The blog to show my love for and anything related to the AKB48 Group, old and new. I am currently a DD, but my favorites are Akimoto Sayaka and Team K. I post anything related to things I like, things I find on the web that aren't mine unless mentioned. I am a fan of: anime, jdrama, kdrama, jpop, kpop, movies, manga, asian variety shows, fanfiction and much more.
AKB48 2nd gen 20th Anniversary Stage Event has been announced!
Yes it's official! On April 27, there'll be not one but two performances by our 2nd gen ladies.
Appearing members:
Akimoto Sayaka
Imai Yu
Oshima Yuko
Ohori Megumi
Kasai Tomomi
Kobayashi Kana
Sato Natsuki
Takada Ayana
Noro Kayo (unfortunately she'll only appear in the evening performance)
Masuda Yuka
Matsubara Natsumi
Miyazawa Sae
Too bad 12 out of the original 16 members appearing. (I'm surprised that Ume-chan won't be appearing and sad that Erepyon, Maachan and Kaorin are not showing up again.) But I'm happy to know my favorites will be appearing (my fav Sayaka and the Shinyuu Trio.)
I wonder if they'll have special surprise guests again like last time.
But wow. This will be the first time we see Yu perform with Team K since her guest appearance in Request Hour 2009. It'll be funny if she and Nacchi did a comedy act as NY during MC just like old times.
Hard to believe most of them have already gotten married and are mothers now. Where did the time go? I'm looking forward to see what the setlist will look like this year.
After what feels like a LONG time for me, we see the Shinyuu Trio together!
Sae is currently holding her 1st ever live and she received surprise guests in the form of her buddies Sayaka and Yuko, who brought a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday, and Tomochin.
I hope they'll do something fun in the 20th anniversary Budokan concert in December.
By the way, also seen below are photos of Sae's reaction when Sayaka and Yuko came on stage.
My Thoughts on the Graduated Members invites from the General Managers Meeting Stream
Of course when I saw the video on AKB's X page announcing the livestream where the soukantokus will gather and invite graduated members for the 20th anniversary Budokan concert, I just had to watch and see who they're gonna invite. I luv how several graduates and viewers commented that the four looked like they are students studying for exams with those headbands.
So the following list before are the graduates who were called by the four general managers and accepted the invites to appear.
Takahashi Minami - It should be a no brainer that she'd get the first invite to appear as seen in the X video announcing the stream. The part where she's enjoying some pizza was so funny. There were comments saying that while all 4 general managers looked like studying for exams, Takamina was the one who looked like it the most. XD
Yokoyama Yui - Again, no duh she has to appear seeing how she's already present for this soukantoku gathering. (What's funny is that Yuihan kinda almost gave away the names of who she was calling twice.) She must've been quite hungry that night. She's been eating alot throughout the stream.
Maeda Atsuko - Of course Acchan would be the 1st person Takamina calls. She's the legendary ace and fellow 1st gen. So of course she has to appear in this 20th anniversary. For a moment I thought she sounded unsure if she would appear (well given that she's still active in her acting career I was worried she'd be too busy).
Sashihara Rino - The center who I describe as 'the unexpected underdog center that rose to the top'. I think she may also be somewhat a representative of HKT considering her time and leadership role in the group.
Oya Shizuka - How nice of them to mention and invite Shiichan. For those that don't know, though Shiichan isn't as well known as the senbatsu members, as Takamina and the others mentioned, she's a mood-maker who will liven things up. She's also quite funny as seen in past AKB variety shows and sketches.
Kojima Haruna - I knew it was obvious Takamina would call Nyan-Nyan somewhere in this stream. I mean she's wearing the happi coat from Kojiharu's 'Kojimatsuri' graduation concert. While the call was happening Kojiharu even took the moment to check out the livestream (like me, she had no idea AKB had a sub-channel on youtube). She almost gave the impression that she might not appear.
Minegishi Minami - Naturally after Kojiharu it should be expected Takamina would call Miichan. For those that don't know, when Takamina shouts "No3bs complete!", she's referring to her subunit No3bs/No Sleeves which includes herself, Kojiharu and Miichan. I wonder if they'll do a No3bs song at the concert?
Kashiwagi Yuki - Obviously they have to have another of the former Kami 7 members appear, and someone representing 3rd gen. (Yukirin says she was about to take a bath when they called her, so she's currently half naked XD).
Kuramochi Asuka - It's been ages since I last saw Mocchi! I wonder since graduating who her current top 'ears' are. (She has an ear fetish for those that don't know and loves biting members' ears). Last I heard she is pursuing work as a sportscaster and multitalent.
Takajo Aki - As Yukirin and Mocchi were called, it'd made sense that they'd mention Akicha next. With this, French Kiss is confirmed to appear! (French Kiss is another subunit featuring the mentioned three.) Now we got a representative of JKT.
