Welcome to this Baka's blog on his fave Japanese Pop Culture interests.
Welcome to my humble site....
Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Yui Kobayashi... Miku Tanaka... Nagi Inoue....Maria Makino.... Nene Shida....if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the rightplace(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!
Have talked about how you often see some of the same photos lead off a post for they're so fabulous! That first pic above is one you've seen so many times before leading off a Haruka post, also the first one below. I'll always moan about how difficult it is to do posts for some favorites of mine and in a way it seems like Haruka 😍 leads the pack in making my life so difficult doing posts for her. Yet she's only six away from hitting the milestone of a hundred and that should be reached near the end of next year. For many it would be well before that but I've never had confidence in doing many posts for Haruka on a consistent basis. Though she is so hard to do posts for it does show how much I adore Haruka 😍 as there's only one other here who I've worked harder on for having posts for and that perseverance has paid off!
Said Haruka has been such a favorite of mine though more than that as I would add in the words Mega or Massive favorite for her! Earlier in the year had planned on beginning the countdown for my third 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list on August 1st and it would have finished around September 20th. But changed my mind with when the list would be done and thought next Spring would be a better time, it would allow me to work on things plus give some favorites a chance to improve their rankings, it could also hurt someone if they're very quiet over the next eight months. For that delayed list I had Haruka 😍 penciled in around the fifth spot, if she could have had 2-3 more posts per year since 2020 she just may have been duking it out for number one!!!! To me the fifth spot is extremely impressive and more so when you think about how many actresses, models and J-Pop Idols I've posted about, the total is in the hundreds! Haruka did make the top ten three consecutive years on the fave's list but hadn't qualified for four years so that ended any chances of being my all time #1 woman! But this now makes it five posts for Haruka this year so she's now eligible for this year's list and will try my darndest to have two more posts for her by December.
As far as modern actresses go I've seen Haruka in more things than anyone else since 2017, the total is thirteen dramas and four movies. But I've haven't recapped one of her shows in a while and it's hard to believe that so far for 2026 Haruka hasn't appeared in a drama but has been in two films. The drama I will be getting to soon is from 2024 and titled "Secret Makeover", did have some screenshots and a mini review in a post done earlier this year. Changed the way I review movies and dramas which has worked out well but it does make it hard to discuss a drama in more detail and that's why I haven't recapped all ten episodes or actually any past the first show. But I will and need to work on a way to have 2-3 episodes in one post without making it larger and I keep forgetting to work on that kind of format but will do so soon. Haruka had the lead role in that series and she usually does for the dramas she appears in, to me her best shows are when Haruka's character is a bit serious and also somewhat mysterious. "Koe Girl" was such a terrific series and so wasn't the first season of "Yuru Camp" along with "Imadoki no Wakai Mon wa" but by favorite could be "CHEAT" from 2019, have recapped all four of those shows..... hmmmm, "3 Nen A-gumi" was also quite good.
Gulp, did just say Haruka does better in serious roles but as she say she did go overboard on me.... her apologies were accepted! Let's get to recent things and I make her posts slightly smaller in the hopes of squeezing an extra one or two in which has seldom worked. First off are these newish photos from Haruka's IG page, she never posts enough but this batch for today does feature some overly outstanding pictures with my favorites being the bottom ones. The first pic is from yesterday when she celebrated birthday #28 and it's so hard to believe Haruka is only two years from hitting the age of thirty.
One thing Haruka does that no other of my current favorites do is model contact lenses. These are recent pics from the Belleme site and I think these look pretty darn sharp....
Haruka has done so much regular modeling over the years yet never stays with a site, magazine or clothing line for a long time. It's probably because of being a busy actress and filming takes up so much time but still wish we saw Haruka do more modeling as I can never get tired of looking at her! As a matter of fact for at least five years have gushed about how Haruka 😍 has the prettiest face of any Japanese woman I've posted about and can't think of any current gal who even comes close to her! Earlier this year Haruka did do some modeling for the Italian brand Bvlgari but there's sadly been no new photos since April but aren't these so close to being unbeatable?!
Oooops, almost forgot to add in these older birthday pics and Haruka had only one for this year. She has a fan club so perhaps we'll be seeing more b-day photos in her next post from a party she'll be having with the members. Haruka usually attends those huge fashion shows and there will be a pair of them next month so after the second show am keeping my fingers crossed that'll be when her next post can be done.
Haruka has never appeared in many magazines but for years she'd have 3-4 spreads and was often the cover girl. But don't think she's been in one magazine this year and because she has become so popular over the years probably doesn't need to work as hard or at least doing jobs outside of acting. Let's go way back in time for this set that featured Haruka as the cover girl for the April 3, 2017 issue of Big Comic Spirits and it may have been her first time as the cover girl. There was such fabulous six minute video that came with the magazine and I've viewed it over a hundred times! However it's been deleted from YT so after the eight page spread have some screenshots from the video.
Besides dramas Haruka also has the lead role in her movies or at least the lead female role. Back in 2023 she starred in the "Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill" which was a love story but in an odd twist also featured time travel and was mainly set at the end of WWII. That was such a smash at the box office so of course a sequel had to be made though it's actually a prequel. "I Want to see you again on that Starry Hill" is the title of this second movie and that too has been a hit at the box office. Haruka plays the lead role of Yuri and this film also had some time travel. For the movie Haruka did quite a few interviews and can't post all of them so below are photos from the Classy site. I thought this was the best of the interviews as besides the movie Haruka talked about her career, future goals and other things, here's the link to it: Classy site
Will end off here and for years have said how no other Japanese woman outshines Haruka 😍 at events, once again she's proven me to be correct! "I Want to see you again on that Starry Hill" had it's official premiere on August 9th at the Marunouchi Piccadilly which is in the Chiyoda section of Tokyo, all the main cast were there. Below are some dazzling photos from the event with four of them being from the movie and of course Haruka looked so amazing! There are some some videos of the event but instead of one of them after the photos is a trailer for the movie.