Tuesday 22 November 2011

AKB49 Chapter 1

Now if you came here by the only place I link to here from, you’ll have both seen me insanely rage about the fact I’ll do this, and guessed what I’m on about.
AKB49 is the first manga about AKB48. But why is it called AKB49 you ask? Well no, you don’t actually, cause your either not reading this or you know, but we’ll get to that in approximately right now.
The manga starts in colour for a couple of pages starting with how in 20XX AKB outsold the Beatles. OK let me stop you right there. The Beatles, the greatest selling musical act of all time, was outsold by a bunch of Japanese teenagers. Bear in mind that this was written before every single was selling a million units in the first week. But apparently they became the most popular act in the world, and then ask if we know about the one who propelled the group to superstardom, the legendary 49th member. Isn’t AKB (and I mean just AKB, and not Kenkyuusei either) already on about 60 members? Ah well. Well this is apparently that story anyway. Our last full colour page is a picture in a magazine, probably Young Jump, or Young Animal, or Weekly playboy, of Mariko, Mayuyu, Tomochin, Acchan,  Takamina, Kojiharu and Asasube Ryo? on a beach as part of a gravure spread, while a bunch of boys discuss which is their favourite member. We’re also introduced to our protagonist, Uramaya Minoru, a boy in their class who doesn’t care for AKB. When one of the boys comments on how Maeda doesn’t deserve to be in AKB cause of how people noticed she didn’t seem to be making as much effort in performances, so apparently her popularity plummeted (so I’m guessing in this version Aki-P didn’t decide to put Maeda in Chance no Junban in this timeline then? Although if this is around Heavy Rotation time he probably did) this causes a girl, Yoshinaga Hiroko, to rage angrily at them because Maeda is the greatest musician in the world in her eyes, which becomes important later. One of the boys says Minoru is probably stalking Yoshinaga, which he denies. We then see him in a bush, looking in a dictionary for the definition of stalker. After deciding he doesn’t shove coals (it’s a pronunciation joke, stoker and stalker are pronounced the same) he starts following Yoshinaga, winding up at an AKB concert. He sees her briefly, and happening to find a ticket (behind the scenes) on the floor shows it to the bouncer, who points him through a door. He tries to find his way to the theatre; he pushes through a door, and….
He sees AKB48 in the dressing room. They’re in their underwear. You can definitely recognise Takamina, Sae, Sayaka, Minegishi, I think the one groping the other is Myao and Erena and Yukirin. Takamina screams out ‘PERVERRRT’ causing the security people to jump out into the corridor and fail completely to do their jobs. Realising that Yoshinaga will hate him if he’s caught peeping in the dressing rooms of one of Japan’s most high profile girl groups, he runs out, wailking ito Nyan Nyan asking for hair products, winding up with his face pressing into her bust, with several of the girls in pursuit. He accidentally knocks over Mayu coming in the other direction, creating a near perfect angle up her skirt, as one girl comments, and as he picks himself up he’s grabbed from behind. It’s Yuko, she’s mistaken him for Sae, groping his chest, realising it’s not because his chest is flatter than Sae’s. He runs away, and as Tomochin is coming from the other direction the girls call her to stop the pervert. Tomochin asks if he wants to see hers as well, slowly pulling her skirt up to reveal: black shorts, she was joking he falls to the floor, with relief, and as he picks himself up he accidentally sticks his head up Mariko’s skirt. She doesn’t look happy, and the girls are shocked he was this determined to see their underwear. He runs away again, past Acchan as Yuko and Tomochin comment he was kind of cute, and the girls stop chasing after Acchan asks what they’re doing.  This guy is either the luckiest guy alive or something I don’t know what. He finds the theatre, and meets Yoshinaga who tells him she wants to audition for AKB, she says she’d already tried once but had lost confidence to talk about her favourite member.
Minoru dresses up as a girl, Uchikawa Minori, to sneak into the audition for the express purpose of helping Yoshinaga pass the audition. We see Akimoto Yasushi arrive at the theatre to watch the audition, asking if any of the girls auditioning are wearing black. Maeda also shows up to watch the auditions. Yoshinaga performs well in the singing, but loses confidence to talk about her favourite member. Minori goes next, and also does alright, before being asked to talk about her favourite member. ‘She says ‘her’ favourite member is anyone but Acchan, because she doesn’t work hard, inspiring the reaction he intended as Yoshinaga shows support for Maeda. After the audition, Yoshinaga is told she’s made it, but warned against speaking out like that in future, before the guy announcing those who’s made it’s told something, and says Minori’s also made it. She congratulates Yoshinaga, who is cold to her due to her treatment of Maeda earlier. Still as Minori he walks home, but sees Maeda, who makes some comment on her smell, how she holds her body, and her voice. Akimoto is asked why he let Minori in, and he comments a true star can shine in the darkness or something.

Well this chapter fairly much establishes our main characters, and gives a hint to what our AKB girs are like, so looking good so far.

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