Yamaguchi Maho (Mahohon) / 1st Generation

Getting the ball rolling again with a couple of choice tweets from this past week.
Maho is finally back to the home base after a week out of traveling all the way between Aomori and Osaka, where Team G had their away theater performances, with a final stop in Tokyo before her return.

Speaking of which, before we begin, one can't forget about this nice video posted by Hinatan depicting them in what she calls a "Big Review Meeting", with Maho delivering physical punishment upon Hinatan following their performance at the NMB theater, for having apparently made a mistake in front of the host audience during the short play segment (which is in the opening of every Saka Agari stage, every time with different roles, lines, and situations).
So yeah... (´∀｀；)

Source: https://twitter.com/hinata_homma/status/1051126879380336640

---
Oct. 16
"Finally back to Niigata again after one week. And there's lots of laundry waiting to do.
After I heard Suwa-san [*] talk on about washing machines with built-in dryers I couldn't help wanting a dryer for me as well.
How much I wish to get my laundry dried as well, and then bury my face into a fluffy, fluffy towel.

Let's hope to win the next Bowling Tournament and that they would offer a dryer machine for a prize...

Good night."

[* note: one of NGT's group managers]

https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1052216148782018561
~
"Gibbon-like girl... [*]
Well, even when it comes to costumes, the length of the sleeves is never enough, so they would often have to add extra fabric to it.
That's something even I hate about myself, but whenever I get to serve as the "Stretchable Man" I still find that useful, so it's alright in the end~
Anyway, the arms are so long that, on group photos, more than once people must have thought of it as something out of a horror picture. The Maho-Monkey's Paw. "

[* note: of particular note: the Japanese name for gibbon is literally "long-armed ape", which gets the point across even more clearly]
https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1052219538052268032

---
Also, since I noticed wine-related talk seems to be back in full force, there's also this exchange between Maho and Nanako, which somehow devolved into the two arguing about Animal Crossing exploits, what with being the two most invested into the game inside of NGT. (´∀｀；)

Oct. 18
"Really wish I had the kind of friends who would be more than eager to answer to the call if I suddenly asked "Hey, want to go drink something together?"...
Also, some girls that would be good at handling alcohol...
All the adult members in NGT are so weak at handling it, I mean.
They look so cute, that I find them enviable.
Guess I'll have to drink wine by myself over here, then."

https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1052954023559450624
~
Nanako:
"You called?"
https://twitter.com/nanako_nsmr/status/1052955257746075648
~
Maho:
"I didn't call you. Let me repeat it a second time, I didn't call you."
https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1052955976687448064
~
Nanako:
"Whaaat--??
Would you have a look at this photo!!
Ain't it cool, why don't we drink up all of this?"

https://twitter.com/nanako_nsmr/status/1052957159418343424
~
Maho:
"Hey, cut it out, cut it out with making an imitation of a beetle excited at the sight of a huge bunch of honey."
https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1053167616691302400
~
Nanako:
"Who are ya calling goliath beetle?
Besides, who do you think is the one that caught a morpho butterfly using honey for a lure?!"
https://twitter.com/nanako_nsmr/status/1053169604351057921
~
Maho:
"Eh, I was thinking how they couldn't be caught around this part of the year, and then, jeepers -- they were always there of all places. "
https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1053171550994685952

---
This other news came in all of a sudden by way of Renapon's tweet instead. A cute gesture of solidarity indeed, although I can't help wondering how the communication went down for this to happen:

Oct. 20
"I have just received from Maho-chan's friends lots, and lots of manga and anime merchandise!! Thank you very much!
I'm going to treasure all of them!
So happy.
#Maho-chan'sFriendsAreGods #YamaguchiMaho
#ExcitementIntensifies"
https://twitter.com/bbg_hasegawa315/status/1053589489765904384

---
And adding to this, here we had three Showroom broadcast over the past few handful of days as well.

2018.10.16 Showroom

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.10.19 Showroom

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

Spoiler: Summary

As for the first two, I find it relieving to find out that Maho is taking steps about her health condition, after what I all that have mentioned in the post above. Although looking a little spaced out at first, admittedly due to her head hurting, right in the beginning of the 2018.10.16 stream she mentioned how one of the first things she did after finally coming back in Niigata, after being away for one week, was to pay a visit at the hospital clinic, in addition to also more routine stuff like shooting the (Halloween themed) theater photocards for the month and going to the supermarket to stock back up on food.
Hopefully, the throat sore is getting better, and I felt it also pretty caring of the viewer to additionally ask if she took supplement drinks in the meantime, to which Maho replied affirmatively.

---
More to the point, while still keeping it down to the most notable details, on the following 2018.10.19 stream there was also a certain something which Maho had purchased recently and which she was eager to show off to fans, after telling how she had just come back from Tokyo on the same day for some untold duties.

A little moment was set aside to let viewers take a guess and then here she proceeded to put it on...


To be honest, I can't really hide my concern at hearing that even after two weeks since Maho first lamented about the pains, the inflammation in the neck muscles still hasn't been fully healed yet, with her saying it feels as if it never will ...But as it turns out, Maho decided to take countermeasures of her own for the time being, by buying this neck pillow, which she described as a pleasure to wear while at home, and even suggested anyone suffering from the same condition to try it out as well.
Maho herself looked pretty surprised to have found such an item on sale at an inexpensive price while visiting Tsutaya of all places, pointing out how despite being nominally a bookstore, they also offer for sale anything down to shoes. Also funny is how a viewer decided to go with a "This looks good on Maho", and Maho: "I don't know if I should be happy about it (laugh)". Heh... (´∀｀；)
Other viewers beforehand were of a different opinion, however, saying it looked more like a neck brace, and so Maho decided to also throw in joke a bit about the appearance later on:

"They would tell me that this neck pillow looks like a neck cast, go figure. ...But if I strike a pose like this, it would surprisingly look like a stylish scarf instead, isn't it? (laugh)...Or am I wrong?"

On other topics, after a long-time viewer (anyone who is a frequent visitor of Maho's room will know his name for sure) threw in a Tokyo Tower as a gift, Maho joked that this was probably to excuse himself and balance off the fact that he had been in another member's room before and ended up high up on the audience's podium when there.
Taking it as an opportunity, half in jest she liked to remind that she's someone who tends to keep a close watch on her fans to see if there's other members that they are following as well. It's not much as doing "ego search" (looking up your own name through a SNS search engine), as someone in the chat wondered, but just a matter of checking back the profiles of those who write in a reply to her tweets, as soon as a notification for it comes in, she says.

For that matter, Maho says that sometimes she would bring the very fact up to the fans in question at the handshake events, along the lines of: "You tend to write a whole lot about that one girl that isn't me". Sometimes the fans would then act defensive and go "What girl? I don't know about her, I haven't watch her", at which point Maho would find herself forced to repeat to him what she had seen written here and there on his tweets, eliciting a surprised reaction from the fan himself.

And in a typical Maho's expression of exasperation, she couldn't help concluding the story with a "Komatteshimauma"
Still, all jokes aside, Maho seemed to be actually open-minded about it. Later on she also ended by adding the following:

"Aaah, I have you all figured out already. (Kawagoe) Saaya-chan, the girls at STU, the 2nd generation members, you pay a visit to any kind of places. You all write about this on Twitter, that's why. ...But that's fair enough. If you want to go, you are fine to go. To the same extent, even on my side, I'll continue to act this way as well. (laugh) ...Do you know this? (making a heart sign) Giving back as much love as one receives."

In any case, I guess fans with a tendency to tweet too much for their own good better beware.
Not for nothing, a viewer wrapped it all up with an appropriate "the heartbeat rate just increased". (´∀｀；)

For the wine-related talk, which appears to have turned into a recurring theme as of late, viewers were wondering if she had some even on that day, seeing the recent posts. Maho answered quite candidly that she tends to do it on a normal day -- although as long as on the day after there aren't any work-related duties to take care of, whether a theater show, live performance or anything else.


Meanwhile, for the Cinnamon-related talk, here are instead a pair of screenshots of a donut-holding Cinnamon (with Maho empathizing how the fabric makes it so pleasant for it to squeeze, munyuu~), in response to a viewer who wanted to see it closer -- As well as another close look at the King Cinnamon made to celebrate the 15th anniversary, as usual in response to another viewer asking which one in her collection was her favorite instead. "This is actually something I bought back in Puroland. Back then, I was considering how it would have ended up being put aside catching dust anyway, but even with that in mind I still desired to own it", she told, which to me also hints about her awareness of being somewhat of a compulsive collector when it comes to anything related to Cinnamon.

---
2018.10.20 Showroom, as is the case with lots of Showroom close to weekends the talk revolved mostly around preparations to take about the handshake event, in short...

Spoiler: Summary

A couple of not-so-random note about various points of the talk, among what in the end turned into a discussion predominantly about cosmetics, but pretty lively nonetheless:

With Halloween around the corner, many members have already started showing up at handshake events in costumes, and likewise many viewers in the chat seemed to have expressed their wishes that Maho would also do the same at the event on the day after.
Maho turned down the proposal, pointing out quite matter-of-factly that tomorrow wasn't anywhere close to Halloween after all, but still had another good idea coming up in her mind at a later point in the stream, when some viewers complimented Maho on how elegant she looked on the pages of Shifuku Surprise, which went on sale just a few days prior. Because of this, she took into consideration the possibility of attending the handshake event wearing the same clothes she had been sporting in the photobook.

I haven't checked any handshake reports on Twitter yet, nor have I checked the girls' Instagram posts for that matter, to know if Maho eventually put this idea into practice, but this was also as good a reminder as any for Maho to talk about the photobook itself during the same stream. And as it turns out, Maho was quite attentive in choosing the right combination of clothes to appear on it, and there were much thoughts that went behind it.
According to what she said, she spent the whole week prior to the shooting to think up of a way she could leave a lasting impression in the middle of what was a group of 100 different people. She figured she had to do something different from what anyone else would, but at the same time nothing that would feel like she's wearing a costume, or a cosplay for that matter, and more in line with the "personal clothes" theme of the book. At the same time, she was looking for something that while setting herself apart, wouldn't make her stick out like a sore thumb, nor something that would be too peculiar in nature. And it's while keeping her mind on finding something elegant, that she finally settled on the clothes that you can see inside of it.

