Introduction
This guide is to serve as a general overview as to the various types of Gravure and the studios behind the Image Videos (and some photoshoots) that are available on the market over the last 20+ years. Gravure as a genre isn’t entirely cut and dry, and many producers blur the lines on what can realistically be considered softcore modelling and not pornography. This guide will attempt to be comprehensive in terms of producers, labels, etc., however, the history of these companies and the changes within the industry are difficult to record as such information isn’t readily available online, so some details will be brief. Gravure is a large industry in Japan as it includes not just modelling productions, but also as an advertisement mechanism for various companies across a multitude of industry.
What types of Gravure exist?
In a general sense, Gravure can be divided into three categories, the first being Gravure modelling for advertisement purposes (which this website does not cover), and then non-nude and nude Gravure modelling. These last two are where the bulk of what people would consider Gravure fall into as someone modelling for a perfume brand isn’t exactly the stuff you expect from a photobook or film shot at a tropical island. From these two parent groups you will have a variety of themes, from tourist-style vlogs, Onsen (hot spring) themed, to a mix of different settings for standard fare shoots, girlfriend theme POV, simulated sex scenes and/or toy play, and even films featuring actual sex which begs the question as to if it’s Gravure or not.
False advertising, “Nude” content, and when will Fumina Suzuki go topless in Gravure?
Much like in pornography (or any industry reliant on marketing really), many producers of Image Videos are guilty of bait and switch covers, misleading titles, and an uneven usage of censorship depending on the scene or the product medium (book vs film vs digital photoshoot). For example, below are two Image Videos, the first is LPFD-8015, produced by TakeShobo’s Liverpool label. This one isn’t false advertising or anything of the sort, instead, it’s literally a movie. Liverpool does produce IVs, but this one is an oddity for sure. It could be argued that it isn’t an IV (which I would agree with), but it’s made by a Gravure producer and uses a model from that industry, so, not sure where to place it other than a sexy version of a private investigator film but without the sex prevalent in the pornographic versions? It’s weird.
The next sample is SFLB-003 by Shuffle. It is a prime culprit in false advertising. Nothing on the cover is in the film, none of the outfits, none of the settings. Instead, these outfits are available in the photobook, an item that is likely impossible to find today. In addition, the title “Full Nude” is false, as the only nude bits you get to see are her topless. Now this isn’t an uncommon thing to do across many studios, however, advertising as full nude but not really going full nude and doing shots that demonstrate that is a little cheap.
Moving from those two extremes, a very common aspect of non-nude Image Videos is the interpretation of non-nude. While nude is obvious and “Full Nude” films that don’t go all the way are a bit of a lie, non-nude films do 99% of the time stay true to that premise, largely due to the nature of the genre and the models that enter it. Nude Gravure typically is done through JAV actors/models coming over and shooting some softcore content, whereas those that do non-nude Gravure often are doing softcore modelling exclusively or they are coming over from other industries such as music or acting, so nudity is often out of the question. While bare nudity is a no go, technically seeing breasts through sheer wet clothing doesn’t count, and so many studios will use this method to get away with showing some skin. Kingdom is a big follower of this method. Below: Kingdom films will go full nude but will hide everything, unless there is a sheer wet bikini involved, same applies to many releases by TakeShobo (left).
Lastly, will Fumina Suzuki go topless? Find out in the next episode?!
Gravure Studio Directory
Here is a list of several studios that make Image Videos with sample releases to demonstrate some of the visual differences. This list is not comprehensive, especially when the bulk of Non-Nude Gravure is released in photobook form. Furthermore, not every label under a producer will have an example given as this article would be very long. There are numerous producers and labels within this market.
Finding info on all of them is an impossible task unless someone was recording new releases in person in Japan over the past 20+ yrs. As such, examples of smaller studios such as Be Cool, Angel Vision, Visual Art, Splash, Blade, etc., may be included in a list format at the bottom of the page in the future, with more notable examples receiving a bio.
Non-Nude
AiconiQ (2018-Present) – A fairly new studio on the block, features high quality non-nude productions. Currently has a smaller selection of works under the AIPI code and films with upper tier models/celebrities such as Mea Shimotsuki, a cosplayer and fashion model whom has even appeared as a guest MC for the Japanese region circuit of the League of Legends LCS.
Aircontrol (2005-Present) – Features four main labels, Antenna (18+ Full Nude works, OAE), Melon (Non-Nude Big Breast Series, OME), QUTE (Non-Nude Small Breast Series, OQT), Aircont+ (DMM Special Non-Nude Series, OAIP). Aircontrol is one of the largest producers in the game and have been around for a long time. They do not produce at a rate similar to other companies, however, in spite of this they are still around and produce quality works, with the only exception being their Antenna label, which is a bit of a mixed bag.
