Single AKB48 26th [Manatsu no Sounds Good] 12/05/23

;A; Mitsu no Namida is perfect guys ;A;

My babies Suu n Ayarin ;A; i didn't expect them to have that much screen time ;A;

Not just them but everyone look fabulous Sayaka's tear in the beginning is gorgeous 3333


Fave PV of the entire single, hands down.


Edit: maybe I'm thinking too much into it but the in Mitsu no Namida PV, the three girls who shed tears are Sayaka, Yuttan and Amina. Coincidently, they're the 3 whose ranks are senbatsu last year, but not enough for senbatsu this year, if they kept their ranks.

 

Thanks you HRP! I'm disappointed with Choudai Darling PV! It isn't bad but I expected it to involve some kissing. I really like the concept tho! All hail the future of AKB, Renacchi and Paruru~~ I'm kinda peeved by how Tomochin is all the way at the back though. And I would replace Sashi with Chiyuu/Miichan cause I just don't get Sashi's appeal and how she even became such a prominent member. Like I just don't see anything special about her in terms of performing.

Mitsu no Namida PV is actually really clever! I like how it featured all the other members of AKB that you don't usually get to see. I think everyone had some sort of close up? Sayaka and Umechan are so freaking gorgeous in this pv! Wasamin was also really cute. I wish Minarun had bigger hair though. I can't decide if I like the Gothic Lolis more or the Sexy Clubbers.

KURAMOCHI IS SO GORGEOUS STUNNING BEAUTIFUL IN GUGUTASU NO SORA. We're all not worthy. She's divine. SIGH.

I love how cultural the pv is! It looks like it was a fun enriching experience to shoot for it. I love the details on the costume and how the choreography seems to draw from many different cultures as well. It's a great effort!

 

I wanted a PV for the Gree song...

but Miitsu no Namida look good [clap]
I'm good with the Chodai Darlin PV with no kiss scene
They got craps for that...let's not repeat it again. Beside the puccho thing was an sensationalism thing to make people pay attention to the candy anyway

 

Lol I just wanna see them piss off the haters and then still sell a million. idk but angry people who feel so pressed over idols amuses me greatly. I thought the passing of the candy was cute and nothing worth getting your panties in a bunch.

 

It appears that Types A+B were leaked at the usual sites

Waiting for my copies to arrive.

 

Thank you, HRP!!!!! [bow] [bow] [bow] [bow] [bow]

Dance version of MSG: I liked it. And I realized that there are white bikinis … and yellow (or 'dirty white', because they don’t seem white when a 'real' white bikini is near) bikinis. I lolled at the final part with Mayu and Acchan ‘flying’…

Mittsu no Namida: great song. A lot of screen time for Ayarin, Suuchan... The idea of the game is great and it’s the first PV with a ‘sextuple center’!! [shock] (btw, those guys...they don't speak in japanese, do they? [think] )

Choudai, Darling!: It has the same vintage look than Sweet & Bitter, but I like this more, and the glasses look amazing on them…I wish I had teachers like these…

"Gugutasu no Sora": Wow, I love it. It strongly reminds me of Kimi no koto ga suki dakara…it even moved me... [blush]

It’s definitely the best single in a long time (IMHO, of course) [party] . I guess some will hate it, but I love this kind of songs, so…

 

oh the guys were speaking in mandarin. i can sub it if you want but its nothing interesting.

 

I'll talk about the three coupling PVs and songs here. I'll try keep them "relatively" short

(opening sentences non-spoilered, but the rest is due to length)

Mitsu no Namida: When the three old men started talking in somewhat identifiable Mandarin, and then the camera proceeded to zoom in and go 360 deg. on the girls, it occurred to me that this was going to get gimmicky real fast. And it did.

Spoiler

I can understand the need for three vastly different costume and design sets, given the overall "plot" direction and PV structure, but I'm still not sold on the idea. 1/3rd of it looks like it was recycled from Choudai, Darling! (which, in turn, was recycled from Baby!x3, but I'll get to that later), another 1/3rd looked quite bland and the remaining 1/3rd looked atrocious - appropriate (especially for Rabutan, I might add), but atrocious. They've upped the ante on the quality this time around, but the same can be said for pretty much the other PVs for this release. But it's not as visually impacting as the other three PVs either. And that's a LOT of girls - MSG had a lot too, but that's understandable given past releases and the very nature of an A-side.

Song doesn't really impress me either. Writing it off as standard UG schlock. Neither work particularly well in tandem either - boring song + fairly gimmicky but ultimately unexciting PV.

And what of the Mandarin at the beginning and end? I don't quite know what the producers/director was thinking: are they trying to play up the international factor behind AKB48 of late? Or just resorting to more gimmicky ideas? Did get a bit of a snide chuckle from me though.

Choudai, Darling!: Surprise packet of the lot. When I first heard the song from the (infamous) Puccho CM, I was about to write it off as a little on the bland side. Then the full version of the song came out.

Spoiler

My overall impression improved - it's a little like Sweet & Bitter infused with Ice no Kuchizuke, but that's not too much of an issue, especially when the former is a bit of a "guilty pleasure" song to listen to. Very "bouncily cute" and happily lively.

Then I watched the accompanying PV. Now that was good. My first impression was "2012 reboot of Baby! Baby! Baby!" with the 70s-80s old-school fashion styling and all. Losing a few points on originality, maybe, but not that much, as the rest of the PV redeemed itself quite quickly. Great use of pastel palettes which works really well with the fashion and set design. I just love how simple it all looks when it's put together - the panels, the fluoro colours and pastel overtones, the use of retro touches like the mic stands, big thick-rimmed glasses, fashion accessories and floating text, the song... everything just works. Even the idea is well put together, further expanding on the notion as motivated by MSG - the new gen (Paruru and Renacchi) accompanying the old.

