, formerly known as VIP, is a Japanese adult video company with headquarters in

Tokyo, Japan 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 37.4 ...

Company information

VIP

The AV company was founded in June 1981 and issued its first video, titled , in December of that same year making it one of the first adult video companies to be established in Japan. The studio continued production in 1982 with works that included S&M and

scatological In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of feces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases su ...

themes. In 1983, the company changed its name from VIP Enterprise to . By 1985, the studio was using actresses with some background in entertainment, such as Anri Inoue (井上あんり) who made her AV debut with VIP in August 1985 with the video . The major event in the company's history in the 1980s was the debut of Hitomi Kobayashi in 1986 in her video ''Forbidden Relationship''. With her style and looks, Kobayashi was a major factor in bringing in the concept of the

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 performance ...

to the fledgling Japanese adult video industry, and, as the "AV Queen", she brought outstanding sales to VIP. In February 1987,

Nao Saejima (March 23, 1968 – September 29, 2012) was a Japanese AV idol and model of the 1980s and 1990s who also starred in photobooks, V-Cinema, and feature films, including Nikkatsu's '' Roman Porno'' series. She died in September 2012 of cancer at ...

debuted with the company. Another early star for VIP was Rui Sakuragi, who made her debut in April 1989 under the name Masako Ichinose but took the name Rui Sakuragi the following year.

Stella / Atlas21

In January 1990, a new AV company, , was formed as a subsidiary to VIP and, four years later in May 1994, the company's name was changed from Stella to Atlas21. By July of that year, the company had undergone a major reorganization, and the VIP company name and label were dropped in favor of the Atlas21 name and Atlas label. Two new labels, "OZ" and "SAURS", were also introduced as part of the newly named Atlas21 studio. Sometime before 1997, Atlas21 joined with the Kuki group of companies, which, in addition to Kuki, comprised

Alice Japan was established on April 5, 1986, as the adult video (AV) label for Japan Home Video (JHV). Company information The early AVs produced by JHV went under the Penguin (ぺんぎん) label, the first title being the 30-minute-long softcore ''Asob ...

, Max-A, Media Station (Cosmos Plan),

Big Morkal Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...

and Sexia. They were, at one time, the largest family of AV companies in Japan. Along with the other companies in the Kuki group, Atlas21 belonged to the voluntary ethics organization called (in English) the

Nihon Ethics of Video Association The , usually abbreviated as ''Viderin'' (official) or ''Biderin'' (both: ビデ倫), was a Japanese video rating organization. It was a voluntary organization to ensure adherence to Japanese obscenity laws, which prohibit any display of genital ...

(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 (Biderin or Viderin). Prominent AV actresses who appeared in Atlas21 videos in the late 1990s included Asami Jō, Jun Kusanagi, Yuri Komuro, Madoka Ozawa and

Bunko Kanazawa is a Japanese adult film actress, who was mostly active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She has been called "one of the biggest AV idols in Japan". Life and career Debut—Cosmos Plan Bunko Kanazawa was born April 4, 1979 in Kanagawa prefe ...

Recent history

In August 1998, the company revived the VIP name as a separate subsidiary company, . In addition to earlier Atlas21 AV stars Ai Kurosawa and Bunko Kanazawa, the new VIP also featured such actresses as Akira Watase,

Nao Oikawa is a Japanese actress, TV personality and was also a former AV idol who was very popular in the early 2000s. Life and career Nao Oikawa was born in Hiroshima. Her family moved to Tokyo when she was a little girl. At age 18, when she graduated ...

, Naho Ozawa and Riko Tachibana. In 2005, the Atlas21 company reported capital of 13 million

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the ...

(about $130,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

), and it had 11 employees. Both Atlas21 and VIP ceased production of new adult video products in December 2006. From it
official website
the company gives access t
another site
which offers downloads of many of the early classic videos produced by the company, including works by Hitomi Kobayashi, Rui Sakuragi and

Ai Iijima was a Japanese media personality, writer, activist and actress who was an AV idol early in her career, starring in more than 100 films. She later became the hostess on the nighttime television program, '' Gilgamesh Night,'' and transitioned away ...

. The VIP label is now used by , another AV production company, which has been issuing videos under this label since at least 2001.

Labels

Atlas21 In addition to the Atlas label, the studio also used: *Gaia *Oz *Saurs VIP In addition to the VIP label, the following were also used: *Chao *God *Ribon

Directors

Noted directors who have worked for VIP or Atlas21: * Kunihiro Hasegawa *

Katsuyuki Hirano is a Japanese director of adult videos (AV) and documentaries. He should be differentiated from the manga artist . Life and career Hirano was born in 1964 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan and was an aspiring cartoonist until he began making amateur ...

* Masato Ishioka * Kei Morikawa * Yukihiko Shimamura * Akira Takatsuki

Actresses

A selected list of some of the actresses who have appeared in videos for VIP and Atlas21: *

Hotaru Akane also known as and was a Japanese actress, HIV/AIDS activist, and AV idol. She was active in many media formats in Japan including mainstream theatrical film, and was a popular blogger. Her adeptness at female ejaculation in adult videos (AV) ...

* Minori Aoi * Ami Ayukawa *

Mari Ayukawa is a former Japanese AV idol and ''pink film'' actress. Life and career Mari Ayukawa was born in Tokyo on December 2, 1969. Ayukawa had nurse education in high school and she was a medical school student when she made her AV debut in the Jul ...

* Asami Jō *

* Sakurako Kaoru *

Mariko Kawana (born November 9, 1967) began the most notable phase of her life as a Japanese model and actress who has appeared in softcore pink film and V-Cinema, and who has also been a hardcore adult video (AV) performer and director. She was one of the ...

* Hitomi Kobayashi * Yuri Komuro * Aika Miura * Ran Monbu * Nozomi Momoi * Kyoko Nakajima *

* Rui Sakuragi * Riko Tachibana * Akira Watase *

Maria Yumeno is a Japanese pink film, adult video (AV) actress and gravure model. In 2003, she was called one of Japan's highest-earning AV performers and "probably its most famous." Many of her movies emphasized her large bust and thin body. Life and career ...

Series

Some popular series produced by Atlas21 and VIP: Atlas21 *Cos-Para *Home Delivery Soapland *The

Call Girl A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...

*The Neo Uniform Connection *The Uniform Connection *Violent Lips VIP *Crime and Punishment *The Uniform Connection

Notes

Sources

* * {{Pornography Japanese pornographic film studios Film production companies of Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Mass media companies established in 1981 1981 establishments in Japan