Akari Uemura: Her final post ever.... and also the last one for Juice=Juice????

 

 That heading could be true though it doesn't make me sad as I never thought there would be another post for her or the group. Few times have asked the question 'What could have been?' and she has two answers to that question! After C-ute disbanded seven years ago thought that Juice=Juice would become my top J-Pop group, they had the best singles from  2014-18 and even to this day even their new songs are decent. Up until 2018 there were five members in the group, two were added that year plus another the following year. To me JJ became too big and because of that graduations began to happen and by 2022 only one first generation member was left. The group had swelled to eleven members by this year and I lost interest in them so 'What could have been?' is them becoming my fave J-Pop group but it never happened and I'm wondering do I really have one these days among current groups?

 The other 'What could have been?' is for Akari and by 2019 thought she may become my current fave Idol within a year or so, perhaps even one day being my #1 of all time!!!! I like her immensely but after JJ became so large we seldom heard from her such as appearing in magazines or having photobooks. Do think Akari wanted to step back and she was the most popular JJ member, after her 1G mates left she became the older sister/mentor to the other members and preferred to stay out of the spotlight. So because of that Akari never did become my #1 though she certainly could have, H!P Idols seem to be so much better than the ones from the '46'48 groups. Two days ago was her graduation concert and we may never hear from her again so did want to have one final post for her and it just could be for JJ also as I don't follow them too closely these days.

 What's a real shame is that three years ago they stopped those monthly Hello Project Digital Books, they were always superb and featured outtake pics from photobooks. I miss those and so don't you viewers as those posts were always popular. Do have a lot of things for this post, tried not to go overboard and just about everything is from the last month. Will begin off with some pics from the H!P Ameba blog, the final photos we may we may ever see of Akari along with the others today. Those bottom four pics are my faves and what's ever become of MM from MM????

 Akari's grad concert took place on June 14th at Budokan, the group did have a fun drama back in 2018 about playing there. Do have the concert that was streamed but haven't viewed it yet though do have some photos from the show and did she look fantastic! You can see how large Juice=Juice is in the bottom pics, too huge for me as one of their strengths was having five members for so long and these new gals had ZERO to do with those older classic singles. My top JJ song and one that may be in my top ten of all time is "Romance no Tenchou" and to say I love the song would be an understatement! Have the original PV after these pics and it is subbed in English.

 

 At the end of December Akari will be hitting the age of 26 and did say she would be retiring from Hello Project so I have no clue yet what her future plans will be. The pics below are from the Non-no site and they truly are fabulous! She also had an interview with them on May 24th and have the link to it, I found it to be an excellent interview and all fans should read it: Non-no site

 By 2019 Akari had three photobooks and though young she looked so alluring so couldn't wait for more books as she got older. However she went five years without a book and did say earlier it appeared she wanted to stay out of the limelight. There was a book for the graduation but don't think it contains any gravure pics which isn't a bad thing but when you look as stupendous as she does....

 "Strelitzia" is the title of her final photobook that was released on May 23rd, that's an odd title and it refers to a bird/flower. The above are some promo pics for it. On the day the book came out Akari held an event for it and at 166 cm she is one of the taller H!P members. It may appear as she's flashing the so tiring Peace sign but is actually showing the number 23 which happens to be her favorite.

 There was just one new mini magazine spread to promote the photobook and it's from the June 18th issue of Flash.

 At one time Akari used to appear in quite a few magazines but not so many the last four years which has been the case with most Idols. Here's an oldie but goldie spread from the July 16, 2018 issue of Young Magazine that was promoting her second photobook.

 No new broiling pics of Akari for this post though I thought she looked pretty darn good in all of them. Will end off with some sweltering older pics and sadly this could be it for her here. The latest single for Juice=Juice came out on May 15th, "Brilliance of Memories" was the title of her grad song. A new video version of the song was just released two days ago and that's after the pics.... I think it's a darn good tune....