All comments of User jta

Minato Riku is an actress I feel a special attachment towards. It was a strange coincidence that today, of all days, I found the time to revisit old bookmarks and was listening to her latest twitcast as I came here and saw her career highlight. There's a strong sense of destiny here, because this list includes some of the most memorable AV movies for me, for reasons that go beyond their contents alone.

I'd like to correct a few details and bring a little extra info on her, because her story is an interesting one.

First, a minor correction, she was never a Moodyz exclusive, even though she did shoot several movies with them, as one of the most prominent kikatan actresses from the 2013 crop - ultimately the most successful one maybe?

Throughout 2013 and 2014, Minato Riku's fame as a super solid kikatan actress grew steadily. Besides the quality of her performances, she was one of the actresses who spearheaded a "new wave" for kikatan actresses, who started to approach exclusive actresses in popularity, in part thanks to their use of social media and online interaction with fans. Her characteristic short hair also helped her popularity at a time when few actresses sported that look.

The first movie of hers I watched was MIGD-525. I don't remember this as a particularly good movie, but I'd probably like it more nowadays than back then, because of how much I've come to like Minato since. It had nevertheless a deep impact on me, not for the quality of the porn, but because of the interview at the end where she can't stop crying. Stupid as it may sound, this was the first time I realized how physically demanding AV is. I probably watched mostly vanilla at that time, and I only thought about the psychological aspect -- I hadn't realized how hard the physical one could be. So Minato's candidness opened my eyes. One might quickly categorize her as a tomboy because of her hair and resolve (there's a vid on youtube with her bungee jumping with Hasumi Kurea -- guess who's the crybaby and who had no problem jumping), but she's really emotional sometimes.

I wouldn't watch more movies of hers for a long while, until the turn of events made me cross paths with her again in early 2015. In late 2014, she caught an STD that nearly killed her career. She became, in her own words, "an AV actress that cannot do it". How do I know, you might ask. Around that time, I'd become more interested in following AV actresses on social media, and an ailing Minato had a lot of time in her hands, so she was doing Twitcasts non-stop. And she once talked about STDs, how she'd had one, and it all made sense. That was the reason for her hiatus.

Minato didn't want to retire though, so she did her best to keep her career alive by interacting with fans, and her agency at that time, Marks Japan, created the Kühn unit featuring her, Hasumi Kurea, Hatsumi Saki, Arimura Chika and leader Mizumi Saki. You can see her one and only PV here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr8ONsZ6g2o Arimura Chika, who'd grown so popular she won that year's Ryuu ga gotoku (Yakuza) character poll (topping Uehara Ai IIRC), would retire before their first live, for health reasons. Kühn disbanded soon, and Marks Japan crashed and burned after a higher-up was caught harassing talent. Most actresses would later move to T-Powers. Hasumi Kurea didn't, and her career stagnated for years until her brilliant comeback.

As I said, Minato had a lot of free time and Twitcasted often. She streamed some gaming, showed her best KISS makeup (there are a few pictures around), talked candidly about her work, and reviewed her movies. At that time, for health reasons, I also had a lot of free time, followed her Twitcasts, and grew attached to her. She talked about MIAD-691, a movie of hers that was a huge hit in 2014, became one of the top sellers of the year, and would completely change her career.

MIAD-691 is a must-see if you like Minato, and probably for non-fans also. There's a bit of a story behind that movie too: Moodyz had been following her with the proposal for a year, and she and her manager finally gave the OK when she felt ready. It was a real tour de force. This movie was the first in a series that would feature several big names (such as Uehara Ai), and for a long time was the second one with the most likes ever on DMM's shop. And, for the interested, it features prominently many real creampies. I especially remember the one by Taku in the second scene.

In the first months of 2015, Minato was healthy, but would she be able to resume work? She'd been on hiatus for months, on the brink of retirement. And she'd caught an STD before, so shooting lots of movies with many studios was problematic -- she was too afraid of the risk now, both for her health and career. But who'd want a semi-retired actress like her as an exclusive signing?