Anyone who has taken a look at the photobook, especially the group shots within it, are guaranteed to have realized it already, but if this was the original intention, I have to say that she accomplished the goals with success. The dress is eye-catching while at the same time keeping a subdued yet dignified style about it.

By the way, more photos from the same photo set have been posted on the promotional Twitter account for the photobook:

https://twitter.com/wpb_surprise/status/1053481178630504449
https://twitter.com/wpb_surprise/status/1053480929405091840
https://twitter.com/wpb_surprise/status/1053481682123284480
Apparently, along with picking and choosing their own articles of clothing, members were also asked to come up with a theme behind such a combination. In Maho's case, it was "Adult luxury", with the comment on its key points detailing how she "selected an one-piece dress that would flare out in a stylish fashion, of a color that would be dissimilar from that of anyone else. Fluttering gently, the cotton fabric has a luxurious feel to it ☆ The tranquil Burgundy color grants to it an adult-like impression".

For a little bonus, Maho also let everyone have a look at some unused shots that she had stored on her phone. This one is an alternate photo of Maho lying on the floor with her skirt fanning out, which sort of links back to what was written in the explanation above. As she later points out, this also has the additional effect of making it appear like it is a proper dress, rather than a simple one-piece gown.


And perhaps also worth of note, as Maho goes on to remember, the photographer for this shoot happened to be the same person who worked with Maho in the past for a gravure photoshoot where she was in a white swimsuit.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

One more week, another batch of three more typical end-of-the-day Showroom from Maho over the last couple of days.

2018.10.22 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

With this being a Showroom right after Maho's live appearance on NGT's radio show Gachi Gachi Countdown on the same day (a recording can be found here, although for likely a limited time) , viewers were pretty quick to bring it up during the stream. As explained during the show itself, Maho and Tsugumin were chosen to appear on the show together this time, based on them being the oldest and youngest members among regular NGT members, which Maho comments as being a rare chance to be together, what with Tsugumin's work hours restrictions related to her age and all the school committments Tsugumin must deal with after the theater job is over.
As viewers pointed out in the stream, one of the topics talked in the radio was how Tsugumin has grown up a lot since last time Ishizuka Kaori, the long-time host of the show, had a chance to meet her, to which Tsugumin responded that since she was also wearing 10cm tall heels she was probably close to reaching 1,7m at the moment.
Maho, on her part, commented that she too had been experiencing a similar growth spurt lately accompanied by growth pains and her legs feeling sore. Maho admits she wouldn't have believed to have growth pains come up at such a late age, but then again she told that she asked an osteopathy specialist about it and she was replied that bones keep growing until 25, so it might as well be the case.
Astutely, Ishizuka Kaori then wrapped it up and invited any fans listening to the show to pay a visit her lane and check it out by themselves.

Also related to Gachi Gachi Countdown, a new MahoRiko episode was also revealed during the show (audio here).
A listener's mail just came in, asking for any hilarious stories that happened to members recently, and Maho's response went quickly toward Riko and how she and Tsugumin would often end up sharing with each other any weird episodes related to her that they know of. The comment from Kaori-mama says it all: "When it comes to Rittan, it's not just a simple trivia, it's her entire way of life like this."
Anyway, this time around, it apparently all took place at Riko's house where Maho stayed over for the night. Riko's mom presented Maho with some Shine Muskat grapes, her favorite variety. And at one point while Maho was intent on washing and wiping the dishes, she (Maho) then asked Riko if she could wash the grapes for her.
Riko went at it confidently, telling Maho that "I am able enough to wash the Shine Muskat just fine" ...only for Maho to see that Riko had taken the plastic bag that the grapes were in and had filled it up with water instead.
In an attempt to help her out, Maho then turned to Riko to suggest "Use this sieve, use the sieve ...what do you think sieves are for?". At which point Riko complied and proceeded to pull the grapes out and into the sieve to drain away the water, or so Maho thought. But instead of Riko doing it by hand as expected, the next thing Maho saw was Riko holding up the grape by the branch and spinning it around "like a merry-go-round", as Maho put it, and sprinkling all water droplets around while at it.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me -- I thought"
Oh, Riko... (´∀｀；)

---
Other than that, somewhat in a repeat of what she already pointed out in the broadcast on the day before, Maho went back again to talk about a pet peeve she has regarding fans.
She told again of her habit to have fun checking out the Twitter accounts of those fans who reply to her posts, and how she would often bring up what things she had found written over there or call them by their usernames later on, during conversations at handshake events with them, something which usualy leaves many fans happily surprised since they assumed she wouldn't have checked so far.

"However, while there are these kind of reactions, there are also reactions that aren't all that positive ...See, everyone is now commenting how nervous they are". To explain, Maho tells the problem is that some fans would proclaim to Maho they are doing advertisement on her behalf on Twitter, which makes Maho happy to know, but when she then would go to their Twitter account to check she'd find them doing advertisement for completely different girls instead, much to her frustration.
Viewer: "Men are like that", Maho: "That's why I have a distrust for males (laugh) ...Just kidding"


Another thing slightly rubbing Maho the wrong way is that she found out people just pretending to be tan-oshi but which are actually DD. Not that Maho has a problem with DD declaring themselves to be DD or she's angry at them, she says, but she finds it in poor taste for them to first tell her that they are Maho tan-oshi, only for Maho to discover they are actually DD.


For all the pouting, however, there was no resentment in Maho's tone at least, also judging by the fact that she even decided to wrap up this speech by doing a "pun pun" pose in jest.
Nothing to worry too much, but fan better be more mindful from now on.

In that regard, the same pose also reminded Maho of another thing: since one of the selectable lines at one of those 1-shot video session involved Maho doing exactly that same pose while acting angry at the fan, when she went back to check the recordings of herself the that fans had uploaded on Twitter, she confessed that she couldn't help feeling a bit painful to watch herself while at it, from an outside point of view and with a more level head than at the time.
"But then again, really, in the 1-shot video sessions, you can't manage to do it if you first don't throw away your sense of embarrassment and try your hardest at it. ... It looks cute, you say? Though I'm the oldest person in there and all. But the fact that I look younger than I am comes to my rescue, so from now on I'll have to keep on working to mantain a young appearance (laugh) ...Am I wrong?"
And it's on this light-hearted reflection that today's stream ends. (*´∀｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.10.27 Showroom. Yesterday's Showroom, on the other hand, came in right after the nationwide handshake event, which means that NGT members were paired up in lanes rather than having individual booths of their own. With that in mind, this time Maho engaged with viewers in a few random considerations about it...

Spoiler: Summary

• Things started off with Maho giving her first thoughts to her fans, explaining with a final smile that for some of them it would be a "heart breaking" experience and so many of them likely prefer to just attend the individual handshake events instead.
  
  Expanding further on it: "At my handshake lane there are a number of people coming to me that can't bring themselves to speak a word. So I would take it upon myself to start off the talk first. As such, when there come the time comes that they are required to talk with the other girls, they are left wondering what they should be saying. ...You understand this feeling, you say? (smile)
  Right, so every time a nationwide handshake event comes around, there are many people who are like «I'll just go to the individual handshake event instead», so there are more and more people who stop attending the nationwide one. (laugh) ...I mean seriously, you can notice it with your own eyes that the turnout is decreasing."
  As a final note, Maho points out that this means the fans coming at her lane could be classified between either DD or people who are able to speak up only with Maho.
  Perhaps the funnies part is when some viewer ultimately added that "At the time of the MahoRiko lane it was just impossible to get the meaning across to each other", which even got Maho laughing. Here Maho told that since then Riko got more used at expressing herself by communicating on mobame and Twitter, and she has suggested to try again now since they would definitely do fine.
  Jokes aside, I have got to give praise to Maho for how considerate and helping she sounds to be toward her fans, when they find themselves tongue-tied from shyness.
• Maho shared today's lane with Komiyama Sara and Takazawa Tomoka, both newly-arrived NGT Kenkyuusei, and while Maho has talked with the former before, this was her first time speaking with the latter -- she goes on to tell. Apparently 1st generation members have had few chances to meet with the 2nd generation members ever since they joined, so they have virtually no other place to meet them apart from the handshake event venue, given how they don't appear on the same theater stages either, unlike with the Draft members.
  As it turns out, Maho decided to make up for it by having lots of talk with Tomoka today, saying that she found out she's someone who really loves anime and manga as it could be also be surmised even from her catchphrase. As she later told, Maho meant not only the "Coming from the 2nd dimension" part, but also the part saying "Whether you believe it or not, it's up to you". The latter for some reason led Maho to guess that she could be a fan of Conan, but unfortunately this one guess proved to be wrong. Oh, well... (*´∀｀)
  Anyway, based on all of this Maho approached Tomoka while assuming her to have the same spunky type of personality as Otaki had, which is why she says that it amazed her when she found out she was actually a cute, gentle and graceful in her manners instead, completely opposite of how she thought her to be.
• Not without a hint of embarrassment, Maho couldn't help pointing out that being coupled with two members 10 years and 8 years apart from herself put hers into an undescribable feeling. Until then she considered it would have been still within the "comfortable" zone to pair up with members younger than her -- "even if that were a 9 years difference, as long as it's still an one-digit number it's still safe", despite the fact she knows full well that it wouldn't be actually that close to the definition of "comfortable".
  Some viewers tried to reassure Maho that "it's alright, Mahohon is still young-looking". In any case, the most awkward situation happened because they were assigned to the lane furthest away from the changing room, which means that while they were walking all the way there the younger members clinged around Maho's arms for the whole time of it. In other words, "I looked like a granny being accompanied along. I mean, since I was squeezed in between two middle-school aged girl and everything. ...Even though this was done with a normal, friendly spirit to it, the same way as going back on your way home together with your schoolmates, when you stop and think about it I imagined I must have looked like a granny getting helped along...!" Heh.
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.10.28 Showroom. More reports from the handshake event even today, but more importantly this time there was a little delving back into Maho's past before she became an idol, which I think is the most important part of the broadcast.

