55 replies to this topic

[CAiTlin_Beat]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans? I'm 17

How did you start listening to AKB48? Someone on YouTube (I'm not sure who it is sorry) likes to upload his own top 40 weekly countdown and RIVER was on the top 10. That was the first AKB song I ever heard because I didn't know about them before that but I'm glad I found them I think RIVER was the song that boosted AKB to their mega popularity since it was their first No.1 and now they have 5 consecutive No.1 singles (I think)

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band? Well I've been a H!P fan for over a decade now and I still love them and I'm hoping I'll be an AKB fan for just as long cos their AWESOME!!!

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists? Of course I love Hikki, Perfume, Otsuka Ai, H!P (obviously ), Arashi and BoA, I LOVE BOA SHE'S MY IDOL!!!

[BlackTsubaki]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans? Im 24

How did you start listening to AKB48? It wasn't until Aitakatta and Bingo! that I really started listening to them in 2008 as I was still into Morning Musume at the time. After Iida Kaori left I lost interest in them, so I was looking around to see what new music was out there. I usually frequent the Oricon charts to see how well The Gazette is doing, and AKB48 was there with Bingo!, been a fan for about 3 years...........the rest is history!

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band? Until Takamina leaves (hope that never happens ever!) since she is my favorite member and my oshimen.....love that girl so much lol.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists? Morning Musume and C-ute.

[Medusa]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?

- i'm 17-18

How did you start listening to AKB48?

- since "Skirt Hirari"

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?

- i don't know i still like the group until now

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?

- yes,i like morning musume,we can girls,johnny jimusho

[qilver_21137]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?

twice the age of most of you....too old to count

How did you start listening to AKB48?

Back in 2007, Seifuku......that song, its quite catchy

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?

Since last year, when i stopped being a fan of theirs, I lost complete interest in AKB48.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?

Mainly Momusu for Jpop. For K-pop its all Girls Generation.

[ezterrell]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
I just turned 34 back in Oct. During my bus trip home from going to see Angry in NY.

How did you start listening to AKB48?
Actually another Hello! Online member sent me the links to the videos for Keibetsu shiteita aijou, Aitakatta, Bingo!, as well as a performance of Blue Rose on You Tube over 2 yrs ago now. In that very order mind you. Takamina was the one who stuck in my mind the most when I saw Keibetsu. I still hadn't really paid too much attention to them at that point. Then about a yr ago I found out they had been at NYAF 2009. So I watched the concert segments on You Tube. I immediately spotted and recognized Takamina. After that I have been hooked on AKB48. I never even actually learned anyone else's names till after I watched Majisuka Gakuen in Oct. Then a few months ago I came across of one of their CD's in Hot Topic. So I have been truely stuck on AKB48 for about a yr now.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Till the day I die!!!!! Same with Morning Musume!!!!!

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Yes. Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, Utada Hikaru, Nana Kitade, EU-PHORIA, Ayumi Hamasaki, Sweets, Tsukiko Amano, Orange Range, Alot of H!P, and much more.

[YuzukoAria]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?

16, going on 17 in May
How did you start listening to AKB48?

I started listening to their songs since Yuuhi Wo Miteiru Ka? , I became a fan after Ponytail to Shushu
How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?

no idea...
Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
H! P, Idoling, Mizuki Nana, SKE48 and NMB48~

[Lotty]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans? 21
How did you start listening to AKB48? I found Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru and bought the CD
How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band? thats a good question. I guess so long as they appeal to me...?
Do you like other Jpop bands/artists? Jep

[ｋｉｒｉｋａ☆]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
12, 13 this year. I'm so young ne?

How did you start listening to AKB48?
AKB48's performance on i think Music Japan..

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Until my fav. graduates, Mayuyu♥

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Yush. Hello! Project & Tokyo Girls' Style.

[LunaLupus]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
48 31

How did you start listening to AKB48?
It's a long, weird story. Somehow, youtube suggested the Aitakatta PV around October '09. I loved the "choir vibe" from it. I did some research until I saw Skirt, Hirari (which I now love)... and decided to ignore them. I did buy Aitakatta, though. Fast forward a few months to browsing the Oricon site. I saw a pic of four girls, that led to a blog. One of them was really cute, and I researched them. I found they were related to AKB48 in some way, so... pass! Months later, youtube suggested another video. All I could see from the small preview pic, were five girls on a stage, and the title Akkanbe Bashi. It was then that that "really cute" girl, Watanabe Mayu, devoured my soul! I was just a Watarirouka Hashiritai/Mayu fan, though. I found out what AKB48 PVs Mayu took part in, and bought the PV collection with "all" of them. I planned to never buy more, until I found out the wiki I checked was out-dated. So, around three months ago, I became an AKB48 fan.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Forever!

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Yes, way too many!

[dev-null]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?

Watching AKBINGO! makes me feel younger! That's what matters.

How did you start listening to AKB48?