As retirement was getting closer and closer, she got nominated for the DMM 2015 best actress award. And Minato, propelled by the huge hit MIAD-691 had become, won. Here's the sequence where she's declared the winner https://youtu.be/k1j8o0C6wCs?t=53 I've seen the videos for all DMM winners, and I still feel excited when I watch this one by the music, the perfect symbology (from Kojima Minami's poker face when she loses to the appearance of Uehara Ai as the goddess of victory), and above all by Minato's radiant happiness. She was also quite composed in her acceptation speech. And she looked terrific. This is her message to international fans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUKKacjADoA

When she was close to retiring, MIAD-691 saved her career, and Minato was now the DMM Best Actress, succeeding Uehara Ai. Some time later, she announced she'd signed an exclusive contract with a studio, and asked her fans to guess which -- she'd unveil the name weeks later. It might be hard to believe, but the day she was going to announce it, as I woke up a name came to my mind: teamZERO.

I saw her announcement, and that was the studio, the one which, in her words, "picked her up" and made her an AV actress again, when she wasn't sure she'd be able to return to the industry. The re-debut video was TEAM-069 (what an auspicious number for an AV actress!) and brought her back. If you understand Japanese, this movie includes long interviews where she talks about all this.

She'd shoot with teamZERO for a year. Her best movie was TEAM-071, where she's creampied by Shimiken, Taku, and her favorite actor, Pierre Ken. These are real creampies from a huh less civilized age? Or is it more? Let's keep it at "better".

2015 was also the year the Mikami Yua sensation began. She shot a single movie with Muteki in mid-2015, and her tremendous success would give her a never-seen-before exclusive contract with Muteki, with her second movie coming at the end of the year.

Why bring Mikami Yua here? It turns out Minato would develop a strange connection to her. In the summer of 2016, S1 announced 4 signings that would "shake the industry". After a long PR campaign, S1 revealed progressively the names of the actresses, who would debut with them in sequence until late 2016. They were Ideapocket's Kizaki Jessica, teamZERO's Minato Riku and Tsujimoto An, and last, the signing that of course made the most waves, Mikami Yua.

Years later, in an S1 video commemorating the 5th anniversary since her debut, Mikami explained that she was given material to study before her first movie, and one of her main references in terms of how to perform had been Minato Riku.

In S1, Minato Riku achieved mainstream popularity in arguably the best-known studio in the industry. Objectively speaking, the videos from her kikatan phase might have been better overall, but she still had several good movies with S1. Her retirement video was not bad (many are). She got even more popular when she joined the Ebisu Muscats unit, along with Mikami Yua, Uehara Ai, Kogawa Iori, among several others. She'd eventually become a fan favorite thanks to her talent for comedy - Minato is quite witty and funny, and she played a sort of "heel" in the Muscats.

Minato retired from AV, but wanted to stay in the Muscats, and continued for a while past her AV retirement. She eventually left the Muscats, along with several actresses from her generation. Her last public activity was in T-Powers' "Tokyo Paro Paro" youtube channel, and her last few moments in the public eye are in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4a5qMHXtyA

I don't know why, at the beginning I had the silly impression that Minato was a sort of guilty pleasure of mine, and that she couldn't compare physically to the big stars. But nowadays, I find her ccccute! I find her awkward smile adorable. Her ass belongs forever in my personal list, and I like her figure and bosom too. She's a great performer (funny anecdote: she plays the "girlfriend you cheat on" side-character in an Ideapocket movie, and she totally trumps the MC in terms of appeal).

She's one of the actresses I've decided to basically collect all videos from. To this day I own over 90 of her movies (there's another actress, who I consider the greatest ever, I have over 3 times as many from). Her looks, performance, the persona or bits of personality, and the sort of fateful connection, place her among my most cherished AV actresses.

She's already stated she's got an exclusive contract, see https://youtu.be/m-1gEillp5I
The studio and release day will be revealed in her next video.

In response to ordyskans's comment

Fear not, flatchested Abe Mikako will be back by next movie. She launched a crowdfunding campaign (something like "I want to have G cup tits if even for a single day" or such IIRC), and showed on her twitter the process. It's a one-time thing a priori (doesn't seem like Peters Max, her "home studio", will keep the fake boobs for later reuse).

In response to ordyskans's comment

She went from cute to absolutely beautiful when she grew her hair. Or maybe it's just the way she aged and it's a mere coincidence? At any rate she's never looked better in my opinion.

In response to jta's comment

Huh you're right, Kogawa Iori did release on Sep + Oct + Nov. October's release is not a "SOD star" though, it's sort of irregular. She'd been doing 1 SOD Star every other month since January 2019 up to May 2020, before the COVID-induced break. She compensates by doing lots of VR (less physically demanding, but more challenging wrt. acting). So it's what you said: she had 2 releases in October (vs. 1 in Sep and Nov), and the Rebecca IV made the difference.