We sit here all day every day trying to find stories that you'll find funny, awesome, inspirational, or maybe even life-changing.
Some days we trawl, underwhelmed, and other times the incredible happens. This one fits well into the unexpected, phenomenal category of awesomeness.
Here is the grand final of the rock, paper, scissors showdown by girl band AKB48 in Japan. Here it is, the pièce de résistance, the moment of truth. The tension if palpable, the scene is set, and the two girls fight it out. The result is determined and then bedlam ensues.
You've got to see it to believe it...
Let's go through the emotions here.
EXHIBIT A: She's rocked it and smashed the scissors to smithereens. She doesn't know what to do with her hands, she's that ecstatic. She's actually questioning whether her hand had the ability to beat 97 others to be the best of the best.
EXHIBIT B: The moment it is official, she is the Janken Queen.
EXHIBIT C: It's really sinking in now as her foe in the final comes over to congratulate her.
EXHIBIT D: People in the audience are wowed and captivated by this epic tournament and all the trials and tribulations the winner faced.
EXHIBIT E: She's welling up. She's going to get teary. It's all too much for her.
EXHIBIT F: Yep, there she goes.
EXHIBIT G: Literally lost it!
Complete with cosplay, fanfare and a load more, the members of the girl band fight it out annually on TV and in a packed stadium and have been doing so since 2010. The group now has over 150 members and, after numerous visits to Japan myself, I can say they are treated like some kind of royalty over there.
98 members of the band took part and it appears it's pretty serious.
The winner, Tanabe Miku, seems genuinely moved. Thing is, it wasn't because she won the competition, per se, but because she will be the leader of a CD-recording group. Each of the 98 members were divided into sevens, with each winner of that group representing the other six and the winners recording a CD as an AKB48 sub-group. So that's what all the elation is about. It's a very big deal.
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The other finalist must have paper-related nightmares every evening.
All image credits: BS Live/Nippon TV
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Japan