I'm back! and of course I ramble
Hi guys! If you've been reading my journal, you know that I had computer troubles - which is why I can happily say I'm posting from my own computer.
A little over a month ago, we finally got it up and running again. I'm not going to overly detail the problem, but the C: drive was seriously messed up and the entire operating system had to be re-installed. Unfortunatly, while my Mom & I tried to do it ourself with the right CD (because it had worked once before), it only saw 1 drive to try and reformat, and until we got it to a computer expert, he verfified that the drive left was my old F: drive, which held my years of downloading Sentai & Kamen Rider. This meant full seasons of Kiva, Decade, Double, Dekaranger, Boukenger, Gokaiger, Bioman, Maskman & Megaranger (and maybe another, I'm not sure) were erased and unable to get back without re-downloading all of it. I wasn't going to do that, since after July 12, an international trade agreement went into effect, effecttively having your wireless service provider able to spy on all of your downloads and charge you if they found you downloading illegal copyrighted material. Thankfully, since you guys know that I listen to a lot of JPop music, I was able to download most the stuff I had missed since November, as I didn't want to download it onto one of my parents' computers. Anyway, if the service providers caught you, they also had the ability to slow down and even complteley cut off your wireless services. needless to say, since I only got my computer running 2-3 days before July 12, I wasn't going to risk it. if you want more info, this entry by Min (etapa) explains it and also links to a helpful video: http://etapa.livejournal.com/290287.html
but anyway, enough of my troubles.
I want to talk about something else in this entry, something that I am well aware most of my friends are not familiar with: the JPop group AKB48 - and their central member, Maeda Atsuko. the main group itself has 90 members currently, not counting its sister groups in Japan - SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, JKT48 (this one is actually in Indonesia) and TPE48 & SHN48 (both of which are in the process of being made right now). I mean, at the general election this year in June (which I'll get into a little bit down), there were 237 members you could choose from (not including JKT48 and minus 6 girls from the 14th gen of RS students). That is a lot of faces to remember, especially since between the 4 Japanese sister groups (AKB, SKE, NMB & HKT), there are some girls that look like other girls (which when you have over 200 girls, there are bound to be some similar looking girls).
for reference, this is a picture of Atsuko, or Acchan when the group started in 2005:
Acchan refers to her nickname. The girls are given nicknames when they enter the group, some are thought up by themselves, some names from fans have caught on (like Aika Ota's nickname is Lovetan because she is incredibly adorable). The nicknames let the fans not have to remember the full name of too many girls. I mean, the first generation of the group (generations refer to the auditions that AKB48 has twice a year, and the girls who pass the audition are called 'X gen girls', so the first 21 are know as 1st gen. Each name with a group has distinctive nicknames too, since sometimes 2 girls will have the same name, such as Minami Takahashi & Minami Minegishi from 1st gen (though, keep in mind the Japanese think of names as last name, then first name). So their nicknames were given as Takamina (for the former girl) and Miichan (for the latter). However, the same nicknames are used for girls in different main groups, the best example being that Sayaka Akimoto from Team K (AKB48) and Sayaka Yamamoto from Team N (NMB48) both have the nickname Sayaka (although some people use the nickname Sayanee for Yamamoto Sayaka). There are not too many intersecting nicknames between members, although for multiple names in 1 group, like Haruka in AKB48 (there are 5 girls with that name active right now in AKB48 alone, there are 8 more girls named Haruka spread out among the other 3 Japanese groups (SKE48, NMB48, HKT48 and the now inactive SDN48). Since each nickname is distinctive, I will list the 5 from AKB48, with nicknames:
Within AKB48:
Haruka Katayama - Haachan (who as a side note, shares my birthday :D) - Team B
Haruka Nakagawa - Harugon - JTK48 Team J
Haruka Ishida - Harukyan - Team B
Haruka Shimazaki - Paruru (this nickname is a little complicated, don't ask me, since I'm not entirely sure how she got it). - Team B
Haruka Shimada - Haruu - Team K
Haruka Komiyama - Komiharu - AKB Research Student
Haruka Kohara - Haruchan (ex Team B, now ex-SND48)
