JAV News - May 2021 Edition by Mangochin
Prestige Parts Ways with DMM/FANZA/R18
If you live under a rock, or refuse to buy AV works, you may have not heard that Prestige and DMM/FANZA had parted ways. Prestige is the “largest studio and distributor”. Prestige is probably known by the western communities for their Absolute Best series, but their amateur videos on MGS are quite popular as well. A spokesman in 2019 for Prestige said “Our strength is our ability to discover” and substantially lowered the entry bar into AV by going for people with looks, rather than hiring well known talents.
Why does this matter? Primarily, the lack of English support on MGS’s website (and the payment hurdle, requiring points for non-JP credit cards) will essentially lead to a block off of new users who strictly use R18. Not their greatest move, but hopefully it’ll generate a larger push towards their amateur videos from studios such as Moon Force and Jackson. Prestige does gain the fact that they don’t have to deal with DMM’s 70% cut, which is already a win… at least short term.
Somewhat related, is the removal of Mercury and First Star studios, which also pulled out of DMM/R18. While netizens have claimed rumors about SOD pulling out as well, there is no basis for this, coming from inside sources. Meanwhile, AVER had shut down its website, and it's parent KMP, has moved from Top Marshal to DMM, which caused the shutdown of sites like AVER.
Where is Meguri?
As I’m sure many fans are aware, we had a blog update sometime last year regarding her temporary hiatus due to her eggs being frozen, along with being part of a new blockbuster movie, Lockdown. So why isn’t she back to doing work?
Well, there’s something that you may have heard of… called a pandemic. Yes. Unlike most of her counterparts, Meguri has been avoiding going back to filming due to COVID. She stated on Twitter that in the case of work, there isn’t an option to avoid kissing etc. to prevent the spread of COVID, especially in her line of work.
일본…코로나 진짜 신각하다ㅠㅠ
— めぐり(메구리※meguri)5/1(土)FANZA live chat (@meguri0504) April 30, 2021
특히 오오사카는 며칠전부터 1000명 넘게 확진자가 나오고…도쿄도 이제 슬슬 1000명 넘을 거 같아ㅠ
AV업계에서는 코로나 걸린 사람들 진짜 많구…우리 업계는 하고싶지 않아도 키스해야되고…sex도 해야되고…ㅠㅠ
저는 코로나 걸리고 싶지 않으니깐 아직 AV쉴게요
I honestly wouldn’t save my breath for too long, as she’ll probably be out for awhile. If I were to speculate on the future situation of Japan, I suspect COVID will be prevalent by the end of 2021.
In the mean-time she continues to frequent the FANZA live chats on DMM (requires a VPN if outside Japan), which pays out at 200 yen/minute per person. By my estimations, she makes 1.5k-2.5k USD per session off that alone, so you don’t need to worry too much about her; although, I’m unaware of the percentage she takes home, as there’s staff to pay, and it’s done in a studio.
She also now has a ManyVids profile, which is censored... and without content for now.
ゴールデンウィークはお家でおとなしくね????
— めぐり(메구리※meguri)4/30(金)FANZA live chat (@meguri0504) April 30, 2021
메구리랑 같이 집콕하구싶어?????????
집에서 모해~ pic.twitter.com/hvdYJ56bwQ
Abe Mikako Tests Positive for COVID
Speaking of COVID, Abe Mikako was the first big AV actress to be diagnosed with COVID and she took to sharing her suffering on Twitter. As of writing this piece, vaccines have only been available to health care workers in Japan.
Due to the nature of how AV is filmed, all staff workers are in close contact with each other, there’s not really an option to “social-distance”, putting all workers at risk. (examples can be found below)
Abe noted issues of severe ear pain, but no fever and still has normal smell and taste. In addition, she’s also losing her appetite and having trouble concentrating.
Abe has since moved to an “epidemic hotel” which has been used to allow people to recuperate in isolation for the safety of others, and decrease the stress on the hospital system. Based on her SNS posts, it seems that she’s mentally toughing it out, and trying to show her strong side to fans, despite the decrease in appetite.
ホテル療養開始してます
— あべみかこ????/????発売中 (@archeabeco) April 30, 2021
ポケモンスナップ…!!(ありがとうございます)
ご飯を配られましたが、あまり食欲がありませんね
ホテルに着いてからもずっと寝ておりました pic.twitter.com/jGxYRYlVAq
Nanami Kawakami Retiring?
Also, Nanami Kawakami has announced her retirement, which I’ll explain in detail along with a translated interview, so be on the lookout for that.
