Taniguchi Airi / 3rd generation

Name: Airi Taniguchi (谷口愛季)
Birthday: april 12 of 2005
Birthplace: Yamaguchi
Zodiac sign: Aries
Blood type: O

Introduction Vlog:


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I cant be the only one who see Kakizaki Memi in that face. Anyway she's a very strong oshi candidate for me

 

...I see Takahashi Juri of AKB48...

 

http://keyavids.com/sakurazaka46-3rd-generation-intro-vlogs-taniguchi-airi-english-sub/ airi's vlog with eng subs

 

Very pretty. Beautiful complexion. Seems capable and hard-working. Acting school since she was in kindergarten. No, I don't see Memi, but perhaps that's because their personalities seem quite different. Airi wants people to look at her.

 

She has the same name as Taniguchi Airi 谷口愛理 (ex-HKT48 1st) .

 

Everytime I watch Airi I think of Zuumin.

They don't look like each other at all, and Airi seems less overconfident in herself, but... I have the feeling she knows exactly what she wants and she'll give everything to reach the goal.
I hope she knows there are things that matter more and she'll experience them everyday with the members around her.

 

Is it just me, or does she resemble Mon (facial features) ?

 

I think you're both right. Zuumin and Mon are both in there in various ways: a bit of both in appearance; the sharp and accurate dancing of Mon; the long devotion to performance of Zuu (and Takahiro I think said that at one point she was one of few he could hear singing). And short, of course.

But perhaps she has the personality of neither. I did worry that she was all single-minded ambition, maybe a surface cutie exploiting her very pretty face and her dance ability. But I get the feeling from her expression in performance and what she says elsewhere that she has some kind of deeper feeling. Maybe she is developing it from her relationships in the group, but I did get the feeling that she was growing close to people and feeling things. I liked seeing her with Miu, the other "pillar" of the group's dancing, as Takahiro said.

 

As for Mon, they are both flat-and-round-faced with showing a great deal of odeko. But apart from that nothing else. Airi is much more child-like. To that regard she leans more toward Zumiko. But as far as I'm concerned, when I see Airi, I see... well, Airi!

And I am almost 100% (almost) certain: although not exactly my type, this girl will be super-duper-ultra popular in the future!

 

Visually she reminds me of Twice's Nayeon.. the shape of the face and her cuteness, probably. I just saw 6th episode subbed and I'm glad both Airi and Miu voiced their love for the group and how they are enjoying it, since they both are used to be alone.

@ukifune I did worry too about Airi's ambitions, but Sakura is not Keyaki anymore and I think she'll have all the space, time, chances and, most important, friends and senpai around her, to help to grow into the idol she wanna be... things not always present in Keyaki-times.
Zuumin was different too; I think we went about this many times in the past years, but I still think Zuumin could have become an idol without being part of a group and manage to shine anyway, perhaps even more.
Airi on the other hand already looks like she understand the importance of being part of something more than Zuumin ever did. And I'm very glad for it.

OT just for people who come here only now and read this and not my thousands previous post, I liked Zuumin more than many others Keyaki members, so this is not a diss to her. It's what I think is a part of her since day one.

 

3ki song from the 5th single just dropped on YouTube and Airi's the center (I posted the video in the 5th single thread).

 

Man, she is TINY.

 

Good things come in small packages! Very nice MV and song. Airi stands out from the group with her height and facial features (plus she seems to be one of the 3ki's best dancers).

 

So happy!
She did great!

She worked hard before entering Sakura and it shows through the whole MV, but there's also a lot of still undiscovered potential there.
I have the feeling watching her grow in Sakura will be an amazing experience.
I can't wait

 

The consensus here is that Airi is a fragile and petite baby that needs protection and that "what if... she finds herself not in the center of things or get lost in the intricacies of the senbatsu system" etc...

What I have to say is that she is ONLY petite... and cute, well... and pretty! She is not fragile. Indeed, she cries sometimes as all idols do. But! She is a strong girl. She seems to have a mature predisposition towards what she is being into. She will handle centers and 2nd lines and 3rd lines (although high unprobable due to her performance) and also being a backs-girl...

The truth about idols is that after so many years of idoling, after so many crying and dissapointment and senbatsu drama from those numerous dai-senpais, younger generations of idols are fully aware how the systems works. The know almost everything before even deciding to enroll for auditions. Airi is no exception and given from what she has said so far and how she behaved so far, she is more like a "steel-made" girl than a "pudding-made" girl to me.

Actually I see a lot of similarities between Airi and Runrun. She may prove to be a hard little nut to crack. If she proves to be also athletic then the equation is solved...

Finally, I believe that Sakurazaka have found their own Nyan-Nyan-Nyagi only that in Saku's case I thing that Airi is less nyan and more concho...

 

Airi doesn't seem fragile to me. Of course, all I know is what I see. But I'd say Airi indeed seems a "tough nut to crack." Miu seems more emotionally fragile. And good for them both.

Airi is really fantastic in the MV. Her beauty and thoughtful look in the first scene. Her wonderful rush up through the pack in the sequence in the hallway. And some strong and slightly mischievous looks throughout the MV. She'll likely get a chance to be featured in the full group sooner rather than later, as Miu and others may be. There is a lot of talent to go around. I just hope the 3gens can integrate fairly seamlessly, at a rate that is good for everyone.

 

I'm confused. No one said Airi may be fragile... quite the opposite actually.

 

Airi trained for many years with Actors School Hiroshima (ASH), as she showed in her vlog. In 2015, she had a role in an NHK TV drama. In 2018 she graduated from the school and wrote (or had written for her) that she planned to concentrate on acting. Things change.

Pictures and videos of her from her ASH era are now coming out on Twitter and elsewhere. For anyone who wants to see them, here are links to sites with many pictures of the young Airi performing. The last link is to a video of her on stage singing, when she was a first-year middle school student. A long history, and long training, on stage.
https://twitter.com/yungkeyasaku/status/1613737208833544193
https://ameblo.jp/shirashine/entry-12403917692.html
https://twitter.com/miyavizaka/status/1613744540636311553

There are many other well-known graduates of ASH: all three original members of Perfume; Nakamoto Suzuka of Babymetal; Sayashi Riho of Morning Musume; Nakamoto Himeka of Nogizaka; Kodaka Miko of Sakura Gakuen; several members of STU48, and on and on.

In some of the photos of the young Airi, I see discipline, self-containment, even sadness. Maybe it's just chance or my imagination. But I just rewatched the documentaries and Natsu no Chikamichi, and see her blossoming in the midst of the group, lifted by the new training and perhaps by Takahiro's exhortation to open up and express herself. She is very expressive in the MV. There are more 3gens who seem as if they could be centres, but Airi could develop a lot of popularity, it seems to me. A very capable and attractive performer.

 

Quoting/paraphrasing the great Bob Marley, "...from the very first time I placed my eyes on [this] girl", I knew she was most probably gonna be my next oshi. And every single new photo or frame of hers I see, my first impression gets confirmed.
As for the "fragile" aspect, I also disagree, to me she's simply a "majime" type, sure she's tiny (the definition "space efficient" comes to mind, LOL), but I think she's strong!
As for the comparison with Imaizumi, I could kinda agree in that they both hit me the same way (love at first sight, period), but I'ma wait until I see her in "SokoSaku" before I can better judge her character. As I said, she looks stronger to me (if anyone tries bullying *this* lil' cutie, I think they'll end up in bandages), but let's wait and see.