JAV Sales Report - September 2024 ft. Suzu Honjo, Kiho Kanematsu, Yu Kawakami, and More!

Welcome to the September Sales Report. Every time I post these I realize I'm getting closer and closer to debut season. I also realize just how much work I have ahead of myself for it. At the same time I do get excited to see what debuts are actually performing well. It's one of those "let me cross validate" because what I think looks hot and what actually ends up being hot may be two completely different things. Especially if I see a debut performing well for months on end, it gives me a good appreciation that it's not just random chance. At any rate let's go see what happened this month.

Suzu Honjo is way up high this month, up 36 spots, and I for one am wondering why. Well, turns out it's because she has two releases. Okay sure that's a great reason, but she's exclusive, why does she have two releases? No, none of them are VR and none of them are IV, just two standard releases for SOD. Well, maybe one might look at the codes and realize one is 016 and another 138, and realize one was filmed long before. Maybe some trouble getting one out? Maybe timing it for some reason? So maybe it's just a random chance, right? Nope, she has three releases next month too (which does include an IV but also means she has two normal releases again). Did she just silently start filming twice a month? You can do that?!?! Honestly it really begs the question of why doesn't anyone? I mean sure she's exclusive but we have freelancers, or better yet, we have shared exclusives. Who is to say Suzu can't just do the thing that Nao Jinguji does and film twice a month for the same studio? It's always about how popular one could be but like, I don't really fundamentally see the difference in whether it's for one or two studios. Maybe if you're Madonna the variety might seem low, but Suzu is at a studio + stage in her physical appearance that I think she could reasonably pull it off. At any rate, I do anticipate her being high up in October as well and I'll be curious to see if she legitimately is just filming twice a month or if this is just a bizarre situation.

As I mentioned in the intro blurb I am on the lookout for which debuts are excelling and Mitsuri has been on the sales report all year long. If you need to look past that cover to try to understand why you might need to get your eyes checked. She looks fantastic all the way down, from her beautiful face to her plentiful boobs. I know massage themes can be underwhelming, but when you find a new actress you really like who looks to be doing well, maybe sometimes you turn a blind eye to bad videos and just watch anyway.

Everyone knows about Beauty Venus but what about whatever this is? Beauty Venus is a bit of a mystery to me, not in the sense about why Idea Pocket does it (it's obviously great) but about why other studios don't do it too. What's to stop other studios? Someone finds a trend and then everyone runs around copying them, right? So why not just grab three actresses from three major studios and call it a day. Especially with Idea Pocket perhaps snubbing some major studios last time (Oppai and Kawaii aren't S1 and Moodyz) it makes sense for Moodyz to do their own just like S1 did last year. What's even more incredible about this one is the cast of Nana Miho + Nana Yagi + Honoka Furukawa, who have turned out to be great friends off camera. Videos like this always matter a lot on getting a lot of chemistry that can be extremely difficult to find. This cast really isn't for me but if I were a fan of the trio (and it's very likely fans of one are fans of all) are probably wetting themselves in anticipation.

One of the things I like to look at with the sales report is see how long actresses who are retired can continue to be successful. We're soon approaching the year mark since Yu Shinoda decided to call it quits. Reflecting back on it now that it's not a sour spot for us, it really is crazy how someone like her who had been around for well over a decade, has one of the most incredible careers, just randomly disappeared. I can't help but feel like something happened, but if I'm not putting on my tinfoil hat the answer is probably more like what happened with Saeko Matsushita - they just refused to accept her retirement. I can just hear some exec screaming if we don't film a retirement film she's not retired! I'm not sure that's how it works but... how does it work? A question that legitimately lives rent free in my head: at what point do you consider an actress retired? It's not always so obvious like when they retire. I was definitely asking myself if Mako Oda had retired about a year ago when she went nearly half a year without a release. I mean sure, things come up, maybe she was in Dubai with some prince like Yu Shinoda (okay I can confirm she definitely wasn't but it would be funny if she was), but the point still stands. I, for one, usually look at maybe half a year as the starting point for it but there are definitely other factors in play. At any rate, Yu Shinoda maintaining this rank is wild to me and we'll see if I can remember when she finally dips outside of the top 25.

