- 15 Mar 2003
- 1,147
- 45
- 58
In Japan there is a huge industry based around women in suimsuits who are willing to have their pictures taken and plastered over most any surface you care to name. This type of modeling - not the same thing as a fashion or an adult model - is known as Gravia.
Gravia is huge business. Magazines, photobooks, trading cards, videos, DVDs, and countless other forms of merchandizing. If you are a top flight Gravia model, you can count on living the good life. You will have a manager, a talen agency, fly to places like Hawaii, Fiji, Okinawa, and all manner of exotic locations. If your boobs are big enough (not much of that silicone stuff so far) or your face that right shape to drive men wild but also be cute for the ladies, you will get on TV and become a talent - assuring you of a lifetime of worthless spots on evening TV and maybe a bad drama or two. In short, you will be rich and famous.
But for all those who make it, there are legions that don't. They are missing that little something, or have bad timing, or a bad agent and will always be a few pages back of the cover (if they are published at all). They probably give up, or get scouted by the adult industry.
But a final breed, and one I didn't know about until it was on TV last night, is a kind of high plains drifter of the gravia world. These gals are self-made. They are their own managers, make-up, and fashion advisors. They find the locations, they do the press, and they do the groundwork finding publishers.
However, there is one thing they cannot do themselves - take the pictures.
If you have even put on a wedding, you know how expensive pro photographers can be. These Gravia letters of marquee ladies tap the endless resource they can find for free - adoring male fans.
In the case of the lady on TV yesterday, she would get everything together, rent a photo studio, and then let her legion of fanboys come and take her picture for 7000 yen (all Gravia, PG-13 stuff) a person. Fans help setup the photoshoot hardware and get the lights and props just right. They also keep albums of their favorite pictures/models and can be enticed out of a print or two if the model needs a 8X10 glossy. One of these three hour long photo sessions would pay for the studio and her rent. Do a few of those a month, and hold a part-time job, and she scrapes by month to month.
By this point in the show, I was really impressed. "Good for her! What bootstrapping, what gaul." And I really liked how she led the adoring fanboys around by their pink bits. These guys were spending hundreds on their cameras and obsessing - these are the true examples of otaku complete with a double dose of nerdy ambiance. If this was your first exposure to the concept of otaku, you would not be so eager to try and own that word...
But
The show continued. My overall opinion of the young lady didn't change, but it kind of creeped me out.
She belongs to a website (run my a third party) along with other models, where fanboys can login and bid to spend a few hours with the proto-gravia model of their flavor. Someone from the company that owns the website accompanies the pair on the date to stop any attemps of a less chivalrous nature. There are also a few different options. For about 300 USD, if I remember correctly, the proto-gravia will make a handmade cake and spoonfeed it to you on the date. There were other such silly things, but details were not expressed.
The short of it is, for 20001 (about 190 USD) a really creepy 37 year old geek (and I am talking real geek) spent two hours at a amusement park with the lady I have been talking about. They rode the Ferris Wheel, ate ice cream, and had a grand old time.
In a way, it was that enjo kosai is supposed to be about.
So, I can say, quite stringly, that enjo kosai is creepy - very creepy. I can also say there are some very ruthless want-to-be-gravia models out there. To them, I say, you go girl...!
Gravia is huge business. Magazines, photobooks, trading cards, videos, DVDs, and countless other forms of merchandizing. If you are a top flight Gravia model, you can count on living the good life. You will have a manager, a talen agency, fly to places like Hawaii, Fiji, Okinawa, and all manner of exotic locations. If your boobs are big enough (not much of that silicone stuff so far) or your face that right shape to drive men wild but also be cute for the ladies, you will get on TV and become a talent - assuring you of a lifetime of worthless spots on evening TV and maybe a bad drama or two. In short, you will be rich and famous.
But for all those who make it, there are legions that don't. They are missing that little something, or have bad timing, or a bad agent and will always be a few pages back of the cover (if they are published at all). They probably give up, or get scouted by the adult industry.
But a final breed, and one I didn't know about until it was on TV last night, is a kind of high plains drifter of the gravia world. These gals are self-made. They are their own managers, make-up, and fashion advisors. They find the locations, they do the press, and they do the groundwork finding publishers.
However, there is one thing they cannot do themselves - take the pictures.
If you have even put on a wedding, you know how expensive pro photographers can be. These Gravia letters of marquee ladies tap the endless resource they can find for free - adoring male fans.
In the case of the lady on TV yesterday, she would get everything together, rent a photo studio, and then let her legion of fanboys come and take her picture for 7000 yen (all Gravia, PG-13 stuff) a person. Fans help setup the photoshoot hardware and get the lights and props just right. They also keep albums of their favorite pictures/models and can be enticed out of a print or two if the model needs a 8X10 glossy. One of these three hour long photo sessions would pay for the studio and her rent. Do a few of those a month, and hold a part-time job, and she scrapes by month to month.
By this point in the show, I was really impressed. "Good for her! What bootstrapping, what gaul." And I really liked how she led the adoring fanboys around by their pink bits. These guys were spending hundreds on their cameras and obsessing - these are the true examples of otaku complete with a double dose of nerdy ambiance. If this was your first exposure to the concept of otaku, you would not be so eager to try and own that word...
But
The show continued. My overall opinion of the young lady didn't change, but it kind of creeped me out.
She belongs to a website (run my a third party) along with other models, where fanboys can login and bid to spend a few hours with the proto-gravia model of their flavor. Someone from the company that owns the website accompanies the pair on the date to stop any attemps of a less chivalrous nature. There are also a few different options. For about 300 USD, if I remember correctly, the proto-gravia will make a handmade cake and spoonfeed it to you on the date. There were other such silly things, but details were not expressed.
The short of it is, for 20001 (about 190 USD) a really creepy 37 year old geek (and I am talking real geek) spent two hours at a amusement park with the lady I have been talking about. They rode the Ferris Wheel, ate ice cream, and had a grand old time.
In a way, it was that enjo kosai is supposed to be about.
So, I can say, quite stringly, that enjo kosai is creepy - very creepy. I can also say there are some very ruthless want-to-be-gravia models out there. To them, I say, you go girl...!