[GENERAL] The AKB48 Thread

I sort of remember something.
Where was it announced?

Wouldn’t be surprised if it was scrapped like the pennant race.

 

And Sakura's PB announced over a year ago.
Seriously management...

 

That I had no idea about lol

A PB should be a lot easier to do, so wtf

 

Maybe it was stopped due to P48

 

I saw MG 1-3 (One being my favorite, 2 was kinda lulzy, 3 was just ok).
I tried Mendol but it was too cheesy I think I got halfway through it.
I did see Densen Uta, what a weird movie. The premise wasn't bad but the execution was something else.
I loved the So Long dramas, especially the Jurina one but all of them were good!

I'll check out a few of the ones you guys mentioned, looks like Gomen ne Seishun has a lot of backers and Million Yen Woman sounds interesting. I like Yuuko as an actress so I'll be sure to check out some things she's acted in as well. Can anyone recommend Crow's Blood or was it kind of meh? Thanks a lot for the discussion

 

I actually really liked Crow's Blood. And I can say that it's not bias bc Sakura wasn't really my oshi back then. I think the members' acting were really good in there.

 

I started it. Combination of factors prevented me from getting past ep 2.

And I usually take three eps before judging a show.

 

Oh I recommend Zeni no Sensou (War of Money). It's actually a Japanese adaptation of the Korean drama with the same name. I haven't watched other dramas Yuko played in, but this one is quite nice.

 

^ Woah, 2010 is AKB's peak, single-wise.

 

It's maybe not what you're looking for but maybe you can also look up the episodes that they were on Run For Money!It think that show is interesting!

 

Oh, I'd second that. Run For Money was great. Interesting premise and some of the folks on it were really fast. Like Terminator 2 fast. Ursain bolt? Pah, try doing it in office shoes.

 

IDK every song since Love Trip has been really good imo. Sukinanda is just good but I'd prob love it if it was Mayuyu center. Actually I like most of their singles at the very least. Except for Tsubasa wa Iranai.

Maybe you should make a thread for this.

 

This was really nice. Made me go back and listen to songs and watch pv's I haven't heard or seen in years!

 

This is pretty interesting to think about and collect data on, so I entered my data on the doc. I can see my personal numbers are all over the place, trending slightly higher for singles of recent years than the very old ones. The only ones I rated a full 10 were Beginner, Everyday Kachuusha, Koi suru Fortune Cookie, Kimi wa Melody, and Negaigoto no mochigusare. At least 3 of those were created well outside of AKB's "golden age".

I don't think the songs have been generally getting worse. Instead, I would hypothesize that people feel differently about AKB's post-golden age singles for many reasons.

1. Lack of a static center. Of course many peoples' personal feelings on the songs are going to change based on who is featured in the song and especially who centers it. Back when Acchan was the only center (except for when Yuuko won the election of course), everyone could judge the songs equally because that was a factor that didn't change.
   
2. Dropping of the budget. Back when AKB was still trying to cement itself as Japan's premier national idol group, they had to put the money where their mouth was and AKS poured a lot of resources into long drama PVs, better costumes and sets, famous directors, etc. A good video set to a song naturally changes how people enjoy that song, with a really good video being able to influence this a lot. We see it most I think with Flying Get, Hebirote, Beginner, and also Joseph Khan's videos. This has changed though, and now the videos often seem slapped together at a moment's notice with cheap costumes and hardly any preparation. This doesn't go for all videos of course, but it's quite obvious that the same money isn't in the videos anymore, even in the A-sides.
   
3. Though this applies to B-sides instead of A-sides, if we're talking about the possible decline of fans liking AKB's recent catalog in general then we need to talk about this: Lack of strong team identity. Again back in the "golden age", the team identity tended to lend themes to team songs. Team A had the "cool" social commentary songs, Team K had the ballsy rock songs, and Team B got the cute idol songs. Again everyone knew what to expect - even the songs' creators. I would suspect this helped them make really good, iconic songs for the teams. Not so anymore, now any team could get any kind of song. I really felt this with Team A's awful Kiss made Countdown song. So deviant from their previous image.
   
