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If you’re a person who uses the Internet, there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve come across that other thing (i.e. not cats) that accounts for so much web traffic. You know, pictures and videos of naked people. Trust us, we were as shocked as you must have been when you first stumbled upon these people and their antics, but it’s out there in its droves.

We were also surprised to learn that those videos are apparently not only very popular but noticeably different depending on whether they’re made in places like the US and Europe or in Japan. Or at least they are according to this Japanese guy, who works in the industry and spends a lot of time critiquing the videos…

This article probably isn’t entirely safe for work. Which really shouldn’t be a surprise, but just in case, you might want to read this one on your phone in the bathroom instead of at your desk.

Yes, dear reader, we’re talking about…pornography. Shhhhh! Don’t tell our mothers!

▼Not pictured: Our mothers.

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Unfortunately, we don’t have many sexy pictures to show you today. Instead, we’re going to tell you about Kemuta Ootsubo, a Japanese porn critic. In this case, critic doesn’t mean “hater” but rather “a specialist who judges art or the works of others”–we’re pretty sure he’s actually a big fan of porn!

In a recent article on Yahoo! Japan’s Web R25, Ootsubo laid out what he sees as the differences between Western and Japanese porn and what some of the causes of those differences are.

According to the R25 article, while Western pornography was at one point very popular in Japan, that trend has since reversed, and now Japanese porn is popular not only domestically but also in foreign markets. We’re not sure how true that is, or how someone would go about measuring that, but we can believe that Japanese porn is popular overseas.

“Japanese pornographers focus on things besides close-ups”

Ootsubo believes that Japanese porn’s popularity stems from the use of mosaics–the blurry or scrambled effect covering the actors’ naughty bits, as required by Japanese law. According to Ootsubo, the use of mosaics has made Japanese porn more “dynamic.” In his view, these mosaics force Japanese pornographers to focus on things besides close-ups of the “ol’ in-‘n’-out,” which he thinks makes Japanese videos more interesting with a wider range of genres. On the other hand, Western porn, Ootsubo maintains, simply focuses on the “main action,” as it were, without a lot of extras thrown in, which he says means that there is not as much diversity as there is in Japanese pornography.

▼Diversity in action: Kawaii porn!

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For example, Ootsubo believes that Western pornography is usually just orthodox male-female films. He also suggests that Japanese pornography uses a wider range of angles to make actresses look sexy, while Western videos tend to lock on from start to finish. Ootsubo also argues that Western videos tend not to have much variation, with just one “tone” in terms of acting.

“contracts … limit the spontaneity of videos” 

Another difference according to Ootsubo is the use of contracts. He says that American actors and actresses have contracts detailing what is to happen in the course of a video, which he believes limits the spontaneity of videos and makes them all feel the same. However, he doesn’t mention what kind of contracts Japanese performers have, leaving us to wonder if they simply don’t have any or if the contracts are improperly enforced.

We have to say that, while we would never watch videos of people being naked together and thus have no way of judging his ideas <sheepish look>, we’re not entirely sold on Mr. Ootsubo’s thinking here. For one thing, having written contracts seems like a good thing, especially if it helps prevent unwelcome “surprises” in the course of filming. We also can’t help thinking that, with the hundreds of thousands of adult videos being made in the West each year, there are bound to be plenty of directors out there who can rival the creative and supposedly varied content Oostubo claims exists in Japan.

But what do you think? Is Ootsubo right? Is Japanese pornography more dynamic, varied and sexy, or has he just been watching the wrong videos? Let us know in the comments section below! We promise not to tell your mother you engaged in an online debate about porno…

Source: Web R25
Images: Wikipedia (Corpse Reviver) 1, 2, 3