http://www.nankai.co.jp/company/news/pdf/130314_2.pdf

On Maachun’s birthday, 4/11, the train company is converting two train cars on the route from Kansai Airport all the way to Namba station. Tickets go on sale on 3/19. Maachun (and Ripopo+Riichan) will act as conductors, check your tickets, and hand out some signed goods. Cost is 5,650 yen (equivalent to about $56) and it also comes with tickets to the theatre performance.  Unfortunately it’s only limited to 80 people.

To all her endearing fans!

I think that’s pretty cool. Takes her intro phrase and makes into a reality. Lots of random comments about how Yoshimoto has huge marketing arms (I suppose it’s not easy to rent out two train cars) but still. Pretty cool.

Also realized that when writing this post, the exchange rate for yen is really good! Man. The last times I went it was always vicious, somewhere in the 70-80￥ = $1 range, but now it’s 95￥. That’s really, really good. Really good. Oh man. Gourmet trips here we come~

This will be the strangest update ever. You ready?

I’ve already told you about how I think that girl is kinda cute, but you know what else? That bunny is creepy as hell.

This episode is about a really cheap supermarket. It’s not quite Costco but it has its own quirks.

I’ve went to the supermarkets in Japan, so get ready for long stories.

Renapyon looks like a beast compared to her tiny compatriots.

There are small supermarkets that you find in the metro areas, but there are also the big supermarkets that are comparable to the US ones. And for some reason I like going to supermarkets, maybe because I’m so enamored with food culture.

Last year for New Year’s, I was hanging out with my cousin and we were out late on New Year’s Eve. The following morning we woke up at around 1pm-ish (because of an earthquake, no less) and not knowing the neighborhood we were in, decided to set out to find some eats and just look for fun. We ate at a family restaurant and then while walking we also spotted a department store way down the distance so we decided to walk there.

We also passed an unattended 24-hour rice stand where they sold rice in these stalls.

When they said the name of the market was DO I thought it was Dio. But the logo looks like both.

We got to the department store and it was huge, and we started wandering the supermarket section. For the most part it looks like a supermarket that we’re familiar with in the US; meat sections, dairy sections, refrigerated sections with drink, aisles with dry products. Arguably US supermarkets are arranged better, but that’s because there is a ton of research done regarding psychology in that area. Ever noticed how you always seem to start on the right side and make your way counter-clockwise through the store?

What’s huge in Japan is actually quite normal in the US. Heh.

My cousin and I made our way to the back, where they had prepared foods. The apartment we were staying had a refrigerator and we didn’t want to eat convenience store food all the time, so we thought that we could pick some other stuff here for variety. We settled upon this platter that just had meat on it cooked in different ways. There was probably some shrimp too, and I think it was only 1000 yen. It seemed like a pretty good deal. I think just for fun I bought a hot dog wrapped with a waffle too.

50 cents per slice? That’s actually pretty good considering that a whole pizza from Pizza Hut in Japan is about $30 and not even close to the size of a large in the US.

I haaaaate it when they’re not round numbers. 1 yen coins are super difficult to use.

We also bought some other things, I bought my huge 2 liter bottles of iced green tea like usual, and we may have bought some fresh fruit too. That’s actually a big deal because fruit is really expensive in Japan.

I like how corn dogs in Japanese are called “American dogs”. Hmm.

We got home and ate that meat platter and it was awful. Of all the things I’ve eaten in Japan that was probably the worst thing I’ve ever had. We still ate it and it did take us about 3 days to get through it, but it was really nasty tasting. Like slightly worse than what I would expect from an American supermarket in the prepared foods section. I don’t think anything disappointed me more than that meat platter.

Watching this episode, that was all I could think about. I don’t care how cheap your 6 piece takoyaki was (100 yen) because all I could imagine was it tasting like that meat platter.

They claim that they’re so cheap because they don’t have a large variety of products, so they are able to save on overhead. They also use private label stuff a la Costco and Kirkland Industries.

I probably would want to try that pizza though, it seemed pretty good for 50 cents. I’m not sure I believe that whole speech about not having a lot of products. That does look like a lot of toppings on the pizza.

Also when they were cooking the (frozen) croquettes, they dumped 25 into the fryer. It’s already bad enough that they’re frozen, but if you don’t manage the temperature of the croqeuttes (or any fried food for that matter) it tends to get really oily and soggy.

Well, you do get what you pay for. And I have to admit, sometimes, I am craving the oily and soggy croquettes along with the light hit to my wallet…

Kanchiru Announces Graduation

Okay, this is a big deal to me, especially if you read her final comments.

Well, first she starts about saying that she wants to be a model. Which, I guess is cool and all that.

But in the middle is a little mini-rant about how people would visit her during handshake events and disparage her for being part of Team N. Saying things like, “Why the hell are you in Team N?” “There are other, better people that should be in Team N besides you.”  “You don’t raise the level of Team N at all.”

Now seriously… what the fuck hell compels these people to go make fun of a 14/15-year-old girl like that? Right in front of her face? She’s not even that popular! Why would you spend your own money to do that? I can sort of see the justification for making fun of Justin Beiber, but that’s because he’s a teen pop star that gets a lot of girls and makes guys jealous to the point of hatred. That’s still ridiculous, IMO, but compared to picking on Kanchiru, who barely has any appearances outside of the theatre?

Fuck off, man.

It’s crap like this that makes me embarrassed to be an idol fan. Hell, I’m even using profanity. Do you remember when I used profanity?

From what I’ve seen of Kanchiru, she did have a really good presence and comfort with the camera. What she didn’t have is a stereotype to cling to, which shouldn’t be a bad thing… but it was. I dunno, I could see her being successful, but perhaps maybe not in NMB. Either way, I feel robbed by these assholes that feel the need to disparage someone like Kanchiru.

Graduations like this, like Jo’s, like Hara Mizuki really leave a bad taste in my mouth. Certainly, it’s competitive out there, and perhaps NMB isn’t the way for them. But when there are things like this happen, something feels incomplete, and that we were robbed of potential because people couldn’t treat them right.

Yamamoto Sayaka made a post regarding it, which you can find translated here. It’s a good post but I feel like it came too late. Maybe she needs to take lessons from Akimoto Sayaka who would literally make people apologize at handshake events when they got toyed around with.

At the very least, it is reassuring that people on 2ch also think the other fans are jerks.

There’s a ton of great news lately. Geinin 2, Geinin the Movie, Black Million… and I could’ve sworn there was something about a replacement for Docking48. Maybe my memory escapes me.

But for today, we get random thoughts!

1: AKB48. They always do this to me.

Oogoe Diamond Acapella.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTMyNTQxODY4.html

When I first heard NMB’s acapella Zetsumetsu Kurokami Shoujo I was impressed. Moved. Also, it was hilarious because of Riho.

But this? This absolutely blows it out of the water.

And that is also why I’m a bit sad right now.

The acapella lineup is stacked with talent. You have 3/4ths of DiVA (Yuttan, Okaro, Umechan), the singing talents of Mocchi and Komariko, the high notes of Tomo~mi and Amina, and the beatboxing of Shizuka Ooya. They stood on stage and just absolutely crushed any expectations I had.

Why am I sad?

Because this is the kind of stuff I want to see them do regularly, doing stuff they absolutely excel in, getting better, and giving great performances like these. But they don’t. Instead I have to sift through concert footage, hoping that I get a good song or a good performance, instead getting 18-man group-sing lip-synched stuff.