Momo Sakura is also up quite a lot of spots this month and I'm honestly not sure why. I can just hear some fan now screaming into their monitor "WELL HAVE YOU LOOKED AT HER SHE'S FUCKING HOT". Okay, fair point, I concede that one (she really is) but like why such a stark change? I look at this video and I don't see anything that stands out more than anything else. Glasses? I mean cool, not really wowing me with that one. You do see her Beauty Venus film down below selling well, perhaps some sort of anticipation for the new one at Moodyz? Considering that the Moodyz one features an Idea Pocket actress (Honoka Furukawa), one might imagine IP putting it on sale to try and drum up success. I can't imagine I actually know how sales work on cross studio films like this but I imagine IP takes some percentage of the profit, especially knowing that all three studios (IP, S1, and Moodyz) have the same parent company (which means profit sharing actually isn't some unrealistic mess). Anyway, it does feel like Momo is just a temporary thing though it's good to know she's quite capable.

Continuing that discussion about how long an actress can succeed when retired is Akari Mitani, set to retire next year. Akari is good, which you should all take to mean she's absolutely incredible when it's coming from me given her cup size. I kind of wonder what kind of a finale she can get. She's a shared exclusive right now so there's a couple of videos a month but it feels like she could do a lot better than that. I remember back to when Meguri retired in 2017 and how she went out with a bang doing a full freelance tour. Yeah, Akari has already done that so maybe not, but maybe you can get something more like Yua Mikami with a bit more increased output at the end. I'm excited to see what they can give us, and I for one want another gishitani film with her BFF Aika Yamagishi. This time though make it a full on lesbian film. Like straight up, just title it The Reason They're Best Friends Is They're Actually Lovers. I will love you forever if you do it, so Honnaka, if you somehow employ and English speaking person who reads our blog, I hope it's not too late.

You know it's not often we see the combination we have on the DVD sales this month. For one we've got Moodyz in the top slot, and for two we've got a Moodyz compilation on the list at all. Usually it's all Saika Kawakita this, Saika Kawakita that. Okay maybe it still is because she has two releases on the list. That being said it's interesting to see who is essentially Moodyz's flagship actress Mio Ishikawa outshining her. You guys all know how I feel about her, or if not here's a reminder about my article on her. Don't be surprised when you find out the flat actress ain't for me, but for a lot of people she truly is. I still remember when she debuted as that diamond in the rough three years ago. Was it really three years ago? Damn...Regardless, Mio has really turned into everything they hoped she could. Seeing her compete with Saika makes me wonder if there's ever any room for some sort of best of the best competition. Like screw Beauty Venus and all of that, if you want to make a super popular film, toss everyone's flagship actress into the ring in a single video and see what happens. Could you imagine Mio Ishikawa x Saika Kawakita x Kana Momonogi? I only really like one of them but I could be persuaded.

Is anyone reading this capable of reading Japanese. I'll give you the part you need to know. 17年. 17 years. Yes, that's how long since Naho Ozawa was last in the industry. SEVENTEEN YEARS. Let that sink in for a while. We've seen a lot of crazy redebuts, like Yuna Shiina after 8 or whatever that number was, but 17 is an unfathomable amount. Do you know how much you can do in 17 years? That's like half my life, you could do a ton of things. Really kind of makes you think about what there is after porn for some of these women. I know the obvious answer for some of them, or if you're lucky you're Kirara Asuka and become a model or Kaho Shibuya and become a successful streamer. But for most women? I can't imagine riches await them when they have useless experience for other industries. Could you imagine applying for an office job and putting down 2010-2024 - Pornstar. Maybe it does work, I mean we've all seen some of these office lady films... But on a serious note, it's interesting to see how the JAV industry works compared to traditional limited years industries. If I look at sports, players have a theoretical limit on how long their body will physically allow them, and even if some athletes like Lebron James and Cristiano Ronaldo are nearly 40 and still at the top of their sports, there's surely a time not too far off that they'll have to stop. For porn though, we tend to see a lot of people being okay with the MILF genre in a way that allows actresses to have second lives if they want. I mean sure, maybe not granny porn, but considering how well Maki Tomoda is doing in her 50s who knows what the boundary actually is. I can't recall anyone who has naturally just stayed in the industry long enough since it's only recently the industry has gotten to the current model (we're talking in the last 10-20 years). Will be interesting to see how things go and if Naho being on the list is just a wow factor or she has some staying power.

