Nogizaka46: The final Marika Ito post????

 Unless the pics from Marika's first and only photobook are posted this may be the last time we ever hear of her, actually in a sense this will be the final time we may ever see her. Like her ex-comrade above Marika celebrates her birthday on February 20th which reminds me that the next 'Zodiac' post will be coming up soon for my Pisces faves.
 Marika was certainly not the most attractive Nogi member though she is kind of cute but it's her dry sense of humor that really attracted me to her. Seems the members that have graduated the past year and a half are the ones that gave Nogi a bit of personality as they were the most interesting gals plus they all seemed not to be your usual Idols.

 Doubt if there will be a post for the other February 20th birthday gal, she wanted to just disappear quietly so think she'll also remain quiet here. It's becoming a trend for Idols that when they graduate a photobook is released, that's something that was started with AKB and now Nogi has done it for three of their graduates. Marika left Nogi in late December but did have an event today for the PB where there was also a party for which Nao was mysteriously left off the guest list.

 Title of Marika's first and only photobook is "Etranger", not sure what the title refers to. It was released today and this is the cover along with some promo pics.

 Wonder which big fave of mine will be the next to leave Nogi, there is another Senbatsu graduating but she's not a fave of mine at all. Marika has appeared in a fair share of magazines over the years yet has never had a solo cover but that's changed with this fine set from the March 5th edition of WPB, spread are outtake pics from the book.

 Did say that today was Marika's b-day but forgot to mention that her age is now 22. Her future plans are in designing clothes and perhaps working on videos which is what she said at today's event for the photobook. The pics for it were taken in Hong Kong, Marika is no gravure Idol but she looks fine to me and she also said there were some swimsuit pics in the PB.
 The event took place at the Fukuya bookstore in Shinjuku and have some mighty delightful pics here from it. Perhaps there will be one more Marika post as this event just took place a few hours ago and there's no video for it yet so of there is one will post it along with even more pics and whatever else recent I can dig up. After the pics you can check out a short video of Marika's last show with Tokyo from November which took place at the Tokyo Dome, it was also Himeka's final performance.

Nogizaka46: Marika Ito solo exhibition pics and more....

 We never did see many pics of that fabulous duo together, they do have some things in common such as both celebrate their birthday on February 20th. Another thing in common is a very dismal one as both announced their graduation in October and sadly that's the next bit of info. Two days ago on her Nogi blog Marika told the world that she's planning on graduating, it's not one that is going to happen on her birthday too as she said her departure will take place by the end of the year.
 Don't know how many Marika fans visit here but I've been a big one over the years. She is a fave among Nogi fans too and think management took notice on that as she was a surprise Senbatsu member for the 18th single. Marika's popularity has really been in the rise, she's attended more events than any Nogi member the last two months and this is her second one in ten days.

 That's the blog pic Marika had in her graduation post, she'll be turning 22 in five months and said her plans were to perhaps become a fashion designer or something along those lines, don't know if she ever attended college. Bit of a short notice for her graduation, it won't be happening next month at the group's two Tokyo Dome concerts so perhaps at their X-Mas show(s).
 The departures are starting to come faster, one earlier this year with Nanami plus Himeka is scheduled to say sayonara very soon and hope it's not a mass exodus of first generation members leaving. Maybe not a huge amount but I can easily see five or more exiting within the next year, doubt if it'll happen but it'd be nice if the graduations gave some of the Undergirls a chance to get promoted.
 No more of that talk for now as we still have a couple more months left with Marika and let's hope we see so much more of her. What's a good Nogi trivia fact is that of the current Senbatsu members she was the first one to have the lead role in a movie, two current Undergirls were in 2014 horror films. That movie was "Eyes" which came out in 2015, she does have that everyday eerie look about her that would work well in a horror film. For those of you that have never seen the film have the trailer at the bottom of the post.

 Marika has never made many appearances in mags compared to the other members. However she will be int he November edition of Nylon Japan and these pics are from the photo shoot.

 Two promo pics here from the exhibition plus some of what it looks like.

 It officially opens tomorrow but Marika today was at a special event to promote it. The display is loosely titled 'Inside the mind of Marika Ito' and it consists of pics she took. But also some of them were shot by other Nogi members along with a few regular fashion cameramen. The event opens tomorrow at the Parco Gallery in Shibuya, admission price is an inexpensive 500 yen.
 There was a lottery for tomorrow's opening, unsure if Marika will be making an appearance but it'd be nice if she did but then again perhaps she doesn't want to answer graduation questions. The display will be held until October 15th, on the 21st it'll be moving to Kyoto. Plenty of fine looking pics here from today's event and check out the "Eyes" trailer after them.