Maria Makino: Hopefully one or two of you recall who she is....

 

 Can understand fully if only one or two do recall who she is as it's been over five months since her last post and her previous one had been ten weeks before that! That slightly bums me out as Maria has been close to being my #1 current J-Pop Idol for the last few years, had she been busier she would have had the top spot! But sadly that hasn't worked out nor ever will as I have a strong feeling she could end up being my top What if woman of all time. What I mean is that Maria had everything going for her to be my #1 fave of a year or top current Idol as mentioned, maybe even #1 of all time(!) and certainly close to being my most alluring woman though she still could have that honor!

 So there were a lot of what ifs if Maria had stayed as busy as she had been up until mid 2022. Then her activities really slowed down and I'm not sure why as it always seemed she was Morning Musume's most popular member, no Hello Project member had more photobooks or magazine spreads than she did from 2018-22. No sense crying over what hasn't taken place over the last two years but I've been wanting to do some sort of post for the last five months and finally could today, if things go like I'm hoping they are her next post will be within the month.

 Only have a mini amount of recent new pics but do have many older ones that had never been posted before so all in all you could say this post is jammed with new things. At one time Maria was among the most popular women here but her last four posts have seen such a decrease in views and is that because there's been so few posts for her the past year? Will begin off with some newish pics from Morning Musume's Ameblo blog where the members post their new pics, the bottom two are of how the group looks these days.

 In exactly one month MM will be releasing their first single of 2024 and the first without their long time leader. Last year the group only had one single and the plan is to have a group post just after the single comes out and also hopefully another solo post. Many MM members are a bit older, say 23+ in age, so let me also work on having a post for one or more of them as that's been a rarity the last few years for any Hello Project member. That is save for Maria and back in February there was a special photobook featuring all of the H!P groups called "Best Shot", you know who the cover girl was and are these among the top pics of the year!?!?!?!?

 Gulp, how does one type with that staring you in the face! Most fans know how passionate Maria is about Baseball and she did throw out the first pitch at an early June game but won't discuss that today and may have those game pics in her next post. If she wants the streak to continue she better get on the ball as from 2016-23 Maria had at least one photobook a year. That's eight years and there was a total of nine books so hope that means we have something to look forward to. In her last two posts had some screenshots from her 2021 DVD "Hitachi" which was also the title of that year's book. Have some more screenshots from the DVD that go up to the 22 minute mark and will have at least one more batch coming up. As you can see the photo shoot took place in Okinawa which is the first pic but later on the photo shoot moved to Sapporo and it appeared to be the dead of Winter.... surprised Maria's hotness didn't melt all the snow around her!!!!!!!

 Have two UTB magazine spreads from 2023 that hadn't been posted and was going to have both for today. But seeing as how the posts for Maria have been so difficult to do this year let me hold on to one so there can be a start to her next post. This set is from their May edition and think she'll be the cover girl for the magazine's September issue so that could be another thing to look forward to.

 On February 2nd Maria did hit the age of 23 but there are four older MM members so as mentioned let me try to work on some posts for them. There will be a group post next month and they still may put out better singles these days than any other J-Pop group. Will end off with this brand new spread which I wish was larger and she's the cover girl for the August edition of Bessatsu Young Champion. It's Maria's first solo spread since last November and as you can see in the bottom photo she's looking more alluring than ever!!!! No new gravure videos but did mention she threw out the first pitch at a Baseball game. That was for her fave team the Hokkaido Nippon-Han Fighters and after the pics is a short video of her throwing the pitch, she has done better at previous games.... the headhunter!!!!