We've said it before and we'll say it again, once more for the people at the back: Japanese lingerie advertising is the place to go to see some of the country's hottest gravure models and music idols in scantily clad attire, often hotter than the more placid and conventional aesthetic of gravure that we encounter on the pages of the weekly magazines.
The two big names in the industry are, as regular readers will know, Ravjour and Peach John.
The latter has picked 19-year-old Aika Sawaguchi (沢口愛華)) for their next brand ambassador. The up-and-coming gravure star is not really typical ...
Sumire Yokono suddenly left NMB48 in May 2021 -- shortly after a report broke that went to a hotel with a male celebrity twice her age. Even more shockingly, she was also spotted on a date (six days later) with yet another boyband member, with who she also spent the night at an expensive hotel.
The resulting scandal sunk her NMB future.
After a year off, the 21-year-old relaunched her career in May this year.
Su-chan is now trying to go it on her own (with a little help from a major modeling agency). She is carving out a career as a gradol and model, and is succeeding: three gravure cover ...
Curvy, busty gravure idols are nothing new. But it can still make you stop and sputter when you stumble over a provocative shoot.
Take Aoi Fujino (藤乃あおい), whose bust is meant to measure a whole meter! Her latest photo shoot is nude -- or at least about as close as it is possible to be without being nude.
Making her 23rd birthday, Fujino shows off her attractive body by posing with her arms over her breasts (the classic tebura pose) and a hand covering her crotch. Sometimes the only thing preserving her modesty is her long hair or soap suds rubbed over her wet body.
But when it ...
Riko Suzuhara (鈴原りこ) is a 30-year-old gravure idol who is also apparently a certified and practicing caregiver.
She could use those nursing skills to intimate effect in the bedroom, no doubt. Just imagine what she could do with those firm hands of hers!
A little later than most gradols, Suzuhara has got a decent boost to her career with the release of her debut photo book, coming out on September 1 from Kodansha. (She didn't make her gravure debut until age 26.)
As a promo, Weekly Gendai recently published some preview images showcasing the photo book, which is an ambitious nude ...
Back in June 2021, we delighted in the gravure idol Minami Fukuoka's shibari-inspired photo shoot.
Things have been quiet for a while but Fukuoka has now made a return to gravure for the first time in a year with a shoot for the July 12 issue of Weekly Flash.
The 27-year-old Tokyo University of Science graduate is ravishing, naked under a white jacket or wearing just panties while lying on her front on a bed. Who needs coffee in the morning when you can look at pictures like this to wake you up?!
Her own posts about the shoot on her popular Instagram page inevitably ...
We've bemoaned the crowded and competitive state of the gravure industry before. A gradol may grace the cover of Weekly Playboy or Young Jump one week and, just a few months later, be hung out to dry as yet another young lady in a bikini takes their place.
It's hard to keep up with all the new arrivals on the scene and while many gravure idols try to expand into acting and TV work without explicitly "graduating" from glamor modeling, some do more formally retire. But even this is often done without much fanfare.
Perhaps it gets announced on social media and then that's it: the idol is ...
Gravure idols famously come and go. Those who seemed at the top of their game with regular cover shoots in the weeklies might fall out of favor in a couple of months and be gone from our lives. The most successful idols learn that they need to branch out into acting and TV work, and not rely on the precarious gigs doing shoots for magazines and releasing digital photo books in a crowded market.
Nana Asakawa was huge at the end of the 2010s and likewise began to take high-profile acting jobs, including sex scenes in the Haram Marriage TV adaptation and We're Too Bad at Romance.
Those ...
Yuka Kuramochi has returned to gravure with her first shoot since she gave birth to a child in 2021.
Kuramochi, who is married to a very successful esports player, chose to make a splash with her comeback. After all, landing a shoot with Yuka Kuramochi alone would be sure to shift copies, but Weekly Playboy elected for a whammy for its May 23 issue.
Joining Kuramochi are Jun Amaki, Fumina Suzuki, Saki Yanase, and Saki Suzuki. So we get five of the most voluptuous ladies in the industry, all in one shoot.
And what a shoot, as the preview images and the behind-the-scenes pics reveal! It's ...
A reader recently chided us for not writing about the Yumi Sugimoto's return to gravure (though we did post pics on tumblr). The truth is, even with "gravure comebacks," there are simply too many idols to keep track of, let alone write about in detail on these digital pages.
But here's one comeback that is certainly worthy of note.
Yuka Hirata (38) made a very welcome return to our lives with her first Weekly Playboy gravure shoot in 14 years, first published in the March 19 issue of the magazine.
Now on the cusp of 40 and steeped in jukujo territory like a finely aged wine, the former ...
She is, in our humble opinion, the proud owner of the best pair of buttocks in gravure at the moment, and now she's just showed us even more of them.
Umi Shinonome has released her first photo book, Umi no naka (a pun meaning both "Inside Umi" and also "In the Sea"), this month, which has a decidedly summery, beach theme.
With her G-cup bust and 100-cm hips, the gradol is absolutely popular with male fans, but she has cemented her following with her videos showcasing her hobby: building models.
A print photo book is another major step in her career.
The 25-year-old is promoting her ...
