That is the title of an interesting article that was published yesterday (December 17) in the web magazine Daily Shincho, tracking Yuzuha’s rise to stardom through her still nascent, yet already massively successful gravure career — and the article will hopefully convince you those are not pompous words!

Getting her big break after gravure debut, already being called the “New Generation Gravure Queen”

The one who is currently getting her break and being lauded as the Next Generation Variety Queen is Shibuya Nagisa. She has been thought highly of by comedians from Kansai already for a long time, but in 2021 she managed to break into the national scene with her natural talk and oogiri abilities. She has now her own show at Asahi TV, even if it is in a late night slot, and has even started to be called the new Sashihara Rino.

However, Shibuya wasn’t the only one who got a break in NMB48. The one who started doing gravure this year and has been receving attention from the publishing world is Hongo Yuzuha. After turning 18 in January, her gravure ban was lifted [technically the “rule” seems to be that a member has to graduate from high school rather than just turn 18 — for example Yuzuha graduated at the end of March, immediately got her first offer and did her first gravure soon after in April] and in August she already graced the cover of Young Magazine and instantly got her break. She later proceeded to unprecedently become the cover of Young Magazine for two weeks in a row and has been expected to become the Next Generation Gravure Queen.

The mastermind behind “2 consecutive issues” speaks

This year, Hongo has quickly broken into the national scene, but what was actually her position in the group before that? We asked Okada Takashi, the editor of the Scrambled Egg website which focuses on 48G:

“Hongo joined the group in 2015 when she was 12 years old as the first pick of NMB in the second AKB48 group draft. She didn’t flinch from approaching Yamamoto Sayaka whom she had admired, and in general turned out to be someone with amazing communication skills. She is a diligent, cheerful and highly motivated girl, yet it somehow never really connected to many activities for her and up until now she has never made it into an NMB single senbatsu.”

Nevertheless, among NMB fans she had always gathered attention for her nice figure. In 48G, there is an original rule which prohibits members under 18 to do swimsuit gravure, and Hongo’s gravure ban was lifted when she celebrated her 18th birthday on January 12 [but see the note above].

Hongo’s first gravure in April in BUBKA served as a start to features in many other magazines like FLASH. But the biggest impact came with her aforementioned first Young Magazine cover. With her lovely, cute, childlike round face along with, and we cannot use any other word, impressive bust and wearing clear white bikini, she managed to capture the hearts of young boys all over the nation.

Kobayashi Nobuhiro, who is in charge of gravure in the editorial department of Young Magazine, told us about the reasons behind Hongo’s popularity: “The issues with Hongo on cover were among the best selling ones this year. Usually in someone’s first appearance, the sales are so-so and only in their second and third appearance, as they become more recognized, the sales increase accordingly But once in a few years, there appears someone whose sales are amazing all the way from their first appearance. Hongo is exactly such case. Before her we could talk about Sawaguchi Aika and, even more before that, Ogura Yuuka.”

Hongo’s feature in Young Magazine wasn’t her first gravure appearance, but in fact Young Magazine had recognized her potential already quite before that and ahead of other magazines approached NMB’s side. This summer their much-awaited wish came true and Hongo got her first magazine cover in Young Magazine.

Kobayashi, who was present at the shoot, revealed that he had already felt great about Hongo just from the first impressions: “I have been in charge of gravure for a long time and I could tell at a glance that we had done right. She has a cute smile and a body with nice proportions and she made a big impact. The cameraman also needed only 5 minutes to affirm with a smile, ‘This is going really well!’ On that day all the staff were in high spirits all day long. Her personality is also just very honest and she is a nice kid overall, which I think turned all of the staff to become her fans.”

Just as Kobayashi had predicted, the issue with Hongo on cover turned out to be very popular. To bring Hongo’s popularity to an even higher level, Young Magazine resorted to an unprecedented step — they would use Hongo as the cover for two consecutive issues. Generally, sales people say that using the same model for two consecutive issues could end up confusing the readers, but the chief editor had also realized the impact of Hongo’s first appearance and happily consented to the idea. As a result, the two issues featuring Hongo were both well received.

Combining the three elements of a successful gravure idol

NMB48 has a history of actively promoting gravure as could be exemplified with names like Yamamoto Sayaka or Shiroma Miru. According to Kobayashi, “Hongo had been able to witness her senpais’ example and took a positive atittude towards gravure. She feels very strongly about wishing to enter senbatsu through her gravure activities.”

In reality, while she has kept doing gravure, she also accomplished to appear in her first music show, as this November she performed Muchuujin, centred by Shibuya, at Best Hits Kayosai 2021.

The author of this piece, who is also a gravure critic, thinks that Hongo is going to be very active in the gravure scene just as people around her expect. The reason is that in Hongo you can find the three elements that every successful gravure idol possesses — round and childlike face, friendly rather than beautiful face, nice figure. Shinozaki Ai or Ohara Yuno are examples of gravure idols who possessed all of these three elements. The author predicts that Hongo will attain the same level of popularity.

Kobayashi also holds expectations for Hongo’s future activities: “Since not even a year has passed yet since her debut, she is currently doing just what she is asked to do, but from now on she is going to more and more pursue her own individuality through gravure. If she becomes able to from time to time pull off expressions that we could not even expect and that take everyone by surprise, then she can expand her range even further. She does have enough potential to become the new gravure queen — that’s what the editorial department of Young Magazine believes at least.”