I was bored and downloaded some random AKBINGO! episodes to find out what it was and then I was hooked to this show; listening to the songs came gradually then. That was sometime in 2009, I think.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?

I don't plan to stop anytime soon.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?

Not so many actually. AKB48 (and units) is probably the most J-POPy one high on my list. I also like "alan" which probably is categorized in the J-POP genre. Else I'm more into Enka and Folky stuff or really old stuff. I like Nagayama Youko a lot (Enka singer) or Hajime Chitose; who are both Japanese artists. But of course I have bunch of other JPOP albums in my listening queue too which otherwise is filled with lots of Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Mongolian or very old stuff.

[MSHunters]

「If you don't mind me asking...」

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
I'm currently 18 by year, but I'm still 17. I'm a guy too. I don't suppose most fans are guys here? I suppose I'm pretty young considering I've heard of other 20s fans.

How did you start listening to AKB48?
I never knew a single thing about AKB48 until my recent (and first) trip to Japan last December. Believe me or not, I learned about NMB48 first, through a local TV network.
They were airing the auditions for NMB48 I suppose. Days later, during the last night before returning home, I caught them on radio, but this time it was AKB48 and not NMB48.
Nonetheless the information I had wasn't much due to the non-understanding of the Japanese language. It wasn't till January next year (2011) that I realized AKB48 was a top Japan group.
My first ever AKB48 song was ヘビーローテーション and it was my favorite since then. Guess who has the center position. None other 大島優子! Here's a hint, it means Oshima Yuko.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Given the odds, probably forever if the members get to remain the same. However, not all members stay and at some point, they'll graduate, especially Yuko, I guess.
I'll try to stick to them for as long as long is possible though. After all, they do have a bunch of members, 48 and counting.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Given how I've never came across other Japanese entertainment groups (except a few notable Japanese tracks like A Song of Storm and Fire), I don't think so.
The only other bands/artist that I'm interested in is only SKE48, which doesn't exactly count as "another J-Pop band/artist". I guess that covers everything.

Personal opinion and background story
Bonus content! Thanks to AKB48, I've actually been gripping my languages much better. Before that, I'm a Chinese who was born and now resides in Malaysia. Being Chinese, obviously I had to be able to at least speak and read Chinese.
That's where AKB48 comes in. Thanks to the overwhelming interest I had in AKB48, obviously what most people would do is download AKBINGO!, which I did. After watching every existing episode to date, my knowledge on Japanese has improved.
Basically, my Japanese was at ground zero, square one. However, along the way, my Chinese language had improved drastically (yes, one script is shared by both languages). In other terms, AKB48 expanded my vocabulary.
The interest had also somehow compelled me to download at least 350 GB worth of AKB48 data including, but not limited to their songs, their videos, basically a lot of their things. Ya, I guess when you're equipped with broadband, nothing can stop you.

I would have a lot more to say, but that'd all be gibberish so yeah, I'll skip that. Post done!

[Yossi_love]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
I'm 18

How did you start listening to AKB48?
I visited a fellow H!P fan who also likes AKB and while watching random clips suddenly Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru turned up. This was about 2 years ago I guess. I really liked it but only listened to like...5 songs from AKB until RIVER got released and I got hooked again now I'm following them

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
That's hard to say. I think that i will only stop followeing them when I get tired of Jpop in general. I'm not the kind of person to let a group 100% down when my favoruite leaves or such...So yeah, as long as I keep listening to Jpop and I like their songs I will follow them (I hope I will never get tired of Jpop)

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
I'm mainly a fan of H!P and Ayumi Hamasaki, but I listen to a few Johnn's song, Momoiro Clover, Kishidan, Dj Ozma and other random artists

[CathyRingo]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
17

How did you start listening to AKB48?
Was watching H!P PV's and clicked on a link thinking AKB48 was under H!P really enjoyed it [Skirt Hirari] and followed them ever since.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Til FOREVER!

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Yes, I like H!P groups, Tokyo Girl's Style, Sakura Gakuin, I also like Dir en Grey and some Japanese ska and punk bands.

[LonelySoldier]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
18

How did you start listening to AKB48?
It actually starts from 2008, where I first knew the word 'AKB48' from a news. At first, I thought "Oh, another MoMusu, but with much more members in one group...", but I still have no interest at all with them, since I've never into idols (at that time, I was really into Tokusatsu), so I decided to ignore them and go on with life...

Then, at the end of 2009, where Kamen Rider W starts airing, I found Queen & Elizabeth in episode 7, but still not really interested to find who they really are in real life. But some people in a forum told me that those two are from a currently popular idol group, AKB48, and showed me a video where Queen's actress played a game with Suzuka Morita (I knew her from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger where she played as Hanaori Kotoha/ShinkenYellow). That video is actually from AKBINGO!'s AKB vs Idoling!!! episode where they played the legendary Tarinai48 game, and at that time I thought that the show was quite interesting, but still not enough to make me learn more about the group, although from that video at least I learned that the one who acted as Queen is Itano Tomomi, and the other one acted as Elizabeth is Kasai Tomomi.

