HI! I’ll keep rambling until I get home, which will hopefully be tomorrow, and then I can continue with the regular pic-loaded updates. Anyway, I wrote this one as a follow up of my last entry, in hopes that people who are beginners in the fandom and want to really understand what this whole “Team” business is about will probably know what each one has to offer. Well, see you whenever I get home and can finally update regularly again!

Let’s asume that all of us have a favorite type of idol, well, it’s not really an assumption, you see, because most of us actually go through different idol fandoms attracted by a certain girl who has the character or talent treats that we specifically favor the most.

To make my point clear, I’ll talk about my personal taste, as far as idols go.

I like idols who are first and foremost happy to be where they are, I like my idols to be proud of their group, collective, unit, whatever, and I like it when they support their colleagues or groups. In this vein, I would like to point out my favorite Morning Musume member, who is the main girl I think of whenever I state this, Niigaki Risa. She has constantly said in interviews, Futarigotos and whatnot that she adores MM, she always has treasured the fact that she’s part of the group and it really shows in her performances and in everything else she is a part of.

I also happen to like idols who are confident, and a bit of show offs even. A girl who isn’t afraid to steal the spotlight and speak her mind, immediately gets my utmost recognition and unconditional love. This is why I love Team A’s Oshima Mai, never one to be afraid, she sings her heart out, smiles all the way through concerts and dominates the stage with her confidence. This is a very important thing for an idol, because if a girl isn’t sure of what her talents are, and isn’t capable of faking it either, chances are that she will slip to the background and remain unnoticed. Another example of a girl who I love because of her confidence is Team A’s Tojima Hana. She’s not really a front girl, but whenever the camera is on her, even for a split second, she totally steals our attention, it’s like you HAVE to look at her, because she looks like she knows exactly what she’s doing.

Another favorite treat of mine, is how capable a girl is to convey the feeling of a song or the energy of a dance. Some girls are technically perfect, but they don’t really have much feeling put into their performances, so they don’t stand up to me as much. Miyazawa Sae of Team K is a perfect example of this, she is very upbeat, but whenever there is a sexy or sad song, she can handle it just as well, channeling all of that energy into something great that highlights the emotion of a particular song.

Finally, and probably the most important of all, is that I happen to like girls who are talented. Sure, I’m not looking for Utada HIkaru kind of vocals or Amuro Namie dancing skills, but if I’m going to be fond of an idol she has to prove that she is good at what she does, which is singing and dancing. That is the reason why I have never jumped in the Kusumi bandwagon, that girl can’t freaking sing, her voice breaks every other line and while she has really improved her dancing, and she is the most charismatic one out of the current MM, my eardrums still bleed whenever she sings. On the other hand, I’m a big fan of Oshima Yuko mainly because of her talent. Don’t get me wrong, Yuko is my favorite member for a number of reasons, including her fun loving personality, but the reason why I was captivated by her and have never looked back since, was her sheer talent. Yuko is a great actress, you can see this in the Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou PV, where she cried, but not in the typical idol way of crying fake tears, she was shaking and sobbing and seriously crying, fitting the mood of the song perfectly. This acting skills enable her to be a great performer, and she also has a very distinctive kind of husky voice that sets her apart. She is also a fine dancer. It might sound kind of mean, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m into idols because of the music, and while I’m not expecting any life changing songs, I do expect my favorite idols to be able to do what they’re hired to do!

Ok, so with all of that in mind, I have had great fun by being an AKB48 fan, because there are so many girls that you will definitely find one to suit your taste. I won’t do the 48 girls individually, but I’ll try to do a bit of a profile of each Team’s style, so that you can decide what fits you best.

