Soft on Demand
Encyclopedia
, often known as SOD, is a Japanese adult
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

 video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

 group of companies which has its headquarters in the Nakano
Nakano, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it calls itself Nakano City .As of April 1, 2011, the ward has an estimated population of 311,690 with a household number of 176,936 and a density of 19,992.94 persons per km². The total area is 15.59 km².-Geography:Five special wards...

 ward of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. SOD was founded in December 1995 by Ganari Takahashi
Ganari Takahashi
is an entrepreneur in the field of Japanese adult video . He founded Soft On Demand , one of the largest porn conglomerates in Japan.-Life and career:...

, who retired from the company in March 2005 and is currently working in agriculture. The company is one of the largest adult video companies in Japan and is notable for its creative approach to adult videos.

Finances

In 2009, the company, under president Chie Sugawara (菅原 千恵), had 128 employees (27 male and 101 female) and a capital of 100 million yen (about US$1.1 million). For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, SOD had total sales of 14.9 billion yen (about US$165 million) and a profit of 670 million yen (about US$7.4 million). For 2007 the figures were sales of 13.5 billion yen (about US$120 million) and profit of 900 million yen (about US$8 million). SOD has been a fast growing company since its foundation, going from sales of 300 million yen in 1996 to 1.5 billion in 1998 to 4.1 billion in 2000, 7.8 billion in 2003, and 9 billion in 2005. In spite of its rapid growth, it has been overtaken in sales volume by rival AV producer Hokuto
Hokuto Corporation
The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the...

, which has also absorbed some of SOD's former companies.

Products

One director has described their product this way: "SOD's porno is ridiculous. There's nothing really sordid about it" and "different to anything else in the porno world". Some of its most notable approaches have been quiz shows that tested the knowledge of AV (adult video) actresses
AV Idol
An AV idol is a Japanese idol who works in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances have a wide range, from just the idol strolling around their house doing chores in bikinis to hardcore porn...

 with challenging questions, CFNM (clothed female, naked male
Clothed female, naked male
Clothed female, naked male is a genre of erotica featuring one or more nude men and one or more clothed women. It is sometimes described as a sexual fantasy, by women or men, depicting such a exhibitionist or physique worship scenario...

) videos that have women studying a man's penis (the "Uniforms, Undies and All Naked School Multi-Story" series), and plots where women are put under hypnosis. There have also been nude sports series, the senior citizen epic "All Naked Nursing Home for the Elderly", Company Sex Parties, Summer Festivals (a festival focused on penises and not to be confused with the actual Shinto festival dealing with fertility) and Sex Camps.

One of their releases from May 2006, 500 Person Sex
500 Person Sex
500 Person Sex , also known as A Milestone in History!! 500 Person Sex!! is an award-winning Japanese adult video produced by SOD Create, a division of Soft On Demand , a large group of media companies...

(500人SEX), features 250 couples having sex (apart from each other but in the same room) in an impressive synchronized way, and thus got some raised eyebrows from occidental adult sites. The video received a special jury award at the 2006 AV Open
AV Open
AV Open is a major awards contest for the Japanese adult video industry. It has gone 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.-AV Open Origins:The AV Open...

.

By 2003, SOD was releasing more than 1,000 adult video titles per year. SOD also works with a number of companies in other areas and has thus become a group (zaibatsu
Zaibatsu
is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.-Terminology:...

) of companies mainly in the area of producing adult videos. Besides producing videos the company also produces condoms and lubricant lotions, PC games (aka hentai games), and adult anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

.

Outside of the adult area, SOD is also involved in producing softcore and genre movies, idol videos and TV programs. Among their mainstream movies, some have featured SOD AV actresses including the 2008 horror film Samurai Zombie (Yoroi) with Nana Natsume
Nana Natsume
is an award-winning former AV idol and a well-known celebrity in Japan.-Life and career:Natsume was born on January 23, 1980 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan...

 and the 2006 comedy-drama Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari
Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Egawa.In the story, high schooler asks to date him. They date while both worry about their upcoming university entrance examinations....

, directed by Tatsuya Egawa
Tatsuya Egawa
is a Japanese manga artist and film director who was born in the Aichi Prefecture of Nagoya, Japan. He has a degree in applied mathematics and taught college mathematics for five months before switching to manga as a career in 1984. He studied under the prolific manga artist Hiroshi Motomiya for...

 and featuring Sasa Handa
Sasa Handa
is a Japanese model, actress and former AV Idol who was born on April 18, 1985 in Okinawa, Japan. She has also used the name .-Gravure Idol - Chieri Haruyama:...

