Mami Nagaoka – Koi Tawawa (February 20th, 2010)
Line Communications / I-One Series
Catalog # – LCDV-40409 – Region 2 Disc – 16:9 Aspect
Running Time: 75 Minutes

The Skinny: This is a wonderful gravure video with a beautiful woman, Mami Nagaoka. The crew from I-One has set up its shop at a Balinese resort and the results are great.

After the lengthy montage, the video begins in a rather unorthodox manner. Mami dressed in a skirt and blouse is at a desk. She’s going to drop a pen to the floor and this brings the camera down to floor level. Then in a surprising maneuver, Mami gets down from the chair, and joins us under the desk. Moments later she plants us a kiss on us – okay, not us – the camera lens. She’ll take off the skirt, and she’ll eventually end up atop the desk for some fine posing.

Next up is the Beach. Mami jogs into view wearing a yellow bikini.Whether jogging or crawling away from us or towards us, Mami looks great. This is Dreamland Beach, and quite soon, we will see the same deck that Hitomi Kitamura posed on to end her recent video (click for that review).

In fact it is the next scene. Mami wears a pink bikini. And even though she isn’t going to do much on this deck, the scene still works quite well.

Mami gets a massage in the next scene. She’ll be in a black bikini, and the use of some superb camera angles makes this scene especially pleasing.

After the massage. Mami takes a nap. She wakes up before us, then tries to jostle us until we wake up. Soon enough, Mami gets down to some glamor posing.

Watch for the moments when she will arch up from a reclining position on her back, making her breasts thrust upward in an exaggerated way.

A marvelous marble pool with its own man-made waterfall is our next location. Mami wears a mono-kini with a striped top and solid colored bottoms. This scene is not particularly exciting or innovative, but one can’t say enough about the model.

Exercise is next. We are outside and Mai looks splendid in her workout togs. A series of aerobics doesn’t need a lot of description does it?

Following is a great scene, sorry make than a very good scene, of Mami in a black bikini on a wooden outdoor staircase. What is great are some of the splendid facial closeups.

Mami sports a rich red dress in the next scene. Somehow I didn’t care for this chapter. Maybe it was the deep red color against Mami’s pale complexion under the sunlight that made it less favorable in my eyes.

A wonderful outdoors scene is next. We are in an exotic location up country, It’s a narrow canyon, with a mountain stream bed. The sun light is more of a backdrop as it has to find its way through the overhead natural canopy. Just marvelous.

A bedroom scene is next. The lighting is low but they nailed it as it looks just right. This could be a seduction scene, or it could be just more glamor posing. Either way, where do I sign up for more? This scene earmarks Mami as the next big “STAR” in gravure. This is what it is all about. And scenes like this are why we watch gravure models.

What follows is Mami walking her bike which was the first shot we saw in the montage. Soon the credits roll, and then the obligatory I-One tee shirt signing.

Still remaining are seven minutes of behind the scenes, Mami chats, and we see more of her includsing some bath tub shots, as well as the mountain canyon stream that we saw earlier.

Summary – An excellent video. A superb model and you get the superior amount of production value when you watch an I-One DVD. I can’t recommend this video enough, and if it wasn’t for that darned red dress scene I might have brought this one in as a five. Instead, we’ll rate it at four point seven five, and call it a ‘must-see’.

Web Vendors
cdjapan

The Skinny: Way back in the fall of 2005, I got my first look at Hitomi Kitamura in her first idol DVD called Yurero Omoi. I predicted a wonderful career for her and said she’d have an ardent following. This brand new DVD (her 20th solo gravure video) entitled Ponyo Ponyo Wonderland, places the curvy Miss Kitamura in the public eye once more. From my perspective, I like what I see.

As usual, the DVD opens with a montage. Following that we find Hitomi on Dreamland Beach in Bali. She wears a colorful print bikini. While the beach action is fairly standard – jogging, building mounds of sand to be crushed by her boobs or by sitting on it, or brushing away sand – Hitomi makes it seem fresh and new because she is extremely animated and lively.

However I must point out that the director is in love with closeups. Which definitely does not work well when Hitomi is jogging, and when she is just sitting around, you’ll see less of her because he zooms in quite often and focuses for facial close-ups.

After the beach, we get a shower/bath sequence. In this scene, a hand appears with a scrubbing brush, and commences to wash/scrub Hitomi, who raises no protest. Nice work if you are lucky enough to  get it – washing a beautiful woman – and if you can’t get it, then this is the stuff dreams are made of.

Three opens with Hitomi wearing a blue skirt and vest with a white blouse which is her outfit in which she introduces most of  the  scenes. It took me to the 3rd scene before I figured this out. In this one, I think she’s talking about pets. I distinctly heard the word ‘nekko’ which is Japanese for cat. Moments later she appears in a brief, or should I say abbreviated white bunny costue. Rather than a full bunny suit with a mask, ears, and a white fluffy tail, we see ears and a tail along with a furry bra and panties plus some lengthy wrist bands as paws. All she’ll do as a bunny is hop around on the sofa. Before long some one hands her an ice cream on stick. Hitomi has done animal outfits before – this kind of scene has value as being cute, but when Hitomi adds in some sexy posing, after she eats the ice cream, the scene offers an increase in its value.

