Rant: The Confusing and Meaningless Labels of Exclusives and Freelancers in JAV

Every now and then, someone asks what Tantai or Kikatan means for actresses, and I just respond by saying it means they are exclusive to a studio or freelancers. The truth of the matter is a bit more complex, however, and it's total bunk. Today I need to rant, ZENRA readers, rant about how needlessly complicated and meaningless these labels are.

(Try to make sense of this explainer)

Then we have Kikaku (kanji: 企画 / katakana: キカク), which means ‘project’ or ‘planning’ based movies. These titles are made with an idea/theme first and foremost, with actresses filling in the role. These are done by smaller-name actresses, with the theme being more important than the individual actress, like in SODS-065. The video stars quite a few actresses, and the cover doesn’t focus on any one of them. The video is also from Senz, who are known and popular for making interesting and creative films with unique premises and large ensemble casts. You watch Senz for their videos, not a single actress. It’s a label for a video’s content, and yet it is sometimes used to describe an actress' status.

SODS-065 The Work of a Patrol Lady: 24 Hours of Rehabilitating Delinquent Men and Collecting Sperm from The City

Finally, we have Kikatan (kanji: 企画単体 / katakana: キカタン), which means ‘Project solo’ or ‘planned solo’ and is a hybrid term between Tantai and Kikaku. It’s for Kikaku-like titles that are made for one actress. For example, Yui Hatano and Ai Uehara are very well-known Kikatan actresses in a video like HNDS-032. It sounds simple unless you think about it, which might be my problem.

HNDS-032 Ai and Hata's Secret Sex Room Ai Uehara Yui Hatano

Now there’s really little difference in the Tantai versus Kikaku in a star vs theme-based title in practice. What is the difference between Saika Kawakita starring in a Maid title vs a Maid title that has Saika or any other actress in it? Isn’t a Maid title made with the theme in mind first? Also, a Kikatan actress like Yui can and has starred in Kikaku videos, which makes the term even muddier, as it isn’t set. The terms become very muddled in practice, and it doesn’t make sense to use them interchangeably to describe both actresses and videos. Here is a textbook on the varying levels of actress tiers, which only serves to make me more confused.

Three Maid titles, one by a Tantai actress and two by actresses who work both as Kikatan and Kikaku

I feel safe to say that we will never see Saika Kawakita do anal sex, no matter how much I want to see it. This should all be easy and clear for everyone, but it quickly gets muddy and even more so nowadays. While freelancers like Yui can work with any studio, that means she can also work with ones that are primarily known for their Exclusive work. She might pop in with Premium, for example. Not bad, that’s actually a good thing.

But then we get into the Multi-Exclusives, or as I call them, the fake exclusives. For example, Sumire Kuramoto is currently exclusive to studios Das, Honnaka, and Muku, which means she only shoots with those three now. Sort of taking away the meaning of exclusivity, but I can’t complain about more videos from Sumire. Meanwhile, you have someone like Julia who is basically exclusive with 5 studios. The meaning loses further meaning when we see collaborations like Yuri Hirose, who is Exclusive with Attackers, appear in a video with studio Be Free.