Ruka Kitano: Her scorching and ultra torrid.... "The Birth of Venus" photobook version one

 

 First time in a while I've written a post the previous day and scheduled it to be posted the following day. One reason is that I may be busy today so it was up in the air if I would have time to do a post and wanted to keep that streak going of having a post a day which is now been alive for two months. If I do have time today wanted to devote it to working on a post for Nogi's current captain who will be leaving at the end of May and would like to have a few super duper posts over the next few months for her. Ruka began off the 2026 'Nao Year' quite strongly with two posts in both December and January but this is her first in almost two months. That's okay as Ruka had ended off last year with a bang and in such a surprise ended up fifth on last year's faves list. This makes it five posts for this year so once again Ruka has qualified for the list, the 'Nao Year' isn't even four months old but already five are eligible for the list and another pair only need one more post.

 Ruka's sixth post of the year will be in one month and will feature version two of this photobook, both were released on the same day which was December 19th. I try to wait three months before posting a regular photobook but am one day early with this one. Do wait that amount of time as not to affect sales and these days it does matter as books have seen such a tumble in their sales. Ruka's first book came out in September 2024, she never did have one while with SKE and that did disappoint me as I've liked her for quite a while. That first book did sell well, I recall it being in the top ten for sales at least five weeks and bet the total sold was close to 25,000 copies which is very impressive for an ex-Idol who was just so-so popular. This book sold about 2,800 copies in it's first two weeks out, bet the total has increased to 6-7,000 since then but that's still a big drop. Not just for Ruka but almost everyone's books these days have seen a decrease in sales, that includes books from Nogi members but maybe the sales these days are what they were a decade ago and we shouldn't compare them to books from just a few years ago.

 Ruka's first book was such an eye opener and she left so little to our imaginations! Which is both good and bad, Ruka doesn't need to be such a big tease and I've always liked the way she's looked for at least seven years. For the photo shoot Ruka traveled to the Goto Islands which is off the coast of Nagasaki and I think this book is even better than her first. The photos aren't as revealing though there are some of those sans almost everything but the pictures remind me of the kind of gravure ones she had while with SKE. The other book is a web edition and that I'll be having in about a month, the pictures are 100% different but are from the same photo shoot. This book contains 86 photos and am positive Ruka's semi large fan base here will certainly savor these pics to no end and it's a shame there was no accompanying DVD....