Hi everybody! I’m not dead, but my computer is… So listen, I might not update for a while, but I promise you that I’ll try to get back on track ASAP. It pains me to not be able to work on my blog, because it’s a really big part of my life (sad) and it keeps me from going completely insane.

So I’ll get back to you whenever I’m able to get my computer up and running again, and if I think of a good post, I’ll find a way to make it happen. For now you guys can just… go look at the pretty screencaps in all my posts or check out my blogroll, as there are awesome AKB bloggers out there who are way more active than I am at the moment!

See you soon everybody!

But for now,

Bye Bye Bye

Disc 4:

Watch out. Top 25 songs! Woot! Some really great songs in here, and also, look forward to Team B’s absolute pwnage of this concert

Reinyan, Takamina and Yonechan are the first commenters. Odd combination, but still fun!

 

Sougen no Kiseki: Sayaka solo lines are gorgeous! (I’m running out of adjectives in this review XD) I’m so happy to see this song getting some love, though. I insist, K3 is all kinds of awesome, and underrated as hell too. Kana’s super bright KK hat was hilarious

Disc 3:

SHAMUNEKO FTW!!! Best song ever. Anyway, Disc 3 is amazing, as we approach the top 25 we get to watch some of the greatest AKB songs!!

Haruna, Myao and Mariko make up the next team of reviewers. It’s quite funny to see them interacting with each other, because the dynamics are different from the usual, with Haruna being an original member, Mariko a kind of original member and Myao the new star.

 

Blue Rose: Blue rose is cooooool… How can you not love this song? It’s simply a classic! No skimpy surprise to us from Meetan, but still, amazing performance by the original line-up, no less.

 

Tadaima Renaichuu:  Ahh the memories… I SO love this costumes, I’m glad they’re back, if only for a bit… Kohara would’ve fitted so well in A, I’m still surprised that she’s in B, but I like B more than A so, that’s fine too XD I love Miichan’s hair, BTW, it looks totally gorgeous. And Kitarie, please stop being so beautiful, you distract me kthxbai.

 

SKE48: Oh come on. Fixed song ranking is fixed. Anyhow, I’m amused by the fact that I’m just like AKB haters when it comes to SKE48 “There are too many girls, and I can’t tell them apart from each other, except for like 4 of them” XD But I hope that that changes when S1 is released as a DVD… Wait. Full version too? WTF? Stop it already…

 

Aozora no Soba ni ite: This reminds me of Hana’s graduation, so excuse me while I go cry a bit T_T Er, wait, what’s up with the fugly boots? Seriously.

 

Tonari no Banana: I love Tomomi-chan, and I’ve recently rediscovered my love for Erena as well. This song is cuteness overload all over the place! 

 

Kimi wa Pegasus: This song is pure and raw pwnage. Although Sae’s collar was all over the place when the song started XD. Sayaka is the best prince ever <3 *drool*

Disc 2:

Sae hotness <3 Anyway, last year, I thought that Disc 2 was my least favorite of all XD But this year, it’s a great selection, with quite a bunch of old nostalgic AKB songs

The first commenters are Akicha, Tomomi-chan and Nontii. Quite an unexpected but fun combo! I love Aki’s socks BTW.

 

Anata to Christmas Eve: Ahhh! This is a real fan favorite, isn’t it? For the nostalgic value, I guess. I love to see Ayu-nee back on stage! She was one of my favorites <3

This will be very long XD But I hope it can encourage people to buy the DVDs, they are expensive, but actually a good deal when you think that it’s 5 DVDs with double audio track and like 105 performances or so. Also, the making of is super long and entertaining, so it’s a very nice bonus!

And so, let’s start with the first Disc, which includes the lower rated songs… I liked this disc a lot! Because of AKB’s huge musical catalogue, choosing only 100 songs means that they are all great! 

As with last years DVD, we get 3 girls talking about the songs, and you can actually hear her comments during the performances if you want to! The first 3 are Erepyon, Tomochin and Mayuyu. I found this kind of weird because Mayu is Team B’s most famous member, so I thought that she’d be getting to comment on the highest rated songs. Still, cute trio.

