Week 42: AKBingo

This week’s AKBingo proved to be so fruitful that I decided to give it its own article. Like last week we got a new episode of the popular Omoide Quiz Kotaete Toozen corner (Toozen for short), but this time the members participating in it were Karen as the dealer and Tomu, Tano, Juri, Miyupon and Ryoka as the players.

Toozen usually ends with the dealer losing – as far as I can remember the only dealer who ever survived the game was Takamina. The format would take up a lot of time if all the questions were used and usually it ends up being more energetic if the dealer loses since it gives room for more reactions and can even lead to arguments between the members. So instead of aiming for real answers, it’s more essential for the players to prepare the best possible reaction (to a correct or false answer) in order to keep up the excitement. In that sense correct answers can even kill the mood if it doesn’t lead to a good discussion – in this week’s episode Miyupon’s reaction to her right answer was a good one since it revealed a sweet story for the audience. This format is also quite easy for the staff since the members naturally get quite excited over the questions and even quiet members open up to talk more.

Some might wonder whether Toozen is scripted or not. In my opinion there is no need to script the corner – especially since it deals with such private subjects that it would even more likely fail if the members weren’t free to do as they please. This week’s episode was a particularly good one since each question led to a strong impact and the members handled it properly. Compared to last week’s Team 4 version, I think this one was more entertaining since last week was a bit too meandering. It might have been interesting for the members’ fans, but as variety in general this week was better.

Even though Karen’s variety skills have been on the rise this year, I was surprised by how well Karen led the episode. While her reactions were great as expected, I think this is the first time I have seen Karen so well in a role that more or less runs the show. Her comments were strong and short, which is a vital variety skill (idols tend to ramble on too much and it bothers the editors). Furthermore, in a recent Andare episode (that is available on Dailymotion) she showed that she has learned to react like a veteran comedian when someone is teasing her in a show – the right sort of angry response that makes the audience burst in laughter. Karen has firmly established her as a new variety star and seeing her grow up even further like this is a joy for someone who follows her activities.

Due to the nature of the format, even Tomu managed to steal some of the spotlight this week. She participated in the discussion well during the audition footage and even rarely butted in to make fun of Karen. She seems to have a knack for tsukkomi (literally ‘butting in’) and I wish she was more self-confident to do it more often because few young members are actually good at it. Despite my high praise I also have to admit that her answer wouldn’t have been as good without the audition footage which ensured that her part wouldn’t be cut.

Explosive, unpredictable reactions have become Tano’s trademark and she delivered them yet again this week. I’m planning to write about her variety appearances in my next post so you can expect more of my thoughts of Tano’s performance soon. The question Karen had prepared for Tano was even funnier since the incident actually took place on Google+ and I knew right away that the question had to be about it. The precise details of how Karen pranked Tano were left in the dark back then, but Tano’s dramatic reaction was uploaded in a photo. Tano’s comment at the end was also a sign of maturity since it was a comment that closed the corner quite well and invited someone else to butt in (Bad Boys’ Sata in this case).

Juri has recently reaped success on AKBingo by adopting a position a bit similar to Myao in the past: as the rebellious young member who is impressive with aggressive mic performances. Juri has managed to raise the standards of AKBingo’s mic performances and has turned it into her trademark. At the same time she has managed to grab more screentime and has learned the ropes. Her reaction to the audition footage was good and her “betrayal” was a good twist at the end. After the broadcast Karen mentioned on her Google+ account that Juri found her necklace so she had not actually thrown it away, but the way Juri let it seem like she had done so was entertaining nevertheless.

Miyupon and Ryoka didn’t have that much to do in this week’s episode. Miyupon has recently been pushed more than she used to be and often appears along with the other 12th generation members. However, her participation in variety changes a lot from episode to episode. She has her own perspective that is often amusing, but quite often she refrains from doing anything. In this week’s episode she at least participated in the game by sharing a good story.

Ryoka, on the other hand, was sadly left out. She was edited in at the beginning so she wasn’t robbed of her screentime, but it seemed to me that Karen used her best questions at first and didn’t get to Ryoka before the game was over. It is quite natural since the problem with Toozen is often that they need to bring in more members simply to round up the numbers for the game. It also looked like the staff didn’t predict which member’s audition footage would have the biggest impact since Juri wasn’t left for the last reveal, which was sort of awkward for Ryoka who didn’t get much of a reaction after the shock that Juri’s footage caused. I’m still waiting for Ryoka to realize that she should show more of her kusogaki personality on TV – she’s more like a model student on TV although she’s crazier in the dressing room. Tano has already made the change, but Ryoka is lagging behind.

In the Toozen corner, hinadan (a Japanese term used for the benches on which supporting comedians and guests sit) tends to be quite useless. They are separated from the central action and many AKB members don’t even know what sort of comments they should be adding from the sidelines. Oya is usually good at commenting from the benches even without the hosts asking for a comment. This time hinadan was silent as expected since the members were quite inexperienced, but surprisingly Miki butted in when they talked about Juri’s audition footage. It seems that AKBingo’s staff often leave Miki’s comments as they are while others are edited out so it looks like the staff are satisfied with her comments while other Team 4 members don’t do so well.

Like last week, the end of the episode was reserved for the draft candidates. It’s a good idea to attach these clips at the end of each episode instead of airing it as a standalone episode since it would be hard to create an entertaining episode with just this footage. Furthermore, it’s safer in terms of viewer ratings to have actual members appear on the same episode. However, the problem with these small bits is that it’s quite hard to remember any of the girls since the clips are so short and they are stretched over such a long period of time. As such, the only use of these clips is to create talking points of a few candidates and that’s what exactly the staff seems to aim at. There’s the girl who had participated in the 3rd generation audition – that will come in handy for the girl (and the management) if she is drafted. Then there’s also the girl who had mistaken the draft for a baseball draft – I wonder if that’s actually true, but it is at least funny.

Next week’s preview revealed that lots of top senbatsu members make their comeback to the show. There is at least Takamina and Yukirin involved and it looks like there is even more. The episode looks like a new sort of Muchaburi Dodgeball episode in which the veterans and the newcomers battle against each other. According to Japanese fans, some of the frequently appearing young members (like Tano) were left out of the episode because they were either sick that day or had overlapping work so the newcomer team should be somewhat different.