The results for the AKB48 3rd Senbatsu Elections were announced earlier and I listed them below. Do inform me if there are any errors as I was updating here, on my twitter and Facebook at the same time while it was announced - along with all the tension and suspense too!
MEDIA SENBATSU
1. Maeda Atsuko (Team A) 139892 votes
2. Oshima Yuko (Team K) 122843 votes
3. Kashiwagi Yuki (Team B) 74252 votes
4. Shinoda Mariko (Team A) 60439 votes
5. Watanabe Mayu (Team B) 59118 votes
6. Kojima Haruna (Team A) 52920 votes
7. Takahashi Minami (Team A) 52790 votes
8. Itano Tomomi (Team K) 50403 votes
9. Sashihara Rino (Team A) 45227 votes
10. Matsui Rena (Team S) 36929 votes
11. Miyazawa Sae (Team K) 33500 votes
12. Takajo Aki (Team A) 31009 votes
SECOND LINE SENBATSU
13. Kitahara Rie (Team B) 27957 votes
14. Matsui Jurina (Team S) 27804 votes
15. Minegishi Minami (Team K) 26070 votes
16. Kasai Tomomi (Team B) 22857 votes
17. Akimoto Sayaka (Team K) 17154 votes
18. Sato Amina (Team B) 16574 votes
19. Yokoyama Yui (Team K) 16455 votes
20. Masuda Yuka (Team B) 14137 votes
21. Kuramochi Asuka (Team A) 12387 votes
UNDERGIRLS CENTRE
22. Umeda Ayaka (Team K) 11860 votes
UNDERGIRLS
23. Takayanagi Akane (Team KII) 11674 votes
24. Nakagawa Haruka (Team A) 10854 votes
25. Ota Aika (Team A) 9910 votes
26. Hirajima Natsumi (Team B) 9742 votes
27. Miyazaki Miho (Team B) 9271 votes
28. Yamamoto Sayaka (Team N) 8697 votes
29. Oya Shizuka (Team A) 7264 votes
30. Oya Masana (Team S) 6660 votes
31. Nito Moeno (Team K) 6288 votes
32. Komori Mika (Team B) 6120 votes
33. Hata Sawako (Team KII) 6177 votes
34. Sato Sumire (Team B) 5438 votes
35. Oba Mina (AKB48 Team Kenkyuusei) ? votes
36. Suda Akari (Team S) 5343 votes
37. Maeda Ami (Team A) 5220 votes
38. Matsui Sakiko (Team K) 5020 votes
39. Ichikawa Miori (AKB48 Team Kenkyuusei) 4928 votes
40. Fujie Reina (Team K) 4698 votes
This time round the total votes is really enormous jump from last year's and I would say this shows that not only fans are getting real hyped up this time round but also that the popularity of AKB48 is rising at a real fast rate! -claps- Totally amazing.. Good Job! Keep up the awesomeness! ^^
During the whole period of the releasing of results, the most tensed part would be the waiting for the second position to be announced. Last year, Oshima Yuko (with 31448 votes) won the #1 seat, taking over Atsuko Maeda (with 30851 votes), by a really close shave. This time round, many fans have already predicted that Maeda would get back her 1st position while some still prayed hard that Yuko remains. (I am guilty myself for the latter... oops!)
Indeed, Maeda got back her 1st position with a amazing 139892 votes. That's more than 4 times she received last year! Her fans must be really 'working hard' to make sure their oshi gets back her position, after seeing that Yuko maintained at #1 in the preliminary results.
Yuko fans did put on a good 'fight' too. With 122843 votes, it can be considered that it was a close shave to the amount of voted Maeda received.
Maeda Atsuko’s acceptance speech:
“Everyone, thank you so much. I was really able to feel encouragement and support from many people. Of course, I know there are people who don’t like me. There’s just one thing I’d like to ask: even if you dislike me, please don’t disklike AKB! This year, I want to deliver smiles to everyone with AKB48. Please take care of me.”
Maeda to Oshima:
“To Yuko…this entire year… not just this year, I have thought, that it was Yuko, and not me, that always, always pulled everyone forward. I would be very happy if you could continue to support AKB48 together with me. Thank you!”
