Minami Matsuzaka – Juicy Fruit Vol. 2 (May 15, 2009)
Jucy Fruit Productions
Catalog # – JCF-24 – Region 2 Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time – 80 Minutes

The Skinny: As one of baseball’s most endearing and lovable players (Mr. Berra) once said, It’s deja-vu all over again. Yeah, been there, done that, certainly applies to this, the second of Minami Matsuzaka’s releases from Juicy Fruit.

And therein lies the problem. How do I fairly rate this video (Vol. 2) which has been released a scant 7 weeks after Vol. 1 hit the shelves in Japan. Technically it is superb. Perfect lighting, marvelous colors, very fine and unique music, excellently cut and edited; in short there’s nothing to report along the lines of directorial excesses or gimmicky editing. In addition, the weather could not have been better. And for sure, Matsuzaka-san shows us almost everything she has in every chapter. But…

But, when we do a tally, we have two nearly identical videos. Oh not exactly identical – they do give Minami different bikini’s, and they do shoot in different parts of that villa in Bali, and when she speaks to us she’s saying something different. okay – I’m guessing on that but my logical mind says that given the excellence of both videos, then surely, they would not ask the exact same questions in Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

Rather than walk you through each of the chapters as I did in the Vol. 1 review, I’ll just give you a single brief precis just to make it easy for everyone.

It has been said that baseball is an easy game. Throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball. That’s the game boiled down to its essence. Well the Juicy Fruit game plan for Minami Matsuzaka is equally simple.

Wear provocative clothing, wiggle and jiggle as you like, remove much but not all of said clothing.

That’s the plan. And they executed this plan repeatedly, and purposefully, and flawlessly. To a T. Right down to dripping gooey gels, and right down to tugging down the back of Minami’s bikini panties ‘x’ amount of cms.

That doesn’t mean I can’t find anything comment worthy. For example – they again brought in a plastic rope. I was not enamored of it in Vol. 1 and have similar thoughts about the sequence in Vol. 2.

We now have two Minami DVD’s shot in Bali. But not even one minute of the combined total of 155, took place on the beach. Not one.

And not one minute of either video took place away from the fabulous villa. Not that there’s anything wrong about the location. But at the villa, Minami was free to run around in as little as possible. Which is fine. However this means that real life experiences have been excluded from both DVD’s.

That’s why a trip into town for shopping, dining, or just walking around, adds an element of realism to the proceedings.

One more? Okay – no sunsets. Sunsets are of course what make some days prettier than others. And my knowledge tells me that this villa wasn’t far (a short drive) from Bali’s southwest coast and one of the prettiest beaches. Too bad – I think a shot of Minami’s curvy chassis with a spectacular sunset behind her would have been, well…, spectacular. But it didn’t happen. NOr am I actually going to reduce the rating because of this omission.

Summary: Since Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are essentially alike thematically, procedurally, and visually, and since they both were shot in the same place and within a  certain time span (3-4 days?), there’s no reason to give a different rating. So it is four point two five… ‘all over again’.

My advice – if you love watching Minami then certainly having both of these DVD’s will please you. But if you’re constrained by budgetary considerations, and only want to acquire one, then toss a coin. Or go eenie, meenie, miney, Minami - and whichever one gets chosen, you’ll be pleased.

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