in SKE48:
Haruka Ono - Haruka (ex Team S)
Haruka Mano - Harurun (ex Team E)
Haruka Futamura - Harutamu - Team KII
Haruka Kumazaki - Kumachan - SKE48 Research Student
in HKT48:
Haruka Kodoma - Haruppi - Team H
Haruka Watanabe - Wakaharu - Team H
Haruka Ueno - Harutan - HKT48 Research Student
on another tangent, the fans have to be sharp since there a few girls named 'Haruna', which only differs in one character from 'Haruka'. Thankfully so far, there are only 3 Haruna's, listed below:
Haruna Kojima - Kojiharu or Harunyan (some fans also use NyanNyan, but it's not official) - Team A
Haruna Hasegawa - Haseharu - (ex AKB48 Research Student)
Haruna Kinoshita - Haru - Team N
if you want to see the difference, check these two pages: http://stage48.net/wiki/index.php/Kojima_Haruna
http://stage48.net/wiki/index.php/Katayama_Haruka
look at the first line above the girls photo, with the last name first. The characters for the first name will be the 3rd and 4th characters. The first name will always be last, however for certain names, it will be only one character or 3 characters. within the wiki I am linking to, the last name characters will always be first and then it's just a matter of comparing similar names to find the differences.
Anyway, sorry about rambling on about nicknames.
AKB48 in and in of itself is a success story. They started out in the theater district of Tokyo, which is called Akihabara (which is where the AKihaBara [AKB} comes from), as a very small, underdog group, in October of 2005. The whole purpose of the group is 'Idols you can meet' and they also have daily theater perfomances amongst the different teams (which I will explain shortly). There are 250 seats in the theater, and in the beginning, they struggled to even get 50 people in per show - at there lowest point, for one show there were only 7 people. The girls would stand out on the street, handing out posters for discounts on theater tickets, only to have to watch some people toss the flyers out before going far down the street, which is heartbreaking for me to even think about. After all, these are idols - what people in the Western World would think of as 'teen idols' or maybe 'popstars'. Well in Japan, they are expected to be bubbly, happy and full of energy. But it is not easy to start out as an idol group, especially when your group is a little unorthodox to begin with (the idea of idols performing in a theater everyday was unheard of). But in 2006, they began to release singles, and slowly started to gain a following. With each title track of a single, a PV (for Promotional Video, which is to the wester world, a music video, and they are sometimes called MVs, it just depends on the group) is made and for the most part, the management decides which girls from the group will appear and be featured in the PVs. Well for most of the singles since 2006, of which there have been 26 (with the 27th releasing this Wednesday), for about 22 of those singles and PVs, you can find Acchan either as the center, or close to the center. She is eternal frontgirl, albeit to some puzzlement.
Now for how this relates to me. I first became interested in AKB48 in August of 2009, when there 13th single 'Iiwake Maybe' (translates to Maybe an Excuse) was coming out. Now I mentioned the senbatsu elections before, this single was the result of the first senbatsu election, which to put simply, is a popularity contest. By buying copies of the 12th single, there was a ticket where you could vote for your favorite member, and if they got enough votes, they would be put into Senbatsu (singing the main song) for that single. But anyway, I was hooked after that. It wasn't until the 15th single (Sakura no Shiori) that I was truly hooked and would listen to and wait for all upcoming singles. Right now, AKB48 was stedily gaining popularity and experiencing growing sales. Their 14th single (RIVER) had placed 1st on the Oricon charts (the Japanese charts that tracks how much artists sell, and is divided into CDs, Albums & DVDs - being 1st means that your artist sold the most CDs that week). Since River, AKB48 has topped the 1st week chart with each single since the 14th and they have become the highest selling girl group in Japanese history (supressing the previous record holder, Morning Musume, who I am also a fan of). Also, since the 18th single (Beginner), all of their singles have sold over 1 million copies in the first week, which is staggering in and of itself. Their latest, Manatsu no Sounds Good, sold 1,616,795 copies in the first week, which is freakin' amazing, and shows you how far they have come (their first single only 22,011 copies and the highest rank it got to on the Oricon charts was 10th) and how popular they have become.
