The new WordPress is trash, so enjoy the gallery above; each person in the photo is captioned to go with the information below.  To stop the gallery, just click one of the arrows.  You leave for 6 months and come back to what?

Hi, remember me? I’m Paladin, I’ll tell Editor Kuno to change it to Dark Paladin or Black Paladin—I am trying to return, but medically, every keyboard stroke hurts, I’ll suffer though because all I ever cared about was entertaining the readers.

For those who don’t know or don’t remember my previous articles, AKB48 is a Japanese Idol group that pretty much is past being #1; however, if things continue the way they are, they will vanish as most musical groups do.

The Graduation is when a member leaves the group, they may have found something new to do like act, go solo in music; the stage calls them and they perform in plays or musicals. Some wait tables at a former members Meat (Yakiniku) restaurant and others don’t know what to do.
Other ways are getting caught by Bunshin a tabloid; with a guy—it’s never another girl??? Why the hell not? OR, they break some other stupid Idol rule that only the really idiotic agree with…”Well, if they have time to date, then they should be stars!” Most of them aren’t stars no matter how hard they practice dancing, getting skillful at singing or being amazing entertainers. The best singer was never at the front, so she finally left to go solo where she will become a star, so here is a fuck you to all the whining bitches about the girls getting caught by tabloids.

See above, the original 3 who survived their “scandal.” Rino, Yuki and Minami.

In just a few months, the following girls graduated, sadly, they are very important to the group’s survival, but you can’t tell them that they have to stay forever, most get paid nothing; this is just how they can be seen by the public to become solo and famous. It’s a 9-5 job and they don’t even work every day anymore.

The last 3 original members of Team K:

Sae Miyazawa
Kana Kobayashi
Ayaka Umeda

Joining Akihabara48 in 2006, the last 3 remaining members of Team K have left; the reasons are many…age…Ayaka is 27, Sae and Kana 25 (give or take); Idol-old…nah…I don’t think that is a good reason, the oldest member still remaining as of this article is Haruna Kojima who is an original member; she is 28.

Let’s go with this, Ayaka might have been feeling it, she ended her career in Namba Osaka with the sister group NMB48 as the co-captain of Team BII; she seems happy to have left, her big finish—well, she looked very pretty, I was a big and old fan of hers, so I hope she does well.

Sae; I think she was caught with a girl? On lie detector, she was found out to be “interested” in girls; now granted, this was on a variety show, but, the lie detector is 99.9% accurate. It is strange that Sae would leave, she was a consistent star, started the Shanghai sister group with Mariya Suzuki and gave everything to it, then returned to be the leader of the sister group in Sakae, Nagoya; SKE48—and that is where she finished her career. She does stage at the moment…but, something still does not make sense about her leaving. I hope she does really well.

Kana…man…She had the most theater performances totaling over 900, her goal was 1000—she said she would be too old by the time she got to that number. Kana said she was never an Idol—she just performed at the theater, was included in a few coupling songs on CD singles on occasion and was on a few of the TV shows that the group appeared on—variety/reality; but entertaining, not like the crap that the U.S. has sloshing shit in HD.
I think she didn’t want to be the last and be alone, if any of the girls remained in contact with their former teammates it was Kana; I really think that she left with Sae and Ayaka because she did not want to be alone.
Other than that, she had a disease that pretty much crippled her a few months before she graduated, she claims it had nothing to do with her leaving, but then again, some lies were meant to be believed.
Kana is special to me, I miss her the most, but there is nothing I can do about it except look at her posts on Twitter and hope she does well.

The General Manager: Minami Takahashi.

In 2014 at the 9th anniversary of AKB48, the most powerful member and group general manager announced her graduation. This was to be held at the 10th anniversary at the theater in Akihabara. The day came and I sent a goodbye, I love you, marry me, I’m insane and obsessive…oh wait…I just told her to take care of herself as I choose my next Oshimen or girl I push for.

The day passes and it is announced that there will be a last single where Minami is the center or main attraction. OK, so not yet…that’s OK, she was graduated to me, I wasn’t going to linger around after having my heart broken, I move on.
One last concert in March…OK, well, I’ll get one of my dealers in Japan to get me something from it; he got me a towel.
The last theater show is in April on her birthday…the 8th…OK, well, you know, it’s going on 2 years since she announced her grad….oh! What is Yuria doing?! (Yuria Kizaki is my new girl, not new, new, but she is my number 1). Here’s the thing, I actually got to see Minami’s last theater show on YouTube, my specialty dealer found it and sent me the link, I loved it, so I might sound like I am saying Minami is the turd that won’t flush, but when the show was over, it left me happy for her.

General Manager duties were passed on to Yui Yokoyama, she isn’t as strong as she should be; I like her, but she is incapable, but she damn well tries her best.

Some of my favorite girls.

Aki Takajo
Misaki Iwasa
Karen Iwata
Mariya Nagao
…and many more…

Aki went into acting, she was very good when she was a member of AKB48; she will do great on her own.

Misaki was the best singer the group had, but they kept her as an under-girl. As rock star as she sometimes appears, she sings Enka, and very beautifully too, she is amazing.

Karen, she just turned 18, I watched her for so long, an obnoxious little girl who had endured catastrophe to being a low member of the group, I really wanted to see what and where she was going to, and going to be. She is working on acting, her parents are actually performers; but she still endured the Earthquake and nuclear reactors blowing—a few years ago, she gives back what she can for that cause.

Mariya, one of the oddest girls in the world, but she was just being funny (I hope) she does have a gun permit and shotgun, very hard to get in Japan. She is a model now, she is beautiful and will do well.

It is a shame that the only way I (and others) can still follow these girls is through Twitter or another form of social media. Each person is different, each fan has their own standards, some sane and a lot insane. My personal standards for these Idols is that they make the most of their lives and do their best; I want them to be successful, and I hope for their well-being as people.

As I finish this, the pain is too much; but a writer shouldn’t bitch about something like that. I hope you, the reader enjoyed.

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