In these weekly posts, I gather all the variety appearances of AKB members and briefly summarize what happened. After last week’s post I realized that posting only summaries doesn’t feel right so I added review parts to a few programs.
AKBingo (14.1)
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
Summary: Unlike past years, this time the Lucky Girl Ranking is divided to three episodes so we need to wait for next week to see the final result. Some of the jokes from last week were carried over (Sasshi bullying the palm reader Shimada and Mirukii butting without anything to say) while Tano and Nana competed over whose Takamina impersonation is better after Getters’ Iida claimed they would succeed as impersonators. In addition, Murashige was as energetic as usual and Karen provided a new manga reading performance.
Review: I will write about the Lucky Girl Ranking episodes after all of them have been aired.
Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku (13.1)
Members: Ichikawa Miori, Iriyama Anna, Iwata Karen, Uchida Mayumi, Oshima Ryoka, Kojima Haruna, Suzuki Shihori, Nagao Mariya, Matsui Sakiko
Summary: This week’s Kyowakoku was a new addition to the popular AKB nandemo derby format: the staff have the members racing in various competitions while Ariyoshi and Kojiharu bet which member is the winner. Since the episode was aired close to Coming of Age Day, the members chosen were girls who have just become full-fledged adults (Ichikawa, Uchida, Suzuki, Nagao). The competitions included 50 meter running, holding breath under water while surrounded by doctor fish and a wrestling tournament.
Analysis: Kyowakoku has had a habit of having members try hosting episodes once in a while. These AKB nandemo derby episodes have usually had someone as a supporting host and this time they picked Karen – which was an interesting choice, but didn’t produce anything special. I would have liked to see the commentator team at the studio come up with more things to say, but in general the members tend to follow Ariyoshi’s lead – which may be better off given his experience and talent.
AKB48 no anta, dare?! (10.1)
Members: Ishida Haruka, Iwata Karen, Sato Amina, Sato Sumire
Summary: This week’s Andare upload was a special episode for Amina disguised as a No Name episode (however she acted as the main producer of the episode). The members shared their memories of the unit, revealed what sort of seiyuu roles they want to do in future and Amina made her first and only relationship chart in which she commented on members of all teams, not just K. In addition to performing 3 No Name songs, the members participated in a quiz in which the 4 were labelled as A, B, C and D (without them knowing the answers) and they tried to figure which member was which letter by asking questions from the audience. However, the main point of the episodes were the surprise letters the other three members had written for Amina and Amina had a surprise letter for the three as well.
Analysis: I am glad to see the staff upload one of the most memorable Andare episodes to date. The show has witnessed many graduation specials and this has to be one of the best and it managed to deliver for No Name fans at the same time. Surprisingly Amina seemed to be quite worried about the episode’s success since it was the first time I remember seeing her pay so much attention to the mild reactions of the audience. She mistook the silence of the audience for failure when the episode itself was entertaining in a different way. Thanks to her fineplay (especially in the final speech) and the strong characters of the other members it was a thoroughly enjoyable episode (unlike some of the past Andare uploads). Suuchan is capable of adding a little something to many moments while Harukyan’s happy-go-luckiness on Andare is a running gag. Karen may have not received the wanted reaction with her funny rant about the voting result, but she did well given the weird atmosphere.
Nemousu Television (19.1)
Members: Izuta Rina, Iwata Karen, Kato Rena, Kuramochi Asuka, Takahashi Juri, Maeda Ami
Summary: Nemousu Television returned for yet another season and it opened with an episode that has members becoming mikos (shrine maidens) to fix their happy-go-lucky attitude.
AKB48 Konto nanimo soko made (17.1)
Members: Abe Maria, Ichikawa Miori, Oba Mina, Oya Shizuka, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kuramochi Asuka, Sato Sumire, Shimada Haruka, Takahashi Juri, Takeuchi Miyu, Nakata Chisato, Natori Wakana
Summary: The first skit of this week’s episode had younger members visit the apartment of Yukirin for the first time, but her eccentric behavior gets out of hand the longer they spend time there. In a short skit, Minarun served as a “security guard of love” who guides and advices people in romantic situations. In another skit a bullied Miorin meets the super hero Lemonman and Shimada’s Jaishima character made a comeback. In the last sketch, three members unwillingfully take part in a sketch lesson held by famous comedian Kojima Kazuya. There was also a new addition to Mocchi’s solo corner in which she imitates Kobashi Kenta’s moves.
Sashihara no ran (15.1)
Members: Sashihara Rino
Summary: Sashihara continued her quest for setting up her own ramen restaurant in this week’s episode. However, given the expensiveness of the project she moved on to creating her own ramen to be served at someone else’s restaurant. She managed to make a deal with the owner of a chain that has restaurants abroad (even the US) and the rest of the episode was spent discussing what sort of ramen “Sashiharamen” should be.
