Trapstar's 2025 JAV Rewind: Top Stories That Defined The Year - First Half

Welcome to Trapstar's 2025 JAV Rewind! Relive some of the top stories that we had our eyes on through the entire 2025 in this exclusive year-end column.

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that pop culture crossovers don’t ask for permission; they just happen. Case in point: when Squid Game 2 finally dropped on Netflix, it wasn’t just dominating timelines for weeks, it was practically begging for parody. Naturally, the JAV industry sensed an opportunity. Yet oddly enough, only one studio dared to play the game.

Enter DAS. On December 24, they quietly unleashed “Squirt (Ikase) Came,” a very adult spinoff on Netflix’s viral show, starring Waka Misono and Mizuki Yayoi. It might’ve stayed niche internet trivia if fate hadn’t intervened. Our own writer, Fried Chikan, got his hands on it early, reviewed it, and watched traffic explode.

Just days later, Squid Game 2 star Park Sung Hoon allegedly shared the JAV parody on his Instagram story. Deleted fast, apologized faster… but the internet doesn’t forget. Suddenly, K-Drama Twitter was in meltdown mode. Might’ve been a harmless joke gone wrong, but it cost the guy his career, and he came out to publicly apologize.

With the Netflix premiere landing just days later, the scandal couldn’t have been better or worse timed. Harmless mistake or PR nightmare, one thing’s certain: this was the Squid Game controversy no one saw coming, and easily one of the year’s most surreal JAV gossips.

We also had one of the most controversial pieces of gossip coming out this month. It’s not every day that you see JAV veteran Shimiken vent out his frustration over X, not that he isn’t much vocal on the platform, but that is rarely the case. The legendary performer-turned-entrepreneur delivered a real-life thriller on what looked suspiciously like a real estate nightmare.

After several days of back-and-forth with the other party, Shimiken finally blasted them on X. The timeline began with him signing a contract for a Niigata property boasting a juicy 13.5% yield, which would tempt any investor. The settlement was supposed to be just under ¥18 million. However, only hours before the final deal was set to close, he received a call no buyer wants: “Sorry, almost all the tenants are moving out.” The timing felt suspiciously convenient.

Shimiken didn’t mince words. He openly questioned whether the building had been padded with “camouflage tenants” to inflate its value. After all, mass move-outs magically lining up days before settlement don’t exactly scream coincidence. Backing out wasn’t simple either, as doing so would reportedly cost him a ¥3.6 million penalty.

Naturally, his fans chimed in and called it a scam. Others shrugged it off as peak moving season chaos. But let’s be honest, none of us saw this coming, not even Shimiken.

Scam or an investment gone wrong? One thing I could tell is that 2025 reminded us that even legends aren’t immune. And Shimiken just gave us the year’s most uncomfortable cautionary tale!

Later that month, SOD’s subsidiary SODStar went through a complete overhaul. Not that they weren’t due for a light refresh. On March 1, the studio quietly ditched its iconic sunshine-yellow logo and reemerged cloaked in black, stamped with a rainbow star that I felt honestly added a ‘cutesy vibe’ to the overall aesthetic. With a slogan that read “New attraction, new challenge.”

The new site, visuals, and branding rolled out smoothly, but eagle-eyed fans complained of some missing idols, while the top names, veterans like Mana Sakura and Yuna Ogura, were given front and center place, while rookies were neatly tucked at the back.

Of the missing few, Honoka Saitou’s absence was clearly evident as she had “graduated” the very day of the rebrand and was then freelancing. Then there’s MION, reportedly stuck mid-agency switch and temporarily stripped of her stage name.

Furthermore, two blurred “coming soon” slots only deepened the mystery. Honestly, it felt like SOD decided to overhaul its lineup along with the identity. And with that moody black aesthetic and rainbow wink, SODstar gave us some memorable gossip for this year.

Just when I thought I’d seen everything JAV fans could throw at us, these Japanese fans collectively lost their minds over… a pair of panties. Yes, really. Mio Ishikawa’s worn underwear ignited a full-blown bidding war on FANZA earlier in March, finally selling for a jaw-dropping ¥1.6 million. For the underwear, I had to read it twice, too.

