AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election - Seiken Housou

AKB48 has created a YouTube channel with the "Seiken Housou" videos of all the candidates for the AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election. "Seiken Housou" in English is "broadcast of political views". A more understandable explanation would be "campaign video". Link: http://www.youtube.com/AKB48SEIKENHOSO There are videos of each and all of the 152 members participating, nicely separated into Teams. Each member is given approximately 1 minute to promote themselves. Remember to vote for the members you support! Voting will start on 24 May 2011, and will last until 8 June 2011. Voting tickets...

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SKE48 Concert [SKE48 ni, Ima, Dekiru koto]

SKE48 Concert [SKE48 ni, Ima, Dekiru koto] SKE48 コンサート [SKE48に、今、できること] [What SKE48 can do now] SKE48 only 29 April 2011 (Friday) Location: Zepp Nagoya 1st concert:  13:00 Start 2nd concert: 18:00 Start 2 May 2011 (Monday) Location: Akasaka BLITZ Doors open: 18:00 Start Tickets are priced at 5,800yen SKE48 will hold 3 solo performaces 2 at Zepp Nagoya on 29 April and one at Akasaka BLITZ on 2 May. Expecting some announcements, maybe the long overdue announcement of Team KII 3rd Sta...

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AKB48 Concert [Minogashita Kimitachi e]

From 24 May to 12 June 2011, AKB48 along with SKE48, SDN48: and NMB48 will be performing at the Tokyo Dome City Hall (formerly called JCB Hall). But this isn't like any concert before, this is a revival concert. For 18 days (no performance on 9 June), AKB48 or their sister groups will be reviving one of their past or current stages, one per day. AKB48 Concert [Minogashita Kimitachi e] ~AKB48 Group Zenkouen~ AKB48コンサート「見逃した君たちへ」 ～AKB48グループ全公演～ [For those of you who missed it] ~AKB48 Group All Setlists~ AKB48 with SKE48, SDN48:, NMB48 Date: 24 May to 12 June 2011 Location: Tokyo Dome City Hall (formerly JCB Hall) Tickets are priced at 3,000yen *lottery May 24: Team K 5th Stage [Saka Agari] Team A: Kuramochi Asuka, Matsubara Natsumi, Katayama Haruka Team K: Akimoto Sayaka, Umeda Ayaka,...

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NMB48 announces 2nd Stage [Seishun Girls]

On April 21, NMB48 announced their second stage show on the official website. Starting May 19, NMB48 will perform Seishun Girls, the 2nd stage of Team K. The stage show was originally performed by Team K from July to November 2006 and later remade by Team B as their first stage. Further details about the NMB48 version of this stage will be announced later. Personally I am excited about this news because I really like Seishun Girls. Also this announcement might bring us a step nearer to a DVD release of the 1st stage. Concerning the positions in the unit songs I think we should watch out who gets to be in Kinjirareta Futari and Blue Rose, both frequently performed songs in AKB48`s past....

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AKB48 21st Single [Everyday, Kachuusha] full member arrangements and covers

A side note before I start: For those of you wondering why I haven't blogged about Acchan's solo Single announcement, that announcement was unofficial from a Chinese/Korean site. I'll wait for something more solid from AKB48 themselves before posting it. A few days ago, AKB48 released the Senbatsu lineup for their upcoming 21st Single Everyday Kachuusha. This time they have released the full member arrangements as well as the Single covers! As expected, the covers are full of the girls in bikinis, just like Ponytail to Shushu the same period last year. Well 10 of the girls at least (including...

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AKB48 profile pictures updated

AKB48 finally updated their profile pictures on their official site today. The old ones were getting pretty outdated since most of the girls have since changed their hairstyle. Most of the profile pictures are much better this time round, due to better photography. The last time around the photographer didn't work with the stylist enough to get the girls to look their best and some ended up looking far worse than they actually were. For some reason, the girls as a whole appear more tan-skinned this time. There is some photoshop work done to the eyes, to make them shine and essentially make...

