Two years ago, I didn't care one bit about AKB48. I had downloaded one of their Best-of albums a year before to see what the fuss was about. When I heard Aitakatta I thought "ugh what is this mess? It's like 100 people all singing at once!" I turned it off and forgot about it.
Two years ago today, I had iTunes open with my music on shuffle, getting ready to host an event I was really nervous about, when Aitakatta came up again. Somehow, my feelings on the song had changed, and I really was enjoying it, so I got on the JPHiP IRC and talked to Amplifier about it. I was needing a distraction from my nerves and he was happy to pimp out his girls to me, link me to videos and such.
I was instantly hooked, and before I knew it, I was downloading batch AKBingo torrents and subtitles to learn everything I could. Two days later, my monitor looked like this:
On Oshimen:
I devoured a lot of early AKB content, since I was watching AKBingo from the beginning. I was surrounded by lots of other fans in the AKBar IRC channel, and they were all immensely helpful in teaching me about the group (and they still are, love you all~). And then I was introduced to the concept of "oshimen"
Now, if you know me, you know I tend to rant on about how I think fans are too obsessed with the oshimen concept. First thing someone asks when they meet another AKB fan is "who's your oshi?"
One of the reasons, I think, that I didn't like this, is because I felt myself lost when it came to my oshi. I labelled myself a Yuko oshi pretty early on. Problem is, I hadn't even seen half the current group yet because I was watching old content (other favorites at that time: Maimai, Nonti, Erepyon), and hadn't even seen much of the girls outside of what they do on AKBingo.
As time passed on, I wasn't sure if Yuko was my favorite member or not, but I had already said she was and god forbid you oshihen in this fandom! There's rules, man, I'm only allowed to enjoy this group in the way the fandom has said I'm allowed to! I "picked" Yuko as my oshi because I was supposed to have one, and I don't think you can really pick your oshi, it has to be something that's natural, and when I forced myself to have one, I put a stop to that natural process.
About 5 months ago I basically "came out" as a DD (filthy, disgusting! How dare I have more than one favorite? I'm not a #truefan!) because I realized this. I felt kinda lost, and took shit from others for not having an oshi, which just ended up making me feel bitter. Maybe a bit jealous? I certainly ranted about it from time to time on twitter and IRC. I thought I had decided I will never have that magical "omg this girl, I want to support her fully and totally above all else" moment.
I was wrong.
Over the last few months, one girl has really captured my attention. She's strong, beautiful, hilarious, and a great leader.
That girl is
Sashihara Rino
Why? It's not just me jumping on the bandwagon after she won the election, this has been in the making for quite some time. HKT48 is my favorite of the *48 groups, and while Sasshi being in HKT48 has made Sasshi fans pay more attention to HKT, it did the opposite for me, it made me pay more attention to Sasshi. Her role in that group just warms my heart. She was sent there as a punishment, almost like being shipped to Siberia to be forgotten, but she wasn't content with being the popular girl in the otherwise unpopular group. She put it upon herself to make that group grow and shine, and to do so without being the center of attention. You can see her love for that group, and for all those girls, and she wants them to be successful. I can't help but admire that. Ever since Request Hour, when I saw how SUPER CRAZY EXCITED she was for HKT to get a solo concert, I knew her love for HKT was real. At Budokan, when they announced her name during the shuffle, the other HKT girls burst into tears because they though she was leaving the group. These are the same girls that were worried that Sasshi was going to take all the attention away from them, knock someone out of the senbatsu. I can go on and on about this but you get the point. I love Sasshi for the same reason I love Takamina, their love and devotion for the group, and not just thinking about themselves. Things just got stronger and stronger as Sasshi's star kept rising. HKT manager, producing BBQ's solo single. #1 after sousenkyou prelims. That natural magical oshi moment? It was happening. It had already happened without me realizing it. But I knew when I was watching the election that I was cheering for my oshi to win.
And she did.
So, today, on my second anniversary of an AKB fan, I want to thank everyone that's helped me out, everyone that's been there to watch concerts with me, to answer my noobish questions, to get excited over these girls we all love. JPHiP for life~
Topic: The AKBar48 Postwhoring Thread (Read 1690643 times)