Four finds Hitomi in a hard hat. Wait – that’s wrong.

It is a yellow hat that is worn by almost all small (Five year old) Japanese children to and from school, or on class trips  -  the yellow hat being easy to spot in a crowd.  She’s also wearing a pink blouse complete with a name-tag. So Hitomi is going to attempt to pass herself off as a five year old (wearing an up-sized costume, of course), not really.

Fortunately that won’t last too long as very soon, she’ll take off the pink blouse to reveal that she is bra-less; her boobs are covered by some very wide suspenders. She going to apply some body lotion to her arms and chest. Very carefully. The end section of this scene has Hitomi on hands and knees when a hand appears with a pointer and prods her buns and boobs. Hitomi smiles sweetly giving her tacit approval to being at the receiving end of the pointer.

Next Hitomi jogs into the scene out of breath. We only see the last few steps of the jog. Someone hands her a bottle of water. We instantly know what will follow. It has long been a known fact, that gravure idols cannot drink water from a bottle without spilling much or most of  it onto their chest requiring them to take off their shirt or blouse. And yes this is what happens here. In her bra and panties, Hitomi then begins some stretching exercises while seated on the lawn. Then she is seated (and bouncing) on one of those big beach balls. She’s given another bottle of water as well. This is a good scene for looking at Hitomi’s boobs and buns, but again the director misused the closeup. When Hitomi is bouncing up and down and in motion, there’s no point to a facial closeup.

Six opens with Hitomi in a very sexy nurse costume. She’s kneeling in a bathtub. Somehow we approach her, and we grab the hand-held shower-head and proceed to get Hitomi nice and wet. Hitomi protests. After a bit more of the soaking, I think she says something like, Hey I really mean it, you must stop.

We do, and she removes the nurse uniform revealing a red bra and panties. Since this scene is already in the bath tub, we know what comes next. Yup, it is the dripping, gooey gel soap. And lots of it. This is an excellent scene.

A bedroom scene follows. The meager plot line for this chapter is that we are asleep on the bed when Hitomi comes into the room and tries to get us to wake up. ‘O-Hay-O’, she says determinedly – Good Morning. She wears blue panties and a cut down jersey shirt over her bare boobs.

And in this scene, there’s a great emphasis on her big breasts and ample derierre. It seems remarkable that she doesn’t fall out of that top. Also worth mentioning is that in this scene, when the director uses a closeup, Hitomi is relatively still.

Next up is a swimming pool scene. Hitomi wears a ‘ventilated’  navy-colored mono-kini. She begins with some aerobic exercises before getting into the pool. Which lasts only a few seconds leading to Hitomi posing while using the chrome banister as a prop. Later she will pose on the ledge of the pool. then partially submerged while sitting on the steps into the pool.

Two more chapters remain.

We see Hitomi wearing her blue and white intro outfit. She’s seated on the sofa looking into a small hand held mirror. We (the camera) spot something on the sofa. It looks like one of those flogging whips with a lot of leather strands. Hitomi immediately is very embarrassed. At first she hides it behind her back, then tries to pass it off as a duster. We know better don’t we?

Fade out, fade in and Hitomi appears now as a red and black costumed dominatrix. Once the mask comes off, Hitomi is in bed, and relatively passive as some body oil is poured into her cleavage and onto her butt. This scene is in low light, shadows intrude, and all in all this scene was too dark visually and too tame thematically. Actually this is the lowest rated scene in the entire DVD.

The last of the main chapters opens with Hitomi in a dark kimono walking out onto a wooden deck. The credits scroll by and then we get down to business.

Hitomi will slowly open and remove the kimono leaving herself in just a beautiful bra and panties set. She’ll remain in the corner of the deck the whole time, and given that she’s in just one spot, she can’t move around much. This leaves us with plenty of long and lengthy views of her great figure and face.

There’s an extra bonus scene scene. Hitomi shoots some video with her own camera, goes shopping, and shows off what she bought. Nothing special here at all.

Summary: I’ve always liked Hitomi Kitamura but have found that her DVD’s have always been somewhat hit-or-miss. Sometimes she received  very  good ratings (4.0 and above), sometimes average ratings (3.0 to 3.75), and once she got a 2.75. This just shows that a model will have variances because of production values or lack of the same, and because of the director’s skill or lack of it. This is NOT news. I mention it only because Hitomi has had a lot of fluctuation in the scores.

But this time, we get a very good video, and the score is four point two five, meaning that this is one that her fans should not miss. It’s not a perfect DVD (so few are), but Hitomi looks great, and really works at winning over the viewers this time.

Aside from the 9th chapter (the whip leading to the dominatrix) all the rest of the scenes were praise-worthy. I’m recommending this DVD both to Hitomi’s fans as well as those new to her.

Web Vendors
cdjapan

If only the DVD was as good as the cover - but it isn't

The Skinny: Let’s start with the basics. As the DVD begins we see that Hana is working as a stage hand. She wears coveralls which pretty much cover her up. She also sports a baseball hat worn backwards – you know – the brim in the back, and eye -glasses. We see her above the stage, up on a ladder installing or working with a spotlight.

