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Former Team B captain, Iwatate Saho is the first member up in AKB48's self-cover version, Team AKB Oshi. How does she feel about that? We might never know, but I for one feel kind of awkward about it, not because I haven't been crying about maybe never hearing Team B Oshi performed again, but because the way in which this is happening and the manner in which it has been delivered feels so lacklustre. Being in the eye of the storm, I am inclined to think Sahhoo feels more charitable about it, but here I am trying to clap along and wishing the production of the video and the approach to the song had maybe been just a little better.
Sahho joined as a member of AKB's thirteenth generation in 2011, arriving alongside Aigasa Moe, Mitsumune Kaoru, Murayama Yuiri, Mogi Shinobu, Kitazawa Saki and Okada Ayaka. When she first joined the group, she was 17-years-old, now she's 31 and the last member of her generation still in the group as per Yuiri's graduation last year. In 2013, at Tokyo Dome, she was promoted to Minegishi Team 4 alongside Yuiri, Saki, Shinobu, and Aigasa, and also Shinozaki Ayana, Okada Ayaka, Kojima Mako, Okada Nana, Nishino Miki, and Hashimoto Hikari. I love talking about Team 4, you know this, but the Minegishi and Takahashi incarnations of the team are definitely not my speciality subject, so in many ways I'm learning just as much as I speak to you. I have always known Sahho, I recognise her name often, but I have never really followed her, and now that we are here talking about her and I am conscious of her longstanding presence, I worry that the next time we speak about her it will be in a sentence containing the word "graduation." That, however, is still to come, so let's not worry about it now!
Like Nogizaka's Takayama Kazumi, Sahho was on a Watanabe B side, in this case, Watanabe Miyuki, with the song in question being Harukaze Pianissimo, the theme of the runners-up of the 2014 Janken tournament, all of them having lost to Milky, who very much got the better deal with Yasashiku Suru Yori Kiss wo Shite. Having made it, during various times, to placement in AKB's Upcoming Girls (2014), Future Girls (2016), Next Girls (2017), and Undergirls (2018), Sahho is no stranger to B side appearances, having appeared on the reverse side of every release from Gingham Check (2012) to Kibouteki Refrain (2014), and then every other release almost until Negaigoto no Mochigusare (2017), her place secured from then on and a centre role for Lion wo Nerae! from Kashiwagi Yuki graduation single, Colorcon Wink in 2024.
Sahho is a good person. During the Google+ days, she reached out to a fan who had posted openly about wanting to end his life, and she urged him not to, she talked him down. However way you want to look at interaction on the interaction, Sahho saw someone in distress and she intervened. That makes her a role model in my book. In 2019, she was moved to Team B, and in 2019, she became the captain as Takahashi Juri went to become captain of Team 4. In 2023, she spent a year in Team A before the new system was place and we found ourselves where we are now, with Team B Oshi suddenly resurrected and Sahho as the first member mentioned.
A former classmate of Nogizaka's Nakada Kana, a girl who, as of August of last year, has spent more than 5,000 days in AKB48, I really hope that Iwatate Saho stays with us for another 5,000 days!
Sahho joined as a member of AKB's thirteenth generation in 2011, arriving alongside Aigasa Moe, Mitsumune Kaoru, Murayama Yuiri, Mogi Shinobu, Kitazawa Saki and Okada Ayaka. When she first joined the group, she was 17-years-old, now she's 31 and the last member of her generation still in the group as per Yuiri's graduation last year. In 2013, at Tokyo Dome, she was promoted to Minegishi Team 4 alongside Yuiri, Saki, Shinobu, and Aigasa, and also Shinozaki Ayana, Okada Ayaka, Kojima Mako, Okada Nana, Nishino Miki, and Hashimoto Hikari. I love talking about Team 4, you know this, but the Minegishi and Takahashi incarnations of the team are definitely not my speciality subject, so in many ways I'm learning just as much as I speak to you. I have always known Sahho, I recognise her name often, but I have never really followed her, and now that we are here talking about her and I am conscious of her longstanding presence, I worry that the next time we speak about her it will be in a sentence containing the word "graduation." That, however, is still to come, so let's not worry about it now!
Like Nogizaka's Takayama Kazumi, Sahho was on a Watanabe B side, in this case, Watanabe Miyuki, with the song in question being Harukaze Pianissimo, the theme of the runners-up of the 2014 Janken tournament, all of them having lost to Milky, who very much got the better deal with Yasashiku Suru Yori Kiss wo Shite. Having made it, during various times, to placement in AKB's Upcoming Girls (2014), Future Girls (2016), Next Girls (2017), and Undergirls (2018), Sahho is no stranger to B side appearances, having appeared on the reverse side of every release from Gingham Check (2012) to Kibouteki Refrain (2014), and then every other release almost until Negaigoto no Mochigusare (2017), her place secured from then on and a centre role for Lion wo Nerae! from Kashiwagi Yuki graduation single, Colorcon Wink in 2024.
Sahho is a good person. During the Google+ days, she reached out to a fan who had posted openly about wanting to end his life, and she urged him not to, she talked him down. However way you want to look at interaction on the interaction, Sahho saw someone in distress and she intervened. That makes her a role model in my book. In 2019, she was moved to Team B, and in 2019, she became the captain as Takahashi Juri went to become captain of Team 4. In 2023, she spent a year in Team A before the new system was place and we found ourselves where we are now, with Team B Oshi suddenly resurrected and Sahho as the first member mentioned.
A former classmate of Nogizaka's Nakada Kana, a girl who, as of August of last year, has spent more than 5,000 days in AKB48, I really hope that Iwatate Saho stays with us for another 5,000 days!
