Nogizaka46: The resplendent 'Minami Umezawa post' #20....

 

 Seven days into the month and we've already had two Nogi posts! That's never been a special occasion but two posts is all there were in June for Nogi which had never happened before. July will be busier as there's a birthday on the 17th I hope to have a post for along with one for the second generation members. But with the Olympics starting soon in Japan there may be a big slowdown with posts so hopefully can squeeze in many these next two weeks. Nogi will also be starting a short tour where they'll be performing ten shows in two months, guess many restrictions have been lifted but you wouldn't think those huge arenas would allow 100% capacity.

 Single #27 is titled "Gomen ne Fingers Crossed" which was released on June 9th. Last week's sales were only a little over 10,000 copies sold, to date the total is 655,000 sold. Two/three years ago their singles were approaching 1.2 million sold but remember mentioning at the time has Nogi peaked? Seems so and it happens to all immensely popular J-Pop groups. Their original fan base has grown up and it appears they haven't gotten too many new ones in the last five years. But more importantly it's because so many of the most popular members have left and that's the main reason I'm not as big of a fan. Still like so many members but as a group not as huge of a fan as I'm not into all of these younger 4G gals, guess there's a lot of fans who think like I do.

 In mid May was getting worried about this year's 'Top Twenty Faves' list as only five had qualified by then, you need six posts to be eligible. But that total has zoomed up to fifteen and there's another ten who only need a post or two so looks like the list can include it's usual twenty. Bring that up as this is Minami's sixth post of the year though it certainly doesn't seem it's been that many. Last year she finished in the eighth position but deserved to be higher. Two of her Nogi mates had or were about to graduate, figured they may never make the top ten again so gave them a bit of a break. So that lowered Minami a bit, have no clue where she may end up this year but she'll probably be the highest ranked Nogi member and can see seven Idols once again making the top twenty.

 No sweltering pics like the ones above which are from Minami's first photobook that came out last September. You only see gravure pics from a member when they have a PB coming out and there will be a graduation book on August 31st. If you're a Minami fan you'll definitely like this post as there's 55 new pics along with a few older ones, been missing doing these kinds of posts for my fave Nogi gals. First off are some new 2021 promo cards for their 'NogiKoi' web game.

 Some recent group blog pics and she's become one of their better posters.

 Not that she's too popular but will have a post in exactly a week for her good Keya buddy.

 The next 'Tokyo Girls Collection show will be taking place on September 4th. Minami always appears at those shows and is usually the hottest Nogi member to take a stroll on the catwalk. Once again no new event pics so will go back in time with these TGC show ones which were from their January 12, 2019 show held in Shizouka.

 Pics from the Model Press site to promote the new single, can't say it's worked out so well. In the bottom two pics am working on yet another post for the member on the left.

 

 What's really been lacking this year are mag spreads and can recall what a struggle it used to be keeping up with them. Not so these days and it's rare when there's more than one new spread in a solo post which is all there is for today. So let's take another trip back in time for this set from the June 27, 2019 issue of Weekly Shonen, her last post had a new spread for the magazine.

 Only new Minami set for today is this way too small one from the August issue of With.

 Final batch of pcs and Minami has been a With model for almost three years. Her best pics are from their With Online site, have many new ones for today but some are 'clean versions' of the above spread. Following the pics is Mianmi's short promo video for the new single which is called 'Umeiro'.