Maria Makino: Her slightly belated.... 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 25𝒕𝒉 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 post!

 

 Another post which I hope isn't overly massive and think it may be possible. That's because I'm holding some things back and want to see Maria 😍 begin to have more posts, over the last four years she's become such a huge favorite of mine and the same goes for you readers. Maria's last post was done a little over five weeks ago and has amassed 625 views in that period. That's no record but is a very impressive figure for a post that doesn't feature a photobook and most of her posts also draw high numbers too. Speaking of impressive figures that describes Maria 😍 to a T, as a matter of fact she's the first woman here who I gave a rating of a 10/10 to, somehow since then her rating has increased!

 

 Whew, even a grade of 1000/10 isn't high enough for Maria 😍 and how I hope she remains with Morning Musume until the age of forty! As far as belated goes birthday #25 took place on February 2nd, was waiting for an event to take place for her latest photobook and that happened yesterday. Every post these days is (too) large but still wish there were more newer photos for today, that's been a problem for over a year now. Besides being a post for birthday #25 this is also the fourth anniversary of Maria's first post here, as they say the rest is history! Those posts were easy to do until mid-2024, since then there's been such a drop in magazine spreads and other activities. But the same can be said for most current J-Pop Idols, if you look at the posts these days aren't most ones done for Idols who have graduated from their groups? That's a very true statement and wonder if J-Pop in general has hit it's peak for popularity and is now on it's descent? That too could be true and there's too many groups these days, even the ones I've been following for a while aren't as good as they once were though Hello Project singles are still strong.

 Maria 😍 should be battling for the top spot each year on the fave's list but it's never happened and doubt if it ever will. But I still like her more than 99.8% of the women I post about and I think the world of Maria so one more question is will she make the third 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list and if so what position would she finish in? On that last list there were a few that were also in the same boat as Maria, her photos are better than anyone else yet she has less posts than most of those women. But on that list the woman who finished in the third spot had never once qualified for a yearly faves list, the same went for the gals in the 15th and 18th spots. So it is possible for Maria to finish higher than you would think so what would help quite a bit over the next five months are more posts than usual, doubt if one a month could be done but never say never.... below you can see why I said 1000/10 isn't a high enough grade for Maria!!!! 😍

 Let's get to the meat of the post, often start off with pics from Maria's IG page but won't do so for today. As mentioned would like to see a few more posts for her over the next five months so it'd be wise holding back a few things here and there. It is approaching Valentine's and would love to have Maria bake me some chocolate but then again if she got too close to those sweets would her hotness melt all of the choco?!

 Maria's tenth photobook "Maria 24 Tuoi" also came out on her birthday, that was a year ago. The biggest plus Hello Project groups have over others is that there's often a sweltering DVD of the book's photo shoot. So have been including some screenshots in Maria's posts and the twenty below bring us up to the halfway point of the 65 minute DVD. The photo shoot took place in Vietnam and can't wait to see the video for her new book. I have all of Maria's videos from her last five books, also have made DVD's of her magazine gravure photo shoots and no woman is more sizzling than her on the screen.... think we need a new word for perfection.... I'll try to coin one for her next post though you readers can give it a shot, try to incorporate Maria's name into the improved version of perfection!

 Went in the wrong order, was going to have the above further down the post but least scorching pics such as those will hold your interest! Not many older birthday pics of Maria though have a few below but the first two and also the last pair are from this year.

 No new magazine spreads but hope to have one for her next post as she will be in the next edition of UTB, think it's that mag. But Maria was the cover girl for the first 2026 issue of Gekkan Shonen Champion which was in her last post, of course it was for their January edition and can only think of one, perhaps two others I post about that can top Maria's mag spreads.

 

 Here's an oldie yet goldie from exactly three years ago. The above was the second time Maria had been the cover girl for Gekkan Shonen Champion which comes out monthly, the first took place in February 2023 for her 22nd birthday.

 The title of Maria's eleventh photobook is "Blooming Maria 25" and hasn't she blossomed to the Nth degree?! I don't know what the record is for Hello Project books but she has to be coming close to equaling that record.... hope she's only halfway to the amount she'll be releasing! Australia was the location for this book and it was the first time Maria had traveled there. Below are some outtake pics from the book, the top two are the covers while the bottom two are from an IG video and had to include those super duper screenshots.

 We've already hit the finale, did seem like a smaller post than usual but sure it's still quite large. Yesterday Maria held an event for the book and below are some terrific photos from it but there could have been more. A goal is to have another Maria post next month which will have more pics from the event, photos from her IG page, hopefully that new magazine spread, some interview pics and whatever else I can dig up. Being in Morning Musume is both a blessing and a curse, a blessing because the group only has a dozen members so you get noticed more and have so many photobooks. But the curse is of them not being as popular as Nogi, AKB, etc. so someone such as Maria doesn't appear in as many magazines or at events, perhaps those two cancel each other out. After the pics is a video from the event and while most fans don't feel Maria is the best of singers she does have a pleasant voice, Oricon had the video and what's good about them is they don't dub voices into English.