Minami Umezawa: Her magnifique 45th post!

 

 That 45 refers to solo posts and just six more are needed to reach that seldom reached milestone of a hundred posts, by then her total will be 51 solo posts. Which is slightly impressive as not all that many Nogi members have had as many and the post counts for the first generation are a bit inflated. Up until 2020 the majority of Nogi posts were group ones so very often 5-6 members would be featured and of course would label a post with all their names. So having 25 photos in four posts would be the equivalent of having a hundred in one post which has been the norm for a few years now. Which means while it appears many 1G members have more posts than Minami not many have as many of these kinds of posts and overall bet she has double the amount of pictures here than members with more posts.... that just came from the top of my head and hope it makes sense.

 Minami's departure from Nogi will be taking place in a little less then three weeks from now but I'm not sad as she is going out with a bang and she has been with them for 9 1/2 years. Minami did hit the age of 27 four months ago and while she may not have been a huge superstar during her time with Nogi Minami has had one very successful career up until now. It wouldn't surprise me at all and would love to see it happen which is of her having one of the top solo careers of any member. Sure Minami will continue doing modeling and she's also an actress, she has the lead role of a drama currently airing and more on that further down. Plus Minami is such a smart and likable woman so even though I hate when favorites of mine leave their group it is time for her and the posts for her should be going on for a while. This is her third in three months and can see having another three by the end of June, then another pair in the Summer, that would bring Minami's total up to at least eight and would also mean she would be hitting that magical number of a hundred posts!

 What also will be happening is that with 8+ posts Minami will be making a return to this year's faves list and hadn't qualified for the past three years. But she has made the top ten three times and if the near impossible should happen, her hitting a dozen posts, then she may be battling it out to be this year's #1 Queen! No one to date has broken away from the pack and as of now the field to be number one is wide open which has seldom happened in the past. I work a bit harder for the underdog which means I would make more of an effort to have posts for Minami over most others, I doubt if she'll be taking a break after graduating so let's keep our fingers crossed there could be at least one of these huge posts for each remaining month of 2026.

 Minami isn't my top Nogi member, the first two spots would go to a pair of second generation gals. But she very easily could be in the third position and guess as time goes on she would have a chance to move into second and the member's solo careers are taken into consideration. Minami will sneak onto the upcoming 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list but I have no clue what position she'll end up at. Could be 18th or then again it could be eighth, I have a good idea on the twenty who will make the list but after the top six don't know what any other positions may be but just making the list could be considered an achievement.

 For a long time Minami's posts weren't getting all that many views and one reason could be is because they had become so sporadic. But her last three have been much more popular so hope that increase in views continues on and if you're a fan here's what will be coming up. In eighteen days Minami's farewell concert will be taking place so hope to have her next post about four days before that. Then on June 1st was thinking of having a post for her ultra sizzling second photobook, then about two weeks later another post in this vein with photos from her graduation. Then in July can see having yet another post like this one and then after should be the post for whatever position she ends up at on the All Time list so if you are a Minami fan this could be a joyous next four or more months, every post will feature at least eighty new photos and often many more than that!

 These kinds of massive posts take a while to write up but I don't mind at all when they're for such a massive fave. That second pic above is from her second photobook, will end the post off with more from. For today have a little bit of many things and often the sign of a terrific post is of them having a lot of variety to them, that's usually the case for the women I like the most and now that I think about Minami is one of my top ten of all time. May 21st is the date of her graduation concert which will be taking place at the Tokyo Dome, the group will also be having their 14th birthday celebrations. So decided to begin off with cards of Nogi's prior birthdays/anniversaries and so far hardly any cards for 2026 have been released.

 There should be many interviews for Minami's graduation, there's been two in the past week and have the link to one of them below. It's with the Bezzy site but it's not just about her Nogi departure but also of Minami discussing her current drama "Shitsuran Kurata", it's her first lead role but she did have one of the three leads in the superb "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken" series and movie. The pics below are from the site and also there is a short promo video for the drama: Bezzy interview

 The "Shitsuran Kurata" drama began on March 31st, to date five episodes have aired and have them all. What's surprising is that the series is being subbed even though it's not a mainstream show as it airs at 1:00 am. It's an okay show which is mainly a romance/coming of age drama, I viewed the first episode which was really just kind of so-so. But a show is only 25 minutes in length so will view a few others, maybe I'll enjoy it more if I watch a bunch in a row. Below are some screenshots from the first episode and in the drama Minami plays the lead role of Chinami, the first eight minutes were of a flashback of what had happened in Chinami's life a year ago. At the time she had been working at a floral shop and through an odd occurrence which only happens in dramas Chinami met her 'dream man'. Quickly the pair hit it off and even moved in together but just as quickly the romance sputtered out, that boyfriend split and since then Chinami has remained unlucky in love.

 After those first eight minutes the story became the present day, Chinami has gone from working at a floral shop to getting a much better job at the fashion company ARCO. But Chinami's fortunes in love didn't improve and she would often spend her nights playing cards and getting sloshed with her two best friends. Hikaru was her guy friend and that's not a name I've seen a male use before, the third of the group was the female Ayase and all are 27 in age. The show ended with the group along with a few others attending a wedding, have a feeling this series may end up with Chinami having a wedding but she still hasn't met her possible mate. This will be a ten episode series so it many be better for me to let it finish and then binge watch the show as I may enjoy the drama more that way.

 Don't have any new magazine spreads for today but should for her next post. That's okay as it means I can post this oldie but goldie once again and the world needs new pics of Minami and Yui together, they're close to being my top pairing of all time! Both had been long time models for the With magazine and below is a spread from their January 2020 issue, both left the mag in the Spring of 2023.

 That new magazine spread will be with UTB and it'll be Minami's first time as a cover girl for them. Have one other golden nugget for today which is from the June 2019 issue of UTB, am having it again as it may be my favorite Minami spread and she had too many from 2018-22 to count, that bottom picture is my fave from the spread.

 These days Minami is a model for the Classy site and that's also an apt description of her. Her modeling pics at their site are so fabulous plus there's a huge amount of them, had gotten behind for a while because of lack of posts but am catching up, these go from late February to mid-March.

 Will end off with these pics from Minami's second photobook "Transparent Resolve" and most had never been seen here before. Her first book was my top one for many years but another Nogi member eclipsed Minami's book last year, this second one is also dazzling and the photo shoot took place in Italy. It's quite large at 185 pages and need to take out a few pics as that's way too many for one post and will have that book on June 1st. Will be back in two weeks with Minami's next post, her graduation will take place four days after that. At that concert would think Nogi's fourth captain will be revealed, of course Minami has been their third for over four years and my money is on Nagi to take over the reins.... and she's the one who eclipsed that first book!!!! After the pics is an older video from With which has been posted before but it's one I have found impossible to get tired of....

 EDIT: Oooops, forgot one thing which is after this batch and the photos were too superb not to have!

 Still have that video after this batch and how did I almost forget to include them? On April 18th Minami was at the Spring 'Girls Award' show and looked truly so elegant, she took her stroll on the Rienda stage and I like how she has an entourage trailing her in the bottom pics....