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AKB48 21st Single [Everyday, Kachuusha] Senbatsu members

AKB48 just revealed the senbatsu list for their upcoming 21st Single Everyday Kachuusha. Without further ado, here is the list: Team A: Oota Aika, Kojima Haruna, Kuramochi Asuka, Sashihara Rino, Shinoda Mariko, Takajo Aki, Takahashi Minami, Maeda Atsuko Team K: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Yuko, Kikuchi Ayaka, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae, Yokoyama Yui Team B: Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Komori Mika, Sato Sumire, Masuda Yuka, Miyazaki Miho, Watanabe Mayu SKE Team S: Matsui Jurina, Matsui Rena NMB Team N: Yamamoto Sayaka, Watanabe Miyuki Surprise surprise, a 26 member Senbatsu. That's their biggest in a long time. And with more slots open it means more girls now have their chance to shine! Those lucky girls are Oota, Mocchi, Ayarin, Yui, Komorin, Suuchan, Yuka, Myao, Yamamoto and...

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Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 announces new single

Ogi Pro strikes again. Just when we thought we'd have seen the last of Watarirouka Hashiritai as a 7-member group.A 2nd single under the name Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 has been announced, and it is called Mamma, Grazie!. It's in Italian and means "Thank you, Mother". Yes, you read that right. Once again, it is a song for another special day. Previously there was Valentine Kiss for...(what else?) Valentine's Day. Now, this new song is to be a theme for Mother's Day. A fairly interesting song title to say the least, probably to distinguish itself from the other Mother's Day songs out there. This...

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DiVA Debut Single [Tsuki no Uragawa]

Recently-formed AKB48 unit DiVA is made up of Akimoto Sayaka, Miyazawa Sae, Umeda Ayaka and Masuda Yuka, all of them under the Office48 agency. Their debut single is titled Tsuki no Uragawa and comes in limited and regular editions of 3 types as well as a theater edition, with a total of 7 different covers. As is the recent AKB48 unit trend, each type will include an exclusive b-side. Type A's is called Fade out and Type B's is called Information, which is produced by famous composer Komuro Tetsuya. Type C will include DiVA's version of Blue Rose from AKB48 Team K 2nd Stage [Seishun Girls]. As additional promotion of the single, DiVA will head to Shanghai to hold a small live event at Kobe Collection 2011 on 16th April. Sae and Sayaka will also participate as models in the event. Initially...

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AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election - Additional information

Additional information about the AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election has been released on the Official Blog. Voting will start on 24 May 2011, and will last until 8 June 2011. The Single itself will not be released until August. Voting tickets are included all copies, except theater, of AKB48's 21st Single Everyday, Kachuusha. A whooping total of 152 members from AKB48, SKE48 and NMB48 will take part in the 3rd Senbatsu General Elections. However there are only 40 available slots; 21 Senbatsu and 19 Undergirls. Doubt that the Senbatsu girls will have a major change from last year so the ones to look out for are the Undergirls. Oh and of course not forgetting the throne, lets see if Acchan can take it back from Yuko, or will another person steal it? Tomochin maybe? Like the previous years,...

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SKE48 Team S 3rd Stage [Seifuku no Me] Shuffled Review

Hey it's sada once again. I'm here with SKE48's S3 but it's the shuffled version. Ooh exciting isn't it? I can't wait to watch. I'll try to make my review easier to read this time as well.I haven't even seen the units for the shuffled stage yet. I am watching the 110206 Hiru Kouen. My Team S oshi is Kuwabara Mizuki. I hope she gets an interesting unit. Have I mentioned I love S3? Because I do. I think it has an amazing set of songs. Note that I haven't seen the list for shuffle members before this LOD. SKE48 Team S 3rd Stage [Seifuku no Me] No.RomajiJapaneseTranslationSingers OPOverture (SKE48 ver.)--- M01Koi wo Kataru Shijin ni Narenakute恋を語る詩人になれなくてI Can't Become a Poet Who Speaks about LoveTeam S M02Goukaku Kiss合格KissPassing KissTeam S M03Antennaアンテナ-Team S M04Seifuku no Me制服の芽A Sprout...

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AKB48 Drama [Sakura kara no Tegami] Episode 5-10

Continuing the review as from before~It's pretty long so everything is under the c...

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NMB48 to become radio hosts

As announced recently, NMB48 will become radio hosts, appearing in three radio shows. First of all the girls will get their own weekly radio show called NMB48 Gakuen~Oshiete Chidori-sensei~ on ABC Radio. A number of girls, changing every week, will appear together with the comedy duo Chidori. The show will start on 9 April and will be broadcasted every Saturday at 22:00. Apart from their own show, NMB48 also gets regular corners in two different radio shows. Since April 4th they appeared in the show Atsumare! MUSIC COASTER on FM Osaka, broadcasted every day from Monday to Thursday 18:00 ~ 20:00. Official Website: http://fmosaka.net/ncf_timetable.html From today, April 6th on, they will also get the corner NMB48 Magical Music in the show Utagumi which will be broadcasted on MBS radio every...

