Actress: Hitomi Tanaka
Release Date: 2008-11-06
Label: Soft On Demand
Genres: AV Debut
Reviewer: Mr. Tan
Introduction
Soft On Demand has debuted many superstars, including amongst others Saori Hara, Aimi Yoshikawa, Sakura Mana, and China Mastuoka. I had the debuts for all of the aforementioned stars, and I had almost decided to go through each of them this month. However, I felt that would be a disservice, since that would introduce a bias into the data. Instead, I decided to limit myself to one film from that label.
The winner ended up being HITOMI aka Hitomi Tanaka, an eight-year veteran who has made limited forays into the West. Currently, she’s one of the iconic examples of the JAV industry, recognized on sight by most anyone with an internet connection. In an amusing example of marketing fibs, this film was supposedly the “first and last IMPACT of her J-cup bust and Well-shaped waist and hip!” Of course popular demand for this film was so great she changed her mind in days, returned to SOD, and helped churn out a new film within four weeks. For the less perceptive of our correspondents, that previous sentence was sarcastic.
Let’s examine this film and see if it was worth the hubbub.
The Actress
Unlike Julia, I remain apathetic in regards to Hitomi. I don’t think she’s a butterface, but on the flipside, I don’t find her all that pretty. It’s not that her features are asymmetrical or otherwise ugly. I mentioned in my Haruki Sato review how the hot glamour babe tends to have a less-attractive-yet-still-pretty friend, and Hitomi is another one who falls into that category.
Yes, this is even with her massive breasts accounted for. Certainly, they are, as Mr. White called them, “titanic,” but that’s not a commendation in and of itself. Boobpedia claims that RION’s breasts and body are similar to Hitomi’s, but I do think that particular contributor needs a prescription for new glasses, since whatever RION’s flaws as a performer, her body is nigh-perfect, and far better than HItomi’s.
On the flip side, no one would ever claim Hitomi is bad at her work. She can be quite enthusiastic, as anyone who saw her collaboration with Anri Okita can testify, and I still fondly recall my first encounter with her online, a video of her having sex at the beach (a scene I subsequently learned came from her second film). Note I said at the beach, since the action was inside a white van. Who would have known that the sex offender van is the same in both Japan and in the West?
Rating 3.0
The Performance
I mentioned previously that Anri Okita was born to be a gravure model, so it’s interesting how the scenes by an actual gravure model turned JAV idol feel a bit inferior to those made by a complete amateur. However, I am confident that the fault lies completely with the director, Keita★ No.1.
Hitomi is consistently positive in the two hours and eighteen minutes of her debut, typically smiling in non-sex and non-gravure scenes. It’s a charmingly girl-next-door quality in a woman whose breasts essentially predetermined the course of her career. It’s too bad the whole thing is just so… mediocre. During the gravure scenes, she wears this bovine expression that works at cross-purposes to the titillation aspect. I suspect that with breasts so large, there was less of a need for her to express sultry seduction at will.
Still, at least she’s enthusiastic during sex. Too bad there’s not much of it.
Rating 3.0
Story/Theme/Setting
There are debuts and then there are debuts. Hitomi’s debut is worse than bog standard. There is a business concept called “return on investment,” and the time invested in Hitomi’s debut ends in an unsatisfactory experience.
My sense of humor is a dry and vestigial thing, so I found the scene where Hitomi’s breasts are poked by four plastic sticks for an extended period of time… imbecilic. I’ll not be impressed with a metal rod being applied under her breasts or by a stomach massager being wrapped around her waist and activated to jiggle her breasts. The music used during the gravure scenes sounds like hip hop from the 90s, so while Mr. White would love it, my reaction is a shrug. Surely a major label like Soft On Demand has some connections in the Japanese music industry capable of providing better?
The buildup is an important element of AV debuts, but this payoff is inadequate. The whole film coasts on Hitomi’s breasts, even though that thought had not occurred to the actress herself.
Rating 2.5
Sexual Content
In the Yua Mikami debut, the viewer does not see her naked for a half-hour, and penetration is thirty minutes after that. Here, the director decided that Hitomi was not to be seen fully naked until ninety minutes into the one-thirty-eight minute film. Yes, even her first actual sex scene, an hour into the film, is not fully nude. Her swimsuit top remains on the entire time.
The argument could be made that there is more sexual content than non-sexual content, but the covered breasts make it a disappointment. The first sexual scene, half an hour in, involves Hitomi’s breasts being wasted. Time is wasted on “nipple sex” where the actor’s penis is put inside her swimsuit top and rubbed against her nipples, before it moves to a paizuri and ends with the contents in between Hitomi’s cleavage. Her nipples are never seen and her expression is indifferent.
Her first full sex scene, briefly referenced in the introduction to this section, does show her censored vagina, and does that charming underwear-pulled-aside-not-off fetish I enjoy in moderation, but once again, no nipples. This is something of a cardinal flaw in a movie debuting a woman marketed on her breasts. Still, that is on the director’s head, since Hitomi gives some aggressive fellatio and vocalizes her pleasure quite well.
The final scene is a full-service sex scene, with reverse cowgirl, doggy, and missionary. Hitomi is in twintails, which hits another fetish point nicely, and performs quite well, but as enjoyable it is, it is not the kind of scene to save a mediocre movie. It serves more of an example of what could have been had the director not phoned it in.
Rating 3.0
Overall
As critical as I am of Hitomi’s physical appearance, she has always been aggressive and enthusiastic during her sexual performances. It’s why her debut is a disappointment. It’s a string of missed opportunities and the fault of that lies entirely with Keita★ No.1. It almost feels like he took one look at Hitomi and said, “She has titanic breasts. Cupid has spoken.” The IMPACT from HItomi’s breasts may as well have been about as meaningful as a three-month-old baby punching Mike Tyson on the chin.
Had this truly been a one-and-done scenario in the style of Yua Mikami, I would speculate that its mediocrity would have prevented Hitomi from having a career in JAV. Fortunately, Soft On Demand’s marketing fibbed, and Hitomi was most likely securely signed for many more films. The busty starlet would go on to deliver far better films with great performances.
2.9 C+
For Fans of the Actress Only
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