Ouch. Looks like there’s trouble in Don Quijote… With the re release of the Sakura no Hanabiratachi CDS, came lots of bad news. Well, just one, but a big one, the other ones I’ll discuss later.

You all heard me hyping about how cool it was to have a re release of this beautiful song, along with a wonderful story PV that’s pretty moving and sweet. Well, looks like the management of AKB didn’t have such “sweet” intentions about this. Turns out that if you bought the single at the AKB store in Akihabara, you would get a special poster of one of the girls, a random one (with the outfit of the Kouhaku performance. They looked pretty cool anyway…). So far, so good. I mean, we’ve seen this happen in other idol and Jpop groups, so it’s no big deal. Of course, considering how there are 44 possible girls, getting one of the girl you want through the traditional method is a tough deal, but life is like that. Then came the news: AKB would have a Spring Festival. That sounds pretty cool too, a good way to interact with the fans in a closer level, very nice… or at least that’s what we all thought… turns out that the festival didn’t have open tickets, or a raffle or anything. YOU HAD TO BUY ALL OF THE 44 POSTERS TO GET A TICKET FOR THE FESTIVAL.

 

Wow. This was the point where I was knocked off my feet. Do they really pretend to make this wotas pay 500 bucks to go to the Festival? That’s just… I don’t even know what to say…

Wait, I kind of do. This is just plain abusive. Now, in case ANY of you had any doubts left that AKB is for the fans, you just won’t think like that anymore, right? And that puzzles me, because even though I assumed that they were ok with their fans, and loved them/interacted with them/whatever, this shameless wallet squeezing is clearly aimed for the extreme wotas. Let’s face it, if you’re a casual fan, you won’t shell out $500 to see them in person or whatever. But this didn’t seem like a good strategy to me, because they lose to the younger fanbase. How can you appeal to “ordinary” (non-wota) people when you do things that encourage the obssesive fanboy-ism? And in AKBs case, this can be a bad thing.

 

 

Or maybe I’m just looking at part of the picture? And they just decided that the casual fans won’t give up all of their money for the group, so screw them and let’s go with just the super ultra wotas?

Anyway, the thing is, japanese government itself cancelled the Festival, because they deemed it illegal to do that, it was against the Antimonopoly Act, so it had to be shut down. Ouch again. This isn’t a good turn of events. God knows I adore this group, but getting labeled as this is just plain bad. And unfair for the girls who are part of it too, as they aren’t guilty at all for the greed of the management (and I’m ready to bet that Akimoto Yasushi’s as well…)

 

So this just leaves lots of queston marks in my head. WTH is going on with my favorite group? Only recently I found out that tickets for the daily shows aren’t going to be sold at the theater everyday, like it’s been so far, but they are going to go through a lottery thing. Apparently, you send your e-mail adress, and they do some sort of mail drawing, so if yours was chosen, Good Luck! Now you probably get to have your seat go through another lottery system to finally know which row you can stand in, when you finally enter the theater. (I’m not sure if the seats are going to be assigned this way now, but AFAIK, nobody has said anything about it being any different with the new system. I guess we’ll just have to wait until March 1 to really see what’s going to happen…) I don’t know about you guys, but this just screams “UNFAIR” to me. Deciding based on sheer luck who gets to enter a concert and who doesn’t is a pretty crappy thing to do, and I find it almost disrespectful to the fans, who always lined up like at 4:00 am, because they loved this girls, and would do whatever was in their hands in order to see them. Of course, what I just wrote is what suddenly dawned on the management’s greedy brains: If they’ll do anything, then let’s have them do ANYTHING (and give up all of their money in the process)

I said earlier that I found it disrespectful, but it’s just for lack of a better word. I feel like the choices they are making are taking the group to a place where they will have a LOT of trouble getting out of. I mean, they are turning it into a group for freaks (it’s figurative speaking, I don’t mean to offend anyone by the use of this term, as I’m a pretty hardcore fan myself…), where casual fans just aren’t in the picture, because they aren’t willing to put themselves to the trouble of spending lots of money or crossing their fingers to get their email drawn in the lottery thing, so they will just lose interest really quickly.

Of course, I’m probably underestimating Akimoto, and we may be seeing JUST the tip of the Iceberg. Perhaps they’ll be going into nation wide tours with open tickets for the casual fans? Or they have some sort of side strategy to lure new audiences and hold on to the die-hard fans using the Stage Performances for it? The TV show seems to cater to all sorts of people, and it’s interesting enough to hook non-fans, or at least to pique their curiosity, so chances are that there are really 2 sides of the coin, and right now we’re just being shown one of them. That’s all I can come up with, because it seems pretty pointless to create a TV show, appear at Kouhaku, send members to all popular music or variety TV shows, if you’re just counting on a rather limited fanbase of people who would buy 44 copies of a CDS anyway just because they are obsessed enough with the group, Spring Festival or not.

 

 

I really don’t know what to make out of all this. I just hope that the girls won’t have to pay for their stupid management, like we’ve seen in H!P so many times… I will still support them as much as I can, no matter what, because I know that they are great at what they do, which is, being idols, and great entertainers, and I’m only crossing my fingers so that people don’t go into a wave of hatred towards them as a group because of this Festival crap. I have faith in Akimoto, though. I’m almost sure that he’s not stupid enough to cater exclusively to the wota fanbase if he has a chance of making the group even bigger with a larger and more diverse fanbase, and it seemed to be working so far! They are doing well on Oricon and everything… please… let this not be screwed up, we already have H!P for scandals…

Starting today, I would like to introduce you all to this new feature of Aitakatta!, called H!P vs. AKB48! Fighting Pose wa Date ja nai!!.

Before anyone flips out and claims that I’m just trying to say that AKB is way better than H!P, I’ll repeat for the nth time that I’ve been a H!P fan for a long time, and what I intend to do with this corner is letting all of you know a bit more of AKB’s music, and convince you that even though some songs are basically about the same kind of stuff, the differences between them are striking, and they can be both enjoyed in different ways.

Of course, not every week will feature H!P, if I find other Idol or Jpop songs that seem to be about the same thing, I’ll definitely feature them here. I just thought that this would be a fun idea, so let’s see how it goes from here.

