The world of gravure is a ruthless one.
An gradol who graces the covers of Weekly Playboy or Friday one month, may be forgotten half a year later, and forced to turn to gimmicky stunts like a full-frontal nude shoot to get back in the game.
Who are we to complain? We love all the visuals.
Ai Shinozaki (篠崎愛) is one of those gravure idols who seems to have been around all the many years we have written this blog. That’s essentially quite true — she made her debut in 2006 as a junior idol.
With her cute, youthful, come-hither face and bouncy bust, she has a classic gradol body.
But she found herself out of fashion of late. She appeared in Friday last September in what was her first gravure shoot in four years. That already feels like ancient history by the weekly pace of the gravure industry. And so we were pleasantly surprised to see her on the cover of Weekly Playboy for its January 31, 2022 issue.
The cover shoot is a relatively conventional lingerie one, though just what we need to warm us up on these chilly January days. Ai-chan hasn’t resorted to nudity to get her back in the big league — more’s the pity. But she looks great at 29 and here’s the good news for fans: she has a new photo book, “IDEA,” coming out in February. It’s her first such release since 2017.