Spoiler: Summary

Among other things...

• On a light note, we first had Maho speaking about her decision about not showing up at the Halloween handshake event in any costume. As it turns out, there's a reason behind it which goes back to the very first Halloween she had at NGT, as Maho recalled that when she tried back then she ended up being only one to show up in a costume at the evend. For lack of a better term, Maho said that it was because of the "traumatic" experience at the time that she decided not to try doing it again, to avoid once again the embarrassment of end up being the only one in a costume in the entire group. Other than that, there's once again also the factor of having become the oldest member in there, which is why she thinks that would make it too painful for her to wear a cosplay any longer.
  In a irony of fate, which even Maho ends up pointing out, while she was still sticking to this mindset everyone around her had on the contrary began embracing this practice more and more until they turned into what she described as "Halloween people" on that day, thus ending in an opposite situation.
  The good thing is that in the end, this gave Maho an inspiration to come to the next Christmas event wearing a cosplay for a change, and as for the Halloween stage at the NGT theater, while she was in a bunny costume last time, this year around she says she has the intention to go for something a bit darker.
• This was followed up by some small talk about what a curious variety of fans would often show up at Maho's lane. Of course, what amuses Maho the most is how there's always someone in there who would try to claim himself to be a tan-oshi of hers, only for "dirty secrets" to start spilling out little by little (probably by using the same method Maho had described in the previous Showroom streams) until she finds out they were just a DD in disguise. About this point, Maho says amusedly: "I pretend not to be aware of it, but once there's too much skeletons in the closet of course I would have to call them out personally".
  That aside, Maho also mentioned there's people who, in the true sense of the word, only know of her out of all NGT members and thua had started visiting her lane after they first saw her.
  To complete the listing, among those there seems to be quite a number of Nogizaka and Keyakizaka fans visiting her. Perhaps what struck to Maho as more remarkable about this overlap of fanbases is the case of a certain fan who seemed to focus his activities on being a Maho-oshi. At least so it was at first sight, until one time he came over to her telling "There's a Nogizaka handshake event at the same time today, so I'm sorry but I'll be late. Also, there's another for Keyakizaka too", before remembering to add at the end "But by the way, inside of 48 Mahohon is still on top of the list".
  Cue Maho smiling at the whole situation, as she couldn't resist taking a dig at the order he listed any of these things while in front of her, seeing how it implied that he had his priorities in other places. "Hmmmmm~ That doesn't sound like I am at the top at all ...but well, what's most important of all is having fun anyway, everyone..."
  
• Lastily, upon hearing about this episode, some viewers couldn't help but to point out how Maho seemed to be "laughing at it, but looked as if she was actually angry" with her tone at the end. It is at this moment that the part I was speaking of in the introduction comes in.
  Maho's attitude turned serious at this point, casually denying the fact but at the same time she took the opportunity to provide a little background about her life, before ending today's stream. This one is a rather interesting monologue to understand Maho better, and I'll be translating it in full. For anyone interested, the whole part in question starts at around 13:05.
  
  
  "Sure, I have a cool-looking appearance, but for all this I also tend to be quite carefree and playful when at handshake events. ...I have this impression that ever since I have joined NGT my personality has changed somehow. How can I say? It's probably that it is as a way to suit to the environment I am in.
  Back in my high school years, I used to be the target of teasing, quite a lot actually. I was like the butt of jokes. They would say of me that I was a natural-born airhead and I would get teased a lot for that. Even so, there were also times when I would just go 'haha' and laugh along at it as well. (laugh) But nonetheless, after entering in this [idol] business I saw how everyone else were acting like airheads (laugh), and so I guessed there wasn't anything else I could do but to be the one throwing quips at them. And I sure tend to do it a lot. (laugh) ...On the other hand, for the most part fans are all older than me, so I would often look to be pampered by them. That's a side of me that I hardly ever show in front the other members.
  
  (reading a viewer's comment) «Did you get teased even during your part-time job?»
  Ah, yeah... I had worked in a part-time job at McDonald's for 3 years in a row, and even back at the time I was the youngest member of the group. Everyone else in there were all older than me, there were also many among the personnel who were housewives, and all kind of people, for example. We had university students and students from vocational schools, so I tended to get spoiled with affection by them back when I were there.
  
  (reading) «It was the complete opposite of how it is now». You are right about that."
  
  
  "(reading) «Maho seems to be someone extremely good at dealing with customers»
  Well, I was quite so. I even went up in the ranks until I became the one teaching the job to others. Let's say that I honed my skills while at McDonald's (laugh)
  I spent my teenager youth working at the McDonald's. I mean really, on the free time after school I didn't go around having fun at all, I was seriously working in my part-time job every day. The place I was employed at was one where there were hardly any personnel available, even, and a lot of the times I would just get requested «Please fill in this position, quick», so it was working part-time every day in the truest sense of the word.
  On weekends I was 100% guaranteed to be working part-time, and on Saturdays and Sundays it was usually a busy day too, so the general feeling was like that I couldn't afford to take a day off on that moment. ...On weekends it was always busy, and as such each of our respective positions were already assigned beforehand. While at it, every single time we would always get appointed to the same position, therefore if for example I were to take a break from work a person who was in another spot would have had to fill in for my absence. The way it worked was that they would turn at someone else and say «Fill in for that position too, please», all because the person who would have been able to carry out a certain task became unavailable.
  At any rate, that was the norm so I did not find it unpleasant in particular. If anything the part-time job felt fun to me, which is why I kept working on at it all the time anyway. On all weekends I was there working part-time every time, working part-time every day -- it was always either from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening, or on the contrary from the peak hour at 11:30 in the morning to 9:00 in the evening. It was like a day-long part-time job ...yeah, more like a full time.
  
  ...
  But anyway, it was actually fun to work this part-time job. Everyone was good friends with each other -- there was teamwork involved, which is why it was something of great importance. Everyone cooperated together as one, people from across different age groups joining forces and giving their best efforts all together. As such, while it was toilsome, it also felt fun."
  
  And thus, with this recollection, even today's stream ends.
  I have got to say, starting with that collaboration which NGT had back in the early days, Maho already brought up several other episodes she had at her part-time workplace many times in the past, on occasion of speaking of other related moments of NGT's activities. In a positive sense, every time I can see plenty of good points being raised that are surprisingly in common with the job inside of a idol group, which I think it explains a lot about her attitude she has shown toward both. No doubt that this rigorous mindset and this innate sense of duty was shaped up by the working condition she found in there back in the day.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

Lest I forget, coming back again with a little more of a Showroom variety pack. Over these days the Showroom activity looked rather sparse and short, for reasons that were also explained within the streams themselves, but as an effort to keep a track record here we go.

2018.11.01 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

• The 11.01 Showroom fell right after the next ticket sales round for the handshake event. And it's worth mentioning how, after reading a comment from a viewer who told about how he himself, like many other fans, happens to be too timid to meet her personally, Maho also took a moment again in the middle of it to mention that there are similar cases of fans which she encountered in the past.
  
  "There is actually quite a big number of timid people, actually. For half a year, when at the handshake events and such, they couldn't bring themselves to speak up any word with me."
  She told how every time they couldn't find the words to speak with Maho, and so she had to be the one taking the initiative, trying come up with a topic of discussion and starting off the talk herself, as she pointed out with a bit of fondness on a previous Showroom already.
  "But in the end", she eventually ended in a reassuring tone, "after half a year time they got to the point where they would be the ones speaking to me instead. There have been many people in situations this".
  
  
  And coincidentally enough, it's at this point that Maho also received news from the viewers about her slots selling out at the individual handshake event, so double hooray... (*´∀｀)
• As someone may already noticed from checking the Twitter reports, or watched the performance directly for that matter, Maho eventually made good on her promise to try wearing something "darker" for a costume at this year's Halloween stage, and it didn't take long for praises from the viewers to come in, in fact. To quote her post on Twitter at the time, many people seem to have told Maho it reminded them of Maleficent of Disney fame as well.
  Maho was a bit modest on her part, saying she intended it have a cute look to it just like everyone else's was, but ended up realizing what contrast there was only after they all took a group photo together. But she did stand out in a beautiful way in any case, as far as I'm concerned, so yeah... (*´∀｀)
  
  
  A little attention (as well as compliments) from everyone was concentrated also on the special makeup that went along with it, which she had on during the stage appearance itself. I would have guessed it was more of an effect created by the theater lighting projecting shadows on her face, myself, but it seems like some people were more attentive than me. Anyway, look at these screenshots to see for yourselves...!
  
• Lastly, since it was me who brought up the issue in the first place, I feel I should point out that Maho also went on to talk in passing about her health condition again in this stream.
  
  For context, Maho was talking about how she had intented to update her Instagram and other SNS on the previous day to wish everyone a happy Halloween and rushed to do it before midnight struck. Then, at 11PM these same eyesight problems occurred again, causing her field of vision to be obstructed and preventing her from seeing well enough to write anything. Since there were no signs of it easing off, this is the reason she eventually opted to write out just a shorter message and upload a video instead (referring to this one), she told viewers.
  Though she made no references to the (now long-deleted) tweet in which she first talked about the condition she was suffering from, we finally learned what this was supposed to be, as she mentioned it directly by its Japanese name: 閃輝暗点. The description in the English version of Wiki (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma) leaves no doubt about it, as it indeed matches with the symptoms she described in the tweet.
  The Japanese Wiki also seems to mention wine (and chocolate) as the kind of food that could be a possible factor in causing these symptoms -- emphasis more on the first one for obvious reasons -- but it's just a medical article from Wikipedia that we are talking about...
  Viewers seemed to be equally worried, by the look of it. Maho reassured them that she visited a doctor already, although at the same time she was told that there's no method to cure it entirely.
  