 Ok, so without further ado, let’s see this week’s songs:

Hello no Theme vs. AKB48:  Ladies and gentlemen! In order to begin this corner properly, we’ll start with the very basics! In the blue corner, a song with many, many MANY years of experience, sung in every big concert of this big and poweful collective, with lyrics about how cool it is to do what they do in their idol life, and an upbeat tune with catchy choruses. In the red corner, the lively and rockish theme song of the girls of Don Quijote theater, with lyrics about how cool Akihabara is in general, and a moe~ request to their fans “Please remember all of our names, it’s a pinky promise, right?” It’s the battle of the Theme Songs this week!!!!

Hello no Theme (dl): I uploaded the Berryz version, because I honestly only have that and the 2002 shuffles version, which would be kind of pointless, because almost all of them are gone anyway. I’ve never been a fan of this song, personally. The music is just too generic for my taste. and the Hello dancing, Hello singing hello whatever gets on my nerves. But don’t let my personal opinion of the song affect your judgement, I’ve known lots of people who think that this bubbly number is perfect for H!P. Now with the 10th anniversary hype there are 2 more theme songs: Hello to You and another one I don’t even remember the title of. I like Hello to You the most out of this songs, but in all justice, Hello no Theme is the classic song that makes us all think of H!P (or at least that’s how it should be, for me it’s all about ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL). Before I ramble/diss the song even more, I leave you all with a lovely Youtube performance of the H!P girls singing this in the latest H!P concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGPhuo97zc

AKB48 (dl): In contrast to the above song, this one isn’t pure pop, but it has a bit of a rock feeling to it. The lyrics are kind of strange, as they are about various places in Akihabara, and how cool Akihabara (the district) is. The chorus is a winner, though, because it’s a shameless plug, just the way a theme song should be: “Akihabara48, come to see us, love us more than anyone else, ok, ok?” and other stuff along the lines, which I find very amusing. This is a lively number with an edge because of the rock parts. Nothing great, of course, but it’s very engaging and has been pushed as the theme song for a while now. Here’s a performance taken from last year’s concert tour, where Team A & Team K can be seen doing the rather simple choreography, but mostly interacting with the fans. It’s very cute, but kind of taken out of context without the previous songs from the concert. Still, here it is, for your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-vad45uAr0

And that’s it for the first fight! My personal opinion? AKB48’s AKB48 pwns Hello no Theme, but that’s just me, of course, and well… You just have to listen and watch for yourselves!

Well, seeing how the lovely Andra was kind enough to comment in my Harunyan post, I decided to do this post for all of you people who, in spite of not commenting, enjoy checking out the special videos of the girls posted in Youtube. Right now, though, my priority is to give you the Maimai and Kojiharu videos, which should’ve been in their respective profiles, but I don’t remember what circumstance (probably my laziness :P) kept me from searching for them and posting them there, so here you have them!

1. Oshima Mai (Maimai) - Team A 4th Stage - Haru ga Kuru Made: Maimai is all kinds of awesome, and she proves it in this performance. This is a very sweet song about unrequited love, and its lovely tune reminds me a lot of Card Captor Sakura music… and of my childhood… Ahh! Good times!, anyway, Mai is pretty sad here, she seems about to cry, and she even wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. Of course, I don’t have a clue of what was she crying about, but maybe it was because the girl who sings here with her, Hoshino Michiru, graduated after this stage, so maybe she was sad because of that? Despite all of this, she truly shines here, and her sweet and soft voice fits the song perfectly. JUST WATCH THE DAMN THING ALREADY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md4M4RjwofM

2. Oshima Mai: Private Princess: Well, that sounds like the name of an H-game right? It’s nothing like that, though. It’s just a gravure photoshoot for Maimai, Tomochin and Kasai Tomomi. They shoot little videos of themselves, and it’s pretty cute. I chose the first one, because there you can watch Mai’s l33t clarinet skills, and the last one, because she looks amazing in it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkbvOpIEbTs              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWHwvFGB2I8

3. Kojima Haruna - Team A 3d Stage - Shinkirou: For your eyes only, this amazing duet where Kojiharu sings with Nakanishi Rina (we’ll definitely get into her later, because I freaking love her and her voice…) A very sweet song, and this version is fansubbed too, for you to understand the beautiful and sad lyrics. I love the harmonies here, and Rina’s angel voice is a perfect match for Kojiharu’s somewhat nasal vocals, and lower range. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvj0O8oW268

4. Kojima Haruna - Team A Stage 4 - Junai no Crescendo: I hate to recycle videos, but seriosuly, Harunyan is smoking here, if I may say so, without being gay or anything (I think XD). Her powerful voice works really well with this dramatic and sexy type of song, and she steals the spotlight from the other girls (and God knows how hard it is to outshine Miichan…) http://youtube.com/watch?v=ScECI1T-wkg&feature=related

5. Oshima Mai - Team A 3rd Stage - Bird: yes, this is Takamina’s song, but it’s also what made me fall for Maimai. You’ll notice her natural sexiness right away, she’s an unbelievable performer, and this prooves it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5HAHM7ns8

That’s it for now! Enjoy!!!!

Yay! I’ve been waiting for this single forever. Sakura no hanabiratachi is a beautiful song, and it totally deserved a re-release so all of us who weren’t die hard fans in their indie stages can buy it! I’ll review the single in detail later, but right now, I’ll say just a few comments about it:

1. Story PVs FTW. Another Romance Irane would’ve seriously affected my mental stability. Yuko pwns this PV

2. Acchan x Yuko yuri FTW

3. Kasai and her infatuation with that blonde teacher were kind of creepy…

4. Minegishi looks awesome, and is positively inspiring during her parts

5. Yuka appears! Even for just one split second, that just made this PV worth my day!

6. Serious Maimai deprivation again
7. Idols kissing statues = win. Although based on the way that Yuko and Acchan kiss the statue, I could go as far as saying that Acchan has probably kissed *real* people before, because you don’t usually do it from the front, but you tilt your head just like she does Yuko’s kiss was pretty cute, though, although not as… realistic (not that kissing a statue is realistic at all…)

8. This actually made me remember my high school graduation, and I felt really nostalgic about it, somehow.

9. The C/W song, Saigo no Seifuku, it’s a lovely lovely song in its own right. The performance in AKB1ji59fun was very pretty

10. The music doesn’t really sound different. There are some nice harmonies that weren’t on the original, but Team B is hardly seen (or heard)

I’ll do a proper review later, and post Youtube links or something. For now, in case your interested, http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?act=tracker&CODE=details&torrent=12189 <– Hello!Online tracker for the PV and Making of download. It’s totally worth your time, trust me.

