Here is a rundown of two of the three major Japanese super heroine video producers. Videos produced by the third, Gallop, aren't generally available outside of Japan. Incidentally the two websites mentioned below have remained up and running normally throughout Japan's ongoing tragedy.
JAPANESE SUPER HEROINE MOVIES & THEIR PRODUCERS
Most Japanese super heroine peril movies come in two basic flavors, each with its own standardized plot line that with minor variations is repeated in video after video. These feature-length videos can run as long as an hour and a half, but the typical runtime is about sixty-five minutes. Videoed by production teams of up to twenty people (not including the cast), almost without exception the production values are high. Many downloads come with a separate making-of video at no extra cost.
The first and most popular flavor is sex orientated (hetero or lesbian). The typical plot has a heroine being captured, and then forced to endure all sorts of sexual abuse which can be violent or bizarre, or both. If you've ever thought of it, the Japanese have videoed it from five different angles. Not to worry. The hapless heroine often ends up loving everything that is done to her.
The second flavor is less popular, but more likely to be of interest to FF members. This scenario opens with a heroine battling a gang of bad guys, or monsters, or robots. She wins this fight up until the last minute, when a dirty trick lays her low and she is carried off to the villains' lair. There, for the next forty-five minutes to an hour, she is tortured in every imaginable way. The intensity of violence varies from video to video. So does the amount of blood and gore - from none to a lot. In most but not all of these "Heroine Suppression" and "Body Blow" videos the poor girl is tortured to death, which is what the Japanese euphemistically call a "bad end."
The twin Godzillas of Japanese heroine movie production are Zen Pictures (
http://www.akiba-heroine.com) and Giga Freaks (
http://www.akiba-web.com). Between them they have a total of two-thousand downloadable videos in their online catalogs. A few titles are available with English subtitles that really aren't needed. After all, how do you subtitle constant screaming? Their DVDs are not sold by mail, nor to the best of my knowledge are they available outside of Japan. Their websites are a bit clunky and slow running at times. However videos from both download with reasonable speed. (see note) Visa and Master Card are the only accepted payment methods. The payment process is fast and trouble free. Download access is immediate.
Be aware that in spite of their large production teams and good production values, these studios are more than capable of producing duds that usually are the result of bad direction, or bad camerawork, or both. Go figure. And while most of the actresses I've seen are good to excellent, I've also see a couple who were unbelievably bad.
Relatively speaking, Zen Pictures is the soft-core producer with little or no blood in their videos, and I haven't come across any with fatal conclusions. For this reason I have not posted and probably will not post any Zen screen caps. They also don't seem to do any nudity which Giga does - partial and full. However, to my leering old eyes the Zen girls appear to be a little prettier. If you're into monster boobs you would probably think differently.
The really rough stuff comes from Giga Freaks. For an example go to the previous post, "Asian Screen Cap Mayhem #1." All of Giga's videos aren't this bloody, but there are more than enough gore fests available to satisfy your inner ghoul, if you have one. Giga also produces a series of heroine wrestling videos ("Heroine Battle") that are girl-on-girl, or man-on-girl, or man-and-girl-on-girl, or monster-on-girl, or every conceivable combination of the aforementioned. These usually turn into non-stop porn bouts. However, if you're into squinting at the nasty bits you will be disappointed, because there is the usual Japanese genital censorship. Finally, Giga offers a tentacle rape series ("Heroine Insult") which judging by the large number of available titles, must be a huge thing in Japan. Me it puts to sleep.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The downloads from these producers are DRM restricted wmv video files. This means they can only be viewed with Windows Media Player 11 and 12. If this is a problem for you, solutions can be found in the How-To & Tech Questions Forum post, DRM RESTRICTED VIDEO & AUDIO FILES. Also, these files are large - 700 MB to 1.6 GB. If your internet connection isn't the best or it is accessed through a multiple-user wi fi network, the use of a download manager/accelerator is strongly recommended. Here is an excellent one at a great price. It's free:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/
There is info on download managers in the How-To & Tech Questions Forum post DOWNLOADING VIDEOS WITH DIALUP & WI FI CONNECTIONS.
Samurai Al
