AKBingo 28th April Summary

This week’s episode has part 2 of the sad and inspirational stories that make the girls cry.

Before we get to our first story, we see the girls and the Bad Boys swaying to some Disney music but Sae is going in completely the wrong direction to the rest of the girls. She realises the mistake she’s made though and corrects herself!! Myao who’s next to Sae is trying hard not to laugh as this is supposed to be a serious segment!!

The first story revolved around my no.2 girl in AKB48 – Yuko Oshima. Fans will remember that Yuko underwent throat surgery last year and this tale goes over the events of what took place. Although I didn’t quite understand what was going on I’m assuming that Yuko feared that she would never be able to sing again for AKB48. As she lay in her hospital bed feeling sorry for herself, a text message from Team K leader Sayaka cheered her up and well the rest is history. The girls were really being tearful here. The worst was Sayaka herself!! I think this story showed just how awesome Sayaka is – being concerned about her friend.

Story no.2 is all about Asuka Kuramochi. She was extremely close to her big brother whilst growing up. He was her hero. The rest of the tale I wasn’t too sure what was going on – was it something about her parents thinking she should quit AKB48 or something as she wasn’t popular? She’s popular now anyway as she was no.21 in the last AKB48 senbatsu election. This wasn’t really a story to be crying over, hell they should have made a story about Amina Sato instead. Now there’s a nice story to be told – how she wasn’t popular and that she learnt the choreography to every stage song. The fans noticed how dedicated and hard working she was and for that she got picked for the senbatsu election at quite a high position too.

Our last tale is about Mariko. Mariko has been the air flute girl on AKBingo in the past but she said that she had a real flute during elementary school and that she played Laputa tunes when times were tough. She became quite emotional (fake tears though) when she said she’d lost it recently. The reason she’s lost it is she auctioned the flute off for charity. It got some laughs from the girls.

The next segment shows Myao and Mayuyu taking pictures of the girls for the AKBingo book.

We finally have an official announcement that AKB48 will be coming to the L.A Anime Expo.

And finally the PV for Ponytail to Shushu is shown. Yuko and Yukirin can come and clean my car in their bikinis anyday!!! The song itself is a grower. Right now I’m not too sure about it but give a couple more times listening to it I’ll start to love it.

That’s it for this week but we have a preview for next week’s show and it’s all about Kojima and her challenge for No Sleeves’ single Lie. In front of a large audience at Shibuya’s Mark City will she be able to conquer the challenge given to her of pulling a large cloth off a table without spilling the contents from some champagne glasses stacked up on top of each other?

I just hope there won’t be another damn sob story episode for quite a while.

AKB48 In Vegetable Commercial

It seems that AKB48’s popularity is growing so much that they’re now in demand for Japanese CM’s. After promoting AOKI suits a little while ago, they’re now back with a brand new CM for a vegetable drink. 26 members (which includes Jurina and Rena from SKE48) are in the CM with each representing a different vegetable.

Here’s the list of which vegetable each member represents:

Takamina – Cabbage
Acchan – Tomato
Mariko – Onion
Kojiharu – Broccoli
Akicha – Watercress
Ami – Nappa Cabbage (never heard of a Nappa cabbage before)
Mocchi – Parsley
Sasshi – Daikon
Lovetan – Petit Vale (no idea what this is?)
Mocchi – Parsley
Sayaka – Burdock root
Yuko – Spinach
Tomochin – Eggplant
Sae – Asparagus
Miichan – Komatsuna (I don’t know what this either?)
Erepyon – Beet
Moeno – Kale
Yukirin – Pumpkin
Mayuyu – Red pepper
Kitarie – Purple sweet potato
Tomo~mi – Lettuce
Myao – Nalta jute (WTF – ain’t got a clue?)
Komori – Ashitaba (eh?)
Sumire – Ginger
Jurina – Carrot
Rena – Celery

And here’s a Japanese daytime show with a quick feature on the CM:

Erika Sawajiri Getting Divorced

There have been rumours floating about for a while that Erika might be getting divorced from her husband. On Fuji TV’s programme “Mr Sunday”, they said that she is indeed going to divorce from Tsuyoshi Takashiro. The media waited to hear from Erika herself. Then came the official announcement on her website that the news was true and she is definitely getting divorced.  Nobody knows why she’s splitting from her husband but apparently the favorite speculation is that it has something to do with financial troubles.

Already the knives are out for Erika saying that she’s a gold digger who only married her husband for the money and now she’s getting divorced she’ll get a nice big fat chunk of his wealth. I don’t think this news will change anybody’s opinion in Japan about her. She might be hated even more actually because of it.

In other Sawajiri news, her plans for a comeback in Japan is making progress and she may be signed up soon with non other than AVEX. They have confirmed that they are in talks with her and have plans for her to make an acting comeback in a TV drama series.

AKB48 Are Coming To L.A!

That’s right folks, you’ve read it right. As if last year’s appearance by Morning Musume at the L.A Anime Expo wasn’t exciting enough comes this hot off the press news that AKB48 will be heading over to Los Angeles as guests of honor at the Expo. Details are a bit sketchy right now as to who’s coming over but there will be a concert, panels, meet & greets and autograph sessions. Stay tuned for more on this. After cancelling their planned Thailand concert in Bangkok, AKB48’s management had said that there would be another international concert. Thailand’s loss is America’s gain.

Oricon Top 30 Charts – Week 17

This week’s chart has Bump Of Chicken at no.1 again……but not with the song they had last week at the top. Happy drops to no.4 while their new single Mahou no Ryouri ~Kimi Kara Kimi e~ enters straight in at no.1. Before I say anything about the Top 10, notable new songs outside the Top 10 included MiChi with her song at a lowly position at no.24. It’s a great tune which includes sampling a portion of an old Scatman John song . I also like Sphere’s new song at no.12 which is tie-in with the anime Ichiban Ushiro no Dai mao. Mihimaru GT’s song is also very nice. After only a week Perfume are out of the Top 10.