Even the 23-year-old herself seemed stunned, laughing it off online with a very human, “Is underwear really that desirable?” Apparently, yes. With days still left on the clock, fans believed that the bid could hit ¥2 million territory, which feels less like collecting and more like an obsession.

But let me give you the context behind it. After being dragged through a pirated-content scandal that compelled her off social media and sparked nasty claims that her career was “over,” Mio quietly stayed standing. And this auction proved very much like a victory lap for her.

Insiders were quick to crown her again, placing Ishikawa Mio alongside elite names like Kawakami Ayaka and Seto Kanna. And honestly, the numbers speak louder than any ranking chart.

But honestly, the bidders took the cake. I mean, who even spends seven figures on lingerie? Whatever the motive, this was one of the biggest flexes coming from an actor in 2025.

March was a month of surprises; the gossip almost felt like it was straight out of daily soap plots. We had Minami Aizawa, once an accomplished JAV actress and currently performing gigs as a DJ, pull off the most unexpected power move of the JAV industry in my recent memory. The 29-year-old shocked her fans by reportedly becoming the fifth wife of Burning Promotion president Shuhou Shougo.

It gets even more interesting. After retiring from JAV last year and resurfacing behind the decks months later, Minami was busy collecting titles like some do with Pokémon trading cards. Vice President of Burning Promotion. President of Burning Publishing. The president of a luxury golf club in Okinawa was the most surprising thing, as she had zero management experience for any of these roles, and that was enough to raise a few eyebrows.

While the news broke on March 14, some claim the appointments happened almost instantly after Shougo inherited the entertainment empire from his late dad, with a bit of unrest followed by resignations by former staffers. Things got worse as Minami’s debut CD as a DJ just happened to drop under the label at the same time.

But this wasn’t your average gold-digger narrative. Minami had her own fortune and had been dating Shougo for two years. Their marriage, reportedly, fulfilled the late in-law’s final wish.

This might’ve been one of the most controversial stories I had covered previously this year.

Later in May, we received some of the saddest news coming out as our beloved Moe Amatsuka decided to inevitably end her career. Her farewell JAV, coded FNS-038, produced by FALENO, hit the adult marketplace H-NEXT on May 1, closing the curtain on one of the most quietly iconic careers the industry has ever seen.

When Moe announced her retirement in mid-2024, it landed like a soft punch to the chest, honestly. Might’ve been disheartening for fans who watched her grow from a shy S1 newcomer into an accomplished JAV icon, it felt deeply personal.

In my opinion, her rise was never loud. She debuted gently, almost timidly, but her sincerity cut through the crowded space. By the time Moe transitioned to FALENO, she was already an icon. FALENO knew it too, and they decided to give her a fitting farewell.

In her entire career, she was once embroiled in a scandal. Fans on X called her “a part of my youth,” and honestly, that says it all.

In many senses, this was a true Hall-of-Fame exit of 2025!

Yua Mikami is one of those select few actresses with an inherent talent to stay in the limelight even after leaving the adult industry. She has donned several hats, including J-pop idol, JAV icon, and fashion entrepreneur. Earlier this year, she shocked fans by jumping straight into the crypto space. On April 30, 205, Yua casually unveiled her very own meme coin, $MIKAMI. For a hot minute, it looked like the internet’s newest gold rush.

Built on the Solana chain and pitched as a creator–fan bridge, $MIKAMI exploded out of the gate. The presale was wild: millions raised, tens of thousands of buyers, hyping the coin everywhere they possibly could on the internet. Yua, backed by her 10-million-strong following, framed it as a fusion of entertainment and innovation. Even the token supply, capped at a cheeky 69 million, felt so in line with her past persona.

Then, as is evident with most memecoins, it crashed!

Within hours of launch, the coin nosedived over 80%, wiping out most investors' wealth. Accusations ranged from low liquidity, whales dumping, a mysteriously timed launch, and Japanese fans left sidelined by regulatory fine print.

