Sakura Miyawaki: 2017 Magazine scans #2

 The popularity of regular AKB members must be at an all time low, unless it's a graduation you rarely see any of them center a single. For the group's 48th single Jurina and Sakura were the
co-centers which is fine by me as I really like both of them but can AKB sell massive quantities of singles without outside help?

 My answer is a big No, besides the rest of the '48' family Keya, Nogi and Morning Musume have guested on their singles. Not trying to put the newish members down as I'm sure they do try hard but I really miss the glory days of 2008-13, that's an era we'll never see again and I was a very huge fan back then.
 Above is one of the covers of the "Negaigoto no Mochigusare" single, it was released on May 31st. Naturally it ranked #1 on the Oricon charts selling about 1,300,000 copies. This is the single for the Senbatsu elections, buying one allows you to vote in it which is why so many fans buy multiple copies so they can vote many times for their faves. Last years single sold 1.44 million in it's first week, Sakura was the only center for that single which was "Tsubasa wa Iranai".

 Sakurai will be joined by Jurina again in the next issue of Bomb, not many recent Sakura things so holding back on some for the post with that spread. HKT has done a bit of a disappearing act the last fourteen months as they've only released two singles in that time, then again they're not the most active group as they've had only nine singles in 4+ years.

 Sakura has been busy this year but not as much with HKT, as you can see she's been practicing for her medical exams to become a doctor, sure many would want to be treated by her. Have mentioned a few times in the past that even when Sakura is 25 she'll probably still look like a teen as she never seems to age. She turned 19 three months ago and will finally admit she is starting to look a tad older, much better too because of that.
 AKB still outsells Nogi in singles sales but think Nogi now has a monopoly on mag spreads. Keya does too these days and think because of that they've shut out many '48' members from appearing in more mags. That's not a bad thing in my book though there are still many I enjoy seeing in mags besides Sakura such as her mate Haruka from HKT.
 On to some mag spreads, had that thought about Nogi and Keya dominating spreads as Sakura used to appear in at least 25 a year. Now the year is almost halfway done and she's been in seven to date which isn't nearly enough. First off are some fantastic pics though a bit too small from the March edition of UTB.

 Not a huge spread but Sakura looks A-OK from WPB #22.

 There was a special AKB photobook for the Senbatsu elections, the results will be announced this Sunday. Everyone had at least one pic though the more popular members had three, wonder how many total members there are these days in the '48' family?

 Last spread but will be back soon with another post, sadly this is only her second of the year. Final one rates an A+ as Sakura graces the cover of the June 26th issue of Young Magazine.