Popular female ero-mangaka Crimson's top 10 JAV actresses

JAV fans and aficionados love to make top-n lists (this blog is the very proof of that), but it's not quite that often that people in the industry rank actresses or movies. It's even rarer for those in the creative side (not male performers) to express their preferences, which makes them all the more interesting as they give some insight into the process followed to evaluate/select performers and provide them with suitable plots.

Who is Crimson sensei?

Crimson is a popular mangaka with a strong connection with the JAV industry (more on this below).  Like many other mangaka, Crimson began with doujinshi, and quickly transitioned to the pro world, drawing for both paper and digital magazines, and working also on computer games and anime adaptations.

Crimson's regularity (over 100 pages penned a month, without a pause) throughout her 20-year career, and the aura of mystery around the pseudonym, made many believe there were actually a several people behind the circle.

However, in May 2020, Crimson launched a YouTube channel, and revealed two things: first, it's a single, real person; second, she's a woman!

Crimson's soothing voice (for the seiyuu otaku around, she's got a breathy voice that reminds you of Noto Mamiko), her cute speech mannerisms, and the interesting topics she covers (such as creative and drawing technique, insights about the industry, etc.) quickly brought her YouTube popularity.  Within 4 months, Crimson would get over 100000 subscribers, making her the most popular mangaka on YouTube (she's got over 118K as of Oct 19), and over 6 million views.

Crimson's relation with JAV began in 2011. She was the first mangaka to do an AV collaboration in Moodyz' MIRD-094, which was a hit at the time. To be more precise, the movie itself proved popular, but many complained about the bad acting of the 4 actresses involved (Kanno Sayuki, Kitagawa Hitomi, Hamasaki Rio, Aikawa Rin), so Crimson would make sure to suggest actresses matching her stories (or stories fit for the actress when the studio wants one in particular) in posterior adaptations.

As of October 2020, Crimson's work has been adapted to AV 14 times (nearly all by Moodyz and once by S1, and mostly in the renowned Mankitsu label, known by its MIMK-xxx code), making her second only to Chuuka Naruto, with 17. Crimson's adaptations have starred some of the most popular actresses (Okita Anri, JULIA, Tia, Hamasaki Rio, Kamisaki Shiori, Oohashi Miku, Takahashi Shouko, Mitani Akari, Yamagishi Aika, Oda Mako...)... but one movie stands above the others thanks to its scale and spectacular cast, among the greatest ever seen on film (only S1's all star films and Moodyz' earlier Bako Bako Bus tour series compare): Moodyz' 15 year anniversary movie MIMK-039 "Crimson Dream", starring Uehara Ai, Hatano Yui, Ootsuki Hibiki, Kasumi Kaho, Hasumi Kurea, AIKA, Okita Anri, Kamisaki Shiori and Akiyama Shouko.

This is one of the few movies starring Uehara Ai left in R18/FANZA after her delisting. As done in other cases, her name was removed from the actress list, but the video was kept. Given the way delistings are performed, this might even be a defensive move by FANZA to make it harder to even locate the film for an actress trying to erase all her works (actresses often don't know about their release status, and cannot possibly remember them all when they've shot hundreds like Uehara Ai): the actress hires a lawyer to send the request, which must reference all the flicks to be delisted by title; therefore, the lawyer will use FANZA's own database to locate and list them.

Crimson's top 10

A couple months ago, Crimson shared her "top 10 amazing active actresses", excluding those who have appeared in her adaptations for the sake of fairness and to avoid any trouble.  Without further ado, here's Crimson's list and her commentary:

10 Yagi Nana

"She possesses a hard to comprehend prim and proper aura and a peculiar charm that doesn't befit the industry."

9 Kururugi Aoi

"She's of course really cute, but she's also able to approach even difficult roles with naturalness."

(personal note: Kururugi Aoi and Kano Yura are two young talents who deliver astonishingly natural performances in drama-heavy movies. Unfortunately this ability can't be appreciated properly across the language barrier.)

8 Tamaki Kurumi

"She's overwhelming lively. The way she moves her shoulders and neck in a sexy tempo is characteristic."

7 Fukada Eimi

"Her looks are as prominent as the wit in her twitter comments. She's gone beyond a mere AV actress at this point."

(note: Fukada Eimi overtook Mikami Yua as the currently active AV actress with the most Twitter followers, with 1.5 million, and is quickly approaching Asuka Kirara's record 1.7 million. Her twitter has become popular outside the usual AV fan circles, and offers funny moments such as the time when she tweeted "ask me anything, I'll explain it all" and she got a deluge of help requests for maths and physics problems.)

6 Mifune Karen

"I think everything about her bust is top class."

5 Mukai Ai

"In VR POV videos, she's really good at creating a sense of affinity that makes it feel like she's really talking to you. In VR, the actress is actually facing a strange looking cam, but she's somehow able to make you feel as if she were really right in front of you. I think that's a unique skill."

4 Kobayakawa Reiko

"She's good at a broad range of roles. Even though she does mature roles, she has a perfect figure... you could say she doesn't have a single flaw. She's really amazing."

3 Kawakami Nanami

"She appeared in Netflix' "Naked Director" series, as an unmotivated girl who's somehow getting by. It's a difficult role which she played really well. I think her acting chops are probably the best among currently active AV actresses. She not only acts sexy roles, but is also great at sketch comedy."

(note: Kawakami Nanami and Ogura Yuna are easily two of the most capable dramatic actresses in AV. Kawakami's talents don't end there: she's a member of the Ebisu Muscats, and her singing, in particular her powerful singing voice, makes her stand out)

2 Mihina (Mihina Nagai / Mihina Azu)

"I watch movies from actresses with good reactions and expressions as reference material for my manga. The reason is that they make dynamic poses like those that abound in manga. On that regard, of all AV actresses active right now, her reactions are the most beautiful. I always take a look at any video featuring her. She's really unique."

(note: Kururugi Aoi said about Mihina, when commenting on Crimson's rankings, that her "way of feeling (pleasure) is manga-like"; I very much agree)

1 Ishihara Nozomi

"She seemed special from the moment I first saw her. She's got a distinctive star-like aura. She just has it all. She can handle simple movies as well as plot-heavy drama. She's simply a star with naturally gifted charm."

Missing names

Hatano Yui, Ootsuki Hibiki, AIKA, Hasumi Kurea, Mitani Akari and her Cruse Group senpai Yamagishi Aika, Takahashi Shouko, JULIA, and Oda Mako are excluded from Crimson's list because they've already participated in adaptations of her works. Several of them are excellent performers, so they'd likely rank high in an hypothetical extended (unconstrained) "Crimson ranking".

Overall, she clearly shows a preference towards either dramatically capable performers or girls with a special "aura" (as opposed to mere physique). She's explained that she sometimes is allowed to suggest actresses for particular adaptations, so we can expect at least some of the above to eventually shoot for Moody'z "Crimson collaboration" series. I can easily imagine Kururugi Aoi, Fukada Eimi, Mukai Ai and Mihina (who have all worked extensively with Moodyz before) starring in such films.