Top AKB48 Members 2010

It has been two weeks since AKB48 released Ponytail to Shushu. The final votes for the 2010 AKB48 Senbatsu election are in and the numbers tallied. Presented are the member rankings for this year that were announced only hours ago. The results will surprise!

Oshima Yuko.

#1. Oshima Yuko
The biggest surprise is the displacement of Maeda Atsuko from the number one spot. As Team K’s cover girl, Oshima Yuko has long been regarded as the only contender for the title of AKB48′s most popular member. Yuko emerged tops this year by a lead of 597 votes. While many fans will loath the result, many more will rejoice.

Maeda Atsuko.

#2. Maeda Atsuko
For the longest time, Maeda Atsuko has been the public face of AKB48. This translated to her being the most widely recognized member of the group. Aachan fans put up a tough fight and she was seen leading in votes during the first week of the election. Still she comes in only slightly behind Yuko. Still, fans can expect to see her continue her critical role as one of the group’s main vocalists.

Shinoda Mariko.

#3. Shinoda Mariko
As the most popular member among women, Shinoda Mariko topped the popularity polls on Mixi (a Japanese social network system like Facebook) which has a primarily female audience. With AKB48′s mainstream success, Mariko was clearly a contender for the top spot. Unfortunately, it as apparent from the first week results that this wasn’t the case. While she trailed behind at the #5 during last week’s tally, fans have since bumped her back up to keep her position at 3rd place.

Itano Tomomi.

#4. Itano Tomomi
Itano Tomomi’s popularity has been surging ever since she matured into her more fashionable image. As a staple of fashion magazines a model for Shibuya 109, Itano has become another fave among the new female fans. Last year Itano made #7. During this election her she hit as high as #3 last week. Fans kept up with the votes and she eventually came in only behind Mariko.

Watanabe Mayu.

#5. Watanabe Mayu
As Team B’s most leading member, Watanabe Mayu’s popularity remains relatively unchanged. With Itano moving to 4th place, Mayuyu is displaced one place down from last year’s results with only slightly less votes than Itano.

Takahashi Minami.

#6. Takahashi Minami
While not nearly as popular as the girls above, Team A captain Takahashi Minami has long been loved as one of the group’s lead vocalists. Her fans have proportionately increased with the new audience and she drops only one spot due to Itano’s rise.

Kojima Haruna.

#7. Kojima Haruna
As a staple member of AKB48, Kojima Haruna maintains her popularity with the audience. Like Watanabe and Takahashi, Haruna is moved down one rank from last year.

Kashiwagi Yuki.

#8. Kashiwagi Yuki
As the group’s captain, Kashiwagi Yuki is Team B’s most prominent member other than Watanabe Mayu. In the past year, Yuki has been rather active in gravure work and it seems all of this is slowly paying off as she manages to rise one spot to 8th place despite this year’s fierce competition.

Miyazawa Sae.

#9. Miyazawa Sae
While Miyazawa is an active member of Team K, she is often overshadowed by many of the group’s most popular members. Unexpectedly, she outranked many of the girls to come in at #9.

Matsui Jurina.

#10. Matsui Jurina
Matsui Jurina is another unexpected face to be voted among the top this year. As SKE48′s cover girl, Jurina has been pushed into AKB48 singles to mixed reactions. She placed poorly last year, barely making it into those chosen for the singles and many were expecting SKE48′s Matsui Rena to place higher. Jurina beat Rena by a meager 86 votes to take the 10th place.

Here’s the full list of the remaining ranked members. The numbers are the votes each of the girls received. Since no other site has provided a side by side comparison yet, the numbers that follow the votes is their position last year.

This year, members of SKE48 and the Research Student (RS) team were included in the election for a total of 104 participants. With the introduction of many new members, it is only expected that some of the existing of the rankings would drop.

As before, the top 21 girls will be featured in the next single. Those ranked 22-40 will appear on B-sides as the Under Girls. While many of my faves members did not make it into the Senbatsu as hoped, it is great that they will still be appearing in releases.

About 350,000 votes were cast during the elections with the top girls getting more than 30,000 votes each. Those that didn’t make the list received about a 1,000 or less votes each. In the heat of the competition, we should spare a thought for the feelings of the many other girls that did not manage to rank among the top 40.

Credit for the magazines scans goes to Afro Stud and a special thanks to the geniuses at Adobe for creating such an easy means to remove text from pictures.