greg wrote:I saw a glimpse of an AKB48 manga once, but I didn't really see what was inside of it. I think I'd be more interested in seeing the IDOLM@STER manga.
My gripe with AKB is that there are too many singers. It's not a singing group; it's a popularity contest. With that many singers, there is no real soul to the music, resulting in shallow fluffiness. I thought Morning Musume had too many singers, but AKB really goes overboard. It's kinda like how Burger King of Japan came out with a burger that had about 10 meat patties. Sure, the sandwich tastes good, but with that much meat, it's too much to really appreciate. So in the end, AKB48 lacks personality as it tries to appeal to too many people at once. In my opinion, at least. Still, I'd rather my daughter listen to AKB than American oversexualized pop music.
It's the Akimoto Yasushi marketing that he did in the '80s with Onyanko Club but the main difference is they have a theater which the perform everyday in different parts of Japan and of course the tension each year with the Senbatsu tournaments.
But what he is doing is working because with the Japanese music industry only selling 40,000 CD singles, aside from the Johnny's groups, AKB48 has been quite a phenomenon as their last six singles have pretty much sold over a million copies. But part of the reason for the high sales is because they release like five different versions of a CD, with each CD having a third different track but the DVD versions also having additional content. Sometimes documentaries are split up on each different CD. But the biggest drive for people to purchase is the limited editions come with handshaking event ticket, the regular editions come with a random photo (which are highly collectible and are expensive for collectors) and the regular normal CD version known as "Theater Edition", gives people a chance to go to theater and select a photo they can keep.
This benefits us in the USA or outside of Japan because a lot of these fans purchase so many versions just for the cards or handshake events that they sell the CD+DVD on eBay for 50%-75% off.
But pretty much for those who are not familiar with AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, etc. Focusing on AKB48, it's best to know that there are essentially three groups within AKB48. TEAM A - Which is more pop based, TEAM B - Which is more idol based and TEAM K - Which emphasizes more on dance.
As for the popularity contest, this is true. Once a year is the senbatsu elections in which determines who will be featured on the music singles, on television and magazines, who performs the coupling song and of course, those who do not rank, only get to perform at the theater.
Senbatsu elections are determined by fans in which people must buy a CD+DVD single which comes with a code to vote. In 2012, they allowed people in America and other countries to take part in the voting and with the growing popularity of the groups in other countries, there has been a fascination with AKB48 fans worldwide and thus the reason why on Japanese television they have been having these "Who are the ultimate AKB48 fans outside of Japan" or "Foreign AKB48 fans vs. Japanese AKB48" fan episodes.
But these senbatsu elections are also televised live in Japan and are stressful because it pretty much affects each members careers, whether or not they will stay in the group or quit if their popularity dwindles. Sometimes its sad to watch because some of these girls look as if they are going to collapse. Some girls go all out in promoting themselves with newspaper ads and posters and the election shows estimated projections from the initial startup, to the middle which allows a member to change their strategy if it doesn't work. But some girls desperately want that top 21 spot. Unfortunately, in 2012...they made it more difficult and now the top 12-15 are featured on CD singles and TV.
Check out Yui Yokoyama's video clip from 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... FM0UlvfuvQ
But one of the most intriguing senbatsu was when Amina Sato was voted into senbatsu in 2009 because it was unexpected (with English subtitles):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM7epxciWCc
Because people felt it was unfair that the Senbatsu election was "popularity" based, this led to a new kind of senbatsu which is the Janken Senbatsu which would give any AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48 member a chance to be featured in a major CD single, television and magazines. And in 2010 and 2012, two people who never get the spotlight were featured as the "center" of AKB48.
The top 16 of those who quality for Janken senbatsu will be featured on the "High Pressure" CD single coming out on December 5th. 2012 was interesting because it was televised live on Japanese television and even showed people at bars crowding around watching the tournament. But for those wonder what the tournament looks like, here is a video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbO2AoDZ ... re=related
And of course, to heighten the popularity of AKB48 internationally, the folks of Pixar really give AKB48 good music time in their animated film "Wreck-It Ralph" (Some people at Pixar including Lasseter are big J-Pop fans and in "Cars 2" they featured the group Perfume but this time they featured AKB48's "Sugar Rush" in the film and the ending credits).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX9mr7VpkXw
