Janken Tournament

During the 3rd day of the Surprise wa Arimasen concert, it was announced by Togasaki Tomonobu that the Senbatsu Members for AKB48's 19th Single were going to be selected by a Janken Tournament (also known as Janken Taikai) (シングル選抜じゃんけん大会) to be held at Nippon Budoukan. All the 48 Members from AKB48 and 4 previously-selected Kenkyusei were randomly shuffled during the concert to decide the order of the matches. The winner of the Tournament would become the center of the single.

Members

• 19th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament - All promoted AKB48 members and 4 Kenkyuuseis
• 24th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament - All promoted AKB48 members, 4 Kenkyuuseis, 5 SKE48 members, 5 NMB48 members
• 29th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament - All promoted AKB48 members, 1 Kenkyuusei, 8 SKE48 members, 6 NMB48 members, 3 HKT48 members
• 34th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament - All promoted AKB48 members, 4 Kenkyuuseis, 8 SKE48 members, 8 NMB48 members, 3 HKT48 members

Results

• 19th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament
  • Uchida Mayumi's first center single
  • First senbatsu of Sato Sumire, Maeda Ami, Uchida Mayumi, Tanabe Miku, Nakatsuka Tomomi, Matsui Sakiko, Ishida Haruka and Chikano Rina
  • First senbatsu without Takahashi Minami and Itano Tomomi
• 24th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament
  • Shinoda Mariko's first center single
  • First senbatsu of Oya Shizuka, Yamauchi Suzuran, Kobayashi Marina, Kuwabara Mizuki, Yamaguchi Yuuki and Hikawa Ayame
  • First senbatsu without Maeda Atsuko
• 29th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament
  • Shimazaki Haruka's first center single
  • First senbatsu of Nakata Chisato, Nakamura Mariko and Ueno Kasumi
  • First senbatsu without Kojima Haruna

Costumes

For the costumes, the girls were permitted to wear whatever they wanted. This later became an important part of the event, with several TV shows and magazines specials focusing only on the costumes used on the events. This costumes vary from clothes used on theater performances to regular clothing and cosplay.

Trivia

• 19th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament
  • Masuda Yuka wore MARIA's costume (Unit which she leads)
  • Oshima Yuko wore Heavy Rotation's costume, which she is the center
  • Shinoda Mariko admitted in a broadcast that, since the management told her about the tournament date at short notice, she just used what she was wearing that day

Mini-Live Concert

On 19th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament the mini-live concert was performed after the Tournament, with the first performance and PV exhibition of Beginner (and also 5 other songs from AKB48 and SDN48). This also happened on the 24th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament, this time before the beginning of the tournament, with the first performance of Kaze wa Fuiteiru. On 29th Single Janken Senbatsu Tournament UZA was performed for the first time.