I got screwed out of AKB48 autographs … during the session after the concert.
There was a mad dash to get to the autographs room on Thursday night and, let’s just say, I got out of the Nokia Theatre too slowly and took the long way around.
So, realizing my mistake, I reminded myself for Friday: you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat a bunch of stupid ass wotas.
Left: the last page of Sakura no Shiori. Right: the greatest AKB48 autograph collection of THE FOREVER.
This is not something I say lightly.
This morning, as a stupid ass member of the press, I ran into one of AKB48′s cameramen — an official media guy who is “in” with AKB management and is tasked with covering the group. He had been in the hotel suite during my interview, and had spoken with me briefly before I carried out my business. Since I was wearing the same outfit as the previous day, he recognized me immediately.
So he says … “Hey, you know, that interview yesterday? The girls wouldn’t stop talking about you.”
This ACTUALLY happened.
I guess it’s true … you never forget your first time. But, try as you might, you can never quite re-capture the moment.
Anime Expo’s interview sessions went a lot stricter than NYAF’s, and when they say “you get 15 minutes” they mean you get 15 minutes, including time to set up cameras and everything. This means that in reality I had maybe 7-10 actual good minutes of interviewage, which is not a lot and bascially leaves you with the journalistic equivalent of one of those puff pieces on the Oricon website.
So, if you must ask: No, my second interview with AKB48 was not as epic as the first time I met them.
What does the reshuffling of AKB48′s Teams portend for the rest of humankind? Will the seas run red with blood, will the great Leviathan rise from the depths, will the awful horror reign for 1290 days? (For comparison purposes, remember that George W. Bush was President of the United States for 2922 days.) Has the downfall of Japanese civilization, marked by declining population growth and two decades of economic malaise, entered its final stages?
Wow, it's like Excel is finally useful for something.
If there is one thing I have learned from working at a major Japanese corporation (albeit its US division), it is that they love to make managerial moves for the sake of making managerial moves. Not that this accomplishes anything, but it sure looks like you’re “doing something” when people get shuffled around. Of course, plenty of other corporations around the world also do this, but it is Japan that has raised these corporate shenanigans to the level of art, where you can be Product Manager one month and then suddenly be moved to Engineering Manager (even if the last time you “engineered” something was for a senior year college project) and if they really don’t like you, you get exiled to Sales.
What I see right now is a lot of idols being exiled to Sales.
Who put them there? Yasushi Akimoto, you think? Of course not! When a paradigm shift of this magnitude occurs, it can only be the invisible blue hand of INBOU.
INBOU
