AKB's 2013 Budokan Live

Almost 3 hours of staying up too late for the Budokan concert streamed on Youtube Music Week. Please kindly disregard any errors from this old and long post. This was largely compiled live, with a bit of resources to back up and correct any points I missed. (stuff in brackets are comments/corrections after the fact)

Also, as you may have noticed it is quite informal and leaves out a lot of details/events that you can find everywhere else.

AKB48 Budokan/Youtube 2013

Jane Doe start (Interesting...)

Skirt Hirari by HKT or NMB? (nope not even close)

Robo dancing with Mayuyu and Rena + two others (Tashima Meru, Tomonaga Mio)

Sayanee center w/ Takamina + Yuuko singing "Cross". (Wonderful.)

Kojiharu in lingerie... (singing that Garter song.)

JKT48 River (Quite a surprising to see them here, but they were quite good.)

Yukirin Flying Get Center. (Nice!)

Sayaka Center w/ Sae(!) and Mariko and Maria and... Ami.

Moeno graduating (A sad day indeed...)

MC session with Sasshi (teary over Moeno), Sayanee, Rema and Yukirin. Most likely talking about cutest members of HKT48. (hauu I wanna take you home~)

(Then starts the "battles")

JKT vs HKT .
HKT vs NMB.
NMB vs SKE.

Akarin being flexible.

AKB... 48!! (by all of the 48 family)
And Mayuyu being a DJ.

Then that charity song for the Earthquake relief.

ENCORE

Starting off with two new songs and Sayonara Crawl.

Then a huge Shoujotachi + First Rabbit for everyone. Chaotic fun ensues.

Announcement (and Shuffles) Time

5 domes tour was announced.

Hirari promoted to Team K! Yes, very good for her!

Kirarie, Yuihan and co are back to AKB with their concurrent roles canceled... (except for the Double Matsui pair). SKE48 was confused and quite pissed at Kitarie's transfer, especially with the error in announcments too.

Sae is back from SDN... however she's not looking very pleased.

Sasshi is now Double HKT48 Team Manger. I'm not sure what to feel.


In the end it was a great concert with some awesome announcements, but also a huge amount of sad and confusing announcements.

People Chase

We did some weird things today. Involving a video of car chase and Batman. Recreated using unusual methods. Yet it still ended up awesome.

Also, Happy Birthday Mariko-sama! (even though it's passed in Japan already).

Another AKB Voice Actor to Graduate

First Nakayan... now Shawako!?

So, Sawako Hata just announced yesterday that she was going to graduate to pursue her dreams of becoming a full-fledged voice actor. As the voice of Suzuko in AKB0048, she had gone through one step towards her dream.

I was shocked and sad at first, but... graduation is always bittersweet. I had recently been paying attention to SKE48 because of her. She's a nice person, though super shy for a long while, she got stronger and stronger. Plus she has an awesome range in voices, like her Takarazuka voice. And she's also a pretty good singer too!

As one of the more eccentric and mysterious SKEs, it's sad to see her go, but still I wish her good luck to her future voice roles! Maybe she'll join up with Nakayan again in an anime someday!

A Megane Graduation

Even though I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, Nakayan's (Sayaka Nakaya) Graduation concert was held today. I've read some articles and seen images floating around and it seemed nice. And it indeed got emotional at the end. Oh Nakayan, I hope you become a top voice actress one day!


As for other less "bittersweet" things that I did today... I didn't really do much other than go on more trips down the AKB48 video tube. Learning about a specific soft-voiced SKE48 member, and seeing more of the AKB0048 main star, made me more hooked into this whole franchise. Although I do admit that it's really crazy and money oriented, the appeal comes down to the individual members for me, instead of the whole being. Especially since most of the single songs aren't really that appealing to begin with.


Oh and it's "megane" because Nakayan used to be one of the few that wore glasses on stage.

An Enka AKB

Her latest song from this year.


Her debut single.

Sifting through more and more AKB48 content landed me on this one girl: Iwasa Misaki, or Wasamin.

She has an amazing voice, and it especially shows in her debut with enka! Definitely one of the top vocalists of AKB48. Such a great feeling to know that she got a solo debut.

The Aspiring AKB Voice Actor to Graduate

A day late, but still quite important!

After learning more and more about the AKB48 girls, I came across the story of one girl who aspires to be a voice actor as her dream. During her days in the group, her dream came true! Of course, she wants to be more than just a one-off, as she really wants to do this for her life.

This girl is Sayaka Nakaya.

Then the news broke yesterday. She put up a blog post saying she was graduating from AKB on March 6 to reach for her dream. I'm both very happy and a bit sad.

She is the voice actor for Orine Aida in the AKB0048 anime, so that was probably another big push towards her dream.

I hope for the best for her, as the seiyuu business is quite tough. Maybe one day she'll big in the big leagues one day.

Nostalgia AKB Trip through Videos

Today was a long day of watching old PVs for AKB48, with a whole bunch that were not on the AKB48 official Youtube channel.

I started with "Sakura no Hanabiratachi", then "Aitakatta", which were the most nostalgia inducing. I remember listening to these years ago, before AKB48 got huge. "Aitakatta" was the most catchy tune back then and it still is now. I remember just downloading these two songs, and never coming back to check out the rest of their releases for the rest of these years. Little did I know that this niche group filled to the brim with girls would end up being best-selling juggernauts of the Japanese music industry.


"Sakura no Hanabiratachi" Original


"Aitakatta" English subbed. Oh the nostalgia.

Then I went through a whole bunch of other videos until I got a bit sick of simply watching PVs for these songs that didn't really catch my attention. It was a good chance to recognize some of the idols though, since there were a lot more solo parts back then. I did find the "edgy" songs a bit interesting, especially since the PVs are a far cry of their current PVs and songs. I wonder if they'll ever have a chance to tackle these themes again.

Tons more videos to watch, but so little time. I ought to finish those posts about Momoiro Clover too.

Into the SONE

"secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~" performed by SONE, featuring Miichan, Kitarie, Myao, and Sasshi.

Best AKB48 unit? I think yes.

Watch the video for the BEST cover of secret base (by ZONE) ever.


I actually first saw this during the Request Hour 2013. Though not "new" at all, I found it absolutely hilarious, and somehow this one is even more so.