Yamaguchi Maho (Mahohon) / 1st Generation

Today's Showroom, featuring a speaking Cinnamon doll of all things. Seems like Maho was serious about her plan to show her collection to her SR audience one piece at a time.
Also, Maho talking about her years-long attempts to find the right present for her grandpas, given their particular tastes. Pretty funny live-action reenactement of a telephone discussion that she recently had with them to find out what their favorite color was, using more Cinnamon plushies (what else?).
Finally, does Akimoto have a thing for ponytails? An investigation through AKB's lyrics.

 

Taken from yesterday's Photolog, Maho commented about Riko's appearance on Niigatta Friend. What can I say, I love the chemistry between these two, especially what a sister figure Maho is to Riko... (*´ω｀*)

"#Niigatta Friend
I cried watching yesterday's episode of GataFure.
Riko was crying when she ate that spicy food.
Even though it was so spicy it made her cry, she still reassured the restaurant staff that it was delicious. Isn't she well-behaved?
Big sis was moved to tears.
She's such a good girl, I love her."

Speaking of MahoRiko, today's Showroom had the two of them having fun at the hotel, before tomorrow's handshake event in Nagoya. Also, starting from around 19:47 in Maho's stream, she personally tells Riko about watching her segment on Niigatta Friend. Sisterly cuddling and banters ensue.

Spoiler

Riko's stream

if the video does not show watch the video here
Maho's stream

if the video does not show watch the video here

Some more solo Showroom from Maho after Riko left.
Cinnamon talk, tips and tricks on what to say at the handshake event, don't ask Maho what good festivals they have in Aomori though because she can't stand the crowd and noise, also looking back at the PVs included in Seishun Dokei. Truth be told, I was rather hyped about the Shutsujin PV when the first details started surfacing, so I'm disappointed there wasn't much acting inside.

if the video does not show watch the video here

Some other Photolog posts from today that she mentioned in the video, just for the sake of context:
"Shutsujin MV
Off-shot with Anju
Anju looks more like a senpai than me. (laugh)
She looks as if someone requested her to go buy some curry bread. (laugh)"

"Highschooler
Do I look like a highschooler?
In the drama, I play the part of the class president. I'm the girl standing on the rooftop.
Also, I received praises that my acting was good!
Being 13 minutes long, it's the longest MV even though it's a coupling song.
It also turns into a drama, so make sure to watch the full version."

 

From today's Photolog.

First off, a special appeal from Maho. For anyone who has paid enough attention to her Showroom during these last months, I guess you should already know just how big Maho's love for this guy can be, so I'll go on and say that this event is probably going to matter to Maho more so than this year's Sousenkyo. Or at least it's going to hold the same importance.
Recently, while telling her personal experience with Sanrio's Grand Prix, she even explained that she has come to understand how fans must feel like when they watch SSK and see that their oshimen didn't rank as well as expected, since she felt exactly the same. I guess it says it all. Maho's adventure with the Cinnamon lottery and her reaction to last year's results, when Cinnamon ranked 2nd, are also all well-known episodes among NGT members (here's for example Hinatan talking at lenght about it, among other things, during one of her poetry/riddle games).

For anyone who wants to make Maho happy, well, the site where to vote should be this. Unlike real SSK, voting is also free (although limited to one vote per day), so~

"Character Grand Prix
The Character Grand Prix will start tomorrow!!
My beloved oshimen, Cinnamon, said that this year he'll be aiming for the first place.
Cinnamon is truly my solace, Cinnamon has helped me so many times.
The voting will start tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow will be the preliminary results!
The preliminary results are important!! So is Cinnamon!
If you'd like, please support Cinnamon"

Also another pickup from today's Photolog:

"OshaShima
I applied a "I support Maho' sticker on the mobile battery I've been using for 5 years, and it became really stylish.
It looks as if I bought a new one, and that makes me happy.
It seems like it's sparkling on its own.
This is not 'OshaKawa', but 'OshaShima'"[*]
[*] OshaKawa is a combination of oshare (stylish) and kawaii, while Maho's pun is a combination of oshare and shimauma (zebra)

Sort of late, but it looks like that Operation Bring Nogi Wotas to the NGT48 Akushukai* was a success after all, not only judging from Maho's Photolog but also from the comments from other group members (* not the actual name, of course, but Maho made her request pretty clear nonetheless).
From a Photolog post some days ago:

"Nationwide Handshake Event
Thank you very much.
I'm surprised at how many people came here for the first time.
Thank you to all frequent visitors for coming to the nationwide handshake event as well.
Nogizaka46 was at a venue nearby, so I'm glad that Nogizaka46 fans also came.
I'll keep working hard because of all the people who came to meet me.
Thank you."

