Hey guys, welcome to the 2021 debut roundup post, one year later. Last year I took my debut posts in a completely different direction where I had individual posts for each actress. While it was certainly quite a bit more effort I think we can all agree that the end results were worth it. I've enjoyed it a lot and am planning to do it again this year (I promise you'll start seeing posts soon enough). With that said, I like being able to review these things as a way of making sure I improve, whether that's changing how I write, finding different actresses to review, etc. I think this one will be a lot more interesting because of the change, and it will be fun to see how 2021 compares to 2022 next year. With that in mind, let's go look through some data first and then check in on a few key actresses.

Overview & Data

The first thing to do is compare to 2020 debuts and see how we did. It turns out that we watched the same number this time around so the comparison is very easy to do. We see a slight decrease on the retired actresses, which is overall a good thing. Over two thirds are still active so there's plenty of actresses to still watch.

One cool thing we see is 2020 and 2021 being identical in terms of the raw total number of videos seen by debuts. It's really interesting because there's such a wide range that this number could be. Even 2019 isn't far behind either, which really shows how consistent I am with watching new debuts. Yes, 2018 is way behind, but that's because 2018 had only seven. The number per actress goes down a lot as I watch more debuts, which makes sense. Another interesting thing is when you look at how many actresses I watched versus the total videos, you actually find that I watched very few more than once. In 2021 it was just 11 actresses I watched more than once, so not every B or higher actress wound up making it through.

With these graphs there are a couple of things we see. To start off, we see ourselves starting to pick favourites within the first year and then honing in on them next year. It suggests that initial impressions themselves might not matter but that the first year or two for an actress will make or break them among fans. I like to talk about how actresses can take some time to become good performers, and while I think that's still true this evidently suggests that other traits like how their career is going or especially the physical traits are way more important.

One thing to look at here is to compare 2021 against 2020. With a similar amount of actresses seen you get pretty similar results. You've got a clear one and two pair and then some people crowding for the next couple of spots. I find it very interesting that it's hard to have more than three standout debuts in a year. It really goes to show that most debuts aren't worth watching at all based on the outcome. That being said, it's pretty difficulty to tell whether you're going to like someone without watching them, so you don't really have a choice but to watch a bunch of actresses. Still, it seems like I go through all this trouble watching five weeks worth of debuts for less than a week's worth to actually matter.

When we compare the debuts most seen from each year, the data isn't actually all that different. 2018 is 21, 2019 is 29, 2020 is 20, and 2021 is 20. You actually see 2019 being one of the best debut years, which to me just makes a ton of sense due to there being three S tier debuts. In the two year look at 2020 we could see 2020 was lagging behind a bit but it's very interesting to see that after a year we see a lot of consistency across years. If I'm being honest, I'm surprised Kaho Imai was the winner in year one since by year two she was the lowest of the three, but I guess when all of them are rankings 2-4 since 2018, it's not that big of a difference.

I think Konan vs Rino will be a very interesting pair to watch how they progress. Just like in 2020 where Aka and Hana were the clear top two, I think Konan and Rino are the clear top two from 2021. You can see them going back and forth, with Rino often being ahead but Konan currently being a bit ahead. Gauging how fandom has gone between the two in circles I'm in, I would say that people feel very similar to myself about them. They both get a lot of love from the community and both seem to be sticking out as top tier debuts from the year.

Retirements

I actually rather liked Ren Usui but her career just never panned out. By the end of the year she was just taking whatever they threw at her, and boy oh boy did they give her a bunch of bad opportunities her way. I almost feel happy for her that she retired and didn't have to take the opportunities she was getting. I'm still confused what happened with her because she had a lot of likable qualities to her. It's too hard to speculate but I guess we're just sometimes spoiled by the major actresses we pay attention to, not looking at the dozens that fade quietly into the night. I certainly notice it a lot more with all the debuts I watch, but at the same time it also doesn't bother me as much when the actress isn't that big of a deal. If one of my favourites from the year retired, okay maybe I'll be up in arms (like I was when Touka Rinne retired) but for Ren, it's really not that big of a deal.

I will happily admit that Uta Hayano was better than I had initially given her credit for. I actually found myself coming on board with her and was looking forward to more stuff from her. She had the right opportunities at S1 and fit their look quite well. At least at S1 you know there's going to be plenty of major actresses each and every year. Touka in 2018 (although she left she did debut there), Mei Washio in 2019, Aka Asuka in 2020, so it's not as if Uta leaving is that devastating. Sure, I would be sad if Mei or Aka retired, but I find it's not until it's one of your absolute favourites retiring that it really hits hard. So while I would happily have watched more Uta, I think knowing there are plenty of others there that I can enjoy makes it not too big of a loss.

I can't say that I'm at all surprised but I can say that I am disappointed that Yumi Narusaki left the industry. Madonna's Monroe label is a perfect home for some older women, and they honestly have managed to have a pretty good cast of women there with names like Momoko Isshiki, Natsuko Kayama, and of course the star Maki Tomoda. I was a bit surprised to see Yumi leave them as I thought she was nice and could last, but she dropped off the roster, had a pretty underwhelming freelance bit, and then ultimately left. It seems like Monroe's label has trouble keeping actresses and Yumi leaving signals exactly that. It also points to how shallow the industry is for MILFs outside of Madonna. Try looking at how women who leave Madonna fare, it's not pretty, and I can't blame Yumi for retiring after leaving.

