I'll get into why I'm watching, let alone reviewing this momentarily. It seems this is an annual event where some of the best selling songs of the year are performed by their artists.
It's been interesting to watch, though where I am I haven't finished yet, but I thought I'd summarise Throughout the show we've had some look backs at some of the best acts they've had in the past, most notable to me being YMCA in japanese (well YMCA was said in english, but the rest of it was japanese)
Before the people we care about we've had performances by EXILE (who I have heard of actually, AKB performed on their show once), as well as various others, including this adorable little girl who's backup dancers were all twice her height, she also did a duet with this little boy via video feed (he's also a big deal I guess) he was with a lot of kids in a pkayground. I can't remember much else to well, these were more notable.
NMB48 came on and were performing a song of theirs, I don;t know which, I'm guessing it was Zetsumetsu Kurokami Shojo. At the end they all knelt down, and darkness covered them. The NMB48 name behind them had the N fly forward, then back as an A. The M did the same to become a K and the B became a B. We started with Flying Get, with Maeda, Yuko and Yukirin appearing atop some stairs before coming down, and joining with the other members (I don't think the Matsui's were there). They then sang Kaze wa Fuiteru as well. Then the music for Everyday, Kachusa started, and they ran onto the catwalk in the middle of the crowd, before RIPPING OFF THE BLUE DRESSES THEY WERE WEARING. No they weren't just in their underwear you pervs, they had white outfits on underneath, if you want to see that download an issue of Young Jump. NMB appeared as well providing back-up dancing in effect.
After this we had KARA, who I guess have also had a good year. We get various acts, including Kinki Kids. And thats about it.
So why am I watching this. Because Smilodon sent me the wrong link, hopefully I can watch what I wanted to soon.
Monday, 5 December 2011
24 days of singles day 5: Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou and Namida Uri no Shojo
Since it's the same for both the A-side and B-side, I'll just get the Senbatsu out of the way.
Team A: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Nakanishi Rina, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Kobayashi Kana, Sato Natsuki, Masuda Yuka, Miyazawa Sae.
I said this was going to get worse, and I meant it, but I never meant the song was bad, just it was dark. Really dark going by my memory. The song itself: The news reports tragedies protected by anomity, the adult's assumptions are way off, there is no point in trying. Then we find they're llonging for the love they used to scorn. About that. I'll get to that later. She doesn't want to be lonely, just wants to be held. We're then told that a girl 'tried to become a bird' after leaving her shoes neatly on the rooftop. Apparently our narrator had the finger pointed at her for doing nothing.
There are implications here.The more obvious one is that the 'bird girl' committed suicide by jumping off a rooftop. This is sad, and as someone who has at one point in my life thought about suicide I know it can be thought past, though if bird girl is our narrator then she has far better reasons for it than I ever did. The 'scorned love' is what I refer to here. It seems the most likely implication is that she was raped, which is horrible really. just wait till you see the MV. Speaking of which.
We open with a shot of a girl on a rooftop spreding her arms, and a brief shot of a mail I could probably read if I had the patience. We have the girls in a class together, and most seem to be fine, but one has her head on the desk, possibly sad. We get shots later on, showing for example that Takahashi isn't entirely happy. But then maybe it's Maeda. Or just after soemone grabs the padlock on soemgates, it could be Kojima. We see someone climbing a ladder up to a roof. It seems that it was Takshashi, she's stood spread eagle on the roof. Maeda looks sad. Yuko on the other hand seems quite happy. i think it's Maeda. Kasai? Yuko looks sadder here. Sae seems to be comforting someone. Halls are empty, symbolic of the loneliness I guess, implications that Sae left her. We see the girl coming up and taking off her shoes, running to the edge. Standing at the edge, it's Yuko, tears in her eyes. We fortunately don't see her jump, but the girls in the dance scene suddenly jerk as the music makes a sudden beat, I think you get the implication.
The dance segments are just the girls on the rooftop in the uniforms they where in the classroom scene.
The B-side, Namida Uri no Shojo has a different story to it.
