Chance no Junban

Member selection

Following AKB48's July concerts at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, it was announced that the headlining "senbatsu" members for the 19th single would be decided in a janken (rock-paper-scissors) tournament among AKB48 members and four representatives of research students also decided by janken. The tournament was a bracketed, single knockout format with 51 members. The top 16 were given senbatsu status and participated in the single. 12 of which would be given media senbatsu members. The tournament was held at Nippon Budokan on September 21, and was won by Team K's Mayumi Uchida, who was given the center headlining position.

Release

"Chance no Junban" was released in four different versions and cover variations, with the theater version being exclusively sold in the AKB48 theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. Versions A, K, and B contained a different third track aside from the title track and "Yoyaku shita Christmas", which was performed by one of the respective teams of AKB48. The theater version included a third track that was performed by Team Research Students. In addition to including their respective music videos, versions A, K, and B also included footages of the janken tournament that took place in Budokan in September. All first press releases was enclosed with a handshaking event ticket, to be redeemed later in national handshaking tours held across Japan in promotion of the single release.

Reception

"Chance no Junban" sold 471,242 copies in its first day, placing it on top of the Oricon daily chart, and sold 54,780 more on the second day . The single has been certified triple platinum by the RIAJ for physical sales.

All succeeding singles after Chance no Junban sold 1 million copies in their first week of release, starting the AKB48 Million Streak, which lasted until the 42nd single, Kuchibiru ni Be My Baby.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Yasushi Akimoto.

Chance no Junban

(Bold indicates front members who appears on the cover of theater version of the single, number in brackets denotes final placements in the Janken Tournament)

Only 4 senbatsu members who appear in this single have appeared in the senbatsu lineup for the last single, Beginner (Haruna Kojima, Takajo, Atsuko Maeda, Kasai). Nakagawa made her return to senbatsu since last making it in Heavy Rotation. Kuramochi has not appeared in senbatsu since Iiwake Maybe, the 13th single. Kana Kobayashi and Natsuki Sato both reappeared in senbatsu after an absence of 3 years and 8 months (since the 3rd single, Keibetsu Shiteita Aijō). Finally, other members such as Uchida, Ami Maeda, Tanabe, Nakatsuka, Sakiko Matsui, Ishida, Sumire Sato, and Chikano are making their first senbatsu appearance in an AKB48 single.

Yoyaku shita Christmas

Kurumi to Dialogue

(Bold indicates center member)

Alive

(Bold indicates center members)

Love Jump

(Bold indicates center members)

Fruit Snow