Nao's top ten Faves for 2025: Position #8, the peerless and stylish.... 𝙈𝙖𝙞 𝙎𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙞

 

 Few times had mentioned the countdown for this year's faves list would begin on December 14th but it's now the evening of the tenth and with any luck can get this post done tonight(for a change was successful!). Got ahead of myself as almost everything is ready to go for positions eight through five and why wait for no good reason. The countdown will just consist of eight women but the list will include ten, who positions nine and ten were will be in the post for woman number seven. In the six year stretch from 2019 to 2024 six posts were needed in a year to qualify for the list, often had about thirty women who were eligible. But the number began to dwindle in 2022 so for this year made the requirement five posts for 2025 and that'll probably continue in the future.

 Thirteen had six posts and four had five for a grand total of seventeen who were eligible. Position nine only had five posts and she was the only one in the top ten that was helped out by the new requirement. This is the first year since the list began in 2015 that no active J-Pop Idols made the list and in all honesty would be surprised if any ever do again. Well, there is one third generation member from Nogi and a Morning Musume member but they would be the only possible Idols but can either make it to five posts? EDIT: After the list is complete have a wrap-up post with many stats and final thoughts. One early thought is the age of this year's list, up until 2022 the average age was around 26 or just below. But now it's becoming a senior citizen list as the average age of the ten has crept up to 29.2 years, will it hit thirty in 2026?!

 Enough of an intro and let's get to the first person on the countdown who I wish had been last for that would have meant she was #1 for the year! So many times have said if I could choose just one woman out of the hundreds I've posted about to be my girlfriend, wife(!) or stuck on a desert island with Mai 😍 would win that honor going away! And that margin keeps increasing with each year yet it's kind of odd then how Mai never has been number one on any other kind of list except for being my top Nogi member. Lack of posts compared to others has hurt Mai to an extent for the yearly lists yet she did finish in the fifth spot back in 2022 and has made the list three other times so she's been a long time favorite of mine. It does help immensely having many posts in a year if a woman wants to make the fave's list and especially for newbies. But only once has Mai had more than eight posts in a year, she's averaged about eight a year since 2020 and that's a decent pace though one a month would be better.

 Whew, that photo right above is right up there on my all time and how I'd love to see a third photobook from her but are the odds slim to none? Probably so but four months after graduating from Nogi Mai did have a mini digital book, even though there were no gravure pics it was fabulous but there's been no others since then. Mai is part of that very small and elite group here who don't always need to have a ton of posts to make the yearly or All Time favorites lists. I check up on her everyday and usually there isn't much new but I still enjoy looking at photos from her older events, interviews and whatever which is a huge help for a woman when trying to figure out what position they'll end up in. Doubt if Mai will ever again have ten posts in a year and would like to see her increase the amount of activities that she does but if she's content with how things are going then guess we fans should also be.

 

 Will say it until the day I die which is that no woman can top Mai's legs and because of them she looks taller than her height of 164 cm. This year wasn't overly busy for Mai, she's been hosting two radio shows and on occasion attended an event but she hasn't done much else. Next month she will be hitting the age of 34 and she could be like a few others who I post about in that age range who may not have definite plans on what they'll be doing in the future. Of course I've never had a career like Mai or any others I post about so hard to put myself in her shoes, she's yet another woman 28+ in age who is still single.... do any of those unhitched gals read these posts?!!!!

 Will wrap up this long intro section here. The first post in the countdown is usually the longest as I'll discuss the list a bit, how things may get decided and just some general info about the post's honoree. These kinds of posts are no different than others but do try to make them larger than most others which should work out for these first four positions. So this will be like your usual Mai post, there will be a few brand new pics plus some older ones that had never been posted before. There will also be some golden oldie things which may have been forgotten about or are new to many readers. Mai's posts are semi-popular, at one time(before 2022) her posts drew fewer views than any other Nogi member but she's gained quite a few new fans here the last four years and why not with pics like these!

