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Concerts / Events
Posted by Shiso TH STAFF Monday, July 22, 2013

Shinoda Mariko graduates from AKB48 with smiles and tears

TH STAFF
AKB48, Shinoda Mariko
On July 22, the graduation performance for AKB48 member Shinoda Mariko was held at AKB48 theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. With this performance, Shinoda ended her 7 and a half years as a member of AKB48.



As it was Shinoda's final performance, applications for the viewing flooded in, and the lucky 250 fans who were elected, sent her their support until their voices became hoarse.

Yokoyama Yui who Shinoda appointed as the next team A captain, made a comment while looking back the memories with Shinoda, "I would like to make a team that Shinoda-san would think it was a right decision to appoint me. I will make the new Yokoyama team A while succeeding Shinoda team A, but please allow me to depend on you just today."

Along with the team A members including Takahashi Minami, other 1st generation members like Kojima Haruna, Itano Tomomi, and Minegishi Minami, as well as team K's Oshima Yuko showed up on the stage for the encore.

When they were about to perform Shinoda's graduation song "Namida no Seijanai", Takahashi could not sing the beginning part since she started shedding tears, and it also made Shinoda weep in sympathy. After the performance, Takahashi apologized to the audience, saying, "Sorry, it was all because I started crying.", and Kojima told Takahashi, "Yeah, it was kind of too early." Though the audience were sobbing at the time, the atmosphere changed because of those two, and it burst into laughter.

During the encore, there was also a segment where Takahashi read a letter from Shinoda's mother, and of course, large tears trickled down on Shinoda's cheeks again.

Shinoda has a very unique career for an AKB48 member, as she started working as a staff at a cafe in the AKB48 theater after she failed the 1st generation member audition back in 2005. Even though she was not a member, she still received high popularity among fans, and it caught the general producer, Akimoto Yasushi's attention. At the time, Akimoto set a term for Shinoda to join AKB48 in which she had to be able to remember and perform 12 songs in 4 days, and after meeting the condition, Shinoda became a member of AKB48 as the "1.5 generation member." Because of it, Shinoda has a strong sense of gratitude toward the AKB48 theater stage itself, and also toward the fans. She said to the audience, "Every time I went inside the theater as a staff, I felt the distance from the stage, and that is why I cherish this stage. There were painful times, sad times, and times I kept crying, but now that it's all in the past, I was happy overall. That's the only word."


After performing her last song "Anata ga Itekuretakara", she said with a smile, "After the graduation, I will focus on works related to fashion. I will work hard to be able to become a person who people look up to.


After all the performance was over, she gave the audience send-offs with a high five from the cafe where was her starting point.


Check out the photos from Shinoda Mariko's graduation performance at the AKB48 theater.

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Source & Image(s): Oricon 

  1. AKB48
  2. Shinoda Mariko
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