Hana-chan looking at herself in the mirror. She's reflecting on her life as a stage-hand. I'm guessing of course

She comes down and eventually gets a phone call. She’s goes into a dressing room for sexy female dancers. We don’t see any, but you can tell by the costumes.

The sole highlight of the DVD - Hana changes clothes in low light three times. Keep in mind, there are dark shadows, and when she removes her panties, the camera has sunk to knee level. In short there's nothing revealed at all.

Hana gets out of her stage hand clothing, actually removing everything including her bra and panties, and tries on 3 different outfits. The lighting is low but we can see that she is really undressing (her back is to us). Yeah, we know she’s undressing but forget about it. If she stood behind a screen, the results would have been the same as what we see with no screen.

A guy comes in and they speak. Hana acts all frightened about been seen in the exotic dancer costume. The guy leaves.

She climbs into a second dancer or strippers costume. The guy comes back, they speak again. Next we see the guy sitting on a milk carton in front of the darkened stage.

The dance sequence which runs almost 30 seconds but we see it over and over - practicing, training, takes, and retakes, and still more retakes - plus discussions and we even watch the trainers do the dance with Hana watching.

Hana comes out, in the exotic dancer’s costume, onto the stage, and she and this ‘guy’ dance for about 30 seconds. They speak. Then we get the big reveal. The guy is not really a guy. It is a girl. She will open her outer jacket, take Hana’s hand and press it to her chest, as if to prove she has breasts and is in fact a girl.

The Big Reveal: I'm not who you thought I was...

That’s it. This all took about 15 minutes. For the next 45 minutes we see the rehearsals and set ups for this brief sequence. Over and over. Hana occasionally talks directly to us. Most of the time she is saying “Hai,” in response to the director who has yelled “Cut-o” repeatedly. There is no English spoken at all.

Summary: The reality is that this new release of a Hana Haruna DVD does not in anyway at all look, feel, or act like a gravure video. And that’s because it isn’t. It is a documentary (a reality show) about Hana working in this one scene which might be part of a TV show. I’d know a lot more if my Japanese was better but it isn’t.

Aside from Hana undressing, which was done with her back to us and in low lighting ( the image provided was amped up for brightness by me) , there’s nothing even remotely interesting about Hana or this scene or this DVD. And if you are a fan of Hana Haruna, like I am, you must consider that before you spend your money, I think this was a waste of my time and my money.

As you can see, I am unable to even give you a decent image from the video. I will not rate this DVD as it doesn’t deserve a rating. You can take this article for what it is – a warning.

The Skinny: Not much action. Lots of bare skin. All indoors. Slow paced music and slow camera movements. Miyabi doesn’t say a word. Still Miyabi is eminently watchable.

Take a very busty girl. Outfit her in one of those cut down tops (no sides to speak of). Have it fit very loosely. Then have her crawl around a room for much of the scene. There’s your first chapter of Miyabi Isshiki’s brand new DVD released on Friday, the 26th of February. The production house is Kudeta, which is new to me. However if you go their website ( http://www.ku-de-ta.jp), you’ll see that they’ve released lots of DVD’s none of which have I seen before.

For those of you who like to watch dangling or hanging breasts – this is your dream scene. And as an added plus, Miyabi will remove her gym shorts to show off a tiny thong. In fact, this DVD gives those stunning boobs more screen time than we’ve ever seen in a Miyabi Issiki video.

The second chapter finds Miyabi in a beige mono-kini. She enters by coming down an open staircase. The room is lit by the natural sunlight through the windows. There’s an interesting minute or so when she poses beneath the staircase which throws some horizontal shadows.

When she finally gets into the room, which has hideous wallpaper, she’ll have to spend a lot of time keeping her boobs inside the knit costume. Most of this scene has Miyabi posing in front of a window. Eventually she will lower the top and employ the familiar hand and arm bra.

Three: Miyabi wears a long sleeve white top, and a short pink skirt which she soon removes. I can best describe the room (?) or place where she is posing as a black leather bench positioned next to a bunch of lockers. Maybe this is where people stash their stuff before entering the bath. Back to Miyabi – she doesn’t do much after removing the skirt except to bend over for some cleavage views.

Four takes place in the public bath. Miyabi wears a white bikini. As the scene opens we see her sitting on the edge of the bath. We can see the steam rising. Unfortunately, Miyabi doesn’t soap and scrub, nor rinse, nor does she even get wet. Mostly she tugs on the straps before removing the top completely. Once the top is removed Miyabi will conceal her boobs via the thigh and knee bra and the usual hand and arm bra.

Five is played for fun. Miyabi wears plaid flannel shirt over a blue bikini. She’s posing on a wicker sofa. In this chapter we have more movement than we’ve seen in the earlier chapters. Miyabi will twirl her plaid short over her head for a while, maybe too long. She’ll also play with her hair before removing the bikini top.

Next up in Six – Miyabi wears a red family one piece bathing suit. This is probably later in the day as the lighting is a lot weaker. In fact we see shadows quite often. This chapter has a few instances of some editing gimmickry, but not enough to be called either a distraction or an intrusive element. Miyabi will roll on the floor, pose next to a curtain, and pose in front of a wicker chair. She has more movement in this one than we’d seen in earlier chapters, but there’s not much space. Also of note, is that this time Miyabi does not lower her top.

Seven has Miyabi wearing a dress that is cut down in front to a few inches below her belly button – in other words, the neckline ends at waist level. This dress has no sides or back either. After hugging a wooden support beam for a while, Miyabi will crawl around on the floor.

Eventually, the turquoise dress will be lowered to waist level, and a see-through red material is introduced. Whether or not we can actually see through it will be argued, but there’s no doubt whatsoever that Miyabi has been blessed with a huge bust.

I believe this is the same room as the first chapter with the table placed in a different place and at a different angle. As expected, since most of her breasts were exposed anyway, she’ll tug down the top of the dress and have to resort to a table bra as the scene ends.

The Eighth chapter is apparently the Behind the Scenes footage, along with some extra footage that didn’t make the first cut. We do see some of Miyabi posing against the wooden support that we saw in Chapter seven, but in this view she has a tempting look on her face. Not a full smile, but just the beginnings of a smile. She looks very endearing in this segment.

Summary: Despite showing more skin than ever before, this is not one of Miyabi’s best DVDs. She’s not bored or unhappy, but she isn’t really enjoying herself. It’s like she’s having to be extra careful about falling out of her costumes, or revealing too much with an accidently revealing hand or arm movement.

I didn’t see any credits so I don’t know who directed the DVD. Obviously he is a boobman as Miyabi’s boobs get the most coverage. There were no props, no one entered any scene to poke or prod Miyabi. This was a true solo DVD. And there wasn’t any of the pseudo-sexual content either.

Likely this DVD was shot in one day. They didn’t spend a lot on outfits, locations, and most likely didn’t have to fly anywhere to shoot this DVD. The production side was quite competent, and while it was slow-moving, Miyabi is a great looking woman so you won’t take your eyes off the screen. There have been comments about Miyabi looking a bit on the thin side. I thought so too, in the first chapter. But for the most part, the camera is up close most of the time, so her weight loss isn’t that evident, except in this image of the root menu below.

Four point zero and recommended.

Web Vendors
cdjapan

Mai Ayukawa – Juicy Fruit (February 19th, 2010)
Japan Media Supply
Catalog # – JCF-026 – All Regions Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time: 84 Minutes including the Making of Segment

The Skinny – A very well done DVD for Mai Ayukawa. This is just her second DVD release and her future looks bright. And speaking of bright – they shot this DVD at a rather new resort in Bali, and the weather was superb. Bright and sunny everyday.

The video has an opening montage, followed by 8 main chapters, then a Making Of segment. Let’s have a look.

The montage was excellent – high energy, plenty of revealing shots, and a fast pacing that served well in building up your expectations.

As the main chapters begin, Mai is wearing a white sweater and blue shorts with a cute floral bikini beneath. She’ll make her way down the stairs and ultimately end up on a black leather sofa.

Her sweater has some bulit in ventilation as you can see, but in the latter part of this chapter, a hand appears wielding a scissors, and even more cleavage comes into view once the scissors are done. Only negative about this chapter was the introduction of a frozen popsicle.

Poolside is next. Mai enters wearing a navy & white top and navy shorts over a yellow bikini. This chapter has five parts: a) a workout with a large exercise ball, b) removal of the shorts then the yellow bikini top is untied then removed from beneath the navy top, c) a scissors comes into play as the navy top is cut and slashed down to a barely modest size, d) a clear gooey gel is introduced and Mai will spread it around her body, e) then they hand her a colorful scarf so she can remove the remains of the top and yet still be covered. It works visually but I think it was too many elements for one chapter.

Another poolside scene follows. Mai wears one of those lattice works bathing suits. It is one-piece but plays as if it was a bikini. Mai applies some sun lotion, even reaching beneath her top to add the lotion directly onto her boobs. Eventually Mai will enter the pool and use an inflatable tube, then she’ll lower the straps of her bathing suit. Despite the scene being in the pool with it’s brilliant blue color, the scene was rather tame and uninspired.

The fourth of the main chapters is again by the pool. This time Mai begins in a peach colored tee shirt over a white bikini. First she’ll workout with a hula hoop, and she’s very good at it. The scene loses some luster as Mai will use the hoop as a prop and I don’t mean keeping it in  otion as it circles her waist over and over. They give her a bottle of water for a few moments of a wet-tee shirt look. The tee-shirt goes away and Mai then jumps rope. For most of that sequence the camera in in too close so you can’t even see the rope. Another bottle of water is handed to Mai and before you know it, she’s going to be tied up in a pink plastic rope.

The fifth scene finds us again by the pool and when Mai appears she’s got this water cannon. She’s building up the pressure by using the hand pump mechanism. Then somehow, she no longer has this water gun. Some one else has it and is shooting water at Mai. She tries to defend herself by blocking the water with her hands, as she backs away screaming as if being water gunned is a fate worse than death.

Soon enough her blue top is soaked through, and we get our best views of Mai’s shapeliness in this chapter. First in some exciting cleavage shots like the one above.

Then she will tug the shirt up to reveal a tiny white with blue trim bikini.

