So in case you guys couldn’t tell or haven’t heard me mention before, Takamina is my oshimen (obviously), followed by Miichan and Kojiharu. That being stated, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that No Sleeves is my favorite AKB sub-group, so I adore everything and anything about my three favorite girls 🙂 A No Sleeves thread was recently created on STAGE 48 so now I have a little area to fangasm about the unit along with fellow fans. More importantly, however, is No Sleeves’ recent appearance on Shin Domoto Kyoudai, which I managed to stumble across thanks to the good people over at S48 in the No Sleeves thread.
For those who are unaware, Shin Domoto Kyoudai is a Japanese TV show hosted by Johnny’s Entertainment duo Kinki Kids (members Domoto Tsuyoshi and Domoto Koichi) which airs on FujiTV every Sunday. The show consists of three segments: the opening, where the Domoto Brothers Band perform the show’s theme song as the guests come on stage, followed by Domoto Ichimonittou (Domoto One Question, One Answer), where the guest(s) answer various questions about themselves, and finally Domoto Best Hit Takamiy, where they talk about a topic that referrs to the guest. A chart is displayed, composed of different songs or artists that fit the theme. Afterwards, the Domoto Brothers Band performs a song from one of those items, usually with the guest on main vocals. In No Sleeves’ episode, which aired on August 29th, the girls’ answered questions about themselves and AKB48 during the first segment, and during the second segment they talked about girl idol groups (Epic win at Takamina singing “LOVE Machine” when the Morning Musume VTR was playing xD).
Although I couldn’t understand everything the Question and Answer corner was really funny and great to watch. I think one question was “If you were a food at a buffet, which food would you be?” and the responses were really interesting – Haruna said she’d be Chinese curry, Takamina said she would be nattou, and Miichan said she would be a Japanese pepper. Another question I’m pretty sure was something along the lines of “If you were a guy which AKB48 member would you like to date?” Haruna said Miichan, Takamina said Shinoda Mariko because “she’s beautiful”, and Miichan said Takamina (so much love for our Team A captain!). The same question was asked towards the Kinki Kids; Koichi chose Team B captain Kashiwagi Yuki and Tsuyoshi chose Team K member Umeda Ayaka. Another question was something along the lines of “Please show us one kodawari point of your room.” I believe kodawari is a type of wood, so Takamina said that her kodawari point was her appeared to be her dresser, which had a bunch of cute pink things and decorations on it, including cake and sweet decorations and a pink stereo. She also brought up Acchan, so I’m assuming she mentioned on what Acchan said that night she slept over Takamina’s house. Miichan said that her kodawari point was her three person bunk bed. I believe there was also a question on what their dream date would be like, and Takamina said she’d want to watch anime and read a manga together (How adorable is that??? So cute! ^^) There were a bunch of other questions, but like I said I couldn’t understand everything (If I misinterpreted something, please correct me, as I only know basic Japanese). The ones I mentioned though were definitely my favorites ^_^
It was also great seeing the girls talk about other idol groups in the second segment. Haruna said she loved SPEED and this other idol group (Chicken something?), and Miichan said that when she was in elementary school she liked Morning Musume and that her favorite member was Goto Maki. I feel that the hilight of the show, however, was when they performed Aitakatta live with the Domoto Brothers Band!!!
I’ve uploaded the performance to YouTube here:
The performance is amazing and awesome on sooooo many levels. Not only have I developed such a strong love for Aitakatta after I saw AKB48 live at New York Anime Fest and Webster Hall last year (before that I liked it but wasn’t crazy about it), but it’s amazing because it’s performed totally utterly and completely live, and with a live band! The fact that the band is performing it instead of the instrumental makes the song sound even more great and gives it a slightly different, yet still beautiful, sound, and Takamina, Miichan, and Kojiharu are all stellar on vocals (I’d say that I don’t understand why they don’t perform live all the time, but I figured they’d all kill their vocal chords if they did that). I think the only thing I dislike about the performance are the two girls doing back up vocals during the chorus – I feel that it takes away from the usual sound you expect to hear from No Sleeves, plus it makes the song sound a bit ‘off,’ but aside from that I think it’s definitely, in my complete and utterly biased opinion, one of the best performances of Aitakatta ever ^_^
Overall it was a really fun episode to watch, so if you like No Sleeves or Takamina be sure to check it out!!!
Tottemo♥Takamina! 
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