Sure, it's not as breathtaking and thought-provoking as MSG, but it holds itself very well amongst the crowd. Retro-cute definitely works here.

Gugutasu no Sora: Also known as "Google+ CM, the 4 min version". Although I do wonder about its message: "Hey guys, sign up to Google+! See, you can shoot pictures/videos of free-range chickens and share them with your circles in real-time!"

Spoiler

The flying stream of +1s nearly killed it for me. And I'm so disappointed that they didn't blatantly show off the phone and its branding, even though the well-informed would clearly expect Samsung/Google to be licking their lips within the next few months as more wota rush to their nearest NTT docomo store to grab a Galaxy Nexus...

Facetiousness aside, this is one PV where I feel a 1080p Blu-ray version is needed. Anything less would simply not do it enough justice. The original DVD quality's satisfactory enough, though. But how come I'm so fussed about video file specifics? I think that the colours are very well done here - vibrant, dynamic and varied plays on the stock Google colours. The high-quality, shallow DOF close-up shots remind me favourably of Ue kara Mariko's. Most of the core content from the PV isn't anything to write home about, but it's visually very nice and playful to an extent.

Whilst Gugutasu no Sora, by itself, is really nothing that special (the piano + mellow electric guitar bridge is quite pleasant though), it somehow doesn't quite fall into the same derivative-sounding heap as Mitsu no Namida. But does it work with the song? I'd say yes. Although there is some truth to my slightly sarcastic opening paragraph above, it's not necessarily that much of a bad thing (subliminal self-promotion, that is). I mean, there's nothing particularly "offensive" about the PV either. So yes, I think it's good. Not brilliant, but good enough.

Overall rating?
MSG (no not the boring dance PV, which is pretty much just boobies and butts prancing around - no thanks) > Choudai, Darling! > Gugutasu no Sora > Mitsu no Namida

 

Thank you, I guessed that, but I wasn't sure. It surprised me because it was quite out of place, but perhaps the game they're playing is a traditional chinese game... :dunno:

 

My review of the coupling songs, I will try to keep it short but put it under a spoiler nonetheless. Those walls of text looks so ugly.

Mitsu no Namida:

Spoiler

Liked it

Choudai, Darling!:

Spoiler

Liked it

Gugutasu no Sora:

Spoiler

Liked it

for all you tl;dr! I liked all three pv's

 

Oh shush, you.

 

What I think about the opening part of Mitsu no Namida:

The guys are playing a game where they spin the wheel and win if they land on their assigned colour. Each of the colours match one of the 3 groups of girls (the cute, rock and cool groups). They keep track of the number of points each guy gets by placing a chess piece with '推' (read as tui in chinese, and is the 'o' in oshi also) on it in the respective colour rectangle (that appears somewhere in the middle of the PV).

At the end: One guy's wife drags him away, telling him there is work to be done and wth is he doing playing here with the other guys I find this part the funniest haha.

 

Thanks for uploading the PVs, HRP! [clap]
Mitsu no Namida had good screen time distribution (or maybe I care less now that Wasamin is front and center).

 

So much Yuka I am happy then!

But yeah, happy that everyone seems to get at least a couple of close ups too!

 

Gugutasu is so awesome
1. because HARUKYAN omg ;A;
2. Shiorin and Shihorin my babys ;A;
3. Mocchi and Akicha look sooooooo fabulous! so pretty
AND UGLY COSTUMES, MOBILE PHONES AND CHICKENS YAY
love the quality of the pv

Mitsu was also pretty cool but the chinese guys wtf XD

and I reaaally liked Paruru and Renacchi in Choudai would be pretty boring without them (like Sweet &Bitter last time)

 

Choudai darling > managu > mitsu namida > gugutasu..
Love the chemistry between acchan n yuko in choudai... They look so natural...
Gugutasu is a bit repetitive for me....
Sayaka n Umechan look very lovely together...
Btw, anyine know who is the girl in green in the cute group that seems to be sharing centre with suchan?

 

Is it safe to assume that in the limited edition, you also get the Dance Ver of Manatsu no sounds good PV (DVD) or you get it also from the regular edition?

Video Links for Manatsu & Coupling: http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/05/akb48- ... rack-list/

 

Suuchan is in the "rock group" but the shared centre of the "cute group" is Nagao Mariya (team 4)

 

Generally, the Ltd Ed's differences are the different CD covers and no trading cards; otherwise, it's the same as the regular editions.

 

Wow thanks HRP!

My overall rating:

Manatsu no Sounds Good) > Choudai, Darling! > Gugutasu no Sora > Mitsu no Namida

Why?

1.) Manatsu is a good song, very nice vibe to it. Now coupled with the PV and the dance version also. Saw yui at the end. haha.
2.) Choudai ----- digging the nerd glasses! Yeah Boi! Plus, it has paruru on it. But I really find Sasshi weird in it. I don't know, maybe i dislike her or maybe I only liked her in Bimyo.
3.) Gugutasu reminded me of the Oide shampoo choreo but much better. Great costumes. Again, Yui is there! Haha. Reminds me also of Kimi no Koto Ga Suki Dakara
4.) Mitsu nice song but the PV was weird. Big ribbons, mandarin speaking dudes, cheap backdrops. But some of my faves were there. Its funny because I think the girls were actually begging on voting for them for the elections (an extended appeal video)

Those are just my opinions. Thanks again for uploading. Can't wait for my copies to arrive and vote for Tomochin and Yui!!!!!