Life is Good...for now

(Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 ahead!)

The Naked Director is back and better than ever. The show is still equal parts historical drama, titillating smut, and crass comedy. The opening scene condenses the spirit of the entire show in just it’s first minutes as Toru Muranishi catches us up to speed during an interview.

His company, Sapphire Pictures, is exploding in popularity and Toru has become something of a celebrity now, starring in his own commercials. Our team is bigger than ever with dozens of actresses and employees running around their busy operation.  All our lovable employees from season 1 are still around (minus one) and are all hard at working running the new operation. Kaoru Kuroki, the star, is now a regular on television talk shows and has entered the mainstream. He touts his setbacks just as loudly as his successes to his interviewer for the best line of the premiere. Saying how he has been “convicted of 6 crimes, sentenced for over 360 years, and has eaten 30,000 pussies” but he has never lost heart and will not stop. The year is 1990 and life is good for Toru and gang.

Season 2 starts out guns a blazing. The production levels are through the roof, including one eye opening scene that takes the show in zero g. But it is the dialogue that is most on point. Full of double entendres and innuendo the first episode is full on great one liners and asides. The show seems to be hitting a grove in it's crass, funny, and insightful dialogue. The show does great job of blending the humor and crassness of the porn world with the period drama.

(Kaoru gets her own great lines too)

Toru and Kuroki have even taken to campaign for political office on the platform that sex and porn is good for society. Are they serious about their chances? Unlikely, but when life is good you feel like you can do anything. The sky is the limit. But pride usually comes before the fall and their aspirations may prove harmful. Because Toru has eyes for above a beyond the sky with broadcast satellites. The promise of selling his erotica worldwide has given Toru a new goal and a whole new slew of enemies. From the police, to conservative political parties, to even the owner of the broadcast satellite; Toru has painted a big target on his back. Not helped that he is indignant to keeping his head down or his carelessness. Life is good, for now. The biggest obstacle to that maybe Toru himself. But on the horizon is Toshi, his former fallen partner, now working in the darkness with the yakuza.

(Yes those are dildos taped on his mic)

The show’s characters might be a bit more outlandish and exaggerated than their real life counterparts but The Naked Director is not content with just being that TV show about porn. It wants to be a period piece, tell a character study about a man with big aspirations, talk about sex and sexuality, show us the dark side of society, and yes make us laugh at the ridiculousness of porn. Like Toru it might be trying to do too much but for now it works.

Season 2 of The Naked Director is out on Netflix now.

Stray Observations
We see Toru disgustingly chow down on some American imports; fried chicken and Coca-cola while listening to some rock song. Perhaps to show his affinity to capitalism.

JAV Star Watch
It seems we may see a bunch of JAV stars in cameo roles. The first episode has Yuna Ogura back again in a porno as a flight attendant.

(Yuna Ogura, I think)