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...Risa Watanabe... Miku Tanaka... Yui Kobayashi....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!
Before this year think I had only done one post that had two digital books but there's been five already this year! Last Summer I did notice the books were getting smaller, usually digital books would have 70-100 photos and many still do. But the trend since then is of books being smaller, say around forty photos and until there's many other things for a post tend to hold on to the books for a while. The pair of books for today have 83 pictures and all are of course super duper, add in a few other things and this will end up being another post that will be among the best of the year! This is Iori's fifth post for 2026 so it means for the fourth consecutive year she's qualified for the fave's list. The previous three years she made the top ten and even though I don't think she'll have as many posts as those other years she may finally make it to the top five! For in my mind Iori 😍 has truly blossomed, she's always been so attractive to me but the past 6-8 months she's hit such a high level of attractiveness and these days may be the best looking woman I post about on a consistent basis!
Soon it'll be time for the countdown to the 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list, for a while was wavering on whether Iori would make the cut. But she will easily and for now I'd probably put her in the twelfth position but with a busy next four months she could sneak into the top ten! Two other Nogi gals will make the cut and all three are from their second generation, there is a chance one from 3G will make the list. This has been a slowish stretch for Iori, she's only had one digital book for the year and think just a pair of magazine spreads. But that's okay for I do know she has at least two magazine spreads coming out within the week plus at least one book, she's been so busy over the last three years she deserves a few breaks. Iori also will be in an upcoming stage play and maybe she's like many others I post about who tend to become much busier when the weather warms up.
In November Iori will be hitting the age of 28, years ago it wouldn't have seemed possible but she's had one of the most successful solo career of any Nogi member and actually any other ex-Idol the last three years. Iori never had a photobook while with Nogi plus had never done any gravure photo shoots, what a shock that was when she began a gravure career and in all honesty how many other models have topped her dazzling pictures from the last three years? I would say none, that's both in quality and quantity, have said a few times in the past how I wish a few of her second generation mates would have followed her lead as far as modeling goes!!!!
Whew, talk about quality photos and not many in history can top that one right above.... or many other hundreds from her! Before doing gravure modeling Iori had been a model for a few sites and had some terrific photos for them even if they weren't gravure ones. Being a model for a regular clothing line or site means you can attend those huge fashion shows and Iori has, wish she started appearing at them again. For Iori did look better than oki-doki at those shows such as the Autumn 2019 'Tokyo Girls Collection' show held in September of that year which is where these pics are from.
Let's stick with some oldies for a bit, those above hadn't been posted before and think the same goes for this batch of Nogi cards. It being April 1st have some for the month from 2018 and also have some terrific looking ones for Nogi's "Synchronicity" single that was released on April 25, 2018. This was Iori's final Nogi single, she wasn't a Senbatsu but was on two B-side songs. Back then everything Nogi did was such a massive success, the single sold over 1.3 million copies and it's been a while since they've had a single get even half that amount in sales!!!! But in all fairness think all popular J-Pop groups from then also don't sell nearly as many records as they once did. One of the B-sides was "Scout Man" which only featured the 2G members, back then they did have concerts just with that generation and those were the best Nogi concerts by far, recommend viewing some if you get the chance.
Not too many new pics at Iori's IG page so will skip those but did learn she'll be the cover girl for two magazines and think a busy period could be beginning soon. What I've noticed is that Iori has posted so many tantalizing pictures from her photo shoots and have many below, most have been posted but sure they've been forgotten about. All are from 2024 except for the top one which is for a new book that should be coming out soon and Iori has left me speechless with that photo....
Hopefully for her next post will have two new mag spreads for Iori and there being none for today let's have an encore viewing of one that was in her last post. This is her most current spread to date and Iori was the cover girl for the February 20th issue of Young Jump and I think she is looking more amazing than ever.... whewwww!!!!
Now on to the pair of digital books, neither is brand new and have noticed I tend to post these books well after the fact. Well, not on purpose but try to spread them out better these days as once I would post 2-3 of these a month for Iori and think that may have made viewers a bit tired of her. Will begin off with Iori's final one from 2025 that was released on December 26th, it has the title of "Photogenic" which is a magazine from Shogakukan but there was no mag spread to promote the book. This book has forty photos and while it's not Iori's most hottish pics they're close to being her best ever.
Last up is this 43 photo book that the SPA! magazine released last August 5th and this should wrap up her 2025 books. This is Iori's fourth book for the magazine and she'll be the cover girl for their next issue so perhaps that means her fifth book for them will be coming out soon. There was no video for either book so after the pics have one for UTB:G which I had never seen before, it's only two minutes long but could be Iori's 😍 most seductive video to date.... WOWWWW!!!!