JAV News Roundup - October Edition - Volume 3
Trapstar here, reporting live from ZENRA headquarters. Bringing you the latest buzz in the Twitter JAV space in recent days
Life Promotion Appoints A New Director
While more and more adult performers looking elsewhere as a last resort to avoid facing wrath of the new law, in such times it remains hard to digest for a fact that an actress from the fraternity is able to don another feather on her cap, not to mention earlier over time certain performers have shocked us. Such is the case with Noa Eikawa, the 24 year old might not have thought in her wildest dreams that one day she will be appointed as director to the office of the very same organisation she has represented over the majority of her adult career. The actress helmed the position earlier this month on October 17th tweeted, "Noa Eikawa has been appointed Director of Life Promotion! I'm going to make life promotion a more fun office than now! Thank you for your continued support Please see this video for details of activities"
In an announcement video posted on YouTube, the LifePro talent addressed the fans for a mere three minutes or so, going through the nitty gritty of the deal. Considering her career trajectory to this day it wasn't an out of the blue kinda experience for the fans although Noa was startled and had apparently been told by the chairman of the office to "keep calm" after accepting the new position.
The fact that her friends, Aoi Ren and Mikako Abe, who have since retired, are veterans of the industry and she is bound to learn a thing or two about the showbiz business from that sort of company, solidifies my opinion that she should have learned the ins and outs of how the industry operates after spending six years in it. It also seems like a calculated move on the part of the office.
"Yesterday was Red Dragon's first hostess event! It was fun to drink a lot and talk slowly Thank you so much for adding champagne. I was happy."
Speculations were rife earlier that Noa may have thought about making a similar move when her close allies left. Although that is an unsupported assertion, the actress has recently had an extremely unpredictable filming schedule, which most of her admirers have expressed displeasure over. With her new role at the agency and her sporadic appearances at the renowned Red Dragon Club in Roppongi, one could consider it a possibility that her appearance frequency would decline even further.
With her long association with the agency, Noa undoubtedly benefits from her first-hand knowledge of managing talent and actress rosters, which is perhaps why she was the first candidate to be named director of the office. For her fans, the fact that she has been considerably more active on YouTube than she has been in her combined AV appearances over the past few months may present a frightening conundrum, but alas, now that she has taken on a role that primarily entails handling tasks behind the scenes, that may be the platform where they will eventually see her work her magic in front of the camera.
Noa doesn't remain the only active AV actress to have managed to succeed this early in a cutthroat industry, earlier this year, we covered Alice Nanase's appointment as the secretary to the director's office at KMP. We've covered it in an earlier roundup, read the full story here.
Stay updated with Yuri Maina's Twitter & Youtube
AV Actress Retires Within 1 Year of Debut
Another prolific actress bites the dust as the treacherous new law moves to devastate everything in its path and this time it seems to have taken a small time Moodyz actress under its grasp. Having debuted earlier this year under the Moodyz banner, the 21 year old who identifies under the alias Airi Honaka idol has decided to call off her association with the industry going further. With just two months left on her annual contract with the makers, Airi cited in her twitter handle, "I consulted with the office, but I will retire from AV within the year! I was blessed with all the fans, the office staff, the staff, and the girls, and I was able to have a lot of different experiences and it was fun! Twitter plans to delete the account by the end of the year! There are only a few left, but I will do my best, so thank you for your support!", that she'd suspend AV duty by the end of the year
Shocked fans, who held the 21 year old in high regards referring to her as underrated and likely so since she had featured in over a dozen of JAV releases in a couple of months under different banners as Hunter, Premium and her exclusive contract to Moodyz, it seemed fairly startling that Airi's motive behind quitting the industry remains what might be because of the rise in unemployment in the industry due to to new law. Though this is nowhere close to the actress's official statement, the general theory running amongst her fan circle remains quiet similar.
In her retirement testimony, the 21 year old was quoted suggesting that she had debated her stance with her talent agency Bambi promotions going forward and since not many good prospects were to be scoured, Airi must've decided to ultimately quit the industry to the best of her interest. I'd agree that the recent situation hasn't likely been to the favor of adult performers operating in the industry. While the big time stars slip through considering their brand value associated with years of brand building and leveraging networks and other income generating avenues, on the contrary it's likely not the case for small time stars who have to resort to illegal AVs like doujin to earn that fat paycheck as an alternative from a traditional AV while risking their identity or fears of exploitation at the very worse. All due to a certain law that stands biased towards an industry which has a history of filming av under proper guidelines.
Like I said, Airi is not the first one to leave the industry. Certain AV stars of even bigger brand value have voluntarily quit filming while they go look for other avenues. For the majority, it remains either setting up a fan club or providing hostess services in adult bars. While the income remains consistent it's unlikely to match a paycheck of a traditional AV that these stars are accustomed to but let's just say it keeps the wheel rolling. Airi who debuted under the Moodyz banner earlier this February had an interesting lineage associated with her.
At the time of her debut, her promotion stated that her parent who is a former gravure idol herself opposed the decision of her daughter getting involved with the adult business, especially gravure. If this wasn't a marketing gimmick by the makers and an actual true story, then it makes up for quite an interesting fact about the Moodyz exclusive who might've overcome her parents expectations.
