Hello everyone yfooCollector here again with the last JAV News Recap and I wish you and your loved ones are enjoying the holidays. While the industry seems to be winding down for the end of the year, there are still a lot of exciting news for December as well as for the next year. I also have a follow-up on my last month's report on SOD's roster with more news around the actresses for that studio.

SkyPerfecTV Adult Awards nominees 2022 announced

SkyPerfecTV Adult Awards has returned and along with the announcement were the nominees and changes to the format of the awards. The Adult Awards is sponsored by Seirin(Adult Program Ethics Committee) and has been held every year since 2005 but had a 2 year hiatus due to the pandemic. The Adult Awards had the 2020 actress award winner Kizuna Sakura to present the nominees in a YouTube livestream as well announce the format changes. This time around there would only be 3 awards the Most Valuable Actress, Most Intelligent Actress and the Most Technical Actress, a complete departure from the previous years where there were the actress, newcomer and mature actress awards.

Nominees for the Adult Awards 2022

[L to R: Aoi Kururugi, Chiharu Miyazawa, Honoka Tsujii, Hamazaki Mao, Meru Ito, Sarina Momonaga, Hikari Aozora, Ai Hongo (formerly Yume Nikaidou), Riho Fujimori]

The Most Valuable Actress (MVA) is similar the Actress award of previous years but the Most Technical (MTA) and Most Intelligent (MIA) awards seems like complete gimmicks to me. The winners would be determined by votes as well as they performances in a erotic quiz and skills challenge that was shown in the Adult Award's official YouTube channel. The nominees for this new format are also the same 9 across all categories, frankly I think this robs some recognition from newcomers and veterans/mature actresses that were honored in previous years. It is also worth noting that some of the most popular actresses were not nominated such as Eimi Fukada, Ichika Matsumoto and Hana Himesaki, yet despite these criticism I am still very much excited and happy with the return of the Adult Awards.

My personal pick to win (Ai Hongo), who I think is most likely to win (Riho Fujimori) and my dark horse for the awards (Meru Ito)

With the only award worth talking about being the Most Valuable Actress, the field of nominees are an interesting bunch and it would be hard to predict who could win it. My personal pick however would be Ai Hongo(formerly Yume Nikaidou) as to be honest I am a huge simp for her and I would really like her to get recognition. As for who I think is most likely to win, it would be Riho Fujimori as her performances this past 2 years are great and her films are fairly popular, taking high spots in sales rankings. Even if there are more popular and tenured actresses nominated like Aoi Kururugi, Sarina Momonaga and Mao Hamasaki, I still believe that she has the best chance of winning the MVA. As for my dark horse it would be the baffling nomination of Meru Ito. She has only debuted this year and by all metrics she isn't really that well-known, however I think that she is a highly underrated actress. If you want to support any of the nominees, voting is ongoing until the end of January and you can bet that I would have a recap after the awards show's broadcast in March 6. 

Momozono Rena reveals the circumstances behind her JAV comeback

In early 2016 one of my favorite actresses was Momozono Rena, however it was quite surprising for her to disappear after only appearing in three films. Her career was even shorter than another notable actress who vanished Saika Kawakita who was able to make 6 films before disappearing. However in a stunning return Momozono Rena came back to AV in September 2020 and has been releasing a film monthly ever since and in a recent interview in a TV-Tokyo talk show she revealed the circumstances behind her initial retirement as well as life outside and in between the industry. The interview itself is very revealing about Rena as a person and I cannot help but admire her resolve after watching and reading the interview.

Momozono Rena's initial three releases

In the interview Rena talked about how she initially wanted to become a gravure idol and had an acquaintance hook her up with an agency but there were only looking for AV actresses at the time. She decided to take the opportunity because of a curiosity and an affinity on sex and signed a 3 film contract. She shot the 3 films all while still attending a prestigious college, however she found it hard to keep her AV career a secret. A group of AV fans have already doxxed her from her debut announcement and by the time her debut film was released it was already common knowledge among the other students. She became the subject of curiosity in the campus with people coming to her classes just to see her face, students pointing fingers as she walked by and some even shared her AV amongst themselves. The exposure of her private life has also led her to not re-sign a new AV contract and chose to retire after the contract.