Some MahoRiko miscellanea from the past days because you just can't get enough of this pair...

"Pulling up a daikon
My dear Sugahara Rittan
Since Riko had a ponytail, I pulled up a daikon.
Tomorrow she'll change to twintails?
If she's going to have twintails, I can go pick sakuranbo"

"Yamaguchi Maho keyholder
Rittan hung Mahohon's acrylic keyholder to her backpack.
It's so cute, I'm happy.
Everyone, do it like Rittan and make sure to wear Mahohon's acrylic keyholder..."

 

As expected, these days Maho had nothing else in her mind but Cinnamon, so I'm glad that things turned out well for everyone. ヾ(*´∀`*)ﾉ
From yesterday's Photolog:

"Cinnamon clothes combination
Tomorrow the preliminary results of the Character Grand Prix will be announced...
Let's hope that Cinnamon will be happy.
This is my Cinnamon clothes combination ／/(o・ω・o)\＼"

From today's Photolog, after they announced the results:

"Cinnamon ranked first in the preliminary results!!!
Today, at the preliminary results of the Character Grand Prix, Cinnamon came in first!!
Thank you very much.
Please, keep on like that even at the Character Grand Prix that'll be held in July 2nd!
..."

To celebrate, today she appeared on stage with a different makeup than usual.

"Cinnamon hair
To celebrate Cinnamon's first place at the preliminary results, today I had Cinnamon hair.
Urecinnamon[*]"
[*] Pun combining ureshii and Cinnamon, not that it needs any explanation...

"Cinnamon makeup
It wasn't just a Cinnamon hairstyle.
In order to match Cinnamon's blue, today I used a blue eyeliner and a blue lip gloss for my makeup, too.
Cinnamon sense.
I love Cinnamon!
This year, let's get to the first place and have a laugh together."

Other Photolog posts from team members:
Mofu:
"Purin-kun
Today, I put all my love for Purin-kun [*] in my yellow hat.
Maho-chan put all her love for Cinnamon-kun in her hairstyle.
That was so original, that we ended up laughing during the enjin[**] (laugh)"
[*] Pompom Purin, of Mayuyu's fame. Last year's winner at the Grand Prix, by the way.
[**] The part where members huddle together in a circle before the start of the stage performance

Reinya:
"Cinnamon
Even today, thank you for all the penlights, the uchiwa and the chants.
I heard that Maho-chan had a Cinnamon hairstyle... Hmm... She looks exactly like Cinnamon.."

Tsugumin:
"Mahohomon
Thank you for the evening stage.
At today's evening stage, Maho-chan turned into Cinnamon~!!! ( ᷇࿀ ᷆ )
Mahohomon??
By the way, Cinnamon is a male dog.
Congratulations for the first place at the preliminary results~ ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ"

Noepii:
"Cinnamon? Mahohon?
Thank you for the stage performance.
It was so fun!
Maho-chan kept saying 'Cinnamon'.
For some reason, she used my cellphone to cast a vote for Cinnamon at the Character Grand Prix. (laugh)
..."

From chaputen Kitahara's twitter, too. At first I thought that the Hangyodon thing was just a joke because of the features they both have in common (erm...), but it turns out she is actually a fan of that specific character. Or maybe it's both things...:
https://twitter.com/Rie_Kitahara3/status/862650690513981444
"Today Mahohon arranged her hair into a Cinnamon hairstyle. She said it's because Cinnamon ranked first at the preliminary results, in the #SanrioSousenkyo. She also told me not to vote for Hangyodon. That's harsh, so I'm going to aim for the first place. #WhoDidYouCallHangyodon #SanrioSousenkyo2017"


Who else is missing? I would've liked to read Katomina's comment as well, since she's another diehard fan.
Anyway, here's some screenshots for today's stage to top it off.




