#aki-p

i like a lot akb48 lyrics. despite the actual music quality ebbing and flowing throughout the years, i think the lyrics are the second most constant aspect to it (the first one is i think, the vocal direction and mixing lol). out of the three, aki-p is the one that isn’t a musician, and his only contribution to 48g music is the lyrics. 

of course, there are some questionable pieces (tonari no banana anyone?), but he usually nails the tone of the song, from fresh and summery to nostalgic and sorrowful, even managing some incredibly poignant lyrics, like mokugekisha, or silent majority (keyakizaka46), bokutachi wa tatakawanai and the legendary keibetsu shiteita aijou. this is the kind of lyrics i like the best from him, because i think he does social commentary particularly well. my favorite is rock da yo, jinsei wa..., which is a very cynical song about violence and japan’s politics wrapped in the bubblegummiest of songs. 

after more than a decade as an idol fan, i can say with confidence that i am not a fan of akimoto yasushi. however i do recognize that he’s skilled at what he does, to the point where when a couple of years ago he was set to write a song for bts, i was sorely disappointed when fans complained about him so much that he gave up the project. it would have been good, and i’m curious about the direction he’d have gone with it. 

on the other hand, both tsunku and hyadain are musicians, and both of them frequently compose and write the lyrics to the songs they produce (hyadain even arranges them, often!), so it is definitely more of a personal feeling. 

compared to aki-p, tsunku is a much more weaker writer. i am not saying he is bad, and i do love a lot of his lyrics (i wish is probably one of my favorite songs ever, lyrics-wise, and toki wo koe sora wo koe deserves the praise it gets), but his writing is very simple and a lot more direct. i say this having the wall of reading lyrics through translations, but tsunku’s lyrics often go right to the point without beating around the bush. 

because he is an Artist, i find that he cares a lot about how the song sounds, and he will not doubt to add nonsense words to make the beat go smoother (tiki bun? what the fuck was that again?). despite that, so many of his songs are earnest, full of heart, and show so much love for humanity (souda! we’re alive quickly comes to mind), and i think it compensates perfectly for maybe lacking writing skills. 

hyadain also cares immensely about how the song sounds, but i think he might be better at words than tsunku is. i still find impressive how he built a pacifist message calling for a ceasefire within the silly rivalry between fans of two types of candy (kinoko takenoko daisenki), or how he made a song about the importance of forgiving based on a falling out with momoclo’s manager (buryoutogen nakayoshi monogatari). sure, he has written stuff like dot jp japan, which, i don’t think can be made sense of, but for the same group he wrote a beautiful anthem about diversity and coming out. so many of his songs are about the members of the groups he writes for, and he is very good at picking out details that will resonate with them. there’s the anecdote about how deeply both wwd and wwd ii impacted dempagumi members, even leading moga minami to not graduate just yet. recently, and also with dempagumi, i find that princess dempa power! shine on is a beautiful piece, with a simple metaphor that develops both in the instrumental and in the lyrics of the song, about idols and princesses and ultimately, about putting in hard work to make dreams come true.