Once in the pool, she will take off the top leaving herself in just the bikini. The camera will both above and below the water surface.

The chapter that follows is again outdoors with water in view. Not the beach, in fact there is no beach in this DVD,  - no, these look like some garden ponds.

Mai wears a red track suit top with a zipper over a shiny beige bikini. This will lead us to some more extraordinary cleavage shots.

This scene plays well because the camera angles are quite varied and there’s lot of editing to change them.

And we are back indoors for the last two scenes. First a bedroom scene. Beneath a short white slip, Mai wears stockings, and a black trimmed with white lace bra and panties set. There’s nothing new or innovative in this chapter. But Mai’s cleavage gets plenty of air-time. And copying from the Yoko Matsugane playbook, Mai does some woman-on-top pseudo-sexual posting up-and-down.

In the last of the main chapters, Mai is the bath/shower. The chapter begins with Mai wearing a white-on-white see through blouse. And in this chapter we do get something new. Instead of Mai having some soapy gel poured and dripped on to her body, this time some one else applies the soap manually to her body.

This is not a massage scene; it is a bath scene, so the introduction of another pair of hands was somewhat surprising. These hands do more than just add the soap. They actually apply the soap to her in a light scrubbing sense. Mai’s boobs are not being fondled in the literal sense, but it is not all that far from it.

Summary: This is a superb model with a big bust, a sweet smile, and a pretty good idea of how to play to the camera and the viewers. Technically, this DVD is free of directorial excesses or other gaffes created in post-production. The weather was very good, and the resort was deluxe, although we didn’t see much of it. Mai either untied her bikini top or removed it in nearly every scene, but this was done rather seemlessly, and seemed to fit into the natural flow of the scenes rather than seeming forced.

A few scenes might have played better if they had fewer ‘activities’ but this is a minor point. There were no credits in the DVD so I can’t tell you where the video took place or who the director was. They did mention Bali more than a few times, so we know that much. I’m going to score this one at four point zero and recommend it. My last comment is that I’m eager to see Mai Ayukawa again.

Web Vendors
cdjapan

The Skinny: Yuko Oshima aka Masako Ooshima is more of a pop idol than a gravure idol. She’s a member of the Tokyo based AKB48 singing group. This DVD is about a trip to Guam.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this DVD was the record of a trip to Guam as we first meet her on a Tokyo street as she tugs along her suitcase to board a bus to Narita Airport. Then she’s at the airport checking the departures, then aboard the plane, then arriving at Guam airport, boarding a van, and finally entering her hotel room. They say getting there is half the fun. Maybe this is so in life, but not in a DVD. In the DVD the fun hasn’t begun yet.

Next is the Night Festival according to the menu, but it is really just a carnival complete with rides, games with cheap prizes, and junk food. Between leaving Japan and this chapter, we’ve already used up a little more than 14 minutes, so basically nearly the 1st quarter of the DVD is wasted. Sure Yuko is quite cute, and has a beautiful smile and amazing dimples, but this was far too lengthy a segment.

Especially since the next chapter is on the beach and runs only a little more than 2 minutes. The weather was so-so (at best) so much of this beach chapter is closeups shot with a long zoom lens which makes the background out of focus.

A bath scene is next. Yuko is up to her neck in soap bubbles. She looks ever so cute. The scene is painstakingly shot. It’s like they’ve gone out of their way to insure that this scene didn’t have any sexual overtones at all. In fact after, Yuko is out of the tub and rinsing off the soap bubbles, the scene was edited to exclude any shots at all of her bikini. We know she wasn’t nude – so this is kind of puzzling.

A chapter follows called Sleep and this was mostly Yuko having a nap then waking up. Then we’re off to the Jungle. Like the earlier beach chapter, here we are less concerned about where we are, and the main focus is closeups of Yuko. Again this is pleasing but if you’re going to go all the way to Guam for a video shoot, then including the surroundings should be a requisite.

Next up a swimming pool sequence, Yuko is in a pink and blue bikini. The music is a take on classic 60’s/70’s California surfing music. Once again cloudy skies mar the proceedings, as does some extreme closeups. I imagine the directorial directions must have gone something like, “Act as silly as you like…”. ‘

The scene closed with Yuko squeezing all the air of her inflated float. A brief Part II called Freedom had Yuko sitting on the far edge of the infinity pool with her back to us. She then removed her bikini top. Ho hum.

Another beach scene comes up next. But its not really about the beach. It is dusk and there’s many intriguing shots of Yuko. It is only a brief scene and we find her in a bar next having a white wine. The scene is badly lighted as one side of Yuko’s face is in the shadows.

Following this glass of wine, a chapter called Darkness. Here Yuko poses  under a direct hand held spotlight. Then a new chapter called Cry begins. It is night on the beach. She sits by the water’s edge and moments later they wrap her in a towel. I’m not sure if the  ‘tears’ actually were caught on screen, but Yuko sure looked like she could have cried.

Next day it rains, so they drive to the beach. Then to a small neighborhood called Little Manila. All Yuko does here is sit by a curbside then she shops and buys some tee-shirts. Abruptly the shopping ends and Yuko is on the beach in a blue and white sundress while some girls chat on the soundtrack. After  a few minutes this chatting becomes seriously annoying.

