Is the quality of gravure idols slipping a little?

fwildly

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2008
613
1,097
This could just be a personal opinion, but I wonder if anyone else also thinks that the girls doing mainstream gravure these days aren't as pretty as just a few years back? Its not even a particularly long stretch of time. I'm comparing like from before 2015/2016. I'm mostly referring to facial attractiveness - just how cute or pretty they are.

I mean I look at the current crop of titles from SmashTV, SpiceVisual, Takeshobo, and I mostly just shrug and skip the download once I see the screencaps. Due to space and bandwidth considerations, I only grab new titles if I think the girl is at least as attractive as those already in my collection (which I have also started to trim down too). To me, many of the new girls are no more attractive than some of my former schoolmates after several heavy layers of makeup plastered on.

Of the girls that debuted fairly recently within the past year, I think only Mana Yumeno really caught my attention.
https://www.akiba-online.com/threads/tasks-085-mana-yumeno.1806632/#post-3699647

And maybe Hikari Etou who I really wish stayed chaku-ero as it was sexier. I know not every Japanese girl has puffy pink nipples but the illusion of the possibility was more captivating than the reality. Her face does meet my expectations though but kinda barely (hard to explain why I feel this way).

Right now, the girls that really hold my interest are those that made their debuts a while back, like Tsubasa Akimoto, Tsukasa Kanzaki, Karen Hayama, and Yukino Horiuchi. For me, its like they perhaps set a high bar and unrealistically raised my expectations.

Of course, this is just a personal opinion but I am curious if anyone else might feel the same. Physical attractiveness, of course, is a subjective opinion. I did notice that my tastes have something of an overlap with Beam~ though. I am often interested in what he puts up here.

Where, oh where, have all the pretty Japanese girls gone? I know they are still around. Its just that they seem less willing to tease in front of a video camera these days. I'm guessing its cos the gravure industry just doesn't pay a livable wage which was why someone like Takahashi Shoko had to do 'escorting' on the side and eventually ended up in JAV. A good number of the pretty young girls seem to be jumping directly into JAV where the pay is better.
 

PJB

Well-Known Member
Apr 12, 2007
338
454
It's not you, I think it's definitely a thing. And it's not limited to Japan, either. I've noticed the quality of Western softcore studios dropping a fair bit in recent years too.
 
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fwildly

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2008
613
1,097
They are just getting older ... not as youthful as before.
If you get the meaning behind my post, I actually prefer the ones who debuted before and are getting older as compared to the newer younger ones now.

Its like they can't find really pretty girls to debut in gravure now. Or they're just going straight to JAV.

Some examples of pretty ones (IMHO) who jumped straight to porn and made their debut within the past 2 years.
Kirari Sena (failed Youtuber who could have done OK in chakuero but probably got a good offer from Muteki)
Tae Kurumi - http://www.minnano-av.com/actress664861.html
Ai Hoshona - http://www.minnano-av.com/actress509771.html
Rion Izumi - http://www.minnano-av.com/actress726107.html

The above kinda all fall under the 'loli' category but only cos I didn't want to spend too much time looking things up. Well, there's also S1's current crop of debutants like Yura Kano, Miru Sakamichi, Azusa Oto, etc. The JAV industry just seems to have an easier time finding the pretty ones now.
 
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PJB

Well-Known Member
Apr 12, 2007
338
454
Yeah that's true, I've noticed a lot of the AV Idols that debuted in recent years have been quite attractive compared to the old days (at least on average).
I guess Gravure just isn't profitable enough anymore, which is a shame for us Gravure lovers. The joy of the tease is lost..

There are exceptions though, like Marina Nagasawa for example. She is so fucking hot.
 

columbussnake

Well-Known Member
Jan 10, 2009
492
385
I thought you were talking about younger idols who then move up, maybe beginning at U15.
There are far less U15 models coming up and this means fewer quality ones who could continue to develop their gravure career.
I must agree with PJB that the quality of the western models has gone down.
... and the quality of the western AV models is just awful and has been for a long time.
 
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MelonBuns

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2016
145
392
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment but not for the reasons you stated. I feel that there are still attractive Gravure Idols, like Hikari Etou (btw fwildly, what did you mean by you wished she stayed chakuero? Did she transition to JAV?) and Seta Ayano looks pretty cute. Both Ayumi Fujimoto and Mikuni Saran are goddesses but sadly they have not been active since 2016 I think. Sure not all of them are S-tiers like Yukino Horiuchi but the current crop of girls are attractive enough for me to look forward to their works. The reason I think Gravure Idols are slipping is due to the decrease in the quality of the content, specifically Chakuero content.