. In 2004, the company announced plans to produce an adaptation of the Shougakukan Big Comic Original
Big Comic Original
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Shogakukan, aimed at an older adult and mostly male audience. It is a sister magazine to Big Comic, the biggest difference being that it goes on sale twice a month in the weeks Big Comic doesn't. Cover artwork usually features a dog or cat, and a haiku...

 manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series "Ajisai no Uta" (Song of Hydrangea) as an original video animation
Original video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...

 (OAV) for a general audience. Volume 1 of the series was released in August 2004 and the fourth and final volume came out in December of that year.

SOD Create

Internally, SOD outsources work to its individual units, original video production being done by SOD Create Inc. headed by Daisuke Kasai . This affiliate, founded in March 1999, was originally called and changed its name to SOD Create in 2001.

Package design for SOD is the realm of another division, SOD Artworks (SODアートワークス), founded in 2004, and under the leadership of Yoshino Toshimitsu .

Labels

In addition to the SOD label, SOD Create has produced videos under the following labels:
  • Eighteen
  • ON
  • Otis
  • Princess
  • SOD Cinderella
  • Senz
  • Star


Directors

Directors who have worked at SOD include:
  • Keita No.1
  • Yuji Sakamoto
    Yuji Sakamoto
    is a Japanese adult video director who has directed more than 250 videos during his career, primarily with the Alice Japan studio.-Life and career:...

  • [Jo]Style
    (Jo)Style
    [Jo]Style is a Japanese adult video director who has supervised more than 300 productions during his career.-Life and career:[Jo]Style began his profession directing AV at the Waap Entertainment studio which also fostered the careers of Alala Kurosawa, KINGDOM and K*WEST...

  • Goro Tameike
    Goro Tameike
    is a Japanese adult video director who has directed more than 450 videos. He was one of the first exponents of the genre in AV.-Life and career:...

  • TOHJIRO
    Tohjiro
    Tohjiro or TOHJIRO is an adult video director and the founder of the AV studio Dogma who has been described as a "charismatic director" and has been called the "greatest porn director in the world.-Life and career:...

  • Hajime Yarigasaki


Actresses

Many well-known AV Idol
AV Idol
An AV idol is a Japanese idol who works in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances have a wide range, from just the idol strolling around their house doing chores in bikinis to hardcore porn...

s have performed for SOD:
  • Hotaru Akane
    Hotaru Akane
    aka is an award-winning Japanese model and AV idol. She is active in many media formats in Japan including a role in a mainstream theatrical film, and is a popular blogger. Her adeptness at female ejaculation has earned Akane the title, "Shiofuki Queen". She retired from AV work in 2008.-Early...

  • Runa Akasaka
    Runa Akasaka
    is a Japanese actress who is best known for her appearances in adult videos . Akasaka's career in AV lasted about four years, with 70 to 100 videos listed for her at two major retailers at the end of 2008...

  • Kokoro Amano
    Kokoro Amano
    , is an AV Idol who starred in pornographic movies between 2001 and 2004 . She worked mainly for Soft On Demand and Moodyz.-Life and career:Kokoro was born 30 August 1982 in the city of Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. She was seeking employment at the time that she was recruited for work in the AV...

  • Kyoko Ayana
    Kyoko Ayana
    , born April 15, 1981 in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture, is a Japanese AV Idol who debuted in 2001. According to Peter Payne, founder of the Japanese popular culture site, J-List, Ayana had "claimed Japan's top big breast idol spot."-Life and career:...

  • Risa Coda
    Risa Coda
    , also known as Risa Koda and Risa Kouda , is an award-winning former Japanese model and adult video actress.-AV debut and career:...

  • Sasa Handa
    Sasa Handa
    is a Japanese model, actress and former AV Idol who was born on April 18, 1985 in Okinawa, Japan. She has also used the name .-Gravure Idol - Chieri Haruyama:...

  • Ai Haneda
    Ai Haneda
    is a Japanese gravure model, actress and AV idol.-Life and career:Haneda was born on September 22, 1989 in Tokyo, Japan. Affiliated with "Prime Model Agency", she debuted as a gravure model in 2008 in a video image, , part of the "Departure dig girl" series produced by Gratz Corporation.Between...

  • Chihiro Hara
    Chihiro Hara
    is a multiple award-winning Japanese adult video performer.-Life and career:Chihiro Hara was born on May 22, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. She made her debut in adult videos in November 2004 with the S1 No. 1 Style studio in New Face x Semen. Her debut was part of the first group of videos simultaneously...

  • Saori Hara
    Saori Hara
    is a former Japanese AV idol, model and actress who has also used the name .-Life and career:Saori Hara was born in Hiroshima Prefecture to a Japanese mother and a father of mixed German-Japanese parentage.-Mai Nanami:...

  • Mai Haruna
    Mai Haruna
    is a popular and prolific Japanese model and AV idol. She debuted in 2002 and performed in a variety of Japanese adult video genres until her retirement in 2005.-Life and career:...