The girl here is bored at school, has too much time on her hands, compares herself to the little match girl (that's not good), she wants someone to talk to, even just somethign to sell, and she says 'Buy me'. She's lured by a new cars passenger seat, she's anxious at losing something important to her so in the summer, at age 16 she puts on 'a mask of flashy makeup' . She even feels if she had some kind of dream she could be fine with the boredom. Near the end there's a line about 'walking when the intersection lights turn green' and the crowd screams as this heppens. This isn't to pleasent either really, since she turns to prostitution due to boredom (at age 16) and then kills herself.
Are you upset yet? Cause I sure am, hopefully tomorrow can help make up for it.
Team A: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Nakanishi Rina, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Kobayashi Kana, Sato Natsuki, Masuda Yuka, Miyazawa Sae.
I said this was going to get worse, and I meant it, but I never meant the song was bad, just it was dark. Really dark going by my memory. The song itself: The news reports tragedies protected by anomity, the adult's assumptions are way off, there is no point in trying. Then we find they're llonging for the love they used to scorn. About that. I'll get to that later. She doesn't want to be lonely, just wants to be held. We're then told that a girl 'tried to become a bird' after leaving her shoes neatly on the rooftop. Apparently our narrator had the finger pointed at her for doing nothing.
There are implications here.The more obvious one is that the 'bird girl' committed suicide by jumping off a rooftop. This is sad, and as someone who has at one point in my life thought about suicide I know it can be thought past, though if bird girl is our narrator then she has far better reasons for it than I ever did. The 'scorned love' is what I refer to here. It seems the most likely implication is that she was raped, which is horrible really. just wait till you see the MV. Speaking of which.
We open with a shot of a girl on a rooftop spreding her arms, and a brief shot of a mail I could probably read if I had the patience. We have the girls in a class together, and most seem to be fine, but one has her head on the desk, possibly sad. We get shots later on, showing for example that Takahashi isn't entirely happy. But then maybe it's Maeda. Or just after soemone grabs the padlock on soemgates, it could be Kojima. We see someone climbing a ladder up to a roof. It seems that it was Takshashi, she's stood spread eagle on the roof. Maeda looks sad. Yuko on the other hand seems quite happy. i think it's Maeda. Kasai? Yuko looks sadder here. Sae seems to be comforting someone. Halls are empty, symbolic of the loneliness I guess, implications that Sae left her. We see the girl coming up and taking off her shoes, running to the edge. Standing at the edge, it's Yuko, tears in her eyes. We fortunately don't see her jump, but the girls in the dance scene suddenly jerk as the music makes a sudden beat, I think you get the implication.
The dance segments are just the girls on the rooftop in the uniforms they where in the classroom scene.
The B-side, Namida Uri no Shojo has a different story to it.
The girl here is bored at school, has too much time on her hands, compares herself to the little match girl (that's not good), she wants someone to talk to, even just somethign to sell, and she says 'Buy me'. She's lured by a new cars passenger seat, she's anxious at losing something important to her so in the summer, at age 16 she puts on 'a mask of flashy makeup' . She even feels if she had some kind of dream she could be fine with the boredom. Near the end there's a line about 'walking when the intersection lights turn green' and the crowd screams as this heppens. This isn't to pleasent either really, since she turns to prostitution due to boredom (at age 16) and then kills herself.
Are you upset yet? Cause I sure am, hopefully tomorrow can help make up for it.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
24 days of singles day 4: Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru and Virgin Love
And today we enter the first 2 day's of darker singles.
Senbatsu, singing both songs this time are:
Team A: Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna, Oshima Mai, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Nakanishi Rina, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Masuda Yuka, Miyazawa Sae.
In our A-side our girls are in a relationship with older men, and how he's trying to be a good guy, she just wants to get physical. Well she wants to move the relationship forward and experience adult pleasures, and she knows he does as well. The music video has a dance segment of them in a partially lit tunnel, and the rest tells the story, showing them in the places they meet with their boyfrineds, and there seems to be a hint that really they're quite lonely.
Virgin Love has a girl telling a boy that she has a bit of a reputation, she has dated tht many but doesn't know how serious it was. She's not actually sexually experienced, and wants to have her first time with the boy she's talking to.
Well that was, interesting to say the least. But things get far more horrifying next time.
Senbatsu, singing both songs this time are:
Team A: Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna, Oshima Mai, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Nakanishi Rina, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Masuda Yuka, Miyazawa Sae.