But anyway. Onto Acchan. As you can see from the above picture, she does not exactly sound out and is not considered, even amoung her most devout fans, one of the prettiest members in AKB48. One of my favorites for prettiest, by the way is Haruna Kojima (Kojiharu), pictured here:
I also adore how Sayaka Akimoto looks (although she is half Japanese and half Filipono), pictured here:
She does not have one of the best singing voices, although I still adore her voice. It is soothing to me and very pleasent. on a side note, one of the best voices in AKB48 is considered to be Yuka Masuda, pictured here:
I would link you to an amazing video of her singing, but I do not have one right now, so just take my word. Her voice is amazing, she has great control and the fandom widely agrees that she has one of the best voices in AKB48.
But enough about other girls. back to Acchan. It is not an uncommon reaction for newcomers to AKB48 to say 'why is Acchan the center all the time? she's nothing special and she can look bored a lot.' When I started, I thought she was rather average looking, especially compare to Kojiharu & Sayaka. I regulary had her by the bottom of my rankings, not seeing her appeal. But over the last 4 years, I have really warmed up to Acchan. like when I watch backstage footage of her at concerts and she just exposes herself to be a big dork and extremly self-concious, which is understandable, since the spotlight is almost always focused brightly on her. She has quite an image to live up to, some from the management and some that she places on herself. The pressure has gotten to her several times, as she has fainted at a concert before and often makes herself sick by overworking herself.
So as 2012 progressed, I was a fan of Acchan. She was far from my favorites, but I understand now that she has the special quality - she just lights up when she's performing and she seems to geninuly enjoy performing it. A quick aside on the teams - until a few days ago, there were 4 teams in AKB48 - Team A, Team K, Team B & Team 4 (and also team KKS for the research students) and the 5 groups would alternate performing in the theater. But anyway, a drama was annouced that would star some of the Team 4 girls and that Acchan would sing the ending theme (it was a track from her 2nd single, and it's common for artists to get their songs tied to TV programs, as it increases the exposure the song gets and hopefully encourages the viewer of the show to buy that single). The song that was used is called 'Migikata' (which I believe means 'Right Shoulder') and it captivated me from the first minute that I heard it. Now I admitted above that she doesn't have my favorite voice, but this song is just so enchanting. here is a link to it, along with translated lyrics so you can understand what she's saying:
It's just such a soulful song, and one that I often find myself singing, as it very lovely. But in March of 2012, Acchan annouced that she would be graduating from AKB48 in August. To top it all off, she started the video by acknowleging that she is a very emotional girl (which is an understatement) and that she was sorry about the trouble she has caused everyone (the other members, the staff who work in the theater) over the years. It was then that she annouced her withdrawl from the 4th senbatsu elections, even though she would still be in the group at the time when the results were to be annouced. So when election time rolled around, she was nowhere to be found, at least until the winner, Yuko Oshima was annouced. You can see them both in this picture. For reference, Acchan is on the left and Yuuko (her nickname) is on the right:
It was at this moment that I was struck by how gorgeous Acchan has become over the years. She is also a stark contrast to Yuuko, who is in the promotional outfit for the last single released. Acchan looks so happy and yet, she is not officialy part of this event, so she stands out and most of all, she looks happy.
Why bring up all of this now? Well as I mentioned, Acchan's graduating this August - specifically August 27th, after one last theater show with her team, Team A (with the time difference, the show will start around 5 am or about that time for people on EST (Eastern Standard Time). And then she's gone, no longer a part of AKB48, the group that took an admitted painfully shy girl out of her shell and turned her into one of Japan's biggest national sweethearts. It's finally sinking in that after 7 years, Acchan will be gone. That's going to hurt - a lot. It's liking taking your favorite musician out of the group and they will never perfom together again. The question is - can Acchan stand as an actress and musician (if she wants to continue with singing) without the name of AKB48 behind her? We will have to wait and see, but I will miss her deeply and cannot wait for her next move.
Everyone, I apologize for the length of this entry. I did not intend to write this much, it sort of got away from me a little bit. As always, I missed you guys and your comments are greatly appreciated!