On top of that, look at how stacked the talent is. Now Yuttan and Kasai are gone and the other members, who have always been respected for their singing (except maybe Umechan, but she’s improved a ton since DiVA debut), still do not really have a place to exhibit their skills. It’s very sad. I don’t want to be a fan that has to beg to get a bone. I want all the bones. No wonder it’s so hard to be an AKB fan.

I bought the Blu-Ray based on this performance alone. Looking forward to watching it now.

2: So, these NMB girls, eh…

Oh my…

For some reason, I’m finding Milky and Sayaka to be going in two completely different directions.

For one, I’ve somehow found myself thinking that Milky is ultra hot. A good part of it is because of Dat Ass™ but overall I just think she’s been looking more and more spectacular. And since she’s only what, 19? 20? she’s going to get even hotter, lol.

The irony of that is that I’m not a big fan of her personality. The flirting is cute and all, but in terms of her performances in acting/singing, it’s pretty lackluster. She sometimes has it in terms of variety shows, but she falls back on her flirting character a little too much for my taste; if you watch her Naniwa Nadeshiko days she had a little more variety in her variety programs.

On the other hand, I view Sayaka as the complete opposite. I’m not really attracted to her because she looks too much like a kid. I think her rack’s reputation is a little overrated as well. On the other hand, her performances are absolutely stellar. Leading ZKMS acapella, acoustic Jungle Gym, plus her performances on variety shows are always a treat. She’s got humor and charisma and unrivaled performing ability, and her serious side is also admirable.

I wonder if it was intended for them to be so contrasting… it definitely seems more pronounced now than it was before.

Also on that magazine cover is Fuuchan. She’s too young for me, but look at those abs! You could probably punch her in the stomach and it would break your hand. I have yet to watch the HA! movie, but I heard she’s great in it.

3: AKB ELECTIONS OMG

Let’s go CinDy! Anyone who capitalizes a random letter in their name has to be cool, right?

So the elections have a twist this year, in that graduated members with 4 years of experience can apply. Also, everyone who is interested MUST submit an application, which means that it’s possible that some big names may drop out, and maybe some small names may drop out.

It’s funny that some people are speculating that Acchan would come back. No, that’s not gonna happen. I’m sure the 4 year thing is only for loved members who were forced to graduate, aka SDN48. I guess an alternative theory is that AKB is doing poorly and they want some of the more talented ex-members to bolster their sales, but I don’t think that’s correct at all.

After my experiences last year, I kinda… don’t want to see this again. Too many feels. You’re happy when people make it, but sad when they’re not that high. But you want everyone to rank high, even though that’s technically impossible. You feel bad that someone dropped from position 4 to position 7, yet somebody didn’t even rank in the damn election. And seeing it live there are way too many tears for me to handle. I think the image of Kaoru crying is forever burned in my head, and it’s like a real life image, not a TV image. I dunno how to feel about that.

Oh well. I guess there’s nothing to do but hope NMB does well.

I have to admit, I shed a tear.

… because this episode was HILARIOUS.

Don’t cry yet. You don’t even know what you’re missing.

Well, the first segment was actually pretty awkward. It’s a segment about how Kenkoba hates women. Or rather, what he hates about women. And to equalize it, they bring a former guest who used to set up Goukons (group dates).

She is kinda cute. Kinda.

I didn’t really get the gist of it. I just remember Kenkoba’s story about how they were too poor to buy Napa Cabbage, so they bought regular cabbage and it was actually pretty good, so he’s like “Can we use this all the time instead?” and she said “Yeah!” Then next week they had to buy Napa Cabbage.

At the end they voted for who’s 3 annoyances made more sense.

When they have to choose between a girl and a guy, and the voters are NMB… well…

And then strangely, at the end, Kenkoba says it’s not fair and challenges her to a sumo match.

This was actually really awkward.

REALLY awkward.

This was a bit… uncomfortable to watch. Wasn’t really entertaining and… well, I don’t know what the point was. I’m not even sure if the chants for “You’re awful” were real or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.

But that’s okay because the best is yet to come!

You guys remember that balloon Challenge48?

Guess who we got for the next one?

Oh. My. God.

This had to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on Japanese TV. Just look at these screenshots.

They had to pay 5000 yen every time they broke a balloon. And it happened often.

I, err, I don’t even know where to begin this one.

The things they have to do to save these poor kids.

Sometimes when the balloon would break, their pants would come off. Oh my goodness.

I was talking to Eddy over a nice dinner of Carne Asada Fries, who is apparently my #1 commenter here. And he was telling me how he’s going to Osaka and how he wanted to try that balloon thing. But it looked kinda dangerous. What happens if you miss a step and faceplant?

Jinnai solved that one for me.

Sometimes their pants would come off. Sometimes…

All of it comes off.

Makes you wonder if any of the NMB girls had this happen to them. Special features on the DVD, maybe?

And then at the end when they failed, they all stood next to Jinnai’s balloon to cool off when they let the air out.

I highly recommend you watch this. Even if you don’t understand Japanese.

Lastly we finish off with a good ol’ romp through the Haunted House with Ripopo and friends.

Look at that smile!

Ripopo said she’s been inside 10 times so she’s good friends with the staff. Good times ahead right?

Of 48 minutes, Rika and Akarin power through and use only 9 minutes.

I don’t want to pick on Rika because I like her, but her reactions were kinda meh for this section. But that’s okay. We have a reaction queen.

Heart of a champion.

So she steps in and…

It takes her 50 minutes to get to this spot. Oh my. And now she’s constantly telling herself to be happy, lol.

She spends another 10 minutes talking to the spirit, lol

She spent so long that they had to take her through on a cart so that they could make it in time for their next work assignment.

When the spirits put her on the cart she got mad, lol.

“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH PEOPLE IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE!”
“STAFF! I HEARD THERE’S A RULE THEY CAN’T DO THIS!”
“THEY’RE FORCING ME TO DO THIS AGAINST MY WILL!”

At the end they were gonna surprise Ripopo by using Akarin and Rikanyan to scare her.

They looked pretty bad ass too.

But notice how it’s night time outside. And how my first picture during this segment is daytime. Poor Ripopo was already so devastated that this had no effect, lol.

Speaking of which, I really wanna feel bad for her, but the stuff she says is unreal. I don’t know how much of it is acting but my goodness, she is hilarious when she’s panicking. I don’t know what to feel, haha.

And that’s it for the last episode. I kinda expected some farewells and stuff but yeah. Other than Ainyan tears it felt like your regular episode.

And what the hell, let’s bring back DBZ too.

This show was sometimes too off-kilter for me, but sometimes it was just downright hilarious. And this was one of those episodes that just kept it going, and I was so highly entertained. I can’t say I’m gonna miss this show, but I’m sure it was an amazing experience for the NMB girls to be coached by comedians of this stature. I can only hope that their next shows are equally hilarious.

And I’ll miss you too, Megumi-chan~

I wasn’t really THAT stoked when they announced Geinin 2. I’d actually rather have a Naniwa Nadeshiko 2.

Then I watched the first episode.

Still just as good as I remember it… actually, some better, some worse, but we’ll get to that later. Overall, still funny, still enjoyable, I like it a lot.

WIth the same ol’ cast… well, minus Jo and Ainyan.

You know, I didn’t think Jo and Ainyan had much presence on the show at first, but surprisingly their lack of presence is really felt.

I think the plot is that they eventually attended that JK-1 thing but they only got 6th place, and I think they said Jo transferred and Ainyan graduated or something like that… but now there’s a contest for high school students and I think the winning school either gets to appear on a TV show or hosts a Yoshimoto TV show or something.

