Event / Concert AKB48 41st Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo (June 6, 2015)

Takamina's speech was brilliant

 

Here are my reactions to this year's SSK (they're just based on my favorites and some other members that stood out):

Spoiler

Positives

Sashihara Rino: Unlike in 2013, I didn't care if Sasshi got #1 or not (even though I was rooting for someone else to be #1). However, the number of votes was a different story, if Sasshi's reaction didn't speak for itself. It's a huge feat to get almost 200k votes, let alone widening the margin between #1 and #2 by 30k votes. Congrats to Sasshi and her fans.

Kashiwagi Yuki & Watanabe Mayu: Mayuyu was my original choice for #1 simply because I believed she had the capacity of achieving #1 for the second time in a row. However, I slowly started to believe Yukirin had the chance to get the center spot when the preliminary results came out. When Mayuyu was announced as 3rd and Yukirin as 2nd, I was a tad bit disappointed that not one of them was #1. I was pleasantly surprised by the close margin of votes between the two though. It confirmed the belief that Mayuyu and Yukirin are officially friendly rivals now. Also, Mayuyu's reactions throughout the whole event were just hilarious, and she really shined as a beautiful, mature young woman during her speech.

Takahashi Minami: I was hoping she would be at least in Kami 7, if not at least top 5, at the beginning of the SSK period. I was still worried about the amount of stress she was getting coming into the election, but as a fan, I could only hope that she knew what she was doing. Turned out I didn't need to worry so much - a higher rank than expected and ending her last SSK experience on a high note. The fact that there were a lot of devoted oshis pushing their fellow oshis to vote for Takamina and that I ended up voting for her myself really made me proud to be a Takamina oshi and a part of the AKB & Takamina fandoms in general.

Takamina's encouragements to Yuihan and her funny reactions when the camera switched to her were awesome as well.

Sadly, the Atsumina moment got ruined for me by the way FujiTV broadcasted it. I think I'll have to watch it somewhere else.

Yamamoto Sayaka: Even though she didn't go up in rankings, she still delivered her speech with style and a smile. That's just one of the many reasons why I respect Sayanee.

Miyawaki Sakura: I expected to her to have enough potential to break into Kami 7 and she had, so I'm proud of her. I won't say anything about her speech.

Miyazawa Sae: I was also happy that she increased in ranking and got out of the 10-12 spot that she has been in for a while.

Yokoyama Yui: I was really glad that our next Sou-chan increased in ranking; it seems like everyone is starting to respect her as a leader and figure of authority within AKB now. As much as I enjoyed her speech and her natural clumsiness emerging during it, I felt that Takamina handled her emotions during her speech a lot better than Yuihan did. Of course, she has grown and matured from the hyperventilating, short-of-breathing Yui from 2011 and 2012, but her speech delivery didn't really help portray her as a strong candidate for the next Soukantoku. I have high hopes that she will gain more confidence once Takamina leaves and she is officially in the position.

Kitahara Rie & Watanabe Miyuki: I'm glad that those two achieved getting back into senbatsu again. I especially was hoping for Milky to get back into Senbatsu after her speech last year.

Matsumura Kaori: This was also another pleasant surprise. I enjoyed her quirkiness during her speech last year, but this year was just even better.

Muto Tomu: I must admit I still don't know 12th gen and beyond that well (besides Hillary and Karen), but it was nice to see an AKB new gen break into senbatsu here. Her speech was annoyingly long, but oh well.

Minegishi Minami: I'm happy that she rose in ranking, but it would have been nice if she was in Senbatsu again along with Takamina.

Kojina Yui: I usually don't follow any of the HKT girls, but no words can describe how awesome that speech is.


Negatives

Matsui Jurina: I'm not sure how I feel about her rank and her reaction, tbh. It's still a continuous love-and-hate cycle for me.

Shimazaki Haruka: Now this was not a speech I was expecting from someone like Paruru. Her short speeches and salty attitude during SSK were what made her appealing in the first place. I won't be surprised if she starts changing her personality in the next future.

Suda Akari: I am not a big fan of Dasu or her outgoing personality, but that huge dramatic drop out of Senbatsu was surprising, and Dasu definitely didn't take it that well. This kind of reaction was why I was hoping Takamina didn't join SSK this year in the first place (although she avoided that situation, thank goodness). I do hope Dasu considers participating in SSK again next year to make some sort of comeback.