I have had the suspicion that something was going on behind the scenes in the Gravure Idol industry in Japan but have never been able to know for sure since I don't read much Japanese and I'm not in Japan. But I will post what I have found and maybe some of the more knowledgeable members here can help explain the situation. This will be a pretty long post so TL;DR at the bottom.

This started when I was trying to make some purchases on 369's website at the beginning of the year, they are the guys that are responsible for the legendary CMG label, and realized that they removed some videos from the site. Examples include PRML-017, PRML-014, PRML-015 and CMG-312. Many more were removed but these are the ones I will use as an example.

Soon after 369 launched a new label, CMR (Cameron R). And some of the old PRML titles that were removed have returned as CMR titles.

10091718_5bbc64497058d.jpg

The banner on their website describe CMR as a label where "nude images" are possible. Weird but I think they mean that CMR will be the label where the more extreme or lewd videos are released under. But when I compared the new CMR video covers with their old PRML covers I noticed some differences. Most of the releases have shorter run times and some of the images on the cover have been edited to cover up more.

CMR-002 which was PRML-014 has 70 mins of content instead of 95. 25 mins lesser. Same with CMR-001 which was PRML-017. 95 mins becoming 70 mins. Now this might be due to errors or place holder images but when you see the rest of the changes it seems even more suspicious.

CMR-001.png

As you can see. Most of the images featuring the crotch area has been edited to either have more fabric or to be less transparent to cover more. The green thong in the middle is obviously painted over. The one on the top left has been edited to be wider.

CMR-006.png
In this one you can tell that the image has been painted white to be less transparent. Also, ALL images that show flossing have been removed. If you don't know what flossing is, it is when a girl only covers the middle of her pussy with a thin material, exposing her vulva.

I do not know for sure that scenes have been edited out since I would need both the old and new versions to compare but it is highly likely. Also, it seems that 369 no longer accepts foreign customers, my payments have been rejected since the change and I have not been able to purchase anything. CMG-312 has also returned since, there is no change on the cover at all BUT the run time seems to have been reduced from 100 mins to 90 mins. The code remains the same so if it indeed has been edited to remove some scenes without letting customers know, that would be really shitty.

This is not just 369, but also SmashTV. When I was browsing their new releases I noticed that they have "Limited Uncut Versions" of their releases for more money. I am not sure if this is new or it has always been this way.
FNC.PNG
Compares.png
Here you can see that the code is different and it is stated that this limited release includes cuts not in the normal or dvd release.

I then found this tweet from SmashTV promoting SpiceTV.

Regulations.PNG

This is from Google translate but you can see it says there are cuts and the cuts are due to regulations in DVDs. The examples given feature flossing.

I think that there is some changes happening behind the scenes. Maybe due to the upcoming Olympics, we know that they are censoring themselves to appear cleaner. What do you guys think?

I personally think this sucks big time. I was wondering why the recent releases seemed boring when I noticed they all lacked flossing. I know that not all Idols are equally lewd but even the extreme ones showing buttholes do not have flossing scenes. To compensate it seems that there are more Anal focused releases. It seems that whatever is going on in Japan is targeting showing too much pussy.

This may have an impact on sales and thus more girls going straight to AV for the money. After all if you are the type of girl that is willing to do Chakuero videos, JAV is not that big a jump if you are being restricted by new regulations.

TL;DR: There might be new regulations in Japan clamping down on Chakuero videos causing the newer releases to be less lewd and thus less awesome.
 

fwildly

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2008
613
1,097
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment but not for the reasons you stated. I feel that there are still attractive Gravure Idols, like Hikari Etou (btw fwildly, what did you mean by you wished she stayed chakuero? Did she transition to JAV?)
Means I prefer that they stick to the tease and not actually show off the goods aside from a few stolen fleeting glances that could be excused as 'sloppy camerawork' or editing.

Full or partial nudity ain't really chakuero anymore IMHO.
 

Casshern2

Senior Member...I think
Mar 22, 2008
6,859
14,219
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment but not for the reasons you stated. I feel that there are still attractive Gravure Idols, like Hikari Etou (btw fwildly, what did you mean by you wished she stayed chakuero? Did she transition to JAV?) and Seta Ayano looks pretty cute. Both Ayumi Fujimoto and Mikuni Saran are goddesses but sadly they have not been active since 2016 I think. Sure not all of them are S-tiers like Yukino Horiuchi but the current crop of girls are attractive enough for me to look forward to their works. The reason I think Gravure Idols are slipping is due to the decrease in the quality of the content, specifically Chakuero content.

I have had the suspicion that something was going on behind the scenes in the Gravure Idol industry in Japan but have never been able to know for sure since I don't read much Japanese and I'm not in Japan. But I will post what I have found and maybe some of the more knowledgeable members here can help explain the situation. This will be a pretty long post so TL;DR at the bottom.

