akb48

i've vaguely known of akb48 for years now, as certain scandals and the general absurdity of the group have been reported on by western news outlets for years, but i didn't actually get into them until around the time i got into hello! project (so around august-september 2019). i decided to check them out purely to satisfy my curiosity, since i never really knew what the group was actually like besides the large member count, the genre-defining light rock music, and the dating scandals, and watched some video guides to the group. this guide in particular suggested a bunch of classic akb48 songs, as well as the most recent at the time of the video's making, which was teacher teacher. i immediately picked up on the song's meaning from the title alone, and it kind of grossed me out, but i also immediately fell in love with the song, and downloaded it and the rest of the classic songs mentioned. later on, i decided to get into the group more besides their music, and watched some mvs, specifically teacher teacher, jabaja, and sustainable... and i immediately fell in love with each song's center girl, specifically okada nana in jabaja. she immediately stood out to me with her haircut, and i thought she looked really cool lol. and as mentioned before, i also fell in love with oguri yui in teacher teacher and yahagi moeka in sustainable, and this led to the three girls becoming my favorite akb48 girls.

unfortunately, if you're a fan of akb48, you know what's coming: just a month or two after i found her, yahagi moeka announced her graduation from the group after only 2 years. this was due to a dating scandal, which angered her growing fanbase and tanked her career. as dramatic as it sounds, i was really heartbroken by this, and decided to stop getting into akb48 so i wouldn't feel that heartbreak again (though i stayed a casual fan, just for yuiyui and naachan, and still listened to their music occasionally). however, this changed when the next single after sustainable was announced, "shitsuren, arigato". i loosely followed the single's release, as neither of my favorites were the center, and i didn't know the center girl, yamauchi mizuki. however, this quickly changed when i looked her up, watched some videos, and over the release and promotion of the new single, she became one of my kamioshis!!! since then i've become an akb48 stan, and now they're one of my favorite idol groups <3