AKB48 General Election Guide Book 2010

A guide to AKB48 and SKE48's combined force of 104

Grabbed this AKB48 General Election Guide Book 2010 on a whim from the local Kinokuniya, which has recently started stocking up on AKB48 books of all sorts. A little late, since it was meant to be a pre-election mook and was released prior to the results of the Top AKB48 Members 2010. Inside you’ll find interviews with last year’s Top 10 AKB48 Members, the staff, as well as various lists and rankings.

In their Iiwake Maybe uniform. Probably last year's best costume.

Back.

Stickers. Kindergartners will love this.

Maeda gets a 5 page interview. The next 9 get a decreasing number of pages each.

Large shot of each girl, plus a compilation of some of their older photoshoots and candids.

Yuko gets 4 pages.

Takamina gets 4 pages too.

Haruna gets 3.

And the rest get 2 pages each.

4 page interview with boss-san.

Compilation of last year's results.

Includes descriptions and statistics of everyone from AKB48, SKE48 and the research students.

Photos from their Iiwake Maybe photoshoot.

And signed Polaroid shots.

Interview with Yamasato Ryuuta.

Bad Boys.

Goto P.

AKB48 Chronicle.

As usual, a random poster is included.

Seems like AKB48 has really been on a mook spree as of late. But overall, this is a pretty good buy, especially for new fans looking for some tasty tidbits of information. It’s not often you get a full list of the expanded family and since it’s a mook, it costs only 1000 yen.

The only downside (as Yan has pointed out) is that AKB48′s official portrait photographer really ought to be shot. Thanks to their sheer number of members, many non-fans have trouble telling apart who from who, these photos really don’t help. Most of them look like wax figures of their original self. Thankfully the Polaroids are a nice personal touch and help provide a much needed comparison to the terrible profile photos.