also known as Ann Nanba is a former Japanese
adult video
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
(AV) actress who had a long and prolific career in the adult entertainment industry. At the beginning of 2009, the DMM and Amazon sites both listed more than 250 DVDs available under her name. She retired from AV work in 2008.
Life and career
AV debut and Moodyz
An Nanba was born in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
on March 7, 1984. She says she was very outgoing as a high-school student and looked much older than her age.
She had met scouts from the AV industry often but only decided to begin an AV career after she was robbed and needed the money. She had done some
gravure model
A model is a person with a role either to Promotion (marketing), promote, display or advertise commercial product (business), products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of ...
work for
Bejean
is a Japanese monthly men's magazine which originally started publication under the name . It has been described as "probably the best selling men's magazine" in Japan and was called by J-List "One of the cornerstones of Japanese AV magazines." A ...
a few months before
and she thought she was again doing photographs for a magazine and was shocked when she realized it was a video shoot.
The title of her debut video, ''Number.1!'', released in October 2002 by
Moodyz
, also known as Mr. President, is one of Japan's largest adult video (AV) producers, featuring an extensive catalog of video titles.
Company information
The Moodyz website, www.moodyz.com, went online in March 2000 and the company released its fi ...
when she was 18, is a play on her name (in Japanese name order, Nanba An sounds close to English "Number One").
Her contract with Moodyz
, also known as Mr. President, is one of Japan's largest adult video (AV) producers, featuring an extensive catalog of video titles.
Company information
The Moodyz website, www.moodyz.com, went online in March 2000 and the company released its fi ...
was an exclusive one and she is credited with being a driving force in that studio's success.[ She continued making movies with ]Moodyz
, also known as Mr. President, is one of Japan's largest adult video (AV) producers, featuring an extensive catalog of video titles.
Company information
The Moodyz website, www.moodyz.com, went online in March 2000 and the company released its fi ...
for the rest of her career at the rate of one or often two videos per month. Although she started in AV work for the money to pay debts, she says she stayed because "I realized that my work turned into something of substance".
She also occasionally made non-AV videos - her non-sex gravure title for Shuffle, ''Naked / An Nanba'', released in July 2003, was filmed in Okinawa. Moodyz is known for its extreme videos and Nanba participated in the various porn genres popular at the studio: bukkake
is a human sexual activity, sex act in which one participant is ejaculated on by multiple participants. It is often portrayed in pornographic films.
Bukkake videos are a relatively prevalent niche in contemporary pornographic films. Originat ...
(including two videos with the creator of the genre, Kazuhiko Matsumoto
is a prominent Japanese adult video (AV) director, credited with inventing the '' bukkake'' genre of Japanese pornography.
Life and career
MVG
Matsumoto was the founder and first director of M's Video Group (MVG) in 1995. In December 2005, the ...
), anal sex
Anal sex or anal intercourse is generally the insertion and thrusting of the erect penis into a person's anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure.Sepages 270–271for anal sex information, anpage 118for information about the clitoris. ...
, bondage, interracial
Interracial topics include:
* Interracial marriage, marriage between two people of different races
** Interracial marriage in the United States
*** 2009 Louisiana interracial marriage incident
* Interracial adoption, placing a child of one raci ...
sex with black actors, urination
Urination, also known as micturition, is the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, ...
and simulated rape. The videos took their toll on Nanba, she reports that at one time she collapsed from exhaustion and had to take time off.
Nanba was the most celebrated actress at Moodyz during her long career with the studio - she was given the Best Actress Award at the Moodyz Awards three years running, in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Her 2003 videos ''Digital Mosaic Vol. 11'' and ''Dream School 7'' respectively won the top prize Moodyz Award and the Best Sales Award that year and her 2004 work ''Bukkake Nakadashi Anal Fuck'' was the recipient of a Special Award.
At the 2005 Adult Broadcasting Awards
The Sky PerfecTV! Adult Broadcasting Awards are given for performances in adult video programs shown on SKY PerfecTV! satellite TV channels in Japan. The awards complement those presented by the AV Open / AV Grand Prix contests which are given fo ...
ceremony for adult TV programming in 2004, Nanba took one of the Channel Actress Performance Awards for her work on the Queen Bee channel,
Later career
Starting in October 2005, after more than 50 straight original videos for one company, Nanba began to appear for the first time in videos for other AV studios beginning with start-up companies Opera and Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
. She also worked with Attackers
is a Japanese adult video (AV) production company located in Tokyo, Japan.
History
Attackers started as an independent ("indie") studio but is now one of the companies that make up the large AV group, the Hokuto Corporation, which distributes A ...
, a studio specializing in the S&M and simulated rape genres.
Nanba has been called the "Queen of Hardcore" for her many extreme videos with one director claiming “She’ll do absolutely anything” after Nanba won 11 awards at ''Weekly Playboy
, also known as or ''WPB'', is a Japanese weekly magazine published by Shueisha since 1966. Although the magazine publishes a variety of news and special interest articles, columns, celebrity interviews, and manga, it is considered an Pornographi ...
s "stupidest adult movie awards" in March 2006. Nanba has declared her dedication to her profession: "I will work my best to bring the fans the best movies".