 

Tomo yo: I <3 this song so much. And Yuko’s bass > ALL. Tomomi looks stunning here, and it’s nice to see Ayana and Yuu back in the team! I want to vote for this song next year too, I love the concept of it, and seeing the girls just being there all happy playing their instruments makes me happy. And yes, they do play the instruments, you can see that in the making of.

 

Mr. Kissman: A4 was SO great. Amazing group songs for sure. Anyway, it was kind of strange to see the new girls take over the other’s lines, but it gave the song a refreshing feeling XD Maimai looks so bored in this performance, though. I wonder why…

Well, i really wasn’t planning on posting about this, because it bugs me a lot and I’d rather think about different stuff, but as long as this is an AKB blog, it needs to be up to date with the latest news, so here goes:

1. Saotome Miki graduated on the latest AKB48 NHK concert: This is shit. Mikipomu deserved so much better than the way she was treated and it bugs me a LOT. On the other hand, I’m glad that they let her have a small ceremony to say goodbye to her old team mates. I have nothing against Kikuchi Ayaka, but really, what they did with Mikipomu is exactly the opposite and it pisses me off to see an organization pulling off all this kinds of crap.

2. Uriya Akane also graduated on that date: Uriya Akane was the only first generation Kenkyuusei who survived the mass firing massacre they had a while ago, yet she never got added to a team. I guess she was fed up with it and realized that she had better chances of recognition out of AKB, so she called it quits. I’m always saddened when a Kenkyuusei graduates without making it to a team before, it’s so frustrating! Congratulations, and I hope that you have a very bright future ahead anyway, Akane

3. Officially, Kawasaki Nozomi, Oshima Mai and Hayano Kaoru graduated in that concert too: But this is old news, so let’s move on

4. New AKB single, Namida Surprise, to be released on June 24th. The following members will be featured: Maeda Atsuko, Kojima Haruna, Fujie Reina, Minegishi Minami, Takahashi Minami, Kitahara Rie, Nito Moeno, Kashiwagi Yuki, Watanabe Mayu, Miyazawa Sae, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Itano Tomomi, Shinoda Mariko, Miyazaki Miho, Sashihara Rino, Matsui Rena, Matsui Jurina, Komori Mika

See a new name in the list? Well, NOT REALLY. It’s the same line up as always. I always LOL when I think about MM singles, where people complain that 8th gen doesn’t ever get enough lines. Most AKB girls don’t even appear as props in singles XD

Anyway, I’m sad that they’re shafting Sayaka again, because she’s awesome. And I’m also sad that Komori Mika was picked for this. *puts on flame suit* You’re all going to hate me for this MIkapon fans, but this shameless pushing members down our throats thing AKB is doing lately is pissing me off. I don’t care about Jurina for the most part, although I don’t like her either, and I think Rena is like 1000 times cuter, but come ON! There’s something about Jurina that makes her stand out, and she’s a good dancer and well rounded performer, but Komori isn’t. She’s awkward and lost and frankly, kind of boring to look at whenever she’s on stage. I don’t mean to be mean, really, it’s nothing personal, but what’s the point on being “In training” if you’re going to be in singles already, pushing out of the way other members with WAY more experience than you. Just NO. I don’t like this and I never will, even if I become Mikapon’s No. 1 fan in a month or something crazy like that.

That isn’t all there is to this single, though. 10nen Zakura was pushed with a million handshaking events, but this time, the trick is even more blatant. There will be another new single release in August, and the catch is that if you buy Namida Surprise you’ll get a ticket to vote for the member you want to be in senbatsu for the single that will be released in August. “Senbatsu” means “selected member” for a single, BTW. So yeah, basically, if you want… say… Naruse Risa in the next single imagine the amount of singles you will buy just to make sure that she at least gets a good number of votes.

I think that this is plain mean because unpopular girls simply won’t be voted much for, and that puts a huge pressure on them, so I wish they didn’t do this. The usual senbatsu members will still 100% certainly be in the next single, but I don’t think that there will be many surprises, after all, the fan favorites are the ones pushed to the front the most, of course.

