Scandal’s latest, ‘Nanka Buttobase’, has a PV out and I recently gave it a listen.
SCANDAL’s been on and off my radar since I’ve heard about them. I was captivated by songs like ‘Space Ranger’ and ‘Doll’, but also felt bored or unsure about some of their other singles. Their image also felt like it was in a constant flux, feeling down to earth and gritty initially, and then sporting a sterilized corporate look with their more recent PVs.
I’m not sure how I feel about ‘Nanka Buttobase’. The rock attitude seems to be there, and the technical ability is there; but like many of their other songs, I don’t find myself loving their sound. Many of their singles sound safe and restrained, like a baby-proofed room. I found myself loving some parts of the song, but turning completely off at the rest.
This PV shows something I haven’t seen from SCANDAL; synchronized dancing with their guitars. I don’t recall them doing this before, and the result is something that almost feels more ‘idol-ish’ than a rock group. The video shows SCANDAL performing in what looks like a vacant warehouse with a large group of men in the background engaging in some sort of face-off for the entire PV. Like the song, the entire video shows a lot of shaking and movement while feeling completely static.
Are they a band meant to be heard live? Am I missing something? I’m just not feeling it.
The day finally came. She performed her last Team K performance on the 27th, and is now a graduate of AKB48, free to pursue other career options(which at the moment is being an actress). She was arguably my favorite member from Team K, and man it’s gonna suck not seeing her featured in variety shows and performances.
Who will perform Tonari no Banana?
Or Wagamama na Nagareboshi?
FIRST LOVE??
Become a great actress so I can at least see you in some good films!
I’ll say it: I’m completely smitten with AKB48′s upcoming single, ‘Beginner’. Even with only low quality recordings to judge, I’ve listened to it countless times. It was playing in my head when I was driving; in my head when I was taking a shower; in my head while making dinner. I’ve been waiting for another single like ‘River’ to come along; after all, it was only a matter of time they released another unorthodox idol single, and ‘Beginner’ fit the bill, even exceeding my expectations.
First off, this is unlike any idol music I’ve heard. ‘Beginner’ doesn’t sing about love, the simplicities of school life, or uplifting ‘go-get-em’s. The tone of this song is downright angry; translated lyrics floating around the web convey frustrations and doubts from the youth of society, not unlike their early “dark” single, ‘Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou’, which dealt with bullying and suicide.
But ‘Beginner’ differs in tone. While ‘Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou’ was a haunting melodious piece with carefully chosen words of caution towards a silent depression, ‘Beginner’ is an outburst of deeply rooted frustration with a sharp tongue and no remorse. I get a sense of relentlessness and angst that I personally find refreshing coming from an idol group. Afterall, idols can get angry too, right? Life can’t always be about surprise birthday parties and wearing ponytails in the summer. AKB48 calling out to my inner cynic is a good change of pace.
It’s singles like this that come out of AKB48 every once in a while that secure their spot on Japan’s musical radar. Who else in the idol market is doing stuff like this right now? I’ve never been this eager to get my hands on an AKB single. October 27 never looked so far away.
King Records listed details about the different editions of ‘Beginner’ that are available to pre-order, along with the DVD contents:
version A:
1. Beginner
2. Boku dake no Value
3. Kimi ni tsuite
4. Beginner no vocal ver.
5. Boku dake no Value no vocal ver.
6. Kimi ni tsuite no vocal ver.
DVD includes 3 PVs, and 3 different dance shots of ‘Beginner’ featuring Oshima Yuko, Shinoda Mariko, and Matsui Jurina/Watanabe Mayu as the centers.
version B:
1. Beginner
2. Boku dake no Value
3. Nakeru Basho
4. Beginner no vocal ver.
5. Boku dake no Value no vocal ver.
6. Nakeru Basho no vocal ver.
DVD includes 3 PVs, and 3 different dance shots of ‘Beginner’ featuring Maeda Atsuko, Itano Tomomi, and Takahashi Minami as the centers.
The covers look really good too…all five of them. Should I…?
