GirlyCon

Fukuoka Seina passed the auditions for AKB's fifteenth generation in 2013 alongside Mukaichi Mion, who I've been thinking a lot about lately, and Owada Nana, Tsuchiyasu Mizuki, and Tatsuya Makiho. Of their generation, only Seichan and Mion remain in AKB, and had they debuted any later, they would have been a part of Team 8; in more than one way, these two girls represent the end of AKB as it was, the end of an era, and yet what warms more heart is that they are both still present in the group. Don't jinx it.



Like other members who featured alongside the core cast of Sailor Zombie, Seichan doesn't really do much, she just stands alongside Owada Nana for a brief moment, but it's the steadiness of her rise in popularity rather than the immediate attention she received that distinguishes Seichan from others. In 2014, at Zepp DiverCity during the shuffle event, she was promoted to Kuramochi Team B, fortuitous as she was already well versed in the routine for B's sixth stage, Pyjama Drive, a revival of which started in the theatre in June 2013 as a kenkyuusei production and thus was available to take what she had learnt and apply that to her role as a understudy in Team B's performances. A year later, with Kuromochi Asuka's captainship ending and Kizaki Yuria's beginning, Seichan was made a full-fledged member of the team, promoted from her understudy role and joined the members of Tadaima Renaichuu, a new production of the Team A's sixth stage as performed by Team B members beginning in 2015. Sometimes when I write statements like this, I worry that they won't make sense unless you're fully invested in what AKB is already, but I really want to impress upon you how important the stage performances and the theatre are—this is what sets AKB apart.



Despite coming in sixteenth place, the very bottom of the winners of the Janken tournament that year but still a winner nonetheless, there was no group single as the prize that year. The reward instead was the promise of a solo debut, which went to Fujita Nana, whom Seichan lost to, and resulted in the single, Migiashi Evidence with its video filmed in Shibuya—hahaha, since I wrote Naana's entry in 2022, I've been to the Red Bar, on Hallowen Night nonetheless, a taxi from the Ruby Room, the door fee paid for by people I had never met until that very moment. Midnight Boogie night indeed! I digress. With the release of High Tension, Seichan got her time to shine, appearing as centre for the B side, Osaekirenai Shoudou, her first time as centre but the ninth B side she had appeared in the line-up for. As well as staring in dramas throughout the year, Seichan really put in the work when it came to both the theatre and her appearances on B sides, and although it wasn't immediate, that hard work paid off in 2018 when she passed the group examination and was selected for the senbatsu for everyone's favourite source of discomfort, Teacher Teacher.

Seichan was popular enough with members and audiences alike during these moments to be selected for special performances produced by older members such as Takahashi Minami and Kashiwagi Yuki. In 2022, she was shuffled to Team A, then under the leadership of Mion, where both of them remained until the recent dissolution of the teams following the release of Idol Nanka Janakattara. With two other singles in which she featured in the senbatsu behind her—Shitsuren, Arigato and Moto Kare desu respectively—Seichan has done so much for AKB as it is now and I feel sometimes she doesn't get the credit she deserves. When I learnt that Seichan had auditioned for the group alongside her sister who clearly had not passed, I felt a slight pang of sadness, but I'm sure that her sister is incredibly proud of how much Seichan has grown in her team in the group—just as we are!