This started when I was trying to make some purchases on 369's website at the beginning of the year, they are the guys that are responsible for the legendary CMG label, and realized that they removed some videos from the site. Examples include PRML-017, PRML-014, PRML-015 and CMG-312. Many more were removed but these are the ones I will use as an example.

Soon after 369 launched a new label, CMR (Cameron R). And some of the old PRML titles that were removed have returned as CMR titles.

View attachment 1540679

The banner on their website describe CMR as a label where "nude images" are possible. Weird but I think they mean that CMR will be the label where the more extreme or lewd videos are released under. But when I compared the new CMR video covers with their old PRML covers I noticed some differences. Most of the releases have shorter run times and some of the images on the cover have been edited to cover up more.

CMR-002 which was PRML-014 has 70 mins of content instead of 95. 25 mins lesser. Same with CMR-001 which was PRML-017. 95 mins becoming 70 mins. Now this might be due to errors or place holder images but when you see the rest of the changes it seems even more suspicious.

View attachment 1540691

As you can see. Most of the images featuring the crotch area has been edited to either have more fabric or to be less transparent to cover more. The green thong in the middle is obviously painted over. The one on the top left has been edited to be wider.

View attachment 1540692
In this one you can tell that the image has been painted white to be less transparent. Also, ALL images that show flossing have been removed. If you don't know what flossing is, it is when a girl only covers the middle of her pussy with a thin material, exposing her vulva.

I do not know for sure that scenes have been edited out since I would need both the old and new versions to compare but it is highly likely. Also, it seems that 369 no longer accepts foreign customers, my payments have been rejected since the change and I have not been able to purchase anything. CMG-312 has also returned since, there is no change on the cover at all BUT the run time seems to have been reduced from 100 mins to 90 mins. The code remains the same so if it indeed has been edited to remove some scenes without letting customers know, that would be really shitty.

This is not just 369, but also SmashTV. When I was browsing their new releases I noticed that they have "Limited Uncut Versions" of their releases for more money. I am not sure if this is new or it has always been this way.
View attachment 1540693
View attachment 1540694
Here you can see that the code is different and it is stated that this limited release includes cuts not in the normal or dvd release.

I then found this tweet from SmashTV promoting SpiceTV.

View attachment 1540695

This is from Google translate but you can see it says there are cuts and the cuts are due to regulations in DVDs. The examples given feature flossing.

I think that there is some changes happening behind the scenes. Maybe due to the upcoming Olympics, we know that they are censoring themselves to appear cleaner. What do you guys think?

I personally think this sucks big time. I was wondering why the recent releases seemed boring when I noticed they all lacked flossing. I know that not all Idols are equally lewd but even the extreme ones showing buttholes do not have flossing scenes. To compensate it seems that there are more Anal focused releases. It seems that whatever is going on in Japan is targeting showing too much pussy.

This may have an impact on sales and thus more girls going straight to AV for the money. After all if you are the type of girl that is willing to do Chakuero videos, JAV is not that big a jump if you are being restricted by new regulations.

TL;DR: There might be new regulations in Japan clamping down on Chakuero videos causing the newer releases to be less lewd and thus less awesome.
Great analysis!
 

NineMoon

New Member
Dec 6, 2016
12
3
I agree I feel like that the quality has been slipping as of late. Maybe not many pretty girls want to be in the industry anymore since I heard somewhere that it's over saturated with female actresses but not enough male actors. Perhaps that could have diluted the pay rate for female idols, hence a drop in quality as well as a personnel.
 

MelonBuns

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2016
145
392
I agree I feel like that the quality has been slipping as of late. Maybe not many pretty girls want to be in the industry anymore since I heard somewhere that it's over saturated with female actresses but not enough male actors. Perhaps that could have diluted the pay rate for female idols, hence a drop in quality as well as a personnel.
The Gravure Idol industry has always been overwhelmingly female dominated. It's not as if idol videos require male actors at all so I'm not sure how a lack of male actors would affect the quality?
 

CoolKevin

Nutcase on the loose
Staff member
Super Moderator
Mar 30, 2007
9,994
3,594
I do not think we have any male Idols posted
and I do not remember seeing any that ugly that I look at and think is it a dude, the closest I can think of is Anna Oonishi (also known as Jackie Chan)
 

MelonBuns

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2016
145
392
Just a small update regarding the CMG situation. I actually emailed their payment system provider asking why all my cards could not go through and they have confirmed with me that it was because I was using foreign credit cards. So yeah, it confirms my suspicion that 369 no longer welcomes foreign purchasers. Shame, they make some of the best Chakuero releases and there were many I still wanted to purchase.