AKB 1/48- Adventures In Guam!

Yesterday I received in the mail my copy of the latest AKB48 psp dating simulation, AKB1/48. The game is, as expected, quite similar to the original, but there are some fun and interesting minor tweaks. Last year I purchased a used psp for the express purpose of playing the original game. While it is exciting and fun to have the angels of AKB48 pretending to flirt with me, the player, I find I am more frustrated, linguistically, than last year.

Last year I was just beginning Japanese and I was excited to piece together what meaning I could with a dictionary. Today I am much further along. While I can recognize more grammatical formations and words, there are still times when I can't even find the words in dictionaries. I still find myself dumping members I have meant to take to the next step, even after working with a dictionary for as much as twenty minutes over a decision making point. I just need to keep at it.

I'm having fun with the game, procrastinating about this paper I really need to write, but, at times, I think this game is more than just a little perverse. The angels of AKB48 are pretending to do things that they are contractually forbidden to do- flirt with, peruse, and date the object of their affections. While I am sure most of the young ladies found the work of putting the game together to be an amusing and possibly fun part of their serious professional lives, it seems to be wrong on some level for their management to make profit from, and their fans take pleasure in, a fantasy experience the ladies are contractually forbidden from experiencing in real life.

Lately a couple of members of Team 4 have had some difficulties largely due to their blogs and alleged behaviors from before joining AKB48. I didn't have much to add to that discussion, except to repeat myself: if you really support someone, you support them having more freedom to do what they like, not less freedom. Therefore if you really support your idols, you must support their freedom to date and explore their youth by making mistakes, while still keeping their careers. The young women of AKB48 should have the freedom to explore the pleasures and pains of flirting, dating, and sexual experimentation.



The ladies do a very good job of seeming to have fun in their portrayals in the game. I feel it is just a little perverse that they are only allowed to pretend and not permitted to experience those same activities. These angels can serve our fantasies and dreams, but they are denied the freedom and opportunity of trying to fully realize their own hopes and dreams of dating. We all owe them a debt for their sacrifice, and part of repaying that debt should be to work for their freedom to live as they choose and end the tyranny of management over their private lives.