Not really sure about that poster though. Also don’t mind the earthquake alert, lol.

The catch is that they need 10 people to participate… and right now they only have 4.

They are hella excited about BKB though.

I find it really unfortunate that this comedian’s name is BKB, because that’s an item in DotA that gives you magic immunity. And it’s actually the opposite of exciting because you wanna cast spells on someone and then all of a sudden that BKB comes up and you just wander around aimlessly while you pray that it goes away before the carry is done autoattacking you.

(The joke here is that the TV program that they would be on has more star studded comedians than BKB, who is not particularly popular, but they get pumped for him. Or rather, that is the comedian’s opening chant.)

Ripopo also appears. I’m not sure about her character. Kinda creepy and weird, actually.

For some reason she reminded me of Acchan though.

The first variety portion was the tsukkomi challenge.

Iwao screws up his “line.” Why is HE nervous? haha.

Milky’s terrible tsukkomi.

There’s something about Milky that makes me not like her. I don’t know what it is. And yeah I’ve talked about Dat Ass™ plenty of times, but there’s something about the way she’s acting and performing that just doesn’t shake me the right way. I don’t know what it is. In her tsukkomi she pretty much giggled her line and it was just like, ehh… okay.

Maachun’s was spot on.

I dunno why but Maachun seemed like she knew exactly what to do. I wonder if her comedic sense is just developing like that. Hers was probably the most professional-looking one. On the other hand…

Nana never changes.

She also used a tsukkomi that she did last season, but she got no reaction so she just said “WAA.” lol

As much as I harp on the NMB Suberi Queen, she’s actually quite adept at being an MC for TV shows and such, and she has TV presence. She fails but it’s not like awkward fail so you know she’s not terribly bad.

The story was something like Riho being able to communicate with spirits or whatever and she thought she saw the suberi devil from last season. And Iwao is uhh… yeah.

A pretty basic manzai. To be honest I’d rather have the Rika Sayaka combo.

There’s also way too many jokes making fun of Sayaka’s sharp face. I feel like it’s been done over and over…

We’re also blessed with a second variety portion!

Sayaka’s jokes are really well thought out…

Can’t say the same for Nana though. I think her jokes are okay content-wise, but her timing and tone is really poor.

Fuuuuuuuuuuu

Fuuchan seems to be getting better at this comedy thing. At first I thought she was this typical cute girl that doesn’t do anything and acts really poorly, but with this and with the “hanami” video, her comedic sense seems to be improving a lot.

Overall it’s a great first episode. I definitely miss having these shows to watch.

With this episode, we get to see Yui in action! Both of them!

And ANCHU! Gogogo Team BII!

Story-wise, Yokoyama Yui joins and is apparently some famous comedian under some pseudonym, so they’re stoked that she joined the club and can help them improve. I think there’s some irony in that it’s probably the opposite in real life, though I remember Yuihan being fantastic in Bimyo. Wow, I do miss Bimyo.

And here we have… well, I don’t quite know.

Interesting handshake technique…

SENSEI MODE

The first oogiri section was fairly tame, they had to perform boke as transfer students.

Hi, I came from Chiba, and my name is Transfer Student.

No Geinin episode is complete without Nana failing again.

I hope she’s not doing this on purpose. I really hope so.

And then Anchu appears in the second story section. Momoka’s school is back and ready to challenge whatever school this is for joke supremacy. In this portion, she demonstrates tsukkomi, and then Yuihan evaluates them as perfect. Eh.

There’s something about Anchu’s poise that makes me think that she’s ready for this level. When I watched that one BII stage I thought that she looked to be one of the tops in BII. Shu has that charisma, but Anchu has the maturity. Hm.

And look at their lovely faces!

The manzai was interesting. Interesting because I think Maachun has improved a ton, but unfortunately, does not have the partner to do so. No knocks on Ripopo, but Maachun is clearly on another level.

I like where this is going.

The writing was interesting too, as while technically Ripopo was the tsukkomi, they did miniskits where Ripopo was the boke and Maachun played stereotypes from dramas.

Lastly we get a Q&A session. We only got a few in Season 1 Geinin.

They asked Yuihan about her thoughts on being a dual NMB/AKB member.

She said that people have been saying that she’s been looking a lot brighter since the transfer. The line in the caption is Iwao’s boke.

We also get to see Ripopo’s prideface.

Other topics include the Geinin movie and how they were stoked that they got Ken Koba, but Football Hour joking that NMB wasn’t fighting for Football Hour to appear. Also covered was how a lot of the interview sessions were cut because of Momoka’s outrageous answers, and this time they got her talking about how she likes Milky.

“Kinoshita likes female bodies.”

Decent episode. Also, I didn’t mention this, but Yuipon (and not Yuihan) also appeared on the show. I’m a big fan of trying to balance NMB and remove the huge focus on Team N, and seeing her and Anchu was great.

And an Akarin too, I guess.

It’s funny, I don’t really have high expectations for this show, but I do enjoy watching it and I feel like something’s missing when I don’t watch it.

When Masuda Yuka graduated I didn’t know what to feel. I mean, she was mega talented and I thought that being in AKB48 limited her talent, but on the other hand, it’s going to be tough to break it on your own.

With her new TV show, I still really don’t know what to think. I was hoping there would be more of the stuff we saw at Kouhaku, more amazing stuff like Oogoe Acapella and something along those lines, but nope.

Instead we get some 4 AM TV show.

They ask her what she wants to do, and she lists a bunch of stuff related to eating, but in the end she expresses her wish to get a part-time job, and where does she go?

A maid cafe? Didn’t she do this in Bimyo?

I’m not sure if I’ve ranted about maid cafes here, but I think they’re creepy. I don’t know who can believe their schtick either. I sure as hell do not want to play moe moe rock paper scissors and it’s so over the top fake that I just have to laugh at everything.

She sure looks purty though.

The candle powered by love is actually just a cheap candle from Don Quixote, which is like Japanese Target.

Another section had her drinking with friends and telling random stories, like their impressions of Masuda and such.

This is not the first time you’ll see alcohol…

Maybe she does roll with good company?

There’s even a random section where she’s a typical Osakan old lady.

And in the background is the HA! background!

Things continue in the maid cafe, but it turns out it’s not a real job because that one comedian Kurochan is there.

This guy’s been in a bunch of AKB stuff…

And for some reason, they keep making him drink alcohol. Yeah, I don’t get it. There’s this silly chant where the maids make your water into magical moe moe water or some crap that they do. (It’s still really just regular water.) But in Kurochan’s case…

Surprise shochu? What?

She plays some games with him, like guess the most popular parfait and the winner gets the parfait.

I like this part because she’s like “I WON. BACK THE F— OFF.”

They then present him with more magical water, which turns out to be Tequila.

Yeah, I dunno.

Even worse, throughout this maid cafe section they cut out parts and said they’d be on the DVD, like Masuda trying to draw animals on the omelette rice. It airs at 4AM, right? Feels like one of those infomericals…

And yeah, I was taken aback by all the alcohol references. When they meet her in the beginning of the show to announce that she’s gotten a show, she’s drinking in a bar. The talk session is in a bar where she’s drinking with her friends. They spike Kurochan’s drink with shochu and then later tequila? What the heck?

Apparently the limited edition vol.1  DVD that included tickets to the press conference of the show announcement was sold out, so maybe they’re doing something right.