A little over a month ago, we finally got it up and running again. I'm not going to overly detail the problem, but the C: drive was seriously messed up and the entire operating system had to be re-installed. Unfortunatly, while my Mom & I tried to do it ourself with the right CD (because it had worked once before), it only saw 1 drive to try and reformat, and until we got it to a computer expert, he verfified that the drive left was my old F: drive, which held my years of downloading Sentai & Kamen Rider. This meant full seasons of Kiva, Decade, Double, Dekaranger, Boukenger, Gokaiger, Bioman, Maskman & Megaranger (and maybe another, I'm not sure) were erased and unable to get back without re-downloading all of it. I wasn't going to do that, since after July 12, an international trade agreement went into effect, effecttively having your wireless service provider able to spy on all of your downloads and charge you if they found you downloading illegal copyrighted material. Thankfully, since you guys know that I listen to a lot of JPop music, I was able to download most the stuff I had missed since November, as I didn't want to download it onto one of my parents' computers. Anyway, if the service providers caught you, they also had the ability to slow down and even complteley cut off your wireless services. needless to say, since I only got my computer running 2-3 days before July 12, I wasn't going to risk it. if you want more info, this entry by Min (etapa) explains it and also links to a helpful video: http://etapa.livejournal.com/290287.html
but anyway, enough of my troubles.
I want to talk about something else in this entry, something that I am well aware most of my friends are not familiar with: the JPop group AKB48 - and their central member, Maeda Atsuko. the main group itself has 90 members currently, not counting its sister groups in Japan - SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, JKT48 (this one is actually in Indonesia) and TPE48 & SHN48 (both of which are in the process of being made right now). I mean, at the general election this year in June (which I'll get into a little bit down), there were 237 members you could choose from (not including JKT48 and minus 6 girls from the 14th gen of RS students). That is a lot of faces to remember, especially since between the 4 Japanese sister groups (AKB, SKE, NMB & HKT), there are some girls that look like other girls (which when you have over 200 girls, there are bound to be some similar looking girls).
for reference, this is a picture of Atsuko, or Acchan when the group started in 2005:
Acchan refers to her nickname. The girls are given nicknames when they enter the group, some are thought up by themselves, some names from fans have caught on (like Aika Ota's nickname is Lovetan because she is incredibly adorable). The nicknames let the fans not have to remember the full name of too many girls. I mean, the first generation of the group (generations refer to the auditions that AKB48 has twice a year, and the girls who pass the audition are called 'X gen girls', so the first 21 are know as 1st gen. Each name with a group has distinctive nicknames too, since sometimes 2 girls will have the same name, such as Minami Takahashi & Minami Minegishi from 1st gen (though, keep in mind the Japanese think of names as last name, then first name). So their nicknames were given as Takamina (for the former girl) and Miichan (for the latter). However, the same nicknames are used for girls in different main groups, the best example being that Sayaka Akimoto from Team K (AKB48) and Sayaka Yamamoto from Team N (NMB48) both have the nickname Sayaka (although some people use the nickname Sayanee for Yamamoto Sayaka). There are not too many intersecting nicknames between members, although for multiple names in 1 group, like Haruka in AKB48 (there are 5 girls with that name active right now in AKB48 alone, there are 8 more girls named Haruka spread out among the other 3 Japanese groups (SKE48, NMB48, HKT48 and the now inactive SDN48). Since each nickname is distinctive, I will list the 5 from AKB48, with nicknames:
Within AKB48:
Haruka Katayama - Haachan (who as a side note, shares my birthday :D) - Team B
Haruka Nakagawa - Harugon - JTK48 Team J
Haruka Ishida - Harukyan - Team B
Haruka Shimazaki - Paruru (this nickname is a little complicated, don't ask me, since I'm not entirely sure how she got it). - Team B
Haruka Shimada - Haruu - Team K
Haruka Komiyama - Komiharu - AKB Research Student
Haruka Kohara - Haruchan (ex Team B, now ex-SND48)
in SKE48:
Haruka Ono - Haruka (ex Team S)
Haruka Mano - Harurun (ex Team E)
Haruka Futamura - Harutamu - Team KII
Haruka Kumazaki - Kumachan - SKE48 Research Student
in HKT48:
Haruka Kodoma - Haruppi - Team H
Haruka Watanabe - Wakaharu - Team H
Haruka Ueno - Harutan - HKT48 Research Student
on another tangent, the fans have to be sharp since there a few girls named 'Haruna', which only differs in one character from 'Haruka'. Thankfully so far, there are only 3 Haruna's, listed below:
Haruna Kojima - Kojiharu or Harunyan (some fans also use NyanNyan, but it's not official) - Team A
Haruna Hasegawa - Haseharu - (ex AKB48 Research Student)
Haruna Kinoshita - Haru - Team N
if you want to see the difference, check these two pages: http://stage48.net/wiki/index.php/Kojima_Haruna
http://stage48.net/wiki/index.php/Katayama_Haruka
look at the first line above the girls photo, with the last name first. The characters for the first name will be the 3rd and 4th characters. The first name will always be last, however for certain names, it will be only one character or 3 characters. within the wiki I am linking to, the last name characters will always be first and then it's just a matter of comparing similar names to find the differences.
