AKB48's Beginner Original PV is Actually Cool, WHY oAo

WHY

WHY DID THEY CENSOR IT?! OAO

Ahem.

I'm not a wota nor AKB48 fan. But I adore their song "Beginner" a lot! I also mentioned this earlier in my old post about AKB0048 (yes thank you this anime made me know a little about idol group stuff). And I began to do some research about this song, included the PV. I was disappointed over the PV which is ... well, it consisted of the girls dancing and some behind-the-scene footage. I did not even believe THAT is the real PV because it does not have solid concept like the other PV (it is not like I have watched every single PV they created, though).

I just found recently that their PV in youtube is the censored version (which maybe was hastily made). This livejournal post explained the issue better than me (please open the link). But let me quote from the article:

Beginner PV is directed by Nakajima Tetsuya who have created pieces like “Kirawareru Matsuko to Issho” and “Kokuhaku”. This PV become attention since it was showed at the janken tournament because of its controversial content.


Nakajima Tetsuya filled this PV with message “The meaning of ‘living’ throughout pain”. It was announced at open concert Tokyo Aki Matsuri that “Beginner” PV was going to be censored. Nakajima then remake the PV with compiling dance part and making videos. He said that “AKB48 fans also consisted of elementary and middle schoolers, so it was being reconsidered.” After this explanation, the original PV was shown at the theater for second time. Regarding this, “Kosan wota A” who have going to AKB48 theater for 5 years gives his opinion.

And check out this link for further description:

This PV was aired again in the Tokyo Aki Matsuri, where a KING RECORDS Representative said that "maybe this will be the last time we'll show the pv to an open public". claiming that the pv is "too strong visually" and that Dance Shot and Making off Footage was going to be used to make a new version to use on TV and to include in the DVD of the Single.

This created a lot of fuss in the AKB48 fandom, complaining that they wanted to see the real pv. and some days later, AKB's KING RECORDS official website updated with a notice that the original pv was going to be released only through Recochuku, and officially confirming that the version included in the DVD of the Single was going to be the Censored clip.

This was the first time an AKB48 music clip was censored. Akimoto Yasushi commented that "I thought we made an splendid creation" and later explained that it was 100% a KING RECORDS decision to Censor the PV.

 What I really want to say is: WHYYYY oAo. It is unreasonable to censor the MV. I know some of the girls are still minor at that time but it is not like they are harmed for the sake of the video anyway. And I think the video are superb, a brand new concept. If you about to censor their video you better go censor their oversexualized MVs out there, you know what I mean?

"Beginner" is a song about striving hard to achieve something. And figuratively speaking this song talks to you "it is okay to start things from the top if you failed, we started everything with nothing anyway". And, according quoted article above, this is a song about "living through pain". And the original MV described it well in an unique well; it is about facing life, it is about starting things all over, it is about waking up. A little blood splattered won't be hurt (again, I say, it is not like they were hurt for the sake of the video, nobody got hurt! It is not that gory anyway). Maybe market's taste was involved (I mean, there was no such a thing with Chocolove's "Ashita wa Ashita no Kimi ga Umareru" but I guess now that AKB48 is popular ...). Sometimes I do not get idol subculture but well...

I am still upset about this issue, though, ahahaha. The original PV still exists in Recochoku (but of course you need to pay for it)

But if you want to sneak a peek at the subbed version, jpopsuki has one.