How did you discover AKB48?

Hello everyone, [hi] this is my first post here but I have joined this forum close to a year ago for some reason that I have forgotten.
I first heard of AKB48 during their debut single but did not think much of it at the time. (At that time I was more into Morning Musume and other Japanese artists at the time.) I still downloaded almost all of their singles and had them playing in my playlist but I didn't pay too much attention to them as a group. I also downloaded some of their TV shows such as AKBingo and see them from time to time in variety shows I watch, but I haven't started to get really into them until they were announced as a special guest at Anime Expo 2010. After hearing that they were to be special guests at an expo very close to where I live, I started to watch all sorts of shows (such as AKBingo, Shukan AKB, stages, concerts, dramas, etc.) and got hooked since.
Also it was right after AX that I started buying tons of merchandise (which is not doing too well for my wallet. ).
So from now I will try to start posting more.

 

I met a friend of mine two summers ago and she introduced me to AKB48. She showed me some concerts and youtube links and sent me some of the stage albums to listen to. I was interested and listened to the albums a lot on my ipod but really intimidated to go beyond that because I'm really bad with names and faces. I didn't really put any effort into it until I heard they were going to AX and then I set out to start learning everyone's name and face. I'm still pretty bad but I know a lot more than I did before

 

This has been 3 years when i first heard about them. There was an article about idol groups in one anime mag i had ended up reading while being horribly bored. It first talked about idols in general after moving into Morning Musume's history and after that it had all this drama about 48 members in a different group.
I went to look at AKB's wiki page after that and after I saw a picture of all the girls I was like "wow so many.. everybody looks the same and boring.." and even a visit to youtube for aitakatta pv didn't make me feel like i should pay any attention to them.

So not until last spring, when i got lost to one idol fan blog that had a brief introductions for all the members.. i got interested in them and decided to download ponytail to shushu. That being played on my ipod for couple of months didn't yet make me a fan until heavy rotation pv was out. After that i wanted to get more into them

So i'm quite a new fan still =)

 

Hm... I was starting to like H!P with °C-ute, BK and W. When I was watching a BK's PV I think, I saw "Aitakatta" in recommendations. So I just checked. That was during September 2006... 4years ago, already. O_O

 

I heard about in a blog when they released Oogoe Diamond, didn´t like at first, but after "River" I start to get interested in their things, wacthed their dramas and Akbingo every week

 

I saw a dance cover of Aitakatta in Youtube, that was the first song what I've heard from AKB xD And so I started to like this group ♥

 

This is my story how I discovered AKB48.

There are times when I am so bored that I watch Japanese comedy clips/shows and pranks from YouTube, that includes Gaki no Tsukai and also old funny vids of Morning Musume way back. One of the earliest AKB48 clip I saw is where 3 girls including Akimoto Sayaka, Minegishi Minami and another one (I forgot) who would guess what's inside of the three boxes, that includes a head. That time I'm not really familiar with them.

I also bumped on magazine scans of AKB48 and out of curiosity, I checked on them. In my mind I'm thinking "oh some kind of girl group" and then I started collecting random magazine scans of AKB48 even though I'm still unfamiliar with the group. That time I'm still not completely into them, just checking AKB stuff here and then. That was on the last quarter of 2009.

This August, I've watched some AKB videos out of boredom and due to lack of other new Japanese prank show/clips and then I browsed for more AKB vids and more and more until I got hooked up. So, this "AKB wave" on me started this August.

 

I discovered AKB48 when i listen to Bingo and 10nen Zakura from my friend's laptop.That's when i started to get hooked up with them and also search in youtube to see how their performance and style and they really live up to my expectation

Wondering now how to get AKBINGO for my collection?? [think]

 

I discovered AKB48 in NHK world's Tokyo Fashion Express. This program showed how the girls performed in the theater and their design of their costumes

 

i discovered AKB48 and became a fan through coin locker monogatari.
then i been an AKB fan ever since blah blah blah... till now
Surely you know who is my favorite AKB girl... thats right its kojiharu desu ~

nyan nyan ~

 

now here's something, i actually got into akb through idoling!!! [nod] i just loved their show and heard that akbingo was similar to it so i tried watching it and ...............................................here i am [clap] [clap] [clap]

 

I got to know about them from the drama Mendol, where the three akb48 members were in.
I quite like the drama, and I find them all quite cute.
When I realize they are from Akb48, a huge band consisting of a lot of members, I got a bit disinterested.
But after watching some of their pvs, listening to their songs, I started liking them, like... recently.

 

Pufufu I wrote this a while ago and had it on my Journal (shameless plugin)for quite some time. Thought I'd share since I just found this thread. Go to my Journal for more =P

Since it's big and long (just don't) I'm going to quote and spoiler tag it.

 

I always knew about AKB's existence being a HP! fan since I was 11. Though when I first saw Skirt Hirari, I was slignhtly disturbed.
It wasn't till around Bingo that I started noticing AKB and slowly was converted to a fan.

 

Well, I've known them for about 5 - 6 months but I just became a fan. I saw a video link to Aitakatta and I loved it, then Oogoe Diamond. But then that's where it ended until now. I'm now a AKB48 and H!P fan.

 

I discovered AKB through two of my good friends, we knew each other from being interested in kpop, we were at a friends house and my two friends wanted to watch AKB videos or something like that. I liked the music but didn't think i could get into AKB because of the amount of members, I recognized Aachan and that was it. Then recently I watched Heavy Rotation and got dragged into AKB. So thank you friends~~

 

i'm always a fan of various j-pop artist.
i like ayumi hamasaki, aiko, yui... various ^^
then when namida surprise was released, various jpop news sites i frequented were covering the start of the 1st senbatsu election... i watched namida surprise and thought it was so cute... it was like 48 of aiko (my favourite artist at the time)

^aiko chan

but it was always tomochin who really stood out for me. she looked soooooooo unbelievably cute, but so confident. she wasnt your typical cute idol, she was confident i herself but not full of herself. i love that about her.
so already, i bought a ticket and voted tomochin.
then i learn everyone else... but tomochin is always my #1 im very biased :3

 

I happened to see their series, Majisuka Gakuen, without realizing that basically all the girls shown were AKB48. I fell in love with the title song, Majisuka Rock n Rolll!

From there, I did more research and found this website, as well as others, devoted to AKB48 and started to listen to their music.

My oshimen: Yuko Oshima and Mariko Shinoda

 

I'm a new fan of AKB48. I first heard the song [RIVER] in 2009 when it was released and I liked it, but I didn't follow the group because the amount of member's was overwhelming. Then I heard about them coming to the U.S. at AnimeExpo in 2010 and started to look into them a little more, downloading their [SET LIST] and [Kamikyokutachi] albums. I could not attend the concert because I live on the other side of the U.S., so I was really upset. Even though I didn't know who they were, I still wanted to see them. I started to slowly follow the group more and more and then [Heavy Rotation] was released and I fell in love with that song. I became a fan after that and now I'm here to learn about the members and become a super fan~

Kay

 

okay..i've been a fan of j-pop for like years but i just know AKB48 only last year..
and that was through MAMA ( music award for korean artist )...but im not that interested into AKB at that time.
then i read some negative comments about hebirote pv, n i kinda curious about y these people hate them..
my first thought about the pv is 'this group didnt care about not being an innocent group' because every idol group i know (especially k-pop) only want to show their innocence..n thats when i stuck with AKB48