Analysis: Sasshi continues to amaze me with her skill in teasing just about anyone without pissing them off. On the contrary, all of them seem to grow to like her in the process.
Sanma tamao no otoshidama anta no yume kanaetaro ka SP (12.1)
Members: Oshima Yuko, Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami, Watanabe Mayu
Summary: A couple of top senbatsu members appeared in a popular annual special episode led by comedian Akashiya Sanma. The special revolves around the program making dreams come true for ordinary people and the girls took part in it by joining the commentary at the studio.
Downtown DX (16.1)
Members: Oya Shizuka, Takajo Aki
Summary: The two appeared on the popular talk show to talk about Akicha’s JKT activities and Oya’s story of what happened when she got drunk for the first time. Oya happened to have problems with her voice at the time of the shoot so Downtown (the host duo) cracked jokes about her voice as well.
Geinoujin kousei variety bananajuku (14.1)
Members: Oya Shizuka
Summary: In this show the comedian duo Bananaman (familiar for Nogizaka fans) and former AKB member Mai Oshima investigate and try to solve problems of various celebrities. Oya was this week’s guest as she has trouble with smiling and considers her own smile ugly. The regulars of the show resort to setting up a shoot for Oya in which they draw good photos out of her with the help of sadomasochistic techniques.
Uchimura to zawa tsuku yoru (14.1)
Members: Sato Sumire
Summary: Suuchan appeared in a clip in which she had a cameo appearance as a classmate.
Suiri seyo! MeiQ powaro (19.1)
Members: Minegishi Minami
Summary: Miichan appeared in a special one-off quiz show.
Zenryoku kyoushitsu (19.1)
Members: Minegishi Minami
Summary: Miichan appeared in a show which has celebrities learn about various subjects in a school-like setting. She talked about AKB’s handshake events among other things and performed her Goriki dance as well.
AKB48 no All Night Nippon (17.1)
Members: Ishida Haruka, Sato Sumire, Fujie Reina
Summary: This week’s ANN’s members were all “fresh” adults having just experienced the Coming of Age Day. As a result they ended up talking about the activities on that day and the homework for the three was to talk for a while like attractive ladies. After the loud beginning the three managed to calm down a bit and were able to focus on the main part of this week’s episode: each one of them had a short solo section in which they had to talk alone and do a corner (which was decided by lottery) which ranged from solving a producer’s problem to chatting with a listener. They also promoted their recent activities (including Harukyan’s seiyuu work and Reinyan’s theater) and talked about Amina’s graduation performance.
Konya ha kaeranai (13.1)
Members: Iwata Karen, Takeuchi Miyu, Muto Tomu
Summary: This week’s opening sketch had Karen improvise a gag as the punchline. Most of the episode was devoted for the Shingeki no Iwata corner in which she crushes listeners’ problems like a titan. This week’s problems included the challenge of being a leader for the first time, bed problems, learning to differentiate sheep and goats and a fight between a cat and a crow. There was also one more about Karen’s two-sided personality which ended up with the three discussing the various side of Karen’s character and how she initially hid her eccentricity when she joined AKB. At the end of the episode they read listener mail again and talked more about their New Year traditions.
Variety 48 
I have only watched the singing clips of Amina’s special Andare. Seems that it’s worth watching the full show for the complete awesomeness!
On the other hand I find Karen co-hosting (?) Kyowakoku to be a bit weird and left so much to be desired. I would have loved to see her interact with Ariyoshi more (esp as the rest of the commentator team didn’t have a lot to talk about).
Konha ha kaeranai’s becoming more and more Karen-centric? Although I must say this episode’s one of my favorites as there’s this discussion on Karen’s bipolar.. i mean polarizing personality, which as you know is something I have given some thoughts to. I agree she mixes two personalities well and I guess with her being the earthquake charity girl she can’t go bananas on those serious NHK shows or handshake events. I maybe thinking too much but I think it’s as important to emphasize the calm, mature and soft side of hers, otherwise if she crosses the line I worry she’ll become too boyish or rough for the idol fans to accept (e.g. shimada…).
Re agency discussion, I honestly don’t know a lot of them save for the big shots like Ota-pro, Hori-pro and Ogi…. I know there are some that focus more on acting and some are more specialized in variety, comedy, etc.. I wonder how does AKS strike a deal with the agencies in signing the girls? Like I noticed Ota-pro develops the girls heavily to be AKB front girls (e.g. I don’t think Kitarie will still retain her exposure had she been in another agency). Anyway, I hope Karen (and the rest of the stars in 12th gen) get signed to agencies that are willing to develop their talents further. They are quite solid in singing, dancing and variety-skills, it would be a waste not to start pushing them at a young age.
