39 replies to this topic

[Krusha]

Do keep open a tab with the search keyword and refresh it a couple times per day, you'll never know when it'll reappear with a more sensible price. Of course that's no guarantee but still, it's possible (and have happened to me before).

 

Also, I think I'd have to rewatch that video a few times in order to make it stick... And, I'm still in awe that someone atually owns 5 cats

[Lurkette]

I have 4. It's... a lot. But there's also a rather persistent rumor that Yuriya lives in a palace, so she can probably handle it if that's the case. 

 

So if you weren't aware, Yuriya has a mild obsession with Kitagawa Ryoha, and then this happened:

 

She was not amused. 

 

Ryoha also gave a video message for her Saitensai, which was a little sad to watch. She talked about seriously considering graduation around the time of the HKT tour, since she didn't think she was ever going to get promoted (I really want to see the footage of her when she did get promoted) and how she's still struggling somewhat as one of the lowest in the HKT totem pole. Rikopi brought up in her G+ afterward that all of the KKS were thinking about graduating when promotion seemed impossible, but Yuriya was particularly distraught and convinced that she would never move up. However, she explained that she likes the kinds of idols who are simply cool or cute without saying anything, but that route hasn't done her much good so she's going to try to be more talkative and outgoing this year, which is a plan I fully support. I know that there have been a lot of graduations in the 48-groups lately, perhaps some because of similar situations, and while I sympathize with those girls, I'm glad that Yuriya did not end up as one of them since I'm not sure where she could have really gone other than back to a normal life.

[Lurkette]

So, the HKT48 Eikou no Labyrinth game has been very good to Yuriya.

 

At the beginning of October, the game held a senbatsu election for the game's TV commercial, with the top 5 members getting extra focus. Yuriya jumps in the last voting rounds right into #5. Then, at the end of the month, there was a vote for a pair of girls to appear on SKE48&HKT48 no Aiai Talk, and Yuriya and Mariri got #1, beating NakoMiku by almost 12,000 votes. That radio show aired last week, but she and Mariri are also going to appear at the public recording of the show in December. The TV commercial is set to broadcast at the end of this month. 

 

Apparently one of the game's top-ranked players, HIDE, is a Yuriya fan, as the game's twitter made mention that aside from being the top player last month, he also contributed the most votes of anyone to Yuriya and Mariri. The vote tickets are an in-game item so that makes sense.

 

To celebrate her victory, she made her own card for the game, an LN version (Love-Nyan). The game staff noticed this and said they were seriously considering putting it into the game. 

 

 

Thank goodness. Her last G+ post was about how horrible things have been going for her at the theater, so at least she has this as a pick-me-up. 

[Lurkette]

Look, you can see her without squinting or pausing and rewinding every two seconds like I have to do with her MVs! Thanks, in-game voters.

 

[Krusha]

Very nice!

[Lurkette]

More thanks to in-game voters: Yuriya won the Entame Pajama Gravure selection from the game. This caused a little bit of a kerfuffle because of who she beat and how badly she beat them, considering she's a relatively nobody in the group. I don't think this winning streak is indicative of any sort of growth in her fanbase, but more promo never hurts.

 

 

Nevertheless, the issue was published yesterday and the pictures are adorable, as are her off-shots she posted on her G+.

 

 

 

Oh, and she had a menu item at the AKB cafe in February, the "Ray-kun smiling Definitely delicious! Imitation crab tempura-don." She made it a point to call it delicious in the title because it doesn't really sound delicious, but there's a cat on it so it's acceptable. Anyway, she posted the recipe for it on her G+ with a brief video of her making it.

https://plus.google....sts/2bLbugw4oWY

[sidhme]

An excellent shoot imo, it really brings out her cuteness, as opposed to the goth-like style she used more in the past.

If she is getting more promo in the future, I think this might improve her standing. Gradually she's been going further in that direction on her g+ (if I recall correctly)

[Lurkette]

The main change in her G+ is that she's been posting more pictures in stage costumes, which makes sense since she's at the theater far more often than she was when she was a KKS. She's never been full-time goth-loli and has always had a wide variety of outfits, but before, when she wasn't working as much, she supplemented her G+ with her own self-made photoshoots. Since she likes maids and goth clothes, that's what she wore, and now that she has the costumes to use more often, you don't see that style as much. Black is still her favorite color, though, and whenever she does an I4U meet-up she's always wearing significantly darker clothes than everyone else. 

