Yui Kobayashi: Is here to save the day!!!!

 

 Is here to save the day!, she's never done that before and actually doing posts for her has become a chore. Do have a core group who I usually turn to during slower stretches but even those gals couldn't come through. Every now and again a period like this pops up when I'm all caught up with drama recaps, photobooks and other oldies I stashed away for a rainy day. But am working on a few things for this weekend and I'm wondering if this is also a slowish stretch in Japan? Ask that because I noticed a few mags have doubled up on their issues this week meaning instead of a weekly magazine they combined two into one and won't be having an issue next week. It's never a chore doing a post for Yui and she's moved into the top spot for faves who I enjoy doing posts for over anyone else. This is her third post in four months so that's an okay pace for me, may seem hard to believe to many but she has 26 solo posts since January 2020 and think only two other Idols can top that total.

 That bottom pic has never been seen here before as it's an outtake one from her first and only photobook that came out in March 2019. That is one super duper pic so why was it an outtake? As mentioned often lately the second 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list will be starting soon, in about three weeks! Was going to have a pair of intro posts but will just be having one which will be a few days before the countdown begins.

 For a long time I just couldn't decide if Yui should make the cut. But after musing about it for so long thought how can I make an all time faves list without including her???? There was no way and to the shock of many out there Yui may finish as high as third on the list, definitely in the top five. As I've said often she's the most likable women post about. At first I was worried about her being too young, she will be the youngest in the top twenty but she will be turning 23 in three months so really can't consider Yui to be too young. This may be her last post until her position on the list comes up as I ty to have as many new pics as possible in them. Will also be slowing down the posts for others in the top twenty, especially those in the first ten spots.

 Yui's last post was done just a little over five weeks ago so there aren't too many things but as mentioned do I love posting about her!!!! EDIT: Some hours later was thinking at how popular that last post was for it has over 1,100 views! Say that because over the last 2 1/2 years Yui's posts have been the most consistent as 80% of them get 550-600 views. But every now and again there's a massively popular post such as the last one and wonder why that is? So have a mix of brand new pics, older ones that had never been posted before and a few encore things. As a group Keya has been really quiet the past two months but their first album with their new name of Sakura will be coming out in three weeks so am expecting to see a big increase in activities, also next weekend the group will be at this year's 'W-Keyaki Fes'. No Keya member posts so few blog pics at the group's site as she does, there's only been one entry since May! In that post that terrific top pic was included, the second is an older one from April and for some reason that's one of my top five pics of the year so far. 

 Keya doesn't have a regular card series but there have been many more of them this year. Have some here from May with the bottom ten being for the "Samidare yo' single.

 Keya used to have a web game called 'Keyakise' but that ceased in August 2020. That was two months before the group changed their name to Sakura and that came never came back when that happened. There used to be such a vast amount of cards to promote the game and have posted quite a few of them but that's just the tip of the iceberg! How about some real oldie cards from 2018 for the game and hasn't Yui really grown up!!!!

 One more set of game pics which are brand new ones that came out last week for 'Uni's on Air'.

 In the last group post had a mini recap for their 'Soko' variety show, it was for episode #85 that aired on June 12th. The theme for that show was 'Rankings' and the members voted on who was the best in the group at certain things, enjoyable show but wish they had more categories. When Who was the best dancer? category came up that was the easiest to pick who would be the winner as no one in Keya can top Yui, perhaps no Idol can and she really is so impressive on stage. Her wild style is the opposite of her true personality as she's so quiet off stage and a few other Keya gals are like that too.

 Those concert pics are from last December when Keya was celebrating their first anniversary of being Sakura. Yui had just returned to the group as she had been out on hiatus for the previous three months, since September 10th to be exact. She claimed it was health issues and it just may have been but I kind of wondered if she was growing a bit weary of the Idol life. Her final event to date took place five days before that hiatus and it was at the Autumn 'Tokyo Girls Collection show. Did a post for the show but there's five new pics in this batch from it and the way she looked left me a bit speechless.... again!!!! The next TGC show will be on September 4th, no clue yet which '46 members will be there.

 This July marks Yui's fourth anniversary as a With model and has she had so many fabulous pics for them over the years. But only have five for today from the past month but that first one is the top new pic of the day! Back in May With went from being a regular print magazine to just a web one so am wondering if that'll mean their models will be having many less pics?

 In the years 2018/19 no Keya member appeared in more magazines than Yui but the last two years her solo spreads have really dwindled. That's happened for other members too and bet that long gap between singles was the main reason. So will end off with her final solo spread to date which is from last June's issue of BLT Graph, why hasn't there been any others since???? In three weeks Keya will be releasing their first album under the Sakura name, will have more info about it in the next group post as the track list hasn't been revealed. There will be a few new songs, one of them is "Masatsu Keisuu" and a video of the song came out two days ago which you can view after the pics. Decent tune which is very upbeat but slightly different than most Keya songs.