AKB48 Meet the Fans Session (Singapore)

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better than AKS actually caring about us enough to come here and have a concert, it does.

Singapore fans, rejoice!

Yesterday morning, the Singapore Toy, Games and Comic Convention(STGCC for short), updated their website with an AKB48 banner with the words "MEET AKB48, JAPAN'S LEADING IDOL GIRL GROUP".

Commence fan spazzing now. Yes, I literally held my breath when I saw the news when I was in tutorial class.

Here are the details known so far about the event:

Look out for AKB48’s appearance (up to 5 girls) at STGCC main stage on Friday (10 Dec 2010).

For die-hard fans, be mesmerised by 12 – 16 girls at their meet the fan session on Saturday (11 Dec 2010).

Duration: up to 1.5 hours
Cost: S$30.00 (limited seats available, includes same day access to STGCC exhibition).

Information on ticketing will be released soon.

Source: STGCC Website

The stage appearance intrigues me, what will they do? MCs, perform a couple of songs perhaps? And the Meet the Fans Session, what does it entail? High-touch? Handshake? Possibly even autographs!!?? *faints*

And yeah, I noticed in particular the 5 girls on Friday then 12-16 girls on Saturday. It actually can imply much(like they want to send some front girls, but these girls are busy on the Friday, so they send 5 others first, then the rest join in by Saturday). Still, I don't want to read too much into the numbers yet.

This is seriously, the best. Obviously, there wasn't going to be any handshake or autograph session for the AFA live, but we got a concert, and that's already pretty awesome. Now we get both? Damn straight!

Back from fangirling, the general vibe I'm getting is that STGCC is planning this well. Besides having the news up very much in advance, they have a proper banner for it on their website(Beginner promo pic, no less), and an actual introductory media writeup done very nicely.

Now we just wait for the ticketing to be up!

UPDATE: AKB48 apparently has Beginner handshake event scheduled for the 11th. Handshake events are attended by all members of AKB48. How this will work, I have no idea.

AKB48 [Beginner] 2nd & 3rd Day Sales

2nd Day: 112,151          3rd Day: 61,863

Total Sales so far: 742,109

    Only 3 days and Beginner breaks the 700k barrier!! I'm so proud of them ;___; . Watching them grow since 10nen Zakura, back then when their first day was still 20k and their first week was still 60k. And a year ago I started by blog with a post about RIVER's incredible 1st day sales. I still remember the hype from that day. Compared to now, that figure looks so small. Man have they grown a lot. I know I already said this but might as well say it again: AKB is on a roll.

   The biggest question is: Will they manage to sell enough by the end of the week to take the 1st position in the Oricon Yearly Singles Ranking? Standing with 698,542 copies is Arashi's Troublemaker. My guess is yes, they will overtake that amount. And they will do it within the week.

    Screw 1 week, they managed to outsell the highest sell group (currently) in 3 days! Beginner is now the highest selling Single of the year, and it doesn't look like that amount can be topped this year. How far more will they extend their lead before the end of the week? More than 800k is confirmed.

    Beginner also topped the Recochoku (a music download website in Japan) charts, with reports that the first day downloads were 3 times that of Heavy Rotation's. With this, AKB48 has extended their record for "the most consecutive no.1 single" with Beginner as the 6th. The reason for this is because, if you have been reading my posts, the Beginner PV in the Single was edited because it was "unsuitable for younger audiences". However, the original unedited version would be available on Recochoku for a limited time, which contributed to the great increase in sales.
  

AKB48 [Beginner] 1st Day Sales

And the number is......

568,095!!!!!

   568k copies of Beginner sold in one day!!!!! Holy shit is that awesome or what! Half a million sold! Not only did they raze through the 1st day sales for Heavy Rotation (340k), but they smashed through it's 1st week too (527k)!! AKB48..... breaking records every time

   Beginner sets a new record for the highest first day sales figure for a Single since Oricon began announcing daily sales data. That's not all, Arashi's Single Monster previously set this year's record for first week sales with figures 543,000. AKB48 already passed that figure, and it's only the first day! Who knows how much more they will sell before the week ends?

   The biggest question is: Will they manage to sell enough by the end of the week to take the 1st position in the Oricon Yearly Singles Ranking? Standing with 698,542 copies is Arashi's Troublemaker. My guess is yes, they will overtake that amount. And they will do it within the week.

   Oh and to all the haters out there, especially all those butthurt Arashi fans who keep whining.

Photo courtesy of MecchaMelon

   No offence to Arashi and their other fans who aren't butthurt though. I still am an Arashi fan. But seriously they have been slacking off too much recently. They haven't produced anything epic since Troublemaker and everything after Monster is boring. And judging from the preview and the credits of Freeter, looks like Hatenai Sora will be the same too. So hopefully this new competition will get them back to their feet.

AKB48 [Beginner] updates

UPDATED 27 Oct: Added in Beginner Original PV

     Tomorrow is the release day for AKB48's new Single Beginner. I can't wait! Whose not excited? Well I can tell you who isn't: Arashi fans. Why you ask?

