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Like Takashima Yurina, Kawamoto Saya was a draft member who was moved into Team 4, however, it must have been like the two were ships passing in the night as Sayaya was one of AKB48's first generation draft members, alongside Goto Moe, Arai Yuki, and others, and she did not join Team 4 until 2015 when Takahashi Juri was appointed captain. Before all that, however, there were auditions, and Team B!



Being selected for the draft pool in September 2013, it only took a couple of months before Sayaya was placed in Team B, then under the leadership of Umeda Ayaka, joining Katayama Haruka, who had returned to the team a year prior. Another handful of months and Sayaya was promoted to being an official member of the team, after which point she was amongst of the ranks of Team B until that shuffle the year after when she was finally moved over to the new new Team 4, where she started racking up the hits, joining the senbatsu for the celebratory Kibouteki Refrain, and appearing roughly every other single, with her most noticeable absence being between Halloween Night and Kimi wa Melody, and her best streak being between High Tension and the hauntingly French sounding Negaigoto no Mochigusare.

During this time, Sayaya was of note enough to earn herself a temporary exchange student position with JKT48 in 2018. As she took up duties in Jakarta as a member of Team T, Stephanie Pricilla Indarto Putri, then a member of Team J, joined AKB—but what kills me about this moment is that there's nothing concrete to really preserve it! Stephanie did not participate in the AKB general election, which, fair, I can understand a reluctance to do this as she may have seen it as setting herself up for disappointment, but the fact that neither girl was snuck into the senbatsu for a single for their temporary groups frustrates me so much. This would have been cool! Everyone loves a guest appearance! AKS, do I have to do everything for you?! Ahem. Perhaps I'm asking too much. In truth, the exchange was in place for only just over a month so there probably wasn't time to do anything really significant, but that just frustrates me even more.

From 2018 up until 2020, when we were in and out of lockdown in the fever dream of the pandemic and events were limited, Sayaya continued to work away as a member of Team 4 until, at the last, in August, she announced her graduation during a livestream, her final performance being a stream filmed live at the theatre, a last farewell with her friends where the only audience was watching from their homes.

I'm sure no questioned this arrangement at the time, but now, looking back, it strikes me as terribly sad. With a whimper, not a bang, Sayaya left AKB, but the significance of her role was undeniable. Sayaya and many members around her were not given the attention of the departing Kami 7 or the Sakura/Jurina/Nana axis, but they were the members who carried the group during moments of change and for that, I feel that Sayaya and others like her definitely deserved better than graduating in an empty theatre.