Lately, I’ve been watching J-Dramas, mostly to shore up my flagging interest in learning Japanese. As my idol interest has been winding down I’ve been looking for more stuff to keep me interested in the language. Actually, I’ve just finished the drama “Rich Man, Poor Woman,” which script-wise was pretty dry and boring, but it was incredibly good because of the acting talents of Oguri Shun and Ishihara Satomi, and Iura Arata was no slouch either. Just a great watch and the finale just had me all smiles at the end. The Drama Special even includes a wedding dance of Heavy Rotation.

So, what triggered me to watch Kasuka na Kanojo?

Hey, who’s that?

Look, it’s Acchan! Or Assan. Well, I don’t like typing Assan in English because it looks like ass.

She actually looks great, better than when she was in her final years of AKB when she looked dead all the time.

The premise of the story seems to be your typical school drama, where students have problems and the teacher invokes their gimmick to solve the problem. I’m a big fan of GTO, and the only other equivalent show I’ve watched was Dragon Zakura, which wasn’t as good. And the new GTO was good, but not great. I guess it was just Good Teacher Onizuka.

The biggest surprise is Acchan’s shorts.

For some reason, Acchan gets away with wearing these short shorts. Like… wow.

Her role in the drama is the vice-homeroom-teacher to SMAP’s Katori Shingo. I’m actually curious to see what his acting is like. I’ve only ever seen him do comedy stuff whenever I see on TV shows and variety. Like, really silly comedy stuff. I know he has acting chops but I never bothered to watch any of them.

Seriously. Those shorts.

The gimmick invoked in this show is that Katori can see ghosts, and the apartment that he’s living in has a ghost who was a former teacher at the school he works in. The mysteries involve why the ghost is still there, as well as why Katori decided to change schools. Acchan seems to play the role of GTO’s Fuyutuski (Matsushima Nanako’s, not Takimoto Miori’s) and is teaching because she couldn’t get a better job or something.

And there’s the ghost now!

So… pretty atypical. I wasn’t too impressed with this first episode and I’m not sure I’ll continue. Maybe I’ll give it a more couple episodes.

On the other hand, at least Acchan’s acting has improved. I bought Moshidora because she was in it, and she actually had the worst performance there; not a good look when you’re the leading actress. And it was kinda sad because Oizumi Yo, Seto Koji, and Ikematsu Kosuke did really good jobs on their characters.

It would be something if Acchan excelled outside of AKB48. I’m actually liking her a lot more now that she’s out.

Today’s entry will be fairly short, for the main reason that I wasn’t really paying too close attention to the episode and didn’t really understand what was going on.

Or maybe I need to study more. Anyway…

Who the?

Episode starts off with Akarin coming in as the Dokumo Club. I think what she said was that it’s a club of people who read and look good. Errh… okay. They drop off a button, and then Milky comes back and presses it, triggering…

Some strange sentai ranger stuff.

Yuipon makes her official appearance in the story line, and Renacchi makes her official appearance outside of the theatre. The whole thing is just some silly play that has to be seen, which includes a goofy cartwheel, a stolen DBZ ultimate move, and shuttlecocks everywhere.

Shuttlecocks.

And then the enemy and the princess are defeated.

Yuihan comes in at the end because she is the “real villain” but Nana does the patented “Mou ee wa” and that’s that.

This leads nicely into the Oogiri portion of the show, where the theme is “Superheroes I don’t want to meet.”

Kancho, the act of shoving your two fingers up someone’s butt. If it weren’t for Azrael’s teaching in Japan blog I would never understand this. Actually, I still don’t understand this.

Henshin = transform, hentai is something you can all figure out.

What does she mean by a chop between the eyebrows…?

Bam. Nailed it.

Sayaka seems to be getting good at anticipating the tsukkomi and having a suitable reaction to it. This is why I think she’s heads-and-tails above everyone else in the 48 group. Small things like that add up to really big performances. I’m actually awaiting the time she gets out of 48 and goes solo, because she’s an incredible talent.

And no episode is complete without a Nana fail.

Sometimes I wonder if they purposely leave her fails in. You can already tell that the section is heavily edited. That shouldn’t be surprising… even the great improv comedy TV show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” had edited out a lot of the boring answers.

The ultimate conclusion to the storyline is that they recruit Sayaka for a one-time performance, which leaves today’s manzai to a combination of Momoka and Milky.

wut

I actually didn’t understand most of it. I remember them talking about superstitions but I don’t know what they were talking about exactly. Either way, Momoka is too jolly to be a good tsukkomi, and Milky is… well, I don’t know. She just doesn’t seem to be getting any better at this, which is a shame because her first few manzais were hilarious. I’m concerned that she’s just using her cuteness to get by.

Momoka is fun to watch though. She’s always smiling and over-the-top. She really needs more roles like this. She’s managed to make Tengoku Yarou her own which is incredible and probably why it ranked in the NMB RH Top 30, and I think a lot of her talents aren’t as obvious because of how strong the rest of her, uh, personality is.

The episode concludes with Iwao winning an Okinawa trip and giving it to the girls, which I think is real? I can’t tell.

Gotou asks for a souvenir. Nana suggests a Samishiisaa, a cross between the word “loneliness” and the lion thing that Okinawa is famous for.

Unfortunately the trip had terrible weather.

Mi kasa es no kasa.

Then the episode closes out with a bombed joke by Milky from the Oogiri section.

Not sure how that resembles a super hero at all…

Well, at least Nana should feel relieved that she’s not the only joke bomber.

I’ve been trying to update my blog a lot more. Why? Because I realized I need to stop half-assing things! Time to go full ass!

Unfortunately, actually watching videos takes time. And sometimes I don’t have the time, like today, so I’ll just have to go with some random things. If I’m lucky I’ll have some time on Thursday!

I mean that AKB48 appearance on Mechaike… highest ratings, sounds awesome! But it’s 2 and a half hours!

So without further ado…

1: Milky DVD/Blu-ray announcement

Oh my.

The amount of cuteness radiating from her is unreal. Like. Wow.

See, when the photobook came out, I was like wahwahwah sexploitation, omg slut, etc. etc.

But when I see the video, she looks like she’s having a ball, having a good time, smiles everywhere. And what kind of person am I if I tell someone that smiling is evil? Well, I guess that makes me a horrible person.

It also reminded me of when I watched the live action Sailor Moon, and I was totally into the girl who played Sailor Moon, and so I uh, obtained her DVD and she was all serious and it was really terrible. Why can’t people smile?

Why are you so sad?!

2: Nana moves to Team M

Time to teach the kids? Maybe?

The big announcement from NMB Request Hour.

To be honest, I’m not really sure what I think of the move. It really changes nothing in terms of popularity and appearances. She’ll still get her TV spots, she just says she’s M instead of N. And I don’t watch the stage shows but I imagine it’s a huge blow to N to lose a star performer like her. She sang both ballads with Maachun and did the narration for Koike, plus her presence in MCs was undeniable.

With that said, Team M is also a strong performing team. They just aren’t Team N, which by nature of “being first” tends to get most of the opportunities. There’s a ton of talent in M. I’m not sure how Nana can really help them out. What WOULD help them out is if they got their original stage.

Or maybe they need to stop recruiting so many people. HKT is still only Team H, right?

So right now, honestly, I’m pretty ambivalent over the whole thing.

3: Umechan’s Perfume Performance + Other Videos

Wow!

The funny thing is, when I first watched this I was randomly paging through that AKB Eizou episode or whatever it was, and I just thought it was 3 random girls so I was like whatever. Then I saw the video and it was all Umechan. Great editing, must be a lot of fun. And she’s got 700k hits at the time of this post!