AKB48's 18th Single "Beginner" shipped a total of 1.03 million copies of first pressing.

     Holy shit 1.03 million first press shipped to stores!!! That's a 350k jump from Ponytail to Shushu (650,000)!!! AKB is on a roll! But how does Arashi fit into this you ask? Well if you take a look at this chart which shows the Oricon Yearly Singles ranking.

01 - 698,542   Arashi -  Troublemaker
02 - 696,022   Arashi -  Monster
03 - 683,703   AKB48 - Heavy Rotation
04 - 647,144   AKB48 - Ponytail to Shushu

     As you can see, Arashi has been leading the music rankings since I don't know how long ago. Looks like that's going to change! Lol my sister is totally raeging over the fact that Arashi is gonna get beaten by AKB.

     So imagine if AKB really does sell that much, what would happen? Yup. MILLION SELLER BABY!!!! If AKB does manage to sell a million copies, then
- First million Single since Akikawa Masafumi's Sen no Kaze ni Natte in 2006 (but that took a year).
- First opening-week million seller since Utada Hikaru's Addicted to You in 1999.
- First Female artist to top the Oricon Yearly Ranking since Ayumi Hamasaki in 2002.
Nevertheless I'm expecting at least 500k first day.

     However even though the release date is tomorrow, they still haven't released the full PV for Boku Dake no Value, Kimi ni Tsuite and Nakeru Basho. For that reason I'm not gonna do a review of the Single yet. Not sure to add in Beginner to that list because I still don't know if the censored ver. of the PV (below) is the final one....

More after the jump

Yokoyama Yui promoted to Team K, Suzuki Shihori is back!

     Announced at the AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri concert, AKB48 9th gen Kenkyuusei Yokoyama Yui was promoted to Team K. Her promotion was to fill the empty spot left behind by Ono Erena's graduation from the group on the 27th last month. Yui has come a long way to being a full-fledged member, she previously auditioned for SKE48's Team KII but was rejected in the 3rd round.

     Also during the concert, the 11th gen Kenkyuuseis made their appearance. Ex-Kenkyuusei (7th gen) Suzuki Shihori, who left the group on August last year, is one of them. Shihorin left the group last year on 31 August, just a week after she was promoted to the New Team B in AKB48's Budokan Concert. The reason for her leave was that she was "half-hearted" and felt that she could not continue with her "naive way of thinking," while her peers were desperately trying to achieve their dreams. She decided to graduate so she could figure out her own dream by herself and work directly towards it.

AKB48 'live' in AFA X (Singapore)

   AKB48 will be coming to Singapore as part of Anime Festival Asia 2010 (also know as AFA X). The event falls on the 13 and 14 of November and is the biggest Anime Convention in SouthEast Asia (or so I am told).

   AKB48 will be appearing as a special part of Cool Japan, which under AFA X. They will have a concert on 12 November, starting around 7PM for around 1 hour 30 mins at the Suntec City Convention Center in Hall 402. A total of 16 members will be coming over for their first concert in Singapore. The member list has not been finalized however, and will be released at a later date.

Ticket prices for the concert is
$88 - Category A - Closest to the stage
$68 - Category B - Middle
$48 - Category C - Furthest from the stage, free standing

   There will be 500 tickets up for preorder this Saturday (tomorrow!!) as well as Sunday. The tickets are only for Category A and B. Tickets will be on sale at HMV in 313@Somerset Shopping Mall starting 10AM on both 23rd and 24th.

   For those people queueing up this weekend, the tickets are on a first come first serve basis, but you are not allowed to choose your seating position. Each person can buy a maximum of 10 tickets.

   The remaining tickets will be up for online sales via Gatecrash on starting from 27 November.

   AKB48 will also appear together with the their president(which I assume to be Aki-P) at the industry-level seminar that is the Cool Japan Forum. The Cool Japan Forum costs $238 and is usually attended by company delegates.

SDN48 1st Single [GAGAGA]

   SDN48's major debut Single [GAGAGA] will be released on 24 November, just a week after SKE48 will release their 4th Single 1!2!3!4! Yoroshiku!. The Single will have 3 versions: Type A, Type B and Theater version. GAGAGA will be released under the label Universal Records.

   The Senbatsu for GAGAGA was decided through an election by the fans back in September, and the member's position in the election would determine their position and screen time in the PV. (refer to this post). The center is Ohori Megumi. Fukuyama Sakura, who was 12th place in the election (and therefore made it into the Senbatsu), has graduated from the group not long ago and her position has been replaced by fellow member Chen Qu.

   Type A and Type B will have the usual handshake tickets and (external) bonus photo, but the most important bonus is in the Theater version. First press for Theater ver. will include a ticket for SDN48's Shashinkai Event. In this event, a ticket grants you to a photo with a member of your choice. This is the 2nd time such an event has taken place, the first time was earlier in the year when AKB48 released their 15th Single Sakura no Shiori.