 The advantage to making the list is you already have one post for the 'Nao Year' which begins on December 1st. Mai will be celebrating her 34th birthday on January 22nd so there will be a post for that done a few days after, on the 17th she'll be having a party with her fan club members. First up are these photos from Mai's IG page and also fan club site where she posts most or her pictures. The pair of pics above the final two are from her Apple radio show and pay attention to the bottom two pics. One is from early October when Mai went for a second generation reunion and those gals were very close, actually. still are but two couldn't attend their imbibing session.

 The pic above that final one is from her fan club site and so aren't the ones in the very small below batch. That above pic was letting her fans know that on December 13th there will be an event for her 2026 calendar, it will be her fourth solo one. The last three years Mai has been the cover girl for Big Comic Spirits to promote the calendar, those issues have been coming out at the end of December. Hopefully there will a spread this year but even if there isn't am planning on having a special post for her calendar. Will have photos from the event, Mai's past three BCS spreads and to top it off hopefully there will be a new fourth spread. Will also have some older Nogi New Year's cards and whatever else that happens in the next month so that should be one terrific post!

 That above pic was from her site and though it says calendar it's also one of the photos on the main page. Speaking of Nogi cards here's a large batch that have never been posted before! When I do posts in December for ex-Idols will almost always have Christmas cards and very rarely ones for the month. But this year have changed that up a bit and have some fantastic December cards that have never been posted here before. This set goes from 2015 to 2019 and you can see how Mai changed over the years, she was 21 in age when she joined Nogi in 2013. So besides being Nogi's oldest member ever when she graduated, thirty, Mai may have also been their oldest 'new' member when she joined the group.... hope that made sense....

 Well, Christmas is only two weeks away so will have a few older Nogi cards for the holiday. Hmmmm, Santa must think I've been a bad boy too often as every year I never see a smiling Mai as a present under my tree, sigh......................

 One reason I held back on beginning the countdown is that I knew Mai would be at an event on December 10th which is today. However it was a very low key event with only four photos from it but she still looked amazing to me! The event was to promote the French TV drama "The Count of Monte Cristo", it came out in 2024 but won't air in Japan until early 2026. Mai did mention she's a huge fan of foreign dramas and why isn't she doing more acting???? Mai didn't add in what her top shows were and I've noticed many Japanese women really enjoy the French culture, the mini event was held at Meiji Gakuen University. Mai never did graduate from college though she is quite intelligent, being with Nogi meant she didn't have a lot of spare time plus during her first three years in the group she also worked at the Sony main office!

 Mai has had the lead in four stage plays plus I saw her in a 2023 web drama which was quite interesting, wonder why she's done so little acting the last two years? Also an activity that needs to be entered on that list of things she needs to do is modeling and Mai has worked for three sites modeling OL attire. Her modeling pics are so ultra terrific and I miss seeing them, below are some from the Oggi site that were added in during November and December 2021. Two months after Mai graduated from Nogi she left Oggi and has done so little modeling since.

 At times I wish Mai was a bit busier but then again how many ex-Idols have had as many posts as she's had since February 2022? Think only one or two at the most so she does just enough to remain in our memories though she's someone it's impossible for me to forget! Did mention that she may have a new mag spread coming out soon and those for BCS are always tremendous. Will go back in time for a pair of spreads that most have forgotten about with this first one being from the December 2017 issue of Bubka.

 Exactly one year later Mai had another spread for the Bubka magazine and of course it was for December 2018. Both sets are are stupendous, was going to say the the 2018 set of photos is better but I don't know about that as upon viewing the above pics again those are so hard to top...

 Will end off with some overly sweltering Mai 😍 photos, I have never got tired of them nor will I ever but wish there were some new ones to add into my huge folder of her pictures. No new videos except from her radio show so after the pics is a video from the photo shoot of her first and only digital book. That came out in June 2022 or four months after her Nogi graduation, of course no need to tell you how alluring Mai looks in it and it's as close as she's ever come to having a gravure video. Once again will add in.... hope she's reading this.... hint, hint....