In our A-side our girls are in a relationship with older men, and how he's trying to be a good guy, she just wants to get physical. Well she wants to move the relationship forward and experience adult pleasures, and she knows he does as well. The music video has a dance segment of them in a partially lit tunnel, and the rest tells the story, showing them in the places they meet with their boyfrineds, and there seems to be a hint that really they're quite lonely.
Virgin Love has a girl telling a boy that she has a bit of a reputation, she has dated tht many but doesn't know how serious it was. She's not actually sexually experienced, and wants to have her first time with the boy she's talking to.
Well that was, interesting to say the least. But things get far more horrifying next time.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
24 days of singles day 3: Aitakatta and Dakedo...
Here we are for day 3, this time focusing on 'the song of AKB48'.
Aitakatta is the first song where we get some changes to the song formula, Team K is now active and so the Senbatsu features a mixture of Team A and Team K, mixes of Teams for the senbatsu will continue for every AKB single after. This single features most notably the debuts of Ono Erena, Akimoto Sayaka, Kasai Tomomi, Miyazawa Sae and of course Oshima Yuko. It's also here where Maeda is first brought to the forefront in AKB48, serving as the centre for this song, it's also here that Takahashi and Yuko first serve as the 2nd and 3rd mains of the single, which we'll probably see again, like in Iiwake, Maybe. Akimoto shows fair knowledge of what the fans want, Maeda will cmmonly be the centre from now on, and Yuko is the only member ever to be officially more popular than her.
The song is mainly about missing someone and fianlly admititng you love them. The senbatsu is: Team A: Itano Tomomi, Ooe Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Tojima Hana, Nakanishi Rina, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Umeda Ayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Kobayashi Kana, Noro Kayo, Matsubara Natsumi, Miyazawa Sae.
Finally the music video: The dancing is there, and they all wear the same uniform, which kinda makes the story confusing. The main stroy is Maeda wants to see either Takahsahi or Yuko again and return a CD she borrowed, and both groups make their way to the train station, and we see the other Senabtsu members doing various things as the girls pass them. The video ends with them both getting to the station.
Dakebo... is the B-Side, and I'm guessing we're gonna be seeing Senbatsu sung B-sides for a while. The song is coincidentally, coming back to your school to see someone you love, using the excuseyou wanted to return a CD, but you can;t get yourself to admit the truth. Why are all the early songs like this?
Anyway, tomorrow we go into the darkness.
Aitakatta is the first song where we get some changes to the song formula, Team K is now active and so the Senbatsu features a mixture of Team A and Team K, mixes of Teams for the senbatsu will continue for every AKB single after. This single features most notably the debuts of Ono Erena, Akimoto Sayaka, Kasai Tomomi, Miyazawa Sae and of course Oshima Yuko. It's also here where Maeda is first brought to the forefront in AKB48, serving as the centre for this song, it's also here that Takahashi and Yuko first serve as the 2nd and 3rd mains of the single, which we'll probably see again, like in Iiwake, Maybe. Akimoto shows fair knowledge of what the fans want, Maeda will cmmonly be the centre from now on, and Yuko is the only member ever to be officially more popular than her.
The song is mainly about missing someone and fianlly admititng you love them. The senbatsu is: Team A: Itano Tomomi, Ooe Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Tojima Hana, Nakanishi Rina, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami.
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Umeda Ayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Kasai Tomomi, Kobayashi Kana, Noro Kayo, Matsubara Natsumi, Miyazawa Sae.
Finally the music video: The dancing is there, and they all wear the same uniform, which kinda makes the story confusing. The main stroy is Maeda wants to see either Takahsahi or Yuko again and return a CD she borrowed, and both groups make their way to the train station, and we see the other Senabtsu members doing various things as the girls pass them. The video ends with them both getting to the station.
Dakebo... is the B-Side, and I'm guessing we're gonna be seeing Senbatsu sung B-sides for a while. The song is coincidentally, coming back to your school to see someone you love, using the excuseyou wanted to return a CD, but you can;t get yourself to admit the truth. Why are all the early songs like this?
Anyway, tomorrow we go into the darkness.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Bimyo 10
I would first like to point out that last week’s Momotarou sketch was all SKE members, Jurina was Momotarou.
