In these weekly summaries, I go through the latest episodes of AKB48′s various shows. Sasshi appeared on Konya ha kurabetemimashita, a popular talk show in which Miichan appeared earlier this year.
AKBingo (29.10)
Members: Karen Iwata, Saho Iwatate, Nana Okada, Ryoka Oshima, Yuko Oshima, Asuka Kuramochi, Mako Kojima, Ayana Shinozaki, Yurina Takashima, Juri Takahashi, Mariya Nagao, Miki Nishino, Ami Maeda, Minami Minegishi, Suzuran Yamauchi, Yui Yokoyama
This week’s AKBingo continued last week’s theme of competition between senbatsu members and young newcomers. This time it was a what’s-in-the-box reaction game and the staff had a group of old people who don’t know anything about AKB judge whose reaction is best. The ones who took part in the game were Kojimako, Yuko, Ayanan, Miki and Miichan. Ranran and Mariyagi appeared only in the short talk part before the episode.
As expected, the Yuko and Miichan delivered. Especially Miichan deserves to be called the MVP of the episode. She went perfectly with the flow and went straight for laughs in a genius way. Since it was Kuro-chan who was in the box last time, the staff went and upped the ante by using Togasaki of all people this time. The two veterans also worked more than other members by even supporting the younger members by giving suggestions and comments.
Out of the fresh members, Niki made the biggest impact for sure. Even though it was a failure that cost the program nearly half an hour of shooting since she refused to put her hand in the box. However, her adorable reaction at the end redeemed it, but it is certainly no good that she paniced so much that it was problematic for the others. And just like last week, I’m not sure whether I find Miki’s genuine panic entertaining to watch or not. The old people most likely voted for her out of pity for the poor girl. Ayanan, on the other hand, showed a better reaction – with assistance from the veterans, she pulled off quite well although her reaction at the end was cut. It might have also been cut to make space for others, such as Miki’s long part. Kojimako, on the other hand, was quite forgettable and didn’t manage to make much out of her chance. Then there was Yuurin’s comment at the beginning of the episode, which wouldn’t have been there without Bad Boys’ and Yuko’s follow-up. Nana’s serious character was touched upon during the opening as well, but it was only thanks to Yuko’s comment about a previous episode. Besides them, other members didn’t really show up in this episode, but I’m sure they will get a chance next week since the monoboke battle was left out from this episode.
Just like in the past few episodes, there was a part at the end of the episode reserved for the draft candidates and this week’s part was the last one. Apart from the eccentric hoicho answer and the hilarious mistake at the end there wasn’t much to remember from this time.
Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku (28.10)
Members: Haruna Kojima, Mako Kojima, Yurina Takashima, Shinobu Mogi
This week’s Kyowakoku was another radio episode, this time with Yuurin, Mogi and Kojimako. It was as problematic as I was worried it would be, given the lack of variety experience of the guests. While the radio episode revealed a good deal of interesting, previously unheard bits of behind-the-scenes dealings, but that alone doesn’t guarantee a good episode.
I guess the staff predicted that there would be a problem with members like this since they gave Ariyoshi the button to end the discussion again – and he used it well to improve Yuurin’s part. While Yuurin did well by properly talking back to Ariyoshi, she still has a lot to improve – that should come naturally with more experience. Mogi’s recent variety appearances have been quite disappointing since she seemed to be full of variety potential since her early days, but at this rate she won’t survive in the programs for long. At least she did well in the part where her thigh perversion made its rampage. But then again, thanks to Ariyoshi it became even better when he joined in, turnining it into something the show hasn’t done before. I guess it says a lot that even Kojimako seemed more skillful in this episode because whenever she joined the discussion she did exactly what she was supposed to do. That’s certainly not a good thing for Mogi and Yuurin since the two are seen as variety-oriented members more than anything else.
The final aru aru corner was really short and I got the feeling a lot was cut from it. Possibly the topics weren’t that good, but it also seemed like the members didn’t really have much to say.
AKB48 no anta, dare? (25.10)
Members: Misaki Iwasa, Miyu Omori, Haruka Katayama, Yukari Sasaki
There was a surprising balance between all members in this week’s Andare. Usually there’s only one or at best two members who do well in a single episode, but this time it was quite different. It was quite refreshing to see an Andare episode that was thoroughly engaging, opposed to the usual relaxed and slow-paced style of the show.
