Here’s something somewhat hilarious: as AKB48 gets more popular (or at least has higher sales), I like their singles less and less. I thought 10nen Zakura was a travesty, and Namida Surprise sounds like synthesized armpit farting. Now, as an H!P fan, I know that I am not the measure by which everyone likes their music. Even with H!P, several of the popular members and groups just don’t resonate with me as well as some of the overlooked, but still immensely talented, other girls.
AKB48 has been doing a lot lately, and I have a lot to say about it, so I figured “Why not?” This is my wota blog, and while I wouldn’t call myself an AKB48 wota, I still know more than the average J-pop fan, so it counts.
On the seibatsu: As a matter of principle, I agree with the idea of a voting system used to determine which girls will be in the next single. But, the implementation, for me, left something to be desired. Certainly, a tie-in with the previous single helped to inflate “Namida Surprise”’s numbers, but who knows how much? If you were desperate enough to want 1000 votes to make sure your girl was in the top 21, you would simply buy 1000 CDs. Now, it doesn’t seem as though many people went to that extreme as most girls seemed to get between 1000 and 5000 votes. But, 100? I think that’s not too off base, potentially, especially if you look at the fact that Sayaka, who hasn’t been in a few singles now because she’s not as popular, got more votes than Sae, who is rather popular. It’s just another way to make your idols start to go crazy and to gouge the pockets of the fans. And wota? Well, if nothing else, they’re used to that. We’re nearly as exploited as the girls themselves.
On the Japan Expo in Paris: As far as content goes, you’ll be wanting to go here because SaeYaka Paradise has videos. It seems the French are not the camera nazi’s that other nations are. Several of the videos are decent looking, and one or two are even decent sounding. It seems the girls (the not-as-popular girls of Team A, I believe, as the super-popular ones were promoting some baseball thing or something) performed both “Bingo!” and “Oogoe Diamond” in English, did a French chorus for “Sakura no Hanabiratachi” and spoke a bit of French during their intro bits. From what the videos show, it was a good two concerts, but not really all that long. But at the same time, it made me look forward to something else.
The New York Anime Festival: Someone from Stage48 emailed the NYAF about AKB48 being at their convention, and received this response:
“Thank you for your email. The New York Anime Festival has not officially announced AKB48 as guests, so I can only give you a “no comment” about that, but I can say that AKB48 will be performing in NYC during the dates of the festival, and we’ll be making an official announcement soon.”
I think this means you can all start booking flights pretty soon. (The festival is from September 25th-27th, in case you’re wondering.) There is a $200 VIP package for the convention (find info here) which seems to include early seating at all events, a guaranteed autograph from Yui Makino after *her* concert, a coat check and concierge service (you don’t even know how handy that is… buy swag and then leave it with them until you’re ready to go!), and… 10% off of show store purchases… which may or may not potentially include AKB48 goodies. (Oh, and a 10% coupon for Kinokuniya bookstore, and a 2-week trial of premium CrunchyRoll membership.)
On SDN48: Meetan and Nonti, the 2 AKB48 people who are my age (I just discovered the Meetan is exactly one week older than I am) are officially going to be part of “Saturday Night 48″, where the skirts may not just get shorter… they might come off! Shows were supposed to start in a few days, but it seems they’ve been pushed back because the girls aren’t… ready. I don’t doubt they need a bit more time to be mentally prepared. At the same time, though, I think this will help out the popularity of those girls who are participating, if not in the healthiest way. I like Meetan quite a bit and would like to see her do more, so this is at least something that the younger girls won’t be encroaching on, and somewhere she’ll definitely be in her element (as her element may well be softcore porn). It’ll be interesting to hear reports of how these events go, but in my head, they won’t go for too long before they become more trouble than they’re worth. But, I suppose it depends on how much “sex” they’re selling.
So, yeah… I do kind of want to see AKB48 when they’re in New York, especially since I’m already planning a trip to D.C. around the same time. We’ll see if it all comes together, but I can’t express how upset I’ll be at not being able to see Momusu, but having the opportunity for AKB48. Still, I’m holding on to the possibility of Berryz Koubou for next year.