48G Members Top Ten: Variety Queens

Iwata Karen

Iwata Karen kind of has a Yuko Oshima thing going for herself. She’s so touchy feely with the other members, especially her precious Suu-chan. Her best physical affection moments are when she’s schooling other AKB members on how to kiss. Just watch Murashige Anna’s reaction when Karen plants one on her. It’s priceless!

But Karen is funny in many other ways as well. Lets just say she gets deeply involved when it comes to reading manga on programs like AKB Shirabe and AKBINGO. In fact, her interpretation of a scene from the manga “Kuroko’s Basketball” during AKB BEST 10 segment is enough of a reason to include her on this list.

And honestly, that’s the just the start of where the funny begins with Iwata Karen.

Mayu Ogasawara

Ah, this girl is unbelievable.

AKS management has so much faith in her ability to make you laugh that they gave her an entire segment on last year’s AKB’s Best Setlist. And what did she do during that? Monomane, of course!

She’s the queen of Monomane, and seeing her during Setlist make fun of everyone from Yukirin to Yamada Nana (who probably felt a bit silly for trying to help Maachun at the beginning of her whole impression skit when she was having trouble with the banner wrapped around her) had all of her peers in stitches. It sounded like the audience couldn’t hold back either.

Seriously, Maachun does her comedic Osaka roots proud, as she doesn’t hold back.

It doesn’t matter if she’s rapping or outing her close friend Kotani Riho about her odd habit of wearing two sets of underwear, which she did during a Shoujiki Shougi match to earn a point (and she did! The look on Kotani’s face… oh man!), Maachun will do whatever it takes to make those around her smile. And the best part about her sense of humor is that it’s natural and not forced.

Takayanagi Akane

Churi is way over the top with her reactions. She could easily compete with Nishino Miki for best reaction queen in the AKB48 group. However, I wouldn’t say she was crazy when she would react, but more silly than anything else.

A good example is seeing her in any situation involving birds, particularly that one time on SKE48 no Sekai Seifuku Joshi with what I believe were penguins. Churi instantly turned into one, as she tried desperately to communicate to them in their native tongue. Can we just say incredible?

If you want more proof of how silly Churi can be, basically watch any episode of SKE48 no Magical Radio with Churi in it. From the moment she appears onscreen to the end of every episode with her, you forget that her co-stars were powerhouses like Matsui Jurina, or the other Rena of SKE48.

Churi commands your attention, and believe me, you’ll be all too happy to give it to her completely.

Sashihara Rino

Not many of the top girls in AKB, surprisingly, have a strong sense of comedy as their appeal point. Some do in the sense that it’s accidental situations of humor they find themselves in, like Kojiharu, and others make it an art to be a FAIL character (Takamina comes to mind).

Yet Sasshi is calculating when it comes to being funny, and also unconventional. She doesn’t seem to mind stepping outside the borderlines of any variety show she’s on, and that is how she’s made her way onto this list.

The girl prides herself on doing everything she can to toppling her idol persona. And you know what? She’s really good at it.

Want to see a cute Japanese girl roll her eyes up into her head when somebody says something shocking? Want to hear an idol talk about her small boobs and all the things she’s doing to improve her bra size? Ever wonder what an AKB member would look like if she tried to do an impression of a wota doing wotagei? Ever wonder what would happen if an idol wrote a book about a serious topic?

Sasshi has you covered in every one of these instances.

And that’s only a tiny fraction of what Sasshi has done to make us all laugh. In fact, you probably could do a whole top ten list of funny moments involving her. She is always a variety show highlight and so much so that she even hosts several variety shows, including her own, which you can’t say that about really any other member of the entire AKB48 group.

Fast forward to 03:46 mark!

Tano Yuuka

There’s something really appealing about a super hot girl who is also super funny.

That’s Tanochan, in a nutshell.

I think with her it all comes down to her facial expressions and loud, over the top expressions she makes whenever somebody makes fun of her or does something that’s really zany.

Tanochan has become the kind of go-to AKB member for reaction shots on AKBINGO, and Tanochan herself really knows how to deliver funny moments as well. Just ask Paruru. Tanochan’s imitation of her during AKBINGO is spot on!

Actually, Tano chan doing imitations of anything usually is pretty funny, but add to this Tanochan’s penchant for being a hot head and you can just imagine that her brand of humor could be called intimidating, to say the least.

Nakanishi Chiyori

You just can’t have a list of AKB variety queens without Chori being part of the list.

Her Monomane skits are a close rival to Maachun’s acts, but what sets Chori above her and many other variety girls is that she can, with a simple puckering of her lips, make you laugh. And when she does her Chori/Tani duo comedy skit with Tani Marika? Forget about it!

Chori’s bird impression is dangerous though, in the sense that if she’s not careful when she does that impression, Churi is going to take her home and put her in a cage with her other birds!

I know this girl hasn’t ranked in any of the Sousenkyo’s yet, but maybe with a little more screen time on some more variety shows and she’ll be cracking the Top 80 of AKB before we know it!

Skip to 03:38 for some Chiyori Monomane action!

Takahashi Minami

She’s a hard one to pin down, as far as humor is concerned. It seems as though many times she either is trying too hard to be funny, or she just isn’t really that concerned if people think she’s funny or not. She’s still soukantoku until December, so maybe she just has other things on her mind?

Still, the early days of AKBINGO and SHUKAN demonstrated Takamina’s overall commitment to fitting in with her hysterical peers back then. Ah, that was the Golden Age of AKB, wasn’t it? Or maybe not, depending on what you think of the current lineup, but whatever anyone thinks about the past or present of AKB, Takamina is the heart of the group and sometimes that meant being the funny anchor as well.

Just watch the New Year’s Dokkiri on AKBINGO where Takamina is genuinely devastated at being pranked so harshly! Or how about the whole Mechaike Takamina graduation prank? Who knew she could pull off being so effectively funny with those fake tears and keeping her composure when her close friends were sitting in front of her and doubting that she actually had a relationship with Okamura.

It’s perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to Takamina when you talk about funny idols in AKB, but moments like that Mechaike special, or when Takamina is sharing one of her many fail anecdotes, you kind of have to wonder if this girl does have a comedy spirit hiding behind that huge heart of hers.