Akimoto Sayaka - HOORAY! I was waiting for them to call Sayaka. She too was watching the stream. In fact, Takamina mentioned she saw Sayaka's X post. the one which she refers to the stream announcement vid. She wrote that she wondered "what kind of starting bell will ring?" (a reference to Team K song Saishuu Bell ga Naru/Last Bell Will Ring.) Knowing Takamina's friendship with Sayaka (plus interesting that the other 3 general managers were Team K members at one point), they just had to invite Sayaka. Sayaka though first thought it was going to be senbatsu graduates who will get called and asked if it was okay for her to appear despite not being a senbatsu regular. Of course it's okay for you to appear Sayaka! (I didn't recognize Sayaka's voice at first to be honest so I was surprised.)
Miyazawa Sae - I was hoping Sae would be next to be called. Yuihan already confirmed my guess when she mentions she's currently co-starring in a drama with her (10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40; Sae and Yuihan play the older twin sisters of one of the main characters with Yuihan as the older twin and Sae as the younger twin. Pretty amusing since Sae's older than Yuihan), and how she accidentally blurted out Sae's name. But what's cute is that right after she says she'll accept the invite, Sae asks the four if Sayaka will appear as well, to which they confirmed she answered yes. Of course when you invite Twin Tower Ichigo/#1, you have to invite Twin Tower Nigo/#2. (Back in the early years of AKB, Sayaka and Sae already were nicknamed the Twin Towers. But there was a time they used to use Twin Tower Ichigo (Sayaka) and Twin Tower Nigo (Sae) as part of their introduction.)
Okabe Rin - Nice to have former Team 8 members included in this live. I could be hearing or misinterpreting wrong, but I think they're suggesting they should gather all 47 Team 8 members to perform at the concert.
Kitahara Rie - I had expected they'd call Kitarie after calling Sasshi and others from the 4th-5th gens. I guess she'll be like also representing NGT too in a way.
Nishino Miki - Yay! Another member from the later gens. I forgot how Miki's voice sounds when she's not screaming or being a scaredy cat. She checked the stream during the call. As Mion mentioned, I'm sure everyone would love to see Miki's iconic "full-power dancing" once more. Unfortunately they cut her off at the end due to the time limit.
Shinoda Mariko - Why wouldn't they invite Ue kara Mariko-sama? She sounded pretty busy on her end (my guess is either work or maybe taking care of her daughter) so she had to end the call short after accepting the invite. I kinda expected her to make a joke or do a gag like she does in the past (for example during Takamina's graduation stage at the AKB theater years back, Mariko couldn't appear due to work but they had a phone call with her during an MC portion and want her to introduce the next song. However Mariko jokingly says Ue-kara Mariko instead of the actual song.). I have watched some of Mariko's vids on her youtube channel and they were enjoyable. One recent vid I saw was when she bought a ticket for a 2 shot event, attending as a fan and surprising both members and fans. It was so interesting her experiencing this event in a fan's shoes.
Matsui Jurina - Jurina! How long has it been since I last heard her? I hope she still intends to continue with an acting career but I haven't seen her in other works since she graduated. As mentioned in the stream, she will have her 2nd photobook released on September 9th. She has been a regular senbatsu for AKB ever since her start in SKE. Of course they'd have to invite her to appear.
Yamamoto Sayaka - Sayanee! Again Yuihan let the name slip before letting her introduce herself. Aside from her successful works as a singer, last thing I heard was she had her first collab with anime by singing the ending theme for An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride last year, something she had wanted to do for a long time. Nice to have one of the NMB aces and senbatsu regular appear. (Yuihan is heard inviting Sayanee to go watch a baseball game together
Watanabe Miyuki - Another popular member I haven't seen or heard since her graduation. She too was watching the stream. But with Milky participating we have SayaMilky appearing! (For those that don't know, SayaMilky is not only the name fans refer the Yamamoto Sayaka and Watanabe Miyuki pair as, but it was also their manzai duo name back in the days of NMB48 Geinin). I hope the two will do a manzai act once more during the MC, I miss their funny interactions.
Itano Tomomi - With Tomochin, the 1st gen senbatsu is complete! In her message, Tomochin says she's now training and dieting, probably to get in shape for the concert. One interesting thing I heard from Tomo's youtube channel is that she once went undercover as a fan to a Boku ga Mitakatta Aozora (Nogizaka's rival group) event.
Oshima Yuko - Why would they not invite the 2nd legendary ace of the group? That jokester, fooling us from the start and Takamina's timing reading the message. Her message sounded like "I'm sorry I have to decline...What kind of person would say that?! Let's all have fun celebrating!!" With that, Not yet is complete (the subunit Not yet includes Yuko, Yuihan, Kitarie and Sasshi)! After Sayaka and Sae accepted the call, I so want to see the Shinyuu Trio again.