You can listen to a more cleaned up version of ‘Beginner’ below (still low quality though):
So in the middle of all of today’s events, I noticed Ayrton’s shirt. He’s always had great shirts. The donuts one that caught mano erina’s attention. The one of the robot punching a guy because he was doing the robot. But none of them were/are as fitting as the one he was wearing today. Living the dream but with dream crossed out and Plan B written in. From the very second the Morning Musume member graduation was announced, our plans for this Japan trip have been stuck together by mere duct tape and string. But somehow against all odds, it’s worked out for us. Getting selected and finding time for the Team B stage with front row seats. Barely making it to the C-ute concert afterwards. And now it gets even crazier.
So today Ayrton and I went on a trip to the ticket resell shop in Harajuku to look for better MM seats. He got them. He spent an insane amount for 4th row tickets. He now has literally fifty dollars on hand to last him until if/when we can find him an ATM that takes international cards. It’s crazy, I know. But fuck it. The bigger discussion is about when we went to the resale shop, he noticed a display that was marked, Today’s Tickets. With it being September 21st and only hours away, surely there weren’t any AKB48 JanKen Tournament tickets left were there?
Well to answer your question, here are my highlights from the night.
Member Introductions. Sashihara Rino’s crowd reaction was insane. And here I thought she was underappreciated. Komori Mika’s was rather ractious and Takajo Aki was surprisingly overwhelming, she’s like really popular. Kobayashi came out and then ripped off her clothes and wore a bikini for the rest of the night while carrying around an inner tube.
Right off the bat, the first battle was with Shinoda Mariko. Everyone held there breath and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Mariko won and you could feel the crowd relax a bit that their favorite members might be safe. Then favorites started to go down left and right. Kashiwagi went out immediately afterwards. Itano followed suit. Minegishi was gone. Then the bombs started to fall. Minami and then Yuko. One right after the other.
After the first two rounds, I’d say the event went down a little. Most of the big names were gone. There was a Maeda vs Maeda battle between Ami and Atsuko. At that point I saw the past and the future of AKB48 standing there together on one stage. No one really knew Ami was, as shown by the crowd reaction when she was first introduced. Also the event went a little long. Three and a half hours is a long time to watch people play paper, rock, scissors.
But somehow AKB managed to make it interesting. The played it up and even got a bunch of celebrities to show up for the festivities. For example wrestler Antonio Inoki. I’ll go more in depth on the next show but the JanKen was really a genius idea. Not only for giving other members a chance to shine but also a way to get more people to recognize other people’s names. Also one of the by products people care about their favorite members in JanKen whether they win or lose. When they win it’s like yes. But when they lose it’s a huge deal to see the favorites get knocked out. It becomes water cooler talk and sometimes in losing you win more fans over just by the way you handle it.
There were a few times when I thought the event may be rigged. Even know the worries still cross my thoughts. But for all the reasons I have that it was a set up, I have just as many as to why it couldn’t have been.
Going into this event before hand, I should have known you can’t have your cake and eat it too. That’s how it works. You can’t have everyone of your favorite members be in senbatsu and you can’t have even your favorite win. I got Maeda Ami and Kobayashi Kana but lost out in Miyazaki Miho and Masuda Yuka. Maeda Atsuko, Takajyo Aki, and Kojima Haruna stayed in senbatsu but I also didn’t get Kitahara Rie, Sashihara Rino, and Ota Aika. It’ll just be bitter and sweet all the way.
But as a special treat, here’s some footage before the event started I was able to shoot, before I was stopped by security.
Also, it’s really poor quality, but I managed to record the audio for the new single they showed near the end of the event. It’s really weird and futuristic with a matrix vibe. The members are playing a video game where they all get horribly killed. At one point Maeda Atsuko is even screaming for like 15 seconds as her hand is stabbed. I’m not sure how I feel about this song yet.
Finally, in a last bit of news. There was something else I saw and purchased at the Ticket Resale Shop. If you can’t make out the kanji, it says Takahashi Minami. Yep, it’s a ticket for the Photobook Hand Shaking event going on tomorrow, it’s release date. Line starts at 4:00PM. Doors open at 6:10. Just hand shakes, no pictures or autographs. But I was told there would be a special present given to those who attended. I’ll of course be giving that to someone else who I’m sure would want it a lot more than I would. How much did I pick this ticket up for? A measly 15 bucks. The Janken Tournament was under list price as well because it was so last minute. I don’t know how much longer we can keep running on this luck, but as for now. Plan B is going accordingly.
I’ve never refreshed a page so fast in my life. The results for the rock, paper, scissors competition are in, and it’s quite something.