Watching it unfold at that time felt like witnessing a celebrity speedrun the full crypto lifecycle hype, peak, and collapse all in a single week. And while Yua locked away half her tokens until 2069, investors weren’t feeling very long-term about their losses.

This serves as a cautionary headline of 2025 that even Yua Mikami could’t bend the laws of crypto with her immense fanbase.

Not just Moe Amatsuka, but we’d also have another iconic name like Mary Tachibana exiting the industry this year. It happened on May 15, also her 12th career anniversary, Mary announced she’ll officially retire from JAV on the same date next year.

The 32-year-old sex siren who debuted in 2014 as a freelancer with no agency safety net built everything the hard way. With critics doubting her longevity, she outlasted them all. Just last year alone, Mary achieved the feat of turning a rare dual-exclusive for Madonna and DAS!, released a photobook, and went deeper into music production.

Her fans know that Mary has been juggling multiple lives for years. As a DJ, she has been spinning sets since 2015, and since 2023, she’s also been a standout member of Anri Okita’s idol group BLACK DIAMOND. Retirement, in her case, is just a switch to a different domain.

Moreover, she promised an all-in final year: Hong Kong fan meets, Akihabara signings, and anniversary parties. Her last JAVs, she said, will be “healing,” love letters to the fans who stood by her.

So yes, May 15, 2026, marks the end of Mary Tachibana as an adult star. Mark your calendars!

If this year needed one last jaw-dropper, former JAV star Yuki Takeuchi delivered it, and it felt straight out of a crime drama. The former JAV actress and K-1 ring girl, shocked fans who had just announced her retirement recently before this incident, revealed that she’d been scammed out of millions of yen in a chillingly sophisticated fraud.

She broke the news on X in late April with a gut-punch confession: “All the savings I seriously put in were taken.” What followed was worse. A phone call spoofing disguised Japan’s emergency number. A high-level police “officer” cited her real address, old university details, and even sent her a fake arrest warrant over LINE. For 90 minutes, she was psychologically locked in a virtual custody until she transferred her savings to what she was told was a “secure bank account.” Poof! Next thing you know, all her savings vanished in seconds.

The realization hit only after she had dinner with a friend. By the time Yuki ran to the police, it was too late. And the unsettling part was, after Yuki spoke up, other industry figures quietly admitted they’d been scammed too, but stayed silent out of shame.

For Yuki, the damage wasn’t just financial. “They know my name, my job, my body,” she said. A violation on every level.

Yet instead of retreating, she turned whistleblower, warning fans that real cops don’t use LINE or ask for transfers. In a year full of exits and scandals, this might be the most sobering headline of all. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone.

Not just Yua Mikami, but even her close friend loves being in the spotlight post-retirement. Just when I thought we hadn’t heard of any gossip coming from Kirara Asuka in a while, the former siren strutted right back into the headlines. And this time it was not from Tokyo, but the drama took place in the land of K-pop.

Picture this: May 30, 2025. A low-key drinking party in Korea and among the A-lister guests were Ju Haknyeon, member of K-pop band THE BOYZ, and Kirara herself. By morning, whispers were already sprinting across fandoms: Haknyeon allegedly left with Kirara, rejoined his group hours later, and suddenly his contract was thrown in for a toast.

Then came the ugliest rumor of all, that some monetary favors were exchanged. It was straight career-ending stuff for the 23-year-old idol. But if there’s one thing Kirara doesn’t do, it’s stay silent. She shut it down fast on X, flatly denying any “maidam” nonsense and warning fans not to swallow tabloid speculation before facts drop.

As per her version, a random bar patron, conveniently a Haknyeon fan, snapped photos of the two and sold them to Shukan Bunshun. An alleged locker-room brag from Haknyeon (later dismissed as “dorm talk”), and suddenly everyone’s dirty laundry is on display.

But Kirara handled it with grace and gave us an exclusive gossip of the year!

To be continued...