I know that my opinion will be a shock for a lot of people, who see this as an opportunity for their favorite underdog to make it big time. But let’s face it, Acchan’s hordes of fans won’t skip the voting just to give an underdog the chance to shine, it’s sad but it’s the way it is. I don’t want to sound mean, because my favorite member always gets chosen, but I’m a HUGE fan of 2 team B underdogs who will probably never be there, and I don’t think that they should be put through so much stress for something like this… Just my 2 cents…

5. AKB Team A goes to Paris! Well, good news for the european fans Have a blast, guys!

6. AKB management turns the whole Akihabara48 business upside down: There’s a new theater, Tokyo Dome G-rosso, that is going to serve as an alternate venue because the Donki theater is overcrowded and there are too many fans who don’t fit in there. Also, tickets are becoming extra hard to obtain because of the ever growing fan base. What’s the point of having a group be called AKB48 if they won’t be located in Akihabara? XD I’m just joking about this one, it will never be the same as being in a tiny theater and getting eye contact and reactions from the girls, but it’ll get the job done, and people like us, foreign fans, stand a bigger chance at watching them live anyway, so w/e…

No more “gacha gacha” prizes, which means, no more 2-shot polaroids, 3-shot, 4-shot, and many many more random prizes. WOW. This is awful for all of us who always dreamed of going to the theater, meeting our favorite member and taking a picture with her. I’m glad I could meet Yuko while it was still possible, but still… it’s sad in a way.

On the other hand, I completely understand that with the growing popularity of the group, it was a really big burden for popular girls, who also have other jobs, to spend lots of extra hours in the theater meeting fans and decorating pictures. So, from a business standpoint, I can see the reason behind it. 

I don’t want to make any further comments about this issue, because I haven’t really wrapped my mind around it, so please bear with me.

Also, no more theater pictures: BLTs or Gacchas. Well, this doesn’t affect me at all since I’ve never bought any pics anyway, but it’s a low blow for people who collected them or traded them…

There must be more to this, and fans are very shocked and, for the most part, disgruntled. I  kind of think that we all saw this coming, and for the most part, I think that the less that the girls get overworked, the less likely it is for them to graduate soon, so it’s a good thing. Come on, let’s look on the bright side people.

On the other hand, losing the fan-idol interaction that set AKB apart in the idol world is a dangerous move, I think. It’s true that the group has gotten lots of new fans, but I think it’s the die hard wotas who support them the most. They are the ones who ran out and bought 50 copies of a single to shake hands with their favorite girl many many times, they were the ones who bought full boxes of gachas to get pictures and a chance to meet their favorite girl and so on. Casual fans might drop by the theater once or twice, but without the “meeting your idol” experience and closeness to the girls I doubt that a theater based group who performs the same list for almost a whole year will have lots of hope.

Let’s wait and see. As for me, as long as there are Stages, with great songs in them, I’m a fan. I must be in the 1% minority who isn’t into AKB for the cute girls but for the music and the good performances.

or LOL 100 screencaps of the best Team A member ever… That’s Oshima Mai in case you didn’t know.

Back when this stage was premiered in november, everybody had super high expectations, since A4 was such an amazing stage. And sadly, people weren’t pleased with A5. The first big problem for most people was the fact that the Ogi trio was missing because they were shooting MenDol (Kojima Haruna, Minegishi Minami and Takahashi Minami) also, Shinoda Mariko was missing from the opening night (and has been missing for a whole chunk of A5 so far), this left the fans very disgruntled, especially after the recent 5 girls graduation. Kenkyuuseis were all over the place, and people weren’t even sure of who was going to be in any unit. Then, on December 16, the 3 missing girls returned and everybody seemed to love this stage…

1. Nagai Hikari (Long Light): 

This song is an uptempo ballad, and it starts beautifully with some solo lines by Takamina, the best singer of Team A. As a fun fact, she is the only one to get solo lines in this song.

These outfits are absolutely lovely. They look retro, but not dated because of the sparkly bright colors. I love their accessories too.