Late Watches

Non Ohana is one actress I checked out quite late. I don't really feel like I made a mistake not watching her sooner because her career started off the same way Hana Himesaki's did at a mediocre studio. She also went the same path of Hana where she went freelance at the start of the next year and really picked up a lot of steam. She's definitely one of the hotter names right now and it's not surprising why. She's got all-around solid qualities, and when you pair it with a booming career, of course it's going to look great. It is interesting to see that sometimes the correct call is to wait on actresses. If I had watched her early on I might not have cared much for her, but watching her once her career had taken off it seems far more likely I become interested in her. Food for thought, I suppose.

Others

Mina is definitely someone people should be paying attention to. I will say this right now but she isn't exactly for me, but she's quite good and manages to move past some of the qualities I don't like. She has some boobs I just really can't get into, those kind of bolt-ons just aren't for me. And yet, I have watched her again and I do see her producing quality releases. I know some others like Pan are very into her, and honestly if you can get past her boobs then she's absolutely fantastic and worth watching. Very reminiscent of Kurea with those boobs, her ass, and how upbeat her performing is.

Kaoru is someone I had a very low opinion of when she debuted. As it turns out, I'm not alone in this as she's been falling off the charts pretty heavily. I know I commented before on how she's been tanking but 2022 was not kind to her at all. She basically completely fell off the list and just isn't worth the time of day anymore, at least according to fans. I still stand by everyone being hyped at the studio that debuted her, totally out of left field, and her success was entirely due to that initial burst. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if S1 decided to drop her at some point.

Alice is by far the biggest disappointment in recent years. She's got an incredible body with some amazing tits and a fantastic ass. You can go look back at my 2021 debut review roundup post where she won both categories. That being said, if you look back at my review of her you'll see I flagged her as a pretty awful performer. She's was basically the next Rara Anzai with two caveats: she wasn't as pretty and didn't work at S1. While she was a shared exclusive with Oppai I wasn't that unhappy, especially when she could get decent releases. When she went full freelance and couldn't get opportunities with big studios her videos went downhill. She even got some opportunities that looked good, like her lesbian video with Chisato Shoda, but god it was so disappointing.

Favourite Debuts

Minaho has stuck out as one of the top tier MILFs from the year. I think what has done it for me has been her getting better opportunities. She left Kanbi to go to Madonna, and while she didn't stay too long there she managed to get a few decent freelance opportunities. MILF actresses can really go all over the place, and I think not being relegated to the bottom tier MILF studios like Ruby or Mercury has been quite good for her. She's also had a relatively unique performing style that makes her stand out, reminiscent of actresses like Meguri or Momoko Isshiki.

Rino has also been a great all-around debut. She has nice boobs, an even nicer ass, and a very unique face that I find myself enjoying. She's been getting a lot of great opportunities across many studios as well and there's just so much there to enjoy. I've said it before, in fact I've alluded to it right above in Minaho's bit is that careers matter. When Rino is getting great solo releases or starring along amazing actresses like Alice Otsu, Monami Takarada, Ruka Inaba, etc. it's been fantastic to follow along with her. I expect her to continue getting better over the years.

Konan has come out guns blazing to be one of my favourite debuts from the year. For me, the standout with Konan is how attractive she ultimately is. I spoke about how much prettier I found her over time in my roundup post and I still stand by that. She's got a personality that works really well in tandem with her appearance that's very reminiscent of earlier Aika Yumeno. She's definitely one of the best actresses at S1 right now and I find myself wanting to watch her quite a bit. While S1 actresses might have a lot of more generic releases, watching an actress there in spite of those is really a big sign of how good they are. I have a lot of hope that Konan will continue to improve and remain one of their top talents.

Conclusion

Like always I try to draw some conclusions about debuts and how I should go about watching debuts. Here are some of those conclusions:

• There are always a few top tier debuts and the rest are very replaceable. When I find those I like I should start to focus on them rather than caring so much about the rest of them. After just the first year we seem to be quite on track for who is going to be among my favourites, so I can really start focusing quite early on.
  • To this point, it's interesting that we don't see a lot of actresses climb the rankings out of left field. It's almost as if within a year we can see how their long term career trajectory looks like.
• MILFs are very tricky to get into because their careers can spiral to mediocrity really quickly. At this point Minaho Ariga is the only MILF still on my radar.
• There are a lot of ways to get on my radar: pretty face, big tits, nice ass, good performing, or even a good career. That being said, being a one-trick pony is very difficult. It's a good reminder for when I'm watching actresses this year and next year that one-dimensional actresses are probably worth skipping.

With this in the books I hope you're all ready for 2022 debuts. The time is almost upon us, and like I've been alluding to I have a great plan for this year. I hope you'll follow along with my 2022 debuts and also come back in another year to see where these lovely ladies are. Until next time!