 

Luckily she's kind of obsessive about posting her outfits for handshake events, so you can see that her clothing is kind of all over the map, which I like.

https://plus.google....sts/CEQPH3LDfpe

[Lurkette]

So, Team Yuriya is crushing it in HKT48 Eikou no Labyrinth (which makes me want to play... somehow...) and she won a swimsuit gravure shoot to be published in the November (released in September) issue of Bubka. The top three, Yuriya, Shimono Yuki, and Ueno Haruka, will all be featured, but it's perhaps worth noting that Yuriya got first by over 70,000 votes. 

 

Also, she's continuing her tradition of doing gravure shoots on her own, but she recently did one with her unofficial unit I4U, comprised of Yuriya, Iwahana Shino, Ueno Haruka, and Ui Mashiro, of them all being pure white maidens in a river or whatever. The shots are pretty good, despite them being scattered across all of the G+ accounts, but they also have a group 755 talk where they have posted off-shots and videos that I find much more enjoyable. 

 

Spoiler

 

The 755 is also worth following because they more or less use it like a public Line chat and go back and forth sending emoji and for a while they were making Chanrio of themselves and other HKT members.

 

[Krusha]

Awesome self-promotion is awesome.

 

There's been a few Yuriya-centric articles on matomes in recent time, one where they compared her with Sasshii, saying she looks like young Sasshii, and others where they praise her beauty. Many fans don't know all the girls, so it's important that she gets her face out there so to speak. This I4U gravure shoot definitely helps. She's also been featured on Odekake recently.

 

And I wish 755 was more user-friendly to non-Japanese people, as from what I recall, it's hard to make an account. And with G+ you have circles, so you get updates from the girls you've added into circles you watch. With 755, it's just separate pages that you need to update (and that means a lot of tabs)... This is quite stone age level.

[Lurkette]

Yeah, there have been a lot of "Who is this and why don't I know her?" in matome around her lately, which is definitely a good thing. She works really hard at keeping her G+ updated with outfit pictures and self-made gravure shoots, so it's nice to see she's finally getting at least a little recognition. 

 

Thanks for the heads-up on Odekake; I don't follow the shows because her appearances are rare, but then I often miss when she does.

 

I wouldn't mind 755 so much if the web interface were better. Clicking on individual updates resets your place on the page because you can't open them in new tabs or windows, the redundancy between "users" and "talks" that makes navigation unnecessarily difficult, and of course the whole "this is an app interface ported onto a webpage" so the functionality is exceptionally limited without the app, which can't be downloaded without a Japanese mobile email address. Unfortunate. 

[Krusha]

These ones: 

 

ep126: http://www.hello-onl...s&torrent=89286
ep127: http://www.hello-onl...s&torrent=89583
ep128: http://www.hello-onl...s&torrent=89855

[Lurkette]

Back for my obligatory bi-annual update on all things Yuriya:

 

Still crushing it on the fan front. Management has thankfully responded to her tremendous fan push and given her spots in HKT's senbatsu lineup for TWO singles now, albeit in the back, and has quietly been letting her invade the front rows in multiple b-sides, but the fandom continues to push her in the mobile game. So far, that I can think of recently, she's won her own short-term radio show (taking over AiAi Talk as the main host), more gravure shoots, and the center spot for the CM this year.

 

CM

 

Special behind-the-scenes and bonus footage for the CM

 

Some gravure stuff (large) to entice you.

Spoiler

 

Now, despite this tremendous success, considering she started with nothing and worked her way up by being adorable and tirelessly trying to appeal to fans, this has not changed her approach to fan interactions. If anything, it seems to have encouraged her. She's continued posting tons of photos for her self-made gravure, seifukudoorimichi series, including one just a little over a week ago. She also goes above beyond with her 2-shots, as usual. For the most recent event, she made a picnic spread and actually hand-made a bento for fans to use as a prop for the photos. Previous themes have included, as a reminder, Yuriya wota-mode, angel, and many, many others. She tries to make them very engaging and interactive, and according to her G+ for the latest one, her line was packed and she was thrilled to see so many people come for her for the first time, many of whom noted that she was the best at these events because of her theming and dedication.

 

I tell you, she's not particularly talented or skilled at anything, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a girl who works harder. I would have followed her no matter what because she works that hard, but it's so fulfilling to see her make these kinds of gains and actually achieve something after working so hard. 

