refuse2shine

Whilst she is presently in the same city as me, I thought I should take a moment to talk about former Team 8 member, Yokoyama Yui.



Not to be mistaken for the similarly name yet slightly differently spelt former member, Yokoyama Yui, who graduated in December 2021, Yoko-chan joined AKB in 2014 as Team 8’s Aomori representative, joining the group alongside Kuranoo Narumi, Oguri Yui, Oda Erina, and many others we’ve already spoken about here. Together, the team debuted with their revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo, going on tour together soon after, taking AKB out into the cities and countryside beyond Akiba anew.

By 2017, she had earned herself concurrent membership of Team K as part of management’s plan of taking the popularity garnered by the team and drawing that back into the existing teams, soon amusingly finding herself oft reported of as ‘Tano Yuka’s daughter’. With their reputation of being athletic and sporty, I always thought K was a good fit for Yoko-chan given her passion for dancing, yet it wasn’t until 2021, the year she graduated, that her talent really made an impact on me.

A lot was going on during the release of Nemohamo Rumor! Almost immediately after the announcement of Kashiwagi Yuki’s WACK collaboration, she was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome prompting a seven-hour operation and a long recovery time. Because of this, aspects of the new single had to be reshuffled with Yukirin unable to participate in the demanding choreography for the song. Yoko-chan stepped in, filling in for Yukirin’s parts during early performances, and whilst initially this happened without comment, a performance in which she wore a facemask due to having a cold on the day soon sparked a whole conversation online, the mask lending her air of mystery and later becoming a part of her outfit for future performances. Far from being a Team 8 aficionado, certainly this was the moment that really made me sit up and take notice, Nemohamo Rumor as a whole striking a note that continues to ring even now, and I feel a sense of regret that it took so long for me to notice the hard work that Yoko-chan was putting into making the group what it was, not just in terms of her Team 8 history but in how her dancing and talent shored up the group during the rough waters of these years, how her talent was instrumental in reminding others of AKB’s primacy as an idol group, constantly working hard, constantly improving. Whilst a member of Team 8, she appeared in a number of plays with her peers.



Following her graduation, she has continued to appear on stage, staring in an adaptation of Frankenstein in both Osaka and Tokyo in 2021, appearing as central character Lily in a production of Spy Room, which has a great premise even if it doesn’t always follow through, and, at last, as Usagi Tsukino for the performances of the Sailor Moon convention set piece, The Super Live, now just having wrapped up at KOKO in Camden. I have some mixed feelings about this performance and the way it was handled and how much the tickets cost, but I have faith this won’t be the last time we see Yoko-chan on stage and hope it won’t be the last time we see her in the role of Usagi.