Sadly I also thought Shiichan’s video was great too, but… Umechan. Damn.

This show might actually be worth watching. Or maybe Umechan’s video was so good that they just jumped the shark right away.

It’s not a nice time to be an NMB fan. Not only did we lose Yui, but we just lost Hitomin. And AKB has Fuuchan and they still have Milky. くっそ野郎！

Then there’s BII not selling out.

Oh well. Let’s lighten up the mood with some Geinin.

Some mochi making ceremony that had punchlines to it

A new challenger has appeared!

The story is that Jounishi wants the owarai club to restore the laughter of her little sister, Kawakami Chihiro. The fun thing is that in real life, she does treat Chihiro as a little sister, which might be because of their similar looks. Chihiro’s nickname is Chihhii… which doesn’t really translate well in romanized characters. ちっひー looks much better.

There was some recurring joke about how everyone ignored Maachun.

Even Sayanee ignored her. Teehee~

First oogiri section was about a maid you’d kinda not want. Sayanee starts off with… a gag? What?

Evil Keicchi returns!

Even Ripopo wants to be like Sayaka.

There was a couple interesting exchanges. For example…

Milky accidentally raised her hand when it was Maachun’s turn.

She got a stern warning from Gotou not to do it. Definitely don’t do it. Never do it again. That is obviously an invitation to do it again, and then Gotou tsukkomi’d Milky for not doing it again.

I think this really shows Gotou’s comedy genius. Even when someone messes up their supposed role, he manages to still make it funny. And he still makes Milky look good for that mistake.

Maybe I’m not watching this show for NMB, I’m actually watching it for football hour. Hmmm…

In another exchange, Gotou was wondering whether he should pick Nana.

Gotou – “Are you sure you can do it?”

Nana – “Maybe.”

Gotou – “If it’s just ‘maybe’ then you probably can’t do it.”

Nana – “I can definitely do it.”

Gotou – “You sure?”

Nana – “Yes!”

Gotou – “In that case… Watanabe, it’s your turn!”

Nana – “wat”

At this point, Gotou chided Nana for not vocally protesting more, in which case…

Nana screaming “Oiiii” in a hilarious manner

Story continues by Nana being trouble with Manzai so Keicchi offers to help.

Unfortunately I understood nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever been this lost when it comes to Manzai.

The second oogiri section is about impersonations.

Sayaka with the “calm after the storm look” after a rollercoaster ride.

Maachun’s hilarious tour guide impersonation.

There was a part where Keicchi did a seaweed impersonation and she was so embarrassed that she quit midway through.

Chihhii followed up with the same thing! You can see Keicchi falling down in laughter.

It’s actually kind of cute to see her back up her senpai like that.

I dunno why but everyone made fun of Nana for bombing this joke…

Clamshell 1

Clamshell 2

Ripopo pulls out some comedy gold when she grabs the statue for some reason, and then…

I really didn’t see that coming.

The next episode preview looks like we’ll see Fuuchan again. It doesn’t look like we’ll have any weird bikini shoots where Nana and Maachun rub their asses together, but some weird fairy costume.

I thought I took a screenshot of Riichan. But that’s not Riichan.

Funny how I said I’d update more… then things happen and I get busy and stuff and things and stuff.

NOT TO WORRY I’M BACK.

You know who else is back? My man lazyedt. He was kind enough to get me some NMB gifts while he was over in Japan. He also told me how his friend was able to ask Sayaka if he knows lazyedt, and she was like “Yeah! I get letters from him!”

Man. How cool is that?

Anyway…

A new challenger has arrived!

Actually, more challengers have arrived.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Kadowaki in a while. I can’t even remember her nickname. She comes back with some fantastic hair.

YO YOU DUN PISSED OFF THE YUIHAN

Shu joins… hooray~

Lately I’ve been liking Shu for some reason. Her smile is magnetic. Jo was like the “awwww~” smile but Shu is like the smile that makes you want to smile too. And then everything will be alright.

I can’t really understand what was going on though. I think they said something about Yuihan making joke postcards for her radio show to send to all her fans.

There has to be some irony with this pairing.

Seeing Hitomin and Yuihan together… man. I’m gonna miss them. Especially Hitomin. In season 1 she gave me this impression that she didn’t really care what happened as long as she did her ippatsu gags, but now she does actually show a lot of talent in her comedy.

I’d also take the time to go into why I’m gonna miss Yuihan in NMB, but really it all comes down to the fact that my interest in AKB is dwindling very quickly.

Funny story about this picture…

That picture, it turns out, was drawn by a Sayaka wota. He must’ve been stoked when they decided to use his picture on the Geinin set. He actually has more pictures if you look him up… really cool stuff.

In the next section they introduce Kadowaki Kanako, who is the leader of the Senryuu club… senryuu being a comedic haiku, which is why she speaks all funny.

I think Anchu is trying to be funny.

Really starting to like Anchu. Maybe because she appears a lot. I planned on writing about the other episodes because I remember I had all these thoughts concerning her manzai with Sayaka. I didn’t like her in that manzai. But unfortunately, that episode has passed and now my thoughts will now be kept only in my cranium.

And why does the skin colored polo shirt keep showing up?! Come on Gotou, step your fashion game up!

The oogiri section was actually really funny.

The worst hand-raising ever.

Followed by a terrible oogiri. “Does it have to be funny?”

In the meantime, Kimoshita visits again.

“I don’t know why, I don’t know how… but I like boobs.”

I CAN’T GET BOOBS OUT OF MY HEAD

Nana writes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“I always think about this, but am I really that unfunny?” to which Gotou responded… “Yes.”

Also some interesting chemistry between Nana and Sayaka…

Sayaka wrote something like “Even now, I still remember…”

Nana claimed to have a continuation of that:

“When did my butt crack?”

Oraaa!

Fantastic oogiri section.

Story continues with everyone getting in the Senryuu mode so that they can pick the best to win the Senryuu mode, and it turns out to be Ripopo. As this is not a translation blog… you’ll just have to figure it out.

We do get a pleasant surprise with the manzai…

~Oyasumi~

Yokoyamamoto!

To be honest, because of this 48-family dude, I’ve been watching a crap ton of Oriraji and other manzai on Youtube. It really highlights the difference between a pro and an amateur. There’s something about a pro boke where you get on their wavelength. It’s more than just being stupid, which is what they do sometimes… but it’s about getting people into your stupidity. Surprisingly, the NanaJou thing worked out perfectly… too bad.

With this one, and with the last couple ones, they’re trying, but it’s not completely there. I was kinda hoping we’d see Yamamoto on the boke again. And I dunno why but Yuihan looked incredibly cool.

Lastly we get to the 2nd oogiri section, which is “Cute and interesting.”

“This soft icecream (literally) looks like shit!”

I was so glad I wasn’t drinking. Oh my God, Shu.

The only other thing of note was Nana’s strange failure.

“Let’s go home together! Okay!”
“Why did you kick me?!??!”

I only liked this because Sayaka simulated the kick, lol.

One thing I also noticed is that Milky actually bombs jokes just as much, if not more than Nana. But she kinda gets away with it because she’s cute and/or popular. And that really really really really really really really bothers me. I haaaaaaate it when people get by with terrible ability but just cute their way (Yes, I turned cute into a verb) to success. And that goes beyond idols. In fact it probably applies more often to real life. You know how it is, when the cute girl in your group is crappy but like all the desperate guys want to get with her so they treat her extra special and instead of her trying to get better you just have all these guys telling her she’s good so she doesn’t try as hard anymore.