Well, I need to take my mind off of a bunch of stuff, so I decided that I’ll do Kojiharu part 2 today!

6. BINGO!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzp6tTAYoF0 Haruna is pretty lovely in Bingo, she smiles, looks happy and doesn’t space out. What more could you ask of her?

 

I’m not really buying this mugshot… She looks like she’s about to fall asleep (And Takamina already fell asleep here, apparently)

 

Making her stand next to such a lively pair like Yuko and Tomochin doesn’t really seem like the best choice… She holds her own though, through most of this PV, at least

 

Harunyan and her perfect close-ups… *jealousy*

 

I don’t really know what to say about this… She looks awesome, as always, but there’s little more to it here, to be honest (not like BINGO! is a deep philosophical piece or anything… just… didn’t the other girls look happier? Even Takamina looked like she was having the time of her life…)

 

That’s much better! Shame that it wasn’t properly focused… but still, very cute, right? That’s all for BINGO!

 

7. Boku no Taiyou:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKm9FhLo1M To make up for the lack of Harunyan screentime in Bingo, there’s Boku no Taiyou. This PV is about her. Seriously, though. Not that I complain about it, she totally owns the center position and looks positively lovely and radiant in both her close ups and the story part.

 

The PV almost begins with a close up of her, even with the weird outfit, she looks stunning

 

Cute! I don’t really get what she’s doing, but whatever, it looks cute anyway

 

I like how commited she is to look happy in this PV, it really works for her

 

She’s paired with Acchan, and they have great chemistry, like I said earlier in Acchan’s profile

 

Here we get a glimpse of Gloomy Harunyan again, but Acchan comes and cheers her up! It’s very cute.

 

I remember hearing Tyra Banks say once that models should be able to smile with their eyes. I, of course, dismissed it just anything else that comes out of Tyra’s mouth, but I think that that’s exactly what Kojiharu is doing here, smiling with her eyes.

 

I’m running out of ways to say that this pV is cute and the girls look happy, so I’ll just shut up for a while…

 

That camera looks kind of weird, right?

 

Ok, this is a bit much. People don’t usually go “OMG!!!! I’m so freaking happy!!! I just took a picture!!!”

 

Ew. Why does every outfit in this PV have to clash and visually hurt me so much? It’s like a bunch of little girls raided their mom’s wardrobe and threw everything in, regardless of color, shape, whatever…

 

More happiness…

 

aaaand… the final close up. Wow, that was a lot of screen time, seriously. I left a whole bunch of screencaps out, but I’m lazy, and you got the point so let it be.

 

8. Yuuhi wo Miteiru ka  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rrSPsFs8M Double personality Haruna! She plays gloomy kid in some scenes and looks super happy in the rest of the PV. I don’t think I’ll comment much on these caps, my brain has gone kind of numb

 

“Hey you, you’re a lucky guy!” Ok, I’ll stop listening to GAM while I do these. I’ll go and play Shinkirou instead, to immerse myself in Kojiharu-ness

 

She looks more grown up here, right? She’s coming of age this year anyway, so she should look like that, but it makes me feel a bit nostalgic for the old “Sakura no Hanabiratachi” days…

 

She looks less happy than in the previosu PV, but you don’t need to be hysterical happy, and if anything, this kind of mood fits the “cheer up” gentle feel of this song better somehow

 

but she goes back to Gloom mode when nobody is seeing her! Or maybe she’s just… you know, spacing

 

Here she plays the reject girl, who stays on the side while the others chat and are happy

 

It’s a bit too much emo-ness for such a role

 

Or maybe she just went into zombie mode again?

 

But luckily, Mii-chan is here to pull her out of her depression/zombieness/whatever that was

 

And then she’s happy again! (Of course, I’d be happy too if I could hug Yuko like that…)

 

9. Romance Irane  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7HAsjhTfh4  Romance was Acchan and Haruna spamming all the way. But since it’s such a sucky PV (and my screencaps suck even more…) I won’t post many of them , sorry! She’s back to all her Risako-esque scowling she hadn’t done since Skirt, Hirari, BTW, but this time it fits with the lyrics and mood of the song

 

Badass Kojiharu!

 

Pixelated Kojiharu!

 

Scowling Kojiharu! She looks like she means some harm here…

 

And a close up!

 

Ok, we get it, you’re mad…

 

Sexy!

 

Even sexier… I’m impressed!

 

EDIT: Well, I’ll post the Youtube videos anyway :D

Team A Stage 4 - Junai no Crescendo: I hate to recycle videos, but seriosuly, Harunyan is smoking here, if I may say so, without being gay or anything (I think XD). Her powerful voice works really well with this dramatic and sexy type of song, and she steals the spotlight from the other girls (and God knows how hard it is to outshine Miichan…) http://youtube.com/watch?v=ScECI1T-wkg&feature=related

Team A 3d Stage - Shinkirou: For your eyes only, this amazing duet where Kojiharu sings with Nakanishi Rina (we’ll definitely get into her later, because I freaking love her and her voice…) A very sweet song, and this version is fansubbed too, for you to understand the beautiful and sad lyrics. I love the harmonies here, and Rina’s angel voice is a perfect match for Kojiharu’s somewhat nasal vocals, and lower range. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvj0O8oW268

 

So, we return to regular shcedule! Yay! I’m thinking of making a special “corner” every week, but if I do come around to that, I’ll tell you all later

The next member I’m going to profile is Kojima Haruna!

 

Name: Kojima Haruna (小嶋陽菜)

Nickname: Harunyan (はるにゃん)

Profession Actress, singer

Birthdate: April 19, 1988

Birthplace: Saitama, Japan

Hobbies: Shopping

Audition song: Matsuura Aya - Watarasebashi

Height: 164cm

Bust: 80cm

Waist: 56cm

Hips: 84cm

Kojima Haruna, nicknamed Harunyan but whom I like to call Kojiharu, is probably one of the most popular AKB members (but I like Maimai more, so she HAD to go first). She is very attractive, but she seems to be kind of oblivious to this fact, and her clumsy and spacy personality makes for a good combination with this. I’ve noticed that overseas fans are very inclined to like her, and I think that’s because of her kind of universal sex appeal: She has full lips, long legs and beautiful expressive eyes, and also, she’s very recognizable because of her ears, but I think they’re cute too.

