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JAV FAQ (Ver 1.30) updated sections include: new info on Madoka's comeback, favorite AV idols (buried in the old stuff), "look-alikes," Kaori Shimizu does black guys (including Marcus) in LA!, another AV actress turns author, and others stuff marked with the word "NEWS and in red" (Some older stuff deleted) I've created this little faq to help out those interested in purchasing adult video starring women from Japan. I try to cover the basics you need, and give you some idea of the material. Don't take my word as final; investigate on your own, find other opinions. There are a few of us out there who can offer insights, extensive databases, fan sites (we call them stalkers, hehehe). Things I won't be covering will include most, if not all, US produced videos starring Asian women except to mention them briefly. Things I will include: I. About AV II. Where to get it III. Ten questions you might have IV. Japanese girls in US porn V misc. But first: If you haven't already heard, Madoka Ozawa has made a comeback with MOODYZ. I've never been a fan of hers but all you closet pedos out there just love her (^_^) so this is bound to be good news for you, except that she doesn't have that little girl look anymore. Shame, she should have waited until she hit 30 so she could do those "madame" videos like EVE. I About AV"AV" is the term used in Japan for adult video. It doesn't stand for adult video, that's just what it is called. Videos contain hardcore sex, but mosaic censoring is used to "cover" the genitals. Japanese law says you can't show genitalia. I don't know why. This is the biggest complaint of most people regarding Japanese videos. It doesn't bother me one bit; I never cared much for close ups anyway. But if close-ups of insertions and such are your thing, you should probably try something else. I'll mention that "something else" later. Another big difference between US porn and AV is that most of the videos focus on one girl. She will do two or three sex scenes within the confines of the story, if there is one. Occasionally, the video will include a solo scene or rarer still a lesbian scene tossed in. This is the formula most all companies follow, especially with the "stars." Some companies have started to produce 120 minute long US style videos however. Another common device is the "documentary" style video. There is no doubt that Ed Powers was influenced by Japanese AV, especially in his "Bus Stop" days. Most of the new girls break into the business this way, being interviewed by the director-cameraman. Fortunately, unlike Ed, a younger performer comes in to have sex with the girl. These vids almost always contain the use of a vibrator; most often the man using it on the woman before penetration. I never knew there were so many different kinds. The major producer of vids is Kuki Japan, which has under it's umbrella several production companies. They tend to get the best looking women and have the highest production values. They have a wide range of endeavors from a satellite to releasing pop music. The next biggest company is probably Soft on Demand. They are what is called an "indie" producer, and independent producer (not, presumably, under Kuki Japan). There is another big company called Cinemagic. They have a deal with Sky TV. Very little of their stuff is available outside Japan. Then there are what seems to be hundreds of indie labels, Mr President, Waap, U and K, DMM, Janes, the list is rather mind boggling. Very unlike the system we have here where we have a lot of videos produced and distributed by a relative few companies. The indie labels are like indie record labels in that they specialize often times. They are like "amateur" productions like Channel 69 stuff (amateur vids in Japan are really amateur, like something you might buy through some woman's web site). SOD produces a wide variety of videos and some soft core "Girls Gone Wild" type stuff and bikini videos. Janes specializes in soft core and lesbian vids, and so on. Moodyz is a new company that arose from the ashes of Mr President and some assorted labels. They signed a lot of name talent and produce two hour "US style" videos in addition to the more traditional one hour standard AV. One company might make a series of four vids on the same theme and disappear. If the series is successful it might go on for a few years. There are WAY more videos produced in Japan than there are in the states. The sheer number of labels out there is mind boggling. Of course that means some lame product, not every video contains a gorgeous babe. The girls (and there are more girls who want to be in AV than there are videos for them to be in) are of two kinds; in it for quick cash (An indies girl might do five or six in a year and quit, hoping no one recognizes them back at Kanagawa U or the office), or in it to be famous. Yeah, famous. AV girls have a kind of popularity like Page 3 girls in England. Some appear on talk shows or host music video shows and have a kind of Baywatch actress level of notoriety . . . with a little less respect. Some even go on to do soft core movies or get small roles in major films. The girls who work for the larger companies do fewer movies a year, something like the Vivid/Wicked system. Those girls who last longer than two videos have a typical career track, and almost all that start out with a big company will follow it. They start out doing "innocent school girl" themes, then do "young wife" or "career woman" themes, then if they continue to be popular stronger fetish themes. Those who have been in longer than a year will do SM, bondage, or rape themes, and perhaps g/g. The girls who work for the indies don't really follow this, they jump right into fetish themes. Rather than being girls recruited into the industry, the indie actresses often work in Japan's bourgeoning sex industry or strip clubs. But almost all girls start out with the school girl theme if they are really cute and young looking. Cute is far more important than sexy in JAV. There seem to be no shortage of 18 year old girls willing to bump and grind on camera