Yuka Tano: the New Reaction Queen?

Yuka Tano, AKB48’s 12th generation member. Recently she has appeared often on AKB’s variety shows and has grabbed a lot of screentime in the process. However, it was not originally so clear whether she would be successful in variety at all, but recently she has developed her reactions to rival even AKB48’s absolute Reaction Queen, Yukirin. I have paid a lot of attention to her in the past year and a half and would like to share my thoughts on her.

Tano’s development towards being the Reaction Queen

At the 4th Senbatsu Election in 2012

It was by no means obvious that Tano would turn into the character she is now. In her kenkyuusei days, she was known as an energetic and reliable performer who slowly started to gather dedicated followers. While others around her received all sorts of work, Tano’s days mostly consisted of either theater performances or staying at home, which earned her a short-lived nickname: “NEET idol”. The most legendary incident from this era took place when Takamina had to suddenly skip a theater performance she had been scheduled for and Tano was called in to substitute for her at a short notice. It was exceptional for the fact that she was called in on the same day the performance would take place and even managed to pull off a great performance without having much time to prepare for it. Fans celebrated: “the NEET idol has been called in for an emergency!”

Until then her eccentric personality was not well known among fans, but that started to change due to social media. After she started to send mobame and use Google+, fans began to take notice of her. On the day she was called in to subsitute for Takamina, she had slept until noon and after waking up had spammed her Google+ account’s comments full about how she was waiting for her mother to make karaages for her. Childish but adorable rampages like this increased her followers and as a result, she became the surprise member in the 4th senbatsu election by entering Next Girls at rank 45. I discovered her due to this result and so did many other fans. From here on her popularity steadily increased and her hyperactive behind-the-scenes behaviour became more and more apparent. Her cheeky attitude and obsession with Tomu became widely known thanks to social media – Hirarii’s handshake event videos in particular can be credited for this.

This is how she used to be on TV

However, her personality remained hidden outside social media. On TV she was dead silent. Although she didn’t seem entirely nervous she didn’t expose the character in her for a long time and fans often discussed how it was a shame. She appeared only once in Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku, a show that promoted pretty much all other kenkyuusei. On AKBingo she never got the spotlight. The situation remained unchanged.

Tano’s rise to the throne

She began to open up in variety thanks to her regular appearances on Andare. While her other variety skills remained lacking, she was guaranteed to entertain everyone with her facial expressions which came out naturally. I even witnessed it myself when I went to see the show in Tokyo during the summer – her reactions left an impact even in person. After some time had passed she started to act in a similar way even on AKBingo. Her change came at a crucial time since the show needed stars from the new generation of members who replaced the veterans of the show a year ago.

Since reacting is Tano’s most notable skill one can not avoid mentioning Yukirin who is widely accepted as AKB48’s Reaction Queen. It is not a coincidence that her reactions also became popular on AKBingo – the program’s format invites big reactions and to an extent even requires good reactions in order to be entertaining. However, there’s a clear difference between the two. While Yukirin’s reactions are somewhat calculated and acted, Tano is quite unpredictable at the moment. Calculated reactions are not bad by any means and are in fact more useful from a professional point of view since producers appreciate people who know when and how to react. In Yukirin’s case it’s not even a hidden thing since on AKBingo (this week) they even ask her to show a good reaction as an example for others. Tano’s explosive and unexpected reactions liven up the atmosphere in a vastly different way, but the downside is that the producers can’t always rely on her reacting since it looks like she’s not self-conscious about it. But then again her unpredictability can be a good thing as it can lead to an exceptionally good result that wouldn’t have happened without it.

Is Tano worthy of the title or not?

I admit that it may still be a bit far-fetched to call her the new “Reaction Queen”, but she has certainly paved her way into AKB48’s variety programming. Since the original Reaction Queen has not gone anywhere yet, we are better off coming up with another title for Tano. It wouldn’t be fair for Tano to simply call her “Reaction Queen” anyway. If we wanted to make the title similar we could just call her “Reaction Princess” – but that just wouldn’t fit with Tano’s character. Given the explosive nature of her reaction, I would personally choose “Reaction Monster”. In any case, this is just my observation of Tano and would love to hear your opinion, both positive and negative.