   The motto for GAGAGA is "K-POP wo mukae utsu, J-POP tanjou" which means "In order to rival K-POP, here comes J-POP". This is in reference to the recent dominance of K-POP in the Japanese music industry by Korean groups like KARA, Shoujo Jidai, etc.. SDN48's Captain Noro Kayo said during a press conference that "Shoujo Jidai is their legs, KARA is their butt and SDN48 will be the elbows". And true enough, there is a lot of "elbow action" in the PV.

Official Website: http://www.universal-music.co.jp/sdn48/index.html

More after the jump

AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri

FINALLY I have proper access to internet. Hasn't been working properly since a week ago and I only had limited access so I can't access a number of sites (blogger is one of them).

   AKB48 held a live event spanning two days from 9 to 10 October. The live event, [AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri] was held at the Kasai Rinkai Park. The events on 9 October were held in heavy rain, but regardless of that more than 13,000 fans went to the event. AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri was held to promote the city's zoo and aquarium.

   There was [Yuru Yuru Karaoke] during the day time, where the members of AKB48 had a karaoke competition and they were allowed to sing any song by any artist, and they then had to follow it up with a short performance. At night was the live concert. The setlist for both events on both days, as well as the events and announcements, are below the jump.

More after the jump

AKB48 18th Single [Beginner]

    Some updates about the 18th Single. The title of the Single, announced during the Janken Tournament, is Beginner.

    There will be a total of 5 versions this time: the usual Type A, B and Theater versions, and now including Limited First Press versions for Type A and B. This is the first time that an AKB Single will have limited versions. Only the first press and Theater versions will come with handshake tickets and voting tickets for Request Hour ~Setlist Best 100 2011~.

    The Senbatsu for Beginner will revert back to 16nin. Senbatsu members are....... the usual frontgirls, minus Myao. Management is really excluding Myao out of stuff lately. Acchan will take back the center position (i saw that a mile away).
   Beginner is a fierce and hardcore song which and has been compared to RIVER. One interesting thing is that the dance will have 6 patterns of dance formation. Each formation will have different member positions and the center will be decided right on the performance with Takamina's hand signal (like a volleyball formation).

    The Undergirls song is called Boku Dake no Value. The member list is below, included in are 6 members of SKE48.The frontgirls of this song are Harugon, Harukyan, Rabutan and Kuumin. The song is your average mainstream catchy idol pop, but still cute enough to get me addicted.

    Type A will feature Team MINT, a unit featuring Acchan, Chiyuu, Moeno, Sakiko and Haachan. The unit was voted by the fans at the Ameba Pigg Unit Battle in late July. Their song is titled Kimi ni Tsuite and it's a ballad. Too slow for my liking but then I have only heard the LQ radio rip, maybe I will like it once the HQ is out. Acchan, Chiyuu and Moeno got solo lines, the distribution is like this: Acchan 50%, Chiyuu 40% and Moeno 10% of them. Sakiko and Haachan sang the backing vocals. Why am I not surprised.....

   Type B will have Nakeru Basho sung by DIVA. Member list below. The song is another ballad and the main girls are Sayaka, Yuka and Mocchi, with Sayaka as the center. The song is mostly solo lines except for the chorus, which is sung by half the girls while the other half dance. The song has some pretty strong vocals, and AKB48 Kenkyuusei Nakamata Shiori says its pretty bawlful.

More after the jump

SKE48 4th Single [1,2,3,4, Yoroshiku]

   Announced at SKE48's SKE48's Concert Tour Ase no Ryou wa Hanpa Janai! last Sunday, SKE48 will release their 4th Single on 17 November 2010. About time if you ask me. The Single, titled 1,2,3,4, Yoroshiku, will have a usual 3 versions: Type A, Type B, and Theater versions.

   The title song 1,2,3,4, Yoroshiku will revert back to 16nin Senbatsu. Senbatsu list below, whats interesting is that one of the members is recently auditioned 4th gen Kimoto Kanon. While it is not the first time SKE added Kenkyuuseis to Senbatsu (Kinoshita and Ogiso in Aozora Kataomoi), the 4th gen just finished auditions only few days ago. So I'm guessing that she really has some skills. Well lets see what shes made of. 1,2,3,4, Yoroshiku will be used as a tie-in song for Microsoft's XBox Kinect CMs starting November.

   The coupling song TWO ROSES will be sung by W Matsui. TWO ROSES will also be used as tie-ins XBox Kinect. The duo have formed a temporary unit called Kinect and have been appearing in CMs since 4 October (CM at bottom).

   Each version will have its own 3rd track, including the Theater ver. Type A will feature Cosmos no Kioku sung by 28nin White Team, Type B will feature Seishun wa Hazukashii sung by 29nin Red Team, and finally the Theater version will have Soba ni Isasete sung by all the members in SKE48 (except Matsushita Yui due to an injury she is still recovering from). Red Team and White Team....... Koukaku Uta Gassen?

   Also worth noting, 1,2,3,4, Yoroshiku will release on the same day as Morning Musume's 44th Single.



more after the jump