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All-Japan Gravure Awards salute Japan’s best swimwear and cosplay models【Photos】

Casey Baseel Dec 23, 2020
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Enako among the four women and one man taking home awards.

With just a few days left in December, it’s time for last-minute Christmas shopping, thinking of New Year’s resolutions, and, perhaps most importantly, the handing out of the annual All-Japan Gravure Awards.

For those unfamiliar with the term, “gravure” is used in the Japanese media world to describe models who appear in swimwear, lingerie, or generally revealing clothing. Administering the All Japan Gravure Awards is digital media company Net Native, which collected 81,000 votes from fans and has now named the winners of five categories.

Taking home this year’s Grand Prize is none other than Enako. Often referred to as “Japan’s number-one cosplayer,” Enako got her start in the otaku entertainment sphere cosplaying as characters from popular anime series, drawing such unbelievably large crowds for her Comiket photo sessions that she eventually required a whole grassy field to accommodate her fans.

She’s since grown in stature to the point where she’s had non-cosplay projects, and the All-Japan Gravure Awards organizers point to her smooth crossover between otaku and more mainstream audiences as a sign of the evolving nature of gravure work.

Moving on to the Newcomer Award, this year’s recipient is Rio Termaoto.

【イベント情報　#新宿サブナード店】

✨当日券販売決定❗✨

《寺本莉緒 2021年カレンダー販売記念イベント》

【イベント日時】2020年12月6日(日) 12:00〜

詳しくはこちらhttps://t.co/K9hlYiD98c #寺本莉緒さん #福家書店 #カレンダー #トライエックス pic.twitter.com/sc2VlMeFEX

— 福家書店 (@FukuyaShoten) December 5, 2020

Teramoto didn’t make her modeling debut this year, as in 2018 she was the winner of manga anthology publisher Kodansha’s highly competitive Miss Magazine gravure contest.

▼ Teramoto cosplaying as Kimetsu no Yaiba’s Mitsuri

コスプレしました☺︎☺︎

温かい目でご覧ください🥺🥺

甘露寺蜜璃ちゃんです、、！！https://t.co/dkm0PGaDiy pic.twitter.com/34f7OxL5zN

— 寺本莉緒オフィシャル (@lespros_t_rio) December 11, 2020

However, it wasn’t until March of this year that Teramoto’s first photo album went on sale, which apparently satisfies the eligibility criteria for the Newcomer division.

ハッピーハロウィン🎃#ハロウイン #第五人格 pic.twitter.com/DXiMaYN1VK

— 寺本莉緒オフィシャル (@lespros_t_rio) October 31, 2020

Winning the Idol Division award for 2020 is Rei Jonishi.

NMB48がジャックさせていただいた
週プレさんは今日まででした☺️
⠀
もう一度表紙をさせていただけて、
そしてれーちゃんの初めてのDVD付き＾＾
本当にとてもとても嬉しかったです💓
みなさん沢山見つけれーちゃんしてくれたかな〜？☺️😚
⠀#週刊プレイボーイさん pic.twitter.com/aTIEi5kpxM

— 上西怜【NMB48】 (@jonishi_rei) November 29, 2020

Jonishi is a member of one of the many AKB48 sister groups, NMB48, which takes its name from Osaka’s Namba neighborhood, where the group’s performance theater is located. As such, it was a literally big deal when Jonishi’s first photo album was released last month and promoted with a massive video advertisement in Osaka.

【#上西怜 #水の温度】
既にご存知の方も多いですが
11/30より当店の外側に張りいているおっきいビジョン🏙に #上西怜ちゃんが登場しております🤣💗
ビジョンは12/6まで放映予定です🎁
gotoもなくなり難波に来づらい方の為少しだけ映像をご紹介♡

お近くの方は是非見に来て下さいね😚@jonishi_rei pic.twitter.com/uPFAnL4dD0

— TSUTAYA EBISUBASHI (@T_EBISUBASHI) December 1, 2020

▼ Jonishi says here that she would like everyone to notice that the muscles in the small of her back form a heart shape, but let’s be honest: all anyone is looking at in this photo is the extremely unique wooden latticework on that shoji sliding paper door.

腰にハートがありました☺️😳💓#週刊プレイボーイさん#水の温度で見つけれーちゃんしてくださいっ👀
⠀#オフショット pic.twitter.com/OmkFm8B5eZ

— 上西怜【NMB48】 (@jonishi_rei) November 28, 2020

While the term gravure is primarily used to refer to female models, the All-Japan Gravure Awards has a Men’s Division too, which this year was won by Daiki Kanechika.

Kanechika is a member of Exit, which isn’t a boy band but a comedy duo. Because of that, many people are more familiar with Kanechika looking goofy than in-vogue handsome.

エンターテイメントが俺を救ってくれて俺を育ててくれた。マジ感謝。

エンタメを愛する全てのマイメンパリピにR-1をおくりてぇぜ残酷な天使のテーゼ。

11/23「いい乳酸菌の日」キャンペーンスタート!

詳細は #菌トレ部 (@meiji_probio )のTwitterを
チェック!#乳酸菌エールを贈ろう #PR pic.twitter.com/02VrMb0V5B

— EXIT 兼近 (@kanechi_monster) November 23, 2020

However, Kanechika changed a lot of minds, and no doubt raised some heartbeats too, when he showed off his smooth chest and contoured abs on the back cover women’s interest magazine Anan last month.

これが合成じゃないとか草、通り越して花、咲き誇って夢、その果てに釈迦、祈り散らかして全知全能。 pic.twitter.com/iBFTuPusH6

— EXIT 兼近 (@kanechi_monster) November 9, 2020

And last, the Desirable Beautiful Body Award goes to Nicolle Fujita.

終わってから
CM撮影またあるから
ネイルシンプルにしに行った🤍 pic.twitter.com/F5oYq2IPu0

— 藤田ニコル(にこるん)🌙 (@0220nicole) December 14, 2020

The name of the award might seem boldly unabashed even by Japanese standards, but in this case “desirable” is being used in the sense of a physique that female voters themselves would like to have, with the New Zealand-born Fujita, who is of mixed Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese ancestry, being the symbol of their aspirations.

https://twitter.com/nico_ocha_event/status/1330688833956892675 https://twitter.com/0220nicole/status/1339345960481083394

ゴールデンにてまさかのドッキリガチ私服センス選手権。
んでよゆーでゆーしょーーーー！！！

このメンバーVSかねちーだと相手になりませんでした🦖🍾ザコォーーー#霜降りミキXIT pic.twitter.com/52ACnnqm8g

— EXIT 兼近 (@kanechi_monster) October 16, 2020

While Enako is the only one of the five winners to have started out as a cosplayer, there are also recent photos of Fujita sporting Sailor Moon’s hairstyle and Kanechika rocking a Dragon Ball Goku-inspired T-shirt, plus Teramoto’s Demon Slayer cosplay above, so this year’s Grand Prize could be a sign of things to come for next year’s awards as well.

Source, images: PR Times
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