The choreography is quite fitting for the slow pace of the song, but it isn’t very entertaining to watch. It’s comprised of simple hand motions, and the most difficult it gets is when they kneel down for a bit. Kind of a turn off, because there are some great dancers in Team A.

As of tomorrow, Oshima Mai will no longer be an AKB48 member. She was always my second favorite. And it saddens me to no end to see her leave… I always remember the original opening day of A5 because Mai wasn’t absent, and I found this very weird, yet, she was giving her all and shining on stage as always… And I especially remember her in Nagai Hikari, because she was the reason why I instantly liked this sweet heart warming song

I don’t see where all the hatred for K5’s opening song comes from because they are “supposedly” the only team to start off with a ballad. I mean, Nagai Hikari is a really slow song, and in all fairness, it isn’t that memorable either…

2. Squall no Aida ni (After the Squall): 

This is the song everyone instantly fell in love with. It’s more upbeat, and has a catchy tune that you hum all day long after listening to it for the first time XD Hi Maimai!!!

The choreography is very bouncy and girly. Quite cute, which is a nice contrast to the somewhat grown up lyrics. What bothers me the most about it, though, is that it was completely changed by the time the Ogi girls returned… And I liked the original one better because Maimai was at the front more Well, its not like it matters now…

One of the biggest changes was that the umbrellas are now brought into the song about halfway through it. At first, girls rushed in with them earlier. I understand that it must’ve been dangerous to have more umbrellas (like before) and since the very beginning, but it was cool.

I think that the umbrellas are a great idea and make this song special. AKB didn’t use props that often before, but I’m glad that they’re creating a more theatrical show recently.

To sum it up, it’s a nice upbeat song. It’ll never be single material or anything great, but it’s very good at being an interesting concept and a catchy tune to pick up the pace from where Nagai Hikari left off.

The song ends with the girls acting like it just started to rain and running off stage looking for cover. Then, a few Kenkyuuseis appear in this shiny silver outfits and do a little dance off. I liked the B3 Kenkyuusei dance better, and regardless of how flashy these outfits are, I like them because they remind me of the rain. Nice bonus.

3. JK Nemurihime (High School Girl Sleeping Beauty)

Scary screencap… anyway, this song starts off with the girls dancing behind the blinds, and then of course, they come out XD The choreography for this song is really lame. I wish they had come up with something better… But I guess that it’s girly enough to match the music.

I hated this costumes the first time I saw them, I found them too puffy and big, but now I really like them. It’s like they gave the usual uniforms a twist and made them look different and sort of elegant in a way. It looks like something out of a shoujo manga.

Everyone is a huge fan of this song, except for me XD I think that it sounds generic and doesn’t catch my ear. I also don’t like the lyrics so much… Maybe it’s because I was in high school only until when I was 15 and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much so “Let’s be HS girls forever” doesn’t really appeal to me.

4. Kimi ni Au Tabi Koi o Suru (When I go to see you I fall in love with you)

Blurry screencap is blurry. I adore this little reject emo song! It sounds happy and mellow, but the lyrics are very sad, about loving someone who doesn’t love you back.

As usual with all songs I like from AKB, nobody likes this one. I have to admit that it’s musically forgettable, and similar in style to Nagai Hikari, but there’s something about the funky instrumental and the sad lyrics that gets me everytime, and makes me really like it.

My favorite part is the interlude, because it reminds me a lot of a song from Card Captor Sakura which I loved back when I was a kid (yeah, I know that none of you know Card Captor Sakura and I’m old but I just had to say it XD)

5. Kuroi Tenshi (Black Angel)

This sexy dark unit is Acchan’s first real step into the dark world (If you don’t count Seifuku’s PV…) It’s a very nice song, and one of the best choreographies of A5 (although there isn’t much contest there…)

The biggest feature of the choreography, is when takajo Aki and Fujie Reina push Acchan against the wall and pin her there, singing their lines and then pushing the microphone in Acchan’s face for her to sing those lines. You have to watch it to get it probably, but the subtle connotations of this part are key for the mood of the song and fit the lyrics perfectly.

