Week 2 (2014)

In these weekly posts, I gather all the variety appearances of AKB members and briefly summarize what happened. 

AKBingo (7.1)

Members: Aigasa Moe, Azuma Rion, Anai Chihiro, Iwata Karen, Iwatate Saho, Umeta Ayano, Oshima Ryoka, Ota Aika, Okada Nana, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kimoto Kanon, Kojima Mako, Kodama Haruka, Sashihara Rino, Jonishi Kei, Takahashi Juri, Takahashi Minami, Takayanagi Akane, Tanaka Natsumi, Tano Yuka, Nakanishi Chiyori, Nishino Miki, Furuhata Nao, Matsui Rena, Matsuoka Natsumi, Minegishi Minami, Miyawaki Sakura, Murashige Anna, Moriyasu Madoka, Yagura Fuuko, Yamada Nana, Yamamoto Sayaka, Watanabe Miyuki

This week’s AKBingo presented the first half of the annual Lucky Girl Ranking in which the members’ fortune for the next year is decided. Since last year’s result was a fiasco with the top and bottom actually being the other way around, the regular fortune-teller Shimada is accompanied by another one, Getters’ Iida, a former comedian. His ‘fortune-telling’ was more about the members’ personality instead of reading from hands. Most of the talk this time is centered around Iida’s tidbits about the members’ personality quirks and future possibilities which includes a prediction of Takamina gaining more acting work (and that led to her showing that she can cry fast). There were lots of HKT members featured in this week’s episode, but it looks like AKB is in the spotlight in the second part. I will be posting an analysis of this episode after next week’s episode so I can approach the Lucky Girl Ranking in its entirety.

Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku (6.1)

Members: Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Juri, Yokoyama Yui, Watanabe Mayu

After the New Year break Kyowakoku still continued its Sekine Tsutomu “series” with a radio episode. In addition to the usual corner in which members’ rumors are discussed Internet rumors involving Sekine were also brought up. Mayuyu confirmed that she does “not know how to live anymore” because Mariko-sama isn’t there to pull a kancho on her a couple of times every year. Yuihan showcased her “talent” for creating catchphrases for other people and made one even for Sekine – who in turn came up with catchphrases for Juri. The rumor about Juri was whether her speciality is her ability to tell funny stories, which didn’t end up being true. In another corner the members shouted their recent problems at Sekine who did his best to solve them. Mayuyu asked for a way to avoid falling asleep after waking up in the morning and Yuihan wanted to do something about her uncomprehensively high voice when she is excited. Kojiharu also asked for Sekine’s secret to staying so young. The controversial problem this week was Juri’s problem with fans thinking she is turning bald.

AKB48 no anta, dare?! (26.12)

Members: Owada Nana, Komiyama Haruka, Mukaichi Mion, Yumoto Ami

This week’s Andare was the variety debut for these 4 15th generation members. Since it happened to take place on a day without Mariko, Top Read returned (without masks) to host the episode and the girls were challenged with some of Andare’s famous corners: air handshake, member relationship charts and song intro quiz. The last challenge was to prove the 15th generation’s bond by pulling off tasks requiring “teamwork”: all of them avoiding the pastry with the spicy filling, completing the do re mi with a flure and a “teddy bear relay” (suggested by Juri).

AKB48 Konto nanimo soko made (10.1)

Members: Iwatate Saho, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kawaei Rina, Kuramochi Asuka, Takahashi Juri, Takeuchi Miyu, Nagao Mariya, Natori Wakana, Hirata Rina, Matsui Sakiko, Muto Tomu, Murayama Yuiri, Mogi Shinobu, Watanabe Mayu

This week saw Mayuyu brainwashing younger members with a bracelet and a modern-day version of the folklore creature Onibaba. Sakiko continued her solo corner in which she interprets famous quotes with a melodica while Mariyagi’s ridiculous item quiz corner also got a new part. There was also a sketch in which Mocchi played a big-name actress whose picky role choices turn a suspense thriller into something quite different. For me the highlight of this week was the sketch which imagined Yukirin, Mocchi and Juri as grumpy old ladies who are still AKB members in their fifties.

Sashihara no ran (8.1)

Members: Sashihara Rino

In this week’s Sashihara no ran Sasshi took the first steps towards putting up her own ramen restaurant. She and Fukuda went to a popular ramen place for research and Sasshi continued her trademark bullying even with the place’s talkative owner, asking him to give her half of his restaurant’s assets. Yet again Sasshi and Fukuda are facing problems with the expensiveness of the project, but it looks like they will make more progress next week by visiting another popular place.

Geinoukai tokugiou ketteisen TEPPEN (4.1)

Members: Ikuta Erika, Matsui Sakiko, Moriyasu Madoka

After failing to defend her piano champion title last time on Teppen, Sakiko returned to retake the title this time. The other competitors included HKT48’s piano prodigy Madoka and Nogizaka46’s Ikuta who is always famous for her piano skills. All of them performed good renditions of famous pop songs and performed well under the crushing pressure of the competition.

Mecha mecha iketeru (4.1)

Members: Minegishi Minami

Miichan’s appearance on the show’s New Year’s special goes to show that her Gouriki dance has had an impact and she got to do it again. She appears in only one of the many corners of the long special: a sort of a quiz corner that is only an excuse for funny people to do silly stuff and Miichan got a good position, balancing the other two impersonators who were in her team.

Toki o kakeru elevator (5.1)

Members: Minegishi Minami

Toki o kakeru elevator is a show in which various celebrities come to share overtly sentimental stories of things they regret and are haunted by. Miichan’s main story is about her problematic relationship with her pre-AKB dance teacher and she gets to meet her again. In addition, there is a ton of footage from her childhood and auditions as well as the reveal of her yearbook photo.

Downtown DX (9.1)

Members: Minegishi Minami

Miichan appeared on the talk show hosted by Downtown to talk about her nasty way of ripping her nails and about the expensive bag Akimoto gave her.

Run for money tousouchuu (5.1)

Members: Yokoyama Yui

Yuihan appeared on a game show called Run for money tousouchuu (which inspired an American game show called Cha$e). In it, celebrities try to remain uncaught by hunters and the longer they survive the more money they are awarded. This time the show had set up advantages if male and female competitors formed a pair and so Yuihan ended up pairing up with the comedian Tanaka Takushi who is well known for being, well, disgusting. However, the pairing worked for Yuihan as Tanaka managed to steal a lot of screentime (out of the entire 2 hours) for the two and was hilariously passionate about Yuihan. As a result, this episode remains one of the best TV appearances Yuihan has made so far.

Q-sama (6.1)

Members: Kono Saki, Takeuchi Miyu

Miyu and NMB48’s Kono Saki appeared on a popular quiz program called Q-sama. It is one of the more “serious” quiz shows on Japanese TV and thus more fitting for more silent and serious members, but AKB members have rarely made anything notable on it. For example, Nakamatta was completely lost in it and Annin just barely made herself memorable thanks to her chemistry with the students on her team.

The Sekai Gyoten News (7.1)

Members: Shimazaki Haruka

Paruru appeared in The Sekai Gyoten News’ 4-hour special on her own. In the enormous special episode she was given a short period of time for a short talk about her cats and the program even showed a picture from her childhood. Kayoukyoku’s Nakai supported her talk part.

Kiss My Fake (7.1)

Members: Sashihara Rino

Sasshi appeared on Kis-My-Ft2’s program, Kiss My Fake, along with a couple of her fellow Waratte iitomo regulars and practically stole the show from the hosts. In the show, the hosts and guests were tasked with recognizing what is fake and what is real from given topics.

AKB48 no All Night Nippon (3.1 & 10.1)

Members (3.1): Iwatate Saho, Maeda Mitsuki, Minegishi Minami, Mogi Shinobu

Members (10.1): Kitahara Rie, Sasaki Yukari, Muto Tomu

This year’s ANN opened with a pre-recorded episode (3.1) for the sake of including under-18 members from Team 4. Being a pre-recorded episode, they didn’t read listener mail but instead carried the episode by their own talk alone, led by Miichan. Naturally the staff had prepared a lot of things for them to do and most of the episode revolved around figuring which one of them has the most luck next year by playing a game. Depending on what number the member gets after rolling a dice they either had to criticize one of the other members, move to a distant chair without a mic, answer any given question, jump rope while getting a painful leg massage, play rock-paper-scissors with staff to win a prize – or just get out of the game (which can be either lucky or unlucky, depending on how you see it). The three were also tasked with calling listeners, but that failed due to the awkward timing of the recording. In addition, they did the usual election speech corner, challenged themselves with a 30-second self-introduction and got a message from the members of the former Team 4.

This year’s first live broadcast (10.1) was led by ANN veteran Kitarie. She provived an exceptionally entertaining episode with Tomu whose radio talking is becoming better and better and first-timer Yukarun whose voice was surprisingly fitting for radio. The combination seemed a bit worrisome in advance, but the episode turned out to be one of the funniest in a long time with the three girls being tasked to figure out which one of them will be the luckiest next year – with better games and more excitement than the Team 4 one the week before. First up they played a yamanote sen game (google it if you don’t know what it is) with the subjects of ‘what makes a good woman’, ‘English words starting with K’ and ‘famous gags’. In one game each one of the members tried to pick a listener who would answer their call and another game had them running around the radio station to look for items fitting with the theme they were given. The last game was unforgettable due to Yukarun’s exceptionally serious running and Tomu laughing out loud through the whole thing as her manager ran up stairs in a weird way. In addition to the games, the three talked a lot about Kohaku’s uniforms, next year’s ambitious goals, Karen’s recent prank calls and Yukarun’s current “brain training” games. They also got mail from Hirarii during the broadcast.

Konya ha kaeranai (30.12 & 6.1)

Members: Iwata Karen, Takeuchi Miyu, Muto Tomu

Since I didn’t make a post last week, I’ll include both this and last week’s Konya wa kaeranai in this post. In the first episode (30.12) the three revealed their most memorable scene from their private life in 2013. And as usual, in the later part they read listener mail which led them to talk about their families’ New Year’s meals.

In the second episode (6.1) the three girls talked about their goals for 2014 and summarized it with just one word. Karen chose bi, ‘beauty’, because she wanted to become prettier and try even modelling. Tomu picked ryouri, ‘cooking’, because she wanted to become known for her cooking. Miyu’s choice was more abstract: ambition. In addition, they answered to a few mails from listeners: they were asked names for two cats and what sort of precious New Year memories they have.

Listen – Live 4 Life – (10.1)

Members: Ichikawa Miori

Although I didn’t check this week’s episode myself, I read that Miorin appeared in this week’s Listen and actually headbutted the guest, causing a laugh riot among fans.