In these weekly summaries, I go through the latest episodes of AKB48’s various shows. This week my write-up on AKBingo ended up being so extensive that I separated it into its own post which I will publish soon. Furthermore, SKE48’s Akarin appeared on Kanjani no shiwake eight again, but I didn’t watch it myself. It is the show in which she has appeared a few times in the past and vowed the audiences with her limbo skills.
I’m not sure how many are actually following Sasshi’s new program, Sashihara no ran, but I seriously recommend giving it a chance. Since it’s aired after 2 AM, the staff is free to do as they please with the program and it is quite interesting because of that. It’s basically a program in which director Fukuda (famous TV director who is responsible for Muse no kagami for example) pointing a camera at Sasshi while they are talking pretty freely. Sasshi talks a lot about AKB’s behind-the-scenes while working towards the show’s goal: publishing Sasshi’s photobook. In this week’s episode they met with a famous gravure publisher (an AKB fan) and in the process they learn quite a lot about the gravure business in general and Sasshi’s knack for talking is showcased here: she manages to liven up the mood even in a show like this. I have a feeling this show will turn into a legendary one given its freedom and unique style. I think it is engaging even for fans who are not interested in Sasshi. For some reason Sasshi has a habit of including at least one weird face every episode – I’m not sure whether it just happens or if it’s a joke the staff suggested her to do.
SKE48 no Ebi Friday Night started in a promising way, but it hasn’t quite lived up to its expectations yet. Combining Okubo with SKE48 is a brilliant idea since she brings a completely different kind of aura to a show, especially when compared to the hosts of other AKB-related shows. Her rough style is an interesting way to open up SKE48 members who are still a bit awkward when it comes to variety. The first episode’s ruthlessness left quite an impact and some Japanese fans compared it with the first few seasons of Nemousu TV, back when it was hosted by Ariyoshi. I haven’t seen the early episodes myself so I’m not sure if it’s a valid comparison, though.
This week was a letdown even though Okubo tried to do something about it. It’s refreshing to see the staff try out something new, but the format didn’t quite work. Part of the reason was that the members seemed quite lost over what to do. When the drawings themselves weren’t that impressive they should have covered it up with talk, but they didn’t quite managed to do so – even with Okubo’s help. The only one who understood what to do was Airin when she seemed to find a connection with Okubo at the end – it’s also the reason why Okubo chose to prefer her at the end. The drawing itself wasn’t that great, but her effort in presenting it funnily was good. It was also quite awkward as a fan to watch a drawing competition in which Airin didn’t shine at all – even though it should have been like that.
Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku is very polarizing even for AKB fans: there are some who downright hate it and others who like it more than other shows. I belong to the latter group because it has me laugh out loud much more than the other AKB shows – even if it’s obviously less glamorous. The staff of the show (especially director Takeda) have put a lot of effort into establishing their own unique style of entertainment over the years and when it works, it is absolutely hilarious. The show also has its bad moments thanks to a lack of budget and its experimental nature, but even then I find it interesting at the very least. One of the most notorious moments in the show recently was one of the AKB v SKE episodes in which Kawaei cheated – the staff edited it together in a way that turned the incident into a legend.
The show used to be heavily focused on the kenkyusei – pretty much all remaining members from the 9th generation onwards have appeared on the show and some of them built their fanbase thanks to this show. The members who have appeared often are rightfully called “Kyowakoku children”. Shimada and Kawaei can thank the show for using them so much since the two learnt a lot while working on the show and especially in Kawaei’s case it has paid off well. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Kyowakoku has been her show, especially in the past few weeks when she did so well that others had only a little bit of screentime and exceptionally even Ariyoshi started to rely on her over the others. The show’s most recent push has been reserved for Kojimako who has been the show’s preferred member ever since her debut and they made no exception for this year’s janken tournament when the show decided to support her instead of Kojiharu.
This week’s episode was Kyowakoku’s take on the janken tournament since they had prepared things for Kojiharu and Kojimako to do at the event – it is the show’s yearly tradition to do stuff like that. This year Kojiharu betrayed them altogether and even Kojimako didn’t do everything she was supposed to do so the show was merciless in teasing them in this episode. Even though the staff had very little to work on this year they managed to put together an entertaining episode. However, there was not much room for the members to shine since most of the episode was a VTR the staff had put together. Even in the short radio section at the end, Mogi and Yuurin didn’t have much to do. It looks like their radio episode will be aired later since they wouldn’t put up a set like that just for Kojimako’s punishment. At least we got an update to the show’s annual habit of asking a new “sexy janken” from Yuko and she certainly didn’t let us down.
Another trademark of the show is to air longer versions of PVs than other shows. It started by chance: the show needed more material to fill in the airtime and asked for a longer PV because they had nothing else. The decision was so well received that they have done the same with every music video ever since.
It took a long time for Bimyo to get a spiritual successor, but AKB48 Konto Nanimo soko made has been worth the wait. The show has a good mixture of old and new. While it goes back to Bimyo by bringing back characters like Honmayan, it also tries out things Bimyo never did. For example, the behind-the-scenes sketches that pretend to be real footage were quite funny, but it seems they ran out of ideas for those after the first episodes. They required very specific sort of acting that the members pulled off quite well, surprisingly. It has also been interesting to follow how different members have been cast in the show. To me it looks like they shoot lots of sketches on the same day since there’s so much overlap in casting for a few episodes in a row and then the cast tends to change drastically. With many shows, the staff of the program don’t have that much power over who is sent, but in Konto’s case it seems like the makers have some power over it – or they are just really good at adjusting to the situation.
