With age 14 Atsuko Maeda [Atz-ko Mie-da], nicknamed Acchan [At-tshan], was one of the founding members of AKB48 (Original Team A) in December 2005. Being beautiful and at once their probably best singer she soon became the most important member. She was often called "the face of AKB48", since of 28 singles released in her time she participated in 26 and even was the center of 22. Being on the peak of her career she graduated in August 2012 (clever girl!).
Already in June 2011 she had started a parallel solo career with her first single "Flower" of which this is the title song. It is also used in the movie Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no "Management" wo Yondara (2011) featuring Atsuko as the main character (it cannot be related to this video according to its plot).
This is again one of this cryptic japanese videos that cannot really be interpreted (the lyrics give no hint either). One can only guess that Atsuko and the little girl are in fact the same person. In any case, the song is really nice and the little girl in the clip is outstandingly beautiful - she reminds me of some other girl, but I don't know who ...
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Lyrics (translated):
Spoiler:
In the crook of my heart
Is a flower
A tiny flower has blossomed
On that day I wished
For it to blossom in the sun
Little by little
It's a long way until then
It's blown by the wind
And struck by the rain
In all honesty
Just keep believing
In the things you can do
Your wholeheartedness
Just like the sun
Gives me courage
Even when I'm broken
The little petal
From that flower
Has given form to a dream
Reach out your hands
Straight ahead
And the sun will grant you life
When you fix your gaze
Tears fall from your eyes
To the point where they won't stop
But if you choose to give up
Nothing will bloom
From the soil
Without us even knowing
The seasons leave behind only sky
The scenery around us changes
Into unfamiliar flowers
In the crook of my heart
Is a flower
A tiny flower has blossomed
On that day I wished
For it to blossom in the sun
Little by little
A flower cannot blossom
With only the power of one person
Because you
Stayed by my side
My wish came true
The most beautiful
Of all flowers
Is the one that has grown
In the sunshine of your smile
As for this this flower
It's made entirely of love...
Warg wrote:she reminds me of some other girl, but I don't know who ...
It reminds me of Yuko Oshima
Yes, but only because they both have the same typical japanese little girl charm (BTW: Atsuko and Yuko were good friends) ...
I guess the girl I am thinking of was one of the nude models of the 90es/early 2000s. I especially remember a then very famous and nearly ubiquite photo of a little girl standing at the sea shore with a water soaked and because of this see through white night gown or summer dress. Wasn't her name Nozomi Kurahashi or something?
Edit: I think I found the girl I mean (I give only a very tame picture for the peace of soul of our mods ): https://b.radikal.ru/b31/1909/50/2e079e7813d2t.jpg
But that's not Nozomi. Does anyone know her name?
Sully23 wrote:Maybe they realized her past, she was not 'holy' in her time as a child, maybe
Who, Atsuko? Nooo ...
She always was an introverted girl with an cleaner than clean image (and japanese journalists are the greatest assholes if it comes to "scandals"). Just look to her pictures in her first year (14/15 years old) - they tell more than words: she was cute but in a naive, childlike and nearly asexual way ...
I did a little research on nozomi and found a lot of 'amazing' data if I know that some stars like Atzuko didn't need 'that' or 'those' (I understand why the Japanese see sailor moon) I only assumed what happened to me when in a social network post a picture of an ex-model and Pum! I closed it immediately, I assumed you removed the images because some 'conservatives' do not want that kind of stars
Nozomi was a child nude model, Atsuko is simply a singer and actress and the little girl is just like any child in a clip - that's not really comparable.
And I never post any child nudes as I always have thought them notorious forum killers (though this forum seems to be strangely immune against it).
Copyright violation could maybe apply to the promo picture but the rest were just cut from a video - that's only quotation and should be legal everywhere.
So the reason remains strange, and it's not the first time that postimage deleted my pictures rather soon ...