While continuing to perform in hardcore AVs, Aoi appeared in the first video release of the Shuffle company's new label Believe. Entitled The Naked Body, this June 2003 release was an "image video," which has nude modeling but no sex. Naked / Sora Aoi #2 was Aoi's second "image video" for this company. This February 2004 release had Aoi modeling in Guam. By this time Aoi had become one of the most popular AV idols in Japan. Her name was the second-most popular Internet search on a female celebrity in Japan for 2005,[9] and she was the most-searched AV idol.[32] Aoi's popularity enabled her to enter mainstream entertainment, including television and radio,[9] and singing on some punk rock albums.[citation needed] Her popularity even extended to South Korea, where the Korean hip-hop group, Epik High used one of her nude pictures to promote their concerts during their underground days. They were caught by the police, and publicly apologized to her years after.[33]
Aoi continued to work for Alice Japan and Samantha until November 2004, when her contract was not renewed.[citation needed] She then moved to the newly formed porn film production company, S1. This studio's main selling points were that its films were thinly censored because the company that applied the censor was not monitored by the Japanese government and that the films contained more hardcore scenes such as fantasy rape and bondage
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