Takajo Aki is one of my favorite Team A members, but I’d liked her better in a different type of song… She’s very sexy in her own way, but this screencap is proof that she looks kind of awkward doing this flowy complicated dance at times

Acchan totally nails this song, and it was kind of unexpected since she’s the prototype of “cute” and always did units to match that theme…

And last in the unit is Fujie Reina, the girl who was a RS and I used to hate XD But now I really love her, she’s very talented and has a great voice, and I’m extremely happy that she’s been able to show off her talent in a good song instead of some gimmicky cute unit.

Not exactly the most flattering Akicha screencap XD This song’s lyrics are about prostitution (again…) or something along those creepy lines…

I felt relieved at this point, because with the first 4 songs, I already thought that this would be a super happy stage, and I didn’t want that for the usually super happy Team A!

6. Heart Gata Virus (Heart Shaped Virus)

This.is.the.best.AKB.unit.EVER!

My dream of having Mai in a sexy unit never came true, but this song is SO amazing in a number of levels! It’s upbeat and poppy but has a rock feel to it, it has a fun choreography and nice line distribution, and plus TAMBOURINES!!! Take that Milky Way!

Kojiharu + Maimai + Nozofisu = WIN. This was such a great line up, and it’s ruined now with the graduations…

Such a playful song was the perfect unit for Maimai, who really does amazing in it!

The outfits are amazing too, they are a bit normal and girly, but somehow, have a homey touch. Very nice! (And I totally bought the same boots Amina/Nozomi wore here, they are amazing!)

And here comes the sad fact… After Maimai left, nobody is really sure of what’s going to happen to this song. Nozomi was replaced by Amina, but  even though Kitarie was the original stand in for Mai, this song has also been performed by Sato Sumire and a few other girls. I like Rie more in Tsundere, so I hope that they add a Kenkyuusei to Team A soon to fill in the gap…

And this is the main reason why I dislike A5, it looks so unpolished! I mean, choreographies change, line ups change, members are never around, there aren’t even 16 girls in Team A to make it a full team, even the outfits have changed for some songs!

Nozofisu in Heart Gata Virus… Good times…

7. Renai Kinshi Jourei (Rules Against Love)

The title track is a unit song… just like in B3. This one is an upbeat and dramatic number, featuring Double Minami and Myao

This song’s choreography gives Kuroi tenshi a good run for the money. It has some very interesting formations and hand movements, because it’s performed with headsets

Miichan looks absolutely stunning in this screencap! <3 I’m happy she got a song where she can show off her dance skills!!

I like their outfits a lot too, they look badass but are still kind of fashionable in a weird idol way XD

Aaand… *JAZZ HANDS*

8. Tsundere! (If you don’t know what a Tsundere is, google it now!)

I love the crazy lights and strobe effects at the beginning of this song!

And those costumes… XD Does it look like a rainbow puked on them? It was the coolest rainbow ever though. They might be a bit hard on the eyes at first sight, but concept wise, they are GENIUS

This “gyaru” unit is lead by no other than Shibuya fan and Cawaii model Tomochin! Great choice!

The music is very upbeat and almost cheeky in a way, this is a great song to dance to!

Oh hi there new favorite Team A member. Kitarie is so much love in this song! Sato Amina is also in this unit, and she’s great, I just didn’t catch any good screencap of her because she moves like crazy all the time XD

9. Manatsu no Christmas Rose (Midsummer’s Christmas Rose)

Good gracious this unit is so bad! I have nothing against the girls, Yukarin is one of my favorite members, and I love Chiichan. Mariko is always amazing to watch too, and nobody knows who the 4th member of this unit is…

But that’s one of the reasons why I hate it. If anything feels like an afterthought or something that wasn’t ready to be part of a stage, is this song. The 4th member is STILL unknown 6 months after the stage started, the outfits have changed at least twice (featuring now plaid skirts instead of horrible poofy pants and Mariko has a different dress to make sure everyone knows she’s the leader now) and the song is so uninspired and lame that I can’t believe they made this a unit. It’s like a filler song…

Oh yeah, and they have Kenkyuusei cheerleaders too, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was a half-assed creation. I feel bad for the girls, because they always smile and dance their little idol hearts out even though the song is… well, bad.

