-sigh-
Well, first of all, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited my blog, I’ve had over 8000 page views, which is a much greater response than I ever expected to get, so I really want to thank everyone who has visited and came back. I love blogging, I absolutely ADORE AKB48, and I’m thrilled to see that at least a few people have grown to love the group because of this blog, it makes me incredibly happy because that’s why I created it in the first place, in order to spread the love.
I want to thank Tokyograph for linking to Aitakatta, it’s really an honor for me, and for my relatively young blog.
And now… on to the real news.
Somehow things are going a bit shaky at Don Quijote this week. Remember sweet little Team B member Ayarin? Well, turns out that she was fired. Which of course, sucks majorly but was the logical step in the idol world.
The fact that foreign fans can’t help but think of how lame each and everyone of this boyfriend scandals have been also helps state even more the difference between japanese fans and us. Idols are what they are, and if we can’t really grasp the whole concept, then sucks to be us, because that’s not going to change. I keep telling this to myself, but I feel like I’m more hurt about the fact that this had to happen in my beloved AKB48 than about Ayaka herself.
I mean, not that I don’t feel sorry for her and her fans, but I read from someone at Stage48.net that Ayarin’s friends had posted stuff on their blogs about how they hated Otakus and how she was thinking of quitting AKB because of the scandal. I don’t really know if this is the truth, but what I do know is that what Akimoto wanted to accomplish with this whole kicking her out thing is to set the rules even clearer than they were before for the girls. You screw up, you’re freaking out. There’s no suspension, no pretending like nothing happen. Unlike H!P, who try to be aimed to a wider audience, AKB has always been wota-oriented. If a girl (or her friends ) diss the wota, then there’s no prentending it didn’t happen (like H!P did with Ishikawa Rika and her big mouth) because the wota are the reason why the whole group exists, and Akimoto aknowledges it, he respects them (and in fact, he once said that he was a wota himself on TV…) and he’s not going to have his whole group boycotted by some 15 year olds, and he’s making that a very CLEAR statement for the other girls.
I feel bad about Team B, they always work so hard, and for them to lose a front girl like Ayarin, must be pretty tough and frustrating. And then comes the DVD question, are they going to edit her out of B2? I sure hope they don’t, like I said before, she wasn’t really my favorite girl voice-wise, but she’s all over the place! If they cut her out it won’t even make sense anymore. I don’t think they’ll do this, though. B2 must be out for all of us to get our filthy paws on very soon, but it also raises questions about another DVD, B3. That stage has been performed over 150 times now, which is a lot. I’ve read that people aren’t as excited about it as before, let’s say it’s getting old. So that one must be ending pretty soon, but what are they going to do? I wonder if they already filmed it? And if they did, are they going to re shoot almost everything? And include Sashihara as Kikuchi’s permanent replacement as she has been in the latest B shows? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I do wonder who will be pushed to the front now that Kikuchi is gone. I mean, a part of me is always kind of excited when a big Momusu member leaves just to find out who will fill her position. This isn’t the same of course, but Ayarin and Mayuyu were the face of Team B, so it’s almost certain that a girl will be pushed into that position. I’m thinking Kashiwagi might be the logical choice, given how she leads a lot of songs, and is an amazing singer. I would love to see my beloved Haachan in the front, of course, but I’m good with any girl who is a good singer.
Like I said before, please support AKB48, and especially Team B. They are all very committed hard workers, and they deserve all the love and support in the world after all of this chaos.
And finally, to wrap this whole scandal business and never look back at it again, I really wish all the best for Ayarin. She proved to be a great performer and a very fun girl to watch, it’s sad to see her leave. I hope that she can experience the life of a normal teenager now, and that there are many many good things in store for her in the future.
I just found out about this unit from Yahoo Japan! with the Boyfriend scandal.
I’d personally think, -whatever. it’s a 15 year old’s “love”- but apparently that wasn’t the case, especially to her hard-core fans.
That was quite unfortunate for her and the group- but at least they made head lines and more people (like me) now know of their existence? (Hey- look… something good from this whole mess!)
[...] -Sigh- (Aitakatta!) [...]
Well, I guess you are right to a certain extent, Hiro.