Anyway, sorry about rambling on about nicknames.
AKB48 in and in of itself is a success story. They started out in the theater district of Tokyo, which is called Akihabara (which is where the AKihaBara [AKB} comes from), as a very small, underdog group, in October of 2005. The whole purpose of the group is 'Idols you can meet' and they also have daily theater perfomances amongst the different teams (which I will explain shortly). There are 250 seats in the theater, and in the beginning, they struggled to even get 50 people in per show - at there lowest point, for one show there were only 7 people. The girls would stand out on the street, handing out posters for discounts on theater tickets, only to have to watch some people toss the flyers out before going far down the street, which is heartbreaking for me to even think about. After all, these are idols - what people in the Western World would think of as 'teen idols' or maybe 'popstars'. Well in Japan, they are expected to be bubbly, happy and full of energy. But it is not easy to start out as an idol group, especially when your group is a little unorthodox to begin with (the idea of idols performing in a theater everyday was unheard of). But in 2006, they began to release singles, and slowly started to gain a following. With each title track of a single, a PV (for Promotional Video, which is to the wester world, a music video, and they are sometimes called MVs, it just depends on the group) is made and for the most part, the management decides which girls from the group will appear and be featured in the PVs. Well for most of the singles since 2006, of which there have been 26 (with the 27th releasing this Wednesday), for about 22 of those singles and PVs, you can find Acchan either as the center, or close to the center. She is eternal frontgirl, albeit to some puzzlement.
Now for how this relates to me. I first became interested in AKB48 in August of 2009, when there 13th single 'Iiwake Maybe' (translates to Maybe an Excuse) was coming out. Now I mentioned the senbatsu elections before, this single was the result of the first senbatsu election, which to put simply, is a popularity contest. By buying copies of the 12th single, there was a ticket where you could vote for your favorite member, and if they got enough votes, they would be put into Senbatsu (singing the main song) for that single. But anyway, I was hooked after that. It wasn't until the 15th single (Sakura no Shiori) that I was truly hooked and would listen to and wait for all upcoming singles. Right now, AKB48 was stedily gaining popularity and experiencing growing sales. Their 14th single (RIVER) had placed 1st on the Oricon charts (the Japanese charts that tracks how much artists sell, and is divided into CDs, Albums & DVDs - being 1st means that your artist sold the most CDs that week). Since River, AKB48 has topped the 1st week chart with each single since the 14th and they have become the highest selling girl group in Japanese history (supressing the previous record holder, Morning Musume, who I am also a fan of). Also, since the 18th single (Beginner), all of their singles have sold over 1 million copies in the first week, which is staggering in and of itself. Their latest, Manatsu no Sounds Good, sold 1,616,795 copies in the first week, which is freakin' amazing, and shows you how far they have come (their first single only 22,011 copies and the highest rank it got to on the Oricon charts was 10th) and how popular they have become.
