JAV News Recap for March 2022

Hi everyone! yfooCollector here with the March news recap and for this month I'd like to switch up how I write these recaps and try to cover more news with more detail. I usually go in-depth on the biggest news for the month and just leave the rest in the other headlines section, but moving forward I would like to try to cover more topics. 

SKYPerfecTV Adult Awards Recap

Adult Award Winners Ai Hongo and Meru Ito

This March was the awarding ceremony of the SKYPerfecTV Adult Awards and Ai Hongo and Meru Ito took home the awards. Ai Hongo won the MVA (Most Valuable Award) award which was given to whoever received the most fan votes. She also won the MTA (Most Technical Award) which was determined by whoever finished the sexy challenges the fastest. Meru Ito got awarded the MIA (Most Intelligent Award) for scoring the highest in the erotic quiz the candidates took. Frankly I was a bit disappointed as the issues I pointed out with the format changes surfaced. Such a small pool of candidates all gunning for the same 3 awards made it hard for some actresses to get recognized unlike the previous formats. On a positive note, the actresses I was rooting for won, even my dark horse pick Meru Ito winning an award was a pleasant surprise. Hopefully the next Adult Awards would return to the previous format so that more actresses could be given the recognition they deserve. You can also check out the winning actresses interview in this Youtube video.

AV industry adjusts as Japan lowers age of adulthood

Japan has recently passed a bill lowering the age of adulthood to 18, correspondingly the AV human rights and ethics organization has released guidelines for signing actresses when it becomes effective in April. The main provision of the bill that affects the AV industry is the one that allows people who are 18 or 19 to enter contracts without parental consent. According to the ethics organization, major AV studios have stopped hiring 18-19 year old actresses for several years now, which I believe is due to the difficulty of obtaining a parent's consent being more trouble than it's worth. This also confirms the open secret that AV actresses are presented as younger than their true age, as it would be hard for an aspiring actress to enter a contract while under 20. Even with the bill becoming effective at the start of April, I still don't think we'd see 18-19 year olds entering AV anytime soon as the guidelines are stricter for anyone below 20 and also bars companies from signing people that are enrolled in high school. I'd presume we'll see the younger actresses would start appearing in the less regulated amateur porn industry first before they make their way into AV.

Inactive actress social media round-up

[SSIS-323] Mian Shirasaka's latest and possibly last film

I originally wrote this section when Karen Kaede deleted all her social media posts late this March where I would check up on inactive actresses, however Karen has since announced that she will be retiring from the AV and would end her short 3 year career. Karen is one of the standout Idea pocket actresses and even if some people criticized her decision to get plastic surgery, I still think that she was a great performer and had the potential for international fame. Going back to inactive actresses, this month I noticed that S1's Mai Shiomi has deleted her social media accounts which led me to check up on Mian Shirasaka and it seems that she retired with her February release. Mai Shiomi also doesn't have a film slated for release in April and might have already retired with her March release just like Mian. Ren Usui, who stopped her social media months ago, seemed to have also left AV with no new films since last month. 

Amakawa Sora

On the other side of the coin, there are actresses who haven't released a film in months who are still very active on social media. Sora Shiina still retweets and likes posts about AV and her actress friends while Matsuri Kiritani posts are related to her everyday life, but both of them seem to be avoiding any questions about their return to AV. Ichika Nagano is also active in social media even if her last film was in January, which makes me wonder if she is taking a break or there is a lack of offers since she went freelance. Amakawa Sora has also remained active, but in her case it looked like she was using social media to set up her influencer/gravure model career. She has posted on her IG stories about her difficulties with dealing with the social pressures and criticisms from people about her AV career. Although she has made it clear that she isn't retired and could possibly return to AV, I don't think it will be anytime soon as she currently has no agency and has recently launched a fantia page.

I'll end this section with some actresses that I'm worried about due to their either a lack of social media presence or the content of their posts. Airi Suzumura's status is still unknown after her meltdown on twitter last October. Asada Himari's sub twitter account has a lot of posts about her self esteem issues and I hope I'm wrong and just reading too much into it. Marin Hinata tweeted about how she was supposed to retire on her 3rd anniversary, she is still active now and would hopefully continue acting. Kaede Hiiragi is still making new films but her twitter not being updated since January is making me anxious. We also haven't heard anything from Kana Yume since she left her agency and her supposed return under a different name.

HerHersLove to shut down

HerHersLove has announced that they will be shutting down on March 31 and would be the end of their short stint in AV distribution. While they have said that they will try to improve the service, I felt that the site itself was doomed to fail as it was hard to identify the value proposition of the site. HerHersLove markets itself to having fairer rates for actresses than other AV distribution sites, but aside from that there wasn't anything to set them apart from FANZA at all. They have almost the same prices but FANZA has a larger catalog. They cite the abundance of "illegal downloads" and alternative ways of supporting AV actresses, such as fantia or camp-fire, making it hard for them to capture the market that they want. I also think that HerHersLove did not lean into their "supporting actresses" angle enough, as I barely saw any buzz from actresses or fans about using their site instead of FANZA.

Debuts to look forward to in April

Rena Miyashita [MIDV-075] 

I'm really excited for a couple of debut films this coming April that I'd like to talk about. First is Rena Miyashita's debut with MOODYZ with MIDV-075. When I first saw the cover for Rena's debut film I couldn't believe such a pretty girl is gonna star in AV, her face looked like that of a model or an actress. Her beauty is honestly unbelievable that even MOODYZ is showing her without makeup in promotional images and the trailer to prove that it's real. I do admit that my hype for this film is all coming from Rena's pretty face and with the trailer only showing little sex scenes, I can only hope her performance is good and that she'll stick around in AV for a long time. I understand that Rena's beauty wouldn't appeal to everyone but I'd still recommend checking out her debut, as I believe MIDV-075 might be one of the biggest films this April.

Shiori [STARS-573] 

My second debut film recommendation for April is that of SOD's Shiori with STARS-573. Shiori is the winner of SOD's audition I reported back in December, and her debut is finally here. While I didn't have a great impression of her when she was announced as SOD STAR's new exclusive actress, her debut trailer and the gravure photos with FLASH left me wanting to see her more. She has a great body, plump G-cup breasts and an unconventionally pretty face and I'm wishing I'd like her even more when I get to watch her debut. Shiori reminds me of my initial dismissive attitude towards Yuki Rino, where I didn't really have strong impression of her until I got to watch a clip of one Yuki's films and became her fan ever since. One thing that bothers me about Shiori is that she has the temporary (仮) tag on her name, even in DMM, and she will change her stage name in the future.

Other Headlines

Social media and other news

• Kitano Mina’s to release her first photobook.
• FANZA launched the FANZA House Youtube channel.
• Eimi Fukada celebrated 1 million subs on Youtube and her 24th birthday.

Transfers and Revivals

• Minaho Ariga has transferred to Madonna from Kanbi.
• Yuka Oshima returns with JUL-938, her last work was a VR release in September 2021.
• Rin Amamiya returns to JAV, she retired at the end of 2021.
• Sakura Yoda returns after 6 months without a release.
• Renames:
  • Nanami Ozora to Hiname Meguro.
  • Akimoto Suzune to Hirakawa Ruru.

Retirements and Announcements

• Nanako Miyamura left Arrows agency and renamed to Miyamu.
  • She says she's is now a freelancer, but I don't know if it means she's retired from AV or is representing herself independently like June Lovejoy.
• Aoi Rena transitioning to directing starting with her retirement film.
• Retirements: An Mitsumi, Remu Hayami, Minami Nagata, Yui Kunugi (Mio Fukada)