Yuuka graduates again

The pictures are out there, and whoever wants to see them has probably already seen them. Or at least, they know where to look. But they spell out the truth as clear as day: Yuuka Maeda, formerly of S/mileage, has really, truly, returned to being a normal girl.

Who SHE?

March is, after all, graduation season in Japan, and if I remember my school regulations correctly, whoever turns 18 before April 1st of the current year is graduating from high school. So Ayaka Wada (turned 18 on August 1 of last year) is graduating. Kanon Fukuda (turns 18 on March 12 of this year) is graduating. And Yuuka, who already “graduated” once from S/mileage in the heartbreaking shocker of my lifetime, will also … be graduating from high school.

That’s 3/4ths of original S/mileage. Kind of a surprising reminder of how close in age they are.

Delicious Juice Project: Karin and the Karin-ettes get a group name

Is the new Hello! Project Kenshuusei unit the Next S/mileage? No, they’re Juice=Juice. That’s the news that came out today (yesterday) as six freshly squeezed lolis sat in front of a video screen and watched Tsunku’s pre-recorded announcement. The next great hope to come out of Hello!Pro trainee system will most likely be fronted by Karin “Demon Eyes” Miyamoto (who’s already done a solo UTB photoshoot in the past) and Sayuki “Hamster Cheeks” Takagi, plus Yuka “Droopy Face” Miyazaki playing a key support role, seeing as she’s been getting promoted like crazy on Hello! Satoyama Life. (To be fair, she’s the newcomer who won the Satoyama “Forest Award” audition, so that’s pretty much what she’s here for.)

Running down the full roster in order, we have (starting at upper left):

Hmm yummy!

Akari Uemura (image color/fruit: melon)
Yuka Miyazaki (image color/fruit: peach)
Sayuki Takagi (image color/fruit: FRESH LEMON NI NARITAI …. no. just lemon.)
Karin Miyamoto finally has a damn unit so all her fans can stop complaining now (image color/fruit: grape)
Aina Ohtsuka (image color/fruit: orange)
Tomoko Kanazawa (image color/fruit: apple)

Shaved Heads, Inscrutable Orientals, and the Loli Law

The storm has subsided. The locusts have moved on. The Minegishi video is being taken down, according to a new posting from AKB48 general manager Tomonobu Togasaki. But not for the reasons one may have expected. This resolution is one that rings hollow at best.

Over the last day-and-a-bit, international reaction to the video grew to a level where there was a netwide campaign to flag the video and have it taken off YouTube. I don’t know how many flags it takes to set off the alarms in YouTubeland, but if a rageful Tumblr post with several thousand notes says anything, then AKB48′s webguys probably found themselves with a pretty big pile of Notifications in the morning.

Approximate portrayal of international reaction to Minami Minegishi’s apology video. (Source)

HOWEVER, read the translated message carefully. According to Togasaki’s statement, “I have received many requests from the fans saying ‘We have fully understood Miichan’s sincerity, and so we would like for the video on YouTube to be taken down.’” It’s as if he doesn’t even realize how angry people were—including much of the Japanese public, who said “That’s just going too far”—or has blinded himself to it and is responding with a canned, cold statement.

Basically, sorry AKB’s not sorry.

Stand By Miichan

EDIT II: Video gets taken down. My reaction & analysis to this turn of events.

EDIT: After ~doin’ mah research~ I took note of Togasaki’s Q&A piece, stating that Minegishi showed up to film her video apology already shaved, much to the surprise of the staff. So, whether the tinfoilhatters still wanna believe she was “forced to do it,” I dunevenknow man.

Oh, and now Perez Hilton’s brand of yellow journalism has picked up on this story. I think we’re just going to have to keep watching as it develops.

I think Miichan is kind of a genius for pulling such a shocking, theatrical stunt—her scandal has gone viral in ways that no other AKB member’s ever has. If this is her scheming way of getting a little extra “screen time,” of flashing her rebellious side by showing up The Management, I’m impressed that she can still play the media-manipulation game even in a state of distress.

* * *

I am surprisingly calm.

Maybe part of me was just waiting for this to happen. “Get into Jpop,” they said. “Idols are cute and fun!” they said. “THEN THEY’LL TAKE AWAY ALL YOUR FAVORITES,” they didn’t said. So I’ve just been waiting all these years, waiting until they ‘got’ Miichan, because you don’t get to be as big as AKB48 without having a giant target painted on your back for the gossipmongers to take aim at. And with all the shots they’d been taking recently—Nacchan, Rumifu, Sasshi, the HKT quintet, Yuttan, Chiyuu—I was quietly dreading the day some of those rounds would hit MY oshi.

And then it came, and I had no tears or despair or outrage left to spare. Just blank, void … nothingness. It’s something so unjust, so illogical, so evil, that I have no feelings to feel about the situation. And no, I’m not going to watch the video. I don’t think I ever will. Why contribute even ONE pageview to an act of shame that will just disturb me really badly?

STAND UP FOR LIBERTY, MIICHAN.

ONE Storyline From the Finale of AKB48 Request Hour

No one was ever quite sure where they belonged.

They came at a time when AKB48 was already a Big Thing, a time when you could ask random people on the street and they kinda-sorta knew about the group, a time when all the teams had been filled and the trainees from the last few auditions had been promoted. So now you had a bunch of girls who were looking for an opportunity, but had no place to slot themselves in.

They’re even cuter in 2D! (Source)

As they grew to a reasonable number, they were rounded up into Team Kenkyuusei, which technically meant they were available for performances but didn’t have a set structure the way the “letter” teams (A, K, and B) did. Instead they were more of an amorphous blob, shifting in size and shape depending on the immediate needs of the AKB Theater: their main role, it seemed, was to substitute for members who were absent from the regular teams on performance days. I confess, I didn’t really follow them back then, because how do you root for an amorphous blob? Why get attached to someone whose future was a giant question mark?