Noro Kayo - I was curious who'd they call last when they mentioned this is the last person they'll call. As soon as the certain graduate answered and introduced herself as "Maeda Atsuko" and then "Kojima Haruna" who were obviously already contacted, I knew it was Nontii, our favorite comedy queen. Just like her buddy Yuko, she's such a jokester. She even says "Takamina congrats on your marriage." but as we know that's old news, Takamina got married in 2019. Back in 2021 I still remember how amazing she was when she was a surprise guest dancing Nemohamo Rumor (probably what I believe to be one of AKB's toughest, extreme dances) with the current members on FNS Kayousai. Despite her age, she was able to dance it magnificently. (Hard to believe she's 41 now. Wow how time flies.)
There were other members that the four general managers planned to call but they ran out of time for the stream or there were time conflicts on the graduates' ends. But I believe it's mentioned that they'll still try and contact more graduate members, which made me happy to hear.
For me, members I definitely hope they'll ask and hopefully appear that were not mentioned in the stream would include definitely more 2nd gen members, Paruru (I mean to me she was like the 2nd Maeda Atsuko), Matsui Sakiko (so to hear her piano playing again), Okada Nana&Kojima Mako (so we'd have our Three Musketeers w/Miki), members of NO NAME from the anime AKB0048 (Iwata Karen, Sato Amina, Nakaya Sayaka, Yagami Kumi, Hata Sawako, Mita Mao, Ishida Haruka, Sato Sumire), the other members of Tentoumu Chu (aside from Miki, Mako and Nana, there's Kitagawa Ryoha, Shibuya Nagisa, Tomonaga Mio and Tashima Meru), Miyawaki Sakura or Kodama Haruka (both were HKT centers and AKB members at one time). Since we have No3bs, Not yet and French Kiss gathering, can we also invite Masuda Yuka and Umeda Ayaka so we can have DIVA too? And what about the Watarirouka Hashiritai members? And let's be honest, who wouldn't want to see Fresh Lemon Ichikawa Miori again? XD
And I know she retired from entertainment, but I so want Mayuyu to appear.
I could go on listing which graduated members I want to see or what songs or unit songs or shuffle units I want to see in the Budokan concert, but that'll make this post too long.
But still, I'm happy to hear the members that were called to say they'll be appearing. This is will be one heck of a concert. The group will have a lot to think about regarding the setlist. Good luck to them, cause they'll be a LOT of options, units and songs to choose from.
I meant to post this earlier but it slipped out of my head. XP
Several months back in March, I noticed the 66 cast members for 2025's Murder Mystery Theater have been revealed. What surprised me is that among this cast are several 48G graduates I know, some who I haven't seen in what feels like forever since they graduated. (Take Annin for example. Where and what has she been doing since she graduated?)
You can check out the official X page to find message vids from the casts and messages from each performer here.
Sayaka: Hello. With renewed spirit, another year begins!!! I will carry as much love and sincerity as I can. To everyone who always supports me and cheers me on, thank you so much.
Sae: Happy Birthday! My beloved Sayaka-chan
Hi! I am a new fan of Akb and sayaka from last year. I am surprised that you made a new post about sayaka's twit. I'm like omg this account is not dead yet! Thank you so much for making posts for sayaka all those years. Your account really helped me learning more about her. I noticed in your dailymotion account that you have more videos of akb that are in private? And that people can ask you for those link? Just wondering if those links are still available. Cheers!
Hey there. I'm pleased that my posts have caught your attention. Yeah I admit I've been unactive for a long while cause lately I don't hear too much stuff regarding Sayaka related works (which is understandable seeing that she's now a mom), but also my focus has been on other stuff like anime lately. I will still keep this account active but I don't expect I'll be making a lot of posts often.
To answer your question, I'll be glad to provide you links but I can't guarantee if all of them are still on dailymotion or if they've been removed at one point in the past few years. Just let me know which ones you're interested in and I'll see what I can do.
So I'm sure many fans have already heard about the announcement regarding AKB's upcoming 66th single. Well who wouldn't when you hear that some certain legendary graduated members are gonna appear in it and that there'll include a member from every overseas sister group? Congrats to Yui for her 3rd center position single! 👏
Well as it turns out, Sayaka also heard it too. In fact she mentioned it on X recently.
"While I was listening to the precious music at the Yaon concert I was unexpectedly eliminated from senbatsu again."
Ah poor Sayaka. I definitely would love to see her appear in a single one more time. But of course I'm happy to see Acchan and the others appear in it as it is the group's 20th anniversary project. My how time flies. I wonder if someday Mayuyu would appear one day in a future single, even though she retired from entertainment. (Too bad none of the 2nd gen are appearing. I had expected Yuko might also appear. That Sasshi is lucky.)
