If I were them, I'd never want to do a handshake tour again. It would be too scary for me. But of course, that's not really an option.

Yeah, all hail humanity..!

To me it doesn't really matter if the attacker was a fan or not (how can you be a fan and do this anyway?), because the action remains plain stupid. I was pretty surprised to find a tiny article about this in the newspaper today. According to that article, AKB48 was an exception in being an approachable group (giving handshake events), and now, of course, the management is considering if that still is a good idea. As they say, "one ill weed spoils a whole pot of pottage." Well, I hope for them they can still continue such events, if the two involved member aren't traumatized too much by this assault.

PS: I don't know how accurate that information from the newspaper really is, though. ^^

@Myo-Hwa

The guy, 24 year old Satoru Umeta was not a fan but hated idols and said Rina Kawaei's blog annoyed him so he wanted to punish her !

The problem is AKB's slogan is 'The Idols you can meet' plus a large part of their revenue comes from handshake events.
They feel that with increased security of course they dont want to let one psycho spoil it for everyone.

It was in fact even on the BBC news in the UK, the first time they have ever been mentioned here.

In France, they just talked about it online, not on TV, it's probably better. Some articles were accurate, but one used a SNSD pic instead of AKB (and they are called journalists .fustrated. ) and did some kind of "buzz" article, just for having more clicks.

so this topic is anything about AKB48 .. well i'm a big fan of AKB48  

@iamhardcore9

your favourite members are in your signature right ? Most of them are also my fav  .clap. 

It's kind of annoying to see so much journalist out there writing random stuff on the attack, especially the overseas ones (no offence). Even one of the girls said so themselves (on Google+ I think, I don't remember, I read it on Twitter a while ago) that they are shocked by what the media are writing about. Most of them (if not, all) only think about how well the article will be received, disregarding the girls' emotions and feelings, it's sick.

(I apologize for being so negative with this post... I ranted about it on Twitter as well but I thought perhaps this would be also be a good place to put this point out there about the world of journalism/media/whatever... Hope I'm not the only one who finds this thing disturbing...)

@takoyakirabu

I have to agree but remember many of those people know nothing about Japanese culture.
I fell in love with Japan and Japanese culture way back in 1980 and get tired of westerners who do not understand Japanese idols and always ask "How old are they" ?
I was not planning to run away with them !

@takoyakirabu

I totally agree with you. To be honest, I was a bit nervous by watching TV news, I was afraid they could talk about it (like they did for Miichan, they talked about it on radio apparently, because even my mother heard about it). But this time, they didn't, and it's better like that.
I was just waiting for an official explanation from the staff, to know what really happened and to the girls.

@tony
it's so true !! I'm often ashamed to live here. People are so close-minded to the point that you give up at trying to explain to them what it is about. Even in my family, I don't talk about Japan because they can't understand.

@tonymiller
I do understand that, which is why sometimes I just wish that people just stay quiet if they do not understand something, or even know a little bit of information about it. I mean, c'mon, an SNSD picture on article on AKB48?? Even a kid can do better than that...  .rage. 

And I hate how people in general just judge without understanding. I literally have to begin hiding my love for idols now because for some reason, in our world, a girl simply cannot like a girl idol group. As if it's a sin or something...   


@darksider59
Oh man, that Miichan issue (seemed so long ago now) annoyed me sooo much! Comparing the two issues then yeah, I'm glad the media kind of pulled back a bit... I heard the news even got onto the the BBC web? Or was it another news site? I don't remember much. But it was a big western news site.

The only thing I worried about was what they were going to do about the security now, and I'm glad that they've put in place stricter security measurements now. But somehow, putting them in the theaters seems... I don't know... out of place. I do hope management learned their lesson and starts taking security more seriously... .shy.

@takoyakirabu

Yes the news of the attack was on the BBC news in England...and they got the facts right !
It is just sad it is only the second time they have ever mentioned AKB, the first time being the Miichan scandal of course.
That hit me hard as Miichan has been my oshi since my beloved Acchan left but to be fair she did cut off her own hair because she was terrified Aki-P would throw her out...nobody made her do it, but as you know she is now Captain of Team 4 which shows the fans do not blame her for only being human.

AKB have a large female fanbase so there is nothing for you to worry about, I have a 37 year old Japanese friend who is female and married and she collects AKB gravure...hehe

@takoyakirabu
yeah they talked about it in a really bad gossip style "hey, look how crazy japanese idols are". Only one news (with humor) show that I watch talked about it correctly. They talked about it with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (she was a guest to talk about her concert in Paris) and they asked why Miichan did that and asked about idol rules.

For what I've read, front seats in theatre are closed for the moment and they added metal detectors. I think it was needed after this and it will probably mentaly help the girls who perform.
I also read that staff in events are part time workers, so they don't have any real abilities in security domain.

