... and that's a wrap

Much like Tanaka Hitomi's jump from gravure to AV, here comes another announcement so obvious that you could see it coming from a mile away - GIJo will be closing its virtual doors in the near future - by the latest in early December. Over half a year without updates - what else did you expect?

If you're curious as to why, the two biggest reasons are lack of time and, in some ways, lack of interest. Lack of time should be obvious - happens to the best of us. Lack of interst? Well, let's take a look at the idols I've dedicated the site to:

• Hanai Miri - inactive for two years; only recently released a new, and quite excellent I might add, DVD (In Secret) but shows no signs of releasing any more materials in the near future.
• Harada Ôrei - retired.
• Kitamura Hitomi - vastly slowing down her output, no new pictorials and only one new gravure DVD in the last six months, and that one was co-starring another idol.
• Matsugane Yôko - active, but I've lost interest. Yōko - quit doing the damned pseudo-porn and we'll talk. Still absolutely gorgeous, though.
• MEGUMI - retired, married and pregnant.
• Nemoto Harumi - inactive.
• Natsume Rio - active.
• Oda Arisa - retired, now an AV idol by the name of Kayana Mika.
• Takeuchi Nozomi - active, I think.
• Takizawa Nonami - active.

So that's basically four of my girls gone, two who seem to be on their way out shortly and one who appears to be headed for AV. That's right - in my opinion, Yōko appears to be taking the Aoki Rin/Tanaka Hitomi route, albeit at a much slower pace. That leaves only Rio, Nonami and Nozomi (possibly). With such a small focus for the site, I'm not sure if there would be any interest in it.

Also, the galleries have been superfluous for some time now - it seems people want quantity over quality. It seems like I must be one of the only collectors who actually filters for quality- no I don't care whether this file was originally some obscurely named code from this particular set on that date - if it's a badly taken picture, it gets dumped from my archives. Plus, with so many alternate and easier sources to grab images from, why bother?

In anycase, my cynical, holier-than-thou attitude aside, I'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write with a thoughtful comment or criticism or a bit of news, even if I'm a total asshat when it comes to replying in a timely manner, if at all.

I'm sure, JustMeMike will be continuing his excellent DVD reviews and articles over at Also On Video - he just posted a slew of new idol DVD reviews over a long absence as well. As soon as he's set up in his new home, I'll be updating the links. If you haven't had the opportunity to go check out his blog, do so ASAP!

Finally, you can still reach me for the time being through the contact form. I'll also be over at Asiansthetic.com for the foreseeable future - just do a user search for "Zatôichi".

Again, thanks to everyone who stopped by. I'd like to think that I put together not only a fan site of some quality, but also offered something a little different and more interesting than the norm for these kind of things. Who knows - if there's enough interest, I might be back, although I'd definitely drop the galleries in their current form.

Ladies and gentlemen, Gravure Idol Jo has left the building.

Mass gravure idol defections into the AV industry!

Specifically Tanaka Hitomi and Oda Arisa. Not exactly "mass", but close enough.

It's old news now, but in case you've been living under a rock, Tanaka Hitomi (who is now just going by Hitomi, no kanji or kana, just romaji) has made the oh-so-shocking jump from glamour modeling to porn. According to her blog, it was a difficult decision, which is the biggest of load of crap I've heard in a long time. With the content of her DVDs, it would greatly suprise me if this wasn't planned from day one of her modeling career, using her overtly sexual gravure releases to driv up demand for the inevitable jump. If you are familiar with any of her DVDs (from her inital release, Bakunyū J No Shōgeki, the jump from gravure to AV is so minor that I'm suprised any one noticed. Her first AV is Geinōjin Hitomi Shōgeki No AV Debut, or roughly, "Celebrity Hitomi's Shock Porn Debut". Yeah. Absolutely shocking.

While Hitomi didn't really surprise anyone except the most gullible with her move to the dark side, I must admit I did raise my eyebrows when I discovered that Oda Arisa (now Kayama Mika, or 佳山三花 in kanji) made the move. Now, Arisa never was shy about showing off almost everything, but even with her Eight releases, she was never that risque compared to a lot of her contemporaries as far displaying really overt stuff. That being said, it wasn't a total shock when I saw the posted for her AV debut, Perfect, in the local Nobunaga. In fact, they were totally hyping up her transition to AV by having posters everywhere emblazoned with the change. Ah well... I know I'm in the minority, but it's a pity - Arisa, aside from being gorgeous and having a killer body, has some real on-screen charisma which goes far beyond the generic AV idol fake sexuality. At least now I know what happened to her after she disappearted from the gravure scene.

With both of these ladies, I can't help but think of Aoki Rin's switch - all the hype surrounding it, then a few DVDs later, she's just another generic AV idol, nothing special about her, whereas she had her niche cleanly cared out in the gravure idol realm. But my ramblings aside, best of luck to both Hitomi and Kayama Mika in the future.

Both Perfect and Geinōjin Hitomi Shōgeki No AV Debut ship in early November - the former on the first, the latter on the sixth.

On hiatus. Probably.

Okay folks... here's the deal. Due to business and personal issues, I have been seriously stressed and pressed for time since early January and it looks like things aren't going to let up before the end of March or early April, so don't expect much in the way of new content for a while. On the back burner I have:

• About 20 pages of magazine photoshoots to scan.
• Who knows how many additional images to go through for the galleries.
• A small write up on Kitamura Hitomi's CD Romance No Kamisama ~Be Myself~
• Some interesting Matsugane Yôko DVD news which is getting older by the minute, so it's not really news anymore.
• At least two DVD reviews, Hitomi's Purin A La Mode and Natsume Rio's Naked. In brief... Hitomi's DVD is solid, but nothing to write home about, but Rio's new one it pretty damned good - old school, but wearing some seriously small bikini tops.
• A huge backlog of email, even more than usual. Sorry people... I'm getting around to it!
• Various small updates around the site... mostly the FAQ and links sections.
• GIJō 3.0... yeah. It's coming, believe it or not.

That being said, I hope to take a little time this weekend and post my review of Naked, if not get a few scans done. I don't even want to think about March 21, when four DVDs of my favorite idols are being releases simultaneously. That will be some work, albeit pleasurable work.

Anyways, sit tight... once the smoke clears, GIJō should be back to relatively regualr updayes.

Gallery updates

The galleries have been updated:

• Kitamura Hitomi: 39 images added.
• Matsugane Yôko: 5 images added.
• Takizawa Nonami: 58 images added.

Enjoy!

MEGUMI is engaged. Apparently.

And now for random gossip....

At a recent press conference, MEGUMI was spotted with an engagement ring. No formal announcement has been made, but the obvious bastard... er... lucky guy is the lead singer for j-rock band Dragon Ash, Kj. MEGU has been seeing him for a couple of years and are currently living together.

Anyways, congrats to the lucky couple, although I suppose this puts a dampner on any possible return to gravure for MEGUMI - married idols just aren't part of the cultural landscape in Japan.