Hirata Rina & Nozawa Rena: I was a bit sad that the English speakers didn't rank. I was really hoping at least one of them could rank at least once. Prove to the world that AKB and Japan in general is open to being multi-cultural. Hopefully they still keep holding onto their hope after this year.

Iwasa Misaki, Maeda Ami, Iwata Karen, and more from 4th-12th gen: Many of my old AKB favorites haven't ranked this year. AKB48 is starting to feel a lot different than what I was used to for the past several years.

Team 8: They're not ranked either? *sigh*

And finally, everyone has spoken what I needed to say about Fuji TV. They're just ridiculous.

Overall, out of all of the years I've watched SSK live, I don't remember a particular year where it was a wild, unpredictable roller coaster such as this one. I think I'll need more than a year to take a break from all the intense drama.

Edit: I just saw Takamina's speech translation. Now I'm wishing she was our school's commencement speaker.

 

To those who believe it is a popularity contest- my opinion may offer a different perspective to consider. I’ll put a little more detailed view in the spoiler and sum up below as well as some other thoughts regarding the election:
and sorry if this topic has been covered a lot already in the past. I have been a fan since the release of heavy rotation, but rarely get active on boards and only occasionly lurk a little- so I hope this post isn't just useless repeat of past topics:

Spoiler

The election is not a popularity contest. It does not claim to be. If one girl has 10 fans that can only each vote once and another girl only has one fan who buys 50 votes, the girl with 10 fans is still more popular. This event is more like a once a year chance for fans to influence the outcome of the single depending on how much they choose to fund it. My first instinct may be that there are many things wrong with this concept, but then again there are also some factors that make the election feel more reasonable to me:
If fans get the chance to vote on an outcome for members in songs/MV, then shouldn’t the opportunity go to those who actually buy the groups CDs? (Opposed to those who just illegally download AKB stuff.)
This is just once a year and perhaps the following is a bit too much of an assumption on my part but- I think it is safe to say that the members do not make nearly as much $ as other music groups, even groups that have nowhere near the success of the 48 groups, considering how many members there are and not to mention how huge the staff is behind the scenes.
I know there are other significant thoughts to have crossed my mind in the past about this, but I think I stated the main ones and I’m fighting through the cobwebs in my mind after pulling an all-nighter to watch the election; so I’ll just leave this at that.

The election is not a popularity contest and as far as I know it doesn’t claim to be one. A girl with 10 votes from 10 fans is more popular than a girl with 50 votes from 1 fan. It is a chance for fans (who can and are willing) to invest money in affecting the outcome of a single- which I imagine greatly helps to keep the group afloat considering the amount of members, staff, events, etc.)
On another note: it pains me to see members’ sadness when they don’t rank or drop, however they also knew the risks of such things when they chose to enter the election (at least in recent years.) Regardless, I hope that all members are reminded- ranking or not, they should feel good to know that at the very least management sees something special in them; otherwise they would have never passed the auditions in the first place- over who knows how many others that tried and never made it into the group(s.)
So, would it be interesting if every single was an election? I would guess that not nearly as many people would shell out outrageous amounts of $ for voting; thus every single would probably have more unexpected rankings. How about different kinds of voting methods for different singles such as free vote method- somehow everyone could vote for free and a charity method in which the top 16 people who give the most to charity can each name a member they want in the single?

 

Actually, none of the 2nd Draft girls are official members of ANY of the groups, KKS or full members. Yet. So yes NGT had all of their members rank. All 2 of them.

AS for thoughts on the election. I will need a bit more time to digest it.

But 652........ Yeah I am salty over this number.

 

Sorry, I guess I don't know how to correctly add spoiler buttons. I hope its ok.

 

@Tepid-Prince You can fix your spoiler tag by just changing the bracket at the end of your first tag: [SPOILER} to [SPOILER].

And yeah, NGT represent! Go Kitarie and Yukirin!

 

Thank you.

 

The amount hate in this tread is so worrying. Some tries to give *poor* excuse why their oshi fell out of kami7. Well, sousenkyo is NEVER a popularity contest. If so, Minami will forever be in top5 lol.

Anyway...

Happy moment:
-Kitarie TOP 11! And look at her votes count!! She is so awesome in HS event and she has successfully made herself into top3 of my favorites. The only one in 48G who has acting talent. Good at MCs and variety. Her hardwork has paid off. Now, crush that young gen!! Next year you will be #7. Yeah beat everyone!!

2. Miichan. Okay, I honestly kInda have a mixed feeling. She looks not satisfied. I am too. I was hoping her to be at least UG center. It was so cloose !!! But I am happy she climbs lots of ranks and gets a lot of votes

AND FINALY....

