Hey guys, yfooCollector here with a recap of this month's news in JAV. I'll do this every month for the interesting news I found. I'll try to not include retirements and transfers unless it is for popular actresses or there is interesting angle for it. For June, it has been a wild ride so far with 2 retirement announcements early in the month and a miraculous return late into the month.
 

Atomi Shuri and Abe Mikako announce retirement

Early into June we have two groundbreaking retirement announcements from legendary actresses Atomi Shuri and Abe Mikako. Both retirements were announced on the respective youtube channels of both actresses.

Atomi Shuri's retirement announcement

Atomi’s retirement was sort of predictable due to her not having released any new films in the past months. She debuted at 19 years old in 2015 and has worked under the same agency Bambi Production throughout her career. She has stated that she will not have a retirement film and with the state of Japan and Covid having a retirement event is also unlikely. Although some people would argue that Atomi's plastic surgery was a huge turn off I still believe that she is one of the best in the petite actresses in the industry. Her career also survived a "scandal" where an alleged uncensored sex video was leaked to the internet. As for the future, she will continue to be part of the Idol Group Miipina(みっぴぃな) that she produced as well as uploading more to her YouTube channel.

In November 2020, Atomi Shuri founded the idol group Miipina with other AV Actresses

Abe Mikako’s retirement is more of a surprise for me as the first announcement was pretty weird. The first announcement video looked more like a parody of a press conference where she announced her retirement but the uploaded video the following day clarified that Abe really is retiring next year. I found this news surprising because Abe herself admitted that in the recent months her work output has increased and that she has been enjoying her recent work. From what I can gather from her youtube video, it seems that the length of her career and her age was the major factor in her decision. She has stated that she wants to move on to the next chapter in her life and is excited to try new things. As for the near future, she will still continue to provide content for her fanbox, which is a patreon like website in japan.

Abe Mikako's first retirement annouincement which is a "parody" press conference

Abe Mikako's serious retirement announcement

I for one am extremely sad with these retirements as these two have been my go-to petite actresses in the past years. Abe has been in JAV ever since I started watching JAV and seeing her new releases every month has become a thing that you'd think would never go away, but 10 years in the industry was really a testament for her career. As for Atomi, as I said before her retirement is quite expected but it will still be sad to not see her anymore as a little sister type in those group films or an actress participating in those huge harems. With that I'll end this story with the images and the trailer from their wonderful collaboration film [MIAD-924]

Saika Kawakita makes her return to JAV

S1 has announced the return of Saika Kawakita to JAV. In April 2018, Saika Kawakita made a huge splash when she debuted in JAV. She only released 6 films with S1 and suddenly vanished. Her disappearance was confusing as she was not only popular but was also recognized in the industry as she won the Best Work Award for Video/Rental in the prestigious FANZA Adult Award 2019. However, 3 years later out of the blue S1 just announced Saika's "RE:Start" with an upcoming release on July 20, 2021.

Saika Kawakita's Award Winning Debut

Saika's 6 month career was strange for a popular actress in a major studio. In  2018 she did not have any social media presence at all, although there was a deleted twitter account that did not post anything was alleged to be hers. She also did not do any promotions or live events, except for one where she did not make a personal appearance and only showed a pre-recorded video. By September 2018, Saika did not have any new releases teased and was essentially gone from JAV. The lack of news about her and where she went has led people to believe that Saika has left the JAV industry for good. This announcement was pretty shocking as it is hard to spin this as a return from hiatus as 3 years is a pretty long time. Saika seems to be changing her approach with fans as well, as along with her return she has also created a twitter account. She also joined the Cruse Group agency along with great actresses such Akari Mitani, Nao Jinguji and Aika Yamagishi.

I am incredibly excited for her as judging from the preview images it seems that Saika is as sexy as ever, she did not look like she had any plastic surgery and she looks slightly thinner than before. Another reason I'm enthusiastic about this is I was a huge fan of her 2018 releases and was left wanting more after her disappearance, but now I'm quite happy at it seems she will stay in JAV for a while.

Nana Yagi to appear in Naked Director season 2

Moodyz exclusive actress Nana Yagi has announced that she will be a part of Netflix’s Naked Director season 2. 

Screenshot from the trailer for season 2

She will portray Kazama Nagi, a new actress under Morunishi Toru’s company Diamond Visual. She only has a minor role but it seems she will have a lot of appearances throughout the season. I believe her role would be comparable to Yuna Ogura and Nanami Kawakami's appearnace in the first season. Attentive fans might have seen this coming as Yuna Ogura and Nana Yagi had posed for a picture in front of Toho studios months ago, as Yuna had a minor role in season 1 of the show.

It looks like Naked Director Season 2 is having more AV actresses appear as well with the 8manpro agency teasing that Mei Wahio would be part of the production as well. While the show is a typical Japanese drama, it is still amazing to have an AV themed mature show produced for Netflix. Japanese TV shows are typically tame and does not even feature mature scenes except for fringe late night shows. It is also quite impressive to have a lot of AV actresses have substantial roles in the series along with numerous cameos from others in the industry.

Gravure idol Amamiya Kanan announces her JAV debut

It seems like studios have been signing more and more gravure idols to AV lately. In the recent months S1 has Kaoru Yasui, Moodyz signed Ru Yumemi and now SOD Star has signed former gravure idol Amamiya Kanan. This announcement comes just a few days after the debut of their so called "once in a century actress" MINAMO's debut.

Formerly known as Moko Nakagawa (那珂川もこ), the gravure idol has signed with T-powers agency and will debut on July 22, 2021 for SOD Star. With these announcements and social media promotions she is also promoting her youtube channel, which has become a popular content creation vehicle for JAV actresses lately. Her Youtube videos has her announcing her AV debut and gravure retirement, as well as exercise and cooking videos. I'd also have to point out that the cooking videos were shot in the SOD Syain bar where SOD actresses usually serve drinks and hold events.

MINAMO was a famous gravure idol before debuting with SOD Star this month

Just like with Minamo, Amamiya Kanan suddenly disappeared from doing gravure and makes a sudden reappearance few months later just to announce her transition to JAV. While these Gravure to AV transitions have different circumstances behind them, Ru Yumemi’s case being a glaring example, it is still very curious if pandemic have had a hand in some of these signings.