AKB48 Question & Answer

to be honest the link to 'hisser' sounds kinda tenuous, it's supposed to come from hoisting sails, which is plausible enough if it weren't for the fact that French influence on Japan was mainly for the army (for a short period that ended after the disastrous German-Franco war of 1870, after which the Japanese turned to the Germans) while for the navy after 1870 they turned to the British in stead of the Dutch.

from @rka's link:
The origin of “se-no”.
When the Meiji government made an army, it was modeled on European countries, but the Navy imitated France. When the sail of a sailing ship is stretched, the rope is pulled while saying “Isse, Ise”, but this is also taken as a navy term. It would have long been “Ise → Issey → Isseno → Se”.

one problem with this is ... this isn't the age of sail anymore, the Japanese got their first steamship for their navy from the Dutch, the Kanko Maru
and as stated previously the there seems to be not really much evidence the navy did model itself on the French
(and the Japanese knew how to sail and handle sails before even the Portuguese arrived ...)

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Imperial_Japanese_Navy
"In 1870, an Imperial decree determined that Britain's Royal Navy should be the model for development, instead of the Netherlands.[24]"
(although they did employ a French naval architect)
make from it what you will, as often with etymology we just might never know.
btw iirc... 'heave ho!' is what British sailors use ... Dutch sailors would just use 'één twee' as cadence, the rhythm/timing for all three is the same

 

Jisho shows せえの as the correct form, and gives せいの as irregular kana usage. It doesn't give the history, but gives the definition as

" all together now!; one, two, go!; ready, set, go!; heave, ho!; oops-a-daisy"

 

it's perfect for that, that's why in the army commands are often given in such a cadence as well e.g. attennnn-tion (or in dutch 'geeeeft ...acht!) ... first part a bit drawn out to give warning to get ready, latter part short i.e. execute the action now.

 

Germanic languages unite
I'm pretty sure the term might be just as archaic in Swedish as it is in Dutch, because it litterally means 'give attention' which in current use is just 'attentie'

 

ow ... I just saw the Rakugo with Miichan in AKBingo ... the moment the ducks are going to fly she goes "Hi no, Hu no' .... must be related

 

"On its first week, Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008 sold an almost identical 22,000 copies to its 2006 release, reaching the same #10 spot on the Oricon charts. However, as expected from a re-release, the single did not fare quite as well as the original, selling only 25,000 copies in total as opposed to the original’s 46,000 copies back when AKB48 was less popular.

With the release of its new single, DefStar Records initially planned for an exclusive AKB48 Spring Festival for those who managed to collect all a set of 44 posters (one for each member) given out randomly with purchases of the single at their theater. This lead to a large scandal questioning the label’s crazy gimmicks to increase sales. The idea was eventually scrapped by DefStar as it was in violation of the law.

To “take responsibility” and to avoid the bad publicity surrounding the event, AKB48 self published their next single Baby! Baby! Baby! as a digital download before shifting over to Kodansha’s King Records. They have stayed with the label ever since."

http://48seconds.blogspot.com/2013/02/sakura-no-hanabiratachi-2008.html