Minarun’s Father Passes Away

Many fans started to worry when Minarun failed to appear at a recent Team 4 show at the theater on the 27th January. The reason why she didn’t turn up however has been solved today with a message from Minarun herself stating that her father passed away on January 25th but she didn’t get to know about it until very near the start of the theater show on the 27th. His funeral took place  today. Minarun’s parents are divorced although she still stayed in close contact with her father. However this sad piece of news is even more devastating for Minarun as she had an argument with her father at the start of the year and they never patched things up before he died. She bitterly regrets this but has vowed to make her father proud of everything she does. For now Minarun will not be back at work until the end of January and will not update her Google+ pages.

My deepest condolences to Minarun. Stay strong.

Minarun Back As Team 4 Captain Once More

No sooner has Minarun returned back on her first day on active duty with Team 4 that she’s restored to her previous position as Team 4 Captain. I honestly didn’t think she’d get the captaincy back so quickly. Haruu knew that the position as captain was only going to be temporary and I don’t think they’ll be any bad feelings from her to relinquish it either. Team 4 is quite a tight unit and they all support each other.

Minarun did comment at the end of today’s performance at the AKB Theater how sorry she was to have caused all this trouble and it was nice of her to acknowledge Haruu on the great job she’s done in her absence. She has vowed to take this second opportunity and do her very best in the future.

I’m delighted that Minarun has been reinstated but you do have to feel sorry for Haruu. I really thought she was an excellent captain of Team 4. Let’s hope the fans have forgiven Minarun and Team 4 can move on.

The Latest On Minarun/Anna Mori Scandals

AKB48 Theater manager Togasaki has finally broken his silence after a couple of days to update the fans on the latest in the Minarun/Anna Mori debacle.

Basically he stated that anything the girls did in the past before they joined AKB48 except for criminal activities should be ignored. They were just ordinary teenagers doing what everybody else is doing – admiring a boy in their class, getting a boyfriend and taking purikura pictures and so forth. That’s the appeal of AKB48 to fans he said – they’re just normal people. He hasn’t been able to confirm whether the rumours in their blogs are true or not but there will be an announcement at the beginning of next month. AKB management will not let this pass by, they want to make the right decision first so they’re going to take their time about it – this is probably to appease the hardcore wotas more than anything or they’ll just keeping pushing more on the matter.

In the meantime, Minarun has been suspended for 2 theater performances (one today (21st) and the other on the 24th), officially this is due to ‘poor health condition’. The suspension could last longer until the situation has been resolved. I think the worst they will do for punishment is demote her from captain to a regular member or back to a kenkyuusei member again.

Minarun Scandal – Drinking/Enjo Kousai

The AKB48 Theater Manager Togasaki is currently investigating rumours that Team 4 captain Mina Oba has been drinking sake according to his Twitter account. As this rumour pertains to Minarun before she officially joined AKB48 I just don’t see why he’s bothering.  Minarun looks like a sensible young lady to me and I know that she’s still only 19 and not allowed to drink alcohol but I don’t think she’d do anything as stupid as get caught drinking sake in public especially not now as she’s got an important role in AKB48. I guess we’ll know soon what the results of his investigation came up with.

EDIT: I thought this was just a small scandal of underage drinking but it’s growing into something far bigger than I imagined which could threaten Minarun’s career in AKB48. Apparently her scandal stems from her blog which she’s boasted about drinking and having a boyfriend which doesn’t mean anything if the relationship was over by the time she joined AKB48. What is far more damaging is she’s been talking about doing compensation dating (enjo kousai) and talking shit about Aki-P. It seems that Nito Moeno might be dragged into this whole sorry scandal too as she’s mentioned that she had a boyfriend as well in 2009. I fear that Minarun is going to be in a whole heap of trouble if these rumours prove to be true. It’s a damn shame as I really like Minarun a lot. I’d hate to see her get fired but AKB48 have an image to uphold. Having a member that took part in prostitution (doesn’t matter if it was non sexual) will tarnish that image and management may have no alternative but to fire her.

Another Team 4 member that’s also being  investigated by TGSK is Anna Mori but it looks like she could be fine. Her personal blog was contained to have entries that said she had a boyfriend for 2 years but it was all over 3 months before she joined AKB48. They were communicating after she joined and might still have been harbouring some feelings for him too.

I’ll post more information on this breaking scandal when I find something. It’s just incredible how far wotas will go to punish some idols they feel have betrayed them.