That’s Mariko’s dress BTW, from a different performance, because she’s almost never around anyway XD

“WTF Akimoto, you promised me that I would lead the flashiest unit in the next stage if I didn’t graduate and THIS is what you give me???”

10. Switch

Ahhh! Now is where I started to have hope again after the mess that is ManaKuri… This is a techno sounding sexy song, and although it relies on singing “love is a switch” x10000 times as a hook, it still sounds interesting!

Oh! That’s Uriya Akane! The only original Kenkyuusei who didn’t get promoted… She graduated today too D: Anyway, this choreography was very fitting for the song, the girls moved like mannequins during the verses, but danced in a sexy way during the chorus. It looks good.

This was Maimai’s song, hands down. She had lots of solo lines, and her dance was the sexiest out of all the members, no surprise there, though

I have to say that it was nice to hear something sexy out of Team A’s group songs, because they’d all been kind of generic so far.

I have a love/hate relationship with the outfits though. The gold/silver combination is a bit overdone with these, especially with the fluffy vests and red rag thingies. But, the short shorts and skirts are hot anyway.

11. 109 (Marukyuu - A store in Shibuya)

Objectively speaking, this might be the best A5 song, it’s a dramatic pop number sung with lots of emotion and with a very nice choreography to match, but it was a B side anyway, so no new factor here

Maimai looks pissed because the song’s lyrics are about a girl whose boyfriend cheats on and she finds him with the other girl. Pretty harsh!

Hello Kitarie! Those fluffy monstrosities of vests should be burnt…

Oh! The pain, sorrow and general emo-ness of teenage love…

I only included this screencap for the LOLz. Takamina starts crying and Tomochin and Miichan run to hug her and console  her for dating such a scum-bag

12. Hikoukigumo (Vapor Trail Cloud)

And now… we turn to the upbeat generic mood of the first half of the stage! u_u This happy sounding song is about a girl whose boyfriend is going away, so she’s basically saying good bye even though she loves him, or something like that

The gimmick is: The red rag twirling! Well, at least they took those off, they made the outfits look uglier than they were already…. Fans love this little dance, though, you can see them in the screencap waving red rags of their own that they probably bought at a concert for an obscene amount of money

This has become AKB’s concert anthem, which I hate, because I honestly don’t think that it’s that great of a song to begin with, especially because the verses are slow even though the chorus is really nice and uplifting.

13. Ano koro no Sneakers (The sneakers of that time)

The girls appear on stage again, and start talking to each other and hugging

And so, the mandatory stage ballad starts. And boy, is this a boring one!

I like the going back to simple jeans and t shirts, reminds me a bit of A1.

The lyrics are nostalgic and cute in a way, but I still think that this is probably AKB’s worst ballad, if it wasn’t for B3’s Boku no Sakura which is equally boring XD

14. AKB Sanjou!

But wait! Not all is lost! Here comes this stage’s saving grace (for the group songs only, of course)! With a heavy rock intro and the cool eerie image of the girls behind the blinds, illuminated by bright red lights and waving a blue flashlight

Maimai! This is a very powerful song, featuring some of the heaviest guitar riffs in AKB (and idol) history! I really like the dark stage and the effect the flashlights give!

More Maimai! I can’t help but feel that this should’ve been a Team K song. I understand that it was made for team A because they sort of created what we know as AKB now, so it should be their song, but they are a little lacking in the rock department, no offense XD

But I feel like it’s not Team A’s fault, but the choreographers, this should’ve been given something jumpy and aggressive looking, but instead, it’s a slow sequence of hand and arm motions that simply kill the mood at times.

48 BABY! How cool is this? Wow. I love this song too much.

15. Namida no Shinkokyuu

And we move into another cool song! Yay! BTW, I have to say that these are some of the best uniforms AKB has worn. They are stylish and flashy without overdoing it. And I love the boots!

Kitarie! My only complain about this song is that it’s sung by too many girls at the same time, which doesn’t sound as good as if there were individual girls or duos doing each line

More Maimai! So anyway, this is a very nice song, I’m glad that it’s upbeat but sounds serious at the same time.