Nanba received one of the Best Actress Awards for Excellence at the 2006 AV Actress Grand Prix.
In 2006 and 2007, Nanba also starred in a number of erotic softcore V-cinema
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
productions. In May 2006, she was the subject of a documentary along with three other AV actresses. The DVD, , was directed by and published by Orustak Pictures. Nanba also appeared on TV in Episode 31 on the third series of the TV Asahi
JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...
crime drama Tokumei Kakarichō Tadano Hitoshi
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kimio Yanagisawa. A television drama was aired on TV Asahi in 2003, the official English name of the drama is Hitoshi Tadano, the Extraordinary Undercover Detective. A new drama series s ...
.
Nanba was also popular in China, in part due to commercials she made for a Taiwan lemon vodka drink.
Retirement
Nanba's retirement was an elaborate and epic affair called the Ann-Project by Moodyz. She filmed a series of 8 videos for 8 different studios over a period of several weeks beginning at the end of 2007. The studios involved included S1 No. 1 Style
or just S1 (エスワン) is a Japanese producer of adult videos (AV) which has its offices in Tokyo's Meguro Ward. The company is best known for retailing its adult videos under the Fanza brand, an affiliate of DMM.
In the past 15 years since ...
, IdeaPocket
is a Japanese company located in Tokyo which is involved in the business of planning and producing adult videos. To date, the company has produced over 3,500 titles starring some of the most prominent adult video actresses .
Company informatio ...
and Animaljo, companies she had not previously worked with. The videos were released starting February 1, 2008, with the last one appropriately being a virtual sex work for Moodyz, ''My Eternal Girlfriend, An Nanba'', released on March 1, 2008. The retirement project also included a memorial book and DVD which additionally served to introduce the new generation of actresses at Moodyz.
When the major Japanese adult video distributor DMM held a poll of its customers in 2012 to choose the 100 all-time best AV actresses to celebrate the 30th anniversary of adult videos in Japan, Nanba finished in 11th place.
Video games
Described as "Japan's geekiest adult video actress", Nanba is an ardent fan of video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
and owns several game consoles
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...
- a Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
PS2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia o ...
, PS3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
and PSP, a Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
, as well as a Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
and
DS. The Wii console was bought in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on launch day. Her favorite games have included ''Ninety-Nine Nights
stylized as ''N3: Ninety-Nine Nights'', is a 2006 fantasy hack and slash video game developed for the Xbox 360 by an alliance between Q Entertainment and Phantagram; video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi served as producer for the game. The gam ...
'', ''Final Fantasy XII
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The twelfth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open wo ...
'', ''Dragon Quest IV
''Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen'', titled ''Dragon Warrior IV'' when initially localized to North America, is a role-playing video game, the fourth installment of the '' Dragon Quest'' video game series developed by Chunsoft and publish ...
'' and ''Wii Fit
is an exergaming video game designed by Nintendo's Hiroshi Matsunaga for the Wii home video game console, featuring a variety of yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance (ability), balance mini-games for use with the Wii Balance Board pe ...
''. Nanba also has her own game blog on ''Beside Games'', a site featuring well-known Japanese celebrities talking about the games they are playing.
Nanba's interest in video games also extended to the other side of the game console with the release on July 21, 2006 of ''An Nanba Cosplay Yakyuken'' from Gebet. This two hour UMD format PSP game and video featured Nanba in a game of " yakyuken", a version of the venerable "rock-paper-scissors
Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...
" game. In this strip variant, if the player wins the round, Nanba takes off an article of clothing. This format was repeated in a December 13, 2006 entry from Gebet, ''All Star Yakyuken Battle'' which teamed up Nanba with AV Idol
An or is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances ...
s Akiho Yoshizawa
, often known simply as Acky (あっきー), is a Japanese former adult video (AV) actress, who also appeared in pink film and mainstream (non-erotic) film, as well as television. With a career spanning over more than 15 years and over 1,000 adu ...
, Kaho Kasumi, Kaede Matsushima, Mihiro Taniguchi, Ran Asakawa, Rei Amami, Sora Aoi
is a Japanese former AV idol, nude model, and film and television actress. Starring in more than 600 adult films between 2002 and 2011, Aoi is widely considered one of the most famous AV idols of the 2000s, with her popularity as an adult video a ...
and Yua Aida
is a former Japanese model and AV idol.
Life and career
Early life
Yua Aida was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on 12 August 1984. Aida was an active girl and involved in many sporting activities during primary and middle school. Tennis was ...
. The game and video were released for the PSP and in Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
for the PS3.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanba, An
1984 births
Actresses from Tokyo
Japanese bloggers
Japanese pornographic film actresses
Japanese television personalities
Japanese gravure idols
Living people
Japanese women bloggers