  In any case, I can't help but wish she'll take all measures possible to prevent it from happening again. (´･ω･｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.11.06 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

The 11.06 Showroom, on the other hand, fell right on the day members were delivered presents from fans, and the letters that came along with them.
The stream was similarly short, but for all it's worth, Maho spent some time thanking everyone for the kind gestures. Though this time around not much mention was made about the contents of the gifts, Maho declared herself impressed to find out there were so many letters from new fans who got to know about her and became her fans only relatively recently, with many even going on to describe the course of events which led them to learn about her.
As she goes on to tell, even Maho, on her side, confessed she was moved when reading their letters, saying they gave her the motivation to keep on giving her best in her job. Out of them, one particular quote seemed to have left an impression on Maho: "Maho would often say that she is happy to have fans cheering on and supporting her, but personally it's me who feels happy by cheering on and supporting Mahohon". Maho's comment left no doubts: "Just recalling it makes me feel like crying", before trying to hold herself back and reminding herself it's not the age anymore for such things...


Besides that, a final reflection also followed, before ending this stream: "I tend to think so much about my own flaws, it's a thought that's always present in my mind, to the point that I could enumerate a list of them and a whole lot of them would come up. I would find myself constantly wondering «For what reason is everyone even supporting me...?» (laugh) ...it pretty much turned into some sort of a self-loathing sentiment, already. But to tell it seriously, I understand my own flaws better than anyone else could be telling me. I think about how much I'd like to fix them, but considering they are flaws bad enough even I realize how bad they are, it's something that can hardly be fixed at all. ...Do you understand such situations? I'd just want to be more skillfull at doing things, you know..."

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.11.07 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

Finally, the 11.07 Showroom featured Maho in a rather light makeup -- pretty much in a suppin state, in fact, except for applying a little bit of foundation in what she describes with a smile as a "5-minute makeup". It also seemed to have been a pretty busy day today at home, with her putting things in order and whatnot, so much that she wondered if she had some time left for Showroom. In any case, here we are.
With that aside, the light make up became pretty much the main basis for today's talk this time, with Maho being indeed the first to joke about it by comparing her looks to that of a housewife, further remarking how the gray sweater she happened to wear at the moment even contributed to the general feeling of it.

"Welcome back home. ...Would you like something to eat? ...Would you like to take a bath? ...Alternatively, would you like to just go to sleep? ...There's that certain drama I want to watch today, so I'd like it if you could go to sleep before me ...I want to watch the drama without being disturbed -- Ah, you are going to sleep, you say? That makes me so happy! Please sleep quickly, and good night!"

Maho even launched into an ad-lib impression of what she described "the wife who wouldn't even bother to prepare the dinner or the bathroom and just wants to watch drama on TV", for everyone's delectation... (*´∀｀)

One thing leading to the other, Maho also discussed how lately she's been asking herself what kind of man she would prefer to have as a husband, once she'll marry, although she says she can't imagine it as of yet.
Also, after a brief reminder that the next resales rounds for the handshake event would be taking place on the next day, and a bit of rejoicing on her part at the news that 3 slots have been sold out already, the talk then resumed again with Maho joking more on it (not in a necessarily self-deprecating sense, that's sure).

"For an example, if you'll go at the 1st or 2nd slot, or basically at the early slots of the day you'll have a chance to see this kind of wife-looking Mahohon, remember...!", with Maho further explaining that it's because she is usually able to get a proper makeup only in the case there's a little time for break set aside in between sessions.
Heh. (*´∀｀)

At any rate, viewers who were evidently still curious about the previous talk still kept pressing Maho until the end to know what type she actually liked best.
Maho wondered if they meant female or male type, then went ahead telling how this applied to both sexes, saying in response that she prefers people with a strong sense of cleanliness, first and foremost.
To make an example, that means (among other things) cleaning one's teeth at least three times a day. Here Maho spoke about her personally, telling how she herself does it before the start of every handshake event, and how she would go as far as to urge those members who on the contrary don't, asking them why they wouldn't.
Another aspect that is important for Maho is to always make sure to wipe off your sweat, as she describes just how much she dislikes to remain with sweat stuck on her skin over the course of theater permormances. This is true, for example, during the self-introduction segments, which is why, as she says, she'd always makes sure to dry herself up with paper wipes during the short breaks when they go to the backstage to change costumes, before re-entering the stage again. Or, similarly, when wiping off sweat once again after the performance is over, before changing back into normal clothes. Like with her previous point, Maho finds it unexplainable how nobody else among the other members seems to use wipes or anything else to clean away the sweat, on the other hand.
To complete the list, one last thing Maho appreciates is people who tend to bring along handkerchief tissues with themselves.


Again, this should all be common sense already, but apparently there's fewer people putting these rules into practice than Maho expects, hence her comments on it.
Guys better take notes... (* '- `)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

So, here we are again for our usual late-week update...

2018.11.13 Showroom. It was a kind of double-feature type of broadcast that we had today, given how the talk kept alternating on and off between what were two main themes, for the most part.

Spoiler: Summary

• The first one involved, of course, Maho being intent of presenting some more of her Cinnamon collection, which truly feels as if it never stops growing.
  
  As a matter of fact, we started off with Maho taking some type to arrange and re-adjust the little mound ("tower", as Maho put it) of Cinnamon plushies that sits at the top of her bed as best as possible, followed up with taking a photo of it in the end to give a better view of the entire composition, since the angle from where she was streaming didn't afford a full view of it.
  Speaking of it, one can't forget to point out also this photo she later posted on Twitter once the streaming was over. Truly a heaven-like scene for anyone to bask in...! (*´∀｀)
  
  https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1062366662966444032
  
  
  Later on there was also the appearance of this other Cinnamon hand puppet, all the while Maho was intend on talking about her preferences in terms of theme parks.
  A little mention about it, but admitting herself to be a total novice when it comes to Disney resorts, to the point that she confessed she wouldn't be able to find her bearing around the park unless she has a friend next to guide her (as she does in these cases), she went on to tell how she's more of a Sanrio PuroLand type in reality. In the end, she told how apparently this brought about some debate when Maho then tried to invite her friends to join her and visit PuroLand together in turn, with her friends pointing out how the latter is more aimed at elementary school and kindergaten children, as well as a bit lacking in the way of riding attractions, for that matter. While even on part Maho acknowledges these fact she was pretty much unyielding in defending her preferences, however, stating: "Rather than there being any riding attractions, to me what makes a place a dreamlike world is whether there is a character in there that you support or not. So even if there a just three rides, or there are far more elementary school children coming there, as far as I'm concerned, what matters the most is that Cinnamon is there, and that's what make PuroLand all the more enjoyable to be in!".
  And all in all, this is indeed a reasoning that I feel can effectively be applied to all aspects of life, actually...
  
  
  ...Besides that, further on she also showed this little snowglobe dating back to 2016, which Maho introduced as being a gift she actually received from one of her fans back in the day.
  
  
  But the real centerpiece this time -- and the reason Maho went through making all preparations for today's stream, as she explained in prefacing it -- was another piece of collectible: a limited edition, squeezable toy shaped like a slice of milk bread (and scented accordingly, as Maho noted after unwrapping it), with Cinnamon's face on the front and his tail on the back, which actually belongs to a much larger series featuring most of Sanrio's major characters.
  It may appear more modest-looking, but as Maho goes on to tell, this had its own significance due to the fact that it was a collectible she had a hard time finding, having even looked around for it at the Sanrio shops a while back without success, until it was a a fan who managed to come into possession of it and kindly donated it back to Maho.
  Also of note: in commenting about how accurately was the texture and scent of bread was recreated, Maho was proposed by a viewer to do a "food review" of it, with the kind of reaction you might expect on these situations. Heh. (*´∀｀)
  
  But all these little jokes aside, between this and many other instances she has described in the past, someone may have already noticed a trend going on already, but there seems to be a common tendency for Maho's fans to help out Maho in accruing her personal collection, on their own volition, collaborating together and finding the rarest pieces so they could present her. Just one further example of selfless dedication to one's idol, the way I see it. (*´-`)
• The second part dealt instead with some little musings about her complex related to her physical strenght, or lack thereof to be more correct. Some viewers kicked things off here by bringing up the latest episode of Niigatta Friend (set in Aomori, for the sake of information), during which Maho announced in fact that she was feeling unwell on that day.
  In some scenes, as Maho herself later pointed out, she could actually be seen being held by hand by Yunako because of the same reason, which also looked cute in some kind of way -- but regardless of all of this, I find it praiseworthy that she still carried herself flawlessly anyway throughout the show, although trying to avoid making any excessive physical efforts at some points.
  
  On the same subject, another thing brought up by attentive viewers was the Instagram Story from the same day, where Yunako took it upon herself to squeeze lemons for Maho while in the middle of preparing sour drinks for all the Aomori members. You can watch it here:
  https://streamable.com/xxd3l
  In the text caption on the video, Maho already expressed admiration for Yunako being so kind, knowing that Maho lacked the strength to do it by herself. In addition, during the stream, it was also explained that more than once in the past Maho had Miharu open some particularly tight bottlecaps for her, and Yunako, having seen this personally, figured that Maho would have needed some assistance with handling physical labor, when the group at the end of the day sat together at a restaurant table to eat something and ordered something to drink, much to Maho's happiness and gratitude.
  Besides that, in Maho's words, the members in NGT who happen to have the biggest arm strenght are indeed Miharu and Tsugumin, of all people.
  
  Maho went on to talk how this inability in terms of physical strenght often causes her to feel humbled while in the presence of others, feeling she has to learn to live on in this condition forever. To name some examples, sometimes she would buy herself bottled water but, seeing that the bottlecap is sealed too tightly and nobody is around that might help her out, she would find herself forced to leave drinking it for later. Additionally, when handling luggage inside the train, sometimes she wouldn't be able to lift it up all the way on the racks above the seat and she'll have no choice but to leave them around on the floor. And, in fact, the discussion itself resumed again along these lines later on, with Maho showing exactly how she got small blisters on her palms just from pulling luggages around by the handle for prolonged times.
  