I left you on a cliff-hanger? So sue me :)
Comments
I think studios leaving DMM like this may have something of a domino effect. Overall, this is a good thing for near everyone except DMM. We're keenly awaiting future announcements on their site to see if any other studios leave. Even if they shed more smaller partners, it's still something. Sort of like how Japanese cell phone companies for the longest time had super high rates until they were legally ordered otherwise (plus the rise of many MVNO's), perhaps down the line they may lower their own cut to lure studios back.
Yep! We'll include in next month's post (if there is one), assuming there's more fallout. Maxing is pretty much already slowly dying at the moment, so at this point it doesn't mean much asides from unless they can revive themselves from an increase in payout... which isn't happening unless they can sign exclusives, and redefine their identity to fans (which will require exclusives).
Prestige's parent company owns MGStage which is a pretty big platform ala DMM (various studios besides Prestige sell there). It's not as big as DMM in terms of traffic, but it's not small either.
Welcome! Hope you enjoy the blog! :) No promises on boring you to death though :P
Yeah. That's why there's definitely business appeal to move out especially if you have a site that can handle it. As for an international site... I doubt anything will happen in the near future... the most I see Prestige doing in the next 3 years or so would be adding in auto-English translate to the site. The 70% cut comes with the benefits of being on the biggest distributor, website templates, DRM support, and convenience that most studios still use DMM/guaranteed customer base.
Hmmm, I haven't had issues with codes. If you search 428suke-016, Sarina's MGS work comes up just fine...Just tested ABW-054 without an issue. (You need to include the hyphen). Not sure if that's the issue you were having, but I feel for people who can't get around the websites... Maybe one day ZENRA will take over all the studios and put them here :) haha
Prestige back in January starting putting up movies on AdultTime. They also have VR movies up on SLR. I do agree that not localizing MGStage is a travesty.
Yeah, I know there's a lot of readers and writers who've been waiting for Meguri (myself included) to return to shooting.
Prestige will be completely fine IMHO. The benefit of DMM is that everything can be bought all in the same place, it's already well known and used. The downside for them is essentially, there is a smaller chance of new foreigners buying from them, just because of the lack of knowledge that the site exists. As for creating a new competing platform, Prestige already has that (mgstage.com) which has been functional, it just isn't foreigner-friendly. Studios could stop selling via DMM, but then they need something with a guaranteed customer-base, DRM protection, etc. Not to mention, by being a part of DMM, it allows them to use the website layouts iirc (which is why studios websites look nice). Also most studios have already had connections with DMM (and were owned by it at one point) so a lot of it attributes to loyalty/ Japanese business/traditional values I guess...
Also, Prestige's main studio (like the ABP/ABW series) isn't my cup of tea either, but their amateur stuff is pretty solid (the epitome of vanilla IMO)
There already are a few other sites like DMM in Japan: the aforementioned MGStage, Duga, and more. Regardless of studio payout %, from an end-user perspective, they are near identical: basically the same prices for the same movies locked down with restrictive DRM requiring use of some dinky player. Studios should consider putting their wares on a fan-oriented DRM-free platform. Perhaps one with English subtitles like...well, you can figure it out. :)
Joking aside, the one studio I think is making the best of Japan's climate is Faleno. They seem to be releasing their movies first on their own platform for a short period of time before sending them out for wider release.
U-Next/H-Next isn't foreigner friendly though... like literally anti-foreigner... so I can't really endorse Faleno's move from a global perspective.
Yes JAV is being pirated. Basically what has ended up happening asides from actresses posting on Twitter about noticing people not paying for their porn, is them calling out/ blocking them out, and begging for fans to support the industry. I honestly think the DRM argument is a bit silly though (from a pirate's point of view) as the videos aren't actually pulled for people who buy. Videos are only removed if there was illegal action while filming it. I'm a bigger fan of opting for changing the method of payments to subscription (and ways you can subscribe) and keep the DRM. I hear lots of complaints about DRM and those who say they'd support the industry if they could buy w/o DRM, but the only people it actually affects are people who want to make gifs, and want to use more shots than from the trailer. As a result, the industry stigmatizes foreigners as pirates who don't pay for porn etc... (you can check the end-bit in the June Lovejoy interview where she touches on it) but I'm basically in agreement w/ her.
DRM does not work. We tell studios this when we license and so far have gotten approval to show everything without it. If the platform can prove that while they go without DRM, they are strict with ensuring fraudulent signups do not happen and users can't easily abuse the system, they're more OK with not using 'copy-guard' (what DRM is often called in Japan).
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