JAV News Roundup - September Edition - Volume 4

Trapstar here, reporting live from ZENRA headquarters. Bringing you the latest buzz in the Twitter JAV space in recent days

SEGA Onboards JAV Stars For It's Upcoming Game

Good news for all you gaming fellas out there, SEGA recently pulled off the wraps on its next installment of the Yakuza series. After being marketed as Yakuza in the west for a while, the game has recently been rebranded as Ryu Ga Gotoku, which roughly translates to "like a dragon", in line with its origin version sold under the same branding back in Japan. Since its values don't align with the workings of the Yakuza, SEGA made the decision to drop the Yakuza banner. This decision was well received in the west, where it has a sizable fan base. 

Since the franchise has always been known as Ryu Ga Gotoku back in its origin country of Japan, inspired by the studio that developed it, the transition also maintains a parity as a single brand connecting both worlds. As the studio dropped the yakuza identity, SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku studio released the seventh instalment of the game in 2020 under the new name, which included a new protagonist at the head of an improved storyline with a full-fledged combat system. There are several excellent easter eggs for JAV fans in the trailer for the most recent episode, which is set to be published in February of next fall. Besides the kickass action the franchise is famous for, the latest installment features a handful of JAV actresses like most of its predecessors. 

JAV Actresses in a scene from Ishin Kiwami

In the trailer, we get a glimpse of Yuna Ogura, Momo Sakura and alas, Yui Hatano making a comeback to the franchise yet again. Set in the Edo period of the 1800s, the makers decided to do justice to the storyline by adding geishas to the plot, and who better to play the roles than our seasoned JAV actresses. It's not the first time that the franchise has decided to cast JAV stars. The relationship goes way back to the first installment, infamously called Yakuza. Numerous well-known figures from the industry have made fleeting appearances in the game over the years. A few actresses, including Yui Hatano and Yua Mikami, have appeared in multiple cameos over the franchise's history as regular roasters. Can't even move forward with this column without making an esteemed mention of our favorite Anri Okita, who had been a part of the sixth installment before the studio disassociated with the Yakuza branding. 

As part of the franchise, Yuna released a few behind-the-scenes photos from the set, which included her co-stars Yui Hatano and Momo Sakura. The actress captioned the pic, "Released on February 22, 2023, “Yakuza Ishin!  I'm making a little appearance in "Kiwami"! It's such a pleasure to be able to appear in my favorite Ryu ga Gotoku. This is an off-shot at the site. Hatano-san and Momo-chan". To my amusement, a random user from the adult board Scanlover, mistook it for a girl on girl lesbian scene until he was informed otherwise. I mean, I do agree with his statement; if this wasn't a production set, the trio would certainly create some excellent lesbian scenes for the fans. 

"This time from the remastered version of "Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! I was able to appear in Kiwami. It'll be out in a bit."

To be honest, the trailer looks dope, giving fans a deep dive into the realms of the Edo period while doing justice to the plot set in the 1800s. Moreover, it has some jam packed action and fight sequences as one would expect from a Yakuza franchise, and the fact that the entire game is built on the Unreal Engine is insane. I can't wait to indulge in the powers of ray tracing while swirling that sword in the game, when it releases next fall. This definitely looks like a cop, just by the trailer.

Like A Dragon: Ishin Kiwami Official Twitter

R18 Terminates Operations After Nine Years

Finally, I'd like to wrap this column with a rather disheartening message for our readers. Chances are you've already heard about it thanks to Oppaira's earlier coverage, but it seems like an issue I didn't have the guts to skip since this is the only headline, in my recent memory that matters to JAV fans based worldwide as R18 shuts its shop. To the dismay of fans, the adult marketplace revealed earlier this month that it will be closing down its commercial activities after being 9 years in operation. The administrators addressed the supporters in their official statement. 

"After 9 years of helping people discover and share great contents, R18.com will stop selling content from October 24, 2022. From this date, users will have access to their already purchased content only.

A few months later, from January 31, 2023 the site will be completely closed and accessing purchased content will not be possibl

We are proud of the community that rallied around R18.com and we know many of you will be sad to see it go. All the best from the R18.com team, and may you always find what you are looking for. we'll miss it dearly..."

Fans had a mixed reaction, as they felt abandoned and equally hard to comprehend what struck them, at the gist of the moment. Most were raged and it's fitting since they had a lot of money at stake. Fans invested both time & money to purchase JAVs close to their heart only to lose out on those, considering R18 had stringent DRM measures at place that won't let one access them on an unverified system. They'd even recently removed the possibility of purchasing JAVs using giftcards, which served as a final nail to the coffin.

The website voluntarily ceased operations earlier in June after incurring the wrath of card processing companies such as VISA and Mastercard for failing to comply with the latter's non-compliant issue of specific content on the site that was a clear no-go. The recent news comes roughly after four months since the site was left up and operating without any fresh releases, leaving the baffled fans with no choice but to buy JAV from their Japanese cousin, FANZA, which makes it a quite tedious process in itself for foreign buyers to purchase movies abroad. Additionally, the fact that the upper management had a chance to save the sinking ship but chose not to do so by adopting a resolute stance may serve as a significant lesson for the majority of Japanese companies with international operations. 

It's inconceivable to me that a company that generated millions of dollars in revenue didn't act upon it urgently to provide alternate payment methods, considering it served as the only legitimate entity for western fans to purchase JAV legally. This only serves to highlight how little they cared about the clients who diligently put their time & money in an effort to help the Japanese adult industry. R18's failure remains a prime example on how the management back in Japan failed to capitalise on a cash cow, which might make up for good case study in business schools all over the world.

Now with R18 gone, the only resort for the distressed fans remain the illegal adult tubes that are a hotbed of piracy and their traffic will certainly boost in the near future until a legal replacement to R18 comes along with a much sophisticated content management system and payment processors. For the loyal fans who do their part in helping the industry by purchasing JAVs legally, R18 leaves behind a legacy as it reminds me of one of Darwin's most famous quotes, that "it's not the strong who survive, or the most intellectual but the ones most susceptible to change". Moreover, it has created a big void in market which remains unfulfilled to date. In the near future, it certainly creates room for entry of big players which fortunately includes our platform, as well.

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