First scene: Girl’s alarm goes off; she gets out of bed, walks over to the mirror, and sees Itano Tomomi staring back at her. She’s not Tomomi. She’s surprised but Tomomi is mirroring her exactly (well mostly, she’s actually doing it slightly after her but oh well). However it does look like it may just be the fact that there isn’t a mirror there, and Tomomi just has a room that exactly mirrors the other girls, and also wears the same pyjamas, especially about 2 minutes in. Hiowever the mimicry extends to balancing a pillow and leaving the room to get a golf club, but when their swinging, Tommi actually does so, but the girl dismisses it, before both leave the room. Coming back in, Tomomi’s doesn’t close quite right. They then do the dance to Heavy Rotation, and Tomomi momentarily goes the wrong way, correcting herself, the girl dismisses this too, but Tomomi also finishes differently, causing her to cry out. They leave again, coming in with makeup and smear it all over their faces, before the girl remembers something. This time they have bald heads on. After walking past the mirror, Itano returns and takes off the helmet, saying Bimyo.
Lady DaDa starts with a man with a ridiculous mustache warning another man about something, possibly a deal, when Lady DaDa (Sayaka) comes in with a bit of English, and the two introduce themselves. DaDa’s accompanied by Miori, who seems to be an assistant. DaDa is told who they are, and she’s given a present by the two. It turns out to be a kaleidoscope, which she seems appreciative of, until they mention Pink, causing her to fall on the floor (do they mean the colour or the singer). Something else is said and she picks herself up and apologises. They ask for an interview, and she agrees, however she says the microphone isn’t cute enough (why am I telling you this, you can tell for yourself), I think she wants it coloured like the stuffed tiger. She then halts the interview and refuses to say anything more while going back to the floor, then throwing flowers. She calms a little, and they offer her sushi, which she apparently likes. She starts coughing, gets annoyed, throws away the last flower and head butts Miori, before pulling all the clothes off the hangers, falls crying, and complains about one ingredient of the sushi.
We have a rock, sitting alone and looking sad, as a woman walks by with her dog, before her friend, also with a dog spots her and they greet each other, there’s also another dog. We then go into the dogs perspective, and it seems one has found the other quite attractive, but is rejected. Going back to the main view, the women are talking about the dogs; the other dog is sat next to the rock. In their perspective though, the male dog continues to make his sweet moves. After more of the women talking, the male continues to pursue. The male’s owner notices the time; they have the dogs say bye, the male attempting to perform the traditional dog greeting as they pass.
It’s a birthday party, but Shizuka seems more annoyed than anything, whatever she says to Chiyuu leading her to grab her chest, before Shizuka complains about her sexiness. Mayuyu is apparently writing Oya on the card to much, or maybe just too much detail. She also takes issue with Rabutan’s birthday cake, which has collapsed. She also doesn’t approve of Sumire’s present, a tutu thing with a swan neck coming out the crotch, apparently for a fun run. After she leaves however, they just start laughing about her.
Asuka and Rabutan are hosting some kind of sport event, and welcome on stage some star striker or similar. After talking about her, a woman just comes up with a glass of juice, and she’s asked to drink it. It doesn’t taste good, but she still half-heartedly shows her shooting kick. After her is Moeno, who apparently does a good sliding tackle. Wasabi is brought for her, which she forces into her mouth, but it also seems isn’t up to much, demonstrated by her squealing. But she does her tackle. It looked kind of painful if I’m honest. The next girl is brought something bready, which she can’t seem to chew, but she does her dribbling. The last one is brought up, but they say barely anything before sending her off.
A sumo match is about to begin, the one in the gold (Miori’s the opponent) dominating the first match. He’s brought up with the two watching, and mentions liking Acchan. The man in the suit seems off put by this. He then supports Yukirin instead, he likes her wink. After another comment he goes for Sayaka, and then for Kasai. The man demonstrates what he feels the sumo should be saying.
As an aside I now have twitter, and I'm fairly certain the Mariko, Kojiharunyan, Myao and Sumire I'm following are the real ones, but the Mayu is a fan page, I'm also following JKT48 because (I'm not convinced they're official though.
24 days of singles day 2: Skirt, Hirari and Aozora no Soba ni Ite
Today we move on to the second of AKB's singles along with it's B-Side. Like Sakura no Hanabiratachi and Dear My Teacher, both of these songs were part of Team A's first stage.
