I've really been putting off writing for the past couple of weeks. Christmas is a really busy time for me and I just have had no motivation either.
This is AKB's final single for 2014. It's kind of like the "cool" single and the Janken single all mashed into one since they didn't do the Janken tournament the same as usual. On one hand, I think it's a good idea to mix up the release schedule after having the same pattern for years. It also allows the girls to have more of a break in between promotional periods and with all the other groups that have to have songs released it also takes some of the burden off of Aki-P for writing all of the songs. Well, at least in theory that would be the case...except there's enough songs on this freaking single to seem like a full length album...but whatever. On the other hand, I look forward to the "cool" single. The best AKB singles have been those and we really need some "cool" dance or dark singles since the last truly good single like that was UZA back in 2012. Also, the reason of the Janken tournament is to give girls that are never in Senbatsu a chance to be in Senbatsu. Now I personally believe that the center girl is rigged (Mariko, Haruka, AND Jurina all making it? The chances of that happening are pretty darn low), but I'm also positive that the rest of the girls are completely random and I would guess that it was pretty disappointing to the less popular girls when the Janken was changed this year. Oh and Miyuki winning a solo single? If that's not proof of the winner being rigged I don't know what is. But anyway, off topic. On to the single!
The A-side for this single is Kibouteki Refrain. Honestly, this is the best A-side that AKB has put out since UZA. It's just SO CATCHY. As much as I miss my cool single, I'm really not all that angry because we FINALLY got a quality A-side this year. It's no wonder this sold slightly better than their others from this year (excluding the summer single), it's just a much better song. Even though quality music doesn't really matter for AKB sales, I think that it does make a slight difference. The MV is really awesome too. Extremely creative with the idea of the centers going on there. I do have to say that there's way too many girls in the Senbatsu for this though. I hope it doesn't become a trend. I know it means a lot to the less popular girls that wouldn't have a shot with the regular 16 member Senbatsu, but seeing 32 girls on the stage in the video is way too much. (If only the older gen popular members would graduate we wouldn't have this problem....) That's a whole different tangent though and what I have to say on that subject would probably anger too many people so I'll leave it at that. 5/5.
The next song is by Baragumi, which I'm assuming is the Under Girls unit for this single because Ima, Happy appears on the theater version of the single. I'm not sure what to think of this. It's not bad really, it's just way too sugary sweet. I wouldn't even really say it's all that generic of an idol pop song. I think it's one of those songs that you'd call a guilty pleasure and you hide from friends. The video makes the sugary sweet-ness even worse. It's nice to see the Team 8 girls being included though. Ikumi in the A-side and Nagisa as the center of this song....although still disappointed it's not Hijiri but whatever xD 4/5.
The next track is Juujun na Slave by Team A. Can I say I'm so happy we finally got a dancey electro song from AKB this year? It's not as great as some of their others, but I'm still so happy anyway. It sounds like a K-pop song a little bit. A good K-pop song, like one from 2010/2011. The video for this song will be released on their new album in January so I'll update this then. 5/5.
The next track is Ambulance by Yurigumi. This song makes me sad. It starts out so perfect....and then falls into the trappings of a fairly typical 48G song that thinks it's trying to be sexy. It's a great song, just not as adventurous as it could/should be. The video....hm. I....honestly don't want to say anything about it beyond I really don't enjoy sexy concepts that just look like they're pandering to a mainly male audience. I just personally don't like that. It's one of the reasons I've all but left the K-pop fandom. (Listen: My personal opinion and belief. You can do whatever you want I don't care, but don't try and convince me I'm wrong for my own opinion like I've seen others do to people with the same opinion. If it makes you feel any better, I dislike it when male K-pop/J-pop groups do the sexy image pandering just as much as when the females do it.) But if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably love the video. 4/5.
The next song is Hajimete no Drive by Team K. This single is odd. It starts out incredibly strong with the title track and first three B-sides, and then the next three are pretty much snore fests, and then the last ones are a mix of boring, generic, and different. It's like the producers couldn't make up their minds with what they wanted to happen with this single. Don't get me wrong, variety is GOOD. Very good, and AKB needs it, but sometimes it feels disjointed like the company's throwing stuff and a wall and trying to figure out what sticks. As for this song, it's pretty boring. It's the least boring of the three boring B-sides, but still hard to sit through. 3/5.
The next song is Utaitai by Katareagumi. The song's not really my cup of tea, but I really love Aya's voice in the beginning. She sounds like she has a very nice voice. It'd be cool to hear more of it. I do applaud them for attempting a ballad that's at least slightly interesting. I can sit through it without wanting to fall asleep. I don't care about the video though. Mainly because the first half of it is them talking about something and I can't understand it and the second half is standing and singing. 3/5.
The next track is Loneliness Club by Team B. And it is the most boring of the boring group of songs. I think I only made it through about half of it. It's one of those songs you swear you've heard before because it sounds like every other ballad ever. 3/5.
The next track is Seifuku no Hane by Team 8. Now I really like Team 8. I like that management brought in completely fresh girls for a new team even if it is only for a car promotion. I just really hope they stick around as a permanent team (with some of the members leaving/being shuffled to other groups due to locational issues and just the sheer amount of girls in Team 8.) The song is a fairly typical idol pop track, but it's so much better than their first song that was on the Kokoro no Placard single. I just love the video too. I really like the fact that it shows shots of the girls in their home prefectures. I'm really not all that certain about Japanese culture, but I guess you could sort of equate prefectures to states right? I just think that's neat because here in the US, each state has it's like different cultural thing to it and it seems like the prefectures of Japan do as well. Also, some of the shots of Japan look eerily similar to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania (where I'm from xD). Like all of the farmers' fields and semi-wooded areas and such. It looks like such a beautifully diverse country. 3.5/5.
Wow there's a lot of songs on this single...I thought I was almost done but nope. There's like 3 songs left to drone on about. Well, the next song is Me wo Akete Mama no First Kiss by Team 4. This song feels like an updated version of Morning Musume's Iroppoi Jirettai (Certainly not as good though. My loyalty obviously lies with H!P xD) I'm surprised with this song choice for Team 4. I really love it. 4.5/5.
The next track is Kaze no Rasen by Kojizaka46, which is just Haruna Kojima and some Nogizaka girls. I honestly don't get why people are upset about all the intermixing of AKB and Nogi. It sounds harsh, but you have to be naive to believe that they were only ever going to be a "rival" group of AKB. Aki-P is involved just like with the 48s and it was obviously only just marketing. If it didn't seem obvious that Nogizaka was essentially another sister group then it certainly does now. I'm actually hoping we'll see Nogizaka in the election, Janken, 48 singles, and other things. I guess it's different for many other fans, but to me the 48/46 system is really just all one large group with subgroups in my head so all the kennins and shuffles and transfers don't bother me in the slightest. They actually make things interesting. Now this song is definitely in the boring generic category. It's so meh. The video's about 9 minutes too long too. And gosh I hate when videos TALK OVER THE SONG. It's like, I'm watching this video to hear the dang song, not to watch a TV show. 3/5.
The final song is Reborn, the result of the fan voting for the Team Surprise thing. I really love that the girls chosen to sing this song were the girls that haven't really had any Senbatsu experience. The song itself is nothing special, but I'm happy that these girls got something special for themselves in a release. 3/5.
Gosh this was long....but this is probably the most solid AKB single of the year and features the best tracks since Sayonara Crawl. Even though there's a few boring spots, it still is a strong release with a little something for everyone. 4/5.
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