Nagahama Neru and Hayashida Mahiro of Fairies

Fans of Keyakizaka46 only learned a week ago of Neru's apparent friendship with Hayashida Mahiro 林田真尋, of the idol group Fairies フェアリーズ, when Neru published a photo of the two of them with their faces switched by software, showing how similar their features were.

But fans of Mahiro-chan have seen pictures of her with Neru before. Here they are together from a Mahiro tweet on 7 August 2016:

You can see that Neru is wearing the outfit she wore in the KeyaBINGO episode where she flashed a come-hither glance that destroyed the hosts. Mahiro may have been at the Nippon TV studios when they were either recording or rehearsing that show. Fairies has done numerous NTV shows in the past. In the tweet, Mahiro said she had met Neru and that she loved her.


On 4 September 2016, Neru's 18th birthday, Mahiro (who had turned 18 in May) posted this Happy Birthday photo:

I find all this of particular interest because Fairies, totally different as they are from Keyakizaka46, were one of my three favorite idol groups (along with Nogizaka46 and 9Nine), until Keyakizaka came along.

Okay, so who is Hayashida Mahiro?

Fairies has a very different history from Keyakizaka46. They were formed by Rising Productions (formerly Vision Factory) in 2011, when Mahiro and one other member were only 13, and the other five members 14 and 15. They were selected from 100 top dance students at various dance schools around Japan, with the idea that outstanding dancing would be the group's hallmark.

This means Mahiro has been an idol for almost six years -- unlike Neru, who has been one for only a bit more than a year. In supposed personality, she is very different from Neru: her catchphrase is "cheerful sports girl."

And Fairies is a lot more sexy in its presentation than Keyakizaka, and has been from the beginning. Their label, Sonic Groove, is part of the Avex corporation. Here's their first big hit, Beat Generation, from 2012, when Mahiro was only 14:



They have continued a string of hits since then, all reaching the top 11, and three reaching #5 again -- until 2016, when their Crossroad was released on the same day as Keyakizaka's Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai and reached #3, behind SekaAi at #1. Here's the Crossroad MV:



Crossroad Mahiro version:




She was also a member of Fairies' only sub-group, M3, which had its own #8 hit in 2013, Yumemiru Dancing Doll. She's the one with the bow in her hair:




It was only a week ago that Neru first mentioned Mahiro in her blog, with the face-switch photo. I speculated then that Mahiro may have gone to the same high school as Neru. 2channel denies that, for what it's worth.

Mahiro has followed up her earlier photos with a couple more on her Twitter and Instagram accounts:

posted in early December 2016

At Tokyo Disney (Neru on right, I think)

The Disney photo was posted on Mahiro's Instagram a week ago. Here are two posted Wednesday on her Twitter. Now she is tagging them #ねるまひ "NeruMahi". She tagged the very first one, last summer, with "NeruMahi (provisional)." The next two were posted this week:

Here are a couple more photos of Mahiro:

And here's the face-switched photo again (Neru's head on the right, with Mahiro's face; "SNOW" is the app they used):

I've left the unsubstantiated nasty rumours for last. A certain frustrated subculture on 2channel has chosen Mahiro to pick on as a loose woman. Of course, even talking to a man might seem "loose" to some of these guys. They are warning Neru to stay away and not get caught up with her and her friends of both genders. Similar calumnies have previously been laid against Neru, so at least these people are somewhat consistent. In any case, a trend to watch.