Parallel Story? AKB0048 and Manatsu no Sounds Good!

  April 28, 2012

AKB0048 is not a light Anime.

The story of this Anime is based on current theme of AKB as a group, generation change, and if you already know the concept of Manatsu no Sounds good!, you must know this Anime put a light on the same theme as AKB memebers are divided into 2 groups (or generations), Mamoru mono and Semeru mono.

Semeru monotachi are trying to revive the past heritage created by Mamoru monotachi.

It’s no coincidence that the director of MV for Manatsu presented a sheer contrast between first half and latter half of the MV, which the former is full of VFX and looks so grueling. General Director for Anime AKB0048 is also a man who is famous for his depiction of apocalyptic worldview, Masaaru Kawamori, the director of a legendary Anime Macross.

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In this story, AKB48 is a group who existed in the time period of global war, during which they sang, dance and performed to save the humanity. As the consequence (of the global war), our earth had a irrecoverable damage and human race had to relocate themselves to other spheres in the space.

This was Star Age 0000.

As we started new life, human race established one law, entertainment prohibition law. The only place entertainment allowed to exist is Akihabara, the sacred place for Otaku, as a ultimate protection area.

In Star Age 0048, with a hope to be a successor of AKB48, AKB0048 was formed in Akihabara. But since AKB0048 is an illegal idols under the law, they couldn’t hold their concert officially. Instead, AKB0048 transformed themselves from the origianal concept of AKB48 “Idol who you can meet” to new concept “idol who go to your place”.

The story starts at the time long after original AKB48. As time passed by, AKB0048 came to gain enormous popularity and influence in the new world, which made them labeled as terrorists from authorities, and started having gotten disruption from them. This is a story 77gen of AKB0048 and its members, who are trying to succeed the original AKB48 members’ names.

As AKB48 was the last hope of the world on the brink of catastrophe, AKB0048 take a stand to protect their stage, protect people who want the freedom of entertainment, their fans and citizens. They grab weapons and start a battle to save our world.

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As the main cast of this Anime is voiced by Mayuyu, the center of Semeru mono in Manatsu MV, the story of AKB0048 is corresponding the story of Manatsu MV, which means I think the script of the Anime is basically the script of real-life AKB48 after the Manatsu no Sound Good!.

AKB0048 Watanabe Mayu

There’s another aspect of this Anime, namely “Battle and Idol“. Director of the Anime Mr. Hiraike talked that in reality, being a member of AKB48 requires high level of toughness that sometimes members get hyperventilation when they lose to deadly training and dense schedule, and backstage of AKB48 looks like battle field, which leads to the key concept of AKB0048 “Battle“.

Another hidden story is that AKB00 theatre in this future time is also set as a place where you can meet Goddess of Theatre, and AKB0048 also has a rule of Love Prohibition.

Though it’s reported this Anime started from the offer from Creators side, and AKB’s management is not much involved in the creation process of the Anime, the resemblance of the Manatsu MV and this Anime made me believe this Anime is supposed to be a parallel story of real AKB48. Or, I guess the director of MV and the director of Anime has shared their idea of AKB48 before and during their respective creation??

Either way, we can’t take our eyes off from this Anime, and must closely watch how things will turn out both in the real and in the Anime.

P.S As I re-read this post, I found this post is written in so pretentious tone, which is what I aimed at. I’m 100% sure those directors already knew Generation Change will be the theme of AKB (at least until Tokyo Dome), which can be a magnificent (or easy) theme for Anime.

I also think because Management knew Mayuyu will play a main voice for this Anime, they chose Mayuyu as a center for type-B (Semeru-mono). (Given her Anime-chara (AniOta-Chara) and perfect chemistry with Acchan, I think this choice is natural.) There’re of course a lot of things such as the number of 7 just made it impossible to join Mayuyu in Mamoru mono. But to enjoy and interpret this coming Anime in your own way, I hope my thought on this association will give you some unique insights!

Source: AKB0048 Official Site