The transformation of Shimazaki Haruka

Those of you who’ve known Shimazaki Haruka longer than me should know about her “salty” personality. In this recent episode of Meccha Ike, a gagman visits an AKB48 handshake session and discovers Paruru being rather cold and unlively when greeting her fans. He converses with Akimoto Yasushi who suggests that the gagman create a more friendly image for Paruru, so he starts in this all-important task of transforming Paruru!

Gagman visits Paruru after the handshake session and chats with her. Here i’m quite surprised because Paruru laughs readily at the gags he created for her and tries her hardest at doing a gag which wasn’t very fitting for an idol’s image. Shinobu, the AKB stylist whom Paruru is close with, discloses that Paruru actually felt somewhat responsible for the breaking up of Team 4 during last year’s Tokyo Dome Concert. *Cries* At this point, Paruru who was helping with making hair ribbons announces that she’s getting sleepy LOL! I think i like this part of her. She doesn’t try to create an angelic image for the camera, and what we see is the real her!
Later, Paruru discovers she has to hold a solo handshake session(and achieve 1000 handshakes) with a brand new image on the next day.So she starts to handmake invitations to her handshake session and distribute them on the streets. One funny scene was in this AKB cafe where a guy tried to make an impression on Paruru by asking her to remember his crucifix necklace. At night the handshake session started and we see Paruru showing a brighter and cheery image as she thanks fans who came by.She even remembers the crucifix guy whom she met in the AKB cafe! *Sobs* Well done, Paruru!
At the end, Paruru stands on stage and holds a small talk with her fans where she announced that she’s particularly weak with facing her fans during handshake sessions. When her fans responded with a wild cheer, she did the gag which was created for her by the gagman, surprising her fans and even the gagman himself. At this point, i’ve seen her grown so much in the space of 1 day that i already find it unbelievable. The rest, as you can see for yourself, is Paruru breaking down at the sudden appearance of her janken senbatsu teammates who were there to show her support after a long hard day.