July | 2010 | Aigons' Domain Ver.2.0

So remember a little while back I mentioned that for one of AKB48’s upcoming singles, we would be able to vote which song out of 10 would be chosen as the accompanying track? Well, the voting has started, and if you use the Ameba Pigg program, you can vote for your favorite group quite easily.

All you have to do is accumulate points called “ame” points, which you can get a number of ways quite easily, and buy the item associated with the group you want to vote for. The items themselves are different colored flower arrangements, with each one pertaining to one of the groups to be possibly selected. They also only cost 10 ame points a piece, so if you have a ton of points, that translates to a ton of votes for your group of choice.

I myself am voting for the group “Cosmos Tokei”, which has 3 of my favorite members in it (Yuki Kashiwagi, Reina Fujie, Rino Sashihara), and their song is supposed to be a folk-style song, so that’s pretty cool. So far, I’ve only managed to get 8 votes though, as you can see here:

Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more by the time this ends.

By the way, you have until July 29th to buy these items. So, AKB48 fans, get out there and support your favorite Pigg group!!

Without SOMETHING interesting happening in the world of AKB48. I woke up this morning to a practical whirlwind new AKB news and announcements, courtesy of of their latest concert at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.

First up was the announcement that longtime Team K member Ono Erena would be graduating to pursue a career in acting. Despite never being one of my favorite members, its a defenite loss to the group for such a popular member to leave. Its by no means surprising though, as her stature in the group has been decreasing dramatically over the last little while.

The second piece of news comes in the form of a competition to see which song out a group of 10 songs will be the c/w track on the 18th single(not the one coming out next month, the one after that…yeah, I guess AKB is always thinking ahead. The songs, which have the girls split into multiple groups, so essentially its a whole bunch of unit songs. The songs, and groups, are as follows:

From Stage48:

—UNITS— (Unit name / Song title | Members)

1) love company: Thristy
(Oshima, Sato A, Nakaya, Miyazaki)

2) MINT: 君について (Kimi ni tsuite)
(Maeda At, Katayama, Kasai, Nito, Matsu S)

A little painful love song*

3) U: Delete
(Itano, Masuda, Komori, Kobayashi, Hirajima, Matsubara, Oya)

An active dance number*

4) ロリータピーターパン (Lolita Peter Pan): 天使のフルーツパフェ (Tenshi no Fruit Parfait)
(Watanabe, Ishida)

A conventional idol song*

5) EYES: NEXT HEAVEN
(Takahashi, Nakatsuka, Nakagawa, Oku, Iwasa, Uchida)

An extreme anime song*

6) ガールズ・ING (GIRLS·ing): 嘘でしょ？(Uso desho?)
(Kuramochi, Kojima, Umeda, Kikuchi, Sato N, Chikano)

A high-spirited pop tune singing about girls’ feelings*

7) コスモス時計 (Cosmos Tokei): メリーゴーランド (Merry Go Round)
(Kashiwagi, Fujie, Sashihara, Maeda Am)

A folk song with a beautiful melody*

8 ) 尺が欲しい (Shaku ga Hoshii): 恋愛運上昇隊 (Renaiun Joshotai)
(Minegishi, Takajo, Oota, Nonaka, Tanabe)

A planned thing? still in the works maybe?*

9) 保健室 (Houkenshitsu): バラ色かうんとだうん(Barairo Countdown)
(Miyazawa, Kitahara, Sato S, Nakata, Yonezawa, Suzuki)

An energetic song using the beats of the excited feelings you have until your love comes true*

10) サリー秋元 (Saly Akimoto): カムチャッカ渡り鳥慕情 (Kamuchakka Wataridori Bojou)
(Akimoto)

An enka song making the best use out of Akimoto Sayaka’s vocal skills*

Some of the units actually look quite good, but did they seriously have to give Sayaka ANOTHER solo song? Of course, my fav of these units, and the one I’ll be rooting for is unit 7, Cosmos Tokei, seeing as its not only Yukirin’s unit, but it also has Sashihara Rino and Fujie Reina, two of my top favorite members. Apparently, this little competition has some sort of relationship to the Ameba Pigg online service (I’m sure I don’t have to explain what that is, as most AKB fans are well acquainted with it), and it looks like promotions for the groups will be done through Pigg. The only thing I am seeing in regards to this whole thing is that their is no way there going to pass up milking the fans of all their worth when it comes to these 10 new songs. One song may be crowned a winner out of all of these, but I think it would be cool if we got an album or something with all 10 songs on it. Come on, do you really think Aki-P and the AKB48 management will pass up such a chance to make another boatload of cash? I think not.

The third and final big piece of news has to do with the 19th single. Yeah, the 17th single isn’t even out yet, and were already getting news on both the 18th AND 19th singles. For the 19th single, the Senbatsu lineup will be decided not by voting or just management decision. Nope, this time, it will be decided by a Rock-Paper-Scissors tourney to be held at Budoukan on September 21st.

Yeah, I’m not joking about this one. Seriously.

Its an interesting concept, I’ll give it that. But I’m just not sure If its the right thing to do. On the plus side, it will likely give us the most diverse senbatsu lineup yet, bearing in mind they don’t rig it somehow so only the popular girls win. This might be a great chance for some of the lesser-known girls to get a chance at the spotlight.

On the other hand, I kinda think this idea is stupid. Ridiculously stupid. But hey, it might be something that works out for the best…right?

Anyway, as you can see, its been a busy day in the AKB48 world. Lets hope they tone things down for awhile and not throw more surprises at us for at least a little while. This stuff is plenty to take in as it is.