AKB0048 Ep 1

It's time to review something new. Someone mentioned that I should review AKB0048, so here it is. Surprisingly, you'll learn a lot about AKB48 and the idol world in Japan in the process, so please look forward to that. There will also be links to performances whenever possible. I will also be referring to members by their "old" teams, since this anime was created before the recent shuffle. 

The episode starts with the following:

These lines look like they were inspired from the Team B song "Shonichi" (First day [of performances]), which is actually the first song of their first setlist personalized just for them (their two prior stages were taken from Team A and Team K stages, respectively). In the first chorus of this song, it starts with "Yume wa ase no naka ni" ("The dream is amidst the sweat"). The second chorus starts with "Yume wa namida no saki" ("The dream is just ahead of the tears"). You can find the rest of the lyrics (with translations) here. 

The motto for AKB0048 is "idols that come to see you". For AKB48, it's "idols that you can come meet and watch at the theater everyday". It's switched around, but still keeps the essence of what AKB48 is about: interaction with the fans. After every performance at the theater, the AKB48 members that performed on stage will give a high five to all of the audience members. That's how important their fans are to them. On a side note, I think that's Aki-P's (Akimoto Yasushi) name in the credits.

AKB48's Janken Tournament 2012

September 18th was AKB48's annual Janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) Tournament, where those with the strongest luck and motivation to become center will be part of the Best 16 senbatsu for the 29th single. I'll be writing what I saw from "live" footage on Kayou Kyoku.

Warning: this post will be extremely (low quality) picture heavy!

Note: I'll be referring to the members by their "old" team names, since that's what the announcer in the tournament was doing. 

Highlights from the first 3 rounds (before Best 16)

AKB48 Team K Oshima Yuko (right) sexies it up with her police outfit and wins her first round against ex-team member, Kuramochi Asuka (AKB48 Team A).

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AKB48 Team K Minegishi Minami (right) struck out on her first round after placing 3rd in last year's tournament. 

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Montreal Comic-Con 2012

So on Saturday, September 15th, I attended Montreal Comic-Con. I didn't have any particular expectations; I just wanted to shop, attend some panels, and enjoy myself.

I arrived at 8:45am at the Palais des Congrès, and there were so many people waiting to get inside. Luckily, the line moved quite a bit during the time I was waiting, and I was even able to get upstairs, after getting stamped, into a holding area until 10 am, which is when the convention starts.

I followed the mob of people to the dealer's area, and it was huge. It was definitely going to take me all day to get through it, but I only browsed through 3 aisles until I left to go attend Johnny Yong Bosch's panel at 11 am. I got there 20 minutes before the start, and JYB was saying how we were so early. I apologized, and he said he didn't mind, it's just that they were still setting up. Check out the pre-panel footage here. I wasn't particularly a fan of JYB before this panel because I haven't really played (besides some Sengoku Basara) or watched any anime that he voice acted in. However, I was smiling throughout his entire panel, and loved every second of it. I'm his fan for life now. <3

The Graduation of AKB48's Center and the Unexpected Shuffle

If you've heard of AKB48, then you must have heard about Maeda Atsuko, nicknamed Acchan, who has graduated from AKB48 on August 27 to pursue her solo career.

Maeda Atsuko / Acchan

In the beginning, Acchan never wanted to be AKB's center, but Aki-P (Akimoto Yasushi) wanted someone to be the face of AKB48, and chose her. Her center position status became apparent when Acchan had all the singing lines in A2 (Team A 2nd Stage)'s "Nagisa no Cherry". Although, when I first got into AKB48 and saw "Skirt Hirari", I thought for sure that Takamina (Takahashi Minami) was the center as she had the most lines. As I saw more of their performances, the center of AKB48 was definitely Acchan and Takamina for me. For more details on AKB48's history --> http://vid48.com/watch_video.php?v=DWB6YX3KOY2D

Takahashi Minami / Takamina

With the immovable center now out of the picture, it seems that Aki-P wants to change things up a lot. There was a shuffle in 2009 during the "Soukaku Matsuri" where all the performances were done by different members than the original stage performances. No one knew that this was a big hint that AKB48 would be shuffled. Even though the shuffle was shocking, the placement of members made sense. Kasai Tomomi definitely had the cuteness that fit Team B. Itano Tomomi definitely had a coolness about her that fit Team K. Even though it took some time to get used to who used to be in what team and what team they were in now, it all made sense in the end in terms of the fit and the balance within the teams. For those who aren't sure how the teams are classified, you can think of it in these terms: Team A is the idol team; Team K is the cool team, and Team B is the cute team. 

Kasai Tomomi / Tomo~mi / Chiyu

Itano Tomomi / Tomochin

Otakuthon 2012

The biggest part of my summer was preparing for Otakuthon 2012. Did you attend?

As staff, I have a lot of information to organize and sort through, so it wasn't easy. Also, the more information I receive, the better it is for me, but also means a lot more work to translate this information into what it needs to be. Luckily, I have an amazing assistant to help me with all this work. 

However, I was far from ready in terms of performing at Otakuthon. This year, I was participating in 2 songs at J-Music in Motion, which I usually never do since I'm a coach. Also, I was asked to do a solo song at the Closing Ceremonies. To be able to stand on stage for 3 songs was amazing for me, but it was so difficult to get ready for, especially since my weekdays are occupied with my internship position, which is pretty important for my scientific career. I was so busy that I couldn't upload any new videos to my Youtube account nor did I even have time to update my blog. @.@ Hopefully, I can get back on track with all those things soon.