Week 9 (2014)

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

AKBingo (25.2)

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, Jonishi Kei, 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: This week’s AKBingo took up from where it left off in the previous episode: the moe competition of the 48 groups continued. The girls were asked to write down what they consider an ideal girlfriend and what would be the best thing to write on a heart-shaped piece of chocolate. In addition, the girls were challenged with coming up with the best moe line in a situation given by Yoshinori, one of the judges. The climax of the episode had the girls do monomoe (a combination of monoboke and moe, iow girls use items to catch the hearts of the judges).

Analysis: Sayanee and Miichan continued their good stride from last week while the teamplay of Karen and Takamina succeeded very well. However, the biggest star of the episode was Tano who keeps taking more and more steps towards being a proper variety star. Her way of snapping back at the judges was spot-on and she was even used as the punchline of the entire episode.

Week 3 (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.

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.

Week 43

In these weekly summaries, I go through the latest episodes of AKB48′s various shows.

AKBingo (22.10)

Members: Karen Iwata, Saho Iwatate, Nana Okada, Ryoka Oshima, Yuki Kashiwagi, Rie Kitahara, Asuka Kuramochi, Mako Kojima, Ayana Shinozaki, Yurina Takashima, Juri Takahashi, Minami Takahashi, Miki Nishino, Ami Maeda, Minami Minegishi, Yui Yokoyama

This week’s AKBingo included the comeback of many veteran members, like Takamina. It was interesting to see how the younger members would react to appearing along with them after a long while and it was relieving to see that the newcomers weren’t afraid to do their own thing in front of the veterans. In the past the problem with AKBingo was often that the younger members just remained quiet in the background, but with lots of appearances recently many of them have now enough self-confidence to compete with the more experienced members. Karen continued her good streak and Ryoka showed her kusogaki side for the first time on AKBingo. Nana’s serious character is also morphing into a good thing although she needs Miichan by her side.