Oshima Yuko's graduation post

Oshima Yuko finally graduated from AKB48 today at their Theater!

Yuko was 17 when she entered AKB48 in February 2006 as a member of the 2nd generation (original Team K). Yuko was the ace of her Team and slowly rose to the top of popularity, being number 2 in 2009 and even achieving the number 1 in the 2010 general election. However, Maeda Atsuko got the top place back in 2011. After Acchan's graduation, Yuko was again chosen as the number 1 only to be number 2 in 2013, when Sasshi won the election. 2-1-2-1-2, there isn't any other member who  has such amazing but also somehow disappointing results. Despite her popularity, Yuko was never really used as center to represent the group in their singles. When Acchan was still around, she was (almost) always watching her back and even now she is often shafted for new pushed girls. But Yuko never gave up and supported the group as a center, from second row or even lower place. Because of this she is still number one in handshake sales and was also able to center her last song Mae Shika Mukanee.

About Yuko, she is actually the first member I recognized (after Tomochin) and defenitely the first member I REALLY liked. If it weren't for Yuko, I wouldn't be a fan of AKB48 today!
There is the one video where she is with some English speaking kids and also tries to speak English:

This is probably the first video I've ever watched of her and I think it's an amazing video. Yuko seems so nice and funny, and I actually think her English is okay (definetely better than Kana's). I got interested in her by watching these kind of videos.. :)

Because of her graduation I watched all the AKB48 singles she participated in and took a screenshot from them. This was fun, but I realized that she was often not shown that much (e.g. Oogoe Diamond, Sakura no Ki ni narou) so I left out these videos. Have fun looking at these awesome pictures:

Aitakatta

2006.10.25

Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru

2007.01.31

Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou

2007.04.18

BINGO!
2007.07.18

Boku no Taiyou

2007.08.08

Yuuhi wo miteiru ka?

2007.10.31

Sakura no hanabiratachi 2008

2008.02.27

10nen Zakura

2009.03.04

Namida Surprise!

2009.06.24

Iiwake Maybe

2009.08.26

RIVER

2009.10.21

Sakura no Shiori

2010.02.17

Ponytail to Shushu

2010.05.26

Heavy Rotation

2010.08.18

Beginner
2010.10.27

Everyday, Katyusha

2011.05.25

Flying get

2011.08.24

Kaze wa fuiteiru

2011.10.26

Give me Five

2012.02.15

Manatsu no Sounds Good!

2012.05.23

Gingham Check

2012.08.29

UZA

2012.10.31

So long!

2013.02.20

Sayonara Crawl

2013.05.22

Koisuru Fortune Cookie

2013.08.21

Heart Ereki

2013.10.30

Mae Shika Mukanee

2014.02.26

I think these pictures are beautiful, especially because of her awesome squirrel smile. There are also a few serious faces of her, but it's cool to see those, too! Yuko of course looks a bit older now, she died her hair  and cut it a few times, but I don't really think she changed that much. She still is the same dorky Yuko-chan who is just a bit more mature and can take responsibility! I'm so happy that Yuko can now finally graduate because that's what she wanted to do for a long time. I know she loves AKB48, but she already is an awesome actress, so I hope she will be even more succesful after her graduation!

I wish her the best of luck and I will defenitely continue to support her.

Thank you Yuko for the awesome years!! :')