Today's celebratory Showroom stream.
After the usual talk about Cinnamon and the Sanrio Grand Prix, the topic switched to SSK and what promise she will choose to fulfill if she ever reaches her objective. Since Maho hasn't thought up anything yet, she and all the fans had fun throwing around their own ideas. In the end, the choices narrowed down and it was a toss-up between creating a homemade calendar, updating mobame as many times as the number of her rank for a day, and showing up on stage with a hairstyle of choice, but she couldn't agree on one just yet. Too bad, maybe it'll be for some other time.
On other news: walls at Maho's house are apparently hella thin and she can't wait to move away to some other place where you can't hear your neighbour's noise coming from the other side.
Today's Cinnamon item of the day is a 15th Anniversary plushie wearing a crown, which is quite fitting for the occasion.

Spoiler: Continuation

 

Here we go with another collection of photos from today's photo event, for everyone's delectation.

Spoiler: Pic spam ahead

Today's Showroom was a rather short one, as usual Maho seems to be giving more priority to mobame than streaming, whenever possible. I still find it funny that, despite the short time available, she still took a moment to remind fans to keep voting for Cinnamon at the Sanrio contest.
It may sound like a joke, but as someone who lurks and/or follows a bunch of Maho and Katomina oshis on Twitter, it's also interesting to observe how many are happily complying to their requests just because they want to see their favorite member happy, and are tweeting about their vote every day as proof of it. I have no idea how much their efforts could have influenced the outcome of the contest, but I'm still amazed to see all this cohesion and commitment on their part and I have to wonder if their fans are going to engage in this year's Sousenkyo with the same amount of zeal.

if the video does not show watch the video here

On a slightly related note, I stumbled across this funny dialogue while watching the KitaNishiOgi Showroom and I feel like throwing it here as well, if only as evidence of her friendship with Katomina and how obsessed they both are with their common hobby.
Also, evidently I have underestimated what a hot topic this event is among NGT members, seeing how the discussion took up a good part of the stream even before that point.
youtu.be/MRRaYw0xIuA?t=26m35s
Kitarie: «...Seriously, today I requested on the NGT's LINE group to vote for Hangyodon. The day before, on the 1st gen-only LINE group, where I and Yukirin aren't included, Mahohon posted a request to vote for Mymelo... I mean Cinnamon. Hinatan showed it to me. So, she requested us to vote, but only two people voted for Cinnamon. Only two people voted for Cinnamon as told.»
Ogiyuka: «Mahohon talks about it a lot. Even at All Night Nippon, during the pause time, Katomina and Mahohon were texting about Cinnamon the whole time ... I realized they were absolutely serious about it.»
Kitarie: «I understand. When I went to the theater for our stage performance, Mahohon and Katomina were constantly whispering to each other during the rehearsals. I could hear some words here and there. "Sousenkyo...", "Preliminary results...". "Ranking in at the preliminary results is good enough, no problem...". I thought to myself: "They're already talking about Sousenkyo so soon, what a high level of awareness". They were saying things like "You can vote if you go there...", "It's better to use this voting method"... I thought to myself: "They are so serious about it, aren't they?", then I listened to them some more ...and they were actually debating about the Sanrio contest!»

 

Today was the second (and last) day of the Osaka event, so here's some pics from the photo session that took place there. I think this one with the placards is called "Comment-kai" on King Record's website, for those wondering. Is it a new thing?


Here's also a full fan recording of the Kimagure On Stage sideshow, broken into parts. This time Maho appeared with Hinatan and Anju. Pardon the noise drowning out the member's voices, I know that in some parts it's pretty hard to hear what they are saying.
Part 1 (stage entrance, each member does their self-introduction, explanation of the game, after throwing the dice to decide the topic it falls on "Things you ate in Osaka", Anju takes the mic first)
Part 2 (Maho's turn, topic moves to "Moe sentence in Kansai-ben", also nice way of throwing the dice by Maho)
Part 3 (Hinatan's turn, topic moves to "Make a comment about Anju")
Part 4 (The trio sings Max Toki 315-go, gotta say Anju's singing voice is pretty damn good)
Part 5 (second half of the Max Toki performance)
Part 6 (members give one last salute to fans before leaving the stage)

Today's Showroom.
As pointed out in the stream itself, Maho is currently ranked 5th in the Rakuten Oshimen Sousenkyo, which is a pretty impressive result in its own right, considering that the Top 3 are big dogs such as Mayuyu, Sasshi and Jurina.
You can tell that the news woke up her geek side somehow, since for the rest of the stream she can't stop talking about her Internet buying habits and how much of a heavy Rakuten user she is.
Anyway, the prize doesn't seem much (just a special page that will run for one year and some PR to go along with it), but Maho still hopes to get to the first place, so she suggested fans to buy their Sousenkyo singles on the Rakuten website rather than CD shops, if possible.


I'm also translating this post from Photolog, while I'm here, since she talked a bit about it on Showroom:
"Mother's Day
Today was Mother's Day
Everyone, what did you do? As for me, today I sent her a hairdryer as a surprise gift. She was so happy.
You start realizing how great your mom is only after you separate from her."

 

Thank you for all the updates!! I enjoy reading them

 

Ah, glad to hear that. (*・ω・*)
Honestly, I'm always unsure about what I should contribute to this thread and I wonder if I'm even conveying the informations clearly enough. I wish there were more feedback to know that.
I realize that in order to properly understand Maho's character (and avoid regrettable misunderstandings like in the past), people need plenty of context and references, so I'm hoping I'm doing a favor to fans by keeping the thread up to date in some way or another.

---

On other news, tomorrow will be Maho's turn to appear on Myounichi Yoroshiku, at last.
Team 8's Yokoyama Yui called her to pass the baton. As for the talk topic, Maho had no doubts about that: Cinnamon!
See you tomorrow for one hour of Maho talking about her beloved Sanrio character and flaunting her collection, then~

Also, Yokoyui talked a bit about how Maho reminds her of Kurenyan afterwards. It's not only because they both have the same kind of facial features she likes so much, but also because they resemble each other with their fluffy personality. Can't help but agree, especially after seeing them interact with each other on the backstage SR that they had during this year's Request Hour concert... No wonder they became friends so quickly, after they met during the shootings of the Renacchi Sousenkyo photobook.

---

Bonus:
Recently Maho went in a full-on campaign mood and has started doing promotion for the Sanrio awards on Photolog too. I don't think I need to explain just how much Maho cares about the outcome, so as always, the place where you can cast your vote is here:
https://sanriocharacterranking.com/characters/detail/?cid=cinnamon

"#Sanrio Character Grand Prix
On NGT's LINE group, I urged other members to cast a vote for Cinammon, but everyone deliberately voted for all different characters.
However, since everyone is so kind, I want to believe that behind they are all voting earnestly for Cinnamon!

Don't forget to cast one vote a day for Cinnamon"

"Cinnamon Lottery
I would've never imagined
I would get to love you so much 〜 [*]
#Seishun Dokei
#The heartwarming ending theme of the Cinnamon Lottery stream was Max Toki 315-go [**]
#Even today, they're all at my house and I'm handling them with great care (there're some which are stored away, too)"
[*] Lyrics from Seishun Dokei
[**] For reference, she was talking about this scene from one of her past Showroom broadcasts where she unpacked the prizes one by one. The cushion was the rarest prize and apparently Katomina and Katomina's mama had to join forces to find two of them for both of them. Make sure to check the first part of the saga as well.

"／/(o・ω・o)\＼ Cinnamon lottey
Every time, at the handshake event, people come to tell me that they found the "Cinnamon Lottery Showroom" heartwarming and amusing.
I'm so happy with this cushion with built-in speakers, which I have at my home ..."

 

Today's Myounichi Yoroshiku, as promised in this episode Maho took her love for Cinnamon to its logical extreme, and she surely didn't disappoint.
The video itself is pretty self-explanatory: Maho showed some of her collection of Cinnamon goods that she bought over the years, for each of them she carefully explained their name (don't know if it's the official one or something she made up on the spot), their special features and whether they were some limited edition items to celebrate something. In the end, she pulled out a grand total of 48 of them (the number isn't casual) until the wall in the background was completely filled with a pile Cinnamon plushies. I'm sure that if it weren't for the time restrictions she would've probably gone on forever. Overall, a pretty exhilarating and surreal experience.

Gotta say it's amazing how she kept on talking about her collection for over two and a half hours without getting tired even once. Many other members who appeared on the daily broadcast before didn't show much interest in discussing their given subject, even though they chose it themselves. A lot never went on longer than 10 minutes before switching to random talk and in all of the cases their streams never lasted more than the mandatory one hour.
It's really a testament to how proud she is of her hobbies and I hope that all her dedication will eventually lead to some sort of joint collaboration like she wished.

Also, tomorrow the baton is back to Team 8, namely Nakano Serika. It turns out that she and Maho have been friends since the times of Konya wa Otomari. I'd never known Maho had so many friendships in T8, to be honest.

Spoiler: Continuation

From today's Photolog:
"21:00 Myounichi Yoroshiku!
Today, starting from 21:00, I'll have the chance to broadcast on the Myonichi Yoroshiku account.
The talk theme will be about Cinnamon. I'd like to showcase all the Cinnamon toys I have at home.
If there's some spare time, I'll show my old photocards as well.
Please come to watch, if you wish!"

"Sousenkyo Poster
The Sousenkyo posters have been revealed!
I and the photo staff couldn't make up our mind, but this is the photo we chose in the end.
It seems everyone's proud of this one.
I have been highly praised at this photoshoot, so I feel like they captured the best part of me on camera ..."

 

I seldom drop by to see your updates. It's pretty legit and helpful to know Maho more. The one post by you which left the most impression on me was when she talked about her journey into joining the group and got discouraged by her family especially her most respected grandpa. But then after she shown her determination for some time, they all went to support her afterwards. Pretty heart warming episode.

But idk if you want my honest opinion, I really get turned off by massive sea of words. So if you can do some spacing, maybe it will help improve the readability of your posts. Thanks for your hardworking effort though!

By the way I think the reason why she picked Serika from team 8 is probably because she is a big anime fan too. Especially One Piece. Maybe they somehow exchanged their love of favorite hobbies during some time

 

I usually don't say anything in here cause I don't have much to say, but I wanted to let you know that I read all your updates and enjoy them a lot; I wished other idols got as much of their posts/goings-on translated/reported as you do for Maho. I've really liked getting to know her better from your posts.

I'd have to disagree with the poster above me; I don't think your paragraphs are long at all. All I really have to say is keep it up; you're doing an awesome job.

 

I lOVE YOU Cisalpine88 ! as you see I love Mahohon very much and I'm glad that stag48 have someone like you =) Your work is not underestimated I always wait your next translation More Maho MORE

 

Thank you everyone for the comments, it was all very appreciated. (´・ω・`)

---

Back to the updates, here's a round of Photolog posts from yesterday to thank everyone for the Myounichi broadcast:

"SNM48
Cinnamon 48 ／/(o・ω・o)\＼
There's 48 Cinnamon ／/(o・ω・o)\＼"

"Myounichi Yoroshiku
Thank you for watching Myounichi Yoroshiku yesterday.
The theme was "About Cinnamon" and I showcased the 48 Cinnamon I have at home.
In the middle of the broadcast some crumbled down, but thank you for following me patiently anyway ..."

"Lots of Cinnamon ／/(o・ω・o)\＼
It took me lots of effort to arrange all 48 of them, so it was a pity to put them back.
So yesterday, I left everything like this, I curled up in the bed, and went to sleep.
It was a joy to be surrounded by Cinnamon."

[One small observation, but I love how in the last two posts she used the counter for actual people 人 when referring to their number, talk about respect.
Also, yes, that screenshot in the second post is her Showroom account, too bad she uses it just to "harrass" Riko when she broadcasts. Or at least she used to do that until some time ago.


]

Today's Showroom.

• Yeah, she didn't put back the Cinnamon dolls yet.
  
