AKB101: A Newbie’s Guide to AKB – Part 1

AKB48 and its sister groups can be an intimidating part of the idol world to learn about. Sure, you may vaguely know about the group’s work, the general idea of their concept as ‘Idols you can meet’ and their top members, but with just that little bit of information it may seem really difficult to get into every nook and cranny of the idol world of groups with too many members to name in one breath.

That’s where this post comes in.  Right here, you will hopefully learn enough about AKB48 to understand the concept of the group, their history, and maybe a taste of their music–specifically some of their lesser-known gems.  Keep in mind this isn’t a pimp post. I’m not telling you that you should look into this group; this is just a guide-book to AKB48 for those of you who are willing to take the plunge.

Change is Good Part 4: AKB48

Long time no see, blog world!  Recently, with university and a few personal events I haven’t been blogging, but I still feel like I need a medium to get what I want to be said out there.  While I have forums and personal friends to tell about it, I think blogging is the easiest and most expressive way to get things out there, and I’ve recently found myself in an idol slump.

Don’t get me wrong; I really really love idols.  They are an endless source of entertainment for me and as I get better and better at Japanese I see myself watching things over again and finding them even more entertaining on the fourth or fifth watch.

While the world of idols might seem like the land of milk and honey, especially for fans of AKB48 and it’s sister groups like myself, I’ve actually found that as their popularity has gone up, I find myself more and more bored by their news and new releases.  I want some variety, and AKB just doesn’t seem to have that nowadays.  So, without further ado, here’s my first batch of opinion cookies for how I would fix AKB.

Why 2011 is turning into a good year

First off, I would like to say hello people who read this blog 8D  Thank you for reading it all through last year because i got over 4800 hits last year~ I hope to try and stay active as a blogger, but to be honest I haven’t been that inspired recently.  However, today I feel like just throwing a bunch of events and opinions into one post for today

In this post:

• 9th gen members
• Aichan graduation
• AKB48 stuff
• DANCEROiD

More than Singles

Recently I have met more and more idol fans in person and learned about their likes and dislikes about their idols.  Meeting someone who was still very interested in Hello! Project brought back my waning interest in the veteran idol company, and as a result I’ve regained some of my opinions about the groups and sought out to listen to their music more than I had all summer.  While part of my fandom will die when JunJun graduates in December, I’ll try to keep my eye on Hello! Project and I’ll hold a candle for their 9th generation in support.

However, one thing that was surprising to me about these fans that I’ve met is their lack of knowledge about some of these group’s full discography.  I may follow groups differently, but when I get into a new group I try to listen to as much is available to me as possible, so I try to get their full discography and listen to songs that I think have interesting titles.  Over the years as a Hello! Project fan, I’ve listened to most of Morning Musume’s discography.  I’ve listened to almost all of their albums and picked some of my favourite songs from them.

Here’s a partial rant, but also a guideline about how to approach an idol group– they’re more than just singles and PVs, after all.

NEW Team B!

The last of the teams in AKB is kind of a cult favourite among wota–the members of the original Team B were moderately popular, but received next to no attention aside from Yukirin and Mayuyu.  The original Team B was very close and was featured with Shonichi as the number 1 song in Request Hour Setlist Best 100 2009 at Shibuya AX.

When they shuffled the Teams at the Budoukan last year, they put a mix of popular and less popular members into each team to keep them more balanced, and the pushed members of each team have been spread equally between the teams in recent stages and singles (Ponytail to ShuShu, for example, has 5 members from each team plus Jurina)

However, because Team B was so hidden from the public eye for so long, they were the most butchered.

Of the 14 members remaining in Team B at the time of the shuffle. only 3 stayed with Team B.  But now that 2 of the three teams have started their new stages with the new teams, there’s no turning back, so without further ado, here’s the new Team B!

NEW Team K!

When AKB announced that they would be changing the teams, there was little information available except who was going to which team, and from that we could infer which team was going to have which kind of theme or feeling.  Team A seemed to have the feeling of a ‘classic idol,’ as a bunch of pretty girls with an average level of talent.  Team K turned into the ‘dance team’ with a ‘kakkoi image.’  While it retained the pretty faces of Oshima Yuko and Ono Erena, it picked up a variety of cool and strong characters like Tanabe Miku and Kikuchi Ayaka.

But who is Team K? Honestly, it’s Team B.  Most of Team B was thrown onto Team K, and it is a mix of original team B members, original team K front girls and a couple of original team A members, as well as 4 kenkyuusei.  Here’s the new Team K:

BEST EVER

As you may know, Takajo Aki is my favourite idol ever.

Well Wendy knows that, and she made me the best GIF ever.

AKB48 NEW Team A

I’ve realized that since I learned about AKB so rapidly, and without a computer no less, I never really took the time to think about the different members of the group.  The teams just changed, so writing about the currently performing teams would be useless, so I’m going to do a series on the new teams, what I know about them and what I hope for them in their new stage (or what I think about them in the stage they’re doing, depending on when I actually finish these xP) I’ll do them in the order of A, K and B.  And I’m not bothering with kenkyuusei.

FTR this is going to be more than just ‘hey here’s what I think of the members.’ I think I’m going to say a little about each member like their nickname, their past with AKB and maybe a little more.  These aren’t rankings either, so I’m writing about them in the order in which they appear on the AKB48 members page.

Wota Wonderings 03: TV Tie-ins!

Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

lol uncreative D:^

It seems like many animes and TV dramas have had some sort of tie in to music that we like. This month, this is what Wota Wonderings is all about.