2023 was another busy year for us, publishing an article almost every weekday. We hope you enjoyed reading our content.
With just a few days of 2023 left, let's look back on the year through some of the major developments in the gravure industry.
In January, Ichika Miri announced her retirement (though since she's just 24 years old, we hope she might return under a different name and new management).
One-time top gravure princess Anri Sugihara released her first photo book in over six years. She is now a charmingly mature 41 years old.
In March, Memo Oba retired. Gravure is brutally ...
As the year draws to a close, it's natural to look back on the past months and get a little nostalgic.
Present-day Japanese gravure idols dressed up and photographed in the style of vintage pinup models? Yes, please!
That's the basic concept behind a new photo book called Pin-Up Girls Selection, which is attempting to conjure up the image of "American porn from 100 years ago," according to the promo spiel.
There are nine participating models: Rin Takahashi, ENA, Hinano Ayakawa, Miku Oshima, Miyako Sono, Miyu Nakagawa, Aya Hazuki, Haruka Bando, and Saki Yanase.
Bando and Oshima are ...
It's Christmas in Tokyo, which means . . . what exactly? Well, not really Christmas in the traditional sense.
Christmas in Japan is, of course, not a holiday per se (and falling on a Monday this year, everyone will be working as normal, including yours truly), but Santa cosplay is very popular, as are "Christmas cakes" (which rarely resemble what a European might expect), German-style Christmas markets, and going on dates on Christmas Eve.
In fact, Christmas is basically just a romantic day for couples, and one of the busiest times of year for love hotels.
Gravure idols and models often ...
A retiring actress has complained that the mainstream media is ignoring the open secret that is the casting couch in the entertainment industry.
Though the sexual abuse that took place at Johnny's has now received the media attention it deserves after decades of silence, Misa Hayashi (林美佐) has said that there are still major issues of abuse in the industry.
In an interview with Daily Shincho, Hayashi relates how she was told to sleep with people when her DVD sales were poor. This was when she was working as a gravure idol in her twenties.
As we have noted in the past, the casting ...
Around this time of year, a lot of celebrities, music idols, and models release photo books and calendars. But something that might surprise people outside Japan, where streaming has become so dominant, is that gravure DVDs (or what used to known as image videos) are also still a lucrative market.
Yesterday saw the release of a new DVD by one of our favorite gradols, Eimi Matsushima. The Saitama native who is tall and busty has put out a new 105-minute DVD called special thanks to... and, as the title suggests, it is meant to be her final gravure DVD.
Though we haven't seen anything ...
Busty gravure idol and actress Yuno Ohara has delighted us before with her sexy scenes in TV dramas, such as the late-night show Himitsu o motta shonentachi (The Young Boys with Secrets) earlier in the year and Sweat and Soap last year.
Sadly, these being shown on mainstream Japanese TV, there's no actual nudity, just plenty of bust and shots of her in underwear. As wonderful as that is, we hope she one day goes the full hog with a nude scene (basically, you have to go to Netflix if you want to see female celebrities naked).
With her scenes in a more recent episode of Himitsu o motta ...
Earlier in the week, we sang the praises of TV announcer Kasumi Mori, loving her sultry looks and intelligence.
Now comes the gravure debut of someone who definitely has brains.
Asa Kamiya (神谷明采) has done her first swimwear gravure shoot, which appears in the current issue (December 22) of Weekly Friday. Has Christmas come early this year?
She is a fourth-year student in the economics faculty at the University of Tokyo, regarded as the most elite college in Japan. She won the Miss Todai beauty contest in 2020 and was Miss of Miss 2021, essentially crowning her as the most ...
Regular readers might remember Ayana Kobayashi, whose stunning gravure shoot we wrote about in 2019. It was notable because she did an alluring nude shoot with her butt and nipples on display despite being married (to a comedian).
She has since released a couple of DVDs.
It's perhaps because she's a bit of an outsider -- someone who came to mainstream gravure a bit late and already married with a child -- that she's freer to say certain things.
Now in her early thirties, Kobayashi recently made headlines with a blog entry in which she described her own experience with sexual ...
Slinky sexplot Kanami Takasaki is to release her second, hotly anticipated photo book.
Blooming Bud comes out on January 25, 2024, from Transworld Japan, which specializes in publishing idol books and calendars.
It features Takasaki, who is known for her girl-next-door looks, in a more alluring, sensual style, including a cover image where she is posing naked at the sea, holding up a sheer piece of fabric. As the title of the book suggests, 26-year-old Takasaki is possible entering a more mature stage in her career.
Blooming Bud has a beach theme and was shot in Hawaii. To promote it, ...
We are pleased to see that the impossibly sexy and cute gravure idol and actress Yuno Ohara is to release a new photo book.
The as-yet untitled photo book comes out on January 31 next year. It marks her third photo book, with her debut release released back in 2018.
Three preview images are available at the moment, with more sure to come in the near future.
Yuno Ohara is no stranger to these digital pages. We previous covered her (non-nude) sex scenes in drama series Sweat and Soap last year and The Young Boys with Secrets earlier this year.
The 24-year-old also did a hot shoot for ...
