With April in the books we're now a quarter through the year. We're also getting closer and closer to COVID being over and done with. While I, like everyone else, just wants it to be done with, actresses in the industry also feel the same way. A number of people haven't been shooting lately because of it, and I can understand why. There's just no way to avoid the kind of things you're supposed to be avoiding when having sex and some actresses have vocally expressed that being the reason why they're not working these days. Considering one of my all-time favourites, Meguri, isn't shooting for that reason, I just want it to be over so she can be on film again. Anyway let's jump in to this month's post.

Top Actresses

Up at the top of the physical charts we have Hana Himesaki followed by a slew of 2020 debuts I've posted reviews of, including Aka Asuka, Yume Nikaido, Mahina Amane, Nene Tanaka, and Riri Nanatsumori. Hana was not the person I expected to be up at the top of the charts so consistently, especially since we have actresses like Riri Nanatsumori, Aka Asuka, and Yume Nikaido showing up. Hana has certainly been putting in some work though and she's been making quite the name for herself. I'm not as convinced anymore that she intends to become exclusive if only because she's continuing at this breakneck production and she should probably capitalize on it as much as she can. She has 19 videos scheduled for May which is absolutely ludicrous to think about (that would work out to over 200 videos this year)! I'm really hoping to see her in a couple of my favourite series, and considering she's worked for both Oppai and Wanz Factory already I can only hope it's more of a matter of time.

Keeping on the trend of 2020 debuts I thought it would be interesting to see how some of the 2020 debuts compared so I whipped up the chart below. It shows the physical sales rankings of a handful of the popular 2020 debuts, starting from June last year when I first started these sales reports. Take a second to review it and then I'll provide some commentary on it.

Looking at Hana Himesaki first and foremost we see her destroying the competition right now. She's been the best debut for four months in a row, a feat only paralleled by Nozomi Ishihara once last year. What's crazier is that Hana completely disappeared from the chart for several months and it wasn't until her output skyrocketed that she started being insanely popular. I must say, she has won me over too, and I've been enjoying her quite a lot more from when I first watched her last year. She did improve quite a bit and I think everyone has noticed. Anyway, interesting to actually put something behind the commentary that Hana keeps performing well and it will be interesting to see how long she can keep this up.

Another interesting thing we see is Urara falling off the map as well. She hasn't done well this year and it isn't because she's not working. She was always someone who was a very particular niche (as a reminder her niche is that jungle of hers) and I feel like niches can come and go rather quickly. I can't say I'm ultimately too surprised given the kind of videos she's been releasing lately which are definitely a far cry from when she was working at studios like Hon Naka, Premium, and Moodyz. I can't begin to fathom why they stopped working with her but I guess not everyone can always be so lucky. If you want to learn more about Urara check out her interview by June Lovejoy above and make sure to turn on subtitles.

Another interesting bit is checking out who made the list continually. Yume Nikaido is the only actress to appear in every month on the list and, as I've mentioned in previous months, I'll keep pointing out how popular she is. That being said, it's a bit unfair to judge this way because not everyone was even active way back in June. If we instead change the parameters to be "made the list every month they could have" then we can also put both Riri Nanatsumori and Aka Asuka on the list (with three others missing just one month). It is, however, more interesting to also consider the average ranking, and that is where Yume is the clear winner with the best average ranking of the three at 15. I guess this is just more ways for me to point out how popular she is.

Keeping on that averages trend you can really see how popular Hana has become as her five month average since rejoining the top of the charts is 4. Four is insanely high and rivals the best in the industry, and five months is certainly a long enough period for it to actually be quite significant. If you haven't been watching Hana I think the writing is on the wall and you should be.

Mei Miyajima is another interesting name if only because of what her debut title proclaimed. Her debut title clearly had 次で引退です written on it, which could be translated as "next time I will retire". That being said, she took a couple month hiatus and then came back, even for the same studio too. It really makes you put a lot of the gimmicks JAV studios come up with into perspective because you never really know what the truth is. We've seen some pretty outlandish things before too, Rika Mari's recent redebut stated she had only 25,000 JPY left in her bank account, which is less than $250 USD. I suppose it could have been true but then guilting fans to buy it to support her is not something I'd put past them. Anyway, getting back to Mei her next release certainly has the right physical stamp to do well and I'm not surprised to see her up on the list again. She's certainly doing well for someone who was supposed to retire after two films and has a dozen now, especially since some people (like myself) would always doubt whether investing in her is worthwhile. She pointed out she wasn't even going to do a third video and I feel like I wouldn't be surprised if she just vanished randomly.