for money over there. (Please don't take this to mean that JN women are any more promiscuous than any others.) There are a lot of things you can find among AV that you wont find in the US; rape fantasy, beastiality, girls in school uniforms (not the bobby socks/high heeled platforms uniforms they seem to wear on the West Coast US), twin sisters having sex with EACH OTHER, etc. Contrary to rumor, a girl must be 18 to make vids in Japan. If you know anything about kiddie porn in Japan don't tell me about it. I don't want to know. I would bet my autographed Bangles album that those beastility vids won't make it through customs. You're welcome to try . . . II. Where to get it: NEWSUnless you live in San Francisco, LA, or New York, your best bet on buying AV is the web. Most of the web sites traffic in VCD. I'm sure most of you know what VCD is, but for those who don't, VCD is the precursor to DVD. An entire movie was put into MPEG format and burned to a CD. This was necessary because many of the Asian countries surrounding Japan were on PAL format and VCD was a good alternative, Laser disks being in short supply. You can even buy a stand alone VCD player to this day. VCD is cheap and easy to mail (low overseas postage !) But the picture quality is not good. A lot of JAV VCD's you see for sale on the net are Hong Kong bootlegs (notice the Chinese subtitles). The sites that sell overseas are basically doing a service for Japanese ex-pats who need their AV fix, so I wouldn't bank on any of them doing a full English language site soon. A boon to the gaijin collector is the development of makers switching to all region DVD. At first most DVD titles were region 2 only. Now that a lot of DVD are being released as all-region collectors can find some older titles on DVD. So you might get four volumes of Kuki's Mejiri series on one DVD, for example, instead of having to get four VHS tapes or VCD copies (and you would be lucky to find four volumes from one US dealer). Plus, depending on who you buy from, you don't have to pay so much postage. And if you look in the right place, you can find titles you might normally be paying 10000 yen each for 3500 yen all on one DVD. Considering how quickly the VHS versions go out of circulation, it is often only a few months after the initial release that you find them on an "omnibus" collection on DVD. And, the short period it takes for the VHS tapes to go out of circulation can be a problem. I've had a dealer inform me that a publisher had stopped distributing a tape only a few months after I saw it first at the site. So if you are depending on the Internet for your AV supply sometimes you have to act fast. Here are a few sites for you to take a look at: Kuki Japan: Nice site, well put together, in English as well as Japanese. For about 30 bones a month you can get streaming .asx clips of previously released movies and short mpgs of new releases. It is fun poking around and you get a good idea of what AV is like. Thier videos were very expensive to buy, but it seems that for some vids the price has dropped considerably. (3000 yen in some cases). Still, it is priced in the rental only range. Some vids in Japan are produced for rental to be sold later, some for sale only. They also seemed to have changed their policy for selling to foreign countries. Here's what I found out: In regards to accepting international orders, JOYCLUB does not accept orders at this time due to the legal issues involved in sending adult products overseas,
due to a difference of legal restrictions about adult oriented products between Japan and other countries or states, JOYCLUB is basically not able to ship
products outside of Japan. If you would like to place an order for titles which you can confirm are legal in your region or country, we will be happy to fill your
order only as follows. 1. Payment Method: American Express Card 2. Shipping: EMS 3. Shipping Charge: depend on the total number of titles ordered and
your address 4. Consumption Tax: 5% You may complete the "Customer Liability Agreement" available at "
http://joyclub.kuki.co.jp/CLA.html" and by faxing
this form prior to placing your order, you agree to accept all responsibility for any and all penalties, both legal and non-legal which may result from purchasing,
shipping, importing, owning, or using materials purchased through JOYCLUB. We can assist in shipping your order on your behalf by packing and labeling the
parcel for direct shipment to the address you specify. In other words, don't buy any rape videos or scat videos and you can order from them if you have an AMEX card. Now, there is still that issue of cost . . . you're looking at about $80 right now (with shipping etc) for a new release; $60 - 30 for a DVD. Warning, they do crackdown on bootleggers when they think it is in their interest. So for those of you so inclined . . . http://xxx.kuki.co.jp/MAIN.HTM AV Cosmo: No clips, but they have almost every indie production ever made within the last couple of years, and some from the big names. It is totally in Japanese, but you can buy from them with an international money order. Email them and ask for details. You can navigate your way around the site if you watch the bottom of your browser to see where you are going to click to next (use IE5.1 or greater to view the kanji characters). The bad news from AV Cosmo is that you don't get the benefit of the dollar being stronger than the Yen; when you buy from them you pay the same amount in dollars as you would in Yen. (i.e. a 5000 yen tape should be about $45, but they charge the customer in the US $50.) Most people report that you get good service from them. They are upfront in telling you that some fetish tapes are most assuredly to be taken by customs. I hear they are dependable and they have a good rep. I'd have to rank them the highest in terms of service, price, and selection of all the online retailers. Price - Two 90 minute SOD DVDs w/ shipping - 75USD mitigating factors - must pay with money order. No exchange rate. http://www.jah.ne.jp/~csmlk/11top.html AV Trade Emporium: VCD only. The selection looks good, the prices look good, but