Newbie gravure idol Minami Yamada goes semi-nude for latest photo book

Want an early Christmas present? The gravure idol Minami Yamada (山田南実) has released a semi-nude photo book that is bound to delight her growing number of fans.

In “Departure,” Yamada teases us with some side boob and glimpses of her butt (which, to be fair, is not especially shapely) while wearing only a white towel, covered by suds in the bath, or lying naked on a bed on her front while pulling up the only thing she’s wearing — sheer panties. You get to see plenty of naked back, that’s for sure, though not actual nude tits or ass.

The 21-year-old Hokkaido native, who was a finalist for the “schoolgirl uniform collection” contest run by Weekly Young Jump in 2018 and was briefly a member of the music idol group Pimm’s, also works as an actor and has recently performed a lead role in a musical. We’ve called her a newbie because of her age, though she’s actually got several years of gravure experience under her belt.

“Departure,” Yamada’s second photo book, came out on November 16 from Kodansha and is one of a clutch of photo books released to catch the end-of-year sales. Highlights from the book’s shoots have appeared in Weekly Friday and online to promote the release.

It’s quite a bold move to go semi-nude so early in your career, and it will be interesting to see how Yamada takes things from here.