Nao's top ten Faves for 2025: Position #5, the scrumdiddlyumptious Ruka Kitano!

 

 

 Previous Positions: Didn't do official posts for the first two on the list, #10 was Iori and in the ninth spot was Yuzuha. Below are the links to the all of the other positions and getting tougher each year to get more women eligible but the quality for 2025 is as high as ever.

#8, Mai Shinuchi .... #7, Miku T .... #6, Nene

 Don't want the countdown to go past the 24th so need to have one post a day between now and then, shouldn't be difficult to do but you never know if something will get in your way. Will try to squeeze a few other posts in and after the list is complete will have two other list posts for 2025. One will be for who the most popular women were here for the year, that's easy enough to figure out as it's how many views their average post received. The other will be for what the most viewed posts were for the year, haven't looked at the numbers but think the post for a current Nogi's member photobook will win by a landslide. It was such a much slower year for Idol photobooks but will have a terrific one on January 1st which could be my top book for this year!

 I was just thinking of what an odd year this was and how this list had a possibility of not being done! For I never expected in a million years for Ruka and and the woman in the second position to have 26 posts between them, as a matter of fact wasn't planning on either having any posts. Both have been long time under the radar favorites of mine and neither has ever had all that many posts but that scenario is like so many other women here. So I was wondering how would the list have looked without Ruka and the ex-Nogi gal Kana having so many posts and the favorite in the third spot also had a surprising year after a quiet 2024. So without that trio the list would have looked so much different and definitely a lot worse, I expect Ruka to once again be in the top ten for next year. Have graduated J-Pop Idols whose careers are in neutral noticed how much of a boost Ruka and others have gotten when they became gravure models?

 Ruka didn't leave much to the imagination when she turned to gravure modeling, she's not a newbie to that field as she had plenty of older spreads while with SKE. When you look at the careers of many from Nogi, SKE, NMB and a few other groups the busiest ex-members are those who are either FT or PT models. I'm not saying it's the only alternative for those after they graduate but it's opened many doors for someone such as Ruka who also does a lot of acting. She still doesn't have her own Ja.wiki page which is so odd and because of that it's not always easy for me to check up on her dramas or digital books I may have missed. Will end today off with a newish book and still have two more recent ones which you'll see soon enough. Ruka also has a few new magazine spreads coming out plus have noticed her fan club is doing well as she's had three events in the last four months. Have plenty more bio info in her previous posts, Ruka was a bit quiet during the Summer but has come back busier than ever, that slow period cost her being a position or two higher. 

 I was a bit worried about this post as I didn't feel there would be enough new photos, that was needless worrying as this should be a terrific post. Ruka having a second career as a gravure model certainly shocked me and probably a few other SKE fans but will make a confession. As alluring as Ruka looks these days I've often thought she looked a tad better when she was around twenty in age such as that above pic though either version is yummy enough for me! Will do another section or two and then take a break. Tomorrow Ruka is holding an event for her second regular photobook and want to include pics from it. First off are these recent IG pics from Ruka's page, a few are from a Christmas party held a week ago for her fan club. The top two are the back covers for a pair of upcoming magazine spreads.

 What a shortage of SKE group cards there were after 2018 so can't have any of those for Christmas but did find this small batch which hadn't been posted before.

 Ruka's first photobook was released in September 2024 which was three months after leaving SKE. That book was a very good seller and I had noticed it was in the top ten for sales for at least five weeks. Book #2 was released in December 19th, in the meantime Ruka had seventeen digital books which had to be more than anyone the past year. "The Birth of Venus" is the title of this second photobook and I like that title, the photo shoot took on the Goto islands in Nagasaki prefecture. Below are some of the covers along with a few promo pics, not too many of them which is a wise idea and she's has once again left me at a loss for words....

 Well, that was a waste waiting for event photos as what you see below is it from a pair of book events in Osaka and Nagoya, wonder why they were such low key affairs?

 These posts are mainly for what's happened in this current year but at times need to bring out some oldies to make them a tad larger. Didn't need to do that for today as there's plenty of newish Ruka photos but as I said above think the 2018-21 version of her may have been a bit better so here's some proof of why I think that way and this set is from the October 2019 issue of EX-Taishu.

 Here's one recent Ruka spread that's from the October 21st issue of Flash, she's had a fair amount of magazine spreads this year but in an oddity has had more digital books.

 Will have one other spread which is from the February edition of Brody, Ruka looks super in magazines but rarely does she have a large spread.

 Will end off with a Brody digital book that was released on November 7th but there was no magazine spread to promote it. Which is becoming much more common this year and especially for Ruka's books, this pictorial has 55 photos. There was no video from the photo shoot but have one after the pics from volume 31 of Dragon Age, if I do have a minor beef it'd be with how few gravure videos she had this year. But certainly can't complain about anything else Ruka did for 2025 and as mentioned who would have thought she would have had fifteen posts for the year and finished so high on the fave's list? Would think Zero is the answer and wouldn't shock me if she places this high again next year also! Was just thinking that two ex-SKE members were in this year's top five and two gals from the same group being so high is such a rarity, it may have happened once before with a pair from Keya.