In the fast and furious world of gravure, it feels like every month, if not every week, brings a newcomer. Many debut, then quickly disappear. A lucky few endure and build careers. But every month also seems to bring a gravure comeback of sorts. In mid-April, for instance, we celebrated the return of former AKB48 Haruna Kojima to gravure after years of focusing on fashion retail. And so we are very pleased to welcome back Rika Adachi, who has recently done a stunning cover shoot for an issue of Weekly Playboy (April 24) with a sunny bikini theme that has us yearning for the summer to kick ...

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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 ...

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Three years on from graduating HKT48, Haruka Kodama (兒玉遥) has rewarded her long-term fans with a shoot that shows her butt and lots of side boob, under-boob, and cleavage. We suppose it's a matter of debate whether this constitutes a nude or semi-nude shoot. Haruppi gets about as close as you can without showing her actual nipples, pulling up her clothes as if to reveal the goodies and letting her top linger just enough over her breasts to protect her modesty. In one shot of her butt, she's possibly wearing a thong, but in another she's slipping down her denim shorts to reveal those ...

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The model Riho Takada (高田里穂) has made a triumphant return to gravure and is now releasing her first print photo book in 11 years. As featured in the cover shoot for the October 31 issue of Weekly Playboy, the 28-year-old Riho went nuder than ever before for the swimwear/beach-themed and lingerie shoot. Other shots feature her topless, her breasts covered by her hands and arms held close to her chest, or by a carefully positioned shirt. We're not sure why all these autumn photo books think a summer theme is the way to go -- see the new photo book by Hana Takeuchi for ...

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Sumire Yokono suddenly left NMB48 in May 2021 -- shortly after a report broke that went to a hotel with a male celebrity twice her age. Even more shockingly, she was also spotted on a date (six days later) with yet another boyband member, with who she also spent the night at an expensive hotel. The resulting scandal sunk her NMB future. After a year off, the 21-year-old relaunched her career in May this year. Su-chan is now trying to go it on her own (with a little help from a major modeling agency). She is carving out a career as a gradol and model, and is succeeding: three gravure cover ...

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Gravure idols famously come and go. Those who seemed at the top of their game with regular cover shoots in the weeklies might fall out of favor in a couple of months and be gone from our lives. The most successful idols learn that they need to branch out into acting and TV work, and not rely on the precarious gigs doing shoots for magazines and releasing digital photo books in a crowded market. Nana Asakawa was huge at the end of the 2010s and likewise began to take high-profile acting jobs, including sex scenes in the Haram Marriage TV adaptation and We're Too Bad at Romance. Those ...

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Yuka Kuramochi has returned to gravure with her first shoot since she gave birth to a child in 2021. Kuramochi, who is married to a very successful esports player, chose to make a splash with her comeback. After all, landing a shoot with Yuka Kuramochi alone would be sure to shift copies, but Weekly Playboy elected for a whammy for its May 23 issue. Joining Kuramochi are Jun Amaki, Fumina Suzuki, Saki Yanase, and Saki Suzuki. So we get five of the most voluptuous ladies in the industry, all in one shoot. And what a shoot, as the preview images and the behind-the-scenes pics reveal! It's ...

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A reader recently chided us for not writing about the Yumi Sugimoto's return to gravure (though we did post pics on tumblr). The truth is, even with "gravure comebacks," there are simply too many idols to keep track of, let alone write about in detail on these digital pages. But here's one comeback that is certainly worthy of note. Yuka Hirata (38) made a very welcome return to our lives with her first Weekly Playboy gravure shoot in 14 years, first published in the March 19 issue of the magazine. Now on the cusp of 40 and steeped in jukujo territory like a finely aged wine, the former ...

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The world of gravure is a ruthless one. An gradol who graces the covers of Weekly Playboy or Friday one month, may be forgotten half a year later, and forced to turn to gimmicky stunts like a full-frontal nude shoot to get back in the game. Who are we to complain? We love all the visuals. Ai Shinozaki (篠崎愛) is one of those gravure idols who seems to have been around all the many years we have written this blog. That's essentially quite true -- she made her debut in 2006 as a junior idol. With her cute, youthful, come-hither face and bouncy bust, she has a classic gradol body. But ...

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Idol-of-the-moment Kazusa Okuyama has released a new digital photo book, Passion, and, judging from the preview images we have seen, it's yet another stunner. Shot by Tim Gallo, it was released by Weekly Playboy. Okuyama dazzles in purple-pink lingerie and a black dress that shows off her slender legs and alluring back. The 27-year-old Aoyama native has also just released a new calendar. This digital photo book follows on from her third print photo book (shot by Tomoki Kuwajima), which came out from Shogakukan on September 30. That's three print photo books in as ...

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