Hello! I’m going to keep this challenge up until I’m done And blogging about important things that may come up in the mean time of course!
Today’s question is:
11. Your favorite solo idol:
I might not be the most vocal Maimai fan in town, but I really really admire her and adore her and my feelings for her as one of my all time favorite idols have not changed one bit.
She was my oshi (alongside Yuko, of course) in AKB48 and I was really captivated by her energy, professionalism and talent. She seemed to be very friendly with the other girls, even though she teased them at times, and she was always capable of giving really interesting TV appearances and was the default MC of AKBINGO because of this. I often wonder whether Takamina would have the position she has now as a captain if Mai hadn’t graduated (although I adore and respect Takamina a lot as well) because my impression when I was a fan of AKB way back in 2007 was that she was the one who was leading the group in a way.
Always articulate and witty, with an amazing voice and great dancing skills to match, Mai was a perfect idol in many ways, and she even had the luxury to walk out of AKB just as it was starting to rise in popularity because she didn’t need it anymore. She’s become a relatively famous TV tarento and has had her own show, on top of that, she continues her successful career in gravure and has released 3 solo singles (which have kind of flopped, sadly :/)
Even though I don’t see her that much anymore, Mai will always have a special place in my heart <3 Her skills as an entertainer are undeniable and she’s one of the few idols who have really taken their lives in their own hands and decided about their careers in a way they please instead of being manipulated by the industry (to a certain degree anyway). I hope she continues her singing career and keeps being successful and amazing as always.
EDIT: Sorry to bring up something non AKB related xD But I just found out the news about the new Perfume album and single and I had to blog about it in Macaroni! Check it out if you’re a fan of Perfume
Here’s a difficult question because I have to admit I don’t pay attention to kks or H!P eggs at all, but I don’t do it for a bad reason, but because I don’t have the time for that! I can barely keep up with my already debuted favorites!
Day 10: Your favorite “undebuted” Idol (Hello! Pro Egg, AKB48 Kenkyuusei, etc.):
Meet Kojima Natsuki aka. Nattsun. She’s an AKB48 kenkyuusei and she’s so beautiful and cute at the same time! I love her To be honest I haven’t really seen much of her performances because I don’t have the time to sit through a whole LOD nowadays, but she’s pretty popular which I’m really relieved about because maybe she could get promoted to Team 4!
I love Koharu, I really do. She’s incredibly beautiful and her personality is amazing, she can definitely brighten a room with her smile and she always tried her best at everything she did, with a big smile on her face. I know all of this, and I also know that she had a lot of pressure on her because she was supposed to be a “miracle” but GOOD GRIEF her voice makes my eardrums bleed.
Ever since she joined MM she wasn’t a good singer at all, she was kind of flat all the time, but that can improve with time, right? Sayu has gotten a lot better through the years because the girls in MM receive vocal training (something AKB should really do lol) and even though she’ll never be Aichan, she’s certainly gotten better and now can carry a tune quite well (I love Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai or whatever that song is called <3) but instead Koharu got casted as Kirarin and then everything went to hell.
The weird thing is, I like the Kirarin music, the songs are ridiculous and lots of fun and her bubbly and kind of extravagant personality was right at home wearing those huge colorful dresses and jumping around but… whenever she started singing I cringed. Now on top of sounding flat (to my ears ofc) she was nasal and had this weird whiny thing going on at the end of each phrase she sang, wtf.
Needless to say, when the even whinier Hagiwara joined her to sing that horrid disaster about noses and boogers I literally wondered why did something like this even happen in the music world.
Unlike people who say that outside of her Kirarin schtick Koharu was a good singer, I disagree, she was always bad, and she never improved much because she didn’t need to in Kirarin (I never watched the anime, but I think it was something along the lines of a girl who can’t sing and becomes a singer or something like that. The can’t sing part was spot on) and it was actually in the job requirements that she sucked.
Sure, she got a little more bearable in MM songs, and there was a wacky endearing quality to her voice in loud songs like Guruguru Jump but she couldn’t handle the serious songs well at all, she ruined Resonant Blue and Nanchatte Renai for me, she ruined Aishite ato Ippun for me and she was one of the reasons why I decided to sever all ties to Morning Musume: When I heard Resonant Blue and noticed that only 3 girls had solo lines and one of them was Koharu I ragequit that fandom for good.
And yes, I know full well that idols aren’t supposed to be good singers or good dancers or talented in any way, they are supposed to be charismatic, but I enjoy the music of idols a whole deal, so if something gets in the way I won’t be able to listen to it anymore.
I still love you Koha, just please stay away from recording studios and I can keep adoring you for all of your good qualities
This question is especially hard to answer for me because I actually like most idol voices. I’m drawn to sweet high pitched voices way more than to deep powerful ones, although I recognize the merit in both. Actually, the fact that I listen to japanese music at all has to do with the western music industry being dominated by powerful voices, and this type of voice being the one considered beautiful and befitting of a singer, while the others are “weak” or “not soulful enough”, and trust me, I’ve watched enough American Idol episodes to be confident in what I’m saying.
My personal taste might also have to do with the fact that my voice is ridiculously high pitched and kid of soft, so I obviously would sound like a cat being strangled if I ever tried to sing along to Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera. I like singing, and most of the time I’m singing along to whatever music I enjoy, it’s a big part of why I like the music I do and also a big reason why I don’t listen to nearly as many male singers as I do with females.
Now, with that out of the way (although I would like to make a dedicated blog post about why I like idol music, especially seeing how lately there has been a trend in the blogosphere to regard it as crap), I must clarify that I took this question to mean “current idols” or else I would’ve lost my mind trying to pick a favorite, since Showa idols are big favorites of mine.
After pondering it for like 3 days and their nights, I concluded that my favorite idol voice of all times would be Matsuda Seiko, but as I said before, I’m limiting my answer to current idols
So here’s my choice
Team B captaing Kashiwagi Yuki also known as Yukirin probably has my favorite voice of the whole AKB. She is also a good singer (by idol standards) hitting always the right notes and having good breathing and endurance. She’s also one of the girls who has sung live the most, because of her talent.
Technically there are better girls in the group (and I don’t even know much about technicality anyway) but it’s the sweet timbre of her voice that gets me every time. She sounds very soothing and I really like this quality of her voice, especially in ballads, where she manages to be expressive enough to pull them off without putting me to sleep. I was over the moon when French Kiss was announced, and she’s the lead singer there which has helped display her voice even more!
Here are videos of Yukirin’s singing
Close runner up: Yokoyama Yui. I need to hear more of her, but so far I’m in love with her sweet little voice. I’m holding out a bit more to see if she makes me change my mind. From H!P my current favorite is Suzuki Airi, but I don’t like the way many of them get a whiny or nasal tone over the years, it wasn’t like this before :/ When it comes to korean idols, my favorite voice is Sunny’s from SNSD and a close second would be Tiffany.
Finally, a heads up! My other Jpop blog Macaroni is back up and running! I don’t update it as frequently as Aitakatta, but be sure to check it out, maybe you’ll find something you like if you’re not really into Akihabara
Here is the latest post in Macaroni, so please take a look if you’d like!
Here’s a really tough one :/ I’m going to go ahead and try to answer as best as I can (which is dividing this question in two lol)
7. Favorite Idol Pairing
This is a really tough question for me, as I’m not quite sure that there are any definite idol pairings wrecking havoc and amusing me like the legendary W did, but I have to move on, and look to different horizons. Since I’m kind of dense, I don’t understand if this means pairing in the funny sense of the word (like W) or in the OTP sense of the word, so I’m going to answer both of them
OTP:
I’m not really into Girls Love (because I’m not into anything that has to do with love pretty much. I’m the least romantic person on Earth probably) but when I got into AKB48 and especially when I became a fan of Team K something was very clear in my mind: Sae and Sayaka are soulmates. This revelation came to me naturally, because like I said before, I’m totally unromantic; but I couldn’t help but notice how much they got along and how close they are to each other, even more than anyone else I can think of in the 48 family (Maybe AtsuMina come close, but it’s not quite the same) They have voiced their love for each other in many ways, and I think it’s pretty cute how they are completely different yet that only seems to bring them together.
It became such a natural thing for me that when I was explaining to my cousin how AKB works I said “This is Sayaka, she’s the captain of Team K, and this is her girlfriend Sae” That’s simply the way it is for me.
Funny / Charismatic Duo
I had a really big issue with this one, especially because all of the AKB girls are very close so there are about a million pairings.
Since I couldn’t pick well at all, here are some runner ups for you (lol)
1. Takamina x Yuko: The “chibis” are a super dorky pair, and it gets hilarious whenever Yuko teases the tiny captain.
2. Komorin x Sasshi: Whenever Mikapon appears, laughs are coming for sure. But if you mix the weirdest AKB member with the outrageous Hetare queen, it’s comedy gold.
Aaaand my favorite duo would have to be:
Sasshi x Yui! They are a recent duo, but they make up for it with their hilarious antics. Even though Yuihan is a bit shy and demure, Sasshi manages to bring out her mischievous side and they click together perfectly making silly jokes and giving each other nicknames and just generally being fun to watch whenever they are together.
Here’s a picture to show what I’m talking about better:
Sasshi took this picture when Yui was sleeping and sneakily posted it on her blog xD I hope they get more chances to showcase their weird humor because they’re great at it, and now that Yui’s character has been coming through more and more in AKBINGO and Ariyoshi and the such I think this isn’t the last we’ve seen of them!
CODA: Since I’m sure some people might be wondering, I’ll preemptively explain why KojiYuu isn’t in any of the categories. I don’t know for sure if Haruna plays hard to get or if she really has no interest in Yuko (they’re obviously close friends, but I don’t think there’s any more than that at least from Haruna’s side) but while they can be cute, I don’t find them as funny as purely comedic pairs or as fitting as an OTP (especially because I think Yuko’s feelings are totally unrequited). Like I said, this question was really hard since AKB is full of pairings in whatever sense of the word there is.
And blogging about important things that may come up in the mean time of course!
