Nogizaka46: Happy 25th birthday to.... Mai Shiraishi!!!!

 Hope this isn't the last b-day post for Mai as a Nogi member, just have feeling we'll be hearing the word 'graduation' from her this year. Wouldn't doubt if it happens in November when Nogi will be performing their two concerts ever at the Tokyo Dome. Let's hope it it won't happen for a while but being realistic Mai may be the next to leave the group and she'll be the first of many.
 Then again you wonder if her popularity will remain as high as it is if she does depart, very few Idols remain huge stars after leaving their group. Personally think it's incredible how popular she is these days, five years ago when (time out while Nao hunts down his calculator to figure out 25-5) she was twenty who would have thought Mai would have been one of top 2-3 women in Japan?

 That's no b-day cake but one that was in celebration for her "Passport" photobook. After spending a week out of the top ten it entered the charts again last week, sales for it are around 220,000 and that's one of the biggest selling Idol books in history, perhaps the biggest. Had two posts for all of the pics from it, will have one of them as 'post of the day' which is at the top of the right column.
 Very few new things for today, actually have been saying that about Mai for a while now. It's kind of rare not to see her appearing in a lot of mags but that's been happening lately, even her mag spreads feature other Nogi gals but that's also for promoting the third generation members.

 While not many new things do have quite a few pics and while most aren't new they are new for here. Have done it for a few other Nogi members and perhaps should do it for Mai which is to go back in time for her older happenings, may not be a lot but bet I can find enough things. Mai does have the most posts here but naturally most of them are for group posts.

 Here's something that has never been posted here which is Mai's 'Coming of Age' ceremony. The event took place on January 13, 2013 and of course was held at the Nogi Shrine in Tokyo. Some other members also were having a celebration for their 20th birthday and sure you know them all. If your 20th birthday is six months before or after January 1st then you can attend the ceremony.

 The Summer tour cards were posted but the ones for July are new for here, also included are the insert pics for the group's 3rd album.

 What's been forgotten about this last year or so was Nogi's 2015 drama "Hatsumori Bemars". To be honest it was a bit of a lame series but one that was quite enjoyable to me, have watched it twice. Ratings for it were okay so wonder why there's been no other group drama?
 In the drama Mai played Kirei, that name certainly fits her, who grew up in a rich household and was kind of spoiled. She was also an ace softball pitcher who rarely would not throw a perfect game. Kirei had one going in the championship game with one out to go, if you've seen it you know how it ended. Here's some screenshots from the last few episodes and did recap the entire series.

 On Nogi's new "Nigemizu" single they have a tie-in song with the new 'Wonder Woman' film. On August 8th the group appeared at a special premiere for the movie which officially opens on the 25th. If you ask me Mai would certainly make for an excellent Wonder Woman, to most of us she already is one. Had a post for the event but had only 3-4 pics of her so here are many more from it.

 For not many new happenings there were still close to 80 fabulous pics, Mai has to be one of the most photogenic women in history. Ending off with some 'greatest hits' pics but she has so many it's hard to figure out which ones our her best, can't go wrong with any of them. Mai was an ace pitcher in the group's drama, let's see how she fared throwing out the first pitch at a Raukten Eagles game which took place four years ago, in high school she played second base on the softball team.