Mai Shiraishi: Perhaps the return to normalcy for this all time mega fave....

 

 Not the best of years if you're a massive Mai fan like I've been since 2013 and also for her huge fan base here. Seven posts for 2021 but two were for semi older happenings, she did qualify for the yearly faves list yet didn't make the top twenty. That's after finishing fourth in 2020 and a tumble like that has never happened before with anyone. Can understand her not being as busy this year as it was her first full year not being a Nogi member. But what disappointed me a bit with Mai were many of her activities were in my eyes kind of boring. But what was slightly worse were her pics which all seemed kind of bland or drab to me. She doesn't need to dress skimpy to grab my attention as most of my bigger faves don't but seemed her mag spreads, save for one, and modeling pics paled in comparison to most others. However I have a feeling this may be the start of a busier period plus I think her pics will be much more classier so it may be a return to normal times....

 Hope the above didn't sound too negative as most know what a fave of mine Mai has been for so long. With a busy year she may approach the 400 post milestone which only her ex-Nogi rival(?) has hit. Back in 2018 did my first ever 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list, on it Mai finished in the 15th position. Will start on the second one next May or June, I expect her to jump up to about fifth but this year may have cost her a shot at being #1. So I'm really hoping this is the beginning of a busy period as this is only her third post since June. Have close to sixty new pics which is a lot but in a way it's not considering how few posts there's been in the last six months.

 May be impossible to say what my all time fave Mai photo is but that bottom one would finish no lower than second. Mai will be in a film coming out on February 11th titled "Usogui" and it looks to be a good one, will have more info about that in future posts. Her one 2021 drama was "Hyochakusha" which I dropped after three shows, it just wasn't that good and so many others felt the same way. However "Mystery to Iunakare" is a drama that looks to be a winner, it's be starting on January 10th. So will be recapping that as the entire cast is quite solid and once again will have more info in her next post, these are some promo pics for it.

 Mai has been a co-host of a variety show since September but just one drama and zero movies for 2021. Not as much modeling work this year other but as mentioned the pics she did have were kind of drab. But not this new set which are from the Feliamo site, think this is the only site she's a regular model for these days.

 Huge lack of mag spreads this year too. This batch features some pics from the 25ans site which is a wedding magazine and the bottom five pics are from their January issue. Wouldn't surprise me if Mai was the highest paid Idol from 2016-20 so it's understandable why she cut back on her activities for a spell, $$ is no problem(!). In eight months she'll be hitting the age of thirty, you never hear dating rumors about her but the line of her potential suitors would stretch from here to the Moon!!!!

 She would make for one of the most perfect brides ever but not sure about that bottom pic(!), you better please her or else....

 Two batches of recent interview pics and she does look so darn good in both sets, this first one is from the Mantan Web site.

 Second set is from the Oricon site and have the link to it. The interviews were because Mai was chosen as this year's ambassador for the 'Tokyo Lights' show which surprisingly doesn't last until Christmas, more on it in the next batches of pics: Oricon interview

 The special event is a festival of lights that's held at the Meijijingu Gaien in Tokyo but only ran from December 9th to the 12th. On the ninth Mai was there to hit the on switch for the light show, two sets of pics here from the show and I think she looks so darn good at events, this may have been the first one she attended this year.

 So obviously that event wasn't for Christmas so to get you into the mood have some older pics for the holiday, we'll never see new Nogi X-Mas cards though....

 Isn't it hard to believe that the "Passport" photobook was released almost five years ago? February 2017 is when it came out, at 450,000+ copies sold it's the second biggest seller in history and #1 for all Idols. Few of my older faves have released photobooks after the age of thirty and all have been so terrific, would love to see another one from Mai and will it ever happen? No doubt I'm in the minority but to me her 'Memorial Graduation Book' that came out in October 2020 has better pics than "Passport"! You can be the judge of that as here's the link to that 2020 book, did a post for it in May which was easily her most popular post of the year. Following these pics that are from the book is a video of the above event: Memorial photobook