AV Open is a major awards contest for the Japanese adult video industry. It went from a limited sales contest in 2006 to become, via its successor the AV GrandPrix, the major Japanese AV award with nearly 100 participating companies competing for the 2009 awards. The AV GrandPrix awards were not extended beyond 2009 but after a hiatus of seven years, the AV Open award competition was resurrected in 2014. The 2014 AV Open contest ran from 2014 until 2018, when it was once again not extended. No explanation was given for this decision.[1][circular reference]

AV Open Origins

The AV Open awards for Japanese adult video (AV) companies were conceived as a means to improve public relations and provide a measure of quality for adult videos on a par with the AVN Awards for the US porn industry. It was the result of a collaboration between Tokyo Sports, a leading Japanese tabloid paper, and the large Japanese porn conglomerate Soft On Demand (SOD). Adult video production companies were invited to enter a candidate video in the contest and the video with the most number of sales during a set period would be the winner. The first prize award was 10 million yen (about $100,000), the second-place finisher took 5 million yen (about $50,000) and third place was worth 3 million yen (about $30,000). Videos in the contest were specially marked as AV Open entries and could be bought from the official site or at stores throughout Japan. Each contestant was to be given the same amount of space in the store displays.[2][3][4][5]

A second part of the contest, the Challenge Stage, was for the purpose of developing new directorial talent. Multiple videos could be submitted by the companies, but only one per director. Winners were also to be determined by number of sales with a prize of one million yen (about $10,000) for first place, 500,000 yen (about $5,000) for second and 300,000 yen (about $3,000) for placing third. Special awards of 1 million yen each were also to be given for a total prize pool of 25 million yen (about $250,000).[3][4][5]

2006 AV Open

The first AV Open contest was held in 2006 and 16 adult video companies participated in the main contest (IEnergy, Audaz, Aroma Planning, SOD, S1 No. 1 Style, Masaaki Kai, Glay'z, Deep's, Dream Ticket, Natural High, Hibino, Prestige, KMP Million, Moodyz, Real Works and Waap Entertainment). The Challenge Stage drew ten entries from six companies, including V&R Products and HMJM which did not compete for the main award. The entries for the main contest were labeled as OPEN-0601 through OPEN-0616 and the Challenge Stage entries were numbered OPEN-0651 through OPEN-0660. The contest dates were May 1 through June 30 and 627 video stores were involved in the contest. In addition to the main awards and the Challenge Stage awards, special awards were also to be given by celebrity judges, including New York Yankees player Hideki Matsui (who suffered a wrist injury playing baseball and had to withdraw from the contest), comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, and author Lily Franky.[5][6][7]

Results were announced at the awards ceremony held July 11, 2006 with several AV idols, directors, and company heads in attendance.[8][9]

Winners - 2006 AV Open

Honorary President Lily Franky also awarded special prizes to Real Works for Special Galactic All-Stars (責め痴女 ハーレムSPECIAL) with Karen Kisaragi, Riko Tachibana, Hotaru Akane, Noa & Nashigo Tanaka and to SOD for 500 Person Sex (人類史上初！！超ヤリまくり！イキまくり！５００人ＳＥＸ！！).

Winners - 2006 AV Open Challenge Stage

As Honorary President, Lily Franky also gave another award to Naked Continent.

2007 AV Open

Since the 2006 AV Open proved popular and successful a second contest was held in 2007. For the second AV Open competition, 19 video producers submitted entries (IEnergy, Audaz, Aroma Planning, SOD, S1, Crystal-Eizou, Glay'z, Deep's, Natural High, Hibino, V&R Products, Prestige, Maxing, KMP Million, Moodyz, Real Works, Waap Entertainment, Wanz Factory, Kunitachi Farm). Videos were specially labeled "AV Open" and bore numbers OPEN-0701 through OPEN-0719. There were 12 entries in the Challenge Stage including entries from Akebono, Woman, Cross, Dandy & Dream Ticket which did not enter the main contest. Challenge Stage videos were labeled as OPEN-0751 to OPEN-0762. The contest was run from May 3 to June 30, 2007 and this time, more than 1200 stores throughout Japan participated in the contest. [10][11][12][13]

