Chapter 766: A New Era

Starting with Minami Takahashi, the golden microphones symbolizing the status of the center were Atsuko Maeda (who served on the 20th single "Turning into a Cherry Blossom Tree" and many other million-dollar singles since then), Erika Ikuta (one of the double centers of the 28th single "UZA" and the 29th single "Eternal Pressure"), Mayu Watanabe (the 30th single "So long!" and many other singles), Rino Shihara (the 32nd single "Fortune Cookie of Love"), Yona Kojima (the 33rd single "True Current") and others relayed it, and finally passed it back to Watanabe and Sakura Miyawaki who were the center of the single. In addition, Mariko Shinoda (24th single "Adoring Mariko"), Yuko Oshima (27th single "Plaid Pattern" and other works) and Tomomi Itano (one of the co-centers of the 31st single "Goodbye Freestyle"), who also served as former members of the center, played as a helper in the process of passing the golden microphone. Except for the concert dance scene in the middle, the entire MV is spent in a continuous running scene. The running scenes in the film were filmed in Shizuoka Prefecture, Yokohama City, and Odaiba, while the concert scenes performed by 32 members and about 950 extras who played the audience were filmed in Studio Coast, a large exhibition venue in Shin-Kiba.

On the other hand, the dance version, known as the "concert version", was shot entirely in Studio Coast. The film was set to be the scene of the new single's announcement, and Soichiro Tahara, a veteran news anchor and political commentator who has a good relationship with the lead producer Yasushi Akimoto and often expresses his love for AKB48, will give a warm-up speech before the opening. Due to the large number of people, the concert version of the dance formation was divided into two groups, which were led by Mayu Watanabe and Sakura Miyawaki and wore colorful jackets and performed at the core, and 16 members of Group B, led by Mako Kojima and Haruka Kodama in the center of the front row, wearing blue jackets, and supporting in the back and on both sides.

The following is a list of the 32 members selected for the singles selection group, among which those marked with an "*" mark are members of Group A:

Team A: Anna Iriyama*, Rina Kawaei*, Yona Kojima*, Haruka Shimazaki*, Minami Takahashi*, Juyu Muto

Team K: Mako Kojima, Minami Hoshino, Erika Ikuta, Yui Yokoyama*

Team B: Ryoka Oshima, Nanna Owada, Yuki Kashiwagi* (also a member of NMB48 Team N), Akari Takahashi, Rina Kokoma, Mayu Watanabe*

Team 4: Rena Kato, Yuria Kisaki*, Mion Mukaiji

Team 8: Ikumi Nakano

SKE48 Team S: Rina Matsui* (also a member of AKB48 Team K)

SKE48 Team E: Akari Suda*

NMB48 Team N: Aya Yamamoto* (concurrently Nogizaka 46)

NMB48 Team M: Miru Shiruma

NMB48 Team BII: Miyuki Watanabe

HKT48 Team H: Haruka Kodama (also a member of AKB48 Team K), Rino Tohara*

HKT48 Team KIV: Sakura Miyawaki* (also a member of AKB48 Team A), Madoka Moriyashi

SNH48 Team SII: Sae Miyazawa (also a member of SKE48 Team S)

Among the 32 members, Ryoka Oshima, Saya Kawamoto, Miru Shiruma, Ikumi Nakano, Mion Mukaiji, and Madoka Mori were the first members of the selection group, with Saya Kawamoto being the first member of the singles selection group out of 19 draftees selected at the AKB48 Group draft held in November 2013, and Ikumi Nakano being the first Team 8 member to join the selection group. Anna Iriyama, Nana Owada, Rena Kato, Yuri Kisaki, Haruka Kodama, Mako Kojima, Akari Takahashi, and Miyuki Watanabe returned to the selection team for about 6 months since "Labrador Retriever". Yuka Tano has returned to the selection group about 1 year after "If You Were in the Sycamore Tree or something".

"Now, Happy", which is included in both the Type-A and theatrical versions, is a song performed by the Rose Troupe, a temporary squad consisting of 16 young members between the ages of 13 and 18 who are among the most prominent members of the AKB48 group. The new song is composed by Yasu Akimoto, composed by Ayrton Sena, and arranged by Yuichi "Masa" Nonaka.

The plot of the music video that goes with this song is about a male office worker who works as a talent scout for the fictional idol group "Pretty Alien" (Pretty Alien), and looks for cute girls with excellent looks to join his group on the streets, but is constantly rejected. When he returned to the studio disappointed, he was surprised to find that the girls he had met on the street before were all members of the AKB48 Rose team who were filming in the opposite studio.

Nana Okada and Nagisa Sakaguchi were both selected as the center of the new song for the first time, and Sakaguchi was the first Team 8 member to serve as the center of the B-side song of AKB48 in addition to his own team song.

The B-side song "Ambulance" (Ambulance), which is included in the second track of Type-B, is a song performed by the temporary team "Lily", a team that gathers many members of the AKB48 group who walk in mature and sexy styles. The song was written by Yasu Akimoto, and was composed and arranged by Kaharu Maemura, a female composer who once composed the B-side song "Google+ Sky" for AKB48 and the single "Midsummer Sounds good!" (Type-B version). As the title suggests, the lyrics of the song include a large number of medical-related terms such as influenza, vaccines, 911 and even automated external defibrillators (AEDs), while the members of the Lily Group also perform in nurse- or patient-style costumes that resemble hospital wards.

Sato, who moved from AKB48 to SKE48 as the centerpiece of the song, was selected as the lead station for the B-side song for the first time, and the front row members on either side of the song were SKE48's Nawa Furuhata and NMB48's Kaede Yakura.

Only the Type-C version of "I want to Sing" is a temporary team composed of a number of members of the AKB48 Group who have excelled in variety shows and stage plays, and is composed by Yasu Akimoto, composed by AND EYE, who collaborated with AKB48 for the first time, and arranged by Yu Sasaki. The 11-minute-long full music video was shot in a theatrical setting, so the first half of the music video is actually a theatrical performance of lines rather than a song, narrating a dispute between 24 members who are locked up in the same room for some reason and forbidden to sing, over whether to sing in defiance of the rules and stay true to their hearts. There are no dance scenes or choreography in the MV for this song, but based on the proportion of the lines in the stage play and the position of the chorus, SKE48's Ami Shibata can still be regarded as the center of the song, and the front row members standing on either side of SKE48 are Akion Takayanagi and Satoei Kitahara, who are also members of SKE48.

For Siei Kitahara, this is likely to be the last AKB48 single she will participate in.

After graduating from Takashiro Aki, the girl also deliberately chose to graduate from SKE.

For these stalwarts members, standing away may be a very good choice.