BAGUS (2007-Present) – Another veteran producer. BAGUS has a lot of different labels under their brand, from the pictured GiriGirl (GIHHD) and Revolution (BGSD) labels which feature different types of models, to defunct labels such as “No Mosaic” (GNJD) and MELLO (FGMLD). In addition, BAGUS owns REbecca (or at least has a business relationship of sorts), one of the most famous and high quality Image Video production companies in the industry. Bagus’ productions are largely non-nude or full nude but hiding all the bits you’d expect to see in a nude work. Instead, REbecca handles the nude portion, often through it’s access to a variety of JAV actors.
E-Net Frontier (~2004-Present) – E-Net is one of the premier Gravure producers. A giant in the space, primarily featuring models that exclusively do non-nude works and come from a variety of careers. Having been around for almost 20 years, they have an enormous catalog of works of their own, while also distributing content made by other producers such as Brain (which does share the product code of E-Net), AiconiQ, and Idol Graffiti, while also collaborating with photography producers such as Flash.
GUILD (2012-Present) – Guild is a mixed Gravure producer, employing non-nude legends such as Jun Amaki while also producing nude works. Their product code system remains the same with no real separation between these two styles, meaning sometimes it can be hard to know if the film has nudity or not if the covers don’t show. The style of the content is par for the course, however, there is a lot more focus on close-up masturbation or two play scenes, so if you are into that, this studio should be of interest.
Grossoc-Fiction (2016-2020) – Fiction is a quality label that tends to focus on the butt. Their shoots are varied and accompanied by high quality visuals, butt the dominant shooting style tends to be close ups of the rear end. I won’t knock them for it, it’s a unique way to differentiate your label among the vast competition. As for Grossoc themselves, they are a producer/distributor for a variety of labels and studios, and so it can be a little difficult separating what they make and what they don’t, an example would be the Story label (TRST) and Gemmy-Road (JMRD) which is produced by S-Digital but distributed by Grossoc.
I-One (2000-Present) – A titan in the field of Gravure, regardless of the genre. These guys have been making Gravure for over 20 years and have a top tier production quality to their work, in addition to having some of the most popular and desired to be nude models in the game, such as Fumina Suzuki, Saaya Irie, Rina Hashimoto, and Hikaru Aoyama. Along with TakeShobo and E-Net, I-One rules the non-nude Gravure world. They never do bottomless shoots, and when they do topless, its pasties all the way to the bank. Their consistency is top notch, it’s just unfortunate there is no nude label.
S-Digital (2006-Present) – An oldie with a penchant for using models outside of just the Gravure circle. Film quality is good, settings are varied, they have a couple labels, Skip and I-girl. Skip focuses on the new and coming talent, such as Haruka Mizuno, semi-finalist of the FLASH magazine Miss FLASH 2022 contest. Igirl is unique in that it pulls its models from mainstream tv programs, fashion models, and actors. A recent release featured Chihiro Takada, former member of the comedic duo “Ban” from 1999-2021 and a series regular on the radio show “Dreams are broadcast live from here Happy” broadcast out of Aomori Prefecture.
Shining Star (2012-2021*) – High quality videos (if you can find them), very very slow production time, unsure if they are still active due to most recent release being in early 2021. Productions have a variety of sets, from outdoors, to pools and bedroom sessions. Not to many notable models used over the years but the styling is well done and some themes try to emulate a girlfriend experience type vibe, which is interesting given the overall lack of simulated sex scenes, lot’s of boob massaging though.
TakeShobo (~2001-Present) – TakeShobo is one of the big three non-nude producers, along with E-Net and I-One. TakeShobo has been producing Gravure (and other more mainstream productions) for two decades now. They do not have a lot of series as most of their releases have been combined into a singular release code stream, however, there are some dead series such as: Real Girlfriend, Debut!, and Master and Maid. They employ some of the top stars within the non-nude Gravure market and their production quality (despite the inclusion of the tired simulated sex trope) is excellent, if a bit cliche at times (there is only so much you can do without the benefits of nude shooting). Nevertheless, they are one of the best and certainly worth a look.
Nude
Aircontrol (2005-Present) – This is Aircontrol’s 18+ Full Nude (actually nude) series. Generally the productions are a standard fair Image Video set, however, more often than not half of the runtime is dedicated to simulate sex/toy play scenes. As such this studio blurs the lines as to what Gravure should be considered and may receive mixed reviews based on the quality of these scenes in contrast to the modelling segments. Nevertheless, they are among the big three labels in the world of nude Gravure (the others being REbecca and Spice Visual in my opinion).
