Little Devil finds work for idol glands

By Ryann Connell
January 11, 2004

One of Japan's biggest manufacturers of women's lingerie has cupped off a year marked by regular releases of brassieres that have been a tad different to your average jug holders, according to Asahi Geino.

Giving support to Triumph International's bras is fast-growing 19-year-old Aya Ueto.

Ueto has risen from relative obscurity just a few years ago playing one of the mere minions in the schooldays drama "San Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei" to snaring the lead heroine's role in "Yoshitsune," next year's NHK taiga drama, as well as a co-hosting slot on the national broadcaster's "Red and White Song Battle," a traditional ratings powerhouse screened on New Year's Eve.

Ueto was also judged to be the inaugural winner of the Triumph Little Devil Prize awarded in honor of the undergarment giant's hit bra, the Little Devil. (Click here to watch a video of Ueto accepting the Triumph Little Devil Prize award.)

As well as the Little Devil, Triumph has made headlines recently for its productions such as:

LINGERIE honoring the Hanshin Tigers, a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League:

HARUURARA Bras, which commemorated the fervent fever surrounding the incredible losing streak of Japan's worst-ever racehorse; and,

DOCTOR Copa Fortune and Feng Shui Underwear, which drew on the ancient Chinese form of necromancy to promise good luck to anybody who wore the skivs.

Ueto was a delighted winner of the booby prize.

"My first Little Devil bra had all these frills and ribbons and left an impression when I caught a glimpse of how it looked on my chest," Ueto tells Shukan Taishu. "The next Little Devil bra I bought was the Valentine Version. Now, the third version is on the market. It's got a key that goes with it and is used to lock the breast cups together. It's like saying that whatever's inside belongs to whoever has the key."

Another of Triumph's new products is the "Wear it, but it looks like you're not wearing it" bra, which is a close-fitting, skin-colored garment that usually blends so closely to the wearer that's it's extremely difficult to tell if she's got a bra on at all.

Shukan Taishu, the unabashedly lowbrow macho men's weekly, notes that Triumph's tricky tit-bits and the success of other undergarments such as the Nu-bra, which are self-adhesive, flesh-colored cups that hold the breasts in place, the sexy lingerie business is certainly touching the bosoms of the average Japanese daddy, sugar or otherwise.

Despite Ueto's Little Devil prize, though, Shukan Taishu guesses that men's luck is unlikely to hold out to the extent that she kit out in one for the notoriously squeaky clean New Year's Eve "Red and White Song Battle."

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