• Maho actually getting kinda worried that she won't make it safely through the next three consecutive days of stage performances ("Everyone please make a mental screenshot with your eyes, this will probably be my last Showroom broadcast"). However, while in doubt, she'd take a supplement drink before every encore to make sure things go well.
• Speaking of health, at 20:38 you can watch Maho reenacting a story from her elementary school days, with the help of her Cinnamon toys. The basic gist: at the time her PE teacher (played by the Cinnamon plushie) was firmly convinced that her pale skin was because of poor health. Every time Maho tried to explain to him that she felt well, he kept insisting that she had to go to the infirmary room to check her temperature. When she did and it showed she had no fever, Maho though it was all over. No such luck: the teacher was still suspicious about the cause of her paleness, and so he ordered her to take a rest from PE class anyway.
• After joining NGT, Maho says that she is no longer up to date about recent trends, apparently she believed until now that the "3.5 billion" joke she kept hearing from other members was a reference to some kind of lottery.
• Bad news, Riko's still in her rebellious phase and Maho can't even praise her without her acting all tsundere
  
• As pointed out by the fans in the stream, Maho's rank in the Rakuten Sousenkyo jumped up to the 2nd position, while Katomina is currently first. Glad to see that Maho's appeal was heard by her fans.

• Today's Cinnamon item of the day is an icecream-shaped portable fan (to see it, go to 1:16:35), which apparently was so hard to find Maho had to buy it online. After spending some time trying to make the thing work (as expected of a home appliance expert, she had pretty much every necessary tool literally within arm's reach), Maho could finally enjoy the gentle breeze, until an unexpected disaster happened. I'll let you find out what happened. In a good or bad way, that was the highlight of today's episode. (´・ω・`)

Spoiler

Spoiler: Continuation

 

1:26:33 Oh my gwad XD

ROFL at that last part, it's seems a hot topic now in matome

 

Mahohon's 2017 SSK Appeal Video

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

What I find comforting is that she still managed to remain (relatively) calm and kept broadcasting all the way until the last second available, as per usual. Also, I like how Maho herself realized what a strange situation she got herself into, so she was the first to look at it with irony (near the end of the video, she even joked that the next day she could've appeared on stage like this and pretend it was a new earring).

Anyway, going by today's Photolog, things got solved pretty fast. What a relief. (　；∀；)
Hopefully no Cinnamon was destroyed while in the process, that would've been a real tragedy to her.

"Yesterday's Showroom...
Yesterday on Showroom, when I used the Cinnamon mini-fan I just purchased, my hair got tangled in it and it turned into a serious problem.
I searched for a solution on Ya*oo Chiebukuro, to see if someone else got in my same situation before, but there was nothing.
After the broadcast was over, I steadily worked on the problem for one hour until I finally managed to untangle it.

Next time, when using a mini-fan, make sure to gather your hair first. Like, for example, the Cinnamon hairdo shown in the photo."

[Yahoo Chiebukuro is the Japanese counterpart of Yahoo Answers, for those who don't know. Someone during the stream suggested Maho to check it, I'm amazed she took the advice seriously]

 

I just really got into Maho like today (lol) after reading the SSK thread about her video. I always knew she was (not a weird girl) but a very interesting personality she seems like the most eccentric yet serious girl I've seen in 48 in a while.

I know her handshake numbers are pretty popular, and she is a senbatsu back member in NGT, but like I have a feel mgt will never push her to the level she can be just because her image and age (even though she would be loved by the general public)

Idk I just felt like I needed to talk about her in her thread, I bought two copies of the single for the this year's election and I think I know where my second is going to. She somewhat feels like an old school 48 member due to her personality -> its natural how eccentric she is but damn is she pretty.

It seems like one of types of Aki-P would really love / but I know NGT he didn't take too much control of the auditions as Kayano and Rie.

 

I think she has a chance but yes, she must doing more than other, because she is old for newbie idol. More solo work, less group!

 

Sort of late, but here's the subs for Maho's individual PV.
When the preview was first revealed, Maho said that the theme was cool and traditional Japanese beauty. What she didn't mention was that the video was also about overcoming one's own complexes. The story Maho tells in the interview segment isn't entirely new (the first time I came across it was on last year's Sousenkyo Guidebook), but this time it takes a more stoic tone.
Anyway, I like the way all these single elements are tied together into one narrative.

Spoiler

 

Megami-sama