Next is another rainy day. Nonetheless Yuko poses in a bikini. The there’s some fake surfing – the board is not in the water.  But then she does take the board into the sea and paddles off. Three problems – there’s no surf, Yuko paddles around in water no higher than waist high, and the weather still sucks. She is able to stand up on the board but she would fall off almost immediately. And it is still raining.

And so ends the trip to Guam. We accompany Yuko to the plane, sit next to her on the plane, and she chats with us after arriving back in Japan. 5 minutes of outtakes, behind the scenes, making of, chatting, eating, make that lots and lots of eating, and still more commentary are included. The last five minutes has Yuko showing off and talking about all the stuff she bought in Guam.

Summary: Very cute model who has a better chance of suceeding as a pop idol than a gravure model. This particular DVD isn’t bad per se, it just isn’t a true gravure video. Far too much of this was episodic and seemingly ‘made up’ as they went along’. No doubt this was caused by the horrid weather which probably meant that their game plans had to be scrapped.

Yuko is high-spirited  with a lot of bouncy energy rather than sophisticated. She’s a small woman and not particularly curvy. But she has this great smile which she shows off to great advantage. In fact her smile on the cover was the reason I decided to review this DVD.  I’m going to score this one at just three point zero.

Web Vendors

cdjapan

The Skinny: The prolific Mayuka Okada returns to our pages. It’s not that I don’t like her – I really do admire her bold and brash style. It is really that keeping up with all her releases is nearly impossible. In fact, in 2007, Mayuka had 6 DVDs released, in 2008 there were 11, and in 2009 she appeared in 5. The fact that she has appeared in so many videos means that the producers like her. And they would like her to this degree ONLY if her products sell. The numbers must add up. And there you have it.

Memoron opens the montage with a bit high energy dancing. The first thing we see is Mayuka wearing a little bit of a pink dress – very low-cut in front, and very short. Unfortunately this dress does not re-appear again in the video. As a singer croons “Desire”,  Mayuka does her best wiggle and jiggle. It runs about two and half minutes and is pretty good as montages go.

To start the main chapters we join Mayuka in some sort of walls without windows unfinished home type of structure. She’s in a bikini and her accoutrements include a baseball cap, some waist chains in lieu of jewelry, and some sexy cowboy boots. She’s not doing a lot of movement  – the camera is more active than she is, but the director has elected to use a series of quick fades to reposition the model and the camera. Each time the screen fades to black, we know we’ll see something new to follow a second or so later.

Next is a two part stanza. For the first six minutes, Mayuka plays the scene as a solo. Beginning in a long white lab coat, we wears glasses and brandishes an extend-able metal pointer. She’ll spend the entire segment seated atop a chest of drawers. The lab coat does come off – Mayuka is revealed to be wearing a sexy set of bra and panties. Slow moving and all in one place are the problems with this but Mayuka looks great.

In the second part, she re-appears in the white lab coat, or maybe it is a long doctor’s coat in our bedroom. There’s no music here, as Mayuka does a lot of talking. She asks if we would like her to remove the coat, if we’d like to poke and prod her with the pointer. Yes and yes. Soon we are wielding the pointer and Mayuka is down to the same bra and panties again. We prod and poke her boobs and butt. Then we even apply a light spanking with the pointer.

The scene climaxes (literally) with a pseudo-cum shot on Mayuka’s right butt cheek. She’s quite pleased.

Three has us in a derelict building. Mayuka wears a bustier and panties. The lighting is not quite natural but has the look of natural lighting but is very effective. The camera movements again dictate the action. This scene plays as almost a duplicate of the first chapter – different costume, different setting – but otherwise similar including the fades as a method of transitioning the shots.

Four begins at around 32 minutes. Mayuka poses in front of some startling huge tropical vegetation.

We see that her panties are red. Her bra? There is no bra. Mayuka re-enters the same building/structure we saw in the first chapter. There’s a bed, and since Mayuka is topless, this part of the chapter is all about her butt and hips. The camera angles are very interesting and creative. But again, like all the previous chapters, we are watching the model stay mostly in one setting.

The camera moves, and the fade technique is again  employed. Eventually the hand/arm is deemed no longer necessary. Mayuka wears only sequined star shaped pasties on her breasts, and the subject matter changes from booty to boobs.

In Chapter Five we join Mayuka as she’s wearing a pink bra and panties set AND a blindfold. She’ll spend the first segment of the scene crawling around an apartment seemingly to get away from us. In the second, we wield a furry rope with an attachment at the end. This is to tease Mayuka by constantly touching her with this tail like thing between her legs and between her boobs. In the third part she’s been given an ice cube. Then, in the fourth part she’ll remove the blinfold so we can give her a lengthy candy on a stick for some oral play. But wait there’s more. A continuous stream of a thick liquid is poured over her. It is sticky and gooey and even edible.

When six starts we are almost one hour in (nearly at the 59 minute mark). This is a bedroom scene. Mayuka wears a white silk jumper and lace panties. There’s a good amount of cleavage to be seen in this chapter plus some nipples on occasion poking up against the silk top. This is the best scene is the video so far with lots of smiles and closeups.

