This single expanded on the previous few singles by having 3 versions. This also the first of the Janken Senbatsu singles, with it's members decided by a janken tournament. This led to probably the most changed senbatsu in AKB history, even Ue Kara Mariko had less changes to the normal Senbatsu than this, though nowadays I recognise 7 of the 16, excluding the centre, who I only know from this, rather than the initial 3. Not that this is a bad thing, as while the Senbatsu election is a good thing, as it lets the fans choose who they want, but it doesn't change the fact that there will still be members who go all the way through and graduate without ever making Senbatsu, and this can help change this, and perhaps even lead to the fans choosing them again.
The 16 strong Senbatsu (Senbatsu regulars in bold), from 16 to 1: Chikano Rina (B), Maeda Atsuko (A), Matsui Sakiko (K), Kasai Tomomi (B), Tanabe Miku (K), Kobayashi Kana (11), Kuramochi Asuka (A), Nakatsuka Tomomi (K), Takajo Aki (A), Sato Natsuki (B), Sato Sumire (B), Maeda Ami (A), Nakagawa Haruka (4), Kojima Haruna (A), Ishida Haruka (B), Uchida Mayumi (K).
The song talks about taking your chance when it comes, even if you fail before you have to take it again, which makes sense, it's about the fact that really any of the entire group could have made this Senbatsu. The PV starts with footage of Mayumi's Janken victory, before we move into the white uniforms in white room dance segments. The 'story' here is really just footage of the Janken tournament, Acchan beating Mayu, Sasshi beating Yuko, Miichan hugging whoever beat her, Amin's loss to Mayumi, and a few other things. Towards the end we get Mayumi on a horse, just because.
Unlike the Election singles the B-side here is not decided by the tornament, and was instead christmas themed track with the staffs choice of members.
Team A: Kojima Haruna, Sashihara Rino, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Takajo Aki, Maeda Atsuko, Maeda Ami
Team K: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Yuko, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae
Team B: Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Komori Mika, Watanabe Mayu
The song talks about an agreement to meet on christmas and be together, but wondering if they'll come. The PV starts with all of the girls in Santa outfits on chimneys, Yuko, Acchan and Takamina go down one, and decorate the house festively, we also see pther groups doing this. Oh and there's magic involved. They also drink and eat, and eventually we get some of them holding typical christmas decorations, and a bit of a dance segement.
The Regular Edition came in 3 different versions, A, K and B, each featuring a song by that team.
Team A (Iwasa Masaki, Oota Aika, Oya Shizuka, Katayama Haruka, Kuramochi Asuka, Kojima Haruna, Sashihara Rino, Shinoda Mariko, Takajo Aki, Takahashi Minami, Nakagawa Haruka, Nakata Chisato, Nakaya Sayaka, Maeda Atsuko, Maeada Ami, Matsubara Natsumi) sing Kurumi to Dialogue, a song about having the walnut of your heart cracked by your love for someone (I'm taking the walnut to be a synonym for being cold hearted). The PV starts with the girls reading books, when Maeda apparently sees hersekf holding a heart of glass. Hineslty i haven't got a clue with the pre-music jump-cuts. The music starts and we keep getting jump-cuts between the girls dancing in school uniform, them stood holding the books, and dancing in different uniform. We get contrast between the versions in the white and in the black areas (Takamina, a common girl/a cute girl), the common version throws away the book, she wants to be cute, her doppelganger says 'come on'. Akicha and Kojiharu next (studying and reading, they're opposites are doing it but in a different way (Kojiharu reads a magazine, I think Akicha's listening to music), Akich takes off her glasses and motion Kojipa to come on, they join they're mirrors. Next is Mariko-sama, with Reading/Diamond, though it turns out thats just what Bizarro-Mariko wants, so does she, so she comes. We then get all the Bizarros motioning Acchan to 'come on' when they part for their Maeda, who holds the glass heart saying 'you'll need love?'. She says she does, but.... She has to go. Her Bizarro drops the heart and it shatters. After the music Maeda turns around holding a smaller heart, saying she doesn't know which one.
Team K (Akimoto Sayaka, Itano Tomomi, Uchida Mayumi, Umeda Ayaka, Oshima Yuko, Kikuchi Ayaka, Tanabe Miku, Nito Moeno, Nakatsuka Tomomi, Nonako Misato, Fujie Reina, Matsui Sakiko, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae, Yokoyama Yui, Yonezawa Rumi) sing ALIVE, which mostly questions if you're alive and pushes you to keep on living. The PV starts with the girls being transported, and then moves to them dancing in prison, with appropriately themed uniforms. I'm guessing theres a jailbreak, and we also get to see a fight broke out on the bus. We get to see Yui looking terrified as she's brought to the cells, I think Moeno gave her the finger. Yuko appears to be pretty wild, and Miichan resourcefully sneaks the keys off one of the guards belts. During the jailbreak Yui trips, by Sayaka come back and helps her up. I'm not sure why but we also get some explosions.
Team B (Ishida Haruka, Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Kobayashi Kana, Komori Mika, Sato Amina, Sato Sumire, Sato Natsuki, Suzuki Mariya, Chikano Rina, Hirajima Natsumi, Masuda Yuka, Miyazaki Miho, Watanabe Mayu) sing Love Jump, which is about the weather being against you on a first date, and making the most of it in a way. The PV starts with Yukirin and Mayu stood outside a school holding something, Yuki looks quite serious but Mayuyu looks like she's in her own little dream world. The dance version has them in uniforms. The story includes Mayu stealing Yuki's food while Yuki addresses some problem of Kitarie. We then quie a few shots of a few of the girls singing in the room with them, before finally getting some proper advancement. Yukirin exits the school with an umbrella, Mayu comes after her and just starts dancing around in the snow. Yuki's kind of bothered by this, in the background you can see Kitarie having a similar reaction to Mayu, and after bit of thought Yukirin joins them. We then get the entire team running to school, some have umbrellas, Yuki and Mayu notably sharing theirs. I'm guessing by this next scene it's a nursing school, we see at the graduation Yukirin happily watching as Mayu's given her nurse hat, we then go to the beginning scene where Yukirin waves her hand over Mayu, still staring up at the sky. We then get all of the girls throwing their hats in the air.
The theatre edition featured it's own unique song by Team Kenkyuusei (Oba Mina, Shimuzaki Haruka, Shimada Haruka, Takeuchi Miyu, Nagao Mariya, Nakamura Mariko, Mori Anna, Yamauchi Suzuran, Ichikawa Miori, Nakamata Shiori, Abe Maria, Iriyama Anna, Izuta Rina, Kato Rena, Kobayashi Marina, Fujita Nana), Fruits Snow, though I can't find any translated lyrics for it, and being on the Theatre Version it doesn't have a PV.
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