Haruna has been featured in all of the singles, and in stages she is sure to be seen in a great unit. She’s not that much of a dancer, really, but she’s very good with her facial impressions, which gives a special kind of impact to her performances. As far as her singing goes, she’s a very powerful singer, but she has a terribly nasal voice, so if you hate this type of thing, she might probably not appeal all that much to you, voice-wise of course.

1. Sakura no Hanabiratachi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XHLUwJMek  I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Haruna in this PV, to be honest. I like her hair style, though, and the lolita look she sported here is something that she has definitely lost as she grew up, but its still very charming here.

Zombie Harunyan (TM) She tends to space out a lot, but that’s her character I guess, it’s amusing, specially on interviews and the such

I love Harunyan’s smile, it’s her best feature IMO, and that’s saying a lot, because she’s very beautiful (or vary beauty lol) in her own way

 

Here she is, apparently recording. I like how her hair looks when it’s pulled back like that. She doesn’t do that anymore
 

Haruna and Hana appear together a lot in this PV, I won’t complain because Hana is one of my favorites, but what happened to them? Are they not so close anymore? Hmm… I must look that gossip up :D Here they are sharing iPod, that’s so cute!

 

The black hair gives her a completely different look from the one she has now, but this “ordinary” Harunyan is very appealing somehow, in a raw, unpolished kind of way…

 

Aww… don’t cry Nyan-nyan, we all love you!

2. Skirt Hirari  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc5mKEgl9kY When I first saw this PV, Harunyan was probably the first one I noticed, because of her ears, of course XD. She scowls a lot through this PV, it kind of reminds me of the attitude Risako used to have in early Berryz PVs.

 

“What are you looking at?” I like her hurt attitude, but it doesn’t really fit this song’s mood, right? Maybe she thought that was sexy…

 

She reminds me of Iida Kaori in a way, they both have the same type of spacy personality that can make them look a  bit “deer in the headlights” sometimes (specially when they are trying to look sexy…)

 

I don’t think that Haruna fails at sexy, though. She is when she isn’t trying so hard, and that’s something I really like about her, her natural sex-appeal

 

Like here, I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but this cap is just what I’m talking about

 

However, her lack of different poses kind of disappoints me in this PV

 

She shouldn’t fall behind here, she’s got a more consistent singing than Acchan, for example, but she’s totally outshined by her.

 

O_O Ok, don’t kill me now…

 

Uh… so anyway, thankfully she doesn’t channel Risako anymore until Romance, Irane. But that PV sucked anyway, so we won’t care, right?

3. Aitakatta:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwFvpkiNOVU Harunyan’s smile is everywhere! which can’t be a bad thing, but otherwise, she’s pretty much a background girl here

 

That’s Harunyan on the left, and on the right SUPER AWESOME MM reject Umeda Ayaka-chan! Ok, I’ll focus, because this is supposed to be about Kojiharu anyway… She seems to be on the first row through all of the dance parts of this PV, and that’s pretty much it

 

And this is her part, she’s with Tomochin, taking care of Yuko and Takamina’s bags

 

Here they are again… Wow, I can’t believe that there wasn’t a single close up of her in the whole PV! I hate her a bit less for all her Boku no Taiyou close-up whoring after this…

4. Seifuku ga Jama o Suru  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_1ObyG2-1Y Kojiharu is one of the main girls in this PV, she was an obvious choice, considering how pretty she is and all. She appears on a street looking kind of puzzled or worried or just… you know, spacing XD

She’s very photogenic, I haven’t got a bad screencap or picture of her yet, even when she’s in the background

I love how she looks like she’s just about to kill Maimai. AKB girls can be quite scary at times, no?

Hmmm… maybe she thought that the song was about being evil and killing people? I never noticed all of her evil glances in this PV before

 

Close up! She didn’t have any solo lines, but she still got plenty of close ups… she always does. Damn you, pretty Haruna!

 

I feel lonely just looking at this…

 

5. Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIenqQ2jzs I love Kojiharu in this PV, she’s awesome!

I love the frizzy hair. I don’t know why, though, I just think that it fits her character here. So gloomy…

Gloomy Harunyan and her chapstick

 

I like how intense her performance is here, very different from the usual Haruna in a way…

This is one of the most brilliant scenes…. the yellow light fits the dull feeling very well.

Harunyan is perfect for this role, somehow

I love it (that’s why there are so many screencaps of it…)

 

Sweet Lord! Wordpress hates me so much today, I’ve been at this the whole day and keep failing… anyway, expect the second part whenever I have free time this week XD

I found in the Coconuts Crazy blog a post about the groups that “failed” at impressing the author. I really liked the post for many reasons, so I’ll post a link (http://coconutscrazy.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/how-did-you-fail/ it’s a post from January, but it’s still very well written and full of nice pictures and downloads), and the reason why I’m posting this here is because I found all of the affirmations about AKB48 very interesting. I’ll say in advance that I don’t intend to raise an argument, or blindly defend the group I like, I just really found these comments very interesting and I had never thought about it like this before. So with this disclaimer made and everything (hopefully) cleared up, I’ll start: Quoting straight from Coconuts Crazy

“Hate

• A Hello! Project Clone Copy
• A = Morning Musume
• K = Berryz Koubou
• B = C-ute
• [it should really be switched]
• AKB48 Seed = Hello Pro Egg
• A group full of Losers from the Morning Musume audition
• Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru promotes sex and prostitution”

1. A Hello!Project clone: Hmm… isn’t that the million dollar question? Is AKB48, created by Akimoto Yasushi who was the first to create a huge idol group (Onyanko Club) and come up with concepts such as member shuffling, graduations, idols who host TV shows etc, a copy of H!P, created by Tsunku some 10 years after Onyanko Club’s disbandment? I’m a fan of both H!P and AKB, and I honestly don’t believe that either of this is a true statement, for many reasons, but the main one is the fact that I’m sure that they are completely different concepts: H!P aims for the mainstream crowd (and fails, ending up with just the wotas) while AKB48 was a concept created FOR the fans. “Idols you can go and meet” is HIGHLY different from the whole H!P is unapproachable for the fans. This was made very clear IMO with the simple fact that MM only recently started doing handshake events, when its popularity started declining, it turned to the wotas. AKB, however, has always had a very close relationship with the fans. They even had a special events where the girls “orienteered” (that’s a sport BTW) with their fans, and they take pics with them, sign stuff personally, know them by name at the theater and stuff like that. I’m not saying that H!P approach to their fans is wrong, I’m just stating that from the conception of the group itself, its radically different already. I could go on about many more reasons, but of course, that’s not the point, really…