EROCUTE (2008-2016) – Erocute was one of many many labels under Oldstack Pictures. They primarily focused on JAV idols, had a blend of interviews, eating out with the crew sessions, and a variety of photoshoots. In a way they were akin to say Sports Illustrated shoots where there would be some BTS content included in the film to make it more authentic. Unfortunately they tend to be a label whose works are very difficult to find on the internet in a reasonable quality.
Fine Pictures (2017-Present) – Fine Pictures is like vanilla ice cream, plain and consistent in it’s quality and presentation. Fine Pictures has a variety of labels, from Shooting Star (SS-xxx), Lover’s Day (LD-xxx, defunct 2020), and Aphrodite (AP-xxx, defunct 2019), to defunct labels such as Mighty Doll (MD-xxx) and mode: fetish (MF-xxx), which respectively ended in 2017. Fine Pictures content is shot well, but the poses, the outfits, the settings, they are all pretty much the same. From one release to the next, the only different aspect to them is the woman chosen to be featured, and maybe the lighting will be a different shade of yellow.
Evolution (2007-2014) – Evolution is one of those short lived producers that got into the game I assume at a point when it was easy and rising in popularity. Evolution is a tricky producer as they began with largely non-nude works, often featuring an older age group of models. They progressively, and rather quickly, moved towards the younger models featuring full nudity and toy play. Evolution’s series codes make little sense and so it is often difficult to track what came out in chronological order as the series dictated the number in the sequence but the decision appears to have been arbitrary. Evolution’s largest and final series was the Tsuru-run Baby series, others included Ecstasia, International ShowTen (which was a western pornstar series), and Double-Lily (videos involving two models).
GARDEN (2014-2017) – Garden was a short lived producer of an interesting type of IV. Garden’s videos banked on the popular Girlfriend Experience genre you would find in the realm of pornography, where the setting consists of a POV film style and the woman is your girlfriend. You go and do regular activities like cooking, going outside, etc., and then have sex here and there. In porn this of course would consist of actual sex, in Gravure however, this is swapped for dildo play and simulated sex, with the dildo strapped to the cameraman. It is probably the most prominent example of a softcore studio blurring the line with porn.
Graphis (2002-Present) – A veteran in the Gravure scene and one of the biggest in both the photography and video markets. Graphis has been known to produce the photoshoots and videos for prominent Gravure companies such as REbecca and Aircontrol. They are the gold standard for nude Gravure photography. On the video front Graphis is an odd one, Graphis branded videos are largely BTS (Behind The Scenes) films from photoshoots or other film productions for REbecca, etc. In terms of quality, the videos are good but they are really just accessory experiences to the proper production. If you want to see actual Graphis videos, hit up REbecca whenever they have a release that mirrors a photoshoot release by Graphis.
Kingdom (~2006-Present) – Kingdom is easily the largest Gravure producer to do nude and not censor it. Now that may sound like nothing particularly special, but in the case of Kingdom, they do full nude, butthole play, and full vag shots without mosaic. They just lower the brightness in those segments. Now that is often enough to obscure the image, however, the dedicated can work around that to see what’s behind the darkness, not to mention, they are one of a handful of producers making 4K content and this has a bit of an adverse reaction to the effectiveness of the darkening trick. Censorship aside, the content of Kingdom is varied, some employing giants in the field like Mai Goto of yesteryear to modern Gravure stars such as Asuka Oda and Tsubasa Akimoto. There is a wealth of content to explore as they’ve been in the game for 15 years.
Media Brand (2000s-Present) – Media Brand is a mess to do any sort of research on. Finding which labels are under their brand while also trying to filter out which studios are being distributed by them but not made by them is quite difficult, effectively impossible I’d say. That all said, if you stick to the traditional label code of MBDD, then you will find some very high quality productions across a variety of themes, from typical house shoots to tropical locales. The visual quality is great and the models (often JAV idols) used are quite well known, such as Shoko Takahashi and Uta Hayano. There are some labels you can find such as the JELLYBe label which is more focused on non-nude content and a younger model age/appearance.
