Mayuyu flashes her brightest smile in “So Long” on Music Station

I am quite enjoying the post-Maeda lineup of AKB48, with the triple centers Mayuyu, Paruru and Jurina.
All of them look so sweet,especially my oshi Mayuyu!

Itano Tomomi’s graduation talk and “So Long” performance on Music Japan

The center of today’s interview is Itano Tomomi as the members talk about their impressions of Tomochin. Honestly, I’m quite curious about this girl too since she doesn’t talk too much on shows. Below is a rough summary of the interview.

What is one thing you have to say when it comes to Itano?
Yuko: She’s the daughter of a teacher(mum). You would think that a teacher wouldn’t allow her children to dye their hair, but Tomochin is unexpectedly well-mannered and has general knowledge, so you can really call her the daughter of a teacher.
Takamina: She’s aggressive and doesn’t like to lose.
Kojima Haruna: She’s always one step behind the others. There was once i praised her in an interview for a overseas drama, but she only came to know about it one year later.
Mariko: Innocent. (She drew an ugly face of Tomochin as well, which Tomochin jokingly said it was drawn with bad intentions.) There was once i mentioned her in a blog, and she actually sent me a msg to thank me for mentioning her. She’s cute like that.
Shimazaki Haruka: Kind. There was once when she dressed up as a Santa to give me a Christmas present. (At this point, the members declared they didn’t receive any.)

What is one episode you know about her?
Yukirin: She’s unexpectedly a gamer.
Tomochin: Yes, i have to continue playing until i win the enemy.
Mayuyu: She’s good friends with Dale – the chipmunk from Disney. I saw her being very friendly with Dale at the backstage when we were rehearsing for Kouhaku.
Takamina: Yes, she even wore a Mickey t-shirt to the rehearsal.
Tomochin: I thought that Mickey and the rest would be very happy if they see my shirt, but in the end we had to wear costumes to rehearse. =P
Yokoyama Yui: When Tomochin came to Team K, she came to talk to me and i was very happy.
Tomochin: What did i say to you?
Yokoyama Yui:….I can’t remember.(Everyone laughs.) Probably something like “let’s work hard”!

Tomochin ended by saying she’s happy but embarrassed hearing all the comments from her members, to the extent she’s sweating on her seat!

AKB48 performs “So Long!” with cute mushroom heads!

In case you didn’t know, “So Long” is being used as the song for NTT Docomo’s new advertisment, which stars the members of AKB48. This performance is probably a ploy to promote NTT Docomo as well, as the mushroom heads are symbolic of the company’s mascot Docomodake.

I find these mushroom heads really cute on some of the members, but Tomochin and Yuko look really awkward in them!

“So Long” drama votes are in, and Queen of Drama goes to..

Shimazaki Haruka beat out the senior members of AKB48 by winning the best actress award for her role as a student in episode 3 of the “So Long” special drama series. Yesterday, after the 3rd episode ended, viewers had 15mins to vote for their favourite drama and actress from the series. In the end, Paruru came out on top, winning over Oshima Yuko who is all-rounded when it comes to popularity and acting.

Top Ten Best Actress:
1. Shimazaki Haruka – 22,080 votes
2. Oshima Yuko – 19,030 votes
3. Watanabe Mayu – 17,000 votes
4. Matsui Jurina – 13,240 votes
5. Mariko Shinoda – 10,060 votes
6. Kojima Haruna – 6,930 votes
7. Watanabe Miyuki – 4,540 votes
8. Minegishi Minami – 4,050 votes
9. Yokoyama Yui – 1,540 votes
10. Kashiwagi Yuki – 1,410 votes

Best drama was also awarded to Team B’s 3rd episode which was basically a story about a dying teacher and her students. It garnered 47980 points to win over Team A’s 1st episode, which took second place with 39120 points. Despite Yuko and Jurina’s strong acting in the 2nd episode, Team K came in last with 36240 points.

As the winners of this drama sousenkyo, Team B gets their own regular show on NTV from April onwards and this program is expected to run for 4 months! Congrats to Team B but i’m just happy that Paruru won…=). She definitely needs more love because she’s not as useless like what most people think!

 

NTV airs special drama for AKB48 “So Long” single & who wins the best actress award?

To commemorate the release of their 30th single “So Long”, each team in AKB48 took part in a 3-episode drama special, which aired during midnight from 11-13th February on Nihon TV. To make it more exciting, viewers are asked to vote for the best drama and best actress after watching the series. Now this is one big opportunity for those aspiring actresses in the group to showcase their talent, but unfortunately, only the rising stars and the senior members got major parts in the drama, which is not a bad thing cos we now get to see how much talent these girls got aside from singing and dancing!