2. A= Morning Musume: Ugh. This one was admittedly a low blow for me XD specially because I find the comparison brilliant, I would’ve never thought of it myself! Wow! Anyway, this might be more true than I would like it to be, except for the fact that there’s some kind of… intrinsec difference that I can’t quite put into words. Sure, MM and Team A have had the same number of members at some point, but… MM has members with personalities that kind of “fit” a stereotype (again, no offense intended, I love MM, I have loved them ever since I was like 12 years old…). Like, Rika was the cute one, Mari was the girl with a lot of spunk, Yuko was the yankii, Kei was the ugly, Yossie was the tomboy, Aibon and Nono were the mischievous kids and I could go on, but I think that you all get my point. I’m not going to say that the AKB girls have completely awesome and super complex personalities or anything like that, because it wouldn’t be true, but somehow… they are the exact opposite of just that, of that complexity that is the whole “idol” concept in a way. Akimoto said that what he tryed to create AKB for was for the group to resemble a classroom, some will be smart, some will be super cute and popular, others will be the underdogs… And I think that he succeeded, specially with Team A. They really make you feel like you could know the, like they are just normal girls. It’s not that they don’t have anything special going on for them, because they are performers and idols, after all, and this means that they are conscious of what their act has to be like in order to get liked, but because of their low-profile nature they can loosen up a bit more. Also, because the theater is really small and they kind of know the fans after performing everyday, this helps to create a “closer” atmosphere. I don’t know if anything I’ve written here makes sense to any of you, but I tired my best to explain XD

3. K=Berryz Koubou: No, no, no, no. If you said K=Melon Kinenbi, I would think about it. Maybe is my general numbness when it comes to H!P lately, but I seriously hate seeing Berryz fail the way they are doing now. A song about Genghis Kan? WTF is up with that? And WTF is up with Yurina? It’s like she hasn’t progressed but instead she took like 30 steps back! (She’s my favorite member so I know she can do better than that). But enough of my whining, I can do that later in my H!P mini blog. Team K is fucking awesome. And I won’t be told otherwise. Period. Berryz admittedly lack some kind of… diversity of character nowadays (and they specially lack good songs nowadays kthxbye). Sure, Risako is cute, Miyabi is… well, she’s Miyabi (kind of an Aichan type, right?), Momoko is spunky! So I like her because of that, Yurina is awesome, but needs more screentime/lines/voice training, and the other girls are cool too, just… they don’t leave as much of an impact, right? Team K is nothing like that. I mean, Team K makes you freaking look their way, they are so damn cool, and so damn sassy! Sure, some of them are like dead fish on stage (Oku, Matsubara…) but the rest of the girls make up for it! Big time! Ok, now I sound like I hate Berryz… I don’t, they’re a solid group, and they have a very particular style which I like a lot, they’re my second favorite H!P unit right after Momusu, but this is just… It’s like comparing oranges and apples to me. Team K is very cool, but Berryz have (uncool songs and) a different style of songs and of performing as a unit. I disagree with this, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to explain my POV correctly. Oh well.

4. B= C-ute: I seriously don’t know about this. I don’t care about Team B or C-ute. *shrugs* Sure, I haven’t seen anything at all of Team B, and I have only seen C-ute PVs, but I don’t know what to say. I have personal issues with C-ute (that deal with Megukami) but I’m looking forward for Team Bs original stage and the DVD release of its first stage (which I’m sure CAN’T rock as much as Team K’s but whatever…) and I’m not really looking forward to anything C-ute related (except for a Megukami comeback? or perhaps another Tokaikko?) So, I guess Team B has more potential in my eyes XD

5. I didn’t get that switched thing XD So moving on… AKBSeed = H!P Eggs: I really believed that this was true at first sight. And since I’m not too much into the Eggs, I wasn’t too into the SEEDs by default. But there’s a difference, the SEEDs get to perform with the main girls in every stage. The Eggs don’t, but I think that the basic concept might be the same. I’m still mad at the fact that it’s been like 7 years already, and the Eggs haven’t moved into something better (And no, Ongaku Gatas doesn’t necessarily count for something better… Just listen to that album of theirs, ’nuff said)

6. This actually made me a bit mad. A group of losers from the H!P auditions? No offense, but I would listen to Umeda Ayaka’s voice over Koharu’s ANY day. (hell, I would listen to Fran Drescher’s voice instead of Koharu’s… at least she doesn’t sing…). And besides, a group of losers? There are approximately 48 girls in the group of which only 2 are H!P rejects. And they aren’t even in a duo to call them a group XD. Besides, as sad as it might sound, and as much as I hate to bring up this whole subject again, Isn’t Koda Kumi (a loser from H!P) doing a lot better than Gocchin? Sure, she screwed up with her amniotic fluid comment, but Gocchin isn’t even in the freaking map! So being a loser form a H!P audition makes you bad? as a singer? entertainer? idol? whatever? Tsunku is freaking mental, and we all know it. He rejected Kashiwagi Yuki, and yet she’s a very good singer and a cute girl. He rejected Umeda Ayaka in teh Lucky Seven auditions, and that girl has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard in my life, and she seriously KICKS ass at dancing. So yeah, this was the only statement that I was entirely sure I would disagree with the first moment I read it.

7. Seifuku promotes sex and prostitution: I think that there’s nothing wrong about sex, whether it’s promoting it, doing it whatever. That’s my personal view though, and everyone is entitled to have their own, and that’s completely respectable. That said, I don’t really feel that Seifuku promotes prostitution. This is a touchy subject, because I’ve always been of the opinion that music, TV, movies and whichever other form of art, are not meant to be for educational purposes. Necessarily, that is. I always get in huge fights because my dad thinks that music corrupts the young people, and I disagree. I have the same opinion about Seifuku, but I feel that we probably shouldn’t be taking this subject as a matter of taste and personal choice or whatever but more of a cultural concept. Enjo kosai happens in Japan, sure it’s not something particularly common, but it happens. We have the same kind of problem in my country, girls sell themselves for extra money to buy brand stuff (and while I’m okay with sex, I HATE the idea of prostitution, I must say, just to avoid misinterpratations…), and while people don’t approve it, its something that exists, and it can’t be ignored. It shouldn’t be, either, because covering up the issues doesn’t exactly make them go away.   That said, I don’t think that the director of the PV (because the lyrics are about sex, but they have nothing to do with prostitution) had a sick plan or anything. They just decided that a song about such a touchy topic would be popular, because young people like to be told the truth, the truth that their parents don’t talk about, but that in turn makes music kind of educational in a way, doesn’t it? Ok, before I digress even more, I’ll just say that it creeps me out to see Erena in this PV, she was freaking 12 at the time!

