Sunday 20 January 2013

AKB0048 Next Stage - Episode 3

Chieri has done the seemingly impossible and made it into the top ten in the preliminary general election results for the group - so why does she look so miserable about the whole thing?

Given everyone's busy schedule there's little time to dwell on such things, as attention soon turns to a hand shaking event the next day which could well further influence results.  It seems that even this can't bring any cheer Chieri's way, as one of her fans regales her with praise about a recent noodle commerical she appeared in... except neither she nor the management sanctioned any such commercial, much to her irritation.


As the episode progresses we learn the real reason for Chieri's anger about this advertisement - not so much about the commercial itself but rather it's source, that being a company owned by none other than her father and the Zodiac Group, with footage compiled from that same group's coverage of her trial.  Indeed, Chieri learns that her father has seemingly had a change in heart about Chieri's career choice, and is now backing her to the hilt with all of the amassed resources at his disposal - of course, we know that there's more to this change in attitude than meets the eye, but that matters not to Chieri anyway as she sees all of her recent success as being nothing but underhanded and "cheating" compared to the hard work of her friends.  But is there really anything she can do about it as election night arrives?

Although I can't really fault this week's episode of AKB0048 in terms of progressing its story, it didn't really manage to run with the tension or nervous excitement that should have followed the whole general election plot point - don't get me wrong, it certainly tried to, but it fell rather flat for me in the end.  Still, the behaviour of Chieri's father and his organisation are still a major source of curiosity, and the whole Centre Nova thing keeps on trucking with some more little titbits here and there, so there's enough to keep me watching the series (and yes, the music is starting to grow on me as well, meaning that I've fallen into this series horrible, horrible trap) out of more than just doggedness.

No comments: