Keyakizaka46: Their jubilant eighth group post of the year(yay!)!!!!

 

 Eighth group post of the year but first since May 15th, however it wouldn't surprise me if there's another four or so  by the end of August. In one month Keya will be releasing their first album under the new name of Sakura, sure there will be much promoting for it but as of now the track list and whatever else will be included hasn't been revealed yet. Right above is Rena whose first photobook will be coming out next month. Those are two new promo pics for it but that's all you'll be seeing of her for today as I try to save up her pics for solo posts. This is the first Keya AR post with the AR meaning After Risa! We're all going to miss her but Keya still has many members I like quite a bit plus I think their second generation is quite strong, they seem to dominate recent activities. 

 Little bit of many things for today but there hasn't been all that many activities going on with Keya since their fourth single came out in April. However some things were starting to get dated so wanted to post them before new pics came out plus I enjoy doing posts for them as Keya may be my #1 J-Pop group again. What a decrease in mag spreads this year, none for today though it's still a decent post but the second generation will be the cove girls for the next issue of Bubka.

 On the first of every month the members have a short message at their site. The ones for July just came out which will be in their next post as their messages for June needed to be posted first.

 Have still never had a solo post for Mizuho but she sure has been having many pics in these group ones. She's a model for the Classy site and these are pics from them since the last post.

 On June 29th Yumiko hit the age of 24 and she's the oldest of the second generation members. On the 12th of last month she threw out the first pitch at the Softbank Hawks game. They're based out of Fukuoka which is her hometown, few pics from the game along with a short video. Somehow the ball made it to the plate however it needed a few bounces(!): First pitch video

 As is my norm have plenty of new promo pics for the 'Uni's on Air' web game. The ones for July will be coming out soon so need to finish up the ones for June and there's many more after these. Leading off is Hikaru and if you can stand more of Yumiko she's after that, all have four pics. Following that pair are the first generation members Mizuho and Minami.

 Keya(Sakura) doesn't have a regular monthly card series but there's often some for special activities such as these for their fourth single "Samidare yo". Keya has two Rina's in the group, first off with eight pics is Matsuda who is the group's vice-captain. Also with eight pics is Uemura and this Rina has been with Keya since day one. She's been an easy member to overlook, especially these days, but I think she looks mighty fine and she'll be turning 26 in six months.

 Last two group posts were for Risa's final two appearances on Keya's "Soko Magattara Sakurazaka?" variety show. None of these '46' group shows is a must watch but after a dip in quality this show has rebounded and most of the shows for this year have been enjoyable. Don't want to fall too far behind so you'll be seeing mini recaps once again in these group posts, this one is for episode #83 that aired on May 29th. The theme was 'My Passionate Presentation' and there was another that aired three weeks prior but too late to post about that. The object was for the members to present the most passionate thing in their lives and it was a show with no winning entry but still was interesting.

 Hikaru's presentation may have been the top one as she's a real fanatic about capsule toys and that is a popular hobby in Japan. She knows everything about the subject and she probably needs an extra room where she lives to store them! In one of the screenshots there's a store called Gacha Gacha in Ikebukuro she visits often and they have 1,200 of those toy capsule machines! Up next to present a passion was Akiho, her father is a fisherman so she too is so knowledgeable about her passion. Akiho isn't one that likes fish to eat but thinks they're so 'cute' and she has so many aquariums at her house. Only three members gave a presentation and last up was Rena whose passion is chocolate. Like her mates she's a fanatic about her hobby and there was seemingly nothing Rena didn't know about the history of chocolates but wondered if she didn't study up beforehand? If you click on the first screenshot you can follow the action as it happened.