So yeah, that wraps it up. I hope I didn’t sound like a hurt wota, I really tried to look at things as objectively as possible, because like I said, I’m a fan of H!P as well, and I just enjoy reading different opinions and thoughts of others about my favorite groups. It gets me thinking

I’m stopping all my crazy review frenzy for a while because I thought that if you guys don’t know about AKB48’s music, you won’t care about them, regardless of how cute, adorable, pretty, hot or whatever the girls may be. So I thought I would give you guys a list of my favorite songs by them with a small description on each, so you can download and listen to them, and hopefully, grow to love them.

AKBs style is kind of difficult to define, but if you’ve ever been into Jpop at all, (and particularly Idol Pop) you will know that there are lots of different styles of music that Idols get to sing, so it’s hard to put all songs in the same package.

If you’ve heard Onyanko Club’s music and other classic Idol numbers, you’re probably pretty close to what AKB has to offer. To be honest, it lacks some of the musical diversity that Tsunku achieved for his idols (in the sense that MK get punk-rock, MM get hyper pop (most of the time), Gocchin used to get music with a hint of R&B and the such…) but that’s also because AKB works mainly as a collective, and it doesn’t have  soloists, duos, or whatever with a particular style.

While most of you probably know this group for all the hype of the “song about prostitutes” or “the song about bullying/suicide” most of AKBs music admittedly doesn’t go in this direction, and they have a lot of diversity to offer. Something else that is very important (at least to me) is that the girls are very good singers, almost all of them (at least there’s no Koharu to make me cringe with lousy singing) either have great voices, or get songs that work perfectly with theirs, so it sounds good either way.

And to wrap this up and give you the music, from my particular point of view, you probably can’t enjoy this group completely without watching the performance that goes with the songs. Performing every day makes this girls true professionals, the choreographies work very well with the songs, and while they aren’t as complicated as Hello Project’s they fit each song perfectly and are visually appealing.

So here’s my Top 10 AKB48 songs you MUST listen to (I only included 1 single in here, because I’m sure you’ve all heard Aitakatta, and you can go and find the link for Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou and Bingo! which are the other ones I find worth listening to in order to understand a bit of AKBs style)

1. Seifuku ga Jama o Suru (My school Uniform gets in the way) http://www.mediafire.com/?2zaeylnxt5r: Sure, the infamous ho-song had to get a position in this list. I love this song, it’s my most listened in iTunes. What I find funny is that the lyrics aren’t about prostitution, but about a girl who wants to sleep with her boyfriend. The vocals are great, and the song is really catchy, the “Ah” parts create a mood that fits the lyrics perfectly. And while the instrumental isn’t something amazing speaking in strict musical terms, the bass is very good and it drives the song.

2. Bird http://www.mediafire.com/?cmtx02nityz: This is a stage song (like most of the songs I will include in this list) and I included it because it’s very dramatic, and the heart felt vocals are perfect too. This is a break up song, kind of angsty but exceptionally well composed, I specially like the guitars, they are very powerful.

3. Namida Uri no Shoujo (The Girl who Sells Tears) http://www.mediafire.com/?79ndze9rda3: Now, this is the song that should’ve gotten the ho PV. Seifuku is probably a better song, but the lyrics of Namida uri are the ones that talk about enjo kosai, as you can see here http://www.akb48-lyrics-paradise.co.nr/ (go to translations and then find the song, I think I can’t direct link to the page). I like the rap part, which is unusual for me, I usually hate to have rap in my Jpop, but in this song it just works really well.

4. Korogaru Ishi ni Nare (Become a rolling stone) http://www.mediafire.com/?fkoyzylaf2d: There is so much energy in this song! It pumps the audience instantly in concerts, but the song itself is great! The guitar line that drives the song is kind of 80s, but it works very well, and it’s just refreshing to hear a good rock song for idols, right?

5. Kinjirareta Futari (The forbidden pair) http://www.mediafire.com/?5hmb43duznq : The lesbian song! yay! I love the keyboard intro, and while Kasai’s vocals are a bit… uhh… helium pitched, it helps to state the difference between her character and Oshima Yuko’s. I like the spoken bits too, it works very well with the mood of this song.

6. Dear my Teacher http://www.mediafire.com/?4w30gayk3t1: This is a classic AKB48 song, which is why I think you should all listen to it. The lyrics are kind of naughty and the melody might take a while to grow on you, but it’s a very fun song, with a kind of retro feel that was characteristic of the early stages of AKB.

7. GLASS no I Love You http://www.mediafire.com/?1jce4d03dt3: If you like cute songs, this one is for you! The catchy chorus is adorable, and it just gets stuck in your head very easily. It’s a pretty infectious song, I guess, but the sweet vocals and nice melody make it really nice to listen to.

8. MARIA http://www.mediafire.com/?2×3lsosxvmt: Idols in Gothic lolita gear singing about the Virgin Mary? How can you possibly beat that? You can’t. This song is beyond awesome, it’s very dramatic, and the vocals of Masuda Yuka are (as always) absolutely perfect.

9. Don’t Disturb! http://www.mediafire.com/?33xy8bavh5j: This is not a very popular song, but still, I really like it, and I think that it’s one of the best AKB songs, musically wise. Maybe it’s because I’m South American so I’m bound to like percussion just like the one in this song. The acoustic guitar is really nice, and the overall background is very relaxing, and kind of creates a lovey-dovey atmosphere. Also, Erena’s english lines are to die for!!! “Can I ask you? Don’t you love me?” OMG!! Of course I love you so much Erepyon!!!!
10. Kataomoi no Sotsugyou Shiki (Graduation Season of Unrequited love) http://www.mediafire.com/?dnhlewieyja: I know that everyone hates ballads, but this one is just… beautiful. Not all of the vocals are great, but every girl gets a line, which is great because it brings something different from each of them to the song. This is a very delicate ballad, but I still think that it’s a nice change of pace from the other songs.

