NMB48: Akari Yoshida, the first of ?? graduation posts....

 

 **** On a side note came back to add this useless bit of trivia in. There's now four with the name Akari who have ten or more posts which places it one ahead of Mai who have three with ten posts or more. However they both trail the names of Minami and Yui as there's five gals with that name that have ten or more posts, have no clue why that aroused my curiosity.

 Here's a semi fave who should have been a huge one, it's just her third solo post but could have had one every 2-3 months over the years and kind of dropped the ball with her. Maybe not completely dropping the ball as she has been in eight group posts but it's been years since the last solo one for Akari and had been saying for a while she needed a few of them. For a long time was disappointed when I couldn't do enough posts for everyone I like quite a bit but not so much these days. Only have so much time to get to everyone and while I think a decent job is done with that a few do fall through the cracks, less these days since I've cut back on Nogi posts which will continue. The title says 'First of ?? graduation posts' as I'm not sure how many there may be, three would be my guess. Akari is going through stages for her departure, she's still with NMB but not for much longer and as this post goes on will explain some things about it and also in those upcoming posts.

 Was going to have another 'Nao opinion piece' comparing NMB/SKE to other J-Pop groups and why I think their members are so much better, will also save that for her next post or perhaps group one. With so few solo posts it's hard to say if Akari is or would be popular here but have the feeling the answer would be no. She is such an attractive woman who turned 24 back in August. Those above pics are 2-3 years old as she rarely does gravure spreads which is why I think she wouldn't have been too popular here which has been the case for most NMB/SKE members. One thing I've never done is a 'pairs post' for my fave gals from NMB, to me they may have the hottest members of any group and three would be in my top ten of all time for being the hottest Idol. So think I just may work on a 'pairs post' or two next month as December usually is a bit slower for things, one obvious post would be these two....

 .... though I think viewers would much rather see this pairing. Sigh, don't know as I'm getting a tad jealous of Akari.... oh to trade places with her....

 Okay, took a breather to cool down after that bottom pic though it didn't help! Let's get on to some newish things as as mentioned Akari is going through some stages of her graduation. She's the center for NMB's new single and will have those details to end the post off. Her final regular concert took place October 24th at the Osaka Jo Hall, the city is their home base. Here's some pics from the performance and there were a few big names on hand to bid her farewell. Do have the concert which I've only skimmed through so that may be one of those upcoming post where I'll just concentrate on the final show with many screenshots.

 Akari's final show with NMB will be this Sunday which will be at their Osaka theater and most '48' group's do have the final show at one of their theaters. Have some fine pics here from an interview with the Fanthology site and they usually have really solid interviews. Here's the link to the site and there's also a short video there: Fanthology interview 

 Akari will have no problems when she departs and don't think I've ever seen an Idol prepare her career so well. She's a model for two mags, has started her won beauty line, writes a beauty column plus is planning on writing a memoir on her NMB days. Perhaps that means she'll remain somewhat in the limelight and can have posts after her graduation which is so rare for the Idols I've followed. Won't be posting all of the pics I have as there's well over a hundred and need to save some for her next post. Hopefully will have Akari's spread for Bomb for it and these are outtake pics for it.

 As mentioned Akari is a model for two mags though doesn't appear in all of their issues. One is Voce where she also has a beauty column and she does appear in more mags than those do but seldom does gravure pics these days. Here's a newish Voce spread from their November edition.

 The mag Akari appears most often in is Ray and have five of their spreads for 2020 as there was no chance to post them before. She's been their cover girl a few times such and was for January.

 One other set from Ray which is for their March issue.

 For the second time Akari is the co-center of an NMB single and of course it'll be her final one with the group. Title of the song is "Koi Nanka No Thank You!" and the PV is below the pics. NMB had been in a slump from 2015 to early 2018 but to me their last five or perhaps six singles have been their best to date, why don't I do more posts for them? The single did hit #1 on the charts but sold only 130,000+ copies which is a bit disappointing and surprising. The group's last single came out in August and sold 197,000 copies in it's first week so why would there be such a drop and especially for a grad song? On one possible bright note is that their songs tend to have more staying power than most groups, wouldn't shock me if the final total copies sold surpasses 250,000 especially with X-Mas approaching.