ICON: Mayu Iwatani MyStar Stardom Photobook Review

Starting in late 2018, Stardom began a new photobook series called MyStar with their top wrestlers getting their own smaller photobook all to themselves. Mayu Iwatani was the first wrestler to be featured in the series. ICON: Mayu Iwatani was released in October 2018.

Full Photobook Details

Title: ICON: Mayu Iwatani from the Stardom MyStar Series
Release: October 2018
Pages: 30
Cost: ¥2,000 (or $20.00)
Where to Buy: Third Party Vendors

As mentioned above, these are smaller (and cheaper) photobooks than Stardom usually puts out, however that does not mean the quality of the photobook is negatively impacted. Stardom at this point has become almost as good at producing photobooks as they are at producing wrestling shows, and the effort put into this photobook shows this. Even though the photobook features a single wrestler, there are still multiple scenes/scenarios presented that fit the personality of the wrestler so its not just random scenes chosen at the whim of the photographer.

The pictures for Mayu’s book are what I’d consider traditional for a Stardom photobook. The photos have a wide range, from Mayu Iwatani in her ring attire to her just clutching a towel with various poses between. As has been the case with Stardom for several years, the photos are professionally shot and are the highest quality, Stardom doesn’t mess around with their photobooks. Mayu never felt like a real natural in these situations like Io Shirai was but she has been participating in Stardom photobooks for years and seems to be getting more into the groove, as she looks relaxed in the photos. While it doesn’t have anything new since Mayu has been doing these for over five years, any Mayu fan will be satisfied with the photo spread and the different types of photos in the book. Here is a sample of photos from the photobook: