. I'm really proud of myself for having at least started this and hope that by March I'll have 2 chapters done (this is my goal. It's kind of a sad goal, but if I reach it I will be super proud of myself. Never mind that each chapter is like 8 pages long >.<)