Goddess Heaven: Juni 2012

Senin, 25 Juni 2012

06/25/2012

Atsuko Maeda Japanese Idol and Singer

Atsuko Maeda was born on July 10, 1991 in Ichikawa, Chiba. She is a member of the Japanese idol group AKB48. She is in Team A and one of the most prominent members in the group, being voted number one in the 2009 and 2011 Senbatsu Elections. In the 2010 Senbatsu Election, however, she lost to fellow member Yuko Oshima, who was the lead for their 17th Single: Heavy Rotation. She is part of the "Senbatsu" group which consists of AKB48 members that are featured in their most recent singles. On Sunday 25th March, 2012, she announced her retirement or 'graduation' from the group.

AKB48

KB48 released "Aitakatta" on the major label Defstar Records. Before this release, two singles were released as independent records. For this song, 20 members were selected from the 36 members of Team A & Team K. Maeda was one of these selected members, and she performed a leading role in the promotional video of this song. She has appeared at the front of every single ever since.

The group's 12th single, "Namida Surprise!", included voting tickets for the 2009 AKB48 Senbatsu Election, where fans can vote for who will be featured in the next single. Maeda won with 4630 votes, becoming AKB48's most popular member and frontgirl for their 13th single, "Iiwake Maybe".However, in 2010, another election was held and Maeda lost to Yuko Oshima, who had 31,448 votes, whereas Maeda had 30,851 votes, so Yuko became the frontgirl for "Heavy Rotation".

Later that year a different type of election was held (AKB48 Janken Senbatsu Tournament) where any member in the group could be front girl. The members were selected by using the rock-paper-scissors method and Mayumi Uchida received the top spot of AKB48's single "Chance no Junban" which marked the first time a relatively unknown member has been at the front of a single.Maeda and Yuko were back at the front spots for the next single, "Beginner".

In 2011, a third AKB48 senbatsu election was held. During the early results, Yuko Oshima was leading with first place. However in the final results Maeda won first place with 139,892 votes whereas Yuko Oshima had 122,843 votes beating her with 17049 votes.

On 25th March 2012, during an AKB48 Concert at the Saitama Super Arena, Maeda announced that she will be graduating from AKB48 soon. Later, it's been announced that Maeda will graduate right after AKB48's Tokyo Dome 3-day concert that will take place between August 24, 2012 to August 26, 2012.

As a solo singer

On April 23, 2011, it was announced by Maeda herself at AKB48's handshake event in Nagoya Dome that she would make her solo debut with her debut single "Flower", one of the insert songs for Moshidora, a movie in which Maeda plays the leading role, released on June 22, 2011. She is the second AKB48 member to release a solo single after Tomomi Itano with the single "Dear J".
Acting career

In 2007, Maeda played the sub-leading role in the movie "Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata" (「あしたの私のつくり方」?), which was her first performance as an actress. She started shooting this film August 20, 2006 and finished it in late September. After that, she landed various TV drama roles, including lead roles in the dramas "Majisuka Gakuen" and "Q-10."

Maeda, along with fellow AKB member Minegishi Minami, starred in Moshidora, a film released on June 4, 2011, marking her first lead role as a movie actress. Moshidora is a movie about how a weak high school baseball team's caretaker named Minami Kawashima that Maeda plays leads the team to the National High School Baseball Championship by learning strategies from Peter Drucker's business book Management.

In 2011, she played Mizuki Ashiya in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, a remake of the popular 2007 drama series.

Maeda will also be starring in an upcoming film, "Kueki Ressha", which will open in theatres nationwide on July 14, 2012.

Selasa, 19 Juni 2012

Sexy Japanese Idol Nozomi Sasaki

Nozomi Sasaki (佐々木希 Sasaki Nozomi, born February 8, 1988), previously known simply as Nozomi during her fashion modeling career, is a Japanese glamour model and former professional fashion model from Akita.

After working as a fashion model for nearly 7 years, she has become famous as a gravure idol and main ringside commentator / spokesperson for the mixed martial arts competition Dream Fighting Championships and the kickboxing competition K-1 World Max since 2009.

Since late 2008 she has released five photobooks and two DVDs, and has also made countless appearances on television, magazines, and ads unrelated to fashion / cosmetic, including ones for Coca-Cola's green tea products, Suntory's 3 soft drink products, So-net, Willcom, Fujifilm, Kao, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. and Seiko's Tisse brand line created for and dedicated to her. She has also endorsed an accessory brand, Cotton Cloud, since June 2010 when it was created for her and its first flag shop opened in Harajuku.

In 2010, she started her music career, debuting with the single "Kamu to Funyan" (噛むとフニャン) which featured rapper Astro and was used in the tie-in commercials for Lotte Fit's Chewing Gum. Sasaki's debut album Nozomi Collection was released on April 18, 2012.

She was given the nickname "No Mercy" for her countless reported atrocities toward other show-business girls she worked with, in her teenage years, especially toward actresses, glamour models, and fashion models from foreign countries, whom she considered to be "fat".

Early life

Born in Akita,she finished elementary school and attended a middle school there for a short period.

Modeling

Sasaki began modeling at the age of around 14. She modeled mainly in the collection circuit, and for fashion / cosmetic advertisements. In the later years of her modeling career, she was a featured model and contributor to the now defunct Pinky magazine. She first appeared on the cover of Pinky in July 2007, along with another cover girl, Emi Suzuki.

One theory suggests that Suzuki was the person who brought Sasaki to the commercial modeling field after she discovered Sasaki when Sasaki was planning to retire from modeling, and it has been noted that Sasaki already appeared at the time to be significantly chubbier than she used to be.

Gravure

After further intentionally gaining weight, she began appearing as a glamour model (gravure idol) on the youth-targeted weekly manga magazine Young Jump in 2005, and in the Pinky fashion magazine in 2006. She made her first landing on the top cover of Young Jump in May 2007.
Young Jumps, a Goo Bike, a Smart, with Nozomi Sasaki as the cover gravure person, in a convenience store in March 2010

Nozomi Sasaki released her first photobook, Nozomi, in August 2008, and her first DVD, Weekly Young Jump Premium DVD: nozomi, in September 2009. She released her second DVD, Dolly,and two photobooks, Sasaki Nozomi in Tenshi no Koi and Non, in 2009.

In early 2010 she was specially featured by 2.4 million selling manga series Usogui on Young Jump, and released her fourth photobook Prism. Despite her breast size which has been known as one of the smallest in the gravure scene, she became a successful model by the end of 2010 in the field where breast size is regarded as a vital factor.

At that time she also began appearing on the Non-no magazine, a biweekly girl-next-door-orientated fashion magazine that does not usually feature people like her. Though after becoming more of a gravure idol than a professional model, Sasaki was heavily featured in a spring fashion collection presented by the magazine and BS-TBS, and soon after that, she landed on the top cover of the magazine. These appearances have been described as like an "invasion", as she has significantly changed the magazine's tone. Some critics have suggested that the magazine has been destroyed by Nozomi Sasaki.

Nozomi Sasaki Photo Gallery

Nozomi Sasaki Official Blog

Nozomi Sasaki Photo Gallery 1

Nozomi Sasaki Photo Gallery 2