The song itself is basically about young love and wanting to run away or to pursue the object of desire, causing the titular fluttering. Of course, at this point we still only have Team A, though unlike Sakura no Hanabiratachi, this time we have a Senbatsu of sorts. 7 members were slected to perform the vocals: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Takahshi Minami, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko and Nakanishi Rina. The rest of Team A serves as backup dancers in the video, which is set around a school but is pretty much just dancing.
Aozora no Soba ni Ite on the other hand features all the members on vocals, but obviously for the time there isn't any music video. The song itself however, is pretty much about the feelings you'll have at love's end.
Roll on Day 3, but first, Bimyo.
The song itself is basically about young love and wanting to run away or to pursue the object of desire, causing the titular fluttering. Of course, at this point we still only have Team A, though unlike Sakura no Hanabiratachi, this time we have a Senbatsu of sorts. 7 members were slected to perform the vocals: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Kojima Haruna, Takahshi Minami, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko and Nakanishi Rina. The rest of Team A serves as backup dancers in the video, which is set around a school but is pretty much just dancing.
Aozora no Soba ni Ite on the other hand features all the members on vocals, but obviously for the time there isn't any music video. The song itself however, is pretty much about the feelings you'll have at love's end.
Roll on Day 3, but first, Bimyo.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
24 days of singles day 1: Sakura no Hanabiratachi and Dear My Teacher
So guess who decided to do this about 20 seconds before starting it.
I'm today covering the first AKB single and it's B-side.
Sakura no Hanbiratachi was the first single obviously, and as I understand was one of 3 songs from Team A's first stage that fans voted to become the first released single. It features all 21 members of the time, and Akimoto apparently hadn't decided Maeda was all-important yet, but there isn't really a centre. The members are: Itano Tomomi, Usami Yuka, Urano Kazumi, Ooe Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Orii Ayumi, Kawasaki Nozomi, Kojima Haruna, Komatani Hitomi, Sato Yukari, Shinoda Mariko (I actually thought she hadn't joined yet, more on that later), Takahashi Minami, Tojima Hana, Nakanishi Risa, Narita Risa, Hirajami Natsumi, Hoshino Michiru, Maeda Atsuko, Msuyama Kayano, Minegishi Minami and Watanabe Shiho.
The song itself is about ones feelings when graduating from school, and questions how they'll look back on it in later days. The music video features a segment set up like a normal stage performance, while featuring footage of either the auditions and selections, or that and a bit more of how they got to where they are. One thing ai aways notive when watching this video (and those for the following two singles) is how much all of the members there will have changed in appearance by 2008. I can always recognise them, but they don't look the same. Compare with Jurina now, who hasn't aged a day in about 3 years.
Before going on to the B-side, I'll explain the Mariko comment. Mariko is the only member of AKB48 to not audition (I think theres an SDN member who was an SKE member who was already some form of celebrity who didn't audition either). She had planned to audioton, but the day of her audition she had to work at the cafe (ironically it was at the theate). She told some visitors about it, and a lot of people appealed to Akimoto-Sensei to let her audition. He gave her 3 days to learn the dances to all 3 of AKB's singles, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The B-Side is Dear My Teacher, and since in those days AKB didn't have enough members to have four tracks on a single and still have girls spare, it's also sung by Original Team A.
Now I imagine the basic story to this song should be fairly obvious, but just let me check. Yeah, pretty much, girl is in love with teacher (Namida Surprise and Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008 flashforward in 3, 2, 1) and basically wants him to kiss her and stuff. I'm not entirely sure if she gets the extra tuition or not, but the last verse sort of implies she does.
I feel it's also worth mentioning here Sakura no Hanabiritachi 2008, as while unlike Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2010 it did get a commercial release, it's not counted as one of the singles when they're lised. It's basically a self cover, the lyrics are all the same.
Performing is: Team A: Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna, Oshima Mai, Sato Yukari, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami,
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Matsubara Natsumi, Kasai Tomomi, Miyazawa Sae
Team B: Oota Aika, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kikuchi Ayaka, Hirajima Natsumi, Watanabe Mayu.
