She was the one who decided to do that. You would have to ask her why she felt that she needed to. She apparently decided that she did.

Asking whether she "really" needed to do that is kind of a meaningless question. Did she really feel she needed to do that? Apparently she did. Everything I have seen online says that she decided to do this on her own. Why did she feel that way? There are a lot of possible answers. Maybe she didn't want to give up the money and prestige that came with being a founding AKB48 member on the most prestigious team. Maybe she didn't want to give up the feeling or camaraderie and belonging that went with being part of the group. Even if she stays friends with the other girl, it won't be the same sort of camaraderie they had when performing together. Maybe she really feels that what she did was wrong and that she needed to atone for it properly in a traditional Japanese way like shaving her head.

^ No. That's the part I'm calling 'silly teenage girl crap'. It was her fault for choosing not to honor her contract, it was her further fault for not choosing to exit her contract gracefully, and it's entirely on her that she blew it up into a drama fest.

My opinion, anyway.

It was her choice to date or not. She could have not joined the band and dated all she wanted. She chose to join and accept those terms of employment instead.

AKB48 is an idol band. Image isn't some trivial thing. There is a ton of money at stake and maintaing the band's public image is a big deal to the companies that are actually putting up the money to form and promote the band. It's easy to say that it's "only image" when it isn't your money at stake.

If she signed a contract that says, "I will accept X amount of money for Y years, and in exchange for that money, I will not date", then... this all boils down to a simple breach of contract.

If she wanted to date, she should have just paid whatever penalties are specified in her contract, paid back the money, and had fun dating whoever she wanted. Simple.

As far as the "shaving her head / apology / young person drama"... that's all silly teenage girl crap, and it's not really important.

You sign a contract, you abide by the contract. If you don't want to live according to a contract, then don't sign one.

Simple stuff, really.

Gaia's forums suck noone replies to your comments, you get made fun of for being a noob, and other crap hopefully AN will be a different story

I actually liked the video. I liked the juxtaposition of the overtly promiscuous choreography and lyrics with the completely unglamorous "and this is the reality" shots.

It captured the mental dissonance between the schoolgirls' romanticized "I want to be an adult woman" thoughts and the ugly reality of teenage whoredom pretty well, I thought.

It was also nice to hear that many Japanese girls sing in a vocal range audible to humans, rather than the typically JPop-idol-shrill range audible to only dogs and bats.