Girls such as
Yoshikawa Nanase seldom return for anniversaries and celebrations, and when I think about this, I feel a kind of sadness despite the fact that I am the very problem here, a representative of that part of the audience that will always be clamouring for a return to the golden age, for the Kami 7 to be back on stage; the kind of fan who only has one eye on where AKB are
now whilst the other is constantly looking back to the past and where they were
then. Nanase, however, was part of original Team 8, the generation that ensured that AKB continued to this point where we can celebrate the 20th anniversary, and for that, I cannot help but feel that she is due more respect.
Debuting initially as a backing dancer for
Team A during a revival of the fifth stage,
Renai Kinshi Jourei, along with
Oda Erina,
Oguri Yui, Takahashi Ayane, the first three Team 8 members to perform in public, only later joined by Shimoguchi Hinana, she then went on to join her fellow teammates—
Abe Mei,
Okabe Rin, Okubora Chinatsu,
Nagano Serika,
Fujimura Natsuki,
Onishi Momoka,
Kuranoo Narumi,
Shitao Miu,
Cho Kurena,
Hamamatsu Riona,
Fukuchi Rena,
Honda Hitomi,
Yokomichi Yuri, the
other Yokoyama Yui,
Yoshino Miyu, and
Hayasaka Tsumugi—for the revival of
PARTY ga Hajumaru yo, performing
Hoshi no Ondo alongside Kuranoo, Mogi Kasumi, Nakano Ikumi, and, later, Sakaguchi Nagisa, Honda Hitomi, and Mogi instead.
Throughout 2014 and 2015, like all her peers in Team 8, Nanase continued to
work hard in the theatre, appearing in a further revival of
Aitakatta, as well as Team 8's "original" stages, performances of cobbled together songs familiar to the audience as B sides and Team Surprise releases repurposed as songs specifically for Team 8. If I sound critical of this, forgive me, part of it is my surprise that the venture that really saved AKB during those years was treated with such little care that a new stage could not be written for them. Perhaps I am in the wrong though, perhaps it doesn't matter as Team 8 exploded in popularity, they saved AKB regardless of their stages consisting of warmed up leftovers. On tour, Nanase performed in Kumamoto, Nagano, Sapporo, Gunma, Aichi, Niigata, so the wiki tells me, though I know very little myself of Team 8's campaign. Describing herself as a "my pace" sort of girl, Nanase was proud to represent her home prefecture of Chiba, and in 2017, when the impact of Team 8's popularity began to be felt and the older teams seemed to be lagging behind, Nanase was afforded a concurrent position in
Team B, where she remained for a year before Kuranoo was appointed captain of Team 4 and she was shuffled into her team in 2021.
Citing
Kato Rena and
Maeda Atsuko as her favourite members, before joining AKB, she attended handshake events for Acchan, building up her courage for auditioning for AKB48 through these events and regular if minor appearances during broadcasts of high school baseball matches. In her years in AKB, and her years specifically in Team 8, Nanase spread her love of Chiba far and wide, travelling as far afield as Manila as a member of the group who performed at the Cool Japan Festival in 2015 and Philippines-Japan Friendship Celebration in 2016. In 2023, as Team 8 was completely disbanded and she was made a full-time member of Team 4, Nanase announced her graduation shortly after, her final performance in August of that year.
Although no longer a member of AKB48, and although Team 8 is a thing of the past, Yoshikawa Nanase continues to work in
entertainment.
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