  It's not all bleak, however: on the same subject, Maho added that sometimes when she's just off the train at the station in Tokyo and other such places, it happens rather ofter for her to find random strangers who'd offer her to carry baggages up and down the staircases for her instead. Maho seems to be fearful and wary of large cities at first, as she was afraid that some of those people could reveal themselves to be ill-intentioned and wanting to extort something back for their service, but in all the cases she came across only friendly and gentle-hearted people, with Maho herself expressing a sense of awe at all of them being so kind while expecting nothing in return for their favors.
  And, well, much to Maho's surprise, she noticed how even other members at NGT recently have taken to carrying things for Maho, out of their own free will, when they saw she looked too low on energy to do that herself. Attentive as they are, viewers were reminded of that one Instagram Story showing Ayutaro doing exactly that, for example, which had left Maho surprised by Ayutaro's chivalry. Again, this is the video they were referring to:
  https://streamable.com/sugcd
  
  A viewer said in jest that these strangers probably were so eager to help out also because Maho herself looks so cute, but even if it was meant as a joke, Maho rejected this notion altogether and instead expressed her deepest respect for them, in all seriousness: "On the contrary, they are the sort of kind people who, in a world filled with arrogance, tend to go out of their way to help out everyone and anyone who is in trouble. If I were a man gifted with physical strength, I think I would go out helping others as well", and indeed, it seems that after these experiences Maho found an inspiration to do her part in providing her help to others.
  She also reveals that sometimes the opposite situation also happened and she were the one going out of her way to help people at the station with pulling the luggage along. Ending it on a funny note, she tells of one time when she helped out an old lady by volunteering to carry her luggage upstairs. Maho went at it with confidence in herself, perhaps a bit too much as she found out that the luggage was much heavier than expected and hauling it up one stair step at a time was getting too tiresome. But it was too late to bow out of her committment, and so in spite of struggling with the weight, she tried her best to hide this fact and not to look too pained while at it, and she allowed herself a moment to catch breath only when reaching the top of the stairs, after she bid the old lady goodbye and they both parted ways... (*´∀｀)
  
  In any case, whether it's something given or received, I gotta say it's always pleasant to hear of such stories of mutual help between complete strangers, from time to time.
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.11.16 Showroom. To make a long story short, today's Showroom stream instead dealt in its entirety with the new Aikabu competition, which has just about started around these days, on the other hand. Lots of pep talk to drum up motivation, coupled with some interesting proposals in the case of victory.

Spoiler: Summary

Maho prefaced by saying how at first she had in mind to take a period of break from participating in any further contests, after taking part in the competition for a place in the Aikabu Senbatsu. This was partly because of a well-known agreement that NGT members have made among themselves to dedicate a specific month to a specific member so as to maximize the number of points she may get in order to hold her own meeting event -- and also partly because she thought that the contest right after that only had for a prize the possibility to change the profile photo on the game with an updated one, without Maho realizing that it also included holding a new stockholder event along with that.
With that said, Maho decided not to miss out on this other new event, by contrast. In a repeat of what Maho already announced on Twitter (here's the previous tweet), Maho first stated what prizes are available for the winning members, before proceeding to state her intentions on how to go about it.

Quoting the details on the site, the member placing 7th is going to hold a "stockholder meeting", which is pretty much all standard fare without anything problematic in itself.

For the members ranking in from 6th to 2nd, it says a luxury banquet will also be offered to the winners in addition to that, but that's where the first issue popped up for Maho.
Assuming it would be only available to the winning members, Maho said that, should she rank in so high, it means that it would end up being just some sort of a "munching event", where only herself would get to enjoy the food while fans would be stuck there watching her eat and nothing else. For this reason, she says she'd intend to find a way to share the food with everyone in the audience. Maho said about it (first seemingly in jest, and then again with a more serious tone of voice) that depending on the amount available, if they take whatever food there'll be and cut it into thin enough slices, maybe there'll be enough to distribute to everyone. Although, leaving this idea aside, it's more likely Maho might be making allowances ahead of time and request for more food to be prepared for the banquet, in such a case.

Lastly, for the member who'll come in 1st, included in the prizes there'll be also an annual pass for amusement parks, which Maho assumes it means such places as Disney Land for the most part. Despite Maho's statement in the previous Showroom broadcast, about being basically a novice when it comes to Disney Land places, Maho says she got a different plan in mind after she saw that the video she took of herself (entirely by mistake, since she was thinking her friend was about to take a photo of her, I feel like pointing out) at the park received a great deal of Likes and positive reactions on Twitter a few days back (in case you missed out, click here).
Even here, rather than enjoying things for herself, her intention at the moment would be to report back every time she'll have the chance to visit the place, making sure to take high-quality photos with her Olympus camera and posting them frequently, so that fans may be free to use them as lock screen pictures for their own phones, she says. On top of that, another idea was to have some of these pictures developed into actual photos to be then handed out to fans at the aforementioned stockholder event.
But the most ambitious plan of all was a little flight of fancy Maho had later on, after realizing that the competition is going to stretch well into December: saying how nice it would be if she could use the pass to visit Disney Land along with all the fans on Christmas day instead, she wondered what it would be like if they all could go there like some kind of "tourist group", riding together on the same rollercoasters and whatnot... There were apparently no serious intentions about that, mind you, but hey... (*´∀｀)

Anyway, I have to say that one thing I always find commendable is to hear Maho taking the initiative on her own to give something in return to fans for their efforts every time, even when the original event plans do not involve any of that.
The competition won't end until the 4th of December, there's still a long way ahead and anything can happen in the meantime. If the Aikabu Senbatsu contest has proven anyhing, it's that Maho's fans seem to be particularly strong and supportive in this game, enough to succeed in propelling her in-game company up to the 11st place in the face of extreme contenders, so there's a strong possibility for her to end up fairly high in the rankings even this time around, with the competition seeming to be more relaxed.
Let's see how things will unfold. Some viewers even promised live on SR to engage into this event even more seriously than they did at the Senbatsu Sousenkyo elections, for what it's worth.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.11.17 Showroom. A quick and more random broadcast this time, complete of course with a final encouragement for herself and her fans about the then-upcoming second NGT bowling tournament, hoping for her team to be able to achieve even better results than the 3rd place of last time.

Spoiler: Summary

Other than that...

• A little mention of how lately she has taken to wearing clothes according to her matching personal color (which is a term for a certain set of ideal colors for clothes that would suit well with the colors and tones of the wearer's complexion, eyes, hair, makeup, and such like); in Maho's case this includes purple, as in the knit sweater which she is currently wearing here. Not only that, by the sound of it, it looks like Maho took even a step further ahead, and in a fashionista spirit, she bought herself a dedicated book to determine such personal color palettes by herself. Using the drape catalogue inside and the member's photos, she then worked on finding out the ideal palette (divided into Yellow-based and Blue-based) for each of the members, saying that she can use that as a reference when it comes to buying clothes and makeup cosmetics for them for a birthday present.
  
  "Color cordinator Mahohoh", a viewer then decided to arbitrarily label her as, perhaps much more closely to the truth than he imagined it to be. (*´∀｀)
• After they haven't been seeing each other for what turned out to be over a week already (effectively only keeping in touch with each other through LINE, to ask when they will again), Maho's desire to meet back Riko eventually got to the point where Maho decided to come up with a little re-arrangement of a song to sing and at least kill some time while waiting, and so here it is. For anyone wondering, the following is the translated lyrics:
  "All lonely, Maho-chan
  On the 4th floor of Lovela
  Searching for Riko-chan
  Off she went on a journey
  
  RikoRikoRiko RikoRikoRiko (x4)
  
  Riko-chan (x4)
  Where are you?
  
  (repeat)"
  
  
  It should be pointed out that the song itself is a spoof of another children song called ひとりっこカバっこ (Hitorikko Kabakko, The lonely baby hippo), a song which Maho used to listen to on child educational shows on TV back during her kindergarten years, with Maho making this clear right afterward since some people who didn't get the reference could have gotten the impression it was something insane she made up herself out of the blue.
  
  In any case, "yabai" or not, I have to guess that the reception was great enough, considering that when Maho and Riko got to meet again the day after during the bowling tournament they even set up a little skit centered around Maho performing the song again. Riko filmed the small act and then uploaded it on her Instagram; except that this time the line that goes "On the 4th floor of Lovela" was replaced with "In the streets of Niigata", to match the context. Anyway, please enjoy until the end because, like with every MahoRiko moment, it gets really cute to see them bonding together... (*´∀｀)
  
  
  https://www.instagram.com/p/BqUSj1pA4WB/
• Finally, a little moment to talk about the recent incidents in Team G: between Kado-chan having been out for around a month due to lower back pains, and Riko having had to take a break of her own due to her knee getting hurt some time back, it seems to have been enough of a "cursed year" already for the "KouSan-Gumi", in other words the members currently in the 3rd year of high school. So much so, in fact, that some kind of urban legend even sprang up among them eventually, with Renapon claiming ironically that the next in line to fall injured would have probably been her, then.
  
  As luck would have it, so it happened and just the other day news has come in that Renapon had suffered from some (hopefully light) foot injury forcing her to suspend her group activities for a while as well until complete healing (although she still appeared the day after at the bowling tournament, participating to the games to some extent, see here). With this in mind, it is not without a reason that a last few words from Maho were dedicated to them, voicing a bit of her concern as the vice-captain of the team: first by putting it a bit light-heartedly and wondering if, with the situation getting so unlucky right at year's end, maybe throwing salt as a purifying ritual would have helped keep misfortune away; but then on a more serious note by hoping for the "KouSan-Gumi" and everyone else to work together to take better care of themselves in general for now on.
  In any case, let's hope for the best, everyone. (´･ω･｀)
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

Aomori, Hirosaki =)
[dead YT links removed]

 

2018.11.22 Showroom. Returning again on Showroom in the aftermath of having her wisdom tooth removed. And featuring a slightly swollen-faced Maho as a result of it, also.

Spoiler: Summary

To add some further details for completion: Maho had her wisdom tooh removed on the day prior to the SR broadcast, actually. She mentioned that she originally planned to go to the dentist with Hinatan on the same day (who, for those who don't know already, did so to fix her yaeba). Monday was the day when Maho's tooth removal was expected for at first, however Maho was required to take a CT scan to determine whether the wisdom tooth could be removed safely before proceeding, then on Tuesday the schedule was packed and so the actual operation didn't take place until Wednesday in the end.
Maho later even joked about how curious it is that both herself and Hinatan decided to rush to the dentist at the same exact time, by referring to it as somewhat of a "teeth-removal boom".
Going by Maho's story, there was also a little hope that the operation wouldn't have resulted in any swelling since the first day passed with just a little sense of pain still lingering. On the day after (that is, 11.22) while the swelling started to appear she then visited the clinic again for a further check as ordered, and only at that point was she told that the swelling would have reached its peak the day after, which coincided right with the video sessions of the handshake event, of all things!

