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