Oppaira, I've seen this one before, what gives?!?! Turns out you really haven't. In big bold letters it says 13時間 which is 13 hours. Now we'll test you all and see how much you really know. How long was the original 2024 Bako Bako Bus Tour video? Definitely was not the 800 minutes that you see on the spine. The short answer is that this video features four hours of unreleased footage.That's what 未公開 on the bottom of the front cover means. You gotta wonder how a studio can fund a video like this and that's your answer. Re-release it a few months later (once people start moving on) with enough of a hook to get people to pay full price again. Granted yes, it's got so much extra content that it seems well worth it, but yeah. I mean how else do we manage to have a video with 20 major actresses all in one? We all know we used to get these but I'm sure the economics of a video like this make some poor guy in finance cry. They're doing WHAT?!?! Especially if they had people turn over who don't watch porn, I could imagine someone having a mini heart attack as they explain this month's budget tripling. At any rate I'm curious to see if more studios do something like this more frequently, especially if we can get some behind the scenes type stuff like some studios do.

A debut at S1 doing well and she ain't got big tits? Did we go to the wrong timeline? It's definitely interesting to see this though I also look at other factors on the list of videos before calling it the slam dunk that it is. You see a lot of older videos on the list, for sure you all know that Beauty Venus is well over a year old. We've also got Yoru Tsukumo's debut in 9th, or similarly timed releases in 7th and 8th. That's one nice pro of the id system, that generally speaking you can understand relatively when a video released for a studio by referencing the code. I know how much Moodyz releases so in theory MIDV-361 should be slightly after Yoru's. Turns out it was slightly before, perhaps because of delays releasing, but it at least frame of references things, especially if I know what the newer codes are (and for reference, MIDV-959 is the last one they currently have listed). Why do I go through all of this? To highlight that Moe Sakakihara is competing largely against older videos seeing new life. Most likely some sort of ridiculous sale where people can't argue, but it means that she's probably not doing as well as we think. Or maybe it's just hard to tell because a Muteki debut and Bako Bako Bus Tour video are likely to be selling incredibly well and I don't know the disparity between them. Maybe if Yoru's debut was a slot ahead I would have a better idea but at this it's not really that easy to tell. Turns out Muteki debuts and Bus Tours are about as rare as unicorns so it's really hard to see just how close Moe is to them, but maybe being compared to greatness isn't a bad thing.

Once again you can see the Bookmate rankings on their website here.

Hiyori Nozaka (乃坂ひより) seems to be turning out a bit better than I initially thought she would. Maybe G cup on the cover has me thinking differently but I'm actually primarily thinking about the fact that she has a VR film so early in her career. The VR is filmed as her third and you usually don't see them this early. It's not completely unheard of but when some actresses take a long time to get it, it artificially makes VR feel like it's restricted for actresses they have a bit more confidence in. Maybe S1 will do a 180 and make me look dumb but giving me a (false) sense of security makes me a little more likely to watch her because she won't just one-and-done us. As we inch closer and closer to debut season, I start having more and more confidence in who you'll see, and I must say that Hiyori has a pretty good chance at this point.

Kiho Kanematsu (金松季歩) is doing quite well and I think (fingers crossed that I don't jinx it) that she's safe from the downward spiral that Muteki's last star Kaoru Yasui found herself in. I will say that personally I do think Kiho looks a lot more attractive than Kaoru, so I'm not all that surprised. That's why I grabbed a screenshot, for you to all see what she looks like in action, and she does look nice. There's just something about the way she's biting her lip and staring at the camera while getting pounded that's hot as hell. I guess you'll just all have to wait and see if/when I review her for debut season in a couple of months. Gosh, I should really get on writing all of those...

Ran Kikuno (菊乃らん) is a 2023 debut we looked at who was just alright. A year later she does seem to be doing well enough for herself. Still on Fitch's roster and getting her first compilation, it's a good time to place your chips in her court. The video is only 8 hours instead of the 12 that a 6-film combo would need to be so there's definitely some stuff they took out, but I also suspect the average viewer doesn't care as much about a full on narrative in their videos the way a professional reviewer like myself does. (can I even call myself a professional? If not I guess there probably isn't such a thing)

Reo Fujisawa (藤沢麗央) (right) is not an actress I particularly expected to see on this list. BBW usually don't do to well in Japan, not to mention how few of them there are. There's maybe one or two big ones (pun intended) like Chitose Saegusa but to see a pair of them doing a lesbian film for Tameike Goro was not on my bingo. It's refreshing to see Reo doing well in her freelance career with her body type. I don't hate her but I don't love her either so I tend to look past a lot of decent releases as a result. I will say, her alongside Fuka Minahata (南畑颯花) are not this busty. I don't really know Fuka but I can promise you that if Reo looked like that I really would be watching her. Her boobs are big, there's no mistaking that, but they're not bigger than her head (oh god how I wish they were).

