Hina doesn't have nearly as many photobooks as Nogi, Keya or most other J-Pop groups but to me they're tg he best of all!!!! It had been at least a year since I had done a post for a Hina book and now it's been two terrific ones in a week! Overall the amount of Idol books has really decreased the last two years but I think they're better than ever, digital books are what's very popular these days but I've never seen an active member from a '46/48' group have any nor from any Hello Project groups. Hadn't thought about it until now but wonder if it would worth having a few members have a digital book to see how it may work out, seems J-Pop in general is in a rut so why not try some new things to revive it's interest? This will be the only post of the day, that's the way it usually is for the final and first posts of a year. I try to have those posts be so super duper and because of that don't want to see them get any competition for a few days. Not sure when the last time I've had a trio of such magnificent posts in a row, the last two for 2025 and this first post for the New Year!
EDIT!!!!!!!
It has nothing to do with this post which I wrote up on the night of December 30th. It's now the next afternoon or January 1st in Japan and just read some news which ended the year off so badly for me! Which is that eleven days ago Hinako Kitano registered her marriage and what a shocker that was to me. A favorite of mine getting hitched is nothing new but when I did that second 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list back in the Summer of 2022 Hinako was in the second position! She's the biggest favorite of mine to have gotten married and the guy is sixteen years older than Hinako, he's a somewhat known musician but I've never heard of him. So that's not a way to end or begin off a new year but as long as Hinako is happy that's good enough for us fans/readers and how I will miss her. About five years ago did some sort of post for woman who I used to post about but no longer did because they had gotten married. Guess it's time to do a part two for that list and the amount of women I can post about keeps dropping each day.... For the next twenty hours will have a Hinako post as the featured one for those who don't know her well, really hope it wasn't a shotgun marriage....
It will also be a very belated birthday post as on January 18th Suzuka will be hitting the age of 25. Her and many other Hina members popularity was rapidly rising up until the Spring of 2024 but then the fourth generation joined and were getting too much of a push from management. Because of that there's been such an exodus of members leaving, only two are left from the second generation and zero from 1G. The group's singles still sell well but overall they've seen a drop in popularity the last two years. For this first and possibly only photobook Suzuka traveled to Queensland, Australia and so many Idol books have been set there the last few years. Sales for the book were just so-so as it sold 30,000 copies in it's first two weeks, that was four months ago so perhaps it's getting close to 40,000 copies sold. I have no superlatives left for Suzuka and when I first saw this book it put me in a trance and am still in one(!), as the title of the post says she looks beyond perfect! There's 136 pictures from the book along with the four above, this should be a very popular post but will it be #1 for 2026? The first post of the year is always a fabulous one but never once has it had the most views in a year, this book does deserve to have the most and it would be ironic for it'd mean Suzuka has gone from worst to first as far as views go!!!! Even the non-gravure photos are all terrific and I really like the last one.... think it's a requirement for all Idol books where there has to be at least one photo of them brushing their teeth! The title of the book is referring to the fact Suzuka is a huge fan of Formula One racing, she used to be a reporter on two shows for the sport but don't think she's doing that any more but don't think much racing is done in the Winter.











































































































