Cue Maho's internal reaction when she got the news: "You could have told me sooner!" ( ´∀｀)

Along with the tooth removal also came in the issue of finding the right food to eat while the mouth swelling hasn't completely vanished yet, something that could be eaten without having to chew on it since it would hurt to press it against the swollen gums.
Thankfully, Maho talked about how she has gone to ION Mall to stock up on enough packs of liquid and semi-solid food to last for the time being, including instant-made vegetable porridge, fish porridge and egg porridge, and the likes. She proceeded to show some off, not without throwing in also a bit of humor when saying that, in short, there is certainly a "porridge-based lifestyle" waiting for her ahead. ( ´∀｀)

In any case, given the abundance and variety of it that she found on sale inside, she couldn't help remarking how this is a store that really knows how to show concern toward those people who had just gone through a tooth removal operation like her.
Incidentally, ION is also the same mall chain for which NGT did a CM advertisement once in the past. Not for nothing, in a previous tweet when she went shopping there for such food (link here), one of the random hastags she attached was indeed to ask if the commercials featuring themselves are still being aired around.

On the same topic, as a funny aside, there was also a far less lucky episode involving a takoyaki restaurant that she learned about a while ago. Maho went on to tell how she visited the place already on what was the opening day of the store, and how she found out that the takoyaki they served was cooked extremely softly at the time, so much so in fact that it even fell off from the toothpick when trying to pick it up, something which Maho attributed it to the staff being still new to the job.
Since the place was also located close to the hospital clinic, she was then reminded of it again on the day before, when her mouth hadn't swolled up yet but it still hurt to chew, and figured it would have been the ideal place to go eat for someone who cannot have food too hard to bite on. To make a long story short, she went there, bought herself a box of takoyaki all the while being grateful that they were of help ...only to find out that, with quite some time having passed since that opening day, the staff also stepped up their skills in the meantime and now the takoyaki they served turned out to be harder and crispier than she remembered...

"That would have been the only time it would have been better if they hadn't prepared them so well ...They stopped being so accommodating. I mean, granted, the flavor got tastier compared to before, but on the other hand the food stopped being as easy for the teeth (laugh)"

By Maho's account, she still decided to eat the takoyaki, but only in small bites at a time of course. Some viewer, hearing the story, proposed to make a "takoyaki restaurant that is easy on the teeth", then, much to Maho's amusement. "Not so fast. It would turn out to be a bit commercially risky to run a takoyaki restaurant such as that, I guess", Maho responded before long.

And, well, nothing more to add, except for Maho, more toward the end, giving a reminder to anyone who had just tuned in late into the stream and didn't read the caption on top of the screen that she isn't actually in the middle of eating a boiled egg whole. As usual, gotta love this self-ironic, yet casual spirit.

All jokes aside, it sounds like Maho has another visit to the dentist scheduled again around the end of December, this time to remove the wisdom tooth on the other side of mouth. Once again, it is worth pointing out how she says she's timing these visits so that they wouldn't fall on a period where there are any immediate theater performances she needs to appear in. Maho says this is because even doing sharp movements, as in dancing, would cause the swelling to hurt, but if I have to guess I'd say this is also to avoid causing inconveniences on others by missing from theather duties (as she spoke multiple times on her sense of committment toward fans in the past).

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

---
Little extra bonus: As Maho repeatedly stated during the stream, she intented this time's Showroom to be for the amusement of the viewers since she couldn't help but find the situation ridiculous herself, but in the same vein she also invited everyone to come at her lane of the handshake event the next day, so that they could have even more laughs together. By all accounts, Maho was definitely true to her promise in more than one sense.
Maho deserves kudos just for not backing out of the event altogether even with her cheek swollen like that, but I have to give her even more kudos for turning the thing to her advantage while at it, seeing as how she took any of the stock phrase that fans could pick from the list, and reworked them on the spot into ad-hoc gags about it.

Some more examples of the videos taken by fans over the same day were retweeted by Maho on her official account -- Maho was definitely on a comedy roll during this time -- but the following is just a small selection to give you an idea. Heh... (*´∀｀)
(note: click on the thumbnails to get to the videos)


"Today's fashion is like this. The fashion highlight is this beret ...or so it would appear at a first glance, but it's actually this swelling here!"


"..., the truth is ...I had my wisdom tooth pulled out. And then, my cheek got swollen up because of that. But anyway, that is something that everyone definitely must not have noticed! So let's keep this a secret just between me and you...!"


"Shhh...! Someone is around here. Let's go hide, let's go hide! ...Ah, I can't hide myself completely, there's this part sticking out!"


"Thank you for having come to meet me today. As a token of my gratitude ...I give you this!"

---
Even in the photos during the two-shot sessions she showed a no less ironical spin on it, by the way.


---
Lastly, a final tweet from Maho to all fans after the end of the event:
Nov. 23
"Thank you for coming at the handshake event.
As a result of my wisdom tooth being removed, I had my cheek in a swollen up condition, but as demonstrated by the videos that I retweeted before, even a simple swelling can make for good video material, so it's nice that everyone could have a laugh.
It still hurts, but since everyone could get a laugh out it, it made things feel fun.
It seems like tomorrow the swelling is going to subside, so see you again tomorrow. "

https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1065981783294935040

 

2018.11.24 Showroom. Maho and Riko are back to the hotel after this weekend's handshake event to spend a little fun time together, on the first day following Riko's birthday. It goes without saying, but there's a pretty warm and fuzzy atmosphere inside, interspersed with some quirky moments.

Spoiler: Summary

Also, as per ususal, a choice selection of some notable exchanges between Maho and Riko at several points of today's stream:

• Starting from 06:10, at the end of what was a few minutes of Maho teasing Riko for having mistakenly read the username of a fan who had just donated a tower as "Ojii-san" -- basically "grandpa" (duh) -- when it was actually "Ojin-san", while Riko repeatedly denied the mistake:
  Maho: "«Black Mahohon», they even said that of me."
  Riko: "Ooh, but definitely, you are acting mean-spirited right now."
  Maho: "By the way, every time when I and Riko are together... since Riko happens to be kind of a klutz, she ends up saying boke-like silly things, so I would be the one quipping at it, right? Well, that's just our standard practice, but from the perspective of someone who is seeing us for the first time ever, it must probably look to them as if «Mahohon is picking on Riko herself, like, striking with a vengeance!»"
  Riko: "(laugh) But that's not the case...!"
  Maho: "Even so, you know... Every now and then, even at the send-off... On those days when I am poking fun at Riko's silliness during the MC talk and such, later on when we get to the send-off part I would get told «Mahohon! Treat Riko more gently, please!» by some people who seem to be absolutely new to it."
  Riko: "(laugh) ...Eh, is that so? Anyway, don't misunderstand things this way...!"
  ...
  Maho: "(reading a know) «I already knew very well that Mahohon was a kind soul». Thank you. ...See how you understand that, don't you?
  
  ...We have been together for over three years already, the two of us. We two are pretty much one single thing by now. So I can feel the way Riko feels -- You are like Mahohon, while ...I am like Riko... (laughs at herself)"
  
  Riko: "(expression turns perplexed) ...Hold on a sec, I haven't the faintest idea of what you are just saying.
  ...You are saying that Riko is Maho, and Maho is Riko? What is it supposed to mean?"
  Maho: "It's along the lines of 'ishin deshin' [understanding each other's feelings even without talking]"
  Riko: "Oooh..."
  Maho: "...Do you know what the meaning of 'ishin deshin' is?"
  
  Riko: "I am not taking in these requests anymore. ...Sorry. (smile)"
  Maho: "(shocked) Are you refusing to, already? ...Is it still acceptable, now that you have turned 18 and all, to still say that you aren't willing to answer?"
  Riko: "Oh come on... Sheesh! (runs away from camera in embarrassment) Continue by yourself."
  ...
  Maho: "(reading a comment) «Please, avoid saying such difficult words to Rittan»"
  
  Riko: (laugh)
  
  This episode also gives me an opportunity to say: one thing I appreciate about Maho is how one of her chief concerns is to regularly check if Riko isn't falling behind on her education, by throwing in these quizzes in the middle of a discussion when she is suspecting Riko doesn't fully understand a term. This is expressed in a number of ways, like with the example above or, like in some old MahoRiko, in the form of kanji tests. Even later into this same MahoRiko broadcast, Maho ended up asking Riko for the definition of "inamenai" ("It's undeniable") after a viewer commented as such, this time with Riko guessing it correctly.
  Behind all these playful appearances, it has been made more than clear that she is doing it out of care for Riko.
• Picking up the thread once again, from 12:20:
  Riko: "But seriously though, Mahohon is someone who knows how to read what's in my heart accurately. Whatever I intend to say, she will properly interpret that on my behalf. ...Like, on those times when I have to talk with the people of the staff, it often happens that the words I say don't quite get across to them. On those occasions, the one who worksas an interpreter on my behalf is this ...MAHO!
  
  ...And when she does, she gets all the meanings correctly. don't you find it amazing?"
  
  Maho: "For that reason, Suwa-san would also say «Let Maho work as a manager! Let her be Riko's exclusive manager!»"
  Riko: "Right. That's what he says!"
• From 13:48, a ...spicy anecdote from Rittan's birthday party:
  Maho: "(Now that you are 18) you are also free to watch scary movies and whatnot, aren't you?"
  Riko: "Oh dear, that part is the absolute best!"
  Maho: "Do you know... Yesterday, while everyone was giving their congratulations to Riko, they went «So now you no longer have a restriction on R-18 stuff», and you replied «That's right». ...at which point the other girls asked «What is Riko going to watch now?». ...I mean, Riko first said «Oh, well, there's a lot I can now watch», then everyone was like «What is exactly that you'll watch?», and so Riko replied back «I mean, the scary stuff, the stuff with gruesome scenes» -- that is, since if a scene is too gruesome it gets restricted to only 18-year-olds and older.
  ...Well, right at that point, Hinatan and some others then said ...«Oh, I thought you were implying the erotic stuff...»
  