Oshima to Maeda:
“Acchan is the face of AKB. As long as Acchan is smiling and looking forward, everything will be fine. Let’s continue looking forward together.”
(Adapted from tokyohive)
It was also extremely tense while waiting for the results for the 4th position to be announced. After announcing that Mayuyu got into #5, maintaining her seat, the only two that is the most probable to take up #3 and #4 would be only Kashiwagi Yuki and Mariko Shinoda. Last year Yukirin is in the 8th position with 15466 votes while Mariko is in 3rd with 23139 votes. I did expect a rise in popularity for Yukirin and with all the exposures she received and hard work she put in, I would say that.. she totally deserves the jump in position! Tweeter, Facebook and forums got heated up with a group of people wanting Yukirin to be in the 3rd position while another group wanted Mariko to be able to keep her seat. For this, I am guilty of being one of those wanting Yukirin to be in #3 =X
It is rather close actually, where Yukirin managed to receive 74252 votes while Mariko received 60439 votes. I was totally on cloud nine when I got news that Yukirin managed to get that #3!
During the whole period of announcing of the senbatsu election results, the most anticipated part and also the part which totally made my day is the announcement of the 12th position. My oshi, Akicha, finally made it into the Media Senbatsu!! おめでとう!! Congratulations! Well done! \(^o^)/ I will always be supporting you!
There are members who rose in ranks by a lot, like one of my favourites, Sashihara Rino. Last year Sasshi was ranked at #19 with 6704 votes and this time she received a amazing amount of 45227 votes, thus rose to #9! Was totally thrilled when it was announced! I think her jump in rank, apart from fans buying a lot of singles each, is mainly due to her role as Wota in Majisuka Gakuen drama, and debuting with Oshima Yuko, Yokoyama Yui and Kitahara Rie in the new subgroup 'Not Yet'. If you noticed, both Riechan and Yui did rose in rank too. For me, I started liking her from the drama and I think her choice of the photo for her senbatsu poster is totally the right choice!
Another member, also one of my favourites, not only managed to enter into top 40, but also managed to even get to #19 with 16455 votes! I would say that Yokoyama Yui actually did receive a lot of pushing and given much exposures, like taking up the role of Otabe in Majisuka Gakuen 2 (new President of Rappappa), her appearance in the Everyday Kachuusha PV, and being in the new subgroup 'Not Yet'. And she did really well in them, especially as Otabe. She did not make any speech when she receive the prize as she was sobbing till kind of like lost her breath! Looks funny and cute at the same time >w< Congratulations for your that amazing feat!
Kuramochi Asuka, another of my favourite managed to get into Senbatsu, from #23 (5355 votes) last year to #21 (12387 votes) this year. Congratulations! She's so pretty.. >w< plus her voice and her singing is really very good too!
However, there are also members who also dropped in rank, unfortunately. Another of my favourite, Itano Tomomi, dropped from last year's #4 to #8 even though the amount of votes she received this year is more than double of that last year. With that many First Press edition of Everyday, Kachuusha, it was really a tough fight between the ranks for girls.
Similarly, Matsui Jurina's amount of votes did increase by more than a double but she dropped in rank more than Tomochin, from #10 (12168 votes) Media Senbatsu to #14 (27804 votes) Second Line Sebatsu. Was really very sad to see my favourite SKE48 member dropped out of the Media Senbatsu range.
Another member who dropped from within top 12 to below top 12 is Kasai Tomomi, sad to say. I do find her singing and her acting as Ookabuki in Majisuka Gakuen real good but maybe this time the elections was really very intense with so much votes casted that her rank dropped that much.
Within the Undergirls, the member who caught my attention the most is Umeda Ayaka. From #32 (2499 votes) last year, Umechan did a 10-rank-jump to #22 (Undergirls Center) this year with near 5 times the amount of votes! I only started to take note of her when she came to Singapore for the handshake session the day before the AKB48 Stage 2 in Singapore though.
Although that there are rather disappointing results, I am still super happy with this year's Senbatsu elections! Having the whole of both 'French Kiss' and 'Not Yet' subgroups in Senbatsu (Top 21), I a very happy man already o(^▽^)o
Enough talk from me and now let's see what the members ranked in the top 40 have said when their results are released!