 So there you have it, 5 songs from team A (1,2,3,6,7) and 5 from Team K (4,5,8,9,10). This was very difficult, but I tried to pick one from each style, I mean, there are ballads, love songs, cute songs, dramatic stuff… I hope you like what you heard and I appreciate any feedback. If you are an AKB fan and disagree with my picks and think that something else should’ve on the list, please do tell me too.

As always, thanks for visiting Aitakatta! I hope you enjoyed your stay

Ugh, I won’t even talk about my date XD Aftr a year and a half with my boyfriend I’m still kind of puzzled about him, but I won’t bother you all with my drama (he said he wouldn’t marry me ;_; lol I’m pathetic)

7. Boku no Taiyou:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKm9FhLo1M I… hate… Maimai’s costume… with a passion. Whoever thought that a bright orange corset-poofy skirt combo with a matching bandana was a good outfit needs to be murdered. Seriously. Lots of Maimai deprivation in this PV as well… boo…

 

Ugh, I had forgotten about the hideous sunglasses… Even this outfit can’t make Maimai look bad, but it gets pretty close…

 

lol The blur next to Mai is Minegishi Minami-chan. I can NEVER get decent screencaps of her, it’s like she hates me or something

 

I can’t get over how awful her dress is… This PV really went all out in costume ugliness… the only partially decent one was probably Kasai Tomomi’s (and that’s just because I can’t remember what it looks like)

 

I think that this is all the screen time Maimai gets, that’s why there are so many similar screencaps

 

This is, in fact, the only time she appears alone in the PV. And it’s not even a freaking close up!! Screw Mayuyu, Mai should’ve been featured more prominently here (and given a nicer dress… BTW I checked Kasai’s and it’s hideous too, but she looks so cute in her pigtails, that I must’ve forgotten about her clothes at all)

 

Blah… I won’t even give you the link for Yuuhi wo Miteiruka, because it sucks (aka has no Maimai in it D:)

9. Romance Irane  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7HAsjhTfh4  As much as I hate this PV, I was so happy to see Maimai rocking this song, that it sort of saved it a bit for me.

You HAVE to check out her dancing in this PV. It’s beyond awesome!

 

Her performance reminds me a bit of Skirt, Hirari. But a lot more polished

I noticed her right away, it’s like she works extra hard to shine here because she didn’t get to be on Yuuhi wo Miteiru ka

 

Seriously, the only saving grace of this PV is that they paired my 2 favorite girls together! The Oshima girls!!! I had a fangirl attack when I saw this, I almost died of happiness!

 

They are SO awesome together!!!

 

Ehh… I think we’ve already seen this pose Maimai…

 

Another proof that this PV hates me… This screencap sucks, but that part of the PV was great!

 

Now, I’ll do a bonus part and post my favorite Maimai pics. Just because she’s so pretty she makes me kind of gay around her (kind of… :D)

     *nosebleeds ahoy*

       

 All your base are belong to Maimai!

 

And now, the Youtube videos!

Team A 4th Stage - Haru ga Kuru Made: Maimai is all kinds of awesome, and she proves it in this performance. This is a very sweet song about unrequited love, and its lovely tune reminds me a lot of Card Captor Sakura music… and of my childhood… Ahh! Good times!, anyway, Mai is pretty sad here, she seems about to cry, and she even wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. Of course, I don’t have a clue of what was she crying about, but maybe it was because the girl who sings here with her, Hoshino Michiru, graduated after this stage, so maybe she was sad because of that? Despite all of this, she truly shines here, and her sweet and soft voice fits the song perfectly. JUST WATCH THE DAMN THING ALREADY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md4M4RjwofM

Private Princess: Well, that sounds like the name of an H-game right? It’s nothing like that, though. It’s just a gravure photoshoot for Maimai, Tomochin and Kasai Tomomi. They shoot little videos of themselves, and it’s pretty cute. I chose the first one, because there you can watch Mai’s l33t clarinet skills, and the last one, because she looks amazing in it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkbvOpIEbTs              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWHwvFGB2I8

Team A 3rd Stage - Bird: yes, this is Takamina’s song, but it’s also what made me fall for Maimai. You’ll notice her natural sexiness right away, she’s an unbelievable performer, and this prooves it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5HAHM7ns8

Wow, this was a long and busy week… I should be studying, so I tried to look for something that could motivate me enough to neglect my academic activities (Hah! like that was so hard…), and I decided that I would do Maimai’s profile!!

Maimai (or My Mai as I like to call her XD) is my favorite Team A member. I just freaking love her! So I’ll warn you that this entry will probably have 3 parts, due to my capturing of every single frame of PVs were Maimai is. But she’s awesome, so you will want to watch every frame, I promise!

 

Name: Oshima Mai (大島麻衣)

Nickname: Maimai (まいまい)

Birthdate: September 11th, 1987

Birthplace: Chiba, Japan

Hobbies: Karaoke

Favourite artists: Otsuka Ai, Koda Kumi

Respected people: Koda Kumi, Matsushima Nanako, Fukada Kyoko

Favourite colours: Red, black, white.

Special talents: Volleyball, hula hoop, clarinet.

Favourite words: 「為せば成るっ!」 (“If you want to do something, you can do it!”)

Catchphrase: 「あなただけのセクシーなうさぎちゃん、まいまいこと大島麻衣です」 (“I’m your sexy bunny, Oshima Mai, known as Maimai.”)

Audition song: Otsuka Ai - Amaenbo

Height: 159cm

Bust: 89cm

Waist: 58cm

Hips: 84cm

I think that’s not her catchphrase anymore, but something like “From North to South (or form 2nd floor to 1st floor of concert venue XD) I want my love to reach you all, I’m the messenger of Love, called Maimai, I’m Oshima Mai!” or at least that’s what I heard in both AKB48 concerts. I could be wrong though, because I’ve never seen one of her stage MCs.

Anyway, Maimai is the mood maker of AKB, and Team A. She’s absolutely gorgeus, but she’s also very entertaining to see. Her personality is very outspoken and upbeat, she’s almost always smiling. She has a “sexy” image that she loves to play with, and is an awesome dancer and singer. The best part about her dancing, is that not only she nails all of the steps perfectly, but she also gives them a special something… it’s hard to explain, you just have to see it in order to understand it, but it’s like she knows how to make a dance look sexy when it has to be sexy, or happy, or dramatic or whatever. She’s just that awesome. I’ve heard some people think that her voice is weak, but I don’t think so. She might not have the super powerful vocals of Takamina or Masuda Yuka, but she’s a very good singer, just listen to Namida no Shounan! Her parts are perfect!