It is becoming more and more obvious that Andare is a perfect show for someone as shy as Yukarun – she comes off as more relaxed and motivated than usual in Andare because it suits her so well. She is able to put away her nervous nature, even to the point where she can handle the day duty (reading the flips and announcements out loud) without notable problems. She did very well although her success ended up being much more mundane when compared to the other members. Her part in the real renai sousenkyo corner was slightly overtaken by Miyupon’s improvisation. However, that was exactly what Miyupon should have done since otherwise she would have just sat for the rest of the episode. In fact, Miyupon’s hilarious improvisation should have earned her the MVP title because it turned the corner into a laugh riot. In addition, her brilliant reaction to the prank and memorable air guitar performance were genius as well. For a long time I’ve been wondering whether Miyupon is aware of her funny, offbeat character, but I think this at least proves she knows what she’s doing., which is a good thing since it means she can be relied on in variety.
Wasamin and Haachan were also in top form. Wasamin had planned really good ideas for the renai sousenkyo corner, including a prank of sorts for the hosts and she also got to prove (yet again) that she’s by far one of the best singers in AKB, if not the best. Haachan, on the other hand, made use of her Showa character and added in a lot of humor into the renai sousenkyo corner by fooling around with Niizuma. Furthermore, her talk at the end of the episode was a nice addition, especially given how it was born out of necessity (since there were a couple of minutes left before the live broadcast would end).
It was also announced that Mariko Nakamura will be Andare’s MC beginning next week – which means we should be getting episodes hosted by her on YouTube in two weeks.
AKB48 konto nanimo soko made (1.11)
Members: Maria Abe, Anna Iriyama, Ayaka Umeda, Yuko Oshima, Shizuka Oya, Yuki Kashiwagi, Rena Kato, Rina Kawaei, Ayaka Kikuchi, Rie Kitahara, Natsuki Kojima, Haruka Shimazaki, Haruka Shimada, Mariya Nagao, Mariko Nakamura, Reina Fujie, Ami Maeda, Miho Miyazaki, Yui Yokoyama, Mayu Watanabe
This week’s Konto was full of individual member corners, mostly just further variations to the ones they’ve done before. It looks like the ones used this week were just leftovers from those past shoots, but somehow the flow of the episode was really good even though it was obviously a collection of cut material. Especially Kawaei’s battle with the kids was a good one – I would personally like to see more of that corner since she had such good chemistry with the kids. The new full length sketches were quite good as well. Paruru’s muchaburi sketch worked well thanks to its editing, the superhero sketch had a good thing going on and Umechan and Myao’s magician sketch became more and more hilarious as it progressed.
SKE48 no Ebi Friday Night (1.11)
Members: Masana Oya, Yukiko Kinoshita, Seira Sato, Mieko Sato, Makiko Saito, Aya Shibata, Akari Suda, Akane Takayanagi, Aki Deguchi, Yuka Nakanishi, Sayaka Niidoi, Airi Furukawa, Rena Matsui, Kaori Matsumura, Rina Matsumoto, Miki Yagata
This week was thoroughly low brow, even more so than before. The show collected some of the older SKE members and had them compete in sexyness and the shoot took place so late that younger member couldn’t have joined in any case. After the smooth opening, it felt like the whole episode was chaotic. It seemed that the cameramen were having a hard time shooting the episode with the members so all over the place and the editing didn’t really help it at all. While the best variety episodes have this sort of intensity, in my opinion this episode was too overbearing.
The staff seems to be trying to do their own thing by experimenting with all sorts of formats, but I think that’s a bit too much for the members. While they have learned to contribute to the show better over time, there aren’t many members who keep a good balance. The entire show is defined by Kaotan’s aggressive style – which is vital for the show since it keeps the whole thing in motion, but can be tiring when it dominates the whole show. It looks like Kaotan is not developing her skills in any other way, but at least she saved the end of the episode by stepping in when Niidoi didn’t do anything.
Among the other fine moments of the show was Matsurina’s stain – even though it seemed to be an honest mistake. Shibata seems quite introverted, but the fact is that she gets a lot of screentime on this show and shows more TV potential than most other SKE members. It may be unfair for others that she has taken the “easy” character, but at least she’s doing it properly. She needs someone to butt in, though, so it’s not like she could do much alone. I also like Yagata’s habit of going for laughs while others tend to be more serious. Seira also made a good debut with a memorable character which I think won her future appearances on the show.
One thing that bothered me this week was Daasu’s weird mood. i’m not sure if she was trying to appeal to fans with innocence/purity in a rousy episode like this or if it was just a bad day for her. Her lack of energy in the later half was quite exceptional. As a side note, I find it interesting that Okubo calls her by her nickname while I don’t recall Okubo doing so with any other members.
Sashihara no ran (30.10)
Members: Rino Sashihara
The staff of Sashihara no ran went along with Sasshi to Okinawa for her photobook shoot in this week’s episode. However, they hadn’t prepared anything for the show and just followed her around, which led to amusing moments of Sasshi bullying the staff about it while pulling off her gravure work at the same time. It is quite incredible that she was able to do both so effortlessly. It also looks like bullying Aoki (the publisher) is turning into a trademark – it’s certainly a good one.
Variety 48 