Nogizaka46: The unassuming 'Asuka Saito post' #14....

 

 Seems the health situation in Japan is worse than I thought and it's really affected the activities of so many from actresses to J-Pop Idols. Nogi was supposed to appear on 'Utacon' two nights ago to promote the new single but even that TV music show had to be postponed for a few weeks. So really can't moan about how there's so many fewer posts, can understand why everyone is a bit over cautious and will just try to do what I can do and sure eventually things will pick up. About the only thing that hasn't been affected too much has been dramas and perhaps they filmed them some months ago. But as far as magazine spreads, events, modeling sites and the like go they've all seen such a decrease in pics and issues though will end off the post with some superb new event pics.

 Hasn't been a regular Nogi group post for a while but have a feeling there will be one very shortly. On January 27th their latest single "Boku wa Boku o Suki ni Naru" was released and it naturally was #1 on the charts in it's first week. Though sales were high compared to most groups the total of 589,000 copies sold in it's first week was the lowest since single #11, "Inochi wa Utsukushii". Never understood why that single didn't sell better as it's one of my faves from Nogi. But for the current single there will be no handshake events and many fans buy multiple copies to get tickets to them. But still thought the sales would have been much higher and guess graduations may be a factor.

 Yes, this is an Asuka post but there not being a group one for so long haven't been able to talk about any Nogi activities so do hope that group post will be sooner than later. On February 22nd and 23rd their ninth Birthday concerts will be held, in the past they were four day celebrations. On the first day there will be four separate performances from each of the generations then on the final day there will be one grand concert.

 A week after that the Spring 'Tokyo Girls Collection' show will be held. Sure we'll see many Nogi members there including Asuka who has appeared at just about every one the last four years. Her last post was done on December 26th and while there haven't been as many activities since then for Nogi do have about seventy never before seen pics for today. No mag spreads though as so many monthly ones are now doubling up their editions plus weeklies aren't as big as usual. Asuka is a model for the Sweet magazine, not too many new pics at their site since her last post.

 Few pics from last week's 'Harry's English Class' radio show.

 

 Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching and while there's no new Nogi cards for 2021 do have some fine ones from the last two years. Sure many fans would like Asuka as their VD sweetheart but have noticed she doesn't have nearly as many male fans as other Nogi members. Perhaps the fewest but she may be the most popular with their female fans.

 Plus have a few Nogi monthly cards from 2020 that hadn't been posted before.

 Never did finish recapping the "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken" drama and it was mainly because it took so long for the subs to get done. But did watch the series twice which I found enjoyable but thought it would have been better with more than six episodes. The movie came out on September 25th and when it's available will do a review of it. In the show Asuka played the starring role of Midori and she's had the lead role in a few Nogi dramas.

 Always thought she was just a so-so actress but this role was her best to date. Midori was kind of a zany character so perhaps those are the kind she plays the best. The Eizouken club was one created to make animes but their high school didn't approve of the club right off the bat until they could create their own anime. Which did happen in the final show and it was a lead in to the movie, these are screenshots from the fifth and sixth episodes.

 Lot of pics for today though not many different activities. Asuka is the youngest of the first generation members, she turned 22 last August. But she's kind of become the 'Face of Nogi' as she often represents them at award shows and similar things. She did that once again today as Nogi was selected as the 'Top Japanese Female Idol' group by Weibo, they're a Chinese website which is popular in Japan as they do feature so many actresses and music groups from Japan. As mentioned the event just took place today, Asuka looked mighty fine and has developed a much more mature aura about her this last year. Have a short video after the pics of the event, there are many presently on YT but don't have a lot of confidence they'll remain up for too long so watch it while you can and she does look quite elegant.