Check out the 3 episodes below and let me know what you think!

Leads: Team A- Watanabe Mayu(18) & Shinoda Mariko(26)
Plot: Watanabe Mayu discovers a cassette tape recorder in her school’s broadcasting room which somehow transmits voice messages from a boy living in the era of 1995. After they get over the surrealism of this cassette tape recorder, they start communicating regularly, talking about life in 2013 and the people they know in common, for example the teacher who forced them into participating in broadcasting club. Friendship grew into love and Mayuyu eventually gathers the courage to record her confession for him. Just as she was about to send this tape into his world, the boy sends her a tape of his own, telling her he’s fallen for a girl in his era(Shinoda Mariko) who is also a ballerina like Mayuyu.(In 2013, Shinoda Mariko is actually Mayuyu’s ballet teacher.) He asks her for advice on how to ask Shinoda out. Mayuyu became disappointed and stopped communicating with him for awhile. One day, she discovers that the boy had actually died years ago due to an accident while going out with Mariko. She hurries to send a msg to warn him about the accident, but somehow he interprets it as a warning that Mariko is going to die and hence sacrifices himself to save her. After that fateful day, Mayuyu passes Mariko a tape from the boy which contained his confession for Mariko, and Mariko ends up crying after listening to the tape.

I personally like this plot the best.As cliche as this time travelling thing may be, the plot succeeded in catching my attention throughout. Only bad thing is Mayuyu’s acting. She needs to show more expressions….other than her standard smile and standard frown!

Leads: Team K – Matsui Jurina (15) & Oshima Yuko(24)
Plot: Yuko is a music major who wants to give up piano and start looking for a proper job. Her sister, Matsui Jurina, visits her one day and starts poking her nose into Yuko’s life. She tries to stop Yuko from giving up piano, turns up at her job interview and spills ice-cream on her clothes, knocks into her friend in school, goes on secret dates with her boyfriend etc. Yuko has this impression that Jurina is trying to steal everything from her and gets into an argument with her. Jurina left the apartment after that and gets into an accident. Yuko hurries to the hospital and discovers that Jurina has a degenerative eye disease, which meant she was almost blind already, thus resulting in those incidents which Yuko thought was part of Jurina’s plan to turn her life upside down. She tearfully makes up with Jurina, who revealed that she wanted Yuko to continue playing the piano since that was what makes her happy when they were younger. Hearing this, Yuko decided to take part in a piano competition and played the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as a tribute to their memories.

I don’t think this plot matches up to Team A’s drama but Jurina & Yuko’s acting are very impressive indeed! We already know that Yuko has something to show since she has acted in dramas before, but Jurina is really good as well  for someone so young!

Leads: Team B – Shimazaki Haruka(18) & Kojima Haruna(24)
Plot: Kojima Haruna is the form teacher of Paruru’s class and she announced one day that she has tendered her resignation, 2 months before their graduation ceremony. Her students talk about her behind her back, not knowing that Haruna actually quit because she only had 2 months left to live. Paruru came up from behind, told them about the truth and chided them for being so mean especially when Haruna really cared for them despite her “aloof” and “irresponsible” demeanor. One by one, the students think back on incidents when Haruna saved them from embarrassment/loneliness by secretly helping them out, sometimes at the expense of creating a negative image for herself. They finally come to sense and decided to hold their graduation right outside Haruna’s hospital. While Haruna shied away from them, she was able to hear her students’ words of appreciation from her hospital bed. And as her students sang a last graduation song, tears rolled down her cheek.

Plot-wise, i think this wins hands down. This is as cliche as the drama for Team A’s, but somehow more realistic and moving. People had said that Paruru is bad at acting, but i think she’s a natural. Kojiharu can improve though…i’d expect more tears when she was lying in that hospital bed.

P/S: The votes are in for best drama and best actress, look out for it in my next post!

AKB48 reveals sakura song “So Long” on 火曜曲 (and the emergence of next gen Aces)

On the 22nd Jan episode of 火曜曲, AKB48 performed the first stage of their new single “So Long”!

Not digging the song as much as last year’s “Give me Five”, but i’m sure AKB48’s selling power will work it’s magic anyways.
One thing is clear after watching this performance though, the new pillars of AKB48 are:

Shimazaki Haruka, Watanabe Mayu, Matsui Jurina

And the center is of course:

Mayuyu!

Being a Mayuyu fan, i’m more than happy to see the position she’s gotten for this single.Other than being in the center position, she even has a solo line in the middle!

I’m glad that Watanabe Miyuki is not featured prominently here because i absolutely cringe when she unleashes her fishing skills on the camera. She is just not as charismatic as Mayuyu, period.