Nogashita Sakanatachi - Single Video Collection - [Regular Edition]

If you're a fan of AKB48, you've probably already seen the ten music videos on this collection. If you're new to them and are looking for a suitable introduction, this DVD is the way to go. The videos were filmed from 2006-2008, so you definitely see some changes in the girls. I got this DVD chiefly because I wanted to own a copy of "Sakura Hanabira Tachi 2008," which I'd seen in a subtitled edition on YouTube. It's a graduation song and is sung choral style by the full assemblage of the girls. The video shows them singing at the graduation ceremony, intercut with nicely shot and staged scenes of high school life, drama and funny antics intermingled. It's all quite beautiful and extremely moving, a definite high point in the history of J-pop music videos. The songs vary in likability for me. Some are catchy and bouncy ("Aitakatta"), others more somber and less fun ("Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou"). But I like all the videos. For sheer entertainment value, you can't beat large numbers of very cute Japanese girls in attractive outfits dancing together in interesting settings while singing in full voice. Some are shot in the studio, some are shot on location, some are a mix of the two. Several include scenes of high school life. I like the videos where they smile a lot. Fortunately, those outnumber the non-smiling ones. There are lots of interesting locations around Japan, far away from Tokyo. "Bingo!" has them held prisoner on a tanker at sea and they all escape by leaping off the ship and getting washed up on a beach, where another version of them, 48-strong(!), dances on the sand in party dresses. Interestingly, there are several different styles of schoolgirl uniforms pictured in the videos. In the scenes involving typical school activities, the uniforms match what high school girls in Japan would normally wear. In the dance shots, the school uniforms are sharper and more imaginative, the work of some very clever designers. Two of the videos are obviously there for fan-service. "Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru" (My School Uniform Gets in the Way) and "Skirt, Hirari" (Skirt, Flutters) include images of the girls dancing suggestively in sexily stylized schoolgirl outfits. You won't see that in a Morning Musume video. The DVD also contains TV spots for each video. The one for "Seifuku..." begins with the voice-over, "Otosan, gomennasai" (Father, I'm sorry). I'll bet she is.