Team A

Team A, the first Team created, is pretty much a classic idol group. The girls who are part of this team are all charming, cute and sexy in a very girly way, which is probably what sets them apart from the other 2 teams. They have great songs in all kind of styles, but their main musical feature is probably pop per se, both mellow laid back tracks, like Haru ga Kuru Made, 7ji 12fun no Hatsukoi, Shinkirou, Kikyou, coupled with more dramatic danceable numbers like Faint, Mr. Kissman, Namida no Shounan and so on. Something that is also unique about Team A, is that their choreographies usually have a more “flowing” feel to the moves, as opposed to the sharp moves and steps of Team K’s choreographies, for example. Personality wise, the girls from Team A are pretty much typical representatives of the Idol label. Whether absolutely charming, like Acchan, careerist, like Takamina, fun loving like Miichan and Tomochin or downright sexy and “in charge” like Maimai, there’s no doubt that if you’re a fan of classic idol groups like Morning Musume and Wink you will probably find yourself swooning over the professional hotties of this team. That is not to say that there aren’t any quirks or personality treats to give this group a little more… variety, take the very sweet but slightly insane Ohyay as an example, or the beautiful but airheaded Kojiharu, and overall, it seems like most of the girls in this Team were handpicked to be stars, which means that while some may not have great voices, and others aren’t exactly the best dancers they all have lots of personality, and this creates a very interesting amount of strong characters so you will certainly find a perfect match for your idol tastes whithin this hip looking, slightly retro oriented team of girls.

Team K

Team K, the followup Team, has a bit of an edge to it. The energy level of this girls is like way up in the sky, they are always bursting with enthusiasm and pump up the audience with their rock inspired songs and hyper pop numbers. Something that will have you recognize them instantly is the fact that they have the most powerful singers, so their songs sound a bit in the lower range and somewhat stronger than those of the other teams. As I said before, Team K’s signature music is a winning combo of rock, energetic or really powerful pop, and while they are very sexy on their own right, it’s not the girly sexy “Fall in love with me” style of Team A, but more of a “I know I’m hot, so you must worship me now!” kind of sexy, if you get what I mean (and if you don’t, then go watch Blue Rose, and then you’ll get it) Impressively enough, although this one is the “Cool” Team of AKB, they have some of the most beautiful ballads, due to the great singers that are part of the team, songs like Nakinagara Hohoende, Don’t Disturb!, Kataomoi no Sotsugyou Shiki or the incredibly sweet and melancholic “Aisareru to Iu Koto” help prove this point. Personality wise, this girls are all little balls of energy, and each one of them does it in their own style,so there are purely cool girls like Saeyaka, crazy adorable ones like Yuko or Kasai, cute little kids like Erepyon, Machan or Kaorin and the silly girls like Nonti, Nacchi and Kana and so on, but you can trust me on this, even the most mellow looking ones, like Matsubara Natsumi, really fire up out of nowhere when the show starts and as a result Team K stands strong as the powerful and cool team of AKB.

Team B

Team B, the last group that was created, had been a bit of a puzzle, musically wise, because of the fact that they were given 2 recycled stages to perform, so none of us had any clue of what their songs were really about. Thankfully, that all ended with the opening of B3, which is one of the strongest stages of AKB as a whole and proved that with every audition, Akimoto has a knack for picking a group of girls that will smoothly fit with each other and with the music that he has tailored for them. First thing you will notice about Team B is that they all seem to be in hyper mode, and it’s a different kind of energy from the one Team K exudes, this one is more like… wacky, crack, pure fun type of energy, which is great, because it helps Team B stand out from the other two. If Team A is starpower and Team K is coolness then we’d probably be better off saying that Team B is the most charismatic Team of all. Regardless of the amount of big names and great characters in the senpai groups, B’s girls manage to work, smile and joke their way into the sturdiest of wota hearts. They have the kind of schoolgirl goofiness and carefree attitude of groups of young girls, like Berryz Koubou or Buono, and it’s always refreshing to have some great lighthearted fun every now and then! With all of that said, Team B’s music is a very interesting mix of dreamy pop (Shonichi, Gokigen Naname na Mermaid, Tenshi no Shippo), and dramatic songs with greatly incorporated elements of techno (Junjou Shugi, Inochi no Tsukaimichi, Temodemo no Namida) or a little bit of rock (Kagami no Naka no Jeanne da Arc, Seifu wa Arashi ni Yume o Miru). It’s kind of an eclectic combo, and takes hints from the other teams’s styles to make them their own. We can only sit and expect for more great things to come from this team, already on their first original stage they are way ahead of the way!

Well, I hope that that turned out somehow useful, or at least readable XD

Bye!