  I should have known, Hinata isn't that good for a captain. Her mind immediately goes to these things! (laugh)"
  Riko: "(laugh) ...So don't feel worried, it going to be all right...! I will watch nothing else outside of the scary or the gruesome stuff."
  Maho: "Which means that now that Riko has said that, everyone must be like «Whew, it wasn't nice of me to assume Riko had a dirty heart», so now you'll have some repenting to do, you people...!"
  
• Meanwhile, to answer viewer's requests, near the end at around 18:14, "Hitoribocchi no Maho-chan" song makes a return again, with Riko swinging her head to the rythm of it, followed by them reenacting the related skit that all fans have learned to know (and love).
  
  This time around there's also an additional line going "Only the two together, MahoRiko" to go along with it, which left Riko looking seemingly surprised and wondering about a possible continuation of the lyrics. Heh. (*´∀｀)
• A final few words were also dedicated to the special Christmas-themed on-train event that NGT is planned to hold on December 8 and 9, more specifically on the railroad line running approximately between Wakamatsu and Tsugawa, inside of the Niigata prefecture itself (for sources, and more informations in Japanese, check the links below).
  https://twitter.com/official_NGT48/status/1064847463876452352
  http://www.jrniigata.co.jp/press/20181120DLchristmastrainotanoshimi.pdf
  One of the two couples of members that have been announced to host this two-day event are none other than Maho and Riko (while the other one being, for the sake of information, Anju and Katomina).
  Maho kicked off the discussion with a notice informing everyone that tickets for the event have all gone sold-out already, then with Riko also somehow feeling it in her bones that this is going to be a "kami event" for everyone involved, Maho continued by putting forward a few ... interesting ideas to Riko regarding what to do for the show's content.
  After bringing up the fact that two years back (on the occasion of one of the then-common AKB photo session events) Maho and Riko had once dressed up as Santa and a reindeer respectively for the Christmas festivities, Maho joked that they can try switching around the roles for this one event: while Maho plays as a reindeer, she would give Riko a ride on her back, who'll instead go around shouting "Merry Christmas" and delivering presents to the spectators as Santa Claus while there.
  
  Blushing at it, Riko then respectfully turned down the proposal altogether, though... (*´∀｀)
  
  Because this is good an excuse as any to report it again, for context, those are some photos from the time they were referring to, originally dating back to December 16, 2016.
  
  And here are the original sources, from Photolog:
  https://twitter.com/NGT48_info_bot/status/810062998119190529
  https://twitter.com/NGT48_info_bot/status/810491240022097920

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

2018.11.28 Showroom

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.12.04 Showroom

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

Two Showroom streams over the past week, but somewhat interconnected. Both of them had in common the then-ongoing Aikabu competition as their main theme. A brief mention about the current state of the wisdom teeth removal over the last few days. And some Cinnamon-related talk in the latter, to conclude it all. The whole full course.

Spoiler: Summary

• Regarding the Aikabu competition: I'd rather be brief over this part because of my lack of familiarity about the workings of the game, even though it took up a big chunk of the talk in both parts nonetheless, but it seems there was a bit of a rush to break into level 100 before the end of the campaign. Some doubts set in at first about being able to pull off this feat, with Maho even confessing she worried that, for all the efforts that have been made, she might have been pushed out from the top 7 altogether by the end since she had momentarily dropped by a few positions while in the mid of the competition. But in spite of that, it appears that she and her fans managed to in the nick of time, all the while she followed things unfolding in real time from the game's app.
  And as per usual, it should be noted that even on Maho's part, she didn't just sit there idly even this time around: for anyone who have noticed her Twitter activity around this period, other than in-game trading, it was for the most part focused on completing in-game chores in order to bring in as many points as possible to her own company.
  And I have to say the labor did bear its fruits.
  
  All worries aside, as can be seen in the definitive results that were announced (here is the tweet from Aikabu's account) on December 4 shortly after the end of the stream, Maho ended up ranking in at a pretty respectable 5th place in the leaderboard (also, my congratulations also go to Mofu for reaching the 3rd place, even -- some viewers also joked about Mofu being out to rob Maho of the Kobe beef prize, heh...). All of which means that she'll be one of those members to be awarded a supply of luxury food for a prize.
  
  Unfortunately, it also turns out that there won't apparently be any stockholder meeting to be held along with it anyway, while Maho hoped to be able to host one as a form of thank you event for all fans involved, which is something she felt bad about considering how she told she had much fun coming up with the show's content last time she had the chance.
  Like she declared on Twitter some time later on the same day, Maho lamented that hosting one would have also been a way to let everyone enjoy the atmosphere of having a dinner together, as she originally intended to do. But repeating what she had promised, she still has in mind to make up for that by arranging for a long -- she says "lasting 2 hours or more" -- live broadcast on Showroom in which she'll also do a gourmet review of the seafood she'll receive, as soon as it'll be delivered.
  
  So, yeah, stay tuned for further developments... ( ˘ω˘)
• A little bit of an update regarding the state of her wisdom tooth removal also prefaced the talk, in both streams. On a small side note, echoing what she told on Twitter before, one thing Maho noticed is that the news of her getting her wisdom tooth pulled out also had the effect of drawing in a pretty sizeable number of people to her handshake lane during the previous days, unexpectedly enough. While some people went there just to have a look out of curiosity, another part of them happened to be people who were also supposed to undergo the same operation sometime in the future, and wished to draw some advice for what to do.
  
  Maho, on her side, was a bit apologetical about the whole situation, saying that personally she underwent the operation while being completely unprepared as to what was going to face next. As she went on to say, considering the unbearable pain she experienced right on the day of the operation, the way she suddenly found herself unable to eat anything by the second day and had to resort to go out and buy semi-solid mush food, not to mention how she ended up with a swollen face on the third day which overlapped with the handshake event, she rather finds it that she has given a poor display of herself with that.
  ...Which is why, before getting to the heart of the talk, she told how next time she'll make it a point to take all precautions necessary right from the first day, instead.
  
  According once again to her November 28 stream, it also sounds like she already proceeded to take the stitches out, and with the swelling having completely disappeared as well, she already went to the dentist again on the same day. She also had another appointment planned on the day after, also, for a total of three consecutive days. It's a pretty busy schedule she'll have to deal with, to say the least: Maho even added that she had been visiting the dentist at a frequency of 4 times a week, around these days.
  
  When she had her second stream on December 4, she was already in the process of having the upper and lower wisdom tooth from the other side of her mouth removed (with one of them set to be removed the next day), hence why she wondered if her face would have swolled up just as much as the previous time. And it's in the same vein that she found the opportunity to joke about how these days, life just consisted of shuttling back and forth repeatedly between the theater building and the dentist clinic. Heh. (*´∀｀)
  
• A little belated, but still better late than never. The December 4 stream also featured one final talk about a few new arrivals in Maho's ever-expanding Cinnamon collection.
  
  The first to be given mention is the Christmas limited edition Cinnamon, and deservedly so, after it had been sitting in the background as part of the bed decorations since last week.
  
  What makes it one of her favorite ones in recent times is also related to a little episode about how it was acquired, as she goes on to repeat: Maho explains how she first received a message on LINE from a friend telling how this is one of the most sought-after collectibles of this season. This led to Maho visiting the Sanrio Shop, partly to see what it was all about and partly to buy it, but once there she found out that it was the only item out of the series to have gone sold-out already, much to Maho's disappointment. "I would have never thought it could be this sought-after", but here comes the plot twist...
  
  "I'm sure there are people who have seen my Instagram Story and know it already. ... But at that point, included in the presents that I received on that same day ...there was also this Cinnamon that was just out of stock! Thank you! It surprises me that such a miracle could happen!". Now that's what I call fan generosity, indeed. (*´∀｀)
  
  The showcase continued with one more plushie that also came in with the presents from the fans, namely this one, which happens to be an edition only available on sale at Shibuya instead. Maho later admitted she tends to check the Sanrio online shop once a week to see if any new items have been released, but it says a lot that even someone such as her was left wondering what brand collaboration this could ever be a product of...
  
  And incidentally, I guess I'll have to agree with Maho when she said how she wished to have a larger house where to put all of her Cinnamon on display, not least because at this rate there won't be enough room for all of them in her place, or any room at all... (*´∀｀)
  
  With that being said, right now the one collectible Maho has set her sight on is another certain Cinnamon plushie in a boar costume, made to commemorate the incoming Year of the Pig/Boar, in accordance with the Chinese calendar.
  She showed no specific photos of it, but Maho's wishlist for this end of the year is actually a pretty long one as it is, anyway. Maho let fans take a look at it, but even she couldn't help quipping at how many screenshots she took of them, as she kept scrolling through a gallery which seemed to go on and on almost endlessly.
  
  
  I wonder if even this time some other fans will come around to pitch in and help with completing it. (*´∀｀)

---
Bonus: I was just looking for an opportunity to repost this, but today's little batch of Showroom summaries also comes with this sequence of Instagram Stories, since Maho was referencing to in her retelling during the stream. A tale in two acts that makes me wonder if telepathic affinity isn't real after all. Either that, or it's a very heartwarming case of coincidences... (*´ω｀*)

Spoiler: Click to expand

Nov. 27

"After returning from the dentist and before the start of the theater show, I went to my dear Sanrio Shop

And the Cinnamon Christmas plushie was the only one that was already taken.
I'm in a shock! "

Nov. 28

"This Christmas limited edition Cinnamon is so very cute

Right among the presents that were delivered to me yesterday, there was the same Cinnamon that was unavailable yesterday and which I felt sad about.
What a miracle~ Thank you so much. "

 

I read that mahohon is going to have a SNS break, is she okay? Did something happen? ;A;
And can anyone explain to me what was the whole nakai-mahohon thing?? I got really confused and worried for maho :´)

 

I hope she comes back stronger and learn to be more resilient.

Like Mahohon already said, there is no issue between Rika and herself. It is more of the backlash of comments from 'fans'. This is something she has to learn to deal with. This is part of growing up. She can't stop people from talking or giving their opinions. She will have to deal with being able to 'live and let live'.