  • Hikari Hino
    Hikari Hino
    is a Japanese AV idol, or porn star who has performed for several prominent adult video companies.-Life and career:Hino was born March 7, 1986 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. In July 2005 she debuted at age 19 on the Crystal-Eizou company's Venus label in the video G's Curiosity - Hikari Hino...

  • Rinako Hirasawa
    Rinako Hirasawa
    is a Japanese AV idol and pink film actress. She has appeared in award-winning pink films, and was herself given a "Best Actress" award for her work in this genre in 2007.- Life and career :...

  • Asuka Hoshino
    Asuka Hoshino
    is a Japanese former gravure model, singer, actress and AV idol.-Life and career:Hoshino was born on December 5, 1986 in Niigata Prefecture, Japan but while still in elementary school she moved to the Kantō region. Her career started in 2004 when she was chosen as "Miss Weekly Shonen Magazine" in...

  • Azusa Itagaki
    Azusa Itagaki
    is a Japanese gravure model and former AV idol.-Life and career:Itagaki was born on November 23, 1988 in Niigata, Japan. She debuted as a finalist in the 2004 All Japan High School Girl Uniform Collection System gravure contest, also known as Seikore...

  • Kaho Kasumi
  • Risa Kasumi
  • Mariko Kawana
    Mariko Kawana
    is a Japanese model and actress who has appeared in both softcore pink film and V-Cinema and has also been a hardcore adult video performer and director. She is now retired as an actress and has a second career as a writer.-Life and career:...

  • Kotono
  • Ai Kurosawa
    Ai Kurosawa
    is an award-winning Japanese model and AV idol. She made her debut in the adult entertainment field in 2001, and after appearing in dozens of AVs , she retired in 2006 but made a comeback in 2007.-Early life:...

  • Hiromi Matsuura
    Hiromi Matsuura
    is a Japanese singer, songwriter, radio-hostess and AV idol.-Musical career:She made her musical debut in September 2005 with the single Cruel, which arrived at number 3 in Japanese Singles Chart....

  • Miyu Misaki
  • Kurumi Morishita
    Kurumi Morishita
    is a well-known adult video actress who had a long and prolific career. As of late 2010, Amazon listed 148 DVD titles for her, reflecting her status as a prominent AV Idol. She retired from the adult entertainment industry in 2009.-Life and career:...

  • Tsugumi Nagasawa
  • Nana Natsume
    Nana Natsume
    is an award-winning former AV idol and a well-known celebrity in Japan.-Life and career:Natsume was born on January 23, 1980 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan...

  • Nao Oikawa
    Nao Oikawa
    born April 21, 1981 in Hiroshima, Japan is a Japanese actress, TV Personality and was also a former AV idol who was very popular in early 2000s.- Life and career :...

  • Yuko Sakurai
  • Miki Sawaguchi
    Miki Sawaguchi
    , born September 1, 1975 in Yokohama, Japan) is one of Japan's best known adult video performers. On television she has appeared as a regular cast member on two shows and made several guest appearances on other shows...

  • Asami Sugiura
    Asami Sugiura
    , who has also performed under the name is an award-winning Japanese model, actress and former AV Idol.-Life and career:Asami was born in Tokyo, Japan on September 19, 1985. At age 19, she appeared in the theatrical film , directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu and released March 12, 2005 by TMC...

  • Hime Tsukino
    Hime Tsukino
    is an award-winning transsexual Japanese model and former adult video actress.-Life and career:Hime Tsukino was born in Osaka, Japan on March 25, 1985. Her stage name "Hime" translates to "princess" and derives from her childhood nickname...

  • Akira Watase
    Akira Watase
    was a popular and prolific Japanese AV idol who retired from the adult video industry in 2005.-Life and career:Akira Watase was born July 2, 1980 in Tokyo, Japan.). Her AV debut was in the May 2000 Media Station Cosmos Plan release, Venus....

  • Rico Yamaguchi
  • Sally Yoshino
    Sally Yoshino
    is a Japanese striptease dancer, model, and AV idol. She has also performed under the name .-Early life:Sally Yoshino was born in Tokyo on November 28, 1978. Her father was a member of a skate team, and Yoshino began figure skating at the age of three...



Series

Important thematic series at SOD include:
  • Eighteen
  • Idol Semen
  • Masturbation Aid
  • Super High-Class Soap Lady

STOP! STD

For the past several years, SOD has run a campaign to bring attention to the rise of sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...

s (STD) in Japan and to increase the use of condoms. The program, called STOP! STD, has used former SOD star Nana Natsume
Nana Natsume
is an award-winning former AV idol and a well-known celebrity in Japan.-Life and career:Natsume was born on January 23, 1980 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan...

 as a spokeswoman.

