'Top Twenty Faves' countdown for 2020: Position #10, the wholesome and invigorating Yui Kobayashi!

 

 Links to the previous positions: #16, Yume .... #15, Miru .... #14, Hinako .... #13, Yume .... #12, Mio

#11, Han-Na

 Huge post for today so will make this the only one, it's been three days in a row with a faves post which is he only time it'll be happening. Wanted to get the pace to one every other day, one more back to back days with a post will hit it. In yesterday's post mentioned how Korean actresses are at such a disadvantage as there's so fewer activities for them to do compared to their Japanese counterparts. That is so true and to go one step further the ones who have the biggest advantage are J-Pop Idols, especially if their groups are popular. They have so many more opportunities to appear in mags, at events, have photobooks, etc. which is one reason you see(or saw) so many posts for them.

 Then again on the flip side if your group has become stagnant and haven't done much for a year that can really affect an Idol's career and also how many posts they get here. Coming to mind for 2020 is definitely SKE who at least were busy at he beginning of the year. Not so with Keya and their inactivity has really done so much harm to the group and members, all of the blame goes to their inept management. So if you're a Keya fan you've certainly noticed the lack of posts this year and especially in the second half of 2020. Will save any more criticisms for a group post but will there ever be another one? But really thought after the name change two months ago they'd come out like gangbusters but really nothing has changed, they may have new uniforms but that's it so kind of wonder why all the hoopla about the rebranding? With that intro hope she's not a bit peeved at me(again)....

 .... whew, that's a relief and after my usual rambling about lack of Keya activities guess what's in store? If your answer was that this will be the largest post for the list you'd be correct, I'm thinking close to 125 pics and probably over 90% are brand new for here. So obviously Keya's slowdown hasn't had as much of an affect on Yui as it has other members, she does do many activities outside of the group though not as many as previous years. The first half on 2020 was fairly busy for her but not so much since July 1st so it baffles me how I have so many new pics. 

 For a while thought Yui would be in the running for the top spot, of course she really isn't near there but hopefully will have many more chances in the future. Have usually said how it's wise for an Idol to stay with their group for a while, way too many get a swelled head and think they're more popular than they really are, they get a sad wakeup after graduating. But Yui is one Idol where it may be a wise decision to depart from Keya, to me they're holding her back. She's already quite popular so I think she'd have quite a successful career if she left Keya tomorrow, plus to me and most of her fans what a slap in the face it was that she wasn't selected as the center for the group's upcoming single. Never mind that single she should have been a center many years ago.

 Have a nice variety of things for today, none of the pics are steamy as some of the above but my huge faves look just as terrific with non gravure pics. Have so many things not sure where to begin, seeing as how it's that time of the year how about some holiday pics? Have plenty here and will be surprised if anyone tops this amount.

 Hope she told Santa Nao was a good boy this year, having her in my stocking would be one fantasy to finally come true. Yui was in a drama earlier this year, posted plenty of screenshots in her older posts and I think she's a decent actress and would like to see her in more things. "Sakura" is the title of her first film  that came out on November 13th, may seem hard to believe but only found three pics from it's premiere so will pass on them. But if you enjoy interview pics then you're in luck today as there must be forty of them she did promoting the movie. If you don't enjoy these kinds of pics they're all still quite superb and actually could have had more.... these are from the Crank site.

 But of course besides the "Sakura" film Yui always discussed Keya and it's future in most of the interviews, this batch is from Model Press.

 Least she was dressed differently for most of the interviews, have seen so many do five or so on the day dressed the same way. Continuing on with them these are from the Times Abema site.

 Two more batches of interview pics and did notice she wasn't dressed differently for all of them, these are from the Real Sound site.

 Up last is this set from Pintscope.

 There was a Keya event on October 29th for a new group AEON credit card but once again can't believe how few pics there were from it. Seeing as how they've been out of the spotlight for so long thought we'd be seeing many more events or such with the new single and name change, that's something which hasn't happened at all.

 It was also a belated birthday for her. No other event pics so let's go back in time to May 2019 where Yui made an appearance at the Spring/Summer 'Girls Award' show. Their shows are usually good but they cancelled all of them this year but least TGC had a show back in September.

 Here's something to look forward to as she and her best mate from Nogi will be the cover girls for the second time with With(!), they also had the cover of their June issue.

 There won't be as many spreads coming up as many weekly magazines double up their issues and don't have any the last two weeks of a month. So above is someone on the list whose position you'll find out soon. As mentioned in #12's post try to find the fave who has pics with the most from the top twenty, or sixteen if you exclude themselves and Korean actresses. Yui now has the lead in that category as she's been with six others but have a feeling someone may top her though probably wrong again.

 That bottom pic is my fave of the small bunch and the trio all made the list, that was from a special '46' show that aired close to a year ago. From early 2018 to mid 2019 Yui must have had 25 solo mag spreads and no other member came close to that number. But for some odd reason she hardly appears in any these days, just two for this year and could it be because of Keya's inactivity? To me it is but then again spreads aren't everything and today's pics have all rated an A++++. In the 'why'd they bother?' section here's two pages from the January issue of Fine Boys.

 Much larger set that's from the December issue of UTB. It was actually a spread featuring a trio but have just tried to include Yui's pics but of course any with her mate need to be posted. She's someone of course on the list and haven't gotten to her position yet.

 Almost forgot to include this. There's still a 'Keyakitte' show though it's been renamed, same hosts so once again nothing changed. The second to last show with the original name aired on October 4th which was it's fifth anniversary. Theme this second to last show was doing a 'cleanup' as the long time members had a chance to change some things about them or future goals. Yui was talking about her nicknames, she's often been called 'Pon' but really has never liked it, as a matter of fact she'd prefer it if everyone just called her by her first name.

 We've hit the end, this was a fairly darn good post for her fans and hopefully she may have gained a few. Of course Yui's photobook had some dazzling pics but deep down I really like the ones she has at the With Online site and have a massive amount for today from the last five weeks. After the pics you can view that 'Keyakitte' segment though it's not subbed.