Surf Girl
It’s been two years since Nemoto Harumi’s last release (X-Body), and for Nemo-fans like myself, it been a very long time since Beauty Personified has graced the screen. It’s understandable, then, that when news of Surf Girl first surfaced, I was extremely happy that she had decided to release at least one more glamour disc. But I was also a little worried – often times the swan song for idols tends to be a little on the mediocre side: witness MEGUMI’s digi+KISHIN and Harada Ôrei’s With You. If this is Harumi’s last release, she doesn’t go out with a bang, nor a whimper. It’s more like a fairly loud noise which you’d definitely notice, but could probably sleep though if you were really tired or hung over. Surf Girl has it’s good and bad points, but as a Harumi fanboy, I’m definitely happy I picked it up.
The main glamour portion of the disc runs around 50 minutes long, spread over eight tracks plus the title sequence. There is also an extra track which runs an additional seven minutes or so. The disc is presented in faux-wide screen, but was mastered absolutely beautifully – no evidence of compression artifacts anywhere.
Let’s start with the most obvious positive of the disc: Nemo-chan herself. Her two-year hiatus has not hurt her physical charms whatsoever – she remains the perfect woman. A beautiful, angelic face and the best overall body in the business – huge, full breasts, a nice round behind and long, shapely legs. She’s looking a little more tanned here than compared to her previous outings, but it looks good on her. Despite the limited variety of scenes on the disc, she never fails to connect with the viewer in each one. The behind-the-scenes crews did a bang up job as well – all of Harumi’s costumes are flattering and emphasize the right curves on her frame (i.e. lots of push up bras), and her make up and hair well done. The camera generally gives you varied and interesting views of Nemo, with close ups, zoomed out shots and pans, none of which are confusing or jarring, but naturally lead your eyes across Harumi’s body. When you looks as good as she does, the last thing you want to do is miss out an opportunity to gaze on such an incredible sight.
The negatives are two-fold. First, the pacing of the entire disc is exactly the same, from the opening scene to the last. Aside from costume changes, there is very little to distinguish each track: they all take place indoors (with the exception of one track), the music tends to be very similar (the majority of the tracks feature slow piano pieces) and Harumi is mostly given nothing much to do by the director except pose and gaze at the camera in a sultry manner. Now, individually, these aren’t necessarily bad things, but when you have 50 minutes worth of it, you just wish the director would try something a little different. The other thing, which is quite puzzling, is that Harumi does not smile during the glamour portions of the disc at all. Sometimes, she seems downright serious or sad. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as noticeable if you’ve never seen any of Harumi’s past DVDs, but she has always had a very infectious energy and seems very natural when interacting with the camera. It’s as if the director was almost trying to go for a runway model kind of thing. Nemo-chan can do sultry and smouldering, but a little but of levity never hurt anyone.
Simply because you get to see Nemo smiling and interacting with more energy, I actually enjoyed the bonus track more than I probably should have. The first part of it has Nemo at the beach surfing (which, I assume, is where the title comes from). She’s actually surfing here, as in she has a full Body Glove suit on, so if you’re hoping for more bikinis, leather dominatrix outfits or see-through white tops, you’re out of luck. If she was doing aikidô or judo, I could give you a critique of her skills, but I know nothing about surfing except what I learned from old Elvis films, and I have the sneaking suspicion they don’t accurately reflect the sport. After Nemo At The Beach, there is a very short section with Nemo chatting, and then the final three minutes of the track are padded out with a slide show. Although definite filler, there are some really beautiful photo of Harumi here – I’m seriously hoping for a photobook to be published in the near future.
Make no mistake – Harumi looks devastatingly gorgeous and sexy throughout Surf Girl, but the disc is almost monotonous and feels longer than its 50 minute running time. It’s also a more old school gravure release, so if you’re looking for a lot very risqué scenes or pseudo-porn elements, go elsewhere. On the other hand, if you can appreciate some artistic elements and a beautiful woman on a purely aesthetic level (as opposed to a frat-boy-fuck-everything-in-site level), you’ll find much to appreciate about Surf Girl. Harumi fans should grab this one, but others might want to be a bit more wary.
Click image to enlarge
Check out JMM's review of 