you are buying a copy of the original. If that bothers you, stay away. If not, you might want to take advantage of the cheap prices. I don't know about their service, etc. Seems to be a "mom and pop" style operation. http://www.japanvcd.com/ AV 21: Another site specializing in indies, but you can find some Kuki, HMP, and Cinemagic productions there on occasion. They also have the big stars in stock even the vids from the famous makers. The site is in English and regularly updated and organized pretty well. They have links to homepages for many of the indie makers. They take credit card orders which means you get your merchandise faster. The bad news, you have to become a "member" to get a decent price. It is about a $15 surcharge for six months and you get about a $20 "discount" on most tapes. For instance, a 6000 yen tape will sell to members for 4500 yen. But you could get the same tape for 4500 yen at AV Cosmo. It is rather complicated, but their site will explain it much better. The downside is that they charge up to 3000 to 5000 yen more for a tape than the list price (except in the case of the Kuki videos, where you are basically getting a discount). That is just plain disgusting. The more I began to think about it, the more I began to think I should advise against shopping here. Price - Two 90 minute SOD DVDs w/ shipping - appx. 100USD for members/ 130USD for non-members depending on exchange rate mitigating factors - without membership prices are ridiculous. Will take credit cards. Will do custom orders to find you that special video not for sale at other sites that ship to the US . . . for a huge mark-up (I estimated the final total for one 4000 yen vid on my wish list would be about 80USD!! DAME!) http://apple.office21.gr.jp/japan/av/new.htm Jlist: I had relegated Jlist to the bottom in the first version because they don't sell JAV primarily, they tend to offer more pop culture oriented goods. I'd wager that the tapes brought more profit than Pocky and wasabi flavored peas, so they have increased their offering in the JAV department, and now offer more updated magazines and other adult oriented products. Their prices are quite competitive and it is run by a US ex-pat, so the site is in English. I'd recommend shopping there simply as a challenge to the ridiculous over charging done by other sites, if not because it is a good guy and his friends running a little business. The owner has also put up a few pages covering AV at another site. He has a few bios on some stars, translated interviews, and screen shots from nude DVDs (www.jmate.com) I also have some reviews on site there now. Go check them out. Price - Two 90 minute SOD DVDs w/ shipping - 87-97USD mitigating factors - run by an ex-pat, with each shipment you get tissues!! Http://jlist.com VCD1. As the name implies, they specialize in VCD and some uncensored DVD. Nice variety, timely service, good prices, but it is all VCD. They also sell US released VHS tapes of compilations of old JAV. Sometimes a good VCD will sell out and it might be months before it is restocked, if ever. If you don't mind VCD, this is the place for you. http://vcd1.com/home.htm MC's Dark Territory: They've been around a while and have a decent selection. They are a tad high but they are located in the US and so you don't have to pay the big time postage. They specialize in rape fetish and S&M. Not really my bag. They do have some underground tapes and dubs of major releases that are cheaper than the original. You can probably find your favorite AV star there in a few non-rape/SM vids. I've never ordered from them but they seem to be doing decent business. I've gotten a couple of reports of prompt service, so . . . http://www.mcdarkterritory.com/mcintro.html Shuttle Japan: They make their own product and sell it themselves over the net. They don't make vids that often, though. They specialize in fetish, costume play (i.e., a girl dressing up like a waitress or famous anime character and getting screwed), and bukakke. Not enough variety for me, but they do have a couple of cute girls. They do have an English page, though. And they've been on the net the longest of all the indie companies. The prices are at the rental level (10,000 yen at the most). http://www.shuttle-japan.com/ Catalogue 19. Ripped me off. Avoid at all costs. http://catalog.nbj.co.jp/19/ Xonair.com sells US produced product mostly but has a decent Japanese VCD selection, though when I last checked they had really started carrying fewer numbers. I got my first VCD from these guys and they have good service. They've basically stopped selling first run imports in favoar of the more popular (for what reason I don't know) uncensored videos. Bonvarg's Asian Vids: Totally VCD. There is a lot of talk that these videos are mostly movies downloaded from alt.binaries.mutlimedia.erotica.asian, a newsgroup. That is NOT cool. Don't buy from this site. http://asianvids.com Xxxcyberstore. I had given these people a horrible review before but they have redeemed themselves slightly by delivering on a promise. I'm still a little skeptical, but for now I'd say they are worth a try. They are still trying to sell a video that is supposed to be an uncensored Bunko Kanazawa video. It isn't her. Their VHS videos are all dupes, and not very good ones at that. Still, you can get indies for about $15 bucks and the occasional HMP type video. Most of their selection is no different than what others sell except for the dupes. Http://xxxcyberstore.com AV Entertainments: another Cali company probably done out of a basement. It is similar to xonair, but more focused on JAV. Bootlegs abound, but the best part is the DVD section. Some good famous names on DVD (censored). I had a problem with a VCD and the seller went out of his way to make me happy. Worth a look, definitely. They will occasionally have some good finds. Currently focusing on uncensored like the other retailers located here, so a lot of their stuff is available elsewhere. http://www.aventertainments.com/new/home_page.htm Dragon CD: This site is new to me. They offer trades as well as sales of VCDs. They seem to have a decent