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.

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.

Miri Hanai says nudity a possibility in the future

The most recent Flash magazine (#989) had a short, and very odd, pictorial of Hanai Miri. Delving into the artsy side of things, Miri did a four-page spread, seemingly wearing nothing but bopdy paint. Not my cup of tea, and gives me flashbacks to her disappointing book Aikakko Runrun.

The final page of the spread had a short bit of text, and if nothing else, Miri suffered for this one - it took about 13 hours total to apply all the paint to her body - 3 for the front, 10 for the back. Ouch. Anyways, she said that the paint covered everything so she didn't feel very nervous during the photo session, but also mentioned that she would be willing to pose nude if the right project came along.

Now, far be it for me to raise an eyebrow at that statement, but considering the Miri has already appeared essentially nude save for some pasties and a thong in various photoshoots and one DVD (Yarujan!), I don't really think that she has much left to hide at all, and hence not much to gain career-wise. But for the LCD, two small patches of skin and some hair (or perhaps lackthereof) make all the difference. Still, if that's route she choose, I can't say I won't be watching with great interest.

I don't think I'll be adding these photos to Miri's proper gallery as IMHO they aren't really to my taste. But if that's your thing, enjoy!

And finally, for those of you who have already dropped your pants at the thought of a nude Miri - at least wait until you go look for proper porn. Perverts.

Nozomi Takeuchi's new CD covers Every Little Thing

First off, before I get to the CD, a big screw you to the marketing geniuses over at Girls Record: Takeuchi Nozomi's CD Fuyu Ga Hajimaru Yo was released on the fifth of this month. There was a promotional event on the eighth with received very little advance promotion in a place which that is not normally known for hosting idol events (Sofmap Zaurus - a software store!), and featured both Nozomi and the equally cute and busty Horii Mizuki. I only found out on the same day as I was browsing for a new game or two and noticed the advert in the store. I had a commitment that I couldn't break at that point, so, to paraphrase a legend, "NO BUSTY IDOLS FOR YOU!!!" Damn it.

Okay, enough griping. Nozomi's new DVD covers well known J-pop band Every Little Thing with a solid cover of Fuyu Ga Hajimaru Yo as well as an original song, Sweet Good-Bye ~White Love Letter~. The requite instrumental versions follow. If you hate the manufactured nature of J-pop, then Nozomi will do very little to change your mind about the genre, but she her musical training does show through. Plus, props to her for actually writing her own stuff. She seems to be embracing her musical side, as she also released another CD in November of original songs, Dramatical, as well as an accompanying music DVD, Nozomi No Uta.

As usual for Girls' Record stuff, a DVD came with the CD, which had the video for the title track as well as a half hour making-of segment. Unlike fellow idols Kitamura Hitomi and Takizawa Nonami recent ventures into music videos, the video for Fuyu is not a cheesecake-fest, but rather focuses on Nozomi as a cute, girl-next-door type as opposed to going straight for the lowest common denominator. She does appear in a bikini in some of the scenes, but they are all too brief glimpses of her wonderful body and boobs. Still, there is something inherently watchable about Nozomi which very few, if any, idols can match: like her idol videos, she has a great connection with the camera and hence the viewer. She displays charisma as well as cleavage.

She's her usual charming, upbeat self on the making-of track and is more than watchable: probably the most entertaining behind-the-scenes for a video since Hanai Miri's Yokan. Of course, your mileage will vary with your understanding of Japanese.

And again, screw you, Girls' Record promotional team. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Nonami Takizawa event report for November 24th

With the release of her new CD, B-Blue, Takizawa Nonami headed into Ōsaka for another promotional tour, and, as usual, I headed out to see the Goddess herself in the flesh.

Unlike the last event I attended, we were seated in order of purchase, so I was up in the first row with a great view of Nonami, and what a view it was - wearing a somewhat chessy yet somehow incredibly sexy costume made of shiny plastic, Nonami charmed the audience for the next sixty minutes. Once the usual banter with the MC was out of the way, Nonami performed the first of two songs from her CD: the titular B-Blue, a cover of an 80s J-pop tune. Not to my tastes, but she put on a good performance and the crowded seemed to like it. After that, a little more banter, then she performed My Revolution, another cover. As was the norm, people clapped along as best they could, but I thought it was a little strange considering the second song was a little on the slow side for clapping.

After that, we got to meet Nonami, get an autographed cover from her and some of us got polaroids taken with her as well. This one was pretty quiet and things moved quickly - one fan was nice enough to bring her a small Hello Kitty-themed gift which she accepted gracefully. After that, the photo session took place - as usual, they brought us up in rows and we had a minute to snap pics. I won't go into details, but my camera had some kind of seizure during the shoot, so I only managed to get about eight snaps. Sad.

It's always a pleasure to see Nonami when she stop by, but I found this event to be a little on the subdued side, even for the Japanese - there was no real crowd interaction like a question period or any games for prizes. Plus, I must admit, the MC got on my nerves after a while - he was really hawking Nonami's upcoming events and DVDs. Listen dude - those of us geeky enough to shell out for three of her CDs just for the chance to see her for a short time don't need to be sold on buying for of her stuff or going to her events.

I think I've seen Nonami everytime she's visited Ōsaka this year, and it never gets old to bask in her presence.