Has anyone paid attention to the senbatsu for the next single
Give Me Five? Having Sashihara Rino in the 'Selection 6' song makes so little sense. Such a shame my oshimen Akimoto Sayaka has yet to be featured in the title song too. She's actually getting lots of exposure on programs and whatnot, yet Akimoto-P still won't give her a push on the singles? Ah well, at least she was somehow picked into the 9-girl AKB0048 selection for the legendary members, which gives me something Sayaka-related to look forward to anyway.
To answer some of OP's original questions: I didn't think very highly of the group at first: usually made fun of the group pre-Kouhaku boom (well, mostly due to King Records' laughable marketing schemes, I didn't know the girls at all), viewed the boom itself in a pretty bad light, thought Majisuka Gakuen was terrible... butttt I warmed up to the group little by little thanks to their growing exposure to the public, and like them quite a bit now. By no means am I a hardcore fan (I probably don't know more than ~20 names), but I follow the single releases, and stan a few members such as Akimoto Sayaka as I've mentioned, but also Takamina and Mayuyu - obviously I favor the strong personalities and the otaku. :P
I was just looking at this vid of
Mayuyu - it's not that recent, but she goes for shopping at the Ikebukuro Animate at the beginning, first looks for Durarara!! goods, then ends up going for stuff like Senjougahara or Sister Princess ww