Oldstack Pictures (~2006-Present) – Oldstack Pictures is a producer and distributor of Gravure with such a large catalog of sub-labels that to cover all of them (even if you could find information them) would make this page unnecessarily long. To that end, some more prominent labels will be featured and listed. Erocute was already mentioned, but in addition to them you have labels such as Uganda (R-xxx), Shadow Moon (SHMO-xxx), Onsen themed (YURD-xxx), and even that Naked Yoga series involving various JAV idols (DIEX-xxx). The various labels make nude and non-nude works with a variety of themes featuring everything from older models to young rookies with differing levels of mosaic censorship based on the age and aspects of the film, such as if there is simulated (or real) sex acts or if it is just posing (sex acts are a very common aspect of these films). Quality of the labels is hit and miss depending on the theme,
Precious Beauty (2015-Present) – Precious Beauty is a smaller label under Idol Graffiti that focuses on JAV idols. Their work is largely standard fare and they do not produce a ton year over year. The production quality is good, many films have a form of film grain aesthetic to them and the camera focus is often close up for a good chunk of the runtime, there is basically no mosaic or any form of censorship (no, you still won’t get to see the goods, they will use poses or other obstructions to prevent that). The label definitely has a bit of an artistic flair to it.
Raven (2011-2014) – Raven was another fairly standard Gravure producer, although they largely focused on the younger demographic. The studio is often mistaken as being the debut studio of the legendary Ai Uehara under her Rin Akimoto alias. While that isn’t true, it does show at least that this studio had some future star power in their hands. The simulated sex scenes are a little weird given the visuals of some models, but beyond that, it’s a short lived studio that focused on rookies of the field, so it should get some attention as most rookies now fall under specific labels of larger companies these days.
REbecca (2009-Present) – The king of nude IVs. Not much more to it than that. REbecca has been in the industry for over a decade and they have become known as the best of the best. Consistent production quality, exotic filming locations, interviews, BTS content, top tier photoshoots courtesy of Graphis, and a top tier casting selection from among the JAV industry’s rising or leading stars. REbecca used to have a couple labels in the past, such as the Virgin Nude series (GSHR) which featured new to nude Gravure works, and then a short run of older models under the RERD code.
Shuffle (2003-2012) – An old powerhouse of the early 2000s. This studio focused a lot on tourist/tropical vacation shoots filled with the usual slow motion special effects of music videos during this era. Many of the videos are entertaining on this merit alone, but if you can get past that, then you find a wealth of top tier models for their time under this studio, such as Tina Yuzuki, Yua Aida, and Kaede Matsushima.
Somebody (~2008-Present) – Where to even start. This studio really pushes the limits of what is considered Gravure. There is the usual modelling stuff, that’s par for the course. Quality is alright, nothing fancy, the settings are often quite average. However, this studio doesn’t use mosaic, gets really up close and personal with buttholes, and shows full on lesbian rimming/fingering and oral sex (albeit blocked either by being off camera or due to clothing). This is really just lesbian porn but almost done in a way that would pass for a mainstream show. The videos are hard to find, the website for the studio is dead (at least on my end), rips are few and far between (and in poor resolution at that). Just a weird studio under the Gravure umbrella.
Spice Visual (2010-Present) – Spice Visual is a prominent producer in the Gravure market, producing a variety of labels featuring top talent from the JAV field in addition to non-nude Gravure talent. Production quality is great, with specialty themes such as the Blue Ribbon Onsen setting. Other labels such as MARE are more conventional in their settings while often featuring new models. Nudity is a mixed game, with the JAV idols generally doing the full nude content while those on the other labels tend to do at most sheer nudity. Their coding system is a bit of a mess but to summarize. Essentially, most of the codes fall under MMR-AA to MMR-AZ (MARE), with the following number indicating the release order. MBR-Bx is the Blue Ribbon label. There are defunct branches such as MBR-BB or MBR-BC, but these are dead. An example of theme per code would be MBR-BN is Blue Ribbon Onsen, while MMR-AA tends to work with younger models.
Spark Vision (~2010s-Present) – This is an interesting studio. Production quality is good, additional content such as BTS/Interviews are often included, and mosaic censorship is very rarely seen, except in the more erotic or sexual shoots. Close up shots tend to be a major trait of the film style, not to mention a lot more simulated sex, toy play, and even peeing (for which some mosaic slip ups have occurred). They are not the easiest studio to keep track of release wise and their content isn’t often easy to acquire either, but they do make good stuff. Their Fetish Time label is one of the few in the industry that has done multi-model shoots.
Superlative (~2018/19-Present) – Superlative is another new kid on the block featuring a mix of lesser known JAV idols and Gravure exclusives. Their quality is good and they really like to do water shoots, which as a personal fan of tropical shoots this is welcome. They also have no mosaic censorship which is basically unheard of among producers these days. Of course they do not show anything outright, but even at that, what is exposed, especially with the closeup shots (as much as they try to film out of focus during these) is quite a treat. They are a trickier studio to find online, with even their earliest films lacking evidence.
TOKYODOLL.TV (2015-Present) – A unique Gravure producer in that they use western (primarily Eastern-European) models for their films. Content wise and production quality is par for the course, so the models are what distinguishes this studio from the rest.