4. Too many throwback songs. This is something a lot of people here have been complaining about and I don't blame them. Even if you like this style of "oldies" sound that we hear in the vast majority of recent AKB A-sides, not everyone can say the same. AKB's extremely heavy leaning towards that style of sound in the past few years might drive off a lot of people who would rather hear a more updated style of music or even just basic idol anthem songs that we used to get all the time from AKB. Yet just since Halloween Night in 2015, we've had Tsubasa wa Iranai, Shoot Sign, 11gatsu no Anklet and Jabaja as oldies tunes (you could probably argue Kimi wa Melody too but I won't here). That's 5 out of 11 singles, meaning almost half of the AKB singles in the past 3 years. I don't know how popular this style is in Japan but judging by this forum it's starting to grate on even the people who enjoy this stuff (including me).
   
5. Less iconic uses of songs & oversaturation. Anytime a group only has a few really amazing hit singles, those songs tend to ring a lot more triumphantly in concerts, in promotional media, and in the minds of fans. "Ah, this is the song that group is known for, and it's still so good". This was Oogoe Diamond, this was Ponytail, this was Flying Get. AKB of the current year has so many good songs, but some of them barely got any meaningful promotion, which means they're relegated to the B-list behind the iconic songs of yesteryear that the group thrived off of that everyone still can't forget because those songs were simply "right place, right time". And even if a song released post-golden age does get good promotion, it doesn't mean it's going to succeed in becoming an iconic song for the group. For example, Kimi wa Melody: despite its huge promotion with the fancy video, dragging the graduates back and being AKB's "anniversary song", in setlists it still sits behind songs like Hebirote and even more recently Koichun because AKB was never "known for" Kimi wa Melody. It doesn't help that the current trend is for AKB to churn out a single, perform it a couple times on a music show, then immediately move on to the next single, as if they expect the fans to all have ADHD and thus can't be bothered to pay attention once the song loses its newness. Do the handshakes, sell another single, lather rinse repeat. There's no time for these songs to stick, there's no love in the promotion of them anymore. The group's success and identity no longer hinges on the promotion of their own material so much, so why bother?
   
6. Less risky lyrics. Let's face it: when the group mainly catered to hardcore idol fans, the lyrics reflected things wotas were more likely to be interested in listening to. Actually interesting and realistic topics such as compensated dating, suicide, and other relatable life problems that one could probably actually see around Tokyo. Now songs like this are all shoved into B-sides, if they appear on singles at all, because AKB A-sides have to cater to the general public (and also because edgy is now Keyaki territory, but that is a topic for another discussion). What are the safest lyrics for the general public to consume? That would be two topics: love and partying. The only AKB A-sides that have deviated from those two topics since Yuuko left are: Bokutachi wa tatakawanai, Tsubasa wa iranai, Shoot Sign, and Negaigoto. Just four. Yet if you look at AKB's whole back catalog, there are many more topics being covered. Birthday, graduation, specific member songs, how to deal with life, etc. In short, the lyrics for A-sides have gotten boring to many people (including me). It's a direct result of AKB being popular enough that it doesn't need to target specific demographics with its songs so it just targets everyone at once with lukewarm, cookie cutter topics. Again, this is something that isn't popular on this forum, and I have no idea how the Japanese fans feel about it.

 

I got an idea. If they're looking for a new innovation how to make a segue, 2 songs that are paired & always performed together? Well, some rock & electronics bands & musicians have done this. Some examples:


if the video does not show watch the video here

if the video does not show watch the video here

if the video does not show watch the video here

if the video does not show watch the video here Heavier one.

Or they had done it since the beginning with Overture+any song?

 

filming for the new drama ?
http://akb48taimuzu.livedoor.biz/archives/53334615.html

 

Naru looks like Nezumi with that outfit

 

The title mentions Miion, Yuiyui, Rinrin, Naruchan, Mizuki (16th gen) and Yuihan. it might be for a new AKB drama?

 

A new mobile game "Arcana no himitsu" is coming soon
https://akb48-arcana.jp/

if the video does not show watch the video here