When results were announced the SOD entry Performer Kotono's First Sexual Experience (芸能人 琴乃 初・体・験 完全240分 10解禁スペシャル) was the winner by a large margin. But rumors began to spread on the Internet and about a month later it was revealed that SOD had actually purchased a large number of the videos with company funds. The company had spent close to 60 million yen (About $600,000) to buy some 16,000 copies out of the total of 30,000 sold. This violation of the contest rules caused the SOD entry to be disqualified and the second, third and fourth-place finishers were all moved up one place. The scandal caused the collapse of the AV Open contest and the official website was closed down.[2][5][14]

Final standing were as follows:[2][15]

Winners - 2007 AV Open

The Lily Franky Honorary President Prizes were given to the S1 and Moodyz entries and also to the Natural High video World Amsterdam (アムステルダムハイ) starring Misaki Asou and the Waap Entertainment entry Deep Lesbian & Hot Semen & Black Fuck (熱吻ブラック) co-starring Marin and Shiho, and directed by K*WEST.

Winners - 2007 AV Open Challenge Stage

The Lily Franky Honorary President Prize was given to Anal Splash Thick Lesbian United!

2008 AV GrandPrix

The demise of the AV Open contest due to fraud in 2007 deprived the AV industry of a popular and useful means of getting publicity and setting standards. An alternative, the similar AV GrandPrix awards (ＡＶグランプリ2008), was set up for 2008 by an SOD rival company, Hokuto Corporation (whose members include S1 and Moodyz). Winners were selected by a combination of sales volume and user votes. Sales in stores were combined with those from the DMM website. Each AV company picked a single video for entry in the contest which ran from December 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008. As with the AV Open contest, all participant videos were specially labeled and were given ID numbers beginning with AVGP or AVGL. A total of 77 companies competed, 39 in the main contest (GrandPrix Stage) and 38 in the Mania Stage for odd and fetish oriented material. Awards were also given in a number of sub-categories which had a more limited number of entries.[16][17] [18] [19]

The results were announced on February 21, 2008. The main award "GrandPrix Highest Award", determined by user votes at the DMM website, paid 5 million yen (about $50,000), the two Stage awards, "GrandPrix Highest Stage Award" and "Mania Stage Highest Award" were determined by sales and paid 3 million yen (about $30,000) each while the Distribution Sales Award for online digital delivery paid 1 million yen (about $10,000). The other 12 Stage awards for individual categories paid 1 million yen (about $10,000) each and were determined by user votes. One of these was for packaging, 10 were on particular themes, and there were also awards voted on by the press and by video distributors. In addition, there were twelve special prizes of 500,000 yen (about $5,000) each for a total prize pool of 30 million yen (about $300,000).[2][5][20]

Winners - 2008 AV Grand Prix Awards

GrandPrix Highest Award

GrandPrix Stage Highest Award

Mania Stage Highest Award

Distribution Sales Award

Best Package Design

Best SM Video

Best Featured Actress Video

Best Mature Video

Best Amateur Video

Best Variety Video

Best Miscellaneous Video (AV Cast Memorial Grand Prix)

Best Fetish Video

Best Moe Child Video

Best Lesbian Video

Press Award - (Tie)

Dealer Award

2009 AV GrandPrix

The 2009 contest ran from November 22, 2008 to February 2009. There were 97 participants[21] competing for 30 million yen ($300,000) in prize money. In addition to the main prizes AV GrandPrix (97 entries) decided by voters at the DMM website, Digital Sales (97 entries), and DVD Sales (97 entries), there were also separate awards for Featured Actress 2009 (14 entries), Violence 2009 (15 entries), Mature Woman 2009 (15 entries), Amateur 2009 (16 entries), Variety 2009 (14 entries), Fetish 2009 (17 entries), and Lovely/Moe 2009 (7 entries) videos. Additionally, there were awards from dealers, news media, for packaging, and from supporters.[22][23]