Then, at the summer of 2010, I was quite interested with Sasaki Nozomi, where at that time she's really popular and got to appear in a LOT of shows, commercials and magazines. Then one day, I downloaded a full scan Young Jump magazine where Sasaki Nozomi made an appearance in that edition (and she had a lot of gorgeous shots in it), and when I got into some page, I once again found AKB48 members, in a form of poster with three members in bikinis. I could instantly recognize one of them as Itano Tomomi, while the other one is Oshima Yuko. But what stole my attention the most is the last girl standing in the middle, since she looked way different from the other two, way much cuter, charming, and looked hawt as well (sorry for Tomochin and Yuko fans, but that's what I was thinking at that time, or in other words, 'the first impression'). Then I read her name, it's.... Maeda Atsuko.

So I decided to find out more about her, but not yet with the group. The second thing I learnt is that she had appeared in quite a lot of dramas, and I love japanese dramas, so I decided to try to watch some dramas she appeared in (Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo, Swan no Baka, and Taiyou to Umi no Kyoshitsu), all of them ranging from crazy, silly, to awesome. Being amazed more and more, I tried to learn more about her, until I knew that Maeda Atsuko (at that time I also learnt that she's apparently called Acchan) was the ace/frontgirl of AKB48 since its inauguration, and AKB48 is currently a BIG DEAL in Japan.

September 2010 : So finally, I decided to find out what's so good about that huge group, and decided to try some of their songs/PVs. I started my search with YouTube, and found the AKB48 Official Youtube Channel. Then, I tried the first one listed on the playlist, and it was.... Heavy Rotation. My first impression is totally WTFWTFWTFWTF, since it's my first time watching such a PV, but then I remembered that it's Japan, where 'anything could happen so get used to it', and calmed down a bit. The song's really cute and catchy, though. Done with Heavy Rotation, I decided to pick some more PVs randomly from the search results in YouTube. They were BINGO!, Aitakatta, and RIVER. Fortunately, all of them wins my heart. So that's how I started getting into AKB48 up till now...

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Dunno, maybe till they're gone...

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Yes, beside AKB48 and all its sister groups, I like Perfume, Ikimonogakari, and EXILE...

[MSHunters]

^
Ah Heavy Rotation.. The time it all started. Nice story. Mine's a bajillion times smaller though. Seems to me the whole world will know about Maeda Atsuko first. As did I, but I came across the name Acchan first. Followed by Yuko.

[Yukarichan]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
I'm 28 now.

How did you start listening to AKB48?
I watched the PV for Aitakatta one day back in 2006 and was hooked. I've been a fan ever since.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
Until it disbands, which I don't see happening for quite a while.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
Oh yeah! Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Buono!, C-ute, ELISA, fripSide, JASMINE, JYONGRI, Kalafina, Kana Nishino, Kanon Wakeshima, Koda Kumi, Mami Kawada, miwa, Morning Musume, Nana Mizuki, Perfume, SCANDAL, TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE, YU-A, Yuna Ito, Yuya Matsushita , the list goes on.

[goratnik]

MSHunters, nice to read that I'm not only one that learnt Maeda first... surprisingly second was Kojima, while I don't favorize her, really. But her ears!



桜の花びらたち was the first thing to know - first promo, spotted on Veoh when looking for C-ute closeups at Seinenkan. Took then some time to notice what's going on, but Sakura finally prevailed! Not sure for how long I'm going to support, but I wish for 48s Pink Floyd's lifetime

Is YUI a J-pop? Nevermind, look at my "favourite idol", as I set this for a while.

[MSHunters]

^
Hah, not surprising since Maeda has reputation in and out of AKB48, but it seems to be the common name when I first Googled it. I had to thank Heavy Rotation's PV for poisoning me into them. Not for them, I guess there'd be something else.. But I can't put what exactly.
Nonetheless, fun to know! Go 前田敦子 and 大島優子!

[Kecham]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans?
I'll be 25 in November
How did you start listening to AKB48?
I heard people talking about them and decided to see (hear ~♪♫) what the talk is all about
How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band?
I have no plans for the future
Do you like other Jpop bands/artists?
my Like list is too long, here's the Love list
Momusu, Berryz, Ayumi Hamasaki, Ueto Aya, Matsuura Aya

[Snapple]

How old are some forum members/AKB48 fans? I'm 24 =]

How did you start listening to AKB48? Found a clip of Sakura no Hanabiratachi (original, not 2008 ver.) on youtube when it was first released. I preordered Skirt, Hirari.

How long do you think you'll continue to follow the band? Until it starts to annoy me like H!P does now.

Do you like other Jpop bands/artists? LOADS. I like to listen to as many artists as possible! =D

My favourites though are FLOWER, Kumi Koda, BoA (she's Korean I know but she has a lot of Japanese releases), AAA, Do as Infinity, Tomoko Kawase anything (february6, heavenly6, brilliant green etc), heaps more.