Suppon no Onnatachi 9/15/2010

On this week's episode of Suppon no Onnatachi, we got a behind-the-scenes look at the girls reactions as they watched the previous week's episode live in the AKB Theater.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and there's not a whole lot to say (especially because this wasn't an episode that required the viewer to be fluent in Japanese) so here's some picspam!

At #4, we've got KONAN!

At #5, Urano "CinDy" Kazumi!

At #6, it's dancing queen Umeda Haruka!

At #7, "Serinko" aka Serina!

Serina managed to start off a trend of crying once a girl's name was read. XDDD

Following the trends, #8, it's our broadway star, Kato Mami!

At #9, it's Kohara "Kyururun" Haruka!

I LOL'd a little because she ranked in at #9 (kyuu-i) and she's got her little "kyururun" saying.

At #10, it's the girl who lives in the 2-D world, Ito Kana!

At this point, we've only got the two that just barely made it in, and the three that shone at the top.  They start the rest of the results by giving us the two that barely made it in:

At #11, it's Akita Kazue!  "Honma~?!"

Last to make it in at #12 is Fukuyama Sakura, who will dye our hearts sakura-color!

Then, the show goes to commercial before the top 3 are announced.  We see the girls trying to get it together during the commercial break.  Then, the show comes back on, and...

... this week's show goes to commercial. ^^;

Except we're all watching this show with no commercials, so it doesn't matter. :P

Finally, the top 3 are announced!

At #3, it's Noro "Nontii" Kayo!

I was so, so happy to see Nontii get into senbatsu.  I mean, I wish more girls could have gotten in besides these 12, but man, Nontii has been a favorite of mine for a long time now, and she's only been part of one AKB48 senbatsu before being transferred to SDN48, and that was AGES ago (Aitakatta, relased way back in the Fall of 2006).  Since then, she hadn't been featured in any singles (except for appearing in PVs that the whole group was appearing in, although that doesn't count, IMO), which, pardon the massive amounts of bias here, was a huge waste of her talent.  I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I watched the results live last week, expecting Nontii to be out of the top 3 (although probably still selected), but to see her rank this highly was such a pleasant surprise for me that I may or may not have cried a little out of happiness.

*cough*

Anyway, moving on...

In at #2, we had the other secretary featured on Suppon no Onnatachi, Sato "Yukarin" Yukari!

Then, last but not least, we have the announcement of the #1, the center of the upcoming single...

Ohori Megumi!

After getting up on stage with everyone else, and getting a hug from Nontii...

Someone get her some waterproof mascara, stat! XD

...we got a short speech:

"I always wondered... how it felt to be at the top.
Because, I was always at the bottom.
I really wondered what it felt like to be #1.
Knowing that there are so many people cheering for me,
that I'm not alone... these things were connected with my self-confidence.
I'm very thankful... to the fans that support me.
I think from this point on is when the real fight starts, so I want to work hard!
Please be good to me!"

-- Ohori Megumi

I've been a fan of AKB48 for a few years now, and I've seen Meetan go from "Who's that?", to "Did she really hang on to that nearly 90˚ slide?! :o" to "She's got to sell 10,000 copies or she'll graduate?!"  I'm so, so happy to see her finally be able to be on top, to finally know what it's like to be #1, something she might have never experienced if she had stayed in AKB48, given the presence of powerhouses like Acchan, Yuko, and... well, a lot of girls.

I'd like every girl in SDN48 to get the opportunity to experience being in a unit song, a single, or a coupling song, to get a solo line, to get their "15 minutes of fame", so to speak.  AKB48 also went through a period where some girls weren't even getting into unit songs in stages, so I'm hoping that in the future, SDN48's stages will also even out and give every girl a chance to shine in a smaller group.

Anyway...

After the results were announced, the newly-elected SDN48 1st single senbatsu went outside the theater doors to talk about their feelings during the announcement (mainly nervous XDD), and get into a circle to do their traditional pre-performance cheer.

Next week, we get to see the behind the behind the scenes show, which should be interesting.