But anyway. Onto Acchan. As you can see from the above picture, she does not exactly sound out and is not considered, even amoung her most devout fans, one of the prettiest members in AKB48. One of my favorites for prettiest, by the way is Haruna Kojima (Kojiharu), pictured here:
I also adore how Sayaka Akimoto looks (although she is half Japanese and half Filipono), pictured here:
She does not have one of the best singing voices, although I still adore her voice. It is soothing to me and very pleasent. on a side note, one of the best voices in AKB48 is considered to be Yuka Masuda, pictured here:
I would link you to an amazing video of her singing, but I do not have one right now, so just take my word. Her voice is amazing, she has great control and the fandom widely agrees that she has one of the best voices in AKB48.
But enough about other girls. back to Acchan. It is not an uncommon reaction for newcomers to AKB48 to say 'why is Acchan the center all the time? she's nothing special and she can look bored a lot.' When I started, I thought she was rather average looking, especially compare to Kojiharu & Sayaka. I regulary had her by the bottom of my rankings, not seeing her appeal. But over the last 4 years, I have really warmed up to Acchan. like when I watch backstage footage of her at concerts and she just exposes herself to be a big dork and extremly self-concious, which is understandable, since the spotlight is almost always focused brightly on her. She has quite an image to live up to, some from the management and some that she places on herself. The pressure has gotten to her several times, as she has fainted at a concert before and often makes herself sick by overworking herself.
So as 2012 progressed, I was a fan of Acchan. She was far from my favorites, but I understand now that she has the special quality - she just lights up when she's performing and she seems to geninuly enjoy performing it. A quick aside on the teams - until a few days ago, there were 4 teams in AKB48 - Team A, Team K, Team B & Team 4 (and also team KKS for the research students) and the 5 groups would alternate performing in the theater. But anyway, a drama was annouced that would star some of the Team 4 girls and that Acchan would sing the ending theme (it was a track from her 2nd single, and it's common for artists to get their songs tied to TV programs, as it increases the exposure the song gets and hopefully encourages the viewer of the show to buy that single). The song that was used is called 'Migikata' (which I believe means 'Right Shoulder') and it captivated me from the first minute that I heard it. Now I admitted above that she doesn't have my favorite voice, but this song is just so enchanting. here is a link to it, along with translated lyrics so you can understand what she's saying:
Click to viewIt's just such a soulful song, and one that I often find myself singing, as it very lovely. But in March of 2012, Acchan annouced that she would be graduating from AKB48 in August. To top it all off, she started the video by acknowleging that she is a very emotional girl (which is an understatement) and that she was sorry about the trouble she has caused everyone (the other members, the staff who work in the theater) over the years. It was then that she annouced her withdrawl from the 4th senbatsu elections, even though she would still be in the group at the time when the results were to be annouced. So when election time rolled around, she was nowhere to be found, at least until the winner, Yuko Oshima was annouced. You can see them both in this picture. For reference, Acchan is on the left and Yuuko (her nickname) is on the right:
It was at this moment that I was struck by how gorgeous Acchan has become over the years. She is also a stark contrast to Yuuko, who is in the promotional outfit for the last single released. Acchan looks so happy and yet, she is not officialy part of this event, so she stands out and most of all, she looks happy.
Why bring up all of this now? Well as I mentioned, Acchan's graduating this August - specifically August 27th, after one last theater show with her team, Team A (with the time difference, the show will start around 5 am or about that time for people on EST (Eastern Standard Time). And then she's gone, no longer a part of AKB48, the group that took an admitted painfully shy girl out of her shell and turned her into one of Japan's biggest national sweethearts. It's finally sinking in that after 7 years, Acchan will be gone. That's going to hurt - a lot. It's liking taking your favorite musician out of the group and they will never perfom together again. The question is - can Acchan stand as an actress and musician (if she wants to continue with singing) without the name of AKB48 behind her? We will have to wait and see, but I will miss her deeply and cannot wait for her next move.
Everyone, I apologize for the length of this entry. I did not intend to write this much, it sort of got away from me a little bit. As always, I missed you guys and your comments are greatly appreciated!