https://twitter.com/iamjoonlee/status/808415700905787392
It really seems like we should thank Japan more often for the wonderful, joyous things they bring into our lives. So thank you, Japan. For real. The latest thing they’ve given us is the above video, which features possibly the most dramatic and emotional janken match (or “rock paper scissors,” if you’re a Philistine) in human history. BUT WAIT. This was no normal janken match. This was the finals of a tournament with potentially life-altering stakes.
You see, as Tokyo Hive helps explain, these two women are members of the J-pop group AKB48, which contains close to 150 members, if you can believe it. This is the seventh time that the group has held an intense janken tournament to determine who will be the lead artist for their own division of the group to get their own album. 98 members of the group participated in the tournament, and Tanabe Miku won the damn thing, defeating Yumoto Ami in the above video before breaking down into tears. Next stop: Chicken McNugget trading cards.
In layman’s terms:
This is a very simplified answer but AKB48 is a Japanese idol group that performs in a purpose-built theater atop the Donki in
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) December 12, 2016
Akihabara, but there's like 150 members in the band and they've staged these Janken tournaments to determine the groupings
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) December 12, 2016
but is it lit
I've been to the theater, it's lit
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) December 12, 2016
Okay whew.
Basically, this is like if Beyoncé assembled Destiny’s Child the same way. That’s not real, of course. But it is how we ended up with Fifth Harmony! True story. (Not true.)
