Maki | Tomoda

Why is she obscure? Primarily, the rights to the V-Cinema catalog are a legal nightmare. Many of the studios that produced her films went bankrupt in the 1990s. The original negatives are reportedly stored in unmarked warehouses in the Saitama prefecture. Furthermore, Tomoda herself retired abruptly in 2011. She withdrew from the public eye, allegedly running a small ramen shop in Osaka. She has given exactly two interviews since her retirement, both times refusing to comment on her past films, stating, "That woman [Maki Tomoda] died when the cameras stopped rolling. I am just a cook now."