selection. I got a report that it is a good place to do business. Might find a couple of things here you wouldn't find elsewhere in the US VCD sites. I'm a little suspicious since they claim to have all the recently released titles on VCD. IF the store was located in Hong Kong, okay, but in California? Maybe. Videomanial; They don't sell to the US, but you can see nice big juicy pictures of the front and rear box covers and in some cases quick time clips. The site is well organized and if you learn a little kanji and have some free time, click around the site and look at the big selection. Then go back to AV Cosmo or AV 21 and see if they have what you are looking for. (Use IE 5.1 or higher to view the JP character text) http://www.videomanial.co.jp/MANIAL/light.html Media Planet is a site similar to Catalogue18 in that it is a Japanese language site that you do business via International Money Order. The selection is smaller than most, but for the real fan you can find some hard to get videos here. The turnaround time is about 10 - 12 days on an order and the postage service charge is a bit higher for this reason. It is also easier to navigate than Cat18 as you can click around a little to find what you want. As always, Email first for more information. This place has started specializing in the JNS line, which is a good thing. They also make their own, or at least they used to. Their English language section is where you can find these vids. This is a place for the advanced buyer tired of VCDs and old Kuki stuff. You can find just about anything I mention at AV 21 or AV Cosmo. Ebay and Yahoo. You can find some JAV at the auction sites. It is usually someone with a web site trying to get some extra business. Worth a look, though. Alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.asian: This is a newsgroup where you can download full length VCDs. Sometimes you can find some real gems there, but the process of downloading the movie and burning the movie to CD is very time consuming. It is fun the first couple of times and you have that feeling of getting something for free. But it gets old. I am of mixed feelings about collecting movies this way. I would like to see Japanese publishers find a reason to start exporting videos to the states. The free movies, the trading, all this gets in the way of that. The relatively small community of people who want to see JAV and don't have a friend back home in Osaka to get it for them have really turned to trading for getting videos. I'd rather see new releases be easier to buy or even rent than have to wait on a VCD to start circulating through trading channels or be posted to the Internet. Also, some cheezy guys are selling VCDs they've downloaded from the net. This LAME!!! On the other hand, I'm not a big anti-piracy guy (and make no mistake this is piracy) and I love free stuff and cheap stuff like the next guy. I'd say if you have the time and patience, give it a try once. But you'll be spending a lot of time on the project. You can always make more money, but you can't make more time. So, how do you get this stuff? That's beyond the scope of this FAQ. You can visit the Asian-Mania homepage, and check out vcdhelp.com for info on burning a VCD. Trading: I have similar compunctions towards trading as I do towards the newsgroup. I worry about the effect of trading on the future ability to import JAV. If two people get together and decide to trade, okay. But the wholesale trading is a bit worrisome. There are lots of traders out there whom you can easily find by doing a web search. A note for fans of lesbian AV: I discovered a site that is selling the AROMA line of kissing videos in the US. However, this guy is selling dubbed copies of these at the same price he paid, about $60 to $70. This is a total ripoff. I wont give the guy any publicity by posting a link, just know that if you see his site DO NOT give him your money. You can get the real deal legitimately for the same amount (at AV21 and a couple at AV Cosmo). If you are going to get bootlegged or pirated stuff, at least be smart enough to pay less for it. III Ten other questions you might have (or have already asked me).1) who are some good peformers? NEWS A tough question. It really depends on what kind of girl you like, because many girls tend to be the same in terms of how they react during sex. They are all pretty vocal, they all take a good pounding. If they don't, they don't last long. I'm not a guy who really focuses on the big names and the "kawaii" girls. I like g/g vids and most of the big names don't do them. But, Yuri Komuro is my absolute favorite. And she squirts. She is very cute and usually plays your girl next door type. In the later stage of her three year career (a long time for a Japanese AV girl) she mostly worked with a boyfriend. She is known for her incredibly muscular calves and nice hips; something different from the super-thin type you usually see in AV. She's now putting out pop records, but is still posing nude. Junko Asamiya is another girl I found too late I loved. By the time I caught on to her she had retired. She is hosting a page at the Moodyz's web site where she interviews other girls, etc. She had a small role in a play in Tokyo, and wants to follow in Ai Iijima's footsteps and become a TV personality. She is quite pretty and is another "g-supotto" girl. She was the sexy seductress type in most of her videos. But I'm afraid she might be one of the "fakers." Azumi Kawashima is a very very popular girl with model like looks. As pretty as she is, I never got into her performances. A likely faker. She did AV only to pay for college, so when she got enough she quit and did only photobooks. She supposedly had a boyfriend while doing AV, but there was a rumor she married her manager. Sayuri Honjou used to be an "idol girl" (a girl who will do modeling, pop singing, video hosting, anything to be in the public eye). That career didn't work out and she turned to porn. She has the slim body type but is quite attractive and very active during her scenes. I heard she was taking a break trying to kick her speed habit (speed is the drug