I don't have much to say about Suzu but this is probably the perfect opportunity to share this video. Joey, better known as The Anime Man, took a trip to SOD Land. If you're unfamiliar it's basically a pornstar theme park. It's an interesting concept to say the least and it's more like getting served drinks and such from pornstars. They literally will make you drinks and talk dirty in your ear and my word it seems like one hell of an experience. Anyway, Joey is joined by former actress Kaho Shibuya, a friend of his, but the actual on-duty actress is Suzu Honjo. If you were ever interested in seeing a pornstar trying to be sexy/dirty in a slightly different setting than a set, check it out. Yes, Suzu does talk dirty in the video, so it is everything you would have hoped for from something like this.

Akari Neo is someone who doesn't get nearly enough love anywhere. She's got an incredible ass that I feel is really not promoted all that much. Seriously just look at that ass. Her release in April seemed to make her look juicy all over and I think it did the job of selling itself. Truth be told, she probably just had a combination of videos sell well and she certainly is someone who doesn't seem to get enough love. It's also a good time to point out just how many actresses on the list have nice asses: Akari Mitani, Yu Shinoda, Kurea Hasumi, Nao Jinguji, Elly Akira, and Akari Neo all have nice asses, asses I wouldn't be surprised to see on someone's top 10 list. That, compared to the boobs department... well there's no comparison here. I suppose I am a bit biased but I don't think someone like Rena Aoi or Yui Nagase are going to compete.

Kana Momonogi is also up high on the list this month, jumping enough spots to land in the top 25. She's been a mainstay of Idea Pocket for many years now, for those that aren't familiar with her. Her April release was a bit more rough than IP is generally known for and I think that may have contributed to her jumping a few spots, I know it was selling well at times throughout the month. IP has a bit of a weird relationship with harder films like that because of how their sister studio, Attackers, operates (just to elaborate, they are both owned and operated by the same people). It always feels like as a studio they just relegate all the harder stuff to them, and Attackers certainly is known for that kind of material. That being said, IP actresses generally don't go to Attackers for just one film, if they swap it's a permanent thing. That means that most IP actresses don't end up doing anything more rough like this. I really wish they'd just swap actresses back and forth, and I think this video very clearly indicates the market demand for it. I would think the reverse is true as well, that some actresses relegated to only Attackers content would do well having some lighter videos. If they were smart about it, they'd do a 3:1 split between the two studios, that way you get a bit of both worlds for actresses. Anyway, I expect Kana's rise to be temporary just as a matter of that content and I don't expect her quite this high next month.

Last of the actresses I'll point out on R18 is Miharu Usa, another that doesn't get a lot of attention. Like many S1 actresses, you can be a very good actress in your own right and be outshined completely. Just look at the list, there are four S1 actresses above her and we haven't listed any of the 2020 debuts in Riri, Mahina, or Aka, not to mention no Rara either. Her release looks rather interesting as it's an assortment of POV scenes in various circumstances including teacher, office lady, and nurse. It seems like it has just enough to excite people. Miharu is someone I've been meaning to check out again after appearing in an earlier New to Me post and I'd have to agree with people that this seems like a reasonable video to check out.

Saki Okuda jumped up quite a few spots this month, enough that I think it's quite noteworthy. S1 has so much content coming out each month that they prepare a lot of compilation videos and have tons of sales. The net result is that anyone decently popular from them can make an appearance under the right circumstances. Saki's most popular non-compilation is a VR from earlier this year. The non-VR version of this series, in general, is actually rather enjoyable, and I have actually seen Saki Okuda's entry (which is also listed above). I didn't think Saki Okuda's entry was anything special but who knows, maybe VR changes some things. Part of me doubts it knowing that there's this risk factor VR can't quite capture as nicely but then again if Saki gets nice and sweaty then all bets are off.

Saki is also joined by fellow S1 actress Minami Kojima making an appearance. Minami has been in the game for a long time, 10 years now, and first joined S1 way back in 2014. Interestingly enough, her career actually compares quite closely to Saki's, having been active for a similar amount of time and having a similar amount of videos with S1. Minami isn't a name I know quite as well as Saki, Saki being someone I actually do regularly watch. Her most popular video is actually a duo with Tsukasa Aoi (who placed 5th this month). It just goes to show you the depth that S1 has on their roster. They have six of the top 25 actresses and there's still a boatload of major actresses missing: Kaoru Yasui, Aka Asuka, Riri Nanatsumori, and Mahina Amane (who should all be very familiar to regular readers of my sales posts). It's just so crazy to think about one studio dominating the market like this but I guess attractive ladies sells and they always seem to have women who are pretty with reasonable curves that intruige people.

