It’s interesting to note how Japan’s JAV world has grown in popularity worldwide, pretty much in lockstep with the rise of anime. Japanese AV is so unique and JAV actresses have become so famous outside of Japan, I thought I’d examine this topic in more detail. Just what do you like about JAV?
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What Makes JAV So Appealing? Let’s Find Out!
The other day, I happened on a Reddit thread in which a Japanese person was asking why users of the sub liked Japan’s unique adult video world. The comments were so good, I knew I had to write a post giving my thoughts on JAV’s rise in global popularity!
J-List certainly helped play a role in the rise of JAV’s global popularity. When we started our wonky little company 29 years ago, our first customers were JAV fans eager to buy videos, photobooks, and sexy calendars featuring their favorite Japanese porn stars. Happily there was a large online community on places like alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.asian, with fans trading scans of nude photos of early AV stars from magazines like Urecco or Bejean.
Since those early days, Japanese porn has positively exploded around the world. Many Japanese actresses like Sora Aoi and Yui Hatano went on to have mainstream acting careers in Taiwan and China. Maria Ozawa became a household name in Indonesia, where she performed in dramas under the name Miyabi.
Let’s look at some of the reasons why JAV took over the world!
High Production Values and Interesting Concepts
What do you like about JAV? A lot of fans enjoy the higher production quality of Japanese porn titles, especially the amazing cosplay parody titles by TMA and other companies. There’s also a lot of “creative risk-taking” by Japanese adult film studios, which fans really appreciate. Sometimes this can yield results, like the sexy Elf Cosplay JAV series. Other times, the ideas are too creative for their own good, like the time Soft on Demand had two girls, dressed as boys, have “yaoi” sex on camera. No one knew what to make of that!
The Allure of Japanese Faces
You can sum it up with one word: Japanese women are extremely pretty. If you browse the JAV star category on the J-List site, you’ll see a dozen women so beautiful, it makes you wonder what the hell they’re doing in this industry. The girls are so adorable that it brings out feelings of protectiveness among fans. It’s not so different from the rise of moe in anime. This makes it easy for viewers to become lifelong fans of these actresses.
What about the tired old “Asian girls are more submissive” argument? It’s true that JAV actresses do act a certain way during sex, usually letting the man take the lead and often pretending to be full of shame at having the camera zoom in on her sexy bits during sex. This is related to Japanese ideas of modesty, with the idea being that the girl should retain as much as possible despite what she’s doing right now.
I’d much rather watch a Japanese girl pretending to be submissive than a Western porn video, with a girl snarling like some kind of animal.
The Perfect Blend of Fantasy and Real Situations
On the one hand, JAV are often built around kikaku, specific projects which show actresses having sex in unique settings that would be quite impossible in real life. On the other hand, JAV productions are often very honest, without any silly pretense. You know they’re on a porn set, and you know what’s about to happen. The question is how the performers can convert the mere act of intercourse into something closer to “the art of sex.”
Does the Mosaic Make JAV More Creative?
Is it possible that the mosaic that covers genitilia during JAV performances is a good thing, forcing directors to come up with fresh and new ways to present sex to fans? It is true that the bukkake genre was invented so that porn could be presented in a more creative way. Before “indie” studios like Soft on Demand came along, it was quite common for JAV productions to feature fake sex, and fans never knew if their favorite actresses were really doing the deed. I’ve heard from more than one J-List customer that the mosaic forces the camera to follow the overall action, instead of merely focusing on penetration.
What Do You Like About JAV? Let’s Ask the Internet!
There’s usually a build-up and story that I like in JAV productions. Many girls don’t look like total bimbos, and we get great camera angles that show the curves/shape of the actress.
Have you seen Western porn? Sure, the girls are hot, especially when they start out. But eventually they get awful plastic surgery, fillers, and Botox to the point that I can’t watch them anymore. Naomi Woods is a perfect example. Used to be a hot natural, now she has more plastic than the ocean.
There are a lot of ‘too cute for porn’ girls in JAV. For example, Emika Shirakami, Hikari Aozora, and Mio Ishikawa. They’ll give you a girl-next-door vibe with natural features on their body and face. I also like that the JAV actors aren’t muscular hunks, but just normal dude with dad bods. It’s amazing to see these pretty girls pounded by all these ‘normal’ guys.
I love the ones where they interview the woman about how she feels about having sex in front of so many people.
The women are stunningly gorgeous! The women act very submissive, which a lot of men love. JAV tends to explore a very wide variety of genres, which are very generally different from Western porn stories.
Source: SONE-865
Fans of JAV often prefer its storytelling, variety, and production values, which are much different from Western porn. Where Western scenes tend to be short, repetitive, and focused only on penetration, JAV offers longer narratives, a better mix of fetishes, and performers who hit differently.
More Reasons Why JAV is the Best
My personal preference is Asian women, so I prefer JAV. I especially love the actresses’ moans. They are music to my ears.
The actresses in JAV are often a lot cuter than in Western porn. Western porn has a different overall feel, even if it stars Asian actresses, and I prefer JAV’s unique vibe because of it.
I like JAV because the whole industry is just more professional. They have big agencies for the actors, which create standards for everyone to follow. The variety of content is just better, with more kinds of fetishes to explore. Movie production is better. Also, I don’t feel that anyone is in the industry because of drugs, which is probably not true in other countries.
What did I learn about the JAV industry from my interview with Kaho Shibuya? Read it here!
I love that the women look so natural, like you would see them at the supermarket or picking up the kids from school. I also like that they don’t have tattoos. And, they all look so sweet and innocent.
Why Do You Watch JAV? For the Acting, Honest!
JAV acting is far superior to Western porn acting. In the latter, there’s often little to no emotion. They deliver lines as blandly as possible or oversell the dialogue so much that they can’t take even the smallest plot points seriously. And when they’re actually having sex, they sound completely unnatural. They overdo it in front of the camera, as if they must moan or groan as loudly as possible every 2-3 seconds. Ultimately, you can tell JAV puts in more effort to create a worthwhile performance for fans to watch.
Something about how innocent some of the girls look. It makes it feel more real than the Western stuff.
I love the amount of femininity shown by Japanese actresses.
I love the situations in JAVs because: either they are very real, where it could happen to you someday, or it is the complete opposite and they are absurd situations, but I have dreamed about it for a long time. Like the “Time Stop” JAV series.
JAV productions usually have an interesting storyline, and I can use that to learn new Japanese words. Yes, I actually watch Japanese porn for listening training when studying Japanese.
Thanks for reading this blog post asking the question, “What do you like about JAV?” and exploring some reasons why it’s become so popular around the world.
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Great news! J-List is having a $40-off-$200-or-more holiday coupon you can use for all in-stock items shipping from Japan! (Except calendars and Lucky Boxes.) This means you can make a big order of ecchi products for men, manga and doujinshi, JAV DVDs and Blu-rays, or hentai products and save big. Start browsing here!