The Top 10 had 8 new entries. aiko with her tie-in song for the movie My Darling Is A Foreigner came in at no.2. Following her at no.3 is DOES with Bakuchi Dancer. This is a tie-in song for the anime movie Gintama. AKB48 unit No Sleeves is in at no.5 with Lie. Respectable sales figures for them too. There’s a couple of anime songs in the top 10 with Girls Dead Monster at no.7 with their tune from Angel Beats. Speed also enter at no.9 with a cool new song Himawari.

The chart rundown goes like this:

30 Angela Aki – Kagayaku Hito
29 Ryuko Mizuta – Kunisaki Miren
28 Nodame – Nodame DEBUT!
27 Arashi – Troublemaker
26 NEWS – Sakura Girl
25 Kiyoshi Hikawa – Shamisen Tabigarasu
24 MiChi – All About The Girls ~Iijanka Party People~ / Together Again
23 ZEBRA QUEEN – NAMIDA ~Kokoro Abaite~
22 Junko Akimoto – Ichimai no Shashin
21 mao – Kimi no Kioku
20 Asian Kung-Fu Generation – Solanin
19 NYC – Yuuki 100%
18 mihimaru GT – Omedetou
17 Marui Bunta – Taisetsu na Hito e
16 Yazima Biyoushitsu feat. Princess Seiko – Idol Mitai ni Utawasete
15 Aika Yoshioka – Izayoi Namida
14 Kaori Mizumori – Matsushima Kikou
13 THE BACK HORN – Tatakau Kimi yo
12 Sphere – REALOVE:REALIFE
11 Perfume – Fushizen na Girl / Natural ni Koishite
10 Friends, Maikeru & Hanaka – Dear Friends -Tomo e- / Gakkou e Ikou
09 SPEED – Himawari ~Growing Sunflower~
08 Kazuyoshi Saito – Zutto Suki Datta
07 Girls Dead Monster – Crow Song
06 Fuyumi Sakamoto – Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru / Asia no Kaizoku
05 no3b – Lie
04 Bump Of Chicken – Happy
03 DOES – Bakuchi Dancer
02 aiko – Mukaiawase
01 Bump Of Chicken – Mahou no Ryouri ~Kimi Kara Kimi e~

Plus the usual video countdown by RASC

AKB48 and BLT Magazine Promote The World Cup

AKB48 and B.L.T magazine have teamed up to support Japan at the upcoming World Cup and to celebrate this collaboration each member in Team A, K and B have come up with a t-shirt design of their own which you can buy from B.L.T’s website for 3,000 yen.

The link to the website is below. Once there, click on the Team name which will direct you to a page which features all the t-shirt designs available. I’m not sure which one to buy?

http://net.blt.tv/goods/akb48_worldcup/

AKB48 – Ponytail to Shushu CD Covers/PV Preview

The covers for Type A and B CD version of  Ponytail to Shushu

A Japanese morning TV show aired this feature. Most fans already know that this PV features the girls in their bikinis by the CD covers which is always a big plus!! Hell, it looks even better than Baby Baby Baby. They all look pretty hot especially Yuko and I really do like Mariko with her ponytail extensions. I hope she keeps them. The only downside is that Sayaka isn’t involved with the song and no Rena Matsui either.

Check out the preview below:

Scandal – Secret Base PV

On Wednesday, Scandal released their latest single – a cover of the classic 2001 ZONE song Secret Base. Now before you rush out to buy it, let me tell you that you can’t do that as this is a digital only single. Why they haven’t officially released this as a proper single I’ll never know as they really do the song justice. They perform the song almost as good as ZONE themselves.  Check the PV below:

AKBingo 21st April Summary

The opening segment is another Shojiki Shouji between Lovetan and AKB48’s ‘Reaction Queen’ Yukirin. Sasshi is the anchor with The Bad Boys.  Yukirin easily wins this 3-1.

It’s then onto the challenge that Kojima wanted to do for No Sleeves’ 4th single. What would the challenge be like? We find out when The Bad Boys take her to an upmarket restaurant somewhere near Shiodome. The challenge is to pull a large cloth off a table which has some drink glasses on it. The drink glasses must not topple over or she fails. The guy there shows Kojima how it’s supposed to be done. Kojima has some success with 1 and 3 glasses but as more glasses are added she starts to have some difficulty with 6. She tries several times but no luck. Kojima seems to be slightly drunk when we see her sitting down with what looks like a glass of red wine (although it was probably juice).

Phrase Museum is back and this week it’s between Erepyon and Myao. Myao wins and Erepyon calls Myao an idiot afterwards. The look of surprise on Myao’s face is funny!

There’s a feature on the upcoming senbatsu election. The man doing this report said something at the end about Yuko which I didn’t understand.

Acchan plugs her new PB, the AKBingo book will be coming out next week and there’s a making of preview from the PV of AKB48’s new single Ponytail to Shushu.

We have a live performance of No Sleeves’ Lie in the studio to finish off the show.

Next Week: more sad and inspirational stories to make the girls cry!

AKB48 Thailand Concert Cancelled

Bad news for Thai fans who were hoping to see AKB48 perform in Bangkok on June 26th as the concert has been cancelled indefinitely due to the volatile situation there right now. I think it was a wise decision to make considering that the UK and Australian embassy have warned travellers not to go there right now. I wouldn’t have liked seeing my favorite idols exposed to any risks that might get them injured. Bangkok is like a powder keg ready to explode and the situation if anything is going to get worse. They could always come to London to perform if they want…………..