Speaking of which, now is a good time to bring up Rara Anzai, who has been missing on these lists. Considering how crazy her comeback was you'd expect her to still be on the list, and I would too if she had another upcoming release. It's almost par for the course with her now that she has no May release listed. She always seems to dominate the domestic physical sales so without that I'm not surprised she's absent. Who knows if she didn't feel like working this month or what, you can never really tell with someone like her who keeps disappearing and coming back. Rara was still on the lists, down around the 30 mark on r18 and 50-60 mark on DMM, so it's not like she just disappeared completely so much as it was that her sales just weren't what you expect from her.

Top Videos

On the DVD side here we see Yume Nikaido in second place, yet again making the top 10. I'm very curious to see where she'll land on the 2021 rankings when the dust settles because she's been crushing it with individual releases but only does the one per month deal. I'm particularly curious to see how she places compared to Hana Himesaki since Hana is doing quantity over quality. I think that comparison will actually provide us a very good idea of whether freelance vs exclusive is the way to go. My guess is that Hana is making more but when she has to do significantly more work then maybe it isn't necessarily worth it. Then again, she could just really enjoy her job...

Interestingly we see Yume beaten out by a different debut and for the same studio, Faleno. I don't know how Faleno is mustering it but they're doing far better than I would have guessed. Four videos in the top 10 with a debut at the top is very impressive. Interestingly we don't see her on the top 25, in fact she didn't even place in the top 100 physical sales. Very curious since we do often see strong correlation. In fact, last month's big debut, Ruu Yumemi, placed 3rd on the physical sales with the second place DVD. I guess we can probably conclude this month's sales weren't all that great.

Even as much as I've spoken about Faleno the most interesting news from them is the rank 4 video, Yuko Ono's redebut. Formerly named Aoi, she spent several years as a big name on S1's roster. She did actually switch to Faleno at the start of 2020 only to retire a few months later. As much as one might try to read into things like this my thoughts are still that you can't with the way COVID is going. It's just too hard to tell if actresses are taking a break because they want to stay safe, if their break will become a retirement or not, or if they're coming back because their other jobs are at risk from the pandemic. It's honestly probably a combination of all of them which means we don't get any information unless they're public about it. Anyway, if you want to read more about Yuko, check out Mangochin's article.

Like our first place video, the Moodyz grab bag (which I wrote about back in January) we now have another, this time from Alice Japan. Alice Japan has had a surprising number of actresses come through their doors, typically early on in their careers. It's listed at $22.85 for the HD version which, at 15 videos you're paying less than $2 per release. When you compare that titles individually are $9 then you're getting 12.5 more videos than you'd otherwise be paying for. Alternatively you can look at it as paying less than $1/hour of footage. Regardless of how you slice it, the deal is good, and there are a number of good actresses here including Yuma Asami, Kaori, Mako Oda, and Kaho Shibuya. The videos individually might not be the best thing ever but sometimes quantity is better than quality and this is probably one of those cases.

If you're less into checking out the variety of actresses in the grab bag then you can always check out the 10th place video, a compilation of Shunka Ayami releases for S1. It's the same price and there's a dozen videos listed, so while it's not as much content the content is likely to be much better. I think most fans remember Shunka more from her Prestige days but her S1 days weren't half bad either. SSNI-340, the other video I singled out, is quite good (and I would recommend it). Shunka's also just an actress with a lot of appeal, pretty and reasonably curvy along the lines of actresses like Julia, Yua Mikami, and Mion Sonoda. You definitely can't go wrong with the bang for your buck on this one.

Our ninth place entry is quite interesting because it's in 4k. 4k has only recently started to penetrate the industry in a non-VR capacity. Personally I don't much see the point. Not everyone has a 4k monitor lying around and half of us watch on our phones anyway. In VR when standard HD actually looks quite grainy, it does make a huge difference, but not for standard videos. Regardless, Mayuki isn't a bad choice to watch in 4k if you're going to, she's quite curvy and you'll probably have a good time of it.

