Hina Kikuchi was the joint winner at Weekly Playboy's Gravure Japan Awards 2024 announced in December, and it's clear that the public is lapping her up as well.
The 20-year-old's highly anticipated third photo book, memory, is a hit, selling 50,000 copies across physical and digital editions since March 19.
As the weather warms up in Japan, fans are clearly connecting with the photo book's summery theme.
Since she's still only 20 years old, we suspect Hina Kikuchi -- with her slinky body and pale skin -- has a long and fruitful gravure career ahead of her.
She got her break as a ...
One of Japan's top gravure idols, Jun Amaki, has announced her retirement.
On April 1, the hugely popular gradol posted on social media to her hundreds of thousands of followers, claiming that her retirement was immediate.
"I entered the entertainment industry at the age of 17 and started my activities as a national underground idol. From the age of 18, I used my miraculous two-dimensional body as a weapon and continued to run as a gravure idol until today! This is my last year in my twenties. I have come to terms with my life and have decided to retire from gravure modeling."
She thanks ...
A cameraman has been arrested for groping a gravure idol during a shoot.
The 61-year-old Nobuhiko Namai was arrested for touching the model on multiple occasions on a two-day shoot that he was handling for the production company where he works.
The alleged incident took place in October last year during a shoot in Chiba. It was not clear why it has taken so long for the incident to come to light or for police to act.
During the shoot, Namai is accused of touching the model's lower body without consent. He was in charge of filming for an image video they were shooting for release on DVD. ...
There's little more rejuvenating than a long, relaxing session in a sauna, especially in winter. But how about a session in a sauna with a top gravure model?
That's the basic premise behind an event recently held by the gradol Jun Amaki.
Known for her huge bakunyu breasts (an I cup?!) and for making the Virgin Killer Sweater a viral hit, Jun Amaki has been part of our lives at Tokyo Kinky for so long, she's practically family. In fact, it's been a decade or more, since she's practically 30 (she hits that milestone in October), so is relatively mature by gravure standards.
The industry ...
Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of top gravure magazine Weekly Friday, the Grademy Award was announced last autumn and votes collected online to find what was billed as Asia's top gradol.
Almost all of the 232 candidates were Japanese, though, so the "Asian" claim was slightly disingenuous. But quibbles aside, the public votes have been counted and the results -- and awards -- finally announced online earlier last week.
The top prize -- billed as Most Valuable Gradol -- went to leading gravure idol Ina Enohara.
Best Newcomer (also billed as Best Gradol Debut) was shared by ...
Here's some very good news for fans of gravure idol and actress Yuno Ohara, and we know that there are hundreds of thousands of them out there.
The 25-year-old gradol has just released her fourth photo book, which marks her fifteenth anniversary as an idol (she began her career as a dancer way back in 2009.
Titled √25 and published on February 7 by Shogakukan, it's her most nude release to date.
And what's really interesting is that the model teamed up with Okinawan actress Fumi Nikaido for the photo book.
The 30-year-old Nikaido is an established photographer in her own right, ...
The gravure idol and actress Ayano Sumida has released a statement about inappropriate physical contact at a launch event she recently held.
On January 27, Sumida posted on social media about "contact" with someone that wasn't included in the "perks" that attendees had purchased.
The incident took place on January 25 at a launch event for her third DVD, Secret Paradise. She was coy about the exact details and circumstances, but we are assuming that there was some degree of physical contact that was inappropriate or not allowed (perhaps a hug or attempted hug).
"Should such cases arise, I ...
An Anzu is advertised as a former gravure idol who has made the switch to adult video.
These cases are actually quite common and sometimes it's just marketing guff, or -- as recently with Kanna Seno -- the initial gravure "career" was already planned as a publicity boost for the AV career.
An Anzu does seem to have worked in gravure, but either under another name or without much success. We could find some info on her first image DVD, released last July, but not much else.
Boasting I-cup breasts, it's not difficult to see why 20-year-old An Anzu would appeal to porn producers.
Her ...
When you're languishing behind bars, there's probably a lot of things you miss from your life on the outside. Nice good and booze, for a start. Sex and intimacy too.
No doubt you'd find yourself thinking a lot about hot girls. Without a phone or access to the internet, you're probably starved of stimulation in this regard, but perhaps the occasional magazine or newspaper might provide glimpses of attractive models to give your fantasies food for thought.
And how about a letter from a gravure idol?
Chihiro Midorikawa is a 31-year-old gradol who won the Miss Tokyo Sports Grand Prize in ...
Weekly Playboy has announced the top gravure idols of the year.
The winners of the Gravure Japan Award were Hina Kikuchi and Cocoro Toyoshima (joint winners of Grand Prize).
Leyla Ikeda and Ina Enohara were the joint winners of Best Newcomer.
No one who has followed the gravure scene in 2024 will be so surprised by these winners, especially the Grand Prize winners. All have been a dominant presence in gravure magazines this year.
Best Work was awarded to Yuka Iguchi, the voice actress in her late thirties who has made a big splash in gravure this year.
Best Photo Book went ...