Although In Karen’s case, I think she was heavily pushed in the beginning, then that push sort of died down after AKB0048, then recently there is this explosion in her TV appearances (or was it just me). Being selected as the calender senbatsu and undergirls with a decent position all made me wonder about management’s plans with her.
I certainly recommend watching the entire Andare episode – especially the ending had both members and fans in tears. Seeing them perform Kono namida wo kimi ni sasagu after the letters was a particularly touching moment.
Karen’s position on the latest Kyowakoku reminded me of what is called “assistant MC” on Japanese TV. Usually TV announcers have this sort of position on variety shows: they take care of the rudimentary explanations and do the talking when the show changes from one corner to another or a VTR is shown. In other words, that job is mostly serious and only some of the best of them are able to crack jokes with the main personalities. To me it seemed that Karen stuck close to the given script and in a way that may be better off since so much time was reserved for the footage. For a first-timer she did her talking parts quite smoothly – unlike some members who have barely made it through when they have been given the same job on Kyowakoku.
As for Konya ha kaeranai being Karen-centric, that is quite true. That may have something to do with the fact that most of the listener mail that is read comes from Karen’s fans so that determines the show’s style to some degree. It also looks like the staff approved of her character from the get-go since they gave all the silly bits for her even before her fans began to dominate the mails. However, I don’t think she has had considerable success on the show so far and almost on the contrary, it seems to me that Tomu’s talking skill and especially radio work is becoming better and better at a fast rate. As for NHK, it doesn’t matter whether she is linked with the earthquake: NHK is serious business so there’s no room for fooling around. Even more so for someone like Karen whose attitude towards work seems to be even more serious than most other members.
I would say that Karen has already missed the chance to attract the core of hardcore wotas, but that is a tough crowd to please in the first place. I remember reading one particularly nasty response about why one fan doesn’t feel like supporting her: her face isn’t pretty enough. I don’t think Karen is able to change the minds of such fans so she is better off building her own unique personality since there is certainly demand for idols like that as well. Her initial push died down before 0048, but she grabbed that role for herself by catching the attention of director Kawamori and his staff. I have to agree that recently the management has been giving her more work so it looks like they still have faith in her. If anything, it’s a nice way to reward her work so far. They may be in need of better singers in future as music programs have returned back to live singing so she may be the management’s bet in that regard.
All the big (and smaller) agencies frequently interact each other and I believe a lot of contacts are made whenever the stars from different agencies do work together. That way AKS must have been able to present the bigger agencies with their offers in the past. From what I understand, the agency deals always depend on the agency that is signing the girls. If they find an interesting member from what AKS offers, they approach AKS for a transfer and then the whole thing is negotiated with the member and her family. That’s why all those agency deal announcements at concerts are not final (and sometimes end up never happening, like Kuumin’s Watanabe Entertainment deal). Ohta Pro’s presence is really big in the industry right now and it is obvious even in AKB’s case. Some fans complain that Ohta Pro has too much influence over AKB, but I don’t think AKS is just sucking up to one single agency.
I watched the Andare episode and man was it a tear-jerker…
I gotta agree that her looks is not the conventionally pretty/cute type. I rewatched her performance in Manatsu no sounds good and yeah, she doesn’t really strike me as particularly eye-catching. But then, as long as she doesn’t go the athletic route or suddenly gain 10 pounds, her looks is still passable as an idol.
Music programs is returning to live singing? That’s good news! I wonder how many of the AKB girls is capable of handling that. Are the stage performance still mostly lipsyned? To me it seems so unless it’s special occasions (birthdays, graduations, someone subbing another person).
Wonder if Oz still remember me…? lol Sorry for not commenting for a while.
The change in your format is quite nice, I really like it. Sometimes with the way variety is shot in batch, analyzing them individually turns out a little bit half-baked with all the vague guess of what would happen in the next installment.
Recently I don’t have much time to follow regularly the variety, which leads to me watching AKBingo 2 eps back to back. Despite having 3 ep of palm reading is draggy imo, the cast as well as the editing makes it better than I’ve expected. The addition of Iida is not really stellar but his so called personality reading(?) helps creating opportunities for the young kids to catch on, of which Tano gave a really great performance. I think I’ll wait for your Lucky Ranking post to talk more about this :)
I’ve always liked out of studio competition on Kyowakoku, it’s not like I don’t love the trademark obnoxious background though. It seems like Kyowakoku is keeping its steadiness without much to talk about. But is it only me or the members who comes to Kyowakoku studio recently are all Team A’s?
Still haven’t watched the Anta Dare NoName ep because I’m still digesting the fact Amina has graduated :( I’ll definitely watch it later when I have time.
Regarding Karen in Redturle’s comment (hi there!), I don’t think Karen is too rough or boyish but rather really out of the norm eccentric with the tint of childishness here and there (like her pranks towards the members). Karen can also read the atmosphere to adjust her performance, despite she isn’t stellar at that. But she has time and with her regular on AKBingo, I believe she will soon master it. As for her less eccentric sides, she still shows them in the theater performance so it isn’t like the wota (or you can call idol’s fan) will forget those sides of her. I watched the LOD of team A when she’s sub for Yuihan and she’s just too great that for the first time I can accept someone taking Kojipa’s spot in Keibetsu lol. With Karen’s shorter hair and her build, I could also see a glimpse of how Hikki would look like if she were to join AKB (lol), but then, it’s just my personal wacko fantasy ಥ_ಥ… don’t mind me… *cue awkward music*
Karen’s early “push” when she’s KKS for me is just something more related to the tsunami thing. She has a lot of potential but since she was quite young back then (13), hence her slight push here and there from the management. She’s now 16 this year (a right age to start the push imo) and it seems like the time for gen12 main push has come, we will be able to see more clearly the management’s intention for her I guess.
On the agency discussion, I’m also really curious. There’s a change in AKS policy regarding this last year but I wasn’t paying much attention at that time so I can’t remember exactly the change. Just hope that it’s not gonna be a Johnny no2 TvT… haha…
Of course, I remember you. Bloggers don’t forget the first comments they get. In the next few weeks I will be experimenting with the format: finding a good balance between brief comments on individual episodes and bigger analyses is important. You can expect a pretty big post when I get around to posting my Lucky Girl Ranking analysis. There’s so much going on in these episodes that it should be the biggest analysis I have done so far. I’m glad to see both young and old members as well as members from various sister groups doing so well this year.
Kyowakoku has certainly been quite heavy on Team A members. It may just be a coincidence that Team A members have been fitting for the management’s schedules. Sekine Tsutomu episodes took such a long time to air so it created the illusion that Mayuyu, Yuihan and Juri appear often on the show and it just happened to be followed by a cast of Team A members. :D
I can understand the feeling of putting off the Andare episode for later. It took me some time to watch Nakayan’s graduation special back when it was uploaded. Her graduation was the toughest one for me because for me she was the best example of a hard-working, obscure member making her dream come true after years of effort.
One thing that may be a problem in case of pushing and agency deals is whether the members are old enough to do work at any time of the day. For members aiming to appear on variety shows, the shoots often last long and in some cases are done at night. To reach success it is necessary to take part even in late night shoots so the agencies may not be willing to pick members like that. That is the only reason I can think of for Jurina remaining under AKS. Even though Ogi picked up young members in the early stages (like Mayuyu and Rabutan) they took a huge risk with it. The agencies may already be too full of AKB members so the big agencies are more cautious about taking on more “burdens”. As for AKS’ change in their policy, I remember there being a big news article about how the management was planning to turn AKB into a school with regular popularity ratings and so forth. It looks like that plan died down quietly, but they may still be aiming to become a powerhouse agency. I can imagine it being quite tricky to work with schedules when you need to make them work for both the recording studios etc they work with AND the agencies of the individual members.
Hi there! Wow, I really wanted to see that LOD where she subs Yuihan. Can you tell me the date?
Speaking of her looks, with her short hair, she reminds me of Ono Erena (like a less pretty but cuter version of her lol). Yeah I can see where that HIkki resemblance comes from lol.
sorry for late reply :) and nice to meet you! ^v^ ~
I was talking about team A stage on Jan 09th. All the senbatsu girls were away so the young kids in team A got really nice positions, including Karen.
Nice review again this time, Oz-san~ :D
And can I ask for the web link for Sanma SP, Nemousu Terebi, and Ariyoshi Kyowakoku for this week? I can’t find it on youtube or dailymotion, somehow…
Thx before.
Nemousu and Kyowakoku are always removed fast from sites other than Youku so you are better off using the combination of Google Chrome and “Unblock Youku” add-on to watch them on Youku.
Sanma SP (in two parts):
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19kr31_さんま-玉緒のお年玉-あんたの夢をかなえたろかsp-1-2_lifestyle
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19krb7_さんま-玉緒のお年玉-あんたの夢をかなえたろかsp-2-2_lifestyle
Nemousu: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjYzNzMzMTky.html
Kyowakoku:
last week: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjYxNTA2MjI0.html
the newest episode: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjY0Mjc4Mjg0.html
Alternatively, you can download the episodes here: http://jpon.us/
thx :D