Results for the 2009 AV GrandPrix contest were announced February 18, 2009. The main GrandPrix Award determined by sales and user votes at the DMM website, paid 5 million yen (about $50,000). The two main sales awards, Digital Sales and DVD Sales each paid 2 million yen (about $20,000). The Retailers Award (voted on by video stores), the Press Award (voted on by magazine and newspaper editors), the Package Design Award and the Supporters Award paid 1 million yen (about $10,000) each. The Best Video Awards in the categories Featured Actress, Violence, Mature Woman, Amateur, Variety, Fetish and Lovely (all decided by user votes) each paid 1 million yen (about $10,000). There were also twenty runner-up Special Award prizes of 500,000 yen (about $5,000) each in the various Title categories. The total prize money amounted to 30 million yen (about $300,000). The hosts for the 2009 event were former AV star Honoka and mainstream actor Nagare Hagiwara.[24]

Winners - 2009 AV Grand Prix Awards

GrandPrix Highest Award

Digital Sales Award

DVD Sales Award

Retailers Award

Press Award

Best Package Design

Supporters Award

Best Featured Actress Video

Special Awards - Featured Actress Video

Best Violence Video

Special Awards - Violence Video

Best Mature Woman Video

Special Awards - Mature Woman Video

Best Amateur Video

Special Awards - Amateur Video

Best Variety Video

Special Awards - Variety Video

Best Fetish Video

Special Awards - Fetish Video

Best Lovely / Moe Video

Special Award - Lovely / Moe Video

2014 AV Open

Seven years after the last AV Open awards in 2007, the competition was reactivated as AV Open 2014, under the sponsorship of the Intellectual Property Promotion Association (IPPA) (知的財産振興協会). As previously, the contest was for sales over a set period of time at retail adult video outlets. AV Open 2014 officially opened with a press conference on May 27, 2014. Videos were submitted by the manufacturers on May 30, and the results were announced in November 2014.[25] Seventy-five adult video production companies submitted entries for the competition. The companies were sorted into three groups for the competition: very large makers in the Super Heavyweight (スーパーヘビー級) class, large makers in the Heavyweight (ヘビー級) class, and smaller makers in the Middleweight (ミドル級) class. Prizes were awarded in the overall competition and for winners in the individual classes. Ten companies were in the Super Heavyweight class, twenty-nine in the Heavyweight class and the remaining thirty-six in the Middleweight class. A special prize was also awarded for sales from the online distributor DMM.[25]

Prize money for the awards were: 5 million yen (about US$45,000) for Grand Prix, 2 million yen (US$18,000), 1 million yen (US$9000), and 500,000 yen (US$4500) for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place in the Super Heavyweight class, 1.5 million yen (US$13,500), 700,000 yen (US$6250), and 300,000 yen (US$2700) for the Heavyweight Class, and 1 million yen (US$9000), 500,000 yen (US$4500) and 200,000 yen (US$1800) for the Middleweight Class.[25]

Winners - 2014 AV Open[26]

Grand Prix

DMM.R18 Distribution Sales Prize

Super Heavyweight Class

First Place
  • Moodyz - Anal Bukkake Fuck Now! (ぶっかけ中出しアナルFUCK！) - Starring Minako Komukai, directed by Katsuyuki Hasegawa
Second Place
  • S1 No. 1 Style - Video That Packs a Punch V - Comprehensive Angle of Tits and Ass Together Presented Before Your Very Eyes (迫力映像V 乳・尻・結合が目前に迫る徹底アングル 宇都宮しをん) - Starring Shion Utsonomiya, directed by Hideto Aki
Third Place
  • Idea Pocket - BEACHY VENUS - Starring Aino Kishi, Airi Kijima & Mayu Nozomi, directed by Beach Boys (ビーチクボーイズ)

Heavyweight Class

First Place
  • Honnaka - 100 Person Nakadashi Ai Uehara (100人×中出し 上原亜衣) - Starring Ai Uehara, directed by Tiger Sakei
Second Place
  • Prestige - Nakadashi Camp (中出しキャンプ) - Starring Honoka Minami, Sakurako Umemiya, Natsuki Hasegawa, Mayu Honoka, Haruka Chisei, Haruna Ikoma & Natsumi Iku, directed by San Michuru (みちるサン)
Third Place
  • DANDY - Wild Kingdom (Special Edition) - Screwing Raw With African Natives (野性の王国 特別編 アフリカ原住民と生中出しをヤる) - Starring AIKA, directed by Sakkun

