Alternate Character Interpretation: One popular theory is that instead of a freedom fighting group, AKB0048 is actually unknowingly trying to awaken an Eldritch Abomination. The DGTO and DES forces are merely Well Intentioned Extremists taking measures to prevent said abomination from awakening, which explains their fanatical zeal in wanting to curb the idol industry.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Mayuyu by far has one of the most dedicated followings, despite the fact that she has little screentime compared to the other characters. However, being a Big EaterRobot Girl with an Arm Cannon and being based on one of the more popular AKB48 members does tend to help.
Megumi has also picked up a small and dedicated following, being the only 76th generation understudy to get any sort of screen time and Character Development. Her Les Yay moments with Sae also certainly helped.
Fan Nickname: The DES are oftentimes called the Fun Police.
Episode 6's "I won't let anyone tarnish Sashiko's name!" Fast-forward to June 2012... the Real Life Sashiko gets caught in a scandal after a fan defames her in a tabloid, and she gets transferred to another group as punishment. Oops.
Mii-chan the 5th's whole role in Next Stage seems to echo creepily with her real-life love scandal. In episode 22 Ushiyama comments that Mii-chan seemed liable to fall for the wrong sort of guy. Also at the end Mii-chan muses that she'll have to start over from square one... just like when the real-life Minami Minegishi got demoted to kenkyuusei status after breaking the group's "no boyfriends" rule.
Episode six involves a deranged fan trying to murder members of AKB0048 during a fan meeting. Two years after the episode aired, a man would attempt to murder members of AKB0048 with a hacksaw during a fan meeting — though he claimed not to be a fan, and was instead angry that made more money than him.
Iron Woobie: To state how much suffering Kanata goes through for nothing is an understatement.
Les Yay: Episode 10 has loads of this, specifically Kanata/Takamina, Suzuko/Makoto, and Nagisa/Chieri. The Real LifeAKB48 is no stranger to doing Les Yay moments.
Narm Charm: The premise. In a time of government tyranny, the galaxy's only hope for freedom is...a group of manufactured pop starlets who are (in the real world) driven by mass commercialism and stifled by overbearing managerial edicts and fan demands that prevent them from dating. The whole thing reeks of The Man Is Sticking It to the Man and blatant fan-pandering about how AKB48 fans are literally heroes fighting a corrupt system by supporting an "underground" idol group (which brings in billions of yen annually). It's so clueless about its faux-revolutionary message and it plays everything so seriously that it swings right around to being endearing and charming again.
Older Than They Think: A group of singers leading a revolution against a government bent to destroy all entertaiment. Does that sound like the plot of Revolution X, except replacing Aerosmith with AKB48? And let's not go into it]s similarities to the animation juggernaut Shoji Kawamori is much more well known for... Too much.
Values Dissonance: Episode six tells us that if a fan sends you violent death threats because they don't like the job you're doing as a professional entertainer, they really just want to make the act better and you should take their advice to heart. Contrast that with American media, where such people will always be portrayed as unhinged, Mark David Chapman-esque nutjobs who have to be tracked down before they fly off the handle and kill somebody (the fact that in the same episode, said fan is about to make good on that threat if not for someone intervening at the last minute further supports this) In fact, two years after that episode, somebody did try to murder members of AKB48 with a hacksaw at a fan meeting, which resulted in a sweeping revamp of venue security and one of the injured singers left (or was forced to leave) since she was psychologically incapable of attending further meet-n-greets.