of choice in Japan. Heroin and coke aren't the problem there as they are for some US porn stars). Akari Yamazaki is a busty girl, cute, a little chubby but with incredible natural breasts that are just plain huge. She seems to really get into the sex scenes. Izumi Maki is the kind of girl US fans and raincoaters would love. She is just flat out great, cute, fantastic body, seems to really be enjoying the sex. She had a really short career, in the end doing mostly bondage work (where there was probably more money). She is unique in that she had the deep tan and dyed red hair that was popular among Tokyo girls a couple of years ago. Most contract girls didn't have this look when she was a star, I guess because the old guys in Japan didn't like it. She also had a rep for being difficult. Kurumi Morishita is another cutie who usually plays a school girl. She's rail thin but very popular. She seems to be under a contract with SOD. She is their "flagship" girl, eclipsing even the great Kanabun. She will do anything. Sally Yoshino is the favorite of a lot of guys. She's done a lot of stuff for Kuki. She's now retired. I heard she got arrested for public obscenity during a strip show; she still performs. She also released a photobook. You've probably seen the scans. Jun Kusanagi (aka Mizuho Kano) was a big star , now out of the video business but still popular as a model and she has her own website. She's done some stills in the US (will discuss later). The most popular girl seems to be Bunko Kanazawa (somtimes billed as Fumiko Kanazawa or called "Kanabun." The suffix "bun" is a pet name for girls) Bunko isn't really my type, she's cute though. People really like her youthful look. She left the giant Kuki and went to work for the indies like Moodyz and SOD. Last time around I was chasized for not talking about Akira Fubuki. Well, she is a favorite of many, but when I started this she had been out of the business for a year or two. I'd much rather talk about Anna Fubuki, freaky bisexual and director of some great lesbian videos who was once a performer and SM queen. She wrote a book (see "randalia" section) Also, a long time hard working girl who deserves mention is Ai Nagase. She's working mostly for SOD now, super cute and petite and full of vim and vigor. You can find uncensored versions of her early indies work all over the web now at all the VCD retailers. Then there is the recently retired and favorite of BLUEBIRD, Ryo Ayanami. Her main attraction is her floppy natural breasts. Think she had a child recently. Sena Wakana is another old schooler people continue to look for. Never did much for me. She did a short stint with professional wrestling in Japan as a "heel" manager and participated in one match. Haven't heard much else from her. Also, everyone now knows about Anna Ohura, Emery Yoshikawa, and Ichigo Milk. They are all Kuki girls (of course). Anna (half Euro) and Emery (half Domincan) are the big busty type that the Japanese men love. Emery is a real beauty and could no doubt be a big star here in the states (forget Tera Patrick). Ichigo (her first name means "Strawberry") is a cutie known for her . . . milky discharge, and I don't mean from her breasts. No one from Kuki has really made a big splash lately. My favorite new girl is from SOD, Kyuoko Usami. She is dead cute, the next door girl, little sister type. I'm so glad she signed on with SOD and not HMP or KUKI. And, she's another squirter. One thing I haven't talked about is the tendency of management companies to name actresses after famous pop idols. Girls are chosen for stardom if they look like some teen idol, and management gives them a name that sounds like that star. A good example is Mami Goto, who resembles a member of a famous pop group. She's been under my radar while at Kuki, but now that she's working for the indies, I've taken notice. She's perfect for you guys who go on and on about how young Japanese women look (^_^) pervs, hehehe. Might be old news to long time readers of this FAQ. I'm gonna get her new video from WAAP, another fast rising indie. But you know, this would be a good thing for US porn czars to try and mimic, marketing girls based on their resemblance to famous people. Of course you might recall what happened to the company that tried to promote one movie as starring a Farrah Fawcett look alike (the company was sued). That is such a waste of time, but as a former lawyer I know it is good busy work, hehehe. Well, you just don't have to name the look alike, it should speak for itself, or just let her take the same first name. I guess look alikes here in the US are making too much money making appearances at conventions . . . riiiiight. Anyway, there is a name for this phenomena in Japan. The girls are "sokkuri-san." (Lit. the exact same person) There are tons of girls doing AV it seems. New girls pop up monthly. The indie companies are less discriminating when it comes to looks; the girls look like any cute girl off the street, and sometimes not so cute. But the performances are usually pretty good. Your best bet for finding AV girls via a search engine is using Yahoo's Google powered engine. You can at least find a box cover with the girl's picture on it this way. But AV Cosmo and AV 21 carry most all the stars vids between the two of them. J-List has a significant supply of SOD videos, but doesn't always have the newest gals from other makers. 