Moving Rika or Mahohon to another team is not the answer. It is just a bandaid. You can't be shuffling everyone around just for one person's benefit. Society doesn't work like that. Workplaces don't work like that. Family units don't work like that.

The girls will have to grow up and fast. Being an idol is not all fun and games. The profession is basically interacting with people - it is one they all chose to join. There are good and bad interactions, so the girls have to learn how to be resilient.

Spoiler: googled

live and let live
PROVERB
you should tolerate the opinions and behaviour of others so that they will similarly tolerate your own.

resilient/resilience
someone able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

 

^

Spoiler

To be clear, this time's incident is only marginally related to Nakai herself, but rather what few miserable fans haven't ditched her yet nowadays. And I'm sorry for Arinko, but I wouldn't put that word between quotes all that easily: as sad as it sounds, the "No true Scotsman" excuse cannot be applied here, not least because you can tell from the Twit accounts which jumped on her that it's all people who normally send in adoring tweets to Nakai's account on a regular basis (and pretty much nothing else, yeah).

It's clear that we have to deal with a bunch of paranoids, people suffering from a severe case of siege mentality who see fit to go bash other people, even when of the same team, only because anything short of a preferential treatment of their "idol" Nakai over anyone else is seen as a hidden insult and an outrage in their distorted views.
I wonder who could have ever encouraged them to act as such, rather than teaching them to behave and be decent, even... Then again, it's not like their same "idol" -- whose flat ass they kiss -- clearly isn't going around rambling 24/7 about "antis this, antis that" as her sole "comedy" shtick; and with such fans exercising so little judgement, someone has to be impressionable enough to actually see antis and adversaries everywhere to set at.
After all, it's not like their "idol" wasn't also the first to do the same on other members of the same group so as to "promote" her character, either...

In short, these people bring no money to the group, they don't bring a good image to the group either (but with an oshimen like this, you can't expect otherwise -- "Like oshis, like fans"), the least they can do is having some modicum of tact and respect, especially toward members who actually have their hands full with organizing in-group matters on a daily basis.

And I'm sorry again for Arinko, but once again having opinions is a different thing altogether from straight-off accusing "OMG! Why you must have something against Rika?! I bet you did it on purpose because you hate her! For shame!", launching on personal harassments based on selfish, loaded insinuations along with the occasional cookiecutter insults. Otherwise we are back to the sad events of 2 years ago, with members being left to defend their reputation for themselves against mobs, all without the protection of agencies which have more money and influence than common sense.
People don't go around busting their asses all day long making things work at the theater, only to be on the receiving end of abuses from self-entitled fans of self-entitled "idols" who care very little about group matters in the first place.
People don't toil around behind the scenes non-stop only to see some ungrateful pieces of shit turn against yourself because they feel their oshimen hasn't been put on a pedestal high enough, as they probably expected in their tunnel vision.
Nobody is your personal punching bag.
To quote something Maho wrote on mobame on the past days, it's no wonder she told: "I would have never expected that working diligently, by the rules, would end up not being rewarded at all".

Maho was a gentleman to shoulder the blame this time and explain that there's no group photos with Nakai because of Nakai herself being always out for work, but the big elephant in the room is still that Nakai's anti-social, self-centered behavior is always at fault here and is what gives rise to these ambiguous issues.
Case in point: one of the two photos that Maho had posted wasn't even from a theater show, but from Riko's birthday that all Team G members celebrated together at the end of one weekend handshake event, which means all members had to necessarily be present at the same venue at the time. In fact, it took place so early that everyone was still in the same clothes that they were wearing at the handshake event on the same day (1-shot movies are proof of it). Note how Kado's tweet at the time tells how "everyone at Team G threw a birthday party for Riko", yet she only mentions Tsugumin as having had to leave early because of other reasons, which begs the question -- why the everloving fuck Nakai didn't care about showing up there for a moment, even on that occasion they could all be together?
Nakai's fans, riddle me this please and save your oshi's face for once...

---
I'm still reluctant to translate and provide for free the content of the Mahome mails she sent us over these days, considering how they also contain some pretty personal thoughts in it that can't be left out. Maybe I'll do someday, maybe I won't.
However, I also think it is of no use to keep these thoughts private, and thus open to speculation, when causes (Nakai fans bashing) and consequencies (SNS hiatus and opting out of the AKB Kouhaku performances) are very much public, so here is the lowdown on what she told.

Regarding the first mail (dating to 2018-12-10): What I can tell from it is that, although she genuinely loves the team and her Mahore fans, she found herself regretting that she couldn't express these thoughts properly, such as beforehand, and as a result of whatever happened afterward, she chose to take a break from SNS until she can finally sort out her own emotions. She told that while her way of interacting with her fans might be going to change from now on, as a consequence, she still assured everyone to wait until her feelings have settled down again.
Moreover, she thanked her own fans for being close to her and supporting her as always, and for the pleasant moments they let her enjoy so far, mentioning that it's thanks to those people that she has come to appreciate others and in turn has become a stronger person herself.

Her non-appearance at the AKB Kouhaku was also her own decision, by the look of it.
Maho's thoughts were much bitter in this second mail she sent (on 2018-12-13), evidently the results of this bad experience still lingered on, unsolved. She tells that she had been someone who always strived to work diligently and by the rules, not least because she had been raised with the mindset of never going about life with a guilty conscience or with dirty secrets to hide. The fact that this carrying herself diligenty would lead her to go through awful experiences at the hand of others, in addition to not seeing these efforts paid off at all, only left Maho to question which people are worth trusting anymore.
It's worth nothing that she especially thanked Riko's family for having come to provide consolation on those moments, with Riko's mom even shedding tears at it, as well as the other members for proving to be people that can be relied on during rough times. She says that because of this she won't forget to repay back the favor given.

The third and last mail for now (sent on 2018-12-14) confirmed that the opting out of AKB Kouhaku was not a result of any punishment she received (something I believe no one was suspecting anyway, but again you can never tell). At the same time, her feeling consternated and heartbroken at the whole situation is the reason for it.
Repeating what she already said before, she promised she'll work to get herself back on foot by Tsugumin's Seitansai, since those (Team G) are the members she feels she can trust and that she wishes to protect.
There seems to be more things Maho wishes to speak about, but for the reason above she is holding herself back for now.

 

To put into context of my post:
Mahohon, as a sub captain, I would like to see that she rise up from this 'period' in her life and has to be seen as an example to other girls. She is only in her early 20s and she still have many years ahead of her in life.
I actually toned down my previous post. What I would have said was... people are a bit too SOFT nowadays.

She needs patience.

She should talk to Ogiyuka, who had to wait years before the effort she put in paid off. Ogiyuka could only vindicate herself over the SSK voting accusation this year.

 

Y'know, people (at least those who have been raised with a sense of integrity and self-respect) don't want to have baseless accusations arbitrarily sewn on themselves because of a small, touchy part of the fanbase who has their heads too far up their butts, that should be clear enough. This is particularly true when you already have enough responsibilities to take care of personally, as opposed to always passing the hot potato to someone else.
Some idols don't enjoy gaslighting the first time, let alone going through that ordeal a second time, especially if at the hand of people from inside of the fanbase. And if my memory serves well, Maho was already about to quit altogether once if it weren't for an altercation she had with Etsuro, I think I already wrote about it in a summary before (glad I keep those things up, huh?), that's enough of a proof that she is anything but soft. It's just that after a while anyone would get tired of this frivolous shit which only detracts your efforts and attention from real matters.

If you want to hear my opinion, if the management here is too incompetent or powerless to push anyone or at least give people their due recognition, at least they should tell these kimowota not to make life harder for the members during their stay by putting a strain on them -- particulary those who are supposed to actually carry the teams and make them work, instead of just being an unworthy and misleading "facade" for the group completely detached from the rest.

Considering how your job also mandates to work daily for the entertainment of these people, I can say it would sap away anyone's enthusiasm and motivation to find out that the people who are supposed to be part of your team's audience (at least on paper, surely not in reality, I myself refuse to recognize them as such at least) are revealing themselves as the hostile mob they are, and for self-serving reasons they completely made up.

 

Man, i feel so sad reading this Poor mahohon, she's such a good girl Thank you for explaining, btw!! that sentence, "I would have never expected that working diligently, by the rules, would end up not being rewarded at all" REALLY broke my heart. It's really sad that she feels like that, because we all like to believe that in 48G, hard work will be rewarded, but then we see that money is much more important (as in any business). I really hope maho can think things through and decides to come back on sns soon. She's a super charismatic girl with a lot of qualities, and even tho she's not my oshi, i really like and cheer for her, and i hope she can be super successeful!! Once again, thank you for explaining the situation so well

 

As far as I can see

Management:
Gravure
Sub Captain of Team G
NGT48 rep to TIF2018 in Bangkok and Visit Guam Promotion

3rd party:
Sanrio - She is getting noticed by Sanrio since they do present her with their products. This is very much her own hard work over Showroom.

Fans:
9th Senbatsu Election - #53 (Future Girls)
10th Senbatsu Election - #70 (Upcoming Girls)

I know I missed other stuff.

What skills can be leveraged on for more exposure/singing/tv/variety?

 

From OVERTURE_mag: https://twitter.com/OVERTURE_mag/status/1076759191463718912

 

Mahohon didn't participate at Countdown Japan 18/19, 181230 Team G Theater, 1900102 Theater, and 190103 New Year Party Premium.

Is it her own decisions? Why?

@Firstky_

 

I don't know where she is... many fans think that she would graduate soon... many of them worry about her ...
may be it's not bad for her to graduate from NGT...
http://ngt48.xn--efvn9s.jp/archives/1073592274.html

 

overture was cold, but the starting songs are quite normal. MC1 is underway and everything seems... just as usual.

 

They are still just performing normally and everything looks fine but everyone also knows the shitstorm that blew up and the atmosphere is different. Rittan & obviously Maho are absent. Not sure about the calls though.

And here I am listening to Team G's Curtain no Gara from the only Sekai no Hito e CD I have, knowing that NGT won't be the same again