On the other hand, Nana inherited the joke bombing character. There’s only room for one. Like Highlander.

Well.

Screw that!

And that’s the end of this episode.

Next episode looks interesting, lol.

I think the more I watch this show, the more I really dislike the story. I think it was about how Nana had to suberi which helped suberi-land fend off some foe or something or other.

It was really bad. It was like a suberi inside a suberi.

I still don’t know what this is, lol.

Man they’re gonna be so hot when they grow up

I can’t say I’m physically attracted to them… they’re too young and my type tends to be the more mature ones but man, I think Keira is gonna look spectacular when she turns into an adult.

WTF is this

I don’t know how accurate this impression is of Billiken, but it always cheers me up.

The first oogiri is about being fairies or something.

That’s actually a lot of people.

The cast is pretty big. I actually like it, we got Shu, we got Keira, we got Kanakichi, we got the Hitomin/Anchu/Momoka trio… life in Geinin is good.

Fairy = Yousei… Yo say hey yo yo

Ripopo’s “Yes!” lolol

I think it’s funny whenever Ripopo succeeds she’s always like “YES I DID IT!” lolol.

Uhh…

I think Milky is hella getting saved, this time by Momoka. She seems to be getting less funny. She is getting a little bit more attractive but… ehhh…

It’s LeviOHsa, not LevioSA

Shoutouts to Harry Potter.

I still really like how whenever it’s Nana’s turn, Gotou says “ARE YOU SURE YOU CAN DO IT?

More story stuff. More suberi. Ehh.

Also Anchu comes and yells at everyone again.

Scary.

Instead of oogiri part 2, we have a free talk.

Nana is often asked to do Ippatsugei at handshake events and she does that WAO thing.

Everyone’s reaction to that was great.

Also, jokes about Nana being old. I think that she has the best reactions out of anyone on NMB48. She plays it perfectly.

Especially her voice.

OMG SAILOR MOON IS NOT OLD

Even her hearing is fading, haha

The manzai this go around was… strange. They had Maachun in tsukkomi, Milky as boke. I’ve said it before but I think Milky is taking steps back…

Izz ok, Biliken is here.

Next episode seems interesting…

…very interesting…

And then we leave off with the hilarity that is Anchu’s outtakes. What a trooper… even though her messed up lines are really strange. I dunno where she came up with oil cushion.

This picture stresses me out just looking at it, haha.

Hey this time the story was actually somewhat interesting!

Somewhat.

But first…. wut

Namba Wan?

One of my favorite things is when people laugh when they’re not supposed to, but they leave it in there anyway.

Ripopo agrees.

Also there’s some man cosplay.

Kakkoiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hitomeborechattaaaaaaaa

One thing I find funny is that when they dress up like guys, they still look like girls. That says a lot about Japanese guys, lol.

I’m not gay though. I’m just saying.

The premise of this story is that Sayaka and Milky switch bodies due to the magic of the Daruma doll. Unfortunately, instead of Milky pretending to be Sayaka she really just acts like an angry Milky.

Sayaka, on the other hand, plays it a lot better. I wouldn’t call it great, but compared to Milky…

And there’s some hilarity when they try to recombine themselves.

Ouch.

First oogiri section is about doing a boke at a haunted house. I was already chuckling when they zoomed in on Ripopo. I still remember that last Challenge 48… she was in the haunted house for like 6 hours, haha.

Keila does not look or act her age at all. She kinda did 2 years ago though.

So, usually when someone does a boke, Gotou does tsukkomi with an explanation. For example, with Ripopo she was like “I’m so jealous that you guys are a couple,” so Gotou would say “What kind of ghost looks at people like that?”

When Milky did her thing (which actually wasn’t that funny) where she fell in love with the ghost, Gotou tsukkomi’d with “You can’t even see their face, they’re supposed to be in disguise.”

Milky breaks the fourth wall and says “Well, yeah, it’s just a boke.”

I’m not sure what to think about that. I kinda wanna get angry but it’s also soooooooo tennen. But it’s season 2 so it’s kinda strange timing to tennen.

Shuu says that the person looks like Nana: like an old lady.

To which Gotou gladly hands over the fan…

And then Milky comes out and does her silly Nana impression before she gets a beatdown with the fan.

Gotou: “In terms of the comedy world, you 3 are all dead already.”

Maachun busts out the tour guide impression again.

Sayaka responds with a tour guide impression of her own. Except not from the tour guide’s perspective, but from the person entering the haunted house.

We leave off with Gotou ending the segment, but not before Nana gets mad at not being called and forcing her way through to do her own.

Gotou’s reaction to this is priceless.

She still fails, though.

And then they do this weird scary thing together, haha

Honestly, the Nana/Gotou chemistry is top notch. There’s something about Gotou that brings out the best in Nana. If they had a radio show it’d be the radio show ever.

Story continues when they find directions to summon spirits to recombine them and they do some weird dance and crap.

There’s almost a repeat accident when Iwao bumps into Milky and they switch bodies…

Iwao’s Milky impersonation is the best though.

Come to think of it, there hasn’t been that much Iwao in the show lately. He’s been a lot of fun in those sections where he makes NMB tsukkomi him.

The manzai this time was actually decent.

These three dudes

Kanakichi’s tsukkomi was actually really well done, and Momoka’s a lot more natural as boke than the others. Then throw in creepy Ripopo and you have yourself a team! That was actually pretty surprising, but I think that tossing in Ripopo to be opposite the hyperactive Momoka was definitely a great idea.

We end with previews of the dance PV of Bokura no Eureka and more Anchu outtakes.

For some reason I like the dance PV. The dance seems pretty clean and they seem pretty synched up well. The dance also seems made for swimsuits… they did perform a seifuku version on Manabu-kun and something seemed off.

I still don’t like the song though. To be honest I’m liking the singing less and less. It’s actually… quite bad. I’m also confused at how everyone is in swimsuits but their skin is really white and pale except for Airi. It’s like their first time going outside or something, haha.

Also when they say Eureka I think of this:

I know what I like.

I haven’t been watching Manabu-kun. I don’t know who the new hosts are but they are way more boring compared to the allstar trio of Jinnai, Kenkoba, and Tamuken. On top of that, the first episode was about taxes and I was just like… whatever. I don’t care about taxes. Even if Docking talked about taxes I’d probably skip it.

Also there’s no Megumi-chan.

That withstanding, I decided to watch this episode because it’s about ramen.

I don’t know even know what this guy was doing.

Some guy actually comes and drops the history of ramen. I was actually surprised to learn that it is a relatively new food. Well, I guess it really took off around the same time hamburgers and hot dogs took off in the US, but I always thought it had some historical value. Guess I was wrong on that one.

Something about Sayaka’s smile in this episode made my day a lot brighter.

Whenever I talk about ramen, though, I’m a little confused. I get cravings for it, I enjoy it, I will go long distances to try a new bowl… but for some reason I’m a little hard-pressed to consider it one of my favorite foods. I’d consider a Double-Double from In-N-Out Burger (a California chain) one of my favorite foods and it does occupy the same spot that I’d put ramen in: comfort food.

I have yet to figure out why this is, though.

So on the show they go through a lot of the history and cover some of the regional specialties of ramen and such. I find it fascinating but on the other hand it kinda sucks because I won’t experience those regional specialties. I still remember going to Texas and not trying their BBQ. And there’s a ton of BBQ I still have yet to try. And I live here! Compare that to living overseas and trying to eat North Carolina-style BBQ and you get the same feeling I do.