2) Why the censors? It's a law. Go figure. If you want to see a decent sample of indie vids uncensored and you have a high speed ISP, you might want to check out www.gonnet.net. They offer uncensored versions of JAV in real video format in streaming and downloadable form (you can also get some US and Euro vids in this fashion also). $20 a month isn't a bad deal. Lots of content there. Yes, Typhoon and Samurai and one or two other companies have imported uncensored versions. I am almost certain that they release the least popular videos from the DMM catalogue. DMM is an association of indie JAV companies. I've seen a couple of Typhoon and Samurai but I haven't been impressed. I'm 100% certain that the Typhoon and Samurai catalogue are repackaged indie company productions. Now that my catalogue has increased I'm seeing the same scenes - the exact same scenes. Rumi Shirasaki, who goes by many other names and seemed to end her career with SOD. She was in an early episode of Fudol Kids, a Momtaro production, which has been released (Censored) in the US under Asian College Cuties. Momotaro also releases US made VCA video in Japan. There has to be some kind of agreement between a US distributor and a Japanese distributor in the release of the JAV in the states. It would be great if Kuki or SOD worked something out to distribute video in the US. I'm hoping that other companies decide to work out a distribution deal in the US. Many US companies have distribution deals in Japan. I think at this time it doesn't appear profitable to the Japanese companies. Besides, the video will just get bootlegged back into Japan and I don't think the government wants that. The only possible solution would be region coded DVD, but now most makers are going toward region free. But really and truly, just learn to love the mosaic. 3) What is all this high pitched squealing noises these girls make? Is it fake? Well, yes and no . . . . First, are any female orgasms in porn real? I don't know, and neither do you. We depend on interviews and what not, when Betty Bunghole says that she really does get off on the set, and Trixie Tallywacker says she never does. So you have to use whatever knowledge you have of a "real" orgasm and determine for yourself. However . . . Women of different countries make different noises. South American girls go "aye-iiii." Puerto Rican girls go "Ayeii poppy." European girls have a distinctive sound. (Yes, I've heard them all). Japanese directors have commented on how fake sounding the US porn girls are. Again, go figure. FYI, the word for "I'm cumming," in Japanese is "ikou." Some girls say "Dame! Dame! Dame!" It is like saying "Oh Fuck!" when the sex is really good. (Smarty pants have argued that this is the woman saying "no, stop." While it is true that Dame means "no," it is also considered a vulgarity. So there!) That squealing sound, is often the woman going eeeee, which is a long "e" sound followed by the word cho ( slang for "very," or "great") which together is roughly translated as "Oh yes!" In general, the girls in the vids don't say much, just wail. They don't make eye contact with the male generally. One director wrote, "Japanese men like sex to sound like it hurt." Now on that score, in the past MOST of your really hot AV girls faked the entire sex act. A very few still do. They get away with it because of the censoring of course. But the faking thing was a left-over from the days when the only type of porn available in Japan was soft core. What better way to get really gorgeous women to do porn but to tell them they didn't have to actually have sex? Fortunately, times have changed and most girls do the real thing now, though you can bet the most attractive girls are only giving a little head and getting some egg whites squirted on their face. there is a nice listing of actresses who fake the sex and who don't here. http://www.angelfire.com/ms2/jav/av.htm (back up!) 4)What about black men and Japanese women videos? NEWS Kaori Shimizu back working for MOODYZ now has done a couple of videos in LA where she has many scenes with African Ameircan actors in LA. I haven't checked it out yet, but I will post a review when I see it. I'm curious to see if they've changed their attitude towards black men as portrayed on screen, but I'm not hopeful. For some reason, perhaps racism, black men are almost always shown in some sort of gang bang or rape situation in these videos these days. It wasn't always that way. There is a sizable number of Japanese women who prowl the military bases looking for a hook-up. I'm guessing the popularity of rap videos and hip-hop in Japan has changed the climate a little. Only a few major AV stars have ever done a bm on tape. The major makers don't produce them as a rule. Ryoko Sawamiya and Sena Wakana are the only two major stars that I know of (thanks to Banana boy for reminding me of the former and telling me about the latter.) Ryoko Sawayama's Beast Venus is the one with Sean Michaels. There is also a scene with Sean in her "Angel" costume play video. It could be the same scene. As I posted to r.a.m.e. a while ago, Moodyz does most all the bm/jf vids today. They even have a relatively big name participating, Mayo Kotono. They have avoided the rape themes in favor of Japanese girl gets drunk and gets taken advantage of, which is technically rape, but as any one knows, in porn speak, when a girl gets drunk in front of a man she really wants sex. 5) Why go through all this for Japanese AV? Why not US produced stuff like "Asian Ass Explosions," or something? Because the women in Japanese AV are cuter. Let's face it, most of the "Asian" women in US stuff are not that attractive. And if you're reading this you are probably into Japanese women. Not many Japanese-American women getting into porn. Plus, in JAV you don't have to endure 30 minutes of vaginal close-ups where you can't tell what what the woman looks like. And JAV has a kind of style that just appeals to me. You'll have to check it out for yourself. Hustler's Asian line is now in its second volume and personally I'm not impressed with either. I gave them the benefit of the doubt for volume one, but for volume two they let Don Fernando helm it . . . what a mistake that was. I was thinking, well, it is really hard to find Asian American women to do porn anyway, especially to make a career out of it, so I'd cut them some slack on the attractiveness of the girls they chose in volume one. In two, well Don just went with his usual suspects . . . I don't think this series holds out much hope. 6) I don't want to see some Asian guy and his little dick. What about white males? To my knowledge this is quite rare. Sena Wakana has done it with some European actors. I don't know of any indie productions that have a wm/jf scene. VCA did something called "East Meets West," but you have to dig to find it. Other than that you are going to have to watch Ed Power's Samurai Debutantes over and over and over. Speaking of Ed, he has done a video with the AV star turned legit actress Mai Hoshino.