AKB48 Beginner

I managed to buy the new AKB48 single - Beginner on the release day.  They had tons of them still at the local HMV.  I bought the version A limited edition.

Here are some shots of the package:

 back (staring the two girls from SKE48):

 inside looking at the CD:

 the DVD:

 Inside booklet:

 Plus, I also got a Maeda photocard from HMV:

The single is quite good... a little bit different style but executed in a nice way.  Sadly, the PV is horrible!  There was a controversy with the original PV for the single so they decided to create a new one which is a mixture of the making off and the dance version - ok but doesn't hold up against the previous PVs and the original one.  Why was it controversial?  Well... it featured the girls playing a computer game (Matrix style) where they are hooked up to some machine.  What was bad/interesting is that they kept dying in really bad ways inside the computer (i.e. head cut in half, body crashed..etc).  And once scene had Maeda bleeding and screaming in real life from her damage inside the game.  However, the PV was done very well so I would like to see that released at some point in time!

The single sold close to 600k copies on its first day which even surpassed the previous single record sales.  On the MUSIC STATION TV show, AKB had both the 10th place (for the previous single) and the 1st place for Beginner.  They performed it well starting off and ending with hoods.  Here are some bad quality pics from my TV: