AKB48: Mechaike Sports Festival Part 1

I can’t even think of a witty subtitle for this entry.

So, the premise of this appearance on Mechaike is that all the girls are gathered together in a surprise fashion, then they all take a test. Or at least they usually take a test to see how dumb/smart everyone is, and many laughs are had.

SURPRISE

I don’t know how often they do this, but apparently they did one with Momusu 10 years ago. As usual, they have the setup where they trick people and then voila, they’re on the show.

I remember this pair. They were such a nice pair.

I remember the old days when Sashihara was mid-tier and was always paired with Kitahara. What happened to Kitahara, is she still around? What does she do?

WHO ARE YOU?

What the heck happened to Jurina? When did she become really pretty looking? Like… whoa. Plus she seems like she’s really matured in terms of screen presence. Wow. If I didn’t know her back in the days and just started watching she might have been Nagisa 2.

You had to answer the question and run through the right door. She guessed wrong… twice.

I still think she’s awesome.

For some reason, Ricchan still doesn’t strike me as dumb. I think she says dumb things, but she’s not dumb, if that makes any sense.

However, unlike last time where they usually give exams, this time we’re going on the athletic fields of justice for a PE competition. Or whatever it’s called. Athletic festival?

What a Cool we are? What the hell is this?

Watching it was pretty nostalgic. They start warming up with morning stretches and they’re supposed to spread their arms out to keep their distance from everyone to stretch. Just seeing them do that took me back to the good ol’ days of PE in grade school.

They also marched pretty funny.

While they did their stretches, they would read profiles for everyone.

Yui used to be a baller. Makes her extra cool in my book.

I love the cockiness. “Specialty: Everything. Weakness: None.”

And just to screw with everyone, they picked Ricchan and Kojiharu to read the opening speech. It would be fine if they could read the kanji… I’m not sure if I’m allowed to laugh because I can’t read much of it anyway.

Kawaei mis-read the first two characters as “ware R” because the 々 looks like R. It’s supposed to be “ware ware”, or in English, “We”.

I’ve felt recently that the top level of AKB doesn’t feel like idols anymore. They feel like normal celebrities. There’s a big difference from people that are sort of rough and needing improvement like Nagisa, and someone top level like Yuuko, and it’s difficult to even view them in the same light. One of the reasons why I liked idols to begin with was because they weren’t the best at first and it’s fun to watch them get better.

On the other hand, some of the people at the top of AKB seem really mature. Mayuyu, especially, has grown on me as a celebrity.

SHE’S GOT THAT SERIOUS LOOK. SHE WANTS TO WIN.

JK YOU’RE SLOW

The first event was the 40m dash. It’s kinda weird to think that some of the top athletes in the NFL can run 100m in the time that these girls can run 40m. I mean, obviously that’s expected given that the NFL is composed of the best athletes in the US and I’m comparing them to untrained girls, but still, that difference surprises me. Humans are amazing, I suppose.

Sasshi racing Rena was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Okamura fell down and got back up and was still faster than Sasshi.

Also interesting to see Paruru get hella worked up when she lost. Here she was mad because Yukirin told her that she’d be alright because she sucks at running too, but then she just up and beats her in the race.

I’m glad that she did well and came out swinging.

I didn’t really expect Ricchan to be a good athlete, but she’s actually very capable. I still very much doubt that she’s that dumb.

Kojiharu laughing when she runs.

In a strange break-time, giant Akimoto comes out.

I don’t know why…

Next up is the high jump event.

Sayaka going out of control

I never did any track in high school, but I always wondered how to do a proper high jump, as well how high I would be able to jump. It doesn’t look like I’d be able to do well though. All the Olympians are jumping from one leg, and my one-legged jumps suck.

Mayuyu warmed up with what looked like an elbow drop.

Bye bye?

Bye bye.

Miichan getting pumped up.

I didn’t know who Gouriki was until I Googled her. I did see her before. In fact, she starred with Yuuko in Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu. I saw a lot of her ads on my trip to Japan and she seemed like had gotten cuter.

I also didn’t know she could dance really well. Miichan doesn’t do her justice.

Speaking of Miichan, I’m glad she’s back and healthy. The scandal and the reaction was utterly ridiculous and left a bad taste in my mouth. She seems happy and she seems back to her old self and I think the whole group is a lot better for it.

Back to high jumping, this time Kojiharu shows her incompetence.

The third event is a gymnastics move which is called “Saka Agari.” I don’t know what it is in English because this is the first time I heard about it.

Yuuko crushes it, just like she crushed all the other prior events.

Earlier, Paruru was saying that she practiced a lot when she was a kid so she would be able to do this.

One more chance, please

I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen her look frustrated. I think she’s better served acting like that then acting like a dull bored person.

Surprisingly, only 5 people are successful at this. Again, I wonder if I could do this. I probably can’t. I’m really fat now. Well, not that fat… but I dunno, I’m 200 lbs but I don’t look anywhere near it so I have no idea where it is.

Anyway, that’ll do it for now, I’ll wrap up the rest tomorrow.