Screenshots from Rena Momozono's interview

Despite all the things happening around the exposure of her AV career, she still had the resolve to continue attending college and eventually graduate. She got a job at a first-class company but even in the workplace her past continued to haunt her. Through the power of social media she was already called by the HR department about her past in AV which she had to deny. The reactions of her co-workers were also troubling, with her higher ups constantly trying to hook up with her or get her to drink with them. She was steadfast in denying such unwanted advances by replying she is not a hostess. After 2 years of corporate life she decided to return to the industry after reading comments of fans wanting her return and wanting to see how far her AV career could take her.

Momozono Rena's latest film [JUFE-352]

After watching the interview I can't help but admire her resolve and determination to push through with her normal life even after getting doxxed. I also love the fact that her reason for returning is quite grounded with just trying to see how far her AV career would go. I still have to note that with the digital age and social media it is getting harder and harder to keep information we want to keep private and I think some actresses really don't know the extent of their pubic exposure when appearing in AV films. Hearing about her story makes me like her more and she already is one of my favorite actress but hearing about not letting her AV career exposure faze her life is inspirational to me.

SOD actress roster followup and Toda Makoto announces transfer to FALENO retirement

On December 14th Toda Makoto has announced that she has transferred to FALENO after graduating from a 5+ year SOD stint. Along with the transfer was also the announcement of her retirement after a year with FALENO on January 2023. While the retirement announcement was quite a surprise she stated that she has long planned to give a proper notice to her fans when she is about to retire. She has a lengthy write-up about her decision to retire and her feelings towards the transfer here. Without naming names, discussed how there were creative differences between her and her old studio led her to move to a new one. 

Toda Makoto in her retirement announcement

The cynical side of me thinks that a huge factor in her decision to transfer to FALENO before retiring is monetary compensation as it seems the studio has a lot of capital to make moves like this happen. Her attitude towards her porn career and SOD comes off as bittersweet as well in the post she wrote and she even wished that fans would still her other efforts outside of AV. With Makoto's retirement this leaves Mana Sakura, Iori Kogawa, Yuna Ogura and Masami Ichikawa as the "veterans" left in SOD. This has led me to make a follow-up on their roster as well.

New Actresses Kudo Yura, Miran Suzuhara and Magic Bus Audtion winner Shiori

Aside from Toda Makoto, half-russian actress Anna became a freelancer and transferred to T-powers agency. She will continue to perform using the same name and leaves with only 6 titles produced with SOD which follows the pattern I talked about last month. SOD signed a lot more actresses this month with 8manpro's Kudo Yura debuting for SOD Star as well as the tri-lingual(JP, KR, EN) newcomer Miran Suzuhara. I am quite curious to see how Kudo Yura performs as 8manpro really hyped her up along with 2 other actresses Tsubasa Mai and Igarashi Natsu, which they signed to S1 and FALENO respectively. I could not discern Miran Suzuhara's English skills yet but she seems fluent in Korean and I think she might even have some Korean blood in her. Another addition to SOD is the winner of the Magic Bus Cinderella audition Shiori, I don't really have much to say about her other than from all the candidates she seems to be the most eye-catching one. With these moves SOD Star's roster is now at a healthy 20 (excluding Shiori), nine of which being signed in 2021.

Other Headlines

Social media and other news

• Aiga Mizuki starts a gaming Twitch and YouTube and becomes part of Revgency gaming idols.
• Aka Asuka renames to Shiose without a change in agency and studio, frankly I think this was a bizarre move as I didn't see a reason for the change.
• In early December, Moe Amatsuka revealed that she got her boobs touched up and her upcoming release might be the last one shot before the surgery. [FSDSS-361]
• Yuki Rumina tweets an apology to fans 3 months after news of her arrest due to illegal substances.
• A MOODYZ debut film [MIFD-190] for Aoi Ren was delisted one day before release and it is a complete mystery why it was canceled.

Transfers and Revivals

• Miura Sakura has returned with a new film since going on a hiatus after July.
• Two months ago I reported about Rui Hizuki talking about a possible comeback from retirement if she got a good offer, well she's back and will perform under the name Rui Negoto.
• Kamiki Mahoro has renamed to Kurokawa Harumi.
• Hiyori Yoshioka graduates from FALENO and goes freelance.

Retirements and Announcements

• Honoka Mihara retires after 6 years in the industry.
• Maki Izuna announces retirement in her next film, she has spent her 2 year career as an exclusive S1 actress.
• Retirements: Aika Usagi, Nozomi Azuma, Aria Narumiya, Kiu Aihara, Yumemite Uta, Kanon Kurosaki (formerly Nana Yaotome)