Just wanted to say that the Sousenkyo is in about 5 hours (American time, I believe). Any info on it can be looked up because I'm finding it kind of hard, but I can't wait. I don't about you guys, but the anticipation is killing me. In the prelims, Sasshi was so far ahead of Mayuyu, and even though I'm not a complete Mayuyu oshi, I wanted to see her win more than Sasshi (not hating or anything). Also, I'm really proud of Sayanee and Jurina and Takamina, but I feel bad for Kojiharu. 

But enough of that long post. The point is, the big day is coming, with Yuko's graduation soon after. The Sousenkyo will be live streaming on a few websites, and I think on FujiTV, but you guys will have to also look that up. Just wanted to share this with the other AKB48 fans here.

By the way, my kami-oshi is Oshima Yuko, and I wouldn't mind it if Sayanee won. Or a few others but that's a lot of work so I won't be listing them. Who do you guys want to win?

Hi guys

It's my first post in the AKB48 thread yeah !!! And it's going to be my first sousenkyo too ! I'm a really new AKB48 fan so I don't know a lot about them. I just start to be interested in the idol band since I'm in Japan but for the moment I really like Mayuyu :D

EDIT: btw It has started :D

The results are here! Mayuyu came out on top!!! Unbelievable! I'm pretty happy with these results, though. Please check STAGE48.net for the preliminary and final results of the election. It was a tense one, too, and as my first, I'm glad I was able to watch the announcement of senbatsu. For the next generation of AKB and the 48 groups, this election is a good representation of what it will be about, with a few exceptions. No graduation announcements, either!

Kojiharu's trolling freaked me out so much I almost knocked my grandma over (she was walking behind me)... I was very satisfied with this year's sousenkyo. It was very intense. Although a majority of the girls ranked lower than what I expected and had hoped for (worst was seeing Milky ranking out of senbatsu and feeling that heartbreak listening to her speech, although it was expected due to her scandal), there were many good surprises to make up for it, like Ikoma's ranking in senbatsu + her priceless reaction and Kawaei's surprise appearance etc.

Now, if every sousenkyo can be as exciting as this, I wouldn't mind spending 3 hours to finish a dinner that could've took half an hour to eat :3 (Because eating dinner and watching sousenkyo at the same time is an extremely difficult task)

Here are the full results people


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I was sad my oshi Miichan only made 22nd and the Under Girls but I am happy Mayuyu won.

@babaloued
It was also my first Sousenkyo as well, at least the first that I closely follow.

I'm happy for Mayuyu since she's the girl whom I discovered AKB. And very happy for Jurina too (huge gap in votes between her and Rena this year). Sayanee is in the kami7 It's really cool but I'm sad for Milky. Fans sort of punished her for this stupid so called "scandal" (by a stupid magazine, there are no proofs at all. She couldn't tell the truth to the fans about it[a fan asked her indirectly about it in a handshake few days after and she said to not believed medias but staff told her to not make any statement].

I'm also happy for Aya Shibata +2 this year.

I'm happy that Mayuyu won!! Last year I was crushed when Yuko didn't win. Yuko and Mayu are both my fav members. I'm not so into AKB48 but election is always fun. I'm glad that Sayaka's rank jump a lot as well....

Well, I can't say that I'm happy because of the results, anyway congrats to Mayu. I was expecting #1 for my kami-oshi Sasshi, it's pretty natural, I guess. However I like places of my other oshis, especially Ikomachan's <3 So funny when she was confused and thought it was a mistake that she's #14  .clap. 
Also 'minna, do you know who I am?' it was so funny. I'm happy for HKT girls, ma babies <3 Kinda sorry for Mariyagi.

For some who couldn't watch the sousenkyo, here what I recorded. I got some problems but enjoy it.

AKB48 - 37th シングル選抜総選挙 (37th single, Senbatsu Sousenkyo).mp4 9.23 GB
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Btw, you can find torrent on the internet if you want it with a better quality

EDIT: Oshima Yuko sotsugyou starts in 10 min
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I missed her graduation!!! No! My Kami-oshi graduated and I missed it. By chance, did anyone record it?

I'm still recording since 1pm (JST). 8 hours streaming but I've recorded almost 4 hours and a half of PV just before the real show start. It has just finished...

Oh ok thanks so much! I just realized it, but you're always on top of things when it comes to downloading stuff. Thanks again!

I removed first part where there were only PV

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大島 優子の卒業@ニコニコ生放送 (Oshima Yuko graduation@NicoNico Nama Housou).mp4 4.14 GB
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I directly edited the video instead of encoding it beforehands, because I couldn't  watch it with vlc just after I recorded it... (it's a mystery), and sound is little bit crappy. Turn down bass for your ears :D 
I'm currently doing my "normal" way but as the raw file is 10Go, it's a little bit long.