Hey all, sorry I haven't posted in for a few days...been too busy to even sit down and edit posts that I've already had written up.
We're going kind of far into the past with this release! Can you believe that 2010 was FIVE years ago already?! I still think that the 1990s were ten years ago lol. This year was right around the time when AKB was really starting to become noticed by the public.
The title track is one of the better "Sakura" singles since they began doing the whole single cycle thing. 10nen Zakura is my favorite, with this or Mae Shika Mukanee in second. The others are just so bland. This song is also incredibly unique in AKB's catalog because it's sung with all of the members at that time, like a choir. It certainly wasn't what I expected from them when I first played the song. It's truly a gorgeous song. The music video bores me, but it does fit the song. 5/5.
The next track on the single is Majisuka Rock N Roll. This is really a 180 from the title track. This was a song to promote? their Majisuka Gakuen drama. Extremely catchy song, even though it's not really "bad girl" like the drama seems to attempt to portray (from what I know of it and from the MV...never watched it so I don't know exactly what it's about). The music video is based around the drama I guess. I don't know if I'd want to watch it. I couldn't pick out any of the girls that are actually good at portraying the concept....most look very silly. Maybe the drama is better than the little clips in the video, but I don't know. 4/5.
The third song from the single is Enkyori Poster, sung by Team PB. Team PB & the next song's group, Team YJ were created to promote some magazines. And I think that they had a contest between the two groups with these two songs? I think? This release was two years before I cared at all about AKB so I wasn't around when this was going on. Team PB consists of Aki Takajo, Aika Ota, Ami Maeda, Sae Miyazawa, Moeno Nito, Yuki Kashiwagi, and Miho Miyazaki. I'm actually really surprised how many members of this group are still in 48G....all but one. Not the biggest fan of the song as it's just a typical AKB song, but I do really like when they sing "Enkyori Poster". It's the catchiest part of the song and sometimes I find myself singing just that line in my head for no reason. Music video's pretty normal, Yuki looks so young in the dance shot. 3.5/5
The final song on the single is Team YJ's Choose Me. Team YJ is comprised of Haruka Nakagawa, Riho Sashihara, Asuka Kuramochi, Minami Minegishi, Ayaka Kikuchi, Rie Kitahara, and Tomomi Kasai. This song is better than Team PBs. I have no idea if there was actually a winner for this battle, but I hope this one won if there was. I like song that have just the right balance of idol pop and guitars, this one fits that category. The video is less interesting than Team PB's. Nothing special. 4/5.
One thing that I find enjoyable about AKB's older singles is that there was at least an attempt at doing something different for each song. With the exception of the Kibouteki Refrain single this year, most of AKB's B-sides sounded incredibly similar. It's too bad because they don't sell for the quality of the actual music so they could afford to experiment more with the music they put out. Who knows, perhaps that could lead to the general public becoming more interested in them again. 4/5.
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