[Blu-Cherri]

I was so happy to see her in the recent CMS and senbatsu, I've seen a few of her self made photoshoots and think she's great. She's definitely in my top5 (I'd be hard pressed to make a definite order honestly, hkt48 has such great girls)

[Lurkette]

Important: Yuriya has announced that she will not be participating in this year's election.

 

Translation:

So then...

About the election

 

I'm sorry for making you wait m(_)m

 

I will not participate

in this year's election.

 

I've thought about it for a long time.

Maybe even since right after last year's election ended

 

Last year I ranked for the first time,

and I was super, super happy!

 

Um, I ranked #48

in AKB48's general election.

I couldn't believe it, I was so happy.

 

But, I guess it was that I started thinking about worries that come along with such a happy moment.

 

I thought that this thing that was like a dream still weighed so heavy, that I should just do it once.

 

I don't know what you all think about it,

but this is my choice.

 

Thank you all so much

for always supporting me!

 

I finally got my trophy the other day

from last year's election

and I'll post a picture of it when I get home

 

I'm sorry for making you wait.

 

 

Rambling reaction below:

Spoiler

The fan reaction, based on G+ comments, seems to be somewhat mixed. There's some fear that she'll graduate, there's some hesitance to accept it, and mostly people are just confused. I, however, 100% understand and support her decision. In fact, I had almost hoped she'd do this. While obviously we all want our favorites to keep rising and going as far as they can go, the reality is that most of them don't. They reach a peak, and then they drop. There are some who take that drop in stride, but in general, it's hard to watch when it happens. Some girls react very poorly and seem almost angry at their lower rank, which suggests she's mad at the fans who didn't vote more, and some just react with sadness, which I don't particularly enjoy seeing. There's a dozen different reasons why a girl could drop, but the it never feels good. I expected that Yuriya would be able to handle a drop, since she's come all the way from the back to get where she is, but if she's worried about how she might feel, then I admire her decision to withdraw and be satisfied with the fact that she did make it as high as she did. 48 is a pretty good number, after all.

 

I guess the Japanese fans feel weird about it because, I don't know, it's kind of expected that any 48G member will keep doing it forever until they feel like graduating. So there's the fear that she'll graduate, but also confusion because she did do well, and so it's expected that she would continue because it's part of the brand of her group. She's obviously thrilled that she's gotten as popular as she has and was able to rank, but I think she just enjoys being an idol, regardless. She hasn't changed anything she's done to promote herself between when she first started and now, and she loves performing. While the election is the pinnacle in idol drama, it's also incredibly taxing on just about everyone involved, and maybe she would rather find it to be an enjoyable event to watch, as she always has when she didn't rank, rather than something she feels worried about. There's also something to be said for having such an important accomplishment be kept in the past to make it more special. Her dropping in rank wouldn't change her previous rank, but it might cheapen the memory a bit for her, to go so far and to fall. She seems to have thought about this a lot, and so I give a slow clap to her for making this very difficult decision.

 

Now, if she does graduate, that will be very sad since I never got to meet her, but she's accomplished far more in her career in HKT than I ever expected her to, she shouldn't leave with any regrets, and I support her no matter what.

 

tl;dr

it cool.

 

 

Also she mentioned being fairly close to the front on Music Station for KojiHaru's last performance there; if anyone has that in a streaming format, I'd be delighted to see it.

[Krusha]

The only thing I think might be an issue, is her single-related chances after the election in HKT48. If management skips her this time around based on not participating, because we do see that girls who do well in the election are given a shot based on this. So that would suck. But I hope for the best.

[Lurkette]

I have to assume she has considered that, given how long she's thought about this. Personally, I anticipate she'll be dropped from the single line-up every time another rolls around, so it wouldn't affect me at all, but there's a chance she'll stay, given how much of a push her fans have given her with Labyrinth. Even if they push her way in the back for the Team b-sides, that would change almost nothing from the majority of her career, since she's always been a back girl. I always laugh with her rank because if she had been just one place lower, she would have been center for the song, but instead she's in the back of the next tier because of course she is. 

[ShiningLight445]

To be honest I'm more surprised that she finally got her trophy from last years election just the other day

[Krusha]

Unfortunately, Yuriya has announced her graduation ...
 
The reason is that she is preparing for university (and so her non-participation in election makes a great deal of sense then).
 
From Ozaki:

http://plus.google.c...sts/BLDVjrfp2Fd

[Lurkette]

Well, not a surprise. I stand by what I said before and support her in this decision, and I wish her luck in all her future endeavors. She's accomplished far more than I think she ever hoped to as an idol, and she'll be hard to replace for me.