23 April 2015. It
was past 10 pm and I knew I had to sleep soon. On weekdays I sleep at around 10
– 11 pm; I rarely sleep later than that for I don’t want to wake up tired on
the next day. But at that particular night, instead of turning off lamp and
ready to sleep, I was still scrolling through Twitter timeline when I found
someone posted a link of AKB48 newest PV (promotional video).
Since the
beginning of this year I have changed my preference from K-pop to J-pop. Sica’s
exit from SNSD last year more or less affected how I feel about K-pop. As I
wrote here, I began to watch JKT48 in their theatre and started to like
their songs and their concept (that is ‘idols you can meet’). Even so, that
didn’t make me take interest in their sister group: AKB48; which is funny
because AKB48 is the original 48 group and have more J-pop vibrant compared to
JKT48.
I had a terrible
experience with AKB48’s PV before. Their first PV I watched was Heavy Rotation.
I like the song because it’s cheerful and easy listening and such, but the PV
actually hurt my brain. JKT48 covered the song in Bahasa but their PV is
totally different with one AKB48 have. AKB48’s version of Heavy Rotation.. what
can I say ..seems surreal for me. So it makes sense that I underestimated AKB48
newest PV even before I clicked the link.
It took me less than 20 seconds to know that I was wrong. The PV is surprisingly amazing!
My very first
reaction was, “IS THAT REALLY AKB? I don’t recognise anyone!”
Then followed by,
“WOW THAT’S SUPER MEGA COOL PV!”
I have known
AKB48 since 2011. Eventhough I didn’t know every member, I recognised some of
popular ones. I mean, I was familiar with their face but I didn’t know their
name. I knew AKB48 had the tall with short hair member (later I knew it was
Shinoda Mariko), the long-haired beautiful member (Kojima Haruna), the stylish
member (Itano Tomomi), the member with twintails (Watanabe Mayu), and the
member who looked like a leader (Oshima Yuko and Takahasi Minami; I thought
they are the same person). It was only Acchan the supreme ace whom I knew both
name and face (I didn’t know her real name though; now I know it’s Maeda
Atsuko).
That was AKB48
for me. But in this newest PV I had just watched, I didn’t find any of them. Later
when I replayed the PV for nth times, I started to recognise Watanabe Mayu (she
looked so different without twintails; it’s like she’s growing up), Takahasi
Minami (with short hair), and Kojima Haruna.
When I knew the
three senior members were there in PV, I kept wondering why they were not
standing in front. The center of the PV was someone who looked like SNSD Yoona.
She was between two other people whom I had no idea about. It’s like new AKB48
for me. And I find it quite lovely.
Quite lovely? I think it’s
understatement. They are – in fact – super awesome in that PV.
The PV is only 1
minute and 24 seconds long. It was only the short version since the release
would be on the following month. I found
out that the title was Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai (We Don’t Fight), which is
rather debatable since the PV is mostly showing the girls fighting the bad men
with pink lightsaber. I like everything about this PV. I like the song, the
choreography, the fighting scenes.. I can tell you forever but let me just show
you this PV.
After I watched
this PV, I started googling the center of this PV. Her name is Shimazaki Haruka
or better known as Paruru. That night I slept after I tweeted about Bokutachi
wa Tatakawani and jokingly said it was SNSD Yoona who became the center.
On the next days,
I updated news about AKB48 which lead me to ‘new’ (at least for me) rising
stars of AKB48 like Matsui Jurina, Matsui Rena, Yokoyama Yui, Miyawaki Sakura,
etc. I also found myself searching on YouTube for AKB48 after-Acchan-era songs
that introduced me to Sashihara Rino (Sasshi) in Koisuru Fortune Cookie and
Kashiwagi Yuki (Yukirin) in Kokoro no Placard.
Before I knew it,
I started to watch their variety shows (AKBingo) and bought their CDs/DVDs. I
watched their documentaries, I googled their scandals, I sang their songs in
karaoke, I told my close friends about them, I tweeted too much about them…
It was then
followed with my interest in their other sister group like SKE48 in which my
oshi(s) are there, like Matsui Rena and Matsui Jurina. I put too much time in
AKB48 and SKE48 that I began to forget about JKT48.
It only took 1
minute and 24 seconds for me to like AKB48. Bokutachi wa Tatakawani PV changed
everything about AKB48 in my eyes. They’re no longer just a bunch of Asian
girls singing and dancing cheerfully in colourful uniform. They were just a
face to me, then a name, and the rest is history.
*written on 30 August 2015. Have I not
watched the PV, I might not have feeling for AKB48. And maybe I don’t need to
deal with a slightly broken heart right now at this very moment because of
Matsui Rena’s graduation day today.