The PV this time is about graduation as well, and features every member of the time in the hall during the graduaation signignthe song. Focus notably goes to Minegishi, who reads the graduation speech, Kojima looking at the empty hall sadly, Kasai, who is in love with her teacher, and is about to confess when she sees him with another women, causing her to break down in tears when Yuko sees her. Speaking of Yuko, she and Maeda discuss how they'll feel about it years dorm now, and theres a possible hint at Maeda being in love with Yuko, represented by Yuko being made to kiss a bust in a flashback, and Maeda kissing the same bust in the present. The video ends with them and possibly Takamina, it's been a while leaving the school for the last time, when the groundskeeper, who jokes with them at the gates several times during the video, signals them through one last time.
Sakura no Hanabiritachi also has a B-Side, Saigo no Seifuku, which I haven't heard before, but it features the Senbatsu. It's basically about how they're now going to treasure school memories, missi their friends and go their own way.
And so thats day 1.
I'm today covering the first AKB single and it's B-side.
Sakura no Hanbiratachi was the first single obviously, and as I understand was one of 3 songs from Team A's first stage that fans voted to become the first released single. It features all 21 members of the time, and Akimoto apparently hadn't decided Maeda was all-important yet, but there isn't really a centre. The members are: Itano Tomomi, Usami Yuka, Urano Kazumi, Ooe Tomomi, Oshima Mai, Orii Ayumi, Kawasaki Nozomi, Kojima Haruna, Komatani Hitomi, Sato Yukari, Shinoda Mariko (I actually thought she hadn't joined yet, more on that later), Takahashi Minami, Tojima Hana, Nakanishi Risa, Narita Risa, Hirajami Natsumi, Hoshino Michiru, Maeda Atsuko, Msuyama Kayano, Minegishi Minami and Watanabe Shiho.
The song itself is about ones feelings when graduating from school, and questions how they'll look back on it in later days. The music video features a segment set up like a normal stage performance, while featuring footage of either the auditions and selections, or that and a bit more of how they got to where they are. One thing ai aways notive when watching this video (and those for the following two singles) is how much all of the members there will have changed in appearance by 2008. I can always recognise them, but they don't look the same. Compare with Jurina now, who hasn't aged a day in about 3 years.
Before going on to the B-side, I'll explain the Mariko comment. Mariko is the only member of AKB48 to not audition (I think theres an SDN member who was an SKE member who was already some form of celebrity who didn't audition either). She had planned to audioton, but the day of her audition she had to work at the cafe (ironically it was at the theate). She told some visitors about it, and a lot of people appealed to Akimoto-Sensei to let her audition. He gave her 3 days to learn the dances to all 3 of AKB's singles, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The B-Side is Dear My Teacher, and since in those days AKB didn't have enough members to have four tracks on a single and still have girls spare, it's also sung by Original Team A.
Now I imagine the basic story to this song should be fairly obvious, but just let me check. Yeah, pretty much, girl is in love with teacher (Namida Surprise and Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008 flashforward in 3, 2, 1) and basically wants him to kiss her and stuff. I'm not entirely sure if she gets the extra tuition or not, but the last verse sort of implies she does.
I feel it's also worth mentioning here Sakura no Hanabiritachi 2008, as while unlike Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2010 it did get a commercial release, it's not counted as one of the singles when they're lised. It's basically a self cover, the lyrics are all the same.
Performing is: Team A: Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna, Oshima Mai, Sato Yukari, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Narita Risa, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami,
Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Matsubara Natsumi, Kasai Tomomi, Miyazawa Sae
Team B: Oota Aika, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kikuchi Ayaka, Hirajima Natsumi, Watanabe Mayu.
The PV this time is about graduation as well, and features every member of the time in the hall during the graduaation signignthe song. Focus notably goes to Minegishi, who reads the graduation speech, Kojima looking at the empty hall sadly, Kasai, who is in love with her teacher, and is about to confess when she sees him with another women, causing her to break down in tears when Yuko sees her. Speaking of Yuko, she and Maeda discuss how they'll feel about it years dorm now, and theres a possible hint at Maeda being in love with Yuko, represented by Yuko being made to kiss a bust in a flashback, and Maeda kissing the same bust in the present. The video ends with them and possibly Takamina, it's been a while leaving the school for the last time, when the groundskeeper, who jokes with them at the gates several times during the video, signals them through one last time.
Sakura no Hanabiritachi also has a B-Side, Saigo no Seifuku, which I haven't heard before, but it features the Senbatsu. It's basically about how they're now going to treasure school memories, missi their friends and go their own way.
And so thats day 1.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)