AV Open

AV Open is a major awards contest for the Japanese adult video industry.

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.cite web|url=http://www.superjav.com/blog/?p=95|title=JAV News - Are There Japanese Adult Video Awards Like AVN Awards in USA?|publisher= [http://www.superjav.com/ JAV News] |date=August 26, 2008|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=English] cite web|url=http://www.sod.co.jp/demand/news/68.html|title=「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!)|publisher= [http://www.sod.co.jp/ www.sod.co.jp] |date=January 20, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese] cite web|url=http://www.sod.co.jp/demand/news/80.html|title=そもそも、ＡＶ ＯＰＥＮって何ですか？ (First of all - What is AV Open?)|publisher= [http://www.sod.co.jp/ www.sod.co.jp] |date=April 7, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese] cite web|url=http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/japans-av-open-contest-2008/|title=Japan’s AV Open contest 2008|publisher= [http://japansugoi.com/ JapanSugoi] |date=June 11, 2008|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=English]

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).

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, Masaaki Kai, Glay'z, Deep's, Dream Ticket, Natural High, Hibino, Prestige, KMP Million, Moodyz, Real Works and Waap). The Challenge Stage drew ten entries from six companies including V&R 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. [cite web|url=http://www.sod.co.jp/demand/news/89.html|title=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!!)|publisher= [http://www.sod.co.jp/ www.sod.co.jp] |date=May 8, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://www.sod.co.jp/demand/news/94.html|title=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)|publisher= [http://www.sod.co.jp/ www.sod.co.jp] |date=May 19, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese]

Results were announced at the awards ceremony held July 11, 2006 with several AV idols, directors, and company heads in attendance. [cite web|url=http://www.sod.co.jp/demand/news/100.html|title=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)|publisher= [http://www.sod.co.jp/ www.sod.co.jp] |date=July 13, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://allabout.co.jp/entertainment/adultvideo/closeup/CU20060712A/index.htm|title=速報！AV OPEN結果発表 (Preliminary AV Open results)|publisher= [http://allabout.co.jp/ All About] |last=Otsubo|first=Kemuta|date=July 12, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-01|language=Japanese]

Winners - 2006 AV Open
* 1st Place: S1 - "Hyper – Barely There Mosaic" (ハイパーギリギリモザイク) - Compilation video featuring Sora Aoi, Yua Aida, Maria Ozawa, Yuma Asami, Honoka and Rin Aoki

* 2nd Place: Moodyz - "Dream School 10" (ドリーム学園10 完全版) - With Chihiro Hasegawa, Rino Kamiya, Nao, Mayura Hoshitsuki, Mikan Tokonatsu, Ren Hitomi, Miyu Sugiura & Hotaru Akane

* 3rd Place: Natural High - "Student Molester" (痴漢○学生) - Various actresses

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
* 1st Place: SAKKUN (Natural High) for "Naked Continent" (裸の大陸) with Yuka Osawa

* 2nd Place: Hiroshi Horiuchi (HMJM) for "Young Girl Insertion" (少女は挿入される生き物)

* 3rd Place: Uzumaki Sasaki (V&R) for "Tokyo Shinjuku Ward Office 24: Slut Division" (こちら!東京24区 痴女区の区役所の痴女○○課) with Minaki Saotome (Naho Asakura), Chihiro Hasegawa, Ayaka Kasagi & Yuna Shibata

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 Video, Glay'z, Deep's, Natural High, Hibino, V&R, Prestige, Maxing, KMP Million, Moodyz, Real Works, Waap, Wanz Factory, Kunitachi). 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. [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/mono/dvd/avopen/avopen02.html|title=AV Open Entries|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/mono/dvd/avopen/avopen02_challenge.html|title=AV Open Challenge Stage|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://ec.sod.co.jp/contents/2007avopen/index.html|title=AV Open 2007|publisher= [http://ec.sod.co.jp/ ec.sod.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=https://ec.sod.co.jp/ec/shop/f_main.jsp|title=AV Open 2007 Challenge Stage|publisher= [http://ec.sod.co.jp/ ec.sod.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese]

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 fouth 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. [cite web|url=http://allabout.co.jp/entertainment/adultvideo/closeup/CU20070830A/|title=優勝→失格へ！AVオープン不正発覚 (Winner Disqualified! AV Open Fraud Scandal)|publisher= [http://allabout.co.jp/ All About] |last=Otsubo|first=Kemuta|date=August 30, 2007|accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese]

Final standing were as follows: [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/mono/dvd/avopen/avopen02_result.html|title=2nd AV Open Results|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-02|language=Japanese]

Winners - 2007 AV Open
* 1st Place: S1 - "Hyper Risky Mosaic - Special Bath House Tsubaki " (ハイパーギリギリモザイク 特殊浴場 TSUBAKI 貸切入浴料1億円) with Sora Aoi, Akiho Yoshizawa, Honoka, Sho Nishino, Asami Ogawa, Yuma Asami, MO ☆ MO, Mako Katase, Chinatsu Izawa, Megumi Haruka, Karin & China Miyu

* 2nd Place: Crystal Video - "Celebrity Debut - Misa Kikoden" (芸能人★デビュー！！ きこうでんみさ) with Misa Kikoden

* 3rd Place: Moodyz - "Dream School 11" (ドリーム学園11) with Nayuka Mine, ICHIKA, Chihiro Hara, Erina Kurosawa, Akira Shiratori, Rico, Nami Kimura, Natsuki Ijima & Miina Minamoto

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 entry "Deep Lesbian & Hot Semen & Black Fuck" (熱吻ブラック) co-starring Marin and Shiho.