The next topic is tsukemen.

Yo we got battles now

Tsukemen is much newer. I think it only started booming a couple years ago, and it differs from ramen in that you have your toppings on the side of the broth. Your broth is also a lot thicker, because you need to dip your noodles and the broth needs to stick when you do it.

Interestingly, on the program, they said that tsukemen was invented for convenience because you could eat it right away, whereas ramen is served hot and you have to wait for it to cool down, etc.

They also mentioned that tsukemen has no regional representation, except perhaps Hiroshima-style.

Mmm… Hiroshima style…

I’ve had Hiroshima-style once. In Tokyo, actually. My friend asked me to eat lunch with him while he was on break, so he took me to this real home-style place. I actually thought we were going to someone’s house until we stepped inside… and it was an absolutely fantastic bowl of tsukemen as well. There’s something about the sesame flavor in Japan that tastes much better than here.

While tsukemen is almost always offered at ramen places here in LA, I don’t think I’ll ever get Hiroshima-style. (There is a place called Ikemen that serves a great Italian-fusion tsukemen that uses basil and tomatoes, but it’s in Hollywood and traffic is always terrible if you want to go there, not to mention the horrible parking situation. This is the pain of living in LA.)

After, the hosts and some people sampled a pick from the guy who lectured about ramen, and a pick from the guy who lectured about tsukemen. The tsukemen store being introduced was actually backed by the guy who gave the lecture on tsukemen. And I think he was the comedy partner of the guy with the hat and the bow tie.

I think they should use this pairing more often.

HEY WAIT THAT’S NOT THE DIPPING BROTH

In the end they voted for the tsukemen over the ramen. I don’t know how I feel about that. They are similar, but they are also quite different. Maybe they should throw in Mentaiko pasta as a contender?

I also thought Sayaka was a vegetarian. Idol life must be hard on her.

Noooo Yui come back ;_;

Maaaaaaaaannnnn

I was hoping that maybe there was some contractual stuff so that Yui had to stay to the end of the show. Guess I was wrong, as the intro says she’s transferring out. Well. That sucks. I like Yui’s dry humor and it’s a shame she’s leaving from this show.

Also the return of Sayaka’s musical power hour.

Not as good as the one from the first season, but good effort.

It’d be nice if this became a “thing.” Like you’re at an NMB concert and Sayaka sets up her guitar and you’re thinking “Ohhhhh snap, here comes Jungle Gym!” but instead she surprises you with a comedy routine. I’d love that.

Man, I do love me some humor. I’m so happy that the fruits of my labor in studying Japanese is the ability to enjoy humor from the heart in a completely different manner and style.

That sounded really cheesy. Oh well.

Ripopo-mama comes to harass the club members and leave.

I’m liking Ripopo more and more. Her personality is really original and as we saw in the last manzai she offers something different when it comes to comedy. She does deadpan better than Yui. Can you imagine if she was Honma-yan?

Something about an Apron club…

Hey look, it’s some new blood! Team M’s Azuma Yuki and Team B2′s Muro Kanako!

I have no idea what was going on. I just know that their acting was terrible. It was more terrible than everyone else, and that’s saying a lot because it’s not like the other cast members are good to begin with. I know they’re young’uns but I feel like I had better acting chops when I had to do skits in junior high for English class.

The cast is still hueg! HUEG!

Fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-chan and Akarin join us for oogiri.

I took this screenshot because I think Fuuchan looks like a granny with that apron.

The theme was “Housewife you don’t want to come back to.” There were some surprises here and there, Muro had a joke about how she didn’t answer the phone because she was too busy having an affair, Azuma made a joke about whether you want rice, or rice, or rice. (There are several words for rice in Japanese: Kome, Meshi, Gohan.) So at least the newbies had a good showing.

Milky raising her hand and Gotou saying “Are you trying to flag down a taxi?”

Milky fails as usual, but she gets a pass because she’s Milky. This reminds me of the late Acchan-era where she wouldn’t do anything but she’d still be asked about anything and everything and was pretty much forgiven. I really dislike that. Milky’s good in more free-talking scenarios, but lately her oogiri has been lacking and she’s just been covered time and time again by Gotou.

Maachun needs no covering. She does need money, however.

Also interesting to note is Fuuchan. She bombed pretty hard, but there’s something about her that evokes Keicchi-like aura. As in, she’s a little bit silly and crazy but restrained. And then she smiles at you even though she failed her joke and she knows it. For some reason, I find that absolutely hilarious. It’s like a better version of Milky.

And of course Nana bombs afterward too. Her post-talk banter with Gotou is absolutely hilarious though. For being pretty bad at the actual joke, she’s really good at following it up.

Back to the story, I think they had to some 3-man drama or something or other.

Maachun in these situations is always good for a chuckle.

Shu’s obvious lack of enthusiasm also generated a few laughs.

And then we have some Akarin/Fuuchan manzai. But first…

*NOSEBLEED*

In a brief second, I have never seen Nana look so good. I don’t even know what she did, but she did it.

Well anyway…

The intro was a good start.

I’m actually really surprised with Fuuchan’s development. She’s becoming really funny. I didn’t like her at first because there was always just KenKoba’s “Fuuchan is watching” and she just stood there acting cute. But now she’s coming up with her own brand of humor and it works.

I think Akarin can tsukkomi well. She showed potential here but her emotions still aren’t vivid. Actually, you could say the same both.

The theme was Little Red Riding Hood, so at least I was able to understand the basics of it.

“Why are your eyes so big?”

“It’s because of my eyeliner. Please keep it a secret.”

That finishes off the episode. Then there’s a preview for the next episode and…

Wow! Haru! She looks kinda old now.

Fresh Lemon naritai? No.

Not looking forward to the lemon. Unlike NMB who constantly has to innovate themselves in comedy as Fuuchan is demonstrating, Lemon sticks to the same tired routine about how she wants to be a lemon. Meh. Bring back Yui.

No tears from this kid

You’ll notice a distinct lack of election coverage on my blog.

To be honest, I don’t really care about the election. My interest in AKB has decreased that much.

I guess it’s cool that there were some surprises here and there, like Sasshi being #1. What the heck? So much for her “punishment.” Kinda weird when your top is not even AKB but HKT.

“But don’t you care about NMB?”

I do, but I don’t care about their relation to AKB. I just like NMB being NMB and doing NMB activities. Back in the day, I remember thinking that I wanted Sayaka in Senbatsu, but now it doesn’t even feel right to me.

For me, there’s a type of music that I like because I have an emotional attachment to it. It could be the theme song for a drama that evokes memories of the more powerful scenes, or it could even just be background music for an RPG that calls to mind both the story and the nostalgia of my childhood., or For AKB, it was AKBingo and the ensuing relationship it had with my Japanese studies. But AKBingo started to bore me and I stopped listening to the songs. And without that emotional anchor, I don’t feel like the songs really stick to my heart anymore.

With that said, when it comes to the election, it’s NMB as compared with AKB, but I would rather just see NMB by themselves. I don’t even know anybody in HKT or SKE anymore, and to me it seems like the top AKB people don’t even appear on the shows I like anyway. It’s similar to how the NMB’s song ranking differed from their songs in AKB’s song ranking, because NMB fans are different and want different things compared to the all-inclusive fans.

Oh god. #85?! That’s a long way down!