SOD AV Awards & the AV Open

From 2002 to 2006, the company held the SOD AV Awards, an annual ceremony to present a series of awards to honor actresses, directors, and staff of companies in the SOD group. In 2006, the company also sponsored, along with Tokyo Sports
Tokyo Sports
is a Japanese daily sports newspaper founded in 1958.- See also :*Tokyo Sports Film Award*Yellow journalism*Supermarket tabloid*Junk food news- External links :* http://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp Official Website...

, a wider award contest called the AV Open
AV Open
AV Open is a major awards contest for the Japanese adult video industry. It has gone 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.-AV Open Origins:The AV Open...

. Sixteen companies competed for a total prize pool of 25 Million yen with the winner being decided by sales of the videos entered in the contest.

In the second year of the AV Open competition, 19 companies participated and the SOD entry won by a large margin. But it was subsequently discovered that SOD had used company funds to buy thousands of their own videos. SOD was disqualified and the discredited AV Open was replaced the next year by the Hokuto Corporation
Hokuto Corporation
The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the...

 sponsored AV Grand Prix.

CSA

The Japanese AV industry has several different "ethics groups" which are voluntary organizations to assure adherence with Japanese pornography laws and to regulate content and copyrights. The earliest of these organizations was founded by the major AV companies in 1972 and is known in English as the Nihon Ethics of Video Association
Nihon Ethics of Video Association
The , usually abbreviated as Viderin or Biderin , was a Japanese video rating organization. NEVA was founded in 1972 and had its headquarters in the Chūō ward of Tokyo. It was a voluntary organization to ensure adherence to Japanese obscenity laws which prohibit any display of genitals...

 (NEVA) or in Japanese 日本ビデオ倫理協会 (Nippon Bideo Rinri Kyoukai or Japan Video Morality Association) usually abbreviated as ビデ倫 (bide-rin or vide-rin). In response, SOD in 1996 began its own regulatory group known as the Media Ethics Association (Media Rinri Kyoukai or メディア倫理協会) usually abbreviated as medi-rin(メディ倫). Medi-rin was composed of "indie" companies, independent AV studios which explored porn themes forbidden by NEVA rules and which used a thinner censorship mosaic for their videos. Medi-rin was re-organized in 2005 to form the Content Soft Association (CSA) called in Japanese コンテンツ・ソフト協同組合 (Software Content Association) to review and regulate adult videos and adult game software. The CSA has more than 65 members among AV producers comprising most of the SOD group and some other major companies. Members include:
  • SOD
  • Akinori
  • APA
  • Aroma Planning
  • CineMagic
    CineMagic Co.
    , is a Japanese adult film studio, producing and distributing its own films, usually of the bondage, S&M and simulated rape genre, as well as those produced externally.-Company information:...

  • Deep's
  • Global Media Entertainment
  • Glory Quest
    Glory Quest
    is a Japanese adult video production company with offices in the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan which specializes in fetish videos.-Company information:...

  • Hayabusa Agency
  • Hibino
  • IEnergy
  • LadyxLady
  • Natural High
  • Rocket
  • Sadistic Village
  • Shima Planning
  • Style Art
  • V&R Products

  • Companies in the SOD group

    This is a list of the companies that were part of the SOD group as of June 2010.

    Companies that have left the SOD group

    • Wanz Factory
      Wanz Factory
      is a Japanese adult video production company located in the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan.-Company information:The company was founded in March 2000 and presently employs 20 people. Their adult videos are sold in more than 3000 stores nationwide in Japan...

    • Sandwich
    • Aroma Planning (アロマ企画) (now part of Hokuto Corporation
      Hokuto Corporation
      The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the...

      )
    • GLAY'Z
    • Dogma
      Dogma studio
      Dogma is a Japanese adult video company based in Tokyo which specializes in various fetish genres of pornography.-Company information:...

       (ドグマ) (Joined April 2001, now part of Hokuto Corporation
      Hokuto Corporation
      The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the...

      )
    • Mamedou (忠実堂) (Joined December 2001)
    • Hajime-Kikaku (はじめ企画) (Joined April 2002 , now part of Hokuto Corporation
      Hokuto Corporation
      The is a Japanese joint stock company involved in the distribution of adult videos and adult toys. The firm, founded in March 1990, is headquartered in Tokyo at the Ebisu Garden Place Tower. By late 2008, Hokuto was handling products from more than 150 different adult video studios, making it the...

      )
    • Hand Made Vision (previously known as Dash) (ハンドメイドビジョン) (Joined November 2002) Company Site
    • Shima Planning (志摩プランニング) (Joined December 2002) Company Site
    • Oh-Tees (オーティス) (Joined June 2003)
    • Kaimasaaki (甲斐正明事務所) (Joined January 2005, changed name to Bullitt (株式会社ブリット) January 2006) Company Site

    External links

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