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Team YJ7 vs Team YM7

I'm sure many fans would remember that around the time of early last year, there was a unit battle between Team YJ (Weekly Young Jump magazine) and Team PB (Weekly Playboy magazine).This event constituted many spreads in their respective magazines in order to push its own team, a song and PV given to each team which was included in the Sakura no Shiori single, and fans voting to determine the winner. Eventually Team PB came out tops and got on the cover of both Weekly Playboy and Weekly Young Jump. This year, a similar event is being held.This time, the opposing magazines no longer include Weekly...

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AKB48 21st Single [Everyday, Kachuusha] Tracklist revealed

The title for AKB48's 21st Single has been revealed to be [Everyday, Kachuusha] (Ｅｖｅｒｙｄａｙ、カチューシャ). As previously announced, the Single will be released on 25 May 2011 with a total of 3 different versions. Voting tickets are included inside for the 3rd Senbatsu Election. The translation for "Kachuusha" is quite strange. Entries for "Kachuusha" in Japanese dictionaries reveal these results: cloth band worn around hair - named after a character in Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" Katyusha rocket launcher (Soviet) ... which obviously don't make any sense, unless AKB is planning to make the single...

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New format for AKB48 Theater shows

     Throughout the past few years, as AKB48 got more and more famous, they found it increasingly difficult to stick to their concept of "Idols you can meet". AKB48's home is the 250-seat AKB48 Theater, where they hold almost-daily shows. However, as their fanbase grew bigger, winning tickets for the shows grew harder. When once a lucky fan could win shows every week or two, now the duration is once every month or two, or more. And that includes SDN48 and Kenkyuusei shows too!      Not only that. While it is true that they perform almost daily, many do not appear at the theater as much as before because of AKB48's growth in popularity leading to increased appearances on TV and radio . So most of the shows now are, in fact, Kenkyuusei shows...

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Ojarumaru Sisters Single [Hatsukoi wa Minoranai]

Once again, the AKB48 family will provide an ending theme to an anime (children's anime, but still). Titled [Hatsukoi wa Minoranai] (初恋は実らない) (translation: First Love is Fruitless), the new AKB48 unit Ojarumaru Sisters will sing the theme song for the 14th season of NHK channel's Ojarumaru. The single is slated for release on 13 April 2011. What's interesting about this probably-one-off unit is that it is comprised entirely of AKB48 Kenkyuuseis, including all of the 9th generation and 10th generation. Although the whole of 9th gen and Nakamata Shiori from 10th gen have been promoted, they still...

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SKE48's New TV Shows

SKE48 has a couple of new shows. Hiru made Matenai! (昼まで待てない！) Hosts: Kawashima Akira, Tamura Hiroshi Channel: Nagoya TV Schedule: Weekly every Saturday Timing: 10:55am ~11:45am Official Website:  http://www.nagoyatv.com/matenai/ Starts: 2 April 2011 SKE48 no Aichiteru! (SKE48のあいちテル！) Hosts: SKE48 Channel: Tokai TV Schedule: Weekly every Saturday Timing: 17:26PM ~17:31PM Official Website: http://tokai-tv.com/culture/20060601_infomation_8176.php Starts:  2 April 2011 Every episode one member of SKE48 will report on a local event or place in Aichi. ItteKoi48 SKE48 no...

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AKB48 21st Single and 3rd Senbatsu General Election

AKB48 will release their 21st Single (title unknown as of yet) on 25 May 2011. The Single will come in a total of 3 different versions, including the Theater version. Included inside the single are voting tickets for, you guessed it, the AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election. Not much else is known of the Single as of yet, and further details will be announced later. They will donate a part of earnings of this Single for the earthquake relief. The AKB48 3rd Senbatsu General Election will be for the still unannounced 22nd Single. The Senbatsu Elections is an annual event started in 2009 with Namida Surprise, where fans get to vote for who they would want to get into the Senbatsu (for that Single alone). It is essentially a popularity contest, or as I would say, "Whose fans got the...

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