But that isn't all. For shortly after the previous post, Sayaka retweeted this:
"When I woke up in the morning, I was suddenly selected for the entire group."
As you can see, a fan had done a fun photo edit and made the entire senbatsu just Sayaka and saying "Fixed it". Good one. 😆
And how awesome is it that Sayaka noticed it? I love how to this day she continues watching AKB related stuff. And I love how she notices fanmade stuff like this.
Oh and she wasn't the only one who commented on this fan edit.
That's Sae and Mariko-sama for you!
Hopefully in the future Sayaka will have her chance. Crossing fingers!🤞
Looking forward to see how the former legendary ace Acchan and the former legendary leader Takamina are gonna appear in the MV.
This is a realllly old tweet I noticed two years prior.
Sae says here that she wants to do the Insomnia Race from Nemousu TV again. Not surprised to hear this since we all knows she has yet to fulfill her revenge to completely stay awake till the end after 2 attempts.
Interestingly, the members she would like to participate with her again are all graduated members, most of them being those who've previously tackled the same challenge in Nemousu TV in the past.
They include Kuramochi Asuka, Oya Shizuka, Kitahara Rie, Miyazaki Miho, Suzuki Mariya (who has never done it before. So it'd be pretty interesting to see how she'll do in this), Iwasa Misaki, Yamauchi Suzuran, Ichikawa Miori... and of course the one who successfully passed the challenge twice, Akimoto Sayaka.
Aw it's sweet that Sae wants her best friend to participate with her in this again. But an all OG version of the Insomnia Race? I'm all up for it!
And in response to Sae's tweet, you see several of those mentioned members' responses. From what I can understand, they seem to be interested too.
I was hoping for a sequel after seeing the end of the last film (especially when I saw the mid-credits scene that possibly hinted her return). Can't wait to see what cool stunts Sayaka will do in this new Sniper film.
Again, I hope this will lead to Sayaka getting more opportunities to star in U.S. films.
Former AKB48 member Akimoto Sayaka will joins NHK taiga drama's cast for the first time, she will play the legendary female warrior Tomoe Go
Oh wow wow wow. What news! How cool of a role is that for Sayaka?
Her playing Tomoe Gozen. So what that means is...we just might get to see Sayaka as a female samurai kicking butt!
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I was hoping Sayaka could one day play a warrior in a period drama ever since she did that horseback ride wearing samurai armor a few years back and after some of her action roles so far.
Nice that she's casted in another work written by Mitani Koki once again.
Bummer that the drama won't start until next year. But I look forward to watching her appearance when it comes.
Sae and Fukuda Saki dancing Dynamite. (Pretty amazing how popular that song is all around the world.)
Not bad. Pretty awesome there Sae. I wonder if she’s going to perform this somewhere live or on TV. Cause I’d sure like to see her dance the whole song.
Kana and Sayaka enjoying some karaoke with Kana singing Dynamite by BTS.
Oh Kana. XD I wonder if singing a song with all English lyrics is tricky for them. And I wonder how Sayaka would sound like if she sang it given that she’s been practicing her English a lot for a while.
So I noticed this tweet a day or so before Christmas...
From Sayaka’s Twitter 12.23.20
Sayaka: Konichiwa! Zetsufucho
Sae: MeriKuribu! Shinyuu (Merry Christmas! Best friend)
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Ain’t that sweet? It’s another one of those moments where those two seem to think alike. Not sure whether both happen to have the same book or one of them gave it to the other as a Christmas present.
Also cute that Sae replied since it was announced that she’s gonna be in a Peanuts musical next year.
So I heard some pretty good news on Sae’s twitter. She has been casted for a new musical coming in March next year.
And it is...You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown!
And the one Sae is playing is none other than...
Oh yes. She will be Lucy. This’ll be interesting seeing her play the sometimes bossy, sometimes crabby and sometimes opinionated girl of the Peanuts gang. XD
A Japanese version of this Peanuts musical, I bet it’s gonna be fun. ^_^
Hahaha! The sumo matches are hilarious! As expected of Yuko. The sumo champion hasn't lost her touch. (This is the 2nd time Haruu lost to Yuko in a wrestling match. XD)
The way Sayaka and Sae both fell in, the way Sae fell in the 4 person match, so funny. Always fun to see the shinyuu trio having fun.
Hope they do more videos of their future sys diving club activities.
Sneak peek video introducing the new drama+anime work, Aikatsu Planet. This clip introduces the characters and the story about girls who become idols using avatar roles.
And it just so happens that Sayaka announced a while back that she’s casted to appear in this work as well. Her role will be Watanuki Izumi, who will be the idols' manager. Neat role for her. (Of course who better to mentor these fresh idols than a former veteran idol herself?)
Unfortunately this was supposed to air this fall but rescheduled to air January 2021 because of COVID. Bummer…