I’ll stop here in order to spam this thing with as many pictures as I can possibly find XD I’ll keep fangirling in every picture anyway, so it’s no big deal.

1. Sakura no Hanabiratachi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XHLUwJMek  Well, since nobody was really the main focus of this PV (except for Acchan, but she’s just everywhere, anywhere) we don’t get a lot of Maimai here. Still, she looks beautiful and seems to be truly happy when she sings. Aww… don’t you just love her?

 

Ehh… she looks as if she was just about to punch Orii Ayumi XD I know that I completely failed at screencapping the moment in the PV, but… Agressive Maimai is just as good, right?

 

Excuse the blurriness and suckyness… She was on screen for like a split second and I just HAD to cap it!

 

Happy Maimai!! She makes me go everytime I see her laugh!

 

She’s in the last row!!! Why? ;_;

 

Maimai says hi! I like her better with dyed hair, it sets her apart from the other girls.

 

“Ganbarimasu”

 

Maimai and graduated member Usami Yuki. They seem to be pretty close, since they take pics together all the time (and Maimai posts them in her blog) I think they’re in the same Futsal team, but I could be wrong.

And the final shot of Maimai! She’s so happy that they didn’t have an emo clip of her crying for the PV

 

2. Skirt Hirari  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc5mKEgl9kY When I first watched this PV I thought that Maimai might very well be the prettiest girl of all those who appeared singing here. However, I prefered the younger girls playful mood instead of her mature attitude. When I became her fan, I obviously watched this again, from a different perspective, and I thought that she was awesome, especially because of the contrast with the younger girls.

 

She’s the only one of the girls who seems to know what this song is about. Must be because she’s the oldest of the girls who sing solo lines here.

 

She looks distracted here… No mood at all XD

 

But she quickly changes that with her first close up. Her intense look is very compelling.

 

She’s the most well balanced performer here, with good vocals and great body language. She goes further than the other girls with her hand movements and gestures.

 

Remember Acchan’s subtle “come hither” look? Maimai doesn’t make it subtle at all, but I find that more fitting to her character (and age) too.

 

See what I mean?

 

Even though all of the girls joined at the same time, there’s something sort of instinctive about Mai’s performance. And that’s what makes her different from the other girls in a way

 

It’s not like she’s the best singer, dancer or anything, actually, but she has a very well defined personality, and its perfectly conveyed into everything she does

 

And this can be seen from the beggining. There’s a reason why she was the center in this PV, and I think that’s because she was ready for it, unlike the other girls

 

That’s not to say that the others are bad, they are arguably even more capable than Mai in some levels (like Takamina’s singing, or Acchan’s pure idol-ness) but she was giving everything she did a special touch, even here, while they seemed kind of lost at times.

 

This is a very raw Maimai we see in Skirt Hirari. She’s definitely improved and put her act together over these 2 years.

 

3. Aitakatta:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwFvpkiNOVU This PV suffers from serious Maimai deprivation, but still, the few seconds of her are great!

 

“Look mom! We’re on MTV!! We’re cool like that!”

 

She does look a bit like a bunny right? Sexy bunny, like she said herself XD

 

Maybe it’s the fangirl in me talking, but I would’ve prefered to see her as the main girl instead of Takamina, she’s just more fitting for this song than Taka…

 

But anyway… this is her part, she’s with Sae, apparently having a great girl talk

 

And then they both see someone coming, so they stop their talk (gossip talk, judging by their faces)

 

THESE faces…

 

In case we had any doubt XD

 

I have a love/hate relationship with Maimai’s close ups. She changes her expression every second, so even if I take 10 screencaps of her they will all be completely different, it’s amazing! But then, it’s a pain to decide which ones I should up

 

So I just decided that I’ll up all of them. There’s never too much Maimai, you know

Oh, there’s our favorite gossip girls again!

 

4. Seifuku ga Jama o Suru  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_1ObyG2-1Y Maimai sin’t one of the main girls of this PV, which is a shame, because she’s totally hot in the live performances! Nevertheless, she stands out because she’s the most beautiful girl in the PV. Seriously. That hairstyle and make up make her look unbelievable.

 

That make up is kind of heavy, it makes her look like a doll…

 

She’s right there, behind Acchan! Ugh, I hate the fact that it’s so hard to see her in this PV… she didn’t even get a close up!

 

There she is with Tomochin. I told you she looked breathtaking here!

 

I remember watching this PV, and feeling an urge to know her name. I thought “She’s awesome! I’m her biggest fan already!”

 

Her natural sexyness works very well with this type of song

 

I’ll see if I can find a Youtube performance, though. She rocks this song live

 

5. Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIenqQ2jzs There’s not a lot of Maimai here either, but I like how she was playing the popular girl character. I’ll warn you though, my screencaps of that part suck.

She’s the one in the right, BTW. This was her only solo line, and they didn’t even do a close-up of it. That sucks so much!

 

She’s the only one who looks happy, but that means that she’s evil, and probably bullies Yuko. Ohh! Maimai, you’re such a bad girl!

 

Recycled screencap FTW! And that’s all of Maimai in this PV O_O

 

6. BINGO!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzp6tTAYoF0 Mai in red! Yay! She wasn’t one of the white girls who appeared at TV shows, but red is so much better…

 

Yup, badgirl Maimai again! Don’t you just love her mean face?

 

That’s the line where they sing “my heart screams” or something like that. I thought her hand motion was cute

 

She’s more of a “red” person than white, I think. So her dress fits her personality!

 

Peace Sign!!!

 

And here she sticks out her tongue. I like how happy and natural everyone looks in this pic, BTW

 

I don’t know if it’s because of the red, or if its just Mai’s natural glow, but the other girls are kind of outshined here, right?

 

BINGO!

 

I wonder if she’s really good friends with Yuka, or they just appear together in this PV by chance…

 

It would be a dream unit for me, Maimai and Yuka… Just throw Nacchi in, and it might be the hottest thing ever

 

She can jump really high too See, she’s very talented, this girl

I’ll do next part (and an extra of more pics and stuff… Just because I lurv Maimai) later today. Probably tonight, because I have a date this afternoon so I’ll be busy