Miri Hanai (花井美里) turns 39 this October but these recent photos prove that she's as alluring as ever.
The mature gravure idol and musician has firmly entered jukujo territory, and though she's no longer enjoying the success of her twenties, when she pumping out photo books several times a year at one point during the mid-2000s, she's still got her fans and released a new photo book in 2021.
Known for her busty looks (a J or H cup, depending on the marketing), she made her debut in 2003. That's a 20-year career, a milestone few in her competitive industry achieve, and one that ...
It sparked both hype and controversy, and then just as quickly vanished.
When publisher Shueisha released a digital photo book featuring a fully AI-generated gravure model on May 29, it felt like the tipping point of something.
But then netizens were quick to point out that the "model" Ai Satsuki was uncannily similar to a real-life gravure idol, Hikari Kabashima (previously known as Yui Asakura), suggesting the AI was simply recycling images of Kabashima/Asakura from the Weekly Playboy shoot she did (Shueisha publishes the magazine).
Shueisha responded to the controversy by withdrawing ...
Back in 2011, AKB48 briefly seemed to be on the cusp of some sort of technological tipping point when it played with a fully digital member of the group. Sadly, or not, Aimi Eguchi was created just for an ad campaign and this "digital idol" trend didn't continue.
Instead, we got dribs and drabs of sensational digitally created idols like Saya, the ultra-realistic schoolgirl who wasn't real, and were teased with an all-digital supergroup.
The VR boom in the 2010s also seemed to be a major new chapter in the relationship between sex and technology (not least, its implications for watching ...
Gravure idol, YouTuber, and keen plastic model maker Umi Shinonome delighted us with her naked butt in her debut photo book released last year.
Give the people what they want. It's an old adage but always a winner.
It seems that Shinonome is listening because she's generously giving us more of the same (and some nice side boob) with her follow-up photo book, You Love the Sea (Umi), which is released this week in Japan.
The book already entered a second print run prior to release. Her 2022 debut also went through several printings.
Here are a few other highlights from the new photo ...
In the current issue of Weekly Playboy, busty Japanese model, cosplayer, YouTuber, and plastic model maker Umi Shinonome discusses how she got into gravure.
When in her third year at university, she was invited to do a shoot with some otaku photographer friends. She says she found the experience enjoyable, not just the shoot itself but the costumes, the location scouting, and the whole process of putting the results together.
Shinonome then started using social media to recruit photographers to shoot her.
After about a year, her management agency spotted and scouted her. She made her ...
Asuka Hanamura (華村あすか) has continued with the wet, semi-nude streak she started in early 2022. Following on from her first photo book, the actress is back with another lingerie and bikini shoot that showcases her slinky body.
The 23-year-old Yamagata native is known for her alluring mole and sun-kissed skin. In her new photo book, which comes out on March 18 from Kodansha, she is seen in the shower holding her hands over her nude chest (a variant on the tebura "hand bra" pose that's a gravure standard), or lying on her front with her naked back on display.
Alright, ...
Last month, we wrote about the second photo book by the ravishing Amazonian beauty that is Fumika.
As in her previous shoots, the former Miss Japan finalist and University of Tokyo alumni was showing off plenty of her athletic legs and svelte buttocks, while apparently hiding her actual breasts and nipples despite some very wet clothing in some of the shots.
We are pleased to reveal that Fumika has also revealed: the photo book is a proper nude shoot, including full-frontal nudity.
It's a hair nude, then, though you can't actually see any bush. Whether from very careful grooming or ...
Remember Fumika? How could you forget?!
In 2021, she smashed her way into the mainstream of gravure with a photo book shot by acclaimed Hajime Sawatari that showcased her stunning, athletic body -- and as nude as it's possible to be without showing actual nipples or more.
Now she's back with a very welcome second photo book, which comes out February 10 from major publisher Kadokawa. It's again shot by Hajime Sawatari and is also nude, though this time has a kind of "wild nature" theme with 28-year-old Fumika cast adrift, naked, amid the savage beauty of the landscape. It really accentuates ...
It's a dangerous thing to make your gravure debut in this day and age, when netizens have so many tools and resources at their disposal to do research on your background.
And so when the comely Rio Niita's (新田りお) gravure debut was announced with some fanfare, including an image video DVD release before she had even appeared in the usual gravure magazines, people got interested.
Who is she? Where did she suddenly spring from?
And the rumors are that the 19-year-old model already has a secret past career in porn.
Like most such "image videos," her new DVD (out January 25) ...
Ai Shinozaki made a gravure comeback initially in late 2021 and then again in early 2022, and the resulting semi-nude photo book was one of the highlights of the year.
Now aged 30, the famously busty (bakunyu) babe is a very welcome re-entry in our orbit. (In fact, she had been absent so long we presumed she had retired from gravure and entertainment.)
Her 2022 photo book was about as nude as it's possible to be without actually showing tits or ass (besides hints of her butt and plenty of side boob).
She's not resting on her laurels, it seems. Her latest shoot continues her gravure ...
