Smokingboot

STU48's brand new single is released to-day! What do you mean you didn't realise STU48 were still releasing singles? As established, I have spent a lot of money this week, but I still ordered both copies of Sukisugite Naku because last year's single, Kizutsuku Koto ga Seishun da really made an impact on me. The centre of this new single is not, however, Takao Sayaka, but rather the third draft's Nakamura Mai.



Arriving in 2017 alongside NMB48's Abe Wakana and AKB48's Omori Maho, the third draft went into effect in 2018 and MaiQ made her first appearance with the relatively new group. She is there in the senbatsu for STU's second single, the delightful Kaze wo Matsu, and since that moment, despite not even being in the group's first generation, she has been a regular feature in every release since, acting as one of three centres in 2022 for Hana wa Dare no Mono? alongside Takino Yumiko and Ishida Chiho; outside of B sides and stage performances, however, this is MaiQ's first time as the centre of a new single, and whenever this happens in one of the smaller 48 groups, the provincial 48 groups, I immediately look to see if it is a consolation prize for that particular member's graduation. Good news, everyone! It doesn't look like that's the case here!

For the longest time, it has felt like MaiQ's apotheosis to centre has been on the cards. From as early as 2018, with the release of AKB48's NO WAY MAN, she appeared with other members of the sister groups aged under 19—including former NGT darlings Kato Minami and Takakura Moeka—on B side Ohayo Kara Hajimaru Sekai, a song which to, my mind, has more heart than the A side it accompanies, offering more of a glimpse of the flavour of what the provincial groups might become.

Despite being in the draft pool together, MaiQ and Oki Yuka did not become friends until they both joined STU, a missed opportunity that they soon made up for, the two of them often referred to as OkiMai by fans, both of them setting the tone for what STU would be as Okada Nana returned to her main activities and the group was left to stand on its own. Against all odds, the girl who inherited her nickname from school due to her lips, making her apparently like the titular Obake no Q-Taro, has become one of the most familiar faces in the group, and this centre position for the new single feels long, long overdue. Congratulations, MaiQ! 🎉💖