(more later). IMO, Ed Powers got his style from the "document" and "pick-up" style videos made in Japan. So it makes sense he'd get involved in this. it was filmed, and it was released in Japan in October of 2000. Moodyz "In LA" series focuses on black guys, but it also occasionally includes a white male. There is a g/g series called L.A. Girlfriends that features JN girls with such US stars as Charlie and Bunny Love. Kuki has several tapes with JN men gettin it on with European or American women, if that's what ya like. Not all Japanese male porn dudes have tiny wee-wees, btw. But there aren't any giants over there either. They make up for it with vigor, enthusiasm, and vibrators. 7) I heard good things about Japanese lesbian vids . . . comments? I have a FAQ devoted entirely to this subject up at lezlove.com. Check it out. They do have a few JAV lesbian videos for sale there, mostly from SOD. 8) I don't know what to get. What do you recommend? Well, I've done this piece meal already and like I said it really depends on what kind of girl you like. I have peculiar tastes; I almost exclusively rent g/g US vids and this is what I've spent most of my money on with JAV. I stand by the theory of finding a woman you find attractive and getting one of her tapes. Check and see if she has made more than a couple of videos. If she hasn't, she probably never really got into doing it on camera and thus was shunned by the Japanese viewer. I would also stick with a company like SOD or Moodyz. The quality is very high and the mosaic is very thin. They are experimenting with US style video, double penetrations and the like. As far as m/f vids go, I like the "document" style; you can kind of get an idea of the girl's personality, at least her on screen personality. DO NOT expect JAV to be like US stuff. The women react differently. There is little or no emphasis on the vaginal close-up. The men are all like little versions of TT Boy, they pump really hard. 9) Can I rent or buy these from a store in the US? Yeah, if you live on the West Coast. I've heard from a guy living in San Diego that he can rent AV. I'm sure there are stores in San Francisco. I bet you people who live on the West Coast are probably reading this and laughing at us poor saps who live in the sticks. One little secret . . . look for ethnic video rental stores. Try places owned by Chinese (from HK), Japanese (naturally) or Koreans. Again, this really applies to people in big cities with large Asian populations. I'm sure these stores are all over cities like LA and SF. The Japanese and Koreans are moving to the New Jersey cities that lie south of NYC, for you east coast afficianados. Also, the Japanese immigrant population isn't growing like the other Asian ethnic groups, so perhaps these places will be harder to find in the near future as the Japanese Americans are more assimilated into the US culture and their ethnic stores aren't as great in number as the Korean stores, for example. I have found a few stores in NYC that stock JAV. Most of them are around the 8th Ave. area around the Port Authority. One such store had a great selection of underground (non censored) videos and some top of the line releases (a few years old) from Kuki, SOD, and other indies. The problem is that most stores only stock the SM style and scat vids (hey, its New York) from Cinemagic Memorial. I didn't see anything I wanted at any of the shops I visited. I can't recall any of the store names, but I would suggest to you hardcore JAV fans to just get off the train at Port Authority and just start walking around between 8th and 9th streets and 42nd and 38th ave. There are so many stores around there. I bet if you buy a few vids and start talking to the guys working there you can ask them to find something for you if you want something in particular. Most stores won't stock imported AV because of the censoring. The owner of the store I rent from stocked a couple of softcore vids from SOD but won't get the hardcore vids because of the censoring. 10) I looked up "blah-ko blah-blah-ko" on the internet and I can't find anything about her. Where can I look? Unless you have a browser capable of reading Kanji, this will be a difficult task for you. Kuki has profiles of most all their actresses on their site in English. Most of the guys who take time out to scan pics of Japanese girls can provide you will pictures but not much else. They can be found hanging out on the IRC channels like Asianscan and AVCC. Some guys are pretty knowledgable about the girls and can point you to a good video title. A bonus question: Why have you done this? I went looking for this kind of information once upon a time and I had an impossible time finding it out. I came to RAME for help but only found a short section on JAV. I figured that I'd pass along what I learned to help out others. Yeah, I agree, I had too much free time. IV. Japanese girls in US porn.VCA is the leader in getting girls from Japan to appear in US produced porn. They have a series called East Meets West. The first and third featured Japanese actresses. The second, released last year, featured the same ol' Asian American girls we all know (and like, if not love) The third came back to featuring a JAV actress. I posted a review to r.a.m.e. It starred Fujiko Kano, who is known in her JAV work as Risa Fukawa. She is gorgeous and worked for the big names like HMP and Tiffany. I don't know whether she will continue to work in the US. The first contained several girls who looked vaguely familiar, but no big names. The final scene featured Sean Michaels. It wasn't a bad video, and if you must see the uncensored variety, it would be worth looking up. Mai Hoshino is another woman who has appeared recently in a US production, in Ed Power's More Dirty Debutantes series #188. The scene as I've said was originally done for Cinemagic, but filmed here in Ed's little bedroom. Mai talked about wanting to work in the US, and perhaps she is