The SOD Group is actually comprised of three distinct companies: Soft On Demand, SOD Create, and SOD Artworks. Soft On Demand proper is the sales business that deals with both online and brick and mortar store distribution.
SOD Create manages all 18 distinct studios that shoot videos for the company. These studios, with names such as Hunter, Sadistic Village, and Natural High, generally each produce a certain type of entertainment. Natural High for instance produces mainly S&M videos, such as the popular “Pervert” (痴漢) series that features young Japanese women getting brutally gang raped while riding the train home.
Finally, SOD Artworks is the post production company that is responsible for the final editing, sound mixing, and authoring of the DVDs. Artworks also designs the packages and disc labels for the different films as well.
All three companies are housed in the single inconspicuous building pictured below. Walking into the main floor, I was immediately greeted by a smiling doorman who took my name and gave me a visitor’s badge. It didn’t feel like a porn company just yet.
I was soon met by the very friendly Noguchi-san of SOD Artworks whom I had been corresponding with via email. The two of us took the elevator up one floor and emerged in a café. We wedged ourselves into one of the small brown lacquered wooden booths. Noguchi-san informed me that this floor used to be a restaurant, pointing out the full bar and entrance to what I suppose was once a kitchen. This marked designated drinking area number one in the building.
Looking around the floor, I was immediately struck with nostalgia for Columbia Music Entertainment in Roppongi. I remember sitting in a similar café-style meeting space while waiting to be introduced to my internship coordinator Okuno-san. Replace all the posters of glittery pop stars with ones of rope-bound naked Japanese women dangling upside-down from a giant spider web and you’d hardly know the difference. Okay, I admit it…the place was starting to feel a bit more like a porn company.
Since there was a scheduling misunderstanding, we had some time to kill before our meeting room became vacant. For the next 30 minutes or so, Noguchi-san and I chitchatted about a whole range of things, from the types of Japanese food we both liked, to the Tenga Flip Hole, the latest high tech masturbation toy.
A bit bigger than the base of a Sonicare electric toothbrush, the white and silver Flip Hole splits open lengthwise like a banana peel and closes snuggly around your cock. The inclusion of various plastic ridges and orbs, in addition to the standard vacuum pump, will bring pleasure so great it will, “change your commonly held thoughts about masturbation.” But that’s not all! It’s even dish washer safe!
Noguchi-san told me that the Flip Hole is a bestseller. This little penis prison must indeed be raking in quite the dough for SOD, as several other company workers saw it necessary to point to the various ad posters and tell me that this was “number one on Amazon.com Japan.”
Noguchi-san and I then went on a whirlwind tour of the company. While all in the same building, each SOD Group company is housed on a different floor. We started at the top floor and worked our way down. We actually began with a trip to the roof. This “8th” floor featured some mini golf holes and a basketball hoop. It also offered a great view of the surrounding area of Nakano. Noguchi-san said that they routinely turn the rooftop into a beer garden for parties and events. This marked designated drinking area number two in the building.
The 7th floor was home to Noguchi-san’s own SOD Artworks, and together, we methodically busted into and disrupted every workspace possible. I always feel bad about doing this. Having interned at Columbia, it was not a surprise to see the mixing studio or the small soundproof booth for recording narration. We also stopped into the suite used to author the finished product on DVDs, as well as a separate studio where I saw a solitary Japanese guy playing with fonts for the different title menus. One final room, a small satellite space with glass walls, is used for viewing the rough cuts prepared for each film.
The 6th floor was primarily meeting spaces, including the giant boardroom that I would return to after my company tour. In general, all the floors at SOD are decorated with DVD racks that display empty cases of all the different films. I guess it’s cheaper and prettier than wallpaper. Walking past the video racks, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in some sort of never-ending porn shop. I found myself instinctively reaching out to flip the cases over in order to look at the back collages, but always stopped myself short of actually doing it. I was here on business.
Noguchi-san paused in front of one rack. He pointed to a case that displayed two bulging bellied pregnant Japanese women, completely naked, pinned up against a wall with their legs spread. “See…we even make stuff like this.” We both chuckled in unison like it was the ending to an episode of The Brady Bunch. Cue the laugh track…fade to black…and we’re out.
The 5th floor was (surprise surprise) the break room, complete with dart machines, a pool table, and another full bar. This marked designated drinking area number three in the building.
The 4th floor was the Soft On Demand sales floor. This was by far the busiest area of the company. Most of the employees looked to be recent college grads decked out in suits and ties, scurrying around making preparations for their various store visits. It was a feeling I knew very well from my week spent crisscrossing the city with salesmen from Columbia.
In addition to loading me up with monthly catalogs showcasing their new releases (these conveniently double as porno mags), Noguchi-san felt it necessary to walk me around the entire floor and point out every female worker present. I would be escorted to a random desk where Noguchi-san would point and say quite literally, “See, here is a female.” The worker would then look up at me and either smile or produce a brief full body seize as though someone had just shot her in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. Needless to say, we repeated the process another 12 times until we had successfully located all the females on the floor.
We ended our trip at the 3rd floor, home of SOD Create. Since most of the subsidiary production companies film from various locations throughout Tokyo, this floor was relatively devoid of action. We did however waltz into a studio of some kind. It didn’t look big enough to film full length features. My guess is that it is used for photographing shots for the covers or paper inserts. I saw one woman sitting on the floor of the studio, but she didn’t look to be a porn star as best as I could tell.
I had thought that the studio space was all that made up the floor. I was wrong. Noguchi-san led me down a narrow hallway to a large metal blast door. We were about to enter “The Vault.” Noguchi-san swiped his magnetic keycard and the door opened. Here it was…
The Vault is the central editing room at SOD that processes all the raw footage shot by the various studios. It is here that the footage gets rough cut into a working narrative before being handed over to Artworks for the cleanup.
What I saw before me was over twenty screens each simultaneously displaying a different type of porn. Each station was manned by an indiscriminate Japanese male hunched over an editing panel. Staring at the screens, the girl peeing on the convenience store floor suddenly became…the high school student forced to stand naked on her desk suddenly became…the spandex clad super heroine tied to a dungeon wall suddenly became….
It was literally too much to focus on. If one’s brain can suffer a meltdown from porn overload, this was it.
Since the footage running on these editing stations represents the yet-to-be-released crown jewels of SOD, security into and out of The Vault is extremely tight. Noguchi-san told me that SOD releases over 60 different films every month. Because of this, the editors basically work round-the-clock to create porn, often leaving the company at 2 AM only to return at 6.
With my company tour completed, I returned to the large boardroom on 6th floor. I sat in front of a giant pull down screen that I can only assume is used for porn premieres. In addition to Noguchi-san, I was joined by Mishima-san of Soft On Demand sales and Endo-san of SOD Create.
After the requisite self-introduction and discussion of where I would choose to be sectioned in the company, the three of us chatted about Japanese adult films. During this discussion, I couldn’t help but wish that I knew more sex related vocabulary and slang in Japanese. Just as the electrical engineer must know the appropriate terms and descriptions for her field, so must someone working in adult videos be able to discuss different pubic hair patterns with all manner of expertise.
In my case, I wanted to say “penetrating shots” in Japanese but didn’t know any specific words. Instead, I had to describe my way around the event using my existing vocabulary. I was like a tyke on Kids Say the Darndest Things, “…you know, it’s the part when the man…with his penis…approaches the woman, with her vagina…”
A nationwide law enacted at the end of WWII maintained the previously established illegality of directly photographing male and female genitalia in Japan. This law is still in operation today. Thus, the main difference between American and Japanese adult videos is that the latter blur out the private parts with what is called a “mosaic.” In short, instead of seeing the full penis and vagina, you’ll see something similar to this:
All three SOD workers told me that this utter lack of hardcore shots makes it nearly impossible to sell their products in the Western market. For the time being at least, SOD videos only flourish in their native Japan. While SOD would eagerly like to expand into international distribution, a few years back, representatives who traveled from Tokyo to L.A. for an adult entertainment expo were largely dismissed. This is a shame, considering that what Japanese porn lacks in hardcore close-ups, it more than makes up for in style and with a sheer wealth of interesting scenarios. It was suggested that perhaps I can be the person to market their products in the West.
We ended our meeting positively with bows and thanks all around. The most pressing issue standing in the way of employment is of course whether or not the company can sponsor a visa. I am going to research the visa issue thoroughly myself to gain a better understanding of the process. Noguchi-san told me that the Japanese government may deny your visa application request even if you have a sponsoring company. In the case of SOD, it would likely be because the government doesn’t want foreigners working in the adult entertainment industry.
If I was left with one overarching feeling after my visit, it was just how friendly, welcoming, and (for the lack of a better word) “normal” everyone at the company seemed. While it may be slightly rude to emphasize the “normality” of the environment, one can’t help but walk into a situation like this with slightly skewed perceptions. I know I did. My mind easily assumed that the workers must be “perverts” and talk about sex 24-7 while sipping green tea. This was not the case at all. Oftentimes those with the strangest day jobs will turn out to be the friendliest and most hospitable people you can meet. This was certainly the case with the fine people I spent the afternoon with at Soft On Demand.
However, this personal realization doesn’t change the fact that, for many on the outside looking in, the thought of visiting a pornography company may be inextricably linked to feelings of uneasiness, social degradation, or perversion. Case in point, while riding the train home, I felt it necessary to clutch my satchel extra close to my side. If there was one thing I was trying to avoid, it was being forced to frantically collect all of my pornography catalogues after spilling them on the train car floor. Though, come to think of it, perhaps the elderly couple seated across from me would have enjoyed looking at the pictures…you know, to get some ideas?
B.E.W.
No comments:
Post a Comment