Middleweight Class

First Place
  • DEEP'S - Call On! Female College Students Limited Magic Mirror Issue Thorough Verification! Friendship Between Men And Women Is Approved!? ... (顔出し！女子大生限定 マジックミラー号 徹底検証！男女の友情は成立する！？ ...) - Amateur cast, directed by Luminax
Second Place
  • Goro Tameike - 27-Year-Old Talent Married For Five Years, She's Taking Non-Nude Erotica to the Limit (結婚5年目 27歳 人妻タレント 決意の限界着エロ 東 凛) - Starring Rin Azuma, directed by Goro Tameike
Third Place
  • Aroma Planning - Little Devil JK Bold Skirt Collection Special - Large Number Of People Provocation Version (小悪魔JK 大胆パンチラコレクション Special 大人数挑発バージョン) - Starring Yūki Natsume, Hibiki Ōtsuki, Ruka Kanae, Marie Konishi, Nanase Otoha, Tsugumi Taketou, Aina Takahashi, Reina Ōmori & Yoku Ayumi, directed by Kijin Kasai (笠井貴人)

Notes

  1. ^ "AV OPEN〜あなたが決める!セルアダルトビデオ日本一決定戦〜". Wikipedia. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "JAV News - Are There Japanese Adult Video Awards Like AVN Awards in USA?". JAV News. August 26, 2008. Archived from the original on 15 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  3. ^ a b "「AV OPEN」～あなたが決める！セルアダルトビデオ日本一決定戦～ (AV Open - You decide!)" (in Japanese). SOD. January 20, 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  4. ^ a b "そもそも、ＡＶ ＯＰＥＮって何ですか？ (First of all - What is AV Open?)" (in Japanese). SOD. April 7, 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Japan's AV Open contest 2008". JapanSugoi. June 11, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  6. ^ "ヤンキース・松井　AVオープン審査員やりたい!! (Yankees' Matsui to be AV Open judge!!)" (in Japanese). SOD. May 8, 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  7. ^ "ヤンキース松井・「AV OPEN」16作品　いよいよ選考開始!! (Matsui starts selection work on the AV Open 16)" (in Japanese). SOD. May 19, 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  8. ^ "AV OPEN」あなたが決める！セルアダルトビデオ日本一決定戦いよいよ結果発表！！ (AV Open - You decide - Results announcement)" (in Japanese). SOD. July 13, 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-02-11. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  9. ^ Otsubo, Kemuta (July 12, 2006). "速報！AV OPEN結果発表 (Preliminary AV Open results)" (in Japanese). All About. Archived from the original on 2007-01-02. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  10. ^ "AV Open Entries" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 25 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  11. ^ "AV Open Challenge Stage" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 25 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  12. ^ "AV Open 2007" (in Japanese). SOD. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  13. ^ "AV Open 2007 Challenge Stage" (in Japanese). SOD. Archived from the original on 2007-07-22. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  14. ^ Otsubo, Kemuta (August 30, 2007). "優勝→失格へ！AVオープン不正発覚 (Winner Disqualified! AV Open Fraud Scandal)" (in Japanese). All About. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  15. ^ "2nd AV Open Results" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  16. ^ Otsubo, Kemuta (October 5, 2007). "全77メーカー参加！ＡＶグランプリ開催決定 (All 77 participating manufacturers! AV Grand Prix announced)" (in Japanese). All About. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  17. ^ "AV Grand Prix 2008 Grand Prix Stage" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 21 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  18. ^ "AV Grand Prix 2008 Mania Stage" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  19. ^ "JAVCollections AV Grand Prix 2008". JAVCollections. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  20. ^ "AV Grand Prix 2008 Results" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  21. ^ "Maker Introduction" (in Japanese). 2009 AV GrandPrix. Archived from the original on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  22. ^ "AVGP 2009 Official Site" (in Japanese). 2009 AV GrandPrix. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  23. ^ "AVGP 2009" (in Japanese). DMM. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  24. ^ "AVGP 2009 Result announcement" (in Japanese). 2009 AV GrandPrix. Archived from the original on 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  25. ^ a b c "AV OPEN 2014とは？" (in Japanese). AV Open 2014. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  26. ^ "AV OPEN 2014 結果発表" (in Japanese). AV Open 2014 Official Site. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
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