On July 18th 2007, AKB48 released their next single BINGO!. It would be the first release to include the recently formed Team B into the mix. 18 members across the 3 teams were selected to participate in the single and all 46 girls (at the time) joined in the filming of BINGO!’s music video.
Most of BINGO!’s Senbatsu were familiar faces by now. Newcomer Watanabe Mayu joined the other girls in white at the forefront. Kashiwagi Yuki and founding Team A’s Hirajima Natsumi were the other two representatives for Team B. BINGO! would also be the only time where Oku Manami, AKB48′s youngest member was featured as a Senbatsu member.
Promotional photo. Cover girls were obvious
Portraits
For BINGO!, AKB48 ditched aside the dark flavor of their past two singles in favor of a more traditional idol image. Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru’s director does make a return for the music video, however the theme remains light.
The PV shows the girls being kidnapped (or rather arrested) and taken away in a ship, only to escape to a faraway island of sort. The video culminates to a large open beach scene where we can see all 46 girls dancing to the song’s choreography on screen, at the same time. BINGO! remains the largest coalition of AKB48 members gathered in one place for a PV.
In actuality, BINGO! was filmed much closer to home. The “island” was actually the famous Onjuku beach in Chiba, while the warehouse scenes were filmed at Makuhari Messe.
Onjuku Beach - Google
Limited cover
Normal cover
CD+DVD cover
As with the previous release, BINGO! came in two varieties, a normal edition and a first press version with an extra DVD containing the music video and behind the scenes footage.
Back cover
Inside
Foldout and another bonuses
BINGO! wallpaper
Another lucky draw was included in the first run of BINGO!. This time round, 300 lucky winners were chosen to join a “Secret Live” event and those purchasing the single were able to take part in a handshaking event at Ishimaru Denki to meet their member of choice.
Also to promote BINGO!’s launch, Sony offered high resolution closeup portraits of the 18 Senbatsu members as wallpaper downloads on their website for the limited duration of 36 hours after the song’s release. The wallpapers featured the full uncropped images that were used on the cover of BINGO! limited edition.