planning on that. Last I heard she is living in LA. She called Heather Hunter and Jenna Jameson her inspirations. Seeing as Jenna has the ugliest set of fake tits of any big star, this is bad. Mai has done some legit work and starred in a rather bizzare Dutch-Japanese co-production (which could have been considered soft core porn with decent acting and a budget). However, she seems to have returned to AV. Again, this is not unusual in Japan. Girls go from legit to adult and from adult to legit often. Sakura Sena was a popular idol known as Shiho Fujiwara. She has her own web site and to celebrate her US stay got some giant fake breasts. She doesn't seem to be planning on working in US porn. She is in Japan now, but seems to like NY and she wants to be known world wide. Jun Kusanagi has done stills for Danni's Hard Drive and appeared in a web cast show with Danni. She too has her own site but it is almost entirely in Japanese. I've heard rumblings she will appear in a US glossy magazine and calender, but AFAIK it is still in the planning stages. Perhaps she has her sites set on being the Japanese Danni and isn't interested in working here. There are of course a few Japanese or "hafu"(half Japanese) girls working here, from the famous like Mimi Miyagi and Suzi Suzuki to the newcomers like Kamiko (Aiko Lee) and Joy Candy (Noriko) and amateur web girls like Satomi Mizuno (www.sexysatomi.com). She plans to sell video from her site I heard, but I don't know when. Don Fernando has filmed a couple of not so attractive but certainly Japanese girls for his series of videos. I can't really commend his work since the video is so poor, but perhaps you might want to take a look. If you've seen any of the Filmco stuff or vids like Asian Pick-Up Couch, you've seen Don's work. The Filipino girls he gets are usually more attractive, really, like the g/g only Teanna Kai and the Marcella sisters. Randalia: NEWS Another AV Idol turned author (see Ai Iijima's story below). Anna Fubuki has penned a book titled "Sex Player." It tells the story of her career, from OL to AV actress and SM queen, to AV director and producer. She also tells of her life as a bisexual woman in Japan. Former AV Superstar now TV actress Ai Iijima has written an autobiography called "Platonic Sex," a best seller in Japan and now Taiwan. It is most popular among young women, probably because of her rags to riches to legitimate fame story. Ol tetsu is trying to get his hands on more information on what is in the book. I'm sure it would provide a lot of interest to those interested in the AV world. I found a page by a guy who calls himself "The Ugly American."Mostly stuff about how to "score" in Japan, that kind of thing Anyway, he interviewed a famous AV director who has his own web site (currently down). I have exchanged Email with this director on occasion and he provided me with some help on some of the stickier questions in my FAQ. Here's the link. http://uglyamerican.homestead.com/Interviews.html (page is down) There is a famous "old school" AV girl who calls herself EVE (Yumiko Kumishiro) who is supposed to have done some work in the states (IMDB has her listed in some Up N Cummers stuff she wasn't in. She's listed in Sex Offenders #5, but I have no idea whether she's in it or not.) She did appear in the mainstream movie Orgasmo with Anna Kazuki. EVE has made yet another comeback in JAV after trying legit acting in the states. I think she got started in the late 80's. Her comeback stuff was mostly g/g. I'm curious as to whether she is gay, actually. IMO, JAV girls who try to make it here won't. They won't get the kind of work they get at home nor the same money even if they do break the language barrier. They certainly won't end up being "stars." I think it would be interesting to see someone try. I wonder if the more established Asian girls would welcome such an invasion. Someone needs to boot Asia Carerrra and Tera Patrick off their throne. Certainly Fujiko Kano could, in my opinion. One of my favorite independent film directors, Hal Hartley, married a former AV girl. She appeared in one of his movies. Miho Nikado is her name. She acts in legit film now, but mostly for her husband. She was in AV back when there was a whole lotta fakin goin on. Just another reason to emulate Hal I guess. I suppose I should mention that gay and trannie vids are available. You can order uncensored versions released by Typhoon from some regular US venues. I've only seen one "girl" on a box cover that looked convincing. Like I said, Japan is big on homophobia so your pickin's on these vids are gonna be slim. It is my understanding that most gay video is made by indie publishers. AV Cosmo does have a page devoted to it, however. This is Motomaro's site. They have a deal with VCA to release US vids in Japan. Perhaps they will work out something to distribute in the US. They also have clips available for download if you become a member of their site. I've never joined, let me know if I'm missing anything. http://www.indies-av.co.jp/ Many of the video companies have their own websites. In addition to Kuki, SOD, Aroma, Moodyz, etc have their own sites with pictures and on set reporting. Momotaro, Kasakura, and Moodyz have free downloadable sample clips. SOD has streaming clips. A couple of other sites have pay-per view full length real media clips. As usual, the Japanese are light years ahead of the US in terms of customer service. More and more of the girls are getting their own sites. They tend to be affiliated with a production company, though. Some directors have their own sites as well. For links to all these sites, email me if interested. Finally, if you have any questions or comments (good, bad, and ugly), email me at [email protected]. I don't check regularly, but I will reply to you ASAP. My schedule doesn't allow for updates as often as I'd like, but sometimes when I get some hot info I post it to the newsgroup. Also, if you plan on being lame and copying what I do, make sure you give a little credit. Won't be the last or the best, but I was definitely first. | |
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