16. Oogoe Diamond

I’m tired… You all know Oogoe Diamond, right? Well, Team A performs it as part of their setlist. Which I find LAME. Oogoe is a great song, ti might be my second favorite AKB single ever, but it was released as a single, and we’ve all heard it before. I think that an original song would’ve been so much better…

Conclusions: Well, I really don’t like A5. It has some VERY good songs, like KurTen, Virus, Tsundere and AKB Sanjou! but the rest of songs are either generic sounding or downright bad (ManaKuri… the worst part is that if it had been a group song, I would’ve found it charming, but it’s so frustrating as a unit. It lacks so much “oomph”).

The biggest key factor in my dislike of this stage is, like I said before, the messy feeling I get from it. Girls keep graduating, but no more kenkyuuseis are getting added to the Team so we just get a different line up in every performance… Team A has only 13 members right now, which is ridiculous. I don’t see why is it so hard to promote some hard working Kenkyuuseis, like Nonaka, Ishida or Ooya… Instead, we still have no idea of the lineup of ANY unit other than RenKin, and that is just crap. No idea of who’s going to show up in the DVD either, and I’m so NOT buying that one if it doesn’t include Maimai.

I’ve heard rumors that the girls are already rehearsing for A6, it’s just a rumor, but I’m clinging to that and to the other rumor that promotions will be announced at tomorrow’s concert… I want a new stage for Team A, and one that is at least as good as A4 was.

And I want to know who is going to be in this team too, I can’t believe it’s taken THIS long to fill the gaps, while Team K was full like a week after Kaorin’s graduation and Team B has been mostly filled already as well, except for one position.

Ok, this is the end of my huge whine fest But I hope you enjoy some of it because damn it’s getting harder and harder for me to write this long posts and screencap so much XD

Hi! Well, everyone else is doing it, so I thought WHY NOT? I’ve been doubting on whether I should review the latest AKB stages because they’ve only been distributed as LOD’s, but I’ve come to peace with that concept because I think that the more the management knows that we’re interested in getting these, the faster they will make international buying available. So it’s a win-win situation I think.

Team A 5th Stage “Renai Kinshi Jourei” Rules Against Love

Team K 5th Stage “Saka Agari” Upwards backwards flip on the horizontal bar (most difficult name to translate EVER!)

Team B 4th Stage “Idol no Yoake” Dawn of Idols

All of these have been already released, and people have very different opinions about them. Most people disliked A5 when it was released, because the Ogi Pro 3 were missing for a month, but after they came back, everyone loved it. It’s also a general consensus that B4 wasn’t as awesome as B3, but it was pretty damn cool anyway.

And everyone hates K5 XD Well, not everyone, but most people do anyway. I for one, love it to pieces, and think that it’s the best out of the recent stages. But I’ll talk more about my own opinions as the reviews go.

So, expect really soon a somewhat detailed review of A5, K5 and B4. In my mind, K5>B4>>>>>>>>A5 Just so you know what to expect…

Oshima Yuko. AKB48 Team K member, was operated on tuesday, allegedly because of singer’s nodules. And luckily, everything went fine, and she’s now recovering! 

Yuko is my favorite AKB member, so I was really hoping that everything would go well for her. Yuko showed endless commitment and dedication when she showed up to the premier of Team K’s new Stage “Saka Agari” and performed in a few songs, including her new unit “End Roll”. She said that even though the doctor said she shouldn’t do it, she asked for his permission because she wanted to be with her fellow members and fans during the opening night.

This is the reason why I love Yuko so much, she’s very committed to her work, and she also really loves what she does. I wish her a speedy recovery so that she can return to doing what she enjoys the most: Dancing, singing, acting.

Please get well soon Yuko! I’ll be supporting you and waiting for your return

Hi! I did a small page called “Meet the Girls” with a mini profile on each girl for the new fans, so please check it out and tell me all your suggestions and comments!

EDIT: The mini profiles have been updated, with pitures for each girl and performances of their unit songs so that you can all learn who is everyone in AKB at last