And this is before Mayuka climbs on top of us for some posting up and down ala Yoko Matsugane. Abruptly, Mayuka is on her back and topless as the pseudo- sexual encounter continues. This time there’s no fake cum shot, but after a fade Mayuka poses on the bed in some classic angles for a bra-less gravure idol.

Only 11 minutes remain. Mayuka is in a corner in what looks to be an unfinished shower stall area. The walls are rough cinder-blocks. She’s in a beige bikini. Some gooey gel is dripped onto her boobs and buns. They use a fish-eye lens here so the walls look rounded. This is a good chapter to look over her curvy body but it is eight minutes in a confined unattractive space.

The last three and half minutes are some behind the scenes footage, with our camera working behind or to the side of the still photographer. We watch as he works with the model.

Summary: Positives include Mayuka’s curves on screen in EVERY SCENE. Aside from the opening dance sequence in the montage, she doesn’t wear a dress at all. She still has a knack for alluring posing, and her figure oozes sexuality even when she’s not doing an overtly sexual scene. Nicely lighted throughout. And excellent music.

Negatives: The blindfold scene. Why have a girl blindfolded and supposedly attempting to keep away from us AND have her hands free. She could easily remove the blindfold. Pacing was slow and deliberate in each and every scene. Aside from the brief moments in front of the leafy foliage, every other scene was indoors. No beach, no bathing, no showers.

Rating is three point seven five. Mayuka has the curves, and the know-how to excite you, but this DVD was hampered by a similarity in all the scenes. It’s not bad at all, but I won’t call it great either.

Web Vendors
cdjapan
Yesasia

Harumi Nemoto – Oasis (March 20, 2003)
Line Communications/I-One
Catalog # – LCDV-20052 – All Regions Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time: 40 Minutes

Note from JMM: I wrote this review sometime in the latter part of 2003.  Basically the text is unchanged except that the references to other videos that would be reviewed in the same issue have been deleted. We were in magazine format back then. All of the photo captions were written by Al-The-Editor with his inimitable British sense of style and humor.

Our next Classic DVD  comes to us from Japan, and we have one of our favorite Japanese Idols for your pleasure. Harumi Nemoto appears here in lots of scenes on the beach, or in the ocean or the pool. Yes, repeat after me : we love Busty Babes on the Beach.

I ordered the DVD featuring the spectacular Harumi Nemoto, as well as the other two featuring the Japanese models, from an online vendor. Got the e-mail Thursday night in New York that the items had been shipped from Japan on Friday. And they arrived on Monday. What more could you ask — an express mail service that worked. Thank you to the postal gods in two countries. I-One Productions in Japan has entitled this one Oasis, and while I can’t quite figure what the connection is about the title, it really doesn’t matter.

From any angle, Harumi is spectacular. Pity they couldn't find a bikini that fit her a bit better, especially now that measurements in the region of 40½-23½-34½ are becoming more or less a Japanese standard....

Harumi is also blessed with classically beautiful features. Just because a girl has big tits, it doesn't automatically follow that she has to have a face like a bag of chisels

Harumi is tall and sexy, and beguiling, and exotic, and funny, and very busty. From scenes shot on a sun drenched Saipan beach, to underwater shots in the hotel pool, this is a stunning woman.

A selection of Harumi's most photogenic expressions. Meanwhile, there's that background image demonstrating over and over again how she can fill a brassiere. Twice over

Ah, at last, an almost well-fitting bikini bra! But that spotted one looks as though it might fit my Auntie Mildred. There, mercifully, the resemblance ends

There’s an interview interspersed throughout the video, I would have loved it if there had been sub-titles so we could know what Harumi was telling us in her native Japanese language, as she looked so animated and happy.

There's something vaguely exciting in watching a pretty girl doing ordinary everyday things, like riding a bike while busting out of a bikini

The Russians have recently installed a production line turning out an endless supply of nubile, long-legged teenage tennis players. In Japan, they do things differently. Harumi is living proof that the Japanese are fully geared up for production of drop-dead gorgeous lovelies with huge tits. Where's it all going to end?

We’ll see a long sequence of Harumi on a bike, a moody sequence as she wanders through some WWII site, and some very sensual shots throughout. If there was one complaint, it was that the camera had too much movement. I wanted a few shots to have been held steady for a few seconds longer than they were. But that’s just a minor complaint.

Harumi is one of the most in-demand models working in Japan today. There’s no reason to wonder why. She’s the epitome of feeling glorious. Four point five out of five. By the way, this DVD is coded for All Regions.

Mami Nagaoka – School Girl Detective (November 27, 2009)
e-Net Frontier
Catalog # – ENFD-5179 – Region 2 Disc – 16:9 Aspect
Running Time: 87 Minutes

LOCATION: Saipan

CONTENT SET-UP:  The Intro/Montage leads to 9 Main Chapters plus an Extra Chapter of Behind the Scenes footage.

THE SKINNY: What we have here is a reasonably good gravure DVD partially spoiled by the inclusion of a hand puppet who amiably chats with idol Mami Nagaoka before and after EACH and EVERY Chapter. I recall reviewing Hiroko Sato in Shanghai back in May of 2007, and a CGI panda appeared a few times. The panda’s on screen time was probably less than a minute or two for the entire video.

