At the handshake event of AKB48's latest single 'Manatsu no Sounds good!' in Saitama Super Arena earlier today, it was announced that AKB48 will be holding their 3rd Janken Tournament on
September 18th at
Nippon Budokan for their 29th Single.
This year,
68 67 official members from AKB48, including Matsui Jurina (SKE48 Team S/AKB48 Team K) and Watanabe Miyuki (NMB48 Team N/AKB48 Team B), 1 AKB48 Research Student, 8 SKE48 members, 6 NMB48 members and 3 HKT48 members will be joining the main tournament.
Since Sashihara Rino was
transferred to HKT48, she will have to compete in HKT48's preliminary tournament and get into one of the three available spots for HKT48 in order to get to the main tournament.
Last year, Mariko won the center position but to my disappoinment, none of my top favourites made it into the Senbatsu positions. Can't be helped though, it all depended on luck. Guess they weren't lucky enough last year.
I hope that this year at least both Akicha (Takajo Aki) and Rena (Matsui Rena) can make it to Senbatsu positions!
I guess I won't be able to witness the tournament 'live' and can only rely on news released later on, that will be fed to my RSS feeds that I can read when I can while serving the nation... (•A• )
UPDATE (1st July):
Results of NMB48's preliminary tournament held yesterday at NMB48 Theater in Nanba, Osaka:
Shinohara Kanna (Team N)
Kotani Riho (Team N)
Yamagishi Natsumi (Team M)
Hikawa Ayame (Team M)
Kawakami Rena (Team M)
Takano Yui (Team M)
31 members of NMB48 Kenkyuusei competed first, where Kushiro Rina won and competed with 30 official members (Team N and Team M).
Watanabe Miyuki (Team N/Team B) will be participating in the main tournament directly thus was exempted from the preliminary tournament.
UPDATE (6th July):
Results of SKE48's preliminary tournament held yesterday at SKE48 Theater in Aichi:
Nakanishi Yuka (Team S)
Hiramatsu Kanako (Team S)
Sato Seira (Team KII)
Sato Mieko (Team KII)
Ueno Kasumi (Team E)
Kimoto Kanon (Team E)
Kobayashi Ami (Team E)
Takagi Yumana (Team E)
Similar to NMB48, one victor from SKE48 Kenkyuusei competed with the official members (Team S, KII and E). Matsui Jurina (Team S/Team K) will be participating in the main tournament directly thus was exempted from the preliminary tournament.
Results of HKT48's preliminary tournament held earlier today at HKT48 Theater in Fukuoka:
Moriyasu Madoka (Team H)
Nakanishi Chiyori (Team H)
Eto Sayaka (Kenkyuusei)
Similarly, one victor from HKT48 Kenkyuusei competed with the HKT48 official members in Team H.
Sadly, this concludes that Sashihara Rino won't be able to participate in the main tournament.
UPDATE (9th July):
Pairings for the main Janken tournament were announced yesterday at
Tokyo Big Sight.
During the event, Masuda Yuka (Team B) announced that she will not be participating in the tournament as she recently passed the auditions for a musical (Wiz ~Oz no Mahoutsukai~) and will be having lessons from August.
Iwasa Misaki vs. Minegishi Minami
Iwasa or Minegishi vs. Uchida Mayumi
Nonaka Misato vs. Takahashi Juri
Nonaka or Takahashi vs. Shimada Haruka
Itano Tomomi vs. Komori Mika
Itano or Komori vs. Kobayashi Kana
Masuda Yuka (withdrawal) vs. Watanabe Mayu
Takano Yui (NMB48) vs. Kobayashi Ami (SKE48)
Takano or Kobayashi vs. Takagi Yumana (SKE48)
Kimoto Kanon (SKE48) vs. Ishida Haruka
Kimoto or Ishida vs. Kawakami Rena (NMB48)
Kitahara Rie vs. Chikano Rina
Kitahara or Chikano vs. Watanabe Miyuki (AKB48/NMB48)
Takeuchi Miyu vs. Kobayashi Marina
Oba Mina vs. Ota Aika
Oba or Ota vs. Nakagawa Haruka
Saeed Yokota Erena (HKT48) vs. Takajo Aki
Saeed or Takajo vs. Nito Moeno
Yamauchi Suzuran vs. Kojima Haruna
Yamauchi or Kojima vs. Kotani Riho (NMB48)
Umeda Ayaka vs. Eto Sayaka (HKT48)
Tano Yuka vs. Kato Rena
Tano or Kato vs. Nakanishi Yuka (SKE48)
Otsuka Shizuka vs. Shinoda Mariko
Kuramochi Asuka vs. Kawaei Rina
Kuramochi or Kawaei vs. Oshima Yuko
Maeda Ami vs. Morikawa Ayaka
Sato Natsuki vs. Sato Sumire
Sato or Sato vs. Nakatsuka Tomomi
Nakaya Sayaka vs. Yokoyama Yui
Nakaya or Yokoyama vs. Sato Amina
Nakata Chisato vs. Sato Seira (SKE48)
Nakata or Sato vs. Iwata Karen
Natori Wakana vs. Ichikawa Miori
Moriyasu Madoka (HKT48) vs. Sato Mieko (SKE48)
Moriyasu or Sato vs. Shinohara Kanna (NMB48)
Akimoto Sayaka vs. Ueno Kasumi (SKE48)
Akimoto or Ueno vs. Kikuchi Ayaka
Suzuki Shihori vs. Nakamata Shiori
Suzuki or Nakamata vs. Hiramatsu Kanako (SKE48)
Iriyama Anna vs. Abe Maria
Nakanishi Chiyori (HKT48) vs. Yamagishi Natsumi (NMB48)
Nakanishi or Yamagishi vs. Shimazaki Haruka
Miyazaki Miho vs. Matsui Sakiko
Miyazaki or Matsui vs. Nagao Mariya
Hikawa Ayame (NMB48) vs. Miyazawa Sae
Hikawa or Miyazawa vs. Kashiwagi Yuki
Fujita Nana vs. Suzuki Mariya
Tanabe Miku vs. Izuta Rina
Tanabe or Izuta vs. Takahashi Minami
Matsui Jurina (AKB48/SKE48) vs. Nakamura Mariko
Kasai Tomomi vs. Matsubara Natsumi
Kasai or Matsubara vs. Katayama Haruka
Fujie Reina vs. Kojima Natsuki