Yabuki Nako (Nako) / 3rd Generation

A clip of Nako from NTV's 'Another Sky' eating ice cream in Korea:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I recently watched one of Nako's latest dramas, so here's my review:

18-sai, Niizuma, Furin Shimasu (translates to '18 years old, newly wed, having an affair'; also known as The Princess's Bodyguard Love). - subbed by ECOTV, available on his discord (hardsub) or Drama-Otaku (softsub)

Spoiler-free: I would rate this drama a 0/10. Honestly, the plot made me angry in some many instances and it kept getting worse. Sanjou Meika (portrayed by Nako) is an 18-year old heiress, often called the Princess of Sanjou, who just wants to go to university and fall in love, but her family tells her to just get married, so she asks her bodyguard Kou to marry her. She tells him this is a marriage for convenience sake so her family gets off her back & she can fall in love for real, but turns out Kou actually does love her and doesn't want her to have an affair. Kou is 27 and Meika is 18.

Spoiler version will include mentions of suicide and rape, so trigger warning!!

Spoiler: Spoiler version

So once Kou tries to convince Meika, he succeeds pretty quickly and Meika is in love with him at like episode 2 or 3. Enter the love rival: the Prince of Sanjou, Meika's direct cousin Amane. So as if the age gap weren't bad enough, you can't even root for the rival cause that would be incest. In a drama that isn't set in the distant past where this was considered normal. Amane backs off pretty quickly.

The show often shows flashbacks to when Meika was an eight year old child (portrayed by a different actress) and Kou was her bodyguard (17/18 years old, portrayed by the same actor) and they tried to make it romantic. Like when Meika was scared of the thunderstorm, Kou stayed up with her all night and held her hand. SHE'S A CHILD STOP MAKING THIS A ROMANTIC MOMENT! Then one of the worst parts for me was when Kou told her that he'd been in love with her for 10 years already and didn't pay much attention to his then-girlfriend cause his eyes were already on Meika. Once again, SHE WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD

Big plot twist in like episode 8, Kou actually doesn't love her, but he and his friends are plotting revenge against the Sanjou empire because a member of the Sanjou family sexually abused their friend in the orphanage they grew up in and when she killed herself and her rapist/baby daddy, the Sanjou family covered it up so it looked like an accident. So the actual idea was for Kou to infiltrate the family, cause Meika to fall in love with him, have a baby with her so the baby would become the heir, kill Meika and manipulate the baby against the family and destroy the empire from the inside out. But, of course, Kou actually fell in love with Meika, he ends up saving her and after one last hiccup in the final episode, they become a happy married couple again and start having a family together.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1_fZNvJBE6/

 

Jiji Press:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Nako in the February edition of wedding magazine PLACOLE & DRESSY:
https://dressy.pla-cole.wedding/202402-placoledressy/



Photoshoot video:


if the video does not show watch the video here

Interview including many more photos:
https://dressy.pla-cole.wedding/vol43-yabukinako/

EDIT: CM with making and interview for BOAT RACE 2024:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Nako on the runway at TGC Wakayama, she appears at 4:37 - 5:24:


if the video does not show watch the video here

and she appears at 3:12 - 3:34 in this video:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Cover of Nako's 2024-25 Calendar (to be released on 3/23):
https://twitter.com/nako_yabuki_75/status/1760273391834304598

 

Nako at a new product launch event for the Korean cosmetics brand PEACH C in Tokyo today:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

More from the PEACH C presentation:


if the video does not show watch the video here

Full-length video:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Cross-posting myself from AKB48 Kashiwagi Yuki's thread, here is Nako's most recent radio (with Yukirin as a guest in part 2):

Part 1

if the video does not show watch the video here

Part 2

Part 3

if the video does not show watch the video here