Rika Adachi continues gravure comeback in her thirties

In the fast and furious world of gravure, it feels like every month, if not every week, brings a newcomer. Many debut, then quickly disappear. A lucky few endure and build careers.

But every month also seems to bring a gravure comeback of sorts. In mid-April, for instance, we celebrated the return of former AKB48 Haruna Kojima to gravure after years of focusing on fashion retail.

And so we are very pleased to welcome back Rika Adachi, who has recently done a stunning cover shoot for an issue of Weekly Playboy (April 24) with a sunny bikini theme that has us yearning for the summer to kick off in earnest so we can see more shoots like this.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a new digital photo book La vie en rose, shot by popular gravure photographer Luckman.

Weekly Playboy has also released a making-of video.

The behind-the-scenes pics that Rika teased on social media are almost better than the actual photos from the shoot.

To be strictly accurate, Rika Adachi never really went away per se, but had recently fostered a career more as a TV tarento than a gradol.

She actually returned briefly to the gravure limelight last autumn with a photo book to celebrate turning 30. Back then, we praised her more mature look, though this new Weekly Playboy shoot seems to turn back the clock and show she’s still got that twentysomething girl-next-door charm.

She became famous in the early 2010s, especially for her winning smile and shapely butt (despite her slender waist). She made it onto our popular list of Japanese babes with great asses.

In the past, she has faced accusations of plastic surgery, like various other gradols (plastic surgery is a bit of an open secret in the gravure and music idol world, though few admit to it — a notable exception being Yuuri Morishita).