Bikiniing 9 Stardom Visual Photobook Review

Bikiniing 9 - Cover

The Bikiniing Visual Book series is one of the most popular Stardom photobooks each year. Beginning in 2012, Stardom has released a Bikiniing Photobook every year, featuring the Stardom wrestlers wearing bikinis or other swimwear (as the name implies). Not all wrestlers participate if this type of photoshoot goes against their wrestling character or personal preferences, however the majority of the wrestlers in the promotion do take part. You can read reviews for more magazine and photobooks on the Joshi Photobook Reviews page.

Full Details

Title: Bikiniing 9 Stardom Visual Book
Release: August 14th, 2020
Pages: 80
Size: A4
Cost: ¥3,000
Where to Buy: Stardom Online Shop or Third Party Vendors (eBay, Buyee, etc.)

For the 9th edition of the photobook, the following wrestlers were featured:

  • Maika
  • Himeka
  • Konami
  • Jungle Kyona
  • Momo Watanabe
  • Utami Hayashishita
  • Syuri
  • Starlight Kid
  • Mayu Iwatani
  • Tam Nakano
  • AZM
  • Giulia

As sure as the sun will rise in the East and set in the West, Stardom will release a Bikiniing book every year. 2020 has been a dumpster fire but that won’t stop them, as once the pandemic slowed in Japan the wrestlers of Stardom were back in the studio for Bikiniing 9. Like in many years in the past, the pictures were taken in a studio and not on an actual beach (or outside at all), making the photobook slightly less interesting but still living up to its name.

All the wrestlers in the photobook were given at least three pictures, with no one wrestler dominating the spread. One interesting aspect is they clearly took a ton more pictures than the photobook would fit. That itself isn’t surprising, but some of the wrestlers clearly made multiple wardrobe changes even though only one photo of some of the ‘secondary’ outfits made the book. I imagine that made for a long day of taking pictures, and who knows how many photos they took to just have three or four chosen. Beyond the photos of each wrestler individually, there are also pictures of the wrestlers all together, and also in their factions.

The cast for the photobook is a good rundown of the biggest wrestlers in the promotion, with the only obvious exclusion being Natsuko Tora. But Oedo Tai doesn’t always participate in Bikiniing since it doesn’t flow with their gimmick, and since Natsu Sumire isn’t a contracted wrestler that may have been why she wasn’t included. Still, all the big stars are here and its sure to be a hit for fans of the promotion. For fans concerned about Stardom using underage wrestlers in their photobooks, AZM is the only wrestler included this year under 18, which she is still a few months away from. So an improvement over past years and its very possible this will be the last year with a wrestler under 18 years old. Here is a sample of pictures from the photobook: