Mapping the World of JAV
What a Wonderful World (of Tits and Ass)
It can get confusing for non-japanese speakers to find their way around JAV. For most people, they just use their eyes and find the hottest Japanese JAV talent that comes across their way. And that’s fine! Everyone’s free to enjoy JAV in their own way. The main selling point is, after all, hot chicks fucking and there’s nothing wrong with getting drawn in by the gravity of the gorgeous women of JAV. But for the more curious adventurers, with spicier appetites, there are various worlds of JAV rife for exploration. Part of the fun of being a writer is categorizing the wonderful chaos of whatever subject matter and making up categorizations and genres of what is out there. And so, for this article, I wanted to map out the different worlds of JAV out there just so people are aware of what more there is out there.
JAV World is a colorful and beautiful land of various sexual expressions. While this prose map delineates categories that imply hard borders between its various zones, it’s not as simple as that since there are spectrums of sexual expressions that mean some JAV easily be one or the other or even both of those at the same time. But there are hard differences between certain JAV that allow for certain genres to be mapped and created, so there are hard differences but also more nuanced differences, much like music genres.
Vanilla Empire
Starting with the massive sprawling JAVLands of Vanilla Empire. Impossible to ignore in its size and dominance, the Empire gained its size due to how they cater to the lowest common denominator therefore allowing for a much larger share in the fanbase and consequently, bigger, better and more productions. The concept of ‘Vanilla’ is Emperor Capital’s decree. The big and famous studios who have the means to work with the prettiest and hottest JAV talents in the biz, have to keep it all together by following the unspoken rules of making the better product, which incidentally turns out to be these Vanilla JAV that we are all familiar with. The Vanilla Empire has a fiduciary obligation to its shareholders to keep it all kosher to maximize the revenue required to keep the industrial machine working.
This means it is in their best interest to keep it Vanilla for the sake of the bottom line. No need to mess with the original recipe, just keep it safe with the spices. S1 NO.1 STYLE, arguably the biggest fish in the pond, explicitly disallows something as seemingly innocuous as creampies. (To be fair though, creampies are this whole other cultural conversation when it comes to Japanese sexual mores and attitudes). While the various uniqueness in the aesthetic beauty of the JAV talents in their roster keeps it interesting, the substance of the content that they pump out eventually gets the same vanilla flavor that JAV gourmets might want to look elsewhere at times. But eventually, even the most degenerate of fans just can’t keep away from the sheer quality of the JAV talents that the Empire of Vanilla has to offer.
Kingdoms of Hardcore
Leading us to the next big tier, the Kingdoms of Hardcore are a set of various kingdoms of kink that cater to those who have spicier tastes. Although not all these kingdoms are outside of the Empire of Vanilla, there are enough distinctions between the color and content of these kingdoms that it's noteworthy. Sometimes the Vanilla Empire lends its talents to these kingdoms and borrows some trends from them too to keep things fresh, which makes for a weird symbiotic relationship between these two who are essentially two sides of the same coin. Moodyz and SOD are two big kingdoms that lean a bit towards the harder side of things, but they can’t exactly take it too far.
Not all kinks are the same, some of these kingdoms have kinks that are ways off from what the Vanilla Empire is comfortable with. For example: the harder domination stuff, older mature stuff, bigger and smaller body types and the like. For these types of JAV, highly specialized boutique studios and JAV actresses take them on because there is a small but relevant audience who have demand for such kinks. The farther you stray into the hardcore lands, eventually you will find the harder kinks that require their own piece of the map.
Tribes of the Weird Zones and the Swamps of the Unmentionable
The Weird Zones are not just weird in content but also weird in that they pop up everywhere in JAV World, more like nomadic tribes. There is a subset of them who cater to the more weird kinks that fall under the hardcore involving kinks with certain bodily fluids or orifices, strange forms of degradation/decadence or specific fetishes on non-sexual body parts / inanimate objects. There’s another subset of vanilla adjacent weirdness too, more of those game-show types, oddly made or funky costumes, and just straight up weird narratives. The fun part about the weird zones of JAV is there’s plenty of Japanese specific cultural oddities that probably only the Japanese will understand / get turned on. These show a different spectrum of sexuality we can only see uniquely in JAV.
It’s hard to describe the next big location in JAV World, the Swamps of the Unmentionable. Involving various areas in JAV that I literally cannot talk about in this blog. A lot of it is actually legal, mainstream even, and are ostensibly accepted as a normal thing in JAV despite the socially restricted subject matter and visual content. But the fact of the matter is, that sorta stuff is heavily frowned upon by the rest of the world, hence why I can’t talk about it. Not to mention the dark degeneracy the illegal stuff gets into…..
ForWomen Republic
Dialing it back from the depths of depravity, towards something more lighthearted. Towards the edge of VanillaLand, there exists a small republic of straight porn directed with the audience of women in mind. While Japanese women prefer other forms of erotica over straight up porn, there are some makers of JAV that create this softer version of JAV featuring conventionally attractive men with a lot more focus on the narrative. It’s definitely kinda odd from a male perspective since we’re so used to 99% of JAV being directed at the male gaze. But from a woman’s perspective, it all makes sense for a cozier female friendly alternative for porn though the stark imbalance between the amount of male focused porn vs female friendly porn is certainly remarkable. The thing is, straight sex isn’t just what the women also gravitate towards for their smut, they also like smut of a different spectrum found in a different land of JAV.
The Co-operative Lands of LGBT: Lesbian Islands, Gay Village, Bisexual Beach, Trans Jungle.
The last set is the LGBT collective to round out this list. Of course, this place is a small yet relevant minority of JAV, because there will always be demand for same sex smut, even if at times its biggest fans are not its intended audience. To start with, the Lesbian Islands JAV are very popular among straight men (though the ones that are actually aimed for Lesbians are treated differently in terms of narrative and content). JAV from the Gay Village also has a bit of popularity among both straight and gay women which also extends to the Bisexual side of JAV that involves men on men action. JAV involving bisexual women are more apt in the straight lesbian category.
And lastly, JAV from the Trans Jungle is the other JAV that bears looking into. While Japanese sexual attitudes regarding LGBT are still not open and accepted like it is in western countries, in Porn, they seem to permit the fantasy if it’s financially commodified rather than socially ratified. (quick disclaimer: I am not the one to ask about this complex social phenomenon as I am not LGBT and it’s difficult to gather much information as a non-Japanese speaking fan). Much of the new half genre is actually aimed towards the straight / hardcore audience, especially with the transwoman x cisgender woman crossovers being fairly popular and very watchable for the straight audience.
Happy Travels!
I hope you enjoyed my attempt at making a prose map of the chaotic and wonderfully diverse world of JAV. From the gleaming, dominant spires of the Vanilla Empire to the spicier realms of the Hardcore Kingdoms, and all the way out to the nomadic Tribes of the Weird Zones, this adult landscape offered to us in JAV is as varied as the sexual appetites it satisfies.
Sure, the map has its clear borders, but in practice, genres blend and borrow from each other all the time. The big studios might dip a toe into harder kinks to keep things fresh, while a niche fetish might suddenly inspire a mainstream trend. It’s this constant, fluid exchange that keeps the entire ecosystem vibrant and surprising. And let's not forget the other kinds. The cozy narratives of the ForWomen Republic and the colorfully complex Co-operative Lands of LGBT JAV prove that JAV World has a corner for almost every kind of desire, even if some are more hidden than others.
Ultimately, this map isn't about setting rules. An invitation to acknowledge that beyond the familiar, there's a weird, wild, and often wonderful spectrum of sexuality waiting to be discovered in JAV World. So whether you’re a loyal citizen of the Vanilla Empire or a seasoned adventurer wading through the Swamps of the Unmentionable. If your JAV watching has been getting stale, maybe that’s a call to adventure.
As usual, that’s all from me for now. Thank you for reading! See you in my next Article! - Vez
What do you think of the Exclusive vs Freelance debate? Hit me up in the comments!
What a Wonderful World (of Tits and Ass)
It can get confusing for non-japanese speakers to find their way around JAV. For most people, they just use their eyes and find the hottest Japanese JAV talent that comes across their way. And that’s fine! Everyone’s free to enjoy JAV in their own way. The main selling point is, after all, hot chicks fucking and there’s nothing wrong with getting drawn in by the gravity of the gorgeous women of JAV. But for the more curious adventurers, with spicier appetites, there are various worlds of JAV rife for exploration. Part of the fun of being a writer is categorizing the wonderful chaos of whatever subject matter and making up categorizations and genres of what is out there. And so, for this article, I wanted to map out the different worlds of JAV out there just so people are aware of what more there is out there.
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Comments
Interesting attempt at classifying various JAV “genres,” but I have two thoughts.
First, why follow the worldly convention of defining this entertainment in negative terms? Do we really need terms like “swamp” to define aspect of JAV performance art? I suggest a more positive approach. Look at Disney, for instance. When they first opened their park, they gave different areas appealing, provocative names — Main Street, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, and Tomorrowland. Your “Vanilla Empire” is really more akin to Main Street. Just a suggestion for the betterment of the brand!
Second, a more helpful approach might be to do a comparison with Western Adult Video’s (WAV) typical genres. First and most obvious difference is fundamental plotting, vanilla or otherwise. WAV generally, almost pointedly, eschews plot or storyline. Quality is defined by how fast you can get a dick into some orifice. JAV, on the other hand, seems to require a pragmatic foundation — a game show, nanpa, a frustrated wife in a sexless marriage, the power differential of a business office, the naivete of students. WAV has almost no nanpa type scenarios; a few, yes, but not in the mainstream. WAV is currently flooded with the “step” madness — the skirting of incestuousness. While that’s creeping into JAV, it doesn’t seem to have the popularity. While WAV is youth oriented, it doesn’t focus on the school attire like JAV does. Interracial has almost no hold on JAV, while it’s the rage in WAV — you would think every blonde woman from age 20 to 75 goes to bed dreaming of sucking big Black dicks! While JAV does a lot of group sex, it’s mostly orgies and the like. WAV loves a good gang bang — one woman taking on six guys.
I’d suggest a good blog piece might be an educated and well researched comparison between dominant areas in WAV and JAV.
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