The Japanese porn industry is incredibly prolific and its output is fueled in part by parody releases: adult video productions that operate at a kind of meta level, inspired by a recent incident, social trend, or something from popular culture.
Sometimes, since parody occupies an ambiguous place under the rubric of Japanese law, this can get the producers into trouble. The recent AV release based on the DJ Soda groping incident was canceled prior to release, possibly due to the social media backlash or perhaps out of fears of legal repercussions (at a time when things are difficult for the industry in the wake of new legislation aimed at protecting performers).
We think they are on safer ground with this parody, though it’s still quite innovative.
A new JAV release is parodying a photo book by Neru Nagahama.
In what might be a blatant attempt to appeal to fans who fancy the idea of Neru Nagahama in an AV, the former Keyakizaka46 idol’s photo book cover is clearly the source of inspiration for the porn.
Here’s the original photo book.
And here’s the porn version.
No, that’s not Neru Nagahama, it’s 20-year-old Konatsu Kashiwagi.
The premise seems to be a music idol meeting her fans at a hand-shaking event (just like the AKB48 and sister group idols hold), and then giving the best kind of fan service imaginable.
The 120-minute AV (RKI00666) comes out from Rookie on April 5 in digital streaming formats and April 9 on other formats.
The somewhat odd thing here is that the choice of photo book is not recent (such choices of inspiration for porn parodies tend to be quite topical). The photo book, Koko kara (From Here), came out in 2017. It’s actually Neru Nagahama’s only photo book to date and we wrote about it back at the time.
The porn, incidentally, is called Asoko kara (From There), which is not just similar, it’s decidedly cheeky (asoko is a euphemism for the genitals).
While it might not be recent (and perhaps too obscure for some tastes), we like how an AV production here is referencing a book publication. People often describe Japanese pop culture, especially in relation to manga and anime, as a “media mix,” because of the frequent crossover between media. This kind of parody is a dynamic part of that, even if it doesn’t attract the same kind of praise and admiration.
We think we’ve found our dream job: getting paid to think up these parody porn projects!
