@Kojak07's post made me think: how many people out there know about JAV DVD special features?
It hasn't been a common practice for a long time now, but for the early- to mid-aughts when the JAV industry was transitioning from VHS to DVD releases, some of the studios included bonus features on their DVDs. Studios tried to entice fans to buy rather than rent: the VHS and Rental DVDs would have the same contents, and the DVD designed for sale directly to consumers would have something special. It's not limited to JAV, either - you might see a DVD release of a variety show with running audio commentary included on the Sale version only.
Million/K.M. Produce, Alice JAPAN, and Max-A made a lot of releases with bonus features. I think it's because these labels worked with big stars who had their own fan bases who could be counted on to buy rather than rent, and the bonus features were intended to keep these guys happy.
Because the main content and the bonus features of a DVD are often on separate tracks, it's not easy to rip them together into one file without losing quality. As a result, the longer and more essential main tracks have survived the test of time while the bonus features have been largely forgotten.
Starting with Aoi Sora, I've been looking for DVD-ISO copies as well as true original DVD prints for about a year now, and have posted a bunch here on Akiba-Online and on JAVLibrary. I hope folks who have JAV sharing websites and folks who make torrents will take what I've posted and spread it around so that these lost treasures can be enjoyed again.
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Here are some hints as to how you can spot a DVD with special features without having to read Japanese:
- Duration
JAV DVDs are sold with a rough duration printed somewhere on the cover. If the video you possess is more than ~10 minutes off from the listed duration, you should suspect special features.
For example, Jav.guru is offering a file for download purporting to be Aoi Sora's DV-327 Watermelon Tits. The file they're offering, though, is only about an hour long when the DVD is supposed to be 120 minutes. They way it's written in the data box is a giveaway: 60 minutes of main track + 60 minutes of bonus content. (Check out the complete contents here.)
- Multiple Angles
The duration of multi-angle scenes will be included in the video duration multiple times, e.g. if there's a 20-minute scene with three angles, it will be treated as an extra 60 minutes of content.
There are a various icons to look for to see if a release had multiple angles, but they all look sort of like film cameras with a numeral.
Look for the icons on these covers for SDMS-096, DV-349, and BUR-026:
The multiple angles can get boring if you watch all of them, but conversely they're great if you like a certain kind of camerawork (Voyeur/Hidden Camera, POV/Gonzo, Face Close-Ups, Boob-centric, etc.). In the above SDMS-096 the multiple angles are there to record every cumshot when multiple dudes pop on different faces at the same time.
- Rental vs Sale DVD Cover Differences
Take a look at these: VHS, Rental DVD, and Sale DVD covers for MILD-090:
First, the reason the sale DVD is sideways is because that one is 'jewel case' size (CD case) and the rental is 'tall case' size (normal DVD). But you can spot on the back cover that the Sale DVD has an extra scene. The durations are also a clue: 120 minutes for Rental and VHS, 180 minutes for Sale.
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I hope this is helpful for fans of early 2000's JAV. If you're a fan of Aoi Sora, Mihiro, Yoshizawa Akiho, Oikawa Nao, Rio/Yuzuki Tina, Matsushima Kaede, Takagi Maria, Asami Yuma, Hayasaka Hitomi, or many other stars of that era -- or if you're a collector just now realizing what you're missing -- I hope this encourages you to look out for special features from your favorite stars.
