Week 45

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

AKBingo (5.11)

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

As expected, this week’s AKBingo continued the show’s theme of pitting veteran members against younger members in a battle for laughs which is judged by old people who don’t know anything about the group. This time the girls were challenged with monoboke and janken battle, both familiar for longtime viewers of the show.

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.