Stardom World Vol. 5 Photobook Review

Every year, Stardom releases a photobook as part of their Stardom World series, which is their premium and largest photobook. It not only features photos of the roster but interviews and other information about the wrestlers as well. You can read reviews for more photobooks on the Joshi Photobook Reviews page.

Stardom World Vol. 5 Photobook Details:

Title: Stardom World Vol. 5
Release: January 2020
Cost: ¥3,000
Where to Buy: Stardom Online Shop

If you are going to only buy one Stardom photobook a year, the Stardom World series likely is your best bet as it is by far the largest of their photobooks and features the most wrestlers. Here are the wrestlers featured in Stardom World Vol. 5:

• Mayu Iwatani
• Tam Nakano
• Starlight Kid
• Hana Kimura
• Konami
• Utami Hayashishita
• Natsuko Tora
• Itsuki Hoshino
• Arisa Hoshiki
• Saki Kashima
• Giulia
• Jungle Kyona
• Momo Watanabe
• AZM
• Saya Kamitani
• Saya Iida

Like the photobooks in the past, the majority of Stardom World Vol. 5 has pictures of the wrestlers in casual attire or their ring attire. What is different this year is there are no Gaijin wrestlers at all, not even Jamie Hayter or Bea Priestley who are both regulars with the promotion. Unlike their other photobooks, Stardom World has both pictures and interviews so there is a fair amount of text along with the pictures. If you can read Japanese, that really enhances the value of the photobook. If you don’t know any Japanese (like me), it doesn’t help as much but its hard to complain about added content.

Stardom World Vol. 5 is a full sized photobook (A4) and has a lot more pages than their regular photobooks, so even though there is a lot of text there is still plenty of room for pictures. All the major wrestlers have 5+ pictures in the photobook, and since it is kept tasteful for the most part it won’t offend the more sensitive Stardom viewers. I consider all the Stardom World photobooks a must have, and while I would have liked a Gaijin or two to be in the photobook as well, at least they included all the major native roster members at the time of release which is a plus (Kagetsu is oddly missing, but maybe they knew about her leaving enough in advance to exclude her from the book). Here is a sample of pictures from the photobook: