As the days come closer to Tuesday’s janken tournament at the Nippon Budokan, one of the most intriguing first round matches has to be Team K’s captain Sayaka Akimoto against the no.1 popular girl in AKB48 – Atsuko Maeda. I hadn’t even realised this but if Sayaka manages to beat Maeda it will be the first time ever in AKB48 history for the senbatsu not to feature her. Wouldn’t that be one hell of a big shock! The only problem if Sayaka wins is a lot of fans might not want to buy the single if the leading song doesn’t contain the ‘ace’ of AKB48. Last year Chance no Junban’ sales was a lot down on the previous single Beginner and the same could happen again if none of the regular senbatsu make it to the final 16. Whilst I like to see upsets happening in a tournament like this, it can have an adverse effect on sales. The icing on the cake would be if one of the NMB48 or SKE48 girls would win the whole thing.
Already some friendly banter between Sayaka and Acchan ahead of their match has been taking place with Sayaka confident that she’ll be able to beat Acchan. Acchan has retorted back by saying that Sayaka is ‘weak during Prime Time so she might just lose on her own’!! Another first round match that I’ll be watching closely will involve the current champ Mayuchi against Sasshi. Sasshi created one of the shocks of the tournament last year by ousting Yuko in the first round.
Fans have also been speculating what the members will be wearing this year for the tournament. I think the outfit that stuck out the most for me last year was Kana Kobayashi’s bikini/beach wear with a ring inflatible. Sae is another member who sometimes wears the most bizarrest of outfits. Well anyway we don’t have long to go so we’ll see how things pan out on Tuesday. I’m pumped up for this tournament. Come on Yuko, come on Sasshi – make me proud!!
