To me Akari's first photobook was one of the best for 2018. Last year was a terrific one for books and would have her "Kawaikunaru hoho" in about third position, that's fairly impressive out of fifty or so books. However what wasn't impressive were the sales of the book, to date it's only sold a little over 17,000 copies though it was released back in August. Read that the publisher wasn't pleased at all as the company printed 50,000 copies and expected it to be a solid seller, it obviously wasn't which is a mystery.
Akari did finish second last year at the AKB General voting competition so it's easy to see why the publisher expected huge sales. Hard to understand why they weren't higher, can't blame her as the book was fabulous so guess it means SKE fans are more into the group versus individual members. Those top two pics are newish outtake ones from the photo shoot and Akari just looked so incredible in the book. But what those lackluster sales may also mean is that there may be fewer '48' books in the future, don't think any PB has been released since that last one. Hmmmm, upon further reflection a second Jurina PB would be a big seller, wonder if it'll ever happen????
Kind of makes you shake your head in puzzlement, Nogi books have all been superb but very few were as good as Akari's PB, why did they sell five or more times as many copies? Oh well, that's water under the bridge now so let's get to some recent AKB tidbits. The group's 24th single "Stand By You" was released on December 12th and is showing some staying power. Last week it was third on the Oricon charts and to date has sold about 310,000 copies, this single was a bit of a comeback though thought there previous singles were better.
Before the mag spreads have a few oddball things such as some blog pics. Usually post individual ones from the member's blogs but for today thought I'd just have some group ones.
One member I don't know much about is Ruka Kitano, can't recall ever seeing her in previous mag spreads though may have overlooked her. Don't know how that's possible as she certainly is a hard gal to miss, have a feeling we'll be seeing much more of her in the future and really hope so. She'll be turning twenty shortly and where's she been hiding?! Top two pics are brand new from the past week along with the final one.
Have the first three episodes of the 'SKEBingo' show and will be recapping them soon. The series will be going on for twelve shows and they seem much better than the current versions from AKB or Nogi. These are from the second episode and the theme of the entire series is about acting.
Coming out shortly will be volume ten of the 'SKE Magazine', not positive but think it comes out three times a year and these will be the covers.
On to the mag spreads, SKE does appear in quite a few though to me not enough as only NMB and perhaps Nogi can top their spreads. Last group post had a spread from the January issue of Big One Girls but that was for another member and think this set was missed. It features Natsuki and lately some of the more unknown members have been getting a turn in the spotlight. She'll be turning 23 later on this year and SKE has turned into one of the older Idol groups.
Think because of the members getting older is a main reason I've continued being a fan of the group, sadly can't say the same for many current Hello Project groups. Second spread is a group one featuring seven members and is from the February 12th issue of SPA!. Jurina has the first two pics and we need to see her in more solo spreads, Akari in the next two pics is absolutely jaw-dropping.
After going about a year without appearing in a spread the past two months Akane has had two solo ones and one with another member, that set was in the first 'SKE Pairs Post'. Akane is one of the oldest members as she turned 27 back in November but luckily haven't heard any graduation news about her or any of the older members. This final set is the best of the bunch and is from the February edition of Entame. Like to have a musical video in these posts, usually have a PV but for today there's a shortened version of 'Oki Doki" from 2012.
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