My mindset is completely different than last year, when I actually went. Well, that time, because I went, I felt like I had a duty to report to everyone. On top of that, I actually had to sit there and be there, and when you listen to so many girls cry for all sorts of reasons, it does get to you. But this time, instead of watching the election, I fell asleep, so I didn’t have to subject myself to that.

On top of that, I still had an interest in AKB, and the times were pretty tense because of the whole new generation vs. old generation rivalry that was heating up, and I knew almost all the storylines behind many of the members.

Well.

Times have changed.

It’s too bad my interest has waned that much…

B2 has spirit.

I’m still missing her.

Remember how I said I didn’t care about AKB?

I feel that now, since Yui left, I don’t care about her anymore. NMB Yui was awesome. What’s she gonna do in AKB? Wasn’t she cool in NMB? She was all funny and contributed really well to the singles and everything.

*sigh*

So anyway, I think this was footage from TV show where they went around during this performance. There’s a mixture of backstage stuff and performances.

For some reason I think they look better when they’re not all idol-ed out. Also Maachun with the chest out!

When they were practicing, it just occurred to me how they all actually look their age. It makes me wonder how powerful makeup is in Japanese society. Although, there’s always that Asian conundrum, adults look like kids, kids look like adults, and everyone shares clothing.

The way they’re dressed and the way they look here though, definitely takes me backs to my university days.

This scene did give me some chills.

I used to be a staff member at Anime Expo, and I used to know some of the higher-ups. And one thing I really miss about it is being backstage, or being part of event planning, managing, getting the group together, and accomplish goals. I really miss that atmosphere, and unfortunately I don’t think it’ll ever come back. It really sucks too, because I feel like I was on the verge of something, but because of problems here and there, I had to give it up.

It’s the same kind of atmosphere here, when I see the team getting prepped and getting ready to deliver a performance. I really miss that. For being introverted, I really like event planning. And I was even the manager.

The HA! outfits are still one of my favorite outfits. I still would rank Doryoku no Shizuku as #1 though.

I was actually somewhat surprised with most of the perfomances. When I watch it, I feel like their production values could use just a little boost and they would be phenomenal.

On top of that, I like the concert venue too. The best concert I’ve ever attended (and probably will ever attend) was Utada Hikaru’s concert at the House of Blues. World class talent on a small stage. That memory will forever live on.

When I watch the dome concerts, they’re just cavernous. It’s just not the same.

Team B2!

One thing I’ve ignored is how the teams interact with each other. It was nice to see things like Milky fawning over a 4th gen, or even the MCs when B2 took jabs at M. We’re so used to everything being scripted on TV, it’s nice to see what goes on backstage sometimes, to know that it’s not all senbatsu all the time.

And Maachun doing some funny business.

As for the performances, I most appreciated Fuyu Shogun and Baatari Go!

That’s a little too much chest pumping for my liking, though.

Fuuchan has really grown on me. At first I knew her because of her terrible acting, her lengthy intro, and because Fuuchan is watching. Now it seems like she’s gaining a dimension in humor and seems to have a much warmer aura. She leads Fuyu Shogun and does it with style.

The other thing about Fuyu Shogun is that Hitomin actually shows up as an idol. She looks good in that role. Wonder if she’s just going to continue pursuing her dream of being a entertainer.

Get pumped.

Baatari go was one of the sleeper NMB songs for me. I’ve never seen it performed until now… and it was awesome. I love the energy, and they were really sharp with their performance. I feel like these are the kinds of songs that fit really well in ensembles.

Speaking of which, I really appreciate that in this concert, they perform full versions of all the songs. None of this TV-style, only half of the song performance, but a full on performance from the start. I really appreciate that, and it gives the feeling that it’s really a concert and not a marketing tool.

And they also had multi-team formations for some of the singles, so in that sense it was also pretty original.

Lastly, there’s always the side where they show people get injured or working hard. To me, that hurts.

The reason why it hurts, though, is because there’s this belief that that shows that they’re working hard. I don’t know about that. I’d rather enjoy a performance where they’re fully rested and relaxed instead of battling injuries and going to the ER because of exhaustion.

Kanakichi inhales this air afterward, then she starts talking like Nana.

I do see some good in this concert. Maybe I can dream that they come to the US. Once I hit 30, though, I’m not sure that I’ll stick with this, unfortunately…

Ganbarimaachun.

Sensei!

I can’t believe this season is almost over already. This show has been really instrumental for me to get back into NMB, it’s something I can sit back and relax and enjoy. If they don’t get a 3rd season, I do hope they get something else to replace this show. I’d still love a new Naniwa Nadeshiko, or at least something in that vein.

There’s none.

There was some really strange thing in the beginning where Miru communicated in terms of flowers.

You want to talk about cultural barriers, well, there’s a huge one right there. It’s already hard enough getting used to humorous Senryu and Haiku, and now this, well…

This kid also showed up.

Haru appears and what happens is an “impromptu” manzai.

That reminds me of this one comic, Azumanga Daiou. In the beginning, they announce a transfer student is coming from Osaka. When she shows up, one of the other students starts chastising her. “You’re not really from Osaka. You don’t even have Takoyaki in your bento.” Finally, she gets the hint and says “Nande yanen,” causing the chastising student to be overjoyed at receiving a tsukkomi.

That took me forever to understand. I think I saw that episode over 10 years ago. I just understood that part 2 years ago.

It makes me wonder if people actually do this in real life.

My reaction at the lemon.

Lemon’s here but I’m still indifferent. The strange thing is that she’s actually really quite clever, always scores highs on tests, etc. It’s too bad her entertainment IQ is still very low.

Princess Monoboke!

I love improv comedy with props. I’m not sure why. I remember reading that humor had something to do with the unexpected, and I suppose that it’s a lot easier to understand when things are being used incorrectly in a completely understandable way.

There’s something about Ripopo’s reactions that are charming.

#1 joke bomber

Guess who returns for more failure…?

First she’s gotta get her prop on stage.

Way to tsukkomi the hose, lol.

I think Nana had good ideas but her execution is terrible.

There are ways to fail, and then there are ways to humorously fail, and Nana’s locked that one down.

Still, I’m hoping she figures it out one day.

We also get less story and another NMB talk.

Muro is supposedly the “sexy” one and she’s only 16.

That made me think about how strong their makeup techniques are. Again. Why can’t they look their age?

Then again, the concept of sexy in Japan is different than here in the US. I don’t completely understand or subscribe to it yet…

Fuuchan wants to be the next Shakure O’Neal

The manzai portion was okay. Again, I’m not seeing real improvement by Milky, so it does kinda seem to be trapped. The only thing NMB can do is to either get better or change up the cast so that it seems original.

Meccha Macho!

It’s funny though, whenever Milky hums a tune, it does manage to get stuck in my head. Before, it was Joy to the World.

This time, it’s Sukima Switch.

The next, and unfortunately final episode, looks godlike.

It’s like if Michael Jordan in his prime showed up at your local basketball court to play pickup.

What is the legendary Sanma doing on a 3AM idol comedy show?

I have no idea. But it’s gonna be awesome. It looks like he’s gonna up the game of everyone by so much. And I though Gotou was good.

Lastly…

Geinin Za Moooobi

It could be that I like this because it has NMB but the trailer actually does look decent and dramatic.

Who knows, though. I could be disappointed like I was with Moshidora. And that after Acchan does Moshidora her acting improves immensely. She’s awesome in Kasuka na Kanojo.

Come on Geinin movie, don’t be bad like Moshidora!

Speaking of which, I still need to watch that HA! movie version…