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Surprise announcement on Kouhaku Uta Gassen:


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http://www.japantoday.com/category/ente ... graduation
http://www.tokyohive.com/article/2013/1 ... from-akb48
http://www.akb48wrapup.com/2014/01/akb4 ... raduation/

I'm glad I didn't see any spoilers before I watched the local rebroadcast of Kouhaku, so I was properly gobsmacked when the announcement came. But of course we all knew that this wouldn't be too far in the future….

EDIT: Dead video link replaced.

There goes my New Years..

I cried so much...

If you cried then,wait until the ceremony. I'll be bawling.
Aki-P,do me a favor and make a remake of Heavy Rotation. Not as a single but...like a geaduation solo .
Even though it wasn't her first song as a center,it is pretty special.

Everyone keeps rumouring late february, but I'm still hoping she stays til the big summer concert and gets a proper send off. She deserves it, just like Acchan, Mariko, Tomochin and Sayaka.

They announced it at Kohaku! They didn't even do that with Acchan. In a way I'm glad, this will bring her one step closer to fulfilling her dream of being an international actress.

From my understanding, AKB girls have a *lot* more leeway than H!P girls when it comes to how/when they announce their graduation. I don't feel as though any girl has been "pushed" to graduate by management since the mass grad in 2009, or maybe MaiMai's grad.

I think "announcing it at Kohaku" was pretty much Yuko's decision. Just like it was Mariko's decision to announce it at the election and so on so forth...

I remember in the 3rd documentary, that scene where Takamina retells how Acchan told her, right before going on stage "I'm going to announce it today"... while Takamina knew Acchan intended to graduate eventually, she had no idea her decision was taken at that point... etc.

It's really different from how it is in H!P.

Yūko said that she hadn't told the other girls about her announcement beforehand, and you could see it in their surprised faces. But I got the feeling when I was watching it, even the first time, that Takamina at least did know before the announcement. Yūko might have told her right before the performance, as Acchan had done.

Might be the case. I'm guessing we'll find out in this year's documentary if there is one... (I wonder if there will be one?)