Week 5 (2014)

In these weekly posts, I gather all the variety appearances of AKB members and briefly summarize what happened.

AKBingo (28.1)

Members: Aigasa Moe, Iwata Karen, Iwatate Saho, Okada Nana, Oshima Ryoka, Kashiwagi Yuki, Katayama Haruka, Kitazawa Saki, Kojima Mako, Kodama Haruka, Sashihara Rino, Sato Sumire, Shinozaki Ayana, Takashima Yurina, Takahashi Juri, Tanaka Natsumi, Tano Yuka, Nishino Miki, Minegishi Minami, Murashige Anna

Summary: This week’s AKBingo was another fashion check episode that was shot on the same day as the one aired at the end of last year. The members taking part in the competition were younger ones again (Juri, Haruppi, Murashige, Ryoka, Kojimako, Miki, Saho) while the veterans and the competitors from last time remained as commentators. It also looks like they shot Shoujiki shogi episodes on the same day and one of those episodes will be aired next week.

Analysis: Just after I got to praise Murashige for finding balance in variety, she goes on and leaves me wondering whether she has made any real progress at all. Her insistence on using -shige endings everywhere was misplaced this week. The same can also be said of Kojimako and her “gag” – she blurts it out randomly and only concerns others with it. It is not cut because it looks adorable enough, but then again she could do pretty much anything else in its place and not much would change (in temrs of being adorable). Moe also has a problem she doesn’t seem to be aware of or doesn’t know how to fix: whenever she speaks, she doesn’t put enough energy into it and her comments fall flat. With a voice as low as hers, it feels out of place in Bingo’s atmosphere. Her lack of excitement could work for her benefit if she made the right comments for her style (like Tomochin), but she hasn’t really caught up on that yet.

We also got to see good Karen-Juri chemistry as Karen set up the stage for Juri and Juri responded back cleverly. Miichan yet again showed why she is so valued in variety: she can give attention to any member, ranging from her Haachan tease (that gave Haachan the attention she would have missed otherwise) to supporting the Team 4 girls with witty comments. For Haruppi, I think it was the first time she used her IKKO jokes on TV (as fans have often compared her to IKKO due to her hair style) and it was also funny to see her interact with the other HKT members.

Week 4 (2014)

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.

AKB48 no anta, dare?! (16.1)

Members: Takashima Yurina, Shinozaki Ayana, Murayama Yuiri, Mogi Shinobu

Summary: This week’s Andare upload featured Team 4 members who had not been on the show in a long while, but no Mariko (again) as it happened to be a Thursday episode. The four started by talking about what they have been doing since they appeared last time on the show and pondered whether they have made any development. At first they were made to clear various challenges: imitating Funassyi for 30 seconds, acting out Andare’s pervert writer’s moe line, pulling off 3 weird facial expression in a row, dancing UZA as energetically as they can, doing monoboke 3 times in a row and imitating Miichan for 30 seconds. In the following corner the members were challenged to talk alone for a minute and they ended up talking about each other. Ayanan revealed Yuiri to be perverted, Yuiri exposed Ayanan being a bit of a kusogaki while Yuurin claimed Mogi to be excessively negative and Mogi talked about how easily Yuurin feels down despite what she claims in her catchphrase. In the final corner the girls acted out moe situation and lines related to high school students (as all of them go to high school right now).

Review: In my opinion this Andare episode showed these girls at their very best. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing them do so well in variety shows until now. It is about time their revered talking skills from the theater performances can be seen in variety. All four of them were energetically involved in keeping the show running and clearly had fun as well. They were surprisingly amazing in what I would call “flow talk”: the sort of talk in which the members funnily force someone to do a task no one wants to do. They had various patterns for that and all of them worked very smoothly – even rivalling what Andare veterans usually do on the show. Their style clearly focused on the point that all the members kept talking without a stop. Even when one member was under the spotlight the others would loudly cheer on and comment from the background. That style has its pros and cons: it worked very well in this episode, but it can also be quite overbearing when done in the wrong situation. The most obvious winner this week was Mogi who introduced a new character that will surely turn into a fan favorite. Heck, she even went as far as to (briefly) imitate Hard Gay even without her new character.

 

Week 2 (2014)

In these weekly posts, I gather all the variety appearances of AKB members and briefly summarize what happened. 

AKBingo (7.1)

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

This week’s AKBingo presented the first half of the annual Lucky Girl Ranking in which the members’ fortune for the next year is decided. Since last year’s result was a fiasco with the top and bottom actually being the other way around, the regular fortune-teller Shimada is accompanied by another one, Getters’ Iida, a former comedian. His ‘fortune-telling’ was more about the members’ personality instead of reading from hands. Most of the talk this time is centered around Iida’s tidbits about the members’ personality quirks and future possibilities which includes a prediction of Takamina gaining more acting work (and that led to her showing that she can cry fast). There were lots of HKT members featured in this week’s episode, but it looks like AKB is in the spotlight in the second part. I will be posting an analysis of this episode after next week’s episode so I can approach the Lucky Girl Ranking in its entirety.

Week 44

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.