We’ve written before about Aya Takanashi and her columns providing her insights on Japanese porn. As a former AV performer herself from 2016 to 2018, she is in the know about such things.
Her latest column for Spa! deals with the question of why so many underground idols (chika aidoru) are seemingly making the switch to porn?
It’s true that porn retails sites like Fanza do seem chocker-block with chika idols of late. One example is Ichigo Nekomiya (pictured), who is meant to be a member of an Akihabara underground idol group and is making her debut (4HMN487) this month on the Honnaka label.
Why is this happening?
Takanashi identifies several causes.
Perhaps most obviously, the chika idol will already have an established fan base to a certain extent (and let’s be honest, a fan base of otaku who are likely more inclined to watch and buy porn), so her debut AV is guaranteed to sell a certain amount from people who want to support their oshi (and are probably really excited to see her naked and having sex).
Of course, chika idols are by definition underground, so don’t have the kind of extensive fan base that mainstream music idols enjoy. It’s probably not enough to justify a decent AV production, but even just being able to market the release as a chika idol’s debut gives it an edge and a boost that may attract curious viewers among the many who have never heard of the idol in the first place.
“Former underground idol” has more marketing impact, Takanashi says, than other common tropes like “amateur” or “college student.”
The presence of an in-built fan base, albeit modest, also means you can hold in-person promo events to support the release.
Takanashi notes that about half of these chika idol porn stars fail to sell, but that’s not a big surprise in a competitive industry in which beautiful ladies are making their AV debuts all the time. Some will inevitably fall between the gaps and even quite successful performers don’t have the commercial longevity to continue for more than a few years (to say nothing of the demands of the work on them physically and mentally).
She describes the “hiring” process a bit too: scouts will approach idols at their agency or there are even cases when a porn production company may have an affiliate company that manages gravure and underground idols, making it easier and quite natural for such performers to switch industries.
For a while, with the arrival of Unpai, Ichika-sensei, and Okogetan, it seemed like TikTok was new bountiful source of AV debutants, but that hasn’t quite developed into the huge surge we were expecting.
In fact, there hasn’t been a really big debut for a while. For the most high-profile right now is the upcoming release of the first porn from Misato Maeda, a former TV promo girl and gradol who is now working under the name Ema Yano. Let’s hope 2023 is full of other great debuts, from chika idols and many others!