Sketch programs are really good at bringing out the individual differences between members and even among those are good at comedic acting have really distinct differences when it comes to sketches. My personal favorite is Minarun who pretty much dominated for the first 5 episodes and has appeared pretty often afterwards as well. It’s worth noting that she missed Bimyo due to her scandal so she’s getting her payback with Konto. I liked her comic acting in Saturday Night Child Machine’s sketches – she has a talent when it comes to silly movement and oddball characters. Her characters in Konto have been a bit repetitive, but I am personally satisfied with even that since she does it so well.
This week’s “Taku Suzuki’s new manager” sketch was one of the most solid products of the show so far. It took advantage of the bizarre character of a somewhat famous comedian, had the girls pull off amazing performances and had a tricky script that worked even in two parts. In particular I liked how it played around with the idea of how much the people involved knew of the actual script. Suzuki is known as a slightly odd man who says pretty much anything that comes to his mind and I think the staff used that to their advantage by not letting him know about everything they would pull on him – although in some cases his reactions did seem scripted. Nevertheless, the sketch provided a lot of good experience to Myao and Reinyan – it took a long time for the former to show up in this program, but has become a regular since then.
Kitarie’s and Ucchi’s restaurant sketch was a decent one as well. Kitarie has been used a lot in the show since its beginning and she certainly has the acting chops to pull off various roles. But the star in this sketch is Ucchi’s gullible straight man role – she is at her best in roles like this: pointing out the odd things in a soft way. Initially her success in sketches was due to her surreal rock character, but she has certainly grown up to be able to do more than just that.
There was also the Tsutanoyamen sketch which reminded me of the harsh Shimada sketch from a few weeks ago: it takes an unconventional, variety-oriented member and teases them in ways that would be too cruel for other members. In Shimada’s case it was hard to tell whether she knew what would happen in advance, but Oya was clearly not told what to expect. It was confirmed by the behind-the-scenes clip at the end of the episode where she mentioned that she couldn’t even imagine that honey would be used. This sort of humor doesn’t exactly fit with my taste, but this one was done fairly well. However, I can’t help being distracted by one thing: why was Annin disguised as an animal in the background?
There are also very brief corners tailored for each member who appear on the show. While there is considerable overlap between some of the corners, I like how they serve as a refreshing change of pace between more major sketches. They seem to shot lots of variations of each corner at once and use them as they see fit. For some reason Mariyagi’s Sexy Janken corner has been used a lot. I’m not sure why it is so – is there someone in the staff who likes the staff or did the corner receive a particularly good response somewhere? It’s also possible the management may have had something to do with it, but that seems unlikely in Konto’s case.
With Andare (AKB48 no anta, dare?) I’ll stick to commenting the episodes that are uploaded on AKB48’s official YouTube channel. This week they uploaded an episode with Naana, Kana, Aamin and Chikarina. Andare’s Thursdays are moe episodes so this episode is full of fanservice, as exemplified by the photo above. What I personally like about Andare is how the show is created in collaboration with fans: the producers ask for fans’ suggestions on social media and the fans in the audience can also affect quite heavily to each episode’s success. When I went to Japan I joined the audience a couple of times and had a lot of fun – it was a surprisingly intimate experience. Since the staff prepare the episodes at short notice they usually react to even small details and make use of offbeat ideas, like this episode’s “Let’s make Naana and Kana friends” corner since the two have often appeared to be on bad terms on the show.
This week’s episode proved that while Kana often seems rather unmotivated, that is not the case. She stirred up the show in many ways: by bringing in jokes of her own, by teasing Niizuma (one of the hosts) and by putting a lot of effort into the improvisation drama corner. The episode is also a good example of Aamin’s personality: her easy-going, unpredictable behaviour is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it paves way for laughs that no one else could cause, but on the other hand it can be a problem for others. While her offbeat actions can be charming at times, her odd way to butt in requires the other members to do their best in following up on her in order to keep the show going. Well, at least she is the unchallenged master of the pantomime corner and she pulled it off perfectly this time as well. These days Andare only does that corner when Aamin comes along.
It’s also worth noting that while Izurina has become famous for appearing so often on Andare this year (she is already in the program’s own Kami7 for that reason), Naana has silently appeared quite often as well. Of the young members who have debuted in the show within the past year, Naana has the 3rd most appearances, only after Izurina and Wakanyan who have both reaped success on the show.
In addition to TV shows, I also check some of AKB’s radio shows weekly, including AKB48 no All Night Nippon. This week’s ANN was a Team 4 special. Since some of the members are under 18 years old it wasn’t a live broadcast and thus the episode had the advantage of being edited. However, it didn’t feel like there was much of a need for editing since Miichan is such a good talker and easily led the talk. The three musketeers may have had a lot of TV and performance experience thanks to their recent push, but their talk skills are still quite weak – especially for a talking program like ANN. Luckily they have Miichan by their side since she managed to follow up on whatever they said and helped them with good questions and interventions when necessary – not to mention she did her own part very well.
Variety 48 