Stay updated with Airi Honoka's Twitter
Yuri Maina Makes A Comeback
Things seem to be on track for Yuri Maina who earlier announced a comeback on her Twitter, while this is among the very rare occurrences in the adult industry, you can't just write it off for a fact that the fans of the 27 year old isn't appreciative of her decision. Yuri, who had earlier last year signed off from the industry citing deteriorating mental health conditions and had since settled on a leave for close to a year, steps foot in her second league of her adult career at the brink of her fifth anniversary. In an earlier tweet, the LINX pro actress was quoted citing, "Today is the 5th anniversary of our debut. Last year, today, I announced my retirement. I will return as a sexy actress again! Over the past year, I have been supported by many people and devoted myself to recuperating from illness and building my body. Nice to meet you again."
Further clearing her stance on the state of her office, "The affiliated office is LINX as before!" for the time being the affiliation remains intact with her former employer i.e LINX, through her tweet the actress mentioned how a lot of her peers, both from the industry and the external world had helped her to get her back on her feet, more so, aid her of her trauma. While Yuri hadn't mentioned taking help of any sort of treatment for her mental health in the comeback tweet, one can't still deny the fact that the actress has a history with several of those complications to an extent that it made her involuntarily quit the industry in the first place, earlier last year. Yuri had also insisted upon her old man's ALS (a condition similar to that of Stephen Hawkins) being another of the factors to quit filming half way through and devote time to her ailing patriarch.
Moreover, her chaotic state of mental health tarnished her brand image in her own words which led to Yuri retiring this early. Making a fresh start in the industry as a Moodyz exclusive back in 2018 as a mere 23 year old, Yuri has since gone on to work for multiple banners with the likes of Bibian and KMP. However due to her career being cut short in the erstwhile Yuri decided to operate as a freelancer going forward, taking up occasional gigs of that of a hostess or an influencer, not having really cut off her ties with the industry. In the meanwhile, the 27 year old devoted her time to building a fanbase by commencing her one off fan club exclusive to her loyal few.
Since her retirement earlier last year, Yuri has been spotted enjoying her time off catching up some J-league games supporting her team. Her Twitter is apparently a hotbed of clips of her cheering from the stands. Now, whether this tenure of Yuri stretches on for a longer term or her fate ultimately catches up and denies her off a flourishing run will remain a suspense to witness for the fans. To this day, her upcoming releases remain under wraps so it's a fair consideration that the 27 year old is prepping for a full fledged comeback. Fans shall only hope for the best and await her next release.
Stay updated with Yuri Maina's Twitter & Instagram
Hiyori Yoshioka Suspends Further AV Activities
If the current trend is to be observed, it appears that the majority of those had their debut in October, in particular had their retirement last month. Is there a connection there? The following column, which you might resist to accept, supports my theory. Up next, is The 23-year-old Hiyori Yoshioka. Earlier this month, she announced her retirement to her 60k Twitter followers. Hiyori decided to announce her major career development on the occasion of her third anniversary, "Today, AV actress Hiyori Yoshioka will retire. Thank you all so much for the past three years."
The former S1 talent released a set of visuals from her anniversary party. In the presence of her close accomplices, the 23-year-old actress celebrated her third and what appeared to be her final event in the industry. One of her close associates, Kizuna san, responded to her friend's decision, "When Hiyori gets drunk Kizuna-saaan-suki Kizuna-san is the best friend of all. I always think I can make a smug face to Hiyori fans all over the country. Happy 3rd anniversary & sad to see you retire today."
Hiyori must have been ecstatic when she learned that her favourite actress in the business had sent her a parting message on Twitter, "Thank you for your hard work, Hiyori-chan. May you have many happy days".
In a previous interview, the actress had nothing but admiration for her idol, Kana Momonogi. The 22-year-old had earlier expressed her plans for her career in December of last year. Having completed three rotations around the sun of filming AV, Hiyori had a tough call to take a break from the project by October, the following year. The 22 year old star who had made her acting debut earlier in the midst of the ongoing pandemic followed a bumpy trajectory, transitioning between studios in a matter of years while choosing to go freelance in the final year of her career.
Back in 2019, Hiyori debuted under the S1 banner and starred in a couple of JAVs here and there. While she wasn't particularly successful in her time with the studio, in my opinion she could have gone to a certain extent with those looks and her acting prowess but I guess fate had other plans for her. With what might have been one of the most high profile transfers of that year, the then 21 year old was reduced to Faleno,
What lured Hiyori to transfer to Faleno still remains a mystery, but in my opinion it must've been a mixture of silly decisions made in the gist of the moment coupled with some high paying gigs, in lieu of S1. While her former makers might have just wanted to get rid of a new girl in the bloack as soon as they could, the makers still have a lot to declutter considering their assembly line gets jammed with fresh faces every other month, quite frankly why Hinata left the studio. Going further, Hiyori doesn't stand to lose much.
Despite the fact that she might have left AV, this could have been merely a stepping stone for her future endeavours because she still has time on her side. The girl has repeatedly stated that she would love to pursue cosplaying after retiring and in an effort to maintain her financial stability, she may have already realised this by riding the Fantia hype, as have many AV actresses in recent years.
Stay updated with Hiyori Yoshioka's Twitter & Instagram
We'd keep bringing you more such updates at ZENRA, to hop on the fan wagon follow us on Twitter
By trapstar @ October 6th, 2022
By trapstar @ February 17th, 2024
By trapstar @ April 5th, 2024