The second place actress, Seta Ichika, certainly looks nice. She has this great girl next door vibe that's very reminiscent of actresses like Miyu Kanade or Mio Kayama (for those who remember her). G-cup boobs, soft facial features, and a homeliness to her from cooking eggs in the video. It's an interesting take to see someone cooking in videos, particularly in a debut video. Maybe it's done as a way to make the actress feel a bit more relaxed and I would totally support them if that was the case. On another note, she is very tall, being listed at 175cm, which rounds up to 5 foot 9 for those of us that use that barbaric system (don't get me started on how messed up Canada is using both systems). While that might not seem super tall my own data shows that's nearly three standard deviations taller than average, which is extremely significant. In fact, I actually don't know any actresses taller than 175cm (though there probably are some). While I'm guessing they have some male actors who are the same height for this video, I wouldn't be surprised to see some shorter guys with some sort of height difference being a factor in the content sometime down the road.

On a different note about Seta Ichika, she's actually a former Afreeca TV BJ (broadcast jockey). It's a sort of broad term used in Korea for streamers who aren't cam girls but do utilize their bodies for clicks. She is fluent in Korean and English too according to her Twitter. This isn't the first time we've seen someone make a shift from some sort of streaming career and I doubt it's the last. However, someone who's trilingual is quite interesting to see and maybe we can get that in a video. I doubt E-Body would be the studio to do so but who knows what the future has in store.

In third place we have Konan Koyoi, another S1 debut. She doesn't strike me as anything special from just the cover but perhaps that's more of a factor of how many debuts show up at S1 each year. Just look at the graph I posted above, we had Aka Asuka, Riri Nanatsumori, and Mahina Amane all fall into top 2020 debuts and are still exclusive with S1. That doesn't even consider several other actresses there like Kaoru Yasui, Uta Hayano, or Aqua Yamazaki, all other recent debuts who have made their way into sales posts before. At least Konan is debuting early enough that if she does pan out to be good then we'll get some more interesting content by the time I go check her out. She's certainly got some promise to her but it's not uncommon for actresses to become just another name.

The 6th ranked actress, Uno Kanaya, is certainly my speed, but I am a bit apprehensive. I've definitely been burned by busty debuts at Madonna in the past, one of my least if not my absolute least favourite debut from last year being one such actress. The trailer for the video doesn't make her look anywhere near as nice as the cover does which is definitely a shame. The way I see it, if she has breasts as nice as the cover insinuates they'd show them off more. I guess to be fair, a lot of studios aren't showing off tits on the first cover to create more of a tease. The two above don't, Aka Asuka's didn't, hell Mahina's tits were clothed on the covers of her first five releases. So maybe I'm off on them wanting to display them but I'm going to be very cautious about Madonna debuts.

Interestingly we see a Hitomi release jump up quite a lot. I always find it interesting when older releases are up at the top instead of recent, especially for an actress like Hitomi who likely has a lot of loyal fans. Interestingly, Hitomi's VR is just shy of the list in 11th place. I do think the video here is better than her VR as a whole, although I can hardly blame people who want to experience those magnificent breasts in VR. I actually don't think her VR is particularly noteworthy, there's a ton of VR I'd recommend over it (including her previous VR) but again, Hitomi in VR is likely to always sell fairly well.

Also, rather surprisingly, is a debut on the list. This release was 6th place on the DMM debut charts last month, so it's faring about the same here, it's just interesting to see it up so high because western fans don't care about debuts. There's probably a lot of reasons for that but two main reasons come to mind: preference differences and not following the industry as closely. People in Japan really like it when actresses are embarrassed (and if you've ever heard someone say hazukashii in a video, that's them saying they're embarrassed). It happens a lot, especially in debut videos, and people tend to like that a lot. The other is that, as people don't understand Japanese, they spend less time following the industry and then generally care less about newer actresses. That has largely been my experience as a western fan, noting that I'm definitely an exception to that point. Regardless, the two points together make it so seeing a debut here is a surprise for sure. An Komatsu doesn't strike me as noteworthy from a physical appearance standpoint, and honestly she shares an appearance with a lot of actresses that find themselves debuting at Madonna, if not a little less curvy than some of them.

With that we have another month in the books. This month looks like it's the month of S1 and S1 2.0 (which is Faleno, by the way, having quite a number of former S1 actresses on their roster). Maybe studios will catch on and we'll get S1 3.0, S1 clearly has actresses to spare. Until next time!