Here, I think the hand puppet is getting nearly 10 minutes. Geez, the hand puppet is even in the making of segment. But I digress. Let’s move on and talk about the model.

Mami Nagaoka, or Mami-chan as she is addressed by the hand puppet, has a great figure, a beautiful smile, and a sunny and engaging personality.

Apparently this Gravure DVD is made in conjunction with a movie also called School Girl Detective that was in production in Saipan as this DVD was being made. There are many scenes/clips in this video that involve police, guns, and even stunts by Mami, that introduce each chapter, after Mami and the hand puppet discuss something, that are clearly not gravure material.

Plus there’s a movie poster, plus there was a commercial, and they say about the film, “Coming Soon”. I think all of this was too elaborate for just a gravure idol DVD. So likely later this year, we shall see said film, or TV movie, being released.

But again this is still a digression. So back to the review. After a session with the h/p, Mami shows up on the Saipan beach in her school uniform to lead off the main chapters. To begin, she wears her uniform right into the sea. But have no fears, beneath the uni, there’s a white bikini that she wears.

Two is a workout with a floor-based punching bag, and Three is shot maybe in a basement parking garage. Mai is decked out as a make-believe cop,

as there’s nothing realistic about this uniform. The scene improves dramatically once she takes off the uniform.

Chapter four is a car-wash scene. While it is a standard car wash, there’s none of that climb into the back-seat, disrobe, and deal with a proffered lollipop that is so often included.

Five is a sweet bathtub scene. No one drips gel on her, Mami does not soap up anyone but herself, and there’s no pseudo-or-simulated sex in this chapter. Nice music accompanies this straight forward soap and rinse.

Six is out at the huge swimming pool. Mami wears a yellow one piece bathing suit that is less than a standard one piece but more than a bikini. More accurately it is neither and both. Well, see for yourself in the pics.

Seven is at the tennis courts. BYW, these are the same tennis courts that where we saw Yoko Matsugane and Hana Haruna posing in their most recent videos. No surprise there as this is a Shrine Valley production same as before and Yoko’s usual production house. Mami is not particularly good with a tennis racquet but she holds her own in taking off her tennis outfit and stripping down for some court-side posing in a bikini.

Eight starts with Mami being chased by a fiend brandishing and shooting a water pistol at her. They’re in a park, and for a bit, Mami is in a full sprint. Later it becomes a more normal day in the park with the usual – she wears a red bikini and works with a large exercise ball.

As Chapter Nine begins, Mami is asleep in a bra and panties plus leg warmers. You might be reminded of HarumiNemoto by this chapter. This isn’t played for allure, nor is it intended to lead to sex. It’s just Mami looking great.

Summary: If this was just a standard gravure idol video with no cute but still annoying handpuppet, and with no plugs/clips/outtakes from her movie, it would garner at least four and a quarter. But since it has all of those, I will lower the rating to three point seven five. But to make the rating really fair and balanced I’ll call it an excellent gravure video and I’ll strongly recommend it. You’ll have to deal with the intrusive elements but I think it is worth your time to watch this very enjoyable idol.

Web Vendors

cdjapan

yesasia

Amazon.co.jp

Yuka Tsukamoto – Emargency (November 20th, 2009)
E-net Frontier
Catalog # – ENFD-5183 – Region 2 Disc – 16:9 Aspect
Running Time: 90 Minutes

LOCATION: Bali

CONTENT SET UP: Intro plus 10 Main Chapters plus Extra (Behind the Scenes/Interview) for a total of 12

THE SKINNY: The cover image is Yuka Tsukamoto at her best. I see a distinct resemblance between Yuka and American actress Jennifer Love Hewitt in this picture but not really anyplace else in the video. Maybe it is just the pointy chin that both have. This may have been a second string crew for e-net frontier, as neither the Bali resort or this DVD are top of the line.

I think my reticence to do this review starts with the fact that both the montage and chapter one begin with Yuka as a school student. She wears the requisite plaid skirt, blouse, tie, high socks, glasses…etc. We’ve all seen this before.

The rest of the video makes all the stops at the most mundane of the gravure scenes – pool, bath, dripping or melting ice cream pop, lollipop, gooey gels, car wash, large exercise ball, and massage. The other two scenes were shot in the bedroom with one being a cos-play as a nurse complete with a stethoscope.

The plus is that all of this was reasonably well made. Meaning I’m not going to have a list of grievances, or things that the director did that I thought were wrong.

I guess I am saying that this DVD was so much of a by the numbers production that it seems to be lifeless too often. Yuka shows fine spirit and can be quite animated when given the opportunity. But when a director tells the model to be as relaxed as possible – as in ‘wait for my cues’ – then you will get a DVD that drags part of the time.

I’m not doing a chapter by chapter run through as I’ll let the images do the talking.

Summary: Though I can’t muster up a lot of enthusiasm for this DVD, I’ll be fair and give it a three point zero. But to be honest, I bought this DVD based on the cover image, but my overall impression is that I was disappointed. One last point, the DVD’s title is Emargency on the cover and on the disk, but on the menu it is the correctly spelled Emergency.

Web Vendors
Yesasia