Theater Girls:
Kashiwagi Yuki
Nakamura Mariko
Minegishi Minami
Nakaya Sayaka
Oku Manami
Nakamata Shiori
Itano Tomomi
Suzuki Mariya
Kikuchi Ayaka
Komori Mika
Fujie Reina
Takahashi Minami
Oshima Yuko
Yonezawa Rumi
Masuda Yuka
Oya Shizuka
Iwasa Misaki
Miyazaki Miho
Nagao Mariya
—————————————-
Undergirls:
Kobayashi Marina
Shinoda Mariko
Hirajima Natsumi
Akimoto Sayaka
Nonaka Misato
Nakata Chisato
Katayama Haruka
Umeda Ayaka
Miyazawa Sae
Matsubara Natsumi
Sato Amina
Sashihara Rino
Kitahara Rie
Watanabe Mayu
Nito Moeno
Ohta Aika
—————————————-
Senbatsu:
16. Chikano Rina
15. Maeda Atsuko
14. Matsui Sakiko
13. Kasai Tomomi
12. Tanabe Miku
11. Kobayashi Kana
10. Kuramochi Asuka
9. Nakatsuka Tomomi
8. Takajyo Aki
7. Sato Natsuki
6. Sato Sumire
5. Maeda Ami
4. Nakagawa Haruka
3. Kojima Haruna
2. Ishida Haruka
1. Uchida Mayumi
Many people may be wondering who Uchida Mayumi is, so I’ll introduce her right here:
Uchida Mayumi, Team K, the ace frontgirl of the 19th single.
The results were ridiculous. They are as random as they come; a mixed bag of awesome, and not so awesome.
Awesome:
-Maeda Ami and Sato Sumire making it in the top six senbatsu spots. Really, REALLY awesome.
Not so Awesome:
-Takahashi Minami, Miyazaki Miho, and Komori Mika not making it to senbatsu(theater girls no less).
I have my doubts about Uchida Mayumi simply because I haven’t seen much from her. Can she promote well and be media savvy? Will she be a strong center? I’d even be more comfortable with Ishida Haruka as center. But I look forward to see what will come out of this.
In other news it was announced that the 18th single, due in October, has a title: Beginner. What does that mean?! Expect a music preview soon!
In just a little over a week’s time Ono Erena be an AKB48 alumni to focus on a film career.
Tokyo Hive had a translated blog entry from Ono to her fans:
“I have received many messages by fans since I announced my graduation at concert in July. It was very warm, and I’m full of gratitude. I will go abroad in October once to find where to live, and also to check out the school. Therefore, my activities as AKB48 member will end after the performance on September 27th. I am very sad not to be a member of AKB48 anymore, but I decided it thinking deeply. I will come back to Japan as much better someday. There will be a photobook and DVD of my graduation anniversary, so please look forward for it. Thank you very much to everybody who supported Ono Erena of AKB48. I will do my best as AKB48 until the end, please continue to support me!”
What’s AKB and team K going to be like without you?!
Yasushi Akimoto is either deluded, a comic, or a genius. OJS48 stands or OJiiSan48 (‘Ojiisan’ is japanese term for a grandfather or elderly man) Oricon News revealed that a single will be released from OJS48 on October 1oth, called ‘Shinkokyu’.
Who are these gentlemen? What kind of music will it be? Is this even real? We’ll find out soon enough.
Now that I’ve dedicated myself to picking up a PSP(a pink one at that), I’m running into PSP titles without even looking for them.
I’ve come across this trailer for a K-On! music/rhythm/button-pressing game coming out this September 30th in Japan.
the presentation looks really nice, and the game play looks more approachable compared to the madness that is DJ Max. K-On!: Hokago Live! looks like a game I can play on the go without hours of practice. Looks like I should start compiling a list of PSP games I’ll be picking up after AKB 1/48.
Ps3′s The Last Guardian makes another appearance at the Tokyo Game Show, reminding me and thousands of others about its arrival. This trailer shows more of its trademark puzzle-platforming elements, and its beautiful aesthetics look even better than it has in previous trailers.
One thing that makes me sad: as a release date, it says “Holiday 2011″, which probably means late fall of next year. I’ve waited this long, I suppose I can wait…another year and a couple months.
Posted by dae lee 
