Nao's top sixteen Faves for 2022: Position #5, the snazzy and enthralling Mai Shinuchi

 

Previous Positions

#16, Marie .... #15, Miyu .... #14, Sae .... #13, Yuki

#12, Rika .... #11, Nashiko .... #10, Risa Y .... #9, Miku

#8, Rena .... #7, Akari .... #6, Risa W

 So this is the third of four J-Pop Idols in the top seven who graduated this year, not that graduating is uncommon but those four were among my fave Idols of all time! When I created the list of my top sixteen faves for 2022 didn't realize at the time how it would look, just knew it was the strongest of any yearly list that has been done. The top ten consisted of four current J-Pop Idols, the four who sadly have graduated and a pair who are gravure models. So no actresses made the top ten which has never happened, usually there would be at least two in the top five. Three did make it and finished between the twelfth and sixteenth positions but what a down year it was for my bigger fave actresses.

Three of those four who graduated in 2022 set a personal record for posts in a year. Mai had fifteen and her previous high had been eight but even when she was with Nogi her solo posts had been increasing. But this is her first post in three months and knew her extreme period of busyness would be coming to an end. But that didn't affect Mai's position or if it did by only one spot. Her posts this year were among the best of anyone's and this could be one the best posts of any fave who made the top ten. Am going to hold back many pics for another post but there will still be fifty new pics plus some older ones that may have never been posted before.

 Mai will be turning 31 on January 22nd, will have a post around then but am hoping there can be another before then so some of these pics I'm holding back don't become dated. On her birthday this year her second photobook was released, as of now would rank it has my fourth favorite book of the year as it's that tremendous and what an underrated beauty Mai is. If you missed the post for the book here's the link to it and get that cold shower running!  "Yoru ga Aketara" photobook

 When Mai left Nogi back in February she opened her own IG page, the photos she posted were all fabulous but she never had enough of them. That's all changed as she posts too many to keep up with, these are from October and November but had to leave many out.

 We know what holiday season is upon us and don't think my stocking is large enough for all of my faves to fit in.... few under the tree seems to be an excellent solution!

 Guess the only minor disappointment this year is that Mai is no longer a model for the Oggi magazine, she never appeared in their issues but the amount of pics at their was rapidly increasing. Here's her final five photos at the site which also had a mini interview, in her next post will have some older modeling pics from andGirl as their site has become active again.

 May also have some older pics from the With site coming up. Mai and a few other Nogi members were a part of an OL campaign and those photos were so fabulous so can't understand why no other site or magazine hasn't signed her to be a model. These pics are from 2018 so sure many of you have never seen them plus there's a few other pics that have never been posted.

 Mai finished in the 12th position on my 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list and had she more solo posts before 2020 she would have been about five spots higher. In the first week of December she's attended two events, one I'm saving the pics for her next post. Her first solo calendar was just released, there were some group ones with Nogi. There was an event for it on December 3rd, the bottom three pics are from the calendar and like fine wine she's getting better with age....

 Will end off with this new spread that may be her largest one ever. Mai is the cover girl for the December 12th issue of Big Comic Spirits which features fabulous outtake pics from the calendar. No recent videos save for her SDGs magazine radio show, they do have superb pics at their site so there's another thing you'll see in that next post. After the pics is Mai's short promo video for Nogi's 22nd single "Kaerimichi wa Toomawari Shitaku Naru" that came out in November 2018 and fairly sure it's never been posted here.