Up high on the list this month, in a surprising turn, is Rei Kimura (木村玲衣). She's one of those actresses that you really don't expect to do well. Just some plain old MILF at Madonna, and we all know how fast Madonna loves to drop actresses. Turns out she's doing better than we thought. This month features a VR (which is where the image comes from) and I must say she did look pretty good in it. I already checked it out and while it's maybe not the most incredible film, at some level watching your favourites in VR is nice to get that different perspective. I like to watch actresses in VR specifically because the mechanics of VR give you a much different perspective on them, especially physically. I've seen well over 100 different actresses in VR and some of them are great and others not so much. Let me just pull up the notes I wrote on Rei's physical appearance in VR to help give you some perspective:

Rei herself looked solid in VR. The refined beauty I see in her holds up quite a lot. I think her boobs sag a little, though some positions like when they are hanging in front of you look nice as a result. She has a bit of flab but not enough to make a significant comment on, though her ass is worthless. It looks like she might have a tattoo on her inner thigh from some potential makeup in that area. Her pussy looked pretty solid, a decent amount of hair and trimmed well.

I don't know about others but maybe half the VR films I watch are just to get perspectives on actresses I can't get from 2D stuff. Anyway, Rei is nice, I continue to be happy to watch her, and I hope she continues to do well at Madonna.

Yu Kawakami (川上ゆう) is quite the veteran actress and it's interesting to see what kind of videos she gets these days. Or maybe it's not so interesting because we've got teacher, soapland, and a generic NTR film. I know when I check out new actresses I always wait for the good films, and admittedly teacher is one such film. I also get to a point where I'm willing to watch anything half decent. But how does that change when you have an actress who has done that theme a few times? Or what if they've done it dozens of times? Does it still feel the same? Do I still look at Julia teacher films and want to watch them? (the answer to that one is a resounding yes). But when I look at someone like Yu who has way more videos than Julia and is getting films at lesser studios with lower quality, suddenly things change a lot. I'm a fan of Yu but I do admit that these days it's harder and harder to get excited by Venus or Aleddin videos.

It is refreshing to see Julia finally showing life outside of DMM. On DMM she's been a favourite for years and years but I don't quite recall seeing her on Bookmate, which aligns with them showing a spike in Julia and her still being at the bottom. Maybe there's something about the demographics of people watching her, not sure. I feel like these days a lot of her fans are probably more like myself, where part of their admiration comes from how long they've been watching her. The general tone I hear from people is that she's passed her prime and it's time for fans to move on. I call these people crazy because she's still got it going on, but I can see that being a general statement among people. I too know that part of my own appreciation for her comes from the fact that I have been watching her for a decade and I've seen more videos of her than any other actress. The case is really true when you watch videos like the left one and get extremely disappointed with just how bad they are. Yeah, the right one isn't terrible, but it's not the slam dunk I was hoping for. Anyway, if others don't want to watch Julia then that's just more for me I guess.

Maaya Irita (入田真綾) is someone I also checked out last year. I actually had quite the high opinion of her but I don't think I ended up appreciating her nearly as much as my rating would suggest. Seems like Dahlia somewhat agrees as they've gotten her to recently lift her creampie ban. You kind of can't work as a MILF in this industry with one, and being on that roster instead of Faleno means she was always headed here. Maybe it will breathe some new life into things and she'll get the chance to shine? Honestly though this is just kind of the normal path for any debut at a place where creampies is a thing. So basically, if you're at S1 or potentially Idea Pocket you get to avoid this and everywhere else you have no choice. I don't think Maaya is that bad she just got outshone by an incredible debut year, so if you're on the fence maybe go check her out.

I hope you've enjoyed the latest sales report and join us again next month. Until next time!