People say that bad publicity is better than no publicity, and maybe for a group that isn’t really all that big on the mass media at the moment, it sure did get them some recognition… but somehow, it shouldn’t be like this, they should be getting aknowledged for their hard work and talent, not for… well, Ayarin’s boyfriend
I think that it would be impossible at this point to remove all traces of Ayarin from B2. With her small unit song being ‘Nageki no Figure’ (how ironic…), she’ll have a fair amount of solo lines, and it will be massively tricky editing her out of such a small unit to begin with– also, that song relies a lot on showing off the stage mechanics, and it’ll be hard to show off the stage without getting Ayarin in there. The bigger songs, however, I think would be easier to edit her out of. Hopefully they’ll just leave her in, though. But I won’t hold my breath. Now B3– I expect to not see her at all there, I’d be very surprised if they kept her, seeing as it’s still being performed, and if they absolutely felt they had to, they could just film the replacement(s) currently performing for her.
And as for the new front girl– I think Yukirin is already a front girl for Team B. She was chosen for as many singles as Ayarin (Bingo! and Babyx3; while Ayarin can be seen in the PV for Bingo!, I don’t think she sang, she wasn’t in promotions for it, and she didn’t appear on TV singing it like Yuki did– not that I can remember, anyway), she appeared along only Ayarin and Mayuyu in a fairly recent promotion event, her photos go for a ton on the auctions, you can see her front and center (and a lot of the time, right next to Mayu) in several group songs, she was chosen to perform her lead part in ‘Namida no shounan’ in the AX concert (maybe it’s just me, but I think when Kojima Haruna and Shinoda Mariko play second fiddle to you, it’s a pretty big deal, haha!), etc., etc. Her presence may grow in Ayarin’s absence, or they may bring up someone new. I think the logical choice would be Lovetan, as she’s already getting a fair amount of promotion here and there (and on a totally random side note, my mom even mistook Lovetan for a front girl when I was showing her some AKB stuff XD). But I would absolutely keel over and die from a heart attack of fangirly joy if Tanamin or Mikipomu were promoted a little more.
… and sorry for this way-longer-than-I-expected comment!
Hahaha, yeah I know that Yukirin is pretty big (and I love that, because I love that girl) but somehow Ayarin seemed to get more of a push, IMO.
If Tanamin were the frontgirl I would be the happiest fangirl ever! She’s so gorgeus and her dance skills are amazing! Yet she gets shafted all the time…
Lovetan is indeed the next logical choice, she gets a lot of promotion from AKB0ji59fun
However, if they chose her and Mayuyu to be the main front girls (well, along with Yuki) I think that it would give a vibe that team B is a bunch of lolis and no more, and it clearly isn’t the case…
Harugon, perhaps? She gets a ton of lines… I like her and all, but I’d like to see a more obscure member get a chance to shine
Maybe for the B2 DVD they will just not have in her the overture part and try to keep her closeups to a minimum? I think they film lots of different performances so it might not be too hard.
Your blog has inspired me to get at least one of the Team B DVDs, release date March 26, 2008. No doubt Ayaka was a clear front girl. I also noted that Shiho Watanabe was in that show (which was very impressive, by the way) and Shiho is listed as graduating in October 2007. Why such a brutal delay in DVD production (if this show was done before Oct. 2, 2007, when Shiho graduated, that would be six months’ gap)?
I was stunned by Team B. I had an outside chance to see them in the Don Quixote in January 2008 but chose instead to see the Team A-K combo. They were sensational live (Maeda, Takahashi, Nikanishi, Ono, etc.). I missed Kayano Masuyama, who graduated in November 2007.
Kayano was also in a Himawari-Gumi DVD of April 2008 (again, released six months after the show), and I first thought she has returned to AKB48 or some mistake had been made vis-a-vis her status with the company. Kaya was one of the top idol-singer candidates I have ever seen and heard and it is unfortunate that quality performers like Kaya and Ayaka are squeezed out for whatever reason.
I will be giving this post a great review on my other blog at:
http://www.bloggerparty.com/blog/yankeeotaku in the next day or so.
Thanks for the great work here. Reliable news about AKB48 is hard to find.
This post has been rated by YankeeOtaku:
http://bloggerparty.com/aitakatta_akb48s_team_b_turmoil
I’m glad that you’re getting a DVD, Team B are really cool, they work very hard and deserve all the love and support in the world.
DVDs are traditionally release 6 months after Stages finish. I don’t really know why is it scheduled to be like that, and it sure adds up a lot of nostalgia because once you’ve dealt with a graduation of a girl you love nad are finally getting over it, she pops up again in the DVD >_< It is a pain in the ass for overseas fans as well, seeing how we hear about the stages, read reviews, watch previews, listen to fan recordings and yet can’t see the whole show for 6 more months after it finishes! It sure helps you work on your patience.
Thanks for the YankeeOtaku rating BTW!
ohh gosh, do u think those DVD come to Singapore?!! I wanna get em too!! but i dun see any of them in e stores >.<