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.

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Week 49

Sorry for the delay this week. I thought I had published this last weekend, but WordPress screwed it up and I didn’t notice until now. In these weekly summaries, I go through the latest episodes of AKB48′s various shows. This week there was an hour-long special of Karen no fukkou calendar and Sakiko participated for the second time in Teppen‘s piano competition.

AKBingo (3.12)

Members: Abe Maria, Iwata Karen, Iwatate Saho, Uchiyama Natsuki, Oshima Ryoka, Oya Shizuka, Okada Nana, Kojima Mako, Takahashi Juri, Takeuchi Miyu, Tano Yuka, Shinozaki Ayana, Nagao Mariya, Nishino Miki, Maeda Ami, Yamauchi Suzuran

This prank project doesn’t give me much of a chance to write about the members themselves. I’m personally not that fond of the way the prank is presented: there’s too much explanation and repetition of ‘majime’ for the prank itself to have an impact. The editing raises expectations way too high and the constant explanation is a bit overbearing. I think it would work better if the prank was presented in a less dramatic and predictable way. At least the ending of this week’s episode was memorable so I’m hoping next week leaves the impact this prank should leave in the first place. As a side note, I love how the staff used Tano in this week’s episode – pure delight for the fans who like her cheeky personality. Continue reading