Just a few days ago, we were celebrating the return to gravure of Rika Adachi and ex-AKB idol Haruna Kojima, and now comes news of another gravure homecoming (of sorts). Clearly ’tis the season for it. The weather is certainly hot enough, at least in Tokyo.
Another AKB48 alumnus who has moved on to acting and fashion modeling in subsequent years, Mariya Nagao, is dipping her very delightful toe back into gravure.
Though she has continued to do lingerie shoots, she doesn’t do full-blown gravure as much as she used to do (though she did do a shoot for Friday in February and for Spa in November, for instance).
Long one of our favorites, Mariyagi — as she is known to fans — is now 29 and on the edge of jukujo-dom.
It’s an age when a lot of people reassess their life and career so far. It seems that Mariya is doing something like that. She has reunited with the same photographer, stylist, and editor who were responsible for her first photo book seven years ago.
The result is marketed as a “self-homage” and was published in Platinum Flash, which went on sale on April 27. If this is what happens when you get nostalgic with a budget, we want more of it!
Having graduated AKB in 2016, Mariya has since worked an actress in TV dramas, a TV tarento on variety shows, and fashion model — and an occasional gravure idol. Her first photo book, Beautiful Cell, was shot in Bali. She released her fourth photo book, which had a sensual, Showa-era theme, in early 2022.
We mentioned Mariya’s lingerie shoots. Here’s a couple of recent examples (which did for the lingerie brand Reinest) to demonstrate that this about-to-be-30 lady’s still got it and then some!