Winners - 2007 AV Open Challenge Stage
* 1st Place: Captain Ehara (Cross) for "Anal Splash Thick Lesbian United!" (肛門潮吹き極太合体レズビアン) with Chihiro Hara, Hotaru Akane & Sakura Sakurada

* 2nd Place: R40 (Dream Ticket) for "How to New Half" (はじめてのニューハーフ 月野姫) starring Hime Tsukino

* 3rd Place: AD Tsujiyama (Deep's) for "Finding Leah DiXXzon in Europe and US" (リア・デ○ゾンちゃんを探しに欧米に行っちゃいました！)

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 (the parent company of 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. [cite web|url=http://allabout.co.jp/entertainment/adultvideo/closeup/CU20071005A/|title=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)|publisher= [http://allabout.co.jp/ All About] |last=Otsubo|first=Kemuta|date=October 5, 2007|accessdate=2008-10-03|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/avgp/sp/gp_list.html|title=AV Grand Prix 2008 Grand Prix Stage|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-05|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/avgp/sp/mania_list.html|title=AV Grand Prix 2008 Mania Stage|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-05|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://javcollections.com/Downloads/Special-Videos/AV-Grand-Prix-2008/|title=JAVCollections AV Grand Prix 2008|publisher= [http://javcollections.com/ javcollections.com] |accessdate=2008-10-05|language=English]

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). [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/avgp/result/|title=AV Grand Prix 2008 Results|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-03|language=Japanese]

--- Winners - 2008 AV Grand Prix Awards ---

GrandPrix Highest Award
* "Kawaii Special" (kawaii* special ギザカワユス！) [Kawaii AVGL-012] with Yuri Kousaka & Miku Ohashi

GrandPrix Stage Highest Award
* "Confirmed x Confirmed x Girigiri Mosaic" (了解×了解×ギリギリモザイク　Wギリギリモザイク) [S1 AVGL-007] with Nao Mizuki & Minori Hatsune

Mania Stage Highest Award
* "Female Body Torture Laboratory 11" (女体拷問研究所 11) [Baby AVGP-030] with Rika Nagasawa & Yoko

Distribution Sales Award
* "Female Body Torture Laboratory 11" (女体拷問研究所 11) [Baby AVGP-030] with Rika Nagasawa & Yoko

Best Package Design
* "Confirmed x Confirmed x Girigiri Mosaic" (了解×了解×ギリギリモザイク　Wギリギリモザイク) [S1 AVGL-007] with Nao Mizuki & Minori Hatsune

Best SM Video
* "Human Terrible Wrapper" (人間酷包 友田真希) [Mill AVGL-026] with Maki Tomoda

Best Featured Actress Video
* "Race Queen Climax Squirt AV Debut" (現役レースクイーン絶頂潮吹きAVデビュー！！ 冬月かえで) [Premium AVGL-024] with Kaede Fuyutsuki

Best Mature Video
* "Sayuri Shiraishi,Stepmother Slave" (義母奴隷 白石さゆり) [Goro Tameike AVGL-018] with Sayuri Shiraishi

Best Amateur Video
* "Final Mariko" (まり子 ファイナル) [HMJM AVGP-025] with Mariko

Best Variety Video
* "How to Make Your "chin-chin" Grow 3cm" (チンチンが3cm大きくなるDVD 気持ちいいオナニーで大きくなれる（秘）トレーニング指南) [SOD AVGP-046] with Kaho Kasume, Yuko Sakurai, Moe Ooishi, Rika Nagasawa, Nana Saeki & Anri Suzuki

Best Miscellaneous Video (AV Cast Memorial Grand Prix)
* "Shimiken's Private 7 FUCK" (しみけんのプライベート7FUCK ) [Idea Pocket AVGL-001] with Chihiro Hara, Mangetsu Sakuragawa, Nene, Kaede Akina, Natsuki Sugisaki, Yua Aida & Marin

Best Fetish Video
* "Extraordinary Pantyhose Play" (非日常的パンスト遊戯 第一章) [AVS AVGL-006] with Nana Saeki & Moe Ooishi

Best Moe Child Video
* "Asuka 2" (あすか2) [Innocence AVGL-028] with Asuka

Best Lesbian Video
* Insult Lesbian Training (陵辱レズ調教 羞恥と快楽に溺れゆく女達。 ) [U&K AVGP-037] with Chisato Shoda, Ren Hitomi, Rio Nakayama & Misaki Asou

Press Award - (Tie)
* "Final Mariko" (まり子 ファイナル) [HMJM AVGP-025] with Mariko
* "Confirmed x Confirmed x Girigiri Mosaic" (了解×了解×ギリギリモザイク　Wギリギリモザイク) [S1 AVGL-007] with Nao Mizuki & Minori Hatsune

Dealer Award
* "Confirmed x Confirmed x Girigiri Mosaic" (了解×了解×ギリギリモザイク　Wギリギリモザイク) [S1 AVGL-007] with Nao Mizuki & Minori Hatsune

2009 AV GrandPrix

The 2009 contest runs from November 19, 2008 to the end of February, 2009. There will be 97 participants 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 are also separate awards for 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 2009 (7 entries). Additionally, there are awards from dealers & news media, for packaging, and from supporters. [cite web|url=http://www.av-gp.com/|title=AVGP 2009 Official Site|publisher= [http://www.av-gp.com/ www.av-gp.com] |accessdate=2008-10-05|language=Japanese] [cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/avgp/sp/index.html|title=AVGP 2009|publisher= [http://www.dmm.co.jp/ www.dmm.co.jp] |accessdate=2008-10-05|language=Japanese]

Notes