OUR QUEEN TAKAMINA
wohoo!! I have mixed feelings for this .. Hoping her to be at # 3 .... but ATSUMINA power kinda makes up for it. So sweet. Their bond is so strong!! Takamina speech was SO SELFLESS. it was so motivating that the members looks up when spoke about "i know hardwork isnt a warranty to give you reward, but i want those who work hard to be rewarded.", etc. Yeah people thought she was naive to say hardwork will always be rewarded. But she said she " of course already knew it all along". It was sO motivating. And hurting so much. Best speech ever.
TOTAL VOTE COUNT: 137K ＋＋＋＋
Aww so high

And SASSHI! Oh girl, I was so happy when she was called. She has proven herself once again!!!


I am also happy because We Takamina oshi had our first line sousenkyo live chat by LINE. It was so entertaining that we couldnt stop talking since the start of the day till the end of the day!! I left the chat in the afternoon for half an hour and there are like 200+++ unread chat LOL. We have same like & dislike so that is why we can make very fun comments picking at each other. It was so sweet

Sad:
-Some Mayu fans says "Mayu is beaten because election was conducted in Fukuoka". WTH? Election so far has been conducted in Tokyo but Sasshi queen still managed to win one in 2013.

 

I'm very glad for......
...Suuchan, Milky and Sae (great spots)
...Takamina (a great farewell )
I'm glad for...
...Churi (she's one of my soft spots)
...Miichan (I can't help laughting every time I read someone saying he's relieved because Miichan didn't get back into senbatsu...like it was something everybody expected... The mere fact that she remains in the same zone is good enough for me)
...Sasshi (I prefer 100 times her as the #1 than Mayu...so I can live with it... )
...Paruru (glad that she didn't rank higher...)
I'm a bit sad for...
...Yui (I expected a better rank)
...Umechan (56 is far from anywhere)

 

yeah i posted Takamina's speech translation earlier if i'm not wrong and now can't seem to find my post
i'll post it again , i'll spoiler it this time

it's very awesome , she has a talent in speeches lol ....... enjoy reading

Spoiler

credit :-http://dopplerrific.tumblr.com/post/120879440404/takahashi-minamis-ssk-speech

 

Finally got around to watching this event. To think you need 81k votes to get into kami-7 WoWZA. Also, Nishino MIki didn't rank weird

 

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2053957/full/?ref_cd=tw
Atsumina moment in sousenkyo beats anything else

 

Sasshi apparently went directly from the throne to shoot AKB48 SHOW episode 75. It's a live special so the episode is already out.

http://48video.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-1705.html

The episode does a recap of the Sousenkyo.

 

You didn't really give any facts to argue against, you simply stated that you don't like elections because it's a popularity contest of votes. What are poeple supposed to say "No CKD you love sembatsu elections you just won't admit it" honestly it's just a pointless and not worthwhile arguement over nothing. If you want a debate give out something. I mean it's almost as bad as arguing that the dress is blue and black or white and brown.

 

^ I already gave out my debate, and a proper solution(s) for it, yet no one wants to listen and throw their money on another single...honestly, i doubt anyone cares about us fans anyway, except for chinese and japanese..

again, for anyone just pm me and we can argue debates there, unless no one wants to give a damn and just bully me more, throwing me to the side

 

Takamina got named "Speech Queen" based on voting

 

Although the vote counts didn't drop necessarily, I wonder if they would be better distributed if Ricchan, Rina, KojiHaru, and Rena participated. I have a feeling that Sasshi/Yukirin/Mayu's votes may be lower in that scenario, but I could be completely wrong.

 

It's amazing how many people get amnesia when it comes to discussing Sakura's rise.

I liked her speech, it reminded of the type of passionate and ambitious speeches you see from SKE. I agree, she has the deep and calculating personality you wouldn't expect from someone with her sugary sweet looks and it's quite different from other girls in general. I think she gets misunderstood as being insincere and two faced because of this... well that, and Anti-goggles are every bit as tinted as Oshi-goggles. She comes off rather mature and intelligent for her age as well. That's what makes her so interesting and sets her apart from the other "cute is basically my talent" types.

Looks like the Paruru/Sakura rivalry wasn't quite as artificial as I thought. Mgmt called it on this one. It'll be quite interesting to see how this plays out in future SSK's.

 

and i'm telling you, what you gave is not a debate of any kind.

 

yes it is, you just don't want to accept it