Maria Makino: A celebration for her.... being the cover girl of Young Magazine for the 20th time!!!!

 

 It's yesterday and the last five posts I've written up were done in advance and then set the publication date for the future. That is one of Blogger's better features which I hadn't used that for a while but this could be the finale of that mini streak. What is not a nice combination is of me being extremely tired like I currently am plus not having many things to post about but try to have a post a day. So thought to myself what kind of odd yet ultra terrific post could I create which could be done quickly yet be close to a masterpiece?! Well, when any post that features Maria 😍 is an automatic masterpiece(!) which has to do with the post title. Maria was the cover girl for last week's issue of Young Magazine which I've had for two weeks but didn't include it in her last post. She's been difficult to do posts for the last twenty months and a goal is to have a post a month for the year which in her case seems like it'd be impossible.... but when I set a goal for such a massive favorite....

 It still could be impossible and the 'Nao Year' begins on December 1st so we've just entered month #5 and this makes it five posts for Maria! For other women have been able to do some sort of special posts and most have turned out to be terrific so if it does become difficult for future posts have a few other ideas for posts. As the title says Maria's latest spread for Young Magazine was the 20th time she's been their cover girl but seven times she's shared the cover. For today have that brand new spread and also one from six years ago that hadn't been posted. Those add up to be about 22 pages plus have twenty other new pictures so even though the other spreads have been in prior posts there are 42 new photos for this post. Even though most of the spreads have been posted many were from 2022/23 so sure you've forgotten all about them or perhaps have never seen them. It also helped me as when I went back through Maria's posts to get the magazines could see what things I have posted before and what hasn't which can be in future posts.

 This being Maria's fifth post for the 'Nao Year' she's now qualified for the 2026 fave's list, she hadn't the previous two years but was in the tenth position for 2023. I expect her to move up a few spots this year and for every list I've done the past five or so years there's that one favorite who improves her position quite a bit and leapfrogs over many others. Right now that's the case for Maria and if she can maintain a pace of a post a month will make the top five on this year's list. But more importantly she's zoomed up on my 'All Time Top Twenty Faves' list and for now would have her about eighth which is still very impressive. Maria 😍 has time to move up and if she stays with Morning Musume another 2-3 years she may be battling it out to be my #1 Queen on the 2030 list!!!!

 Have one other thing besides the Young Magazine spreads which total eight. Above are two pics from Maria's latest photobook "Blooming" which was released on her 25th birthday, that takes place on February 2nd. Maria's books come with DVD's of the photo shoot which in the past were 60-65 minutes in length and without a doubt those videos leave me speechless with her perfectioness... why isn't that a word?! The DVD for her newest book is 76 minutes and she traveled to Perth, Australia for the photo shoot. In future posts will have so many more screenshots from the video and also from another book from four(five?) years ago, as you can see there is a excellent reason why Maria 😍 was the first woman I post about a perfect rating of a 10/10 though the first ten needs more zeroes....

 Now on to the Young Magazine spreads, have eight and will also include two videos. First up is Maria's historic 20th cover and wonder if any other woman has accomplished the feat? What's odd is that there was no video at the magazine's YT site and wonder why, it wasn't a large spread to celebrate the achievement and the magazine is dated for March 30, the last four are from the photo shoot.

 Maria's first cover was back in 2017 but I won't post any photos of her prior to 2020. So let's go back to that year and this spread from Young Magazine's March 23rd edition, this is as far back as I'll go with Maria's spreads and this hadn't been posted before.

 Maria seemed to have more Young Magazine covers from 2017-22 than she's had the last three years but she appears on many other covers. This set is from their September 27, 2021 issue and after the fabulous spread is a video of the photo shoot.... I highly recommend viewing all of Maria's videos!

 

  As many know Maria is a huge Baseball fanatic and been a co-host a reporter for a few TV shows about the sport but not sure if she still appears on the "World Sports x MLB" show, will investigate that for her next post. Plus she has thrown out the first pitch at five games, sure number six will be happening soon. Up next is this spread that Maria shared with her ex-Morning Musume mate Mizuki, it's from the December 11, 2023 issue of Young Magazine. For about eight years Mizuki had been my #1 MM member but has been passed by Maria, I would have loved to do a few 'Pairs Posts' for the duo but this was the only time they shared a magazine like this one.

 One more spread that featured Maria sharing the cover and it's from the March 28, 2022 edition of YM. Have no clue why but half of Maria's spreads for Young Magazine seemed to have come out in March and is that because of her signaling that Summer isn't far away?

 Oooops, I always make a minor boo-boo when doing large posts and there is one more cover which Maria shares which is from their October 17, 2022 issue and only have her solo pages.

 Besides being the cover girl twenty times Maria has also had five spreads when she wasn't the cover girl so 25 spreads in all. My second favorite spread of Maria's from Young Magazine was their July 28, 2025 issue and that second photo was close to being my top pic of last year, wowowowowow!!!!

 For the finale have this set from Young Magazine's March 15, 2021 and as I said she appears in so many March issues. This could be my top YM spread which was promoting a mini digital book and think I posted that again two posts ago. What Maria 😍 wears on the cover is my favorite photo of her and that's saying something for she has so many thousands of dazzling photos. Maria only wears that outfit for the cover but in the book there were many more of those pics, also in the video from the photo shoot and that's after these amazing pictures.