How Anime Figures Are Made

If you have ever had the chance to visit or even live in Japan, you have likely been curious about at least one of its quirky and off-beat museums that showcase many signature Japanese favorites, from foods to felines. For tourists and locals alike, Japanese museums and factories excel at making even the most commonplace items turn into opportunities for quirky adventure.

Because Plaza Japan is all about bringing the best of Japan to your doorstep, we’re dedicating this blog post to a quicksorts that will take you through the fun and fascinating process of how anime figures are made. Read on to learn more about how authentic collectibles go from manga pages and anime screens to your desk!

Inspiration

Before we even dive into what anime figures are made out of or how they are assembled, let’s first take a look at the why and how behind which anime figures are made. 

“The Customer is God”

In Japan, there is a well-known phrase, “Okyakusama wa kamisama desu,” which translates directly as “The Customer is God.” So, before we embark on the rest, let’s first start with the philosophy that guides a top-quality Japanese brand: the happiness of the customer!

Before anything starts with the design process, these companies are already doing their homework - or, more accurately, the people who are so passionate about anime that they have become part of the process of how anime figures are made. This means creators listen to their customers, to see what people love about new and classic anime alike, and which characters or stories especially draw their attention. When it’s clear there’s a critical mass of certain characters, poses, or other iconic elements, designers get to work!

The Drawing Board

Once the companies determine how many people might be interested in a certain show and certain characters, and that right balance between celebrating popular figures and creating exclusive and hard-to-find collectibles, they send their concepts to the artists! These artists include the ones who create two-dimensional creations that inspire the sculptors, often with different poses and design elements that give plenty of inspiration for the people who will breathe life into those drawings.

Prototyping

The best anime figures are made with know-how from sculptors who chose to dedicate their artistic skills to their passion for anime creations of all types. During the design process, what anime figures are first made out of include highly-posable, high-quality putties or clays, surrounding aluminum or wiring frames.

Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

This helps the artist adjust and bend the design, and often, they report to their teammates what changes they make to encourage collaboration Interestingly, this is the inspiration for the highly posable Nendoroid figurines: “nendo” means clay in Japanese! With ongoing feedback, designers continue to delicately mold, move, chip, and carve.

In many cases, the designers painstakingly keep logs of their modifications for ongoing inspiration for themselves and the whole team. The design process, on the whole, can take at least days, if not longer, for the person in charge of that model to perfect each detail until it is ready to go to the next step: its metal version. Those metal versions are then used to create a cast for consistency and quality.

Designed to be Built

When it comes to how buildable anime figures are made, such as Gundam, “some assembly required” is part of the fun. However, in order for you to enjoy building, even more planning and development goes on behind the scenes! In addition to modeling, the designs of buildable anime figures are broken down further with the help of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) as well as with 3D printing, to make sure that every little piece is molded to connect seamlessly, and placed into the sprues with corresponding numbers that in turn fit neatly into the box and the building instructions.

Materials

Once the prototypes are approved and the casts are created, it's time to delve into what these anime figures are made out of! These materials vary widely depending on quality, poseability, and level of detail.

The most popular ingredients include:

• PVC or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene or ABS
• Resins and other
• Vinyl
• A “Cold Cast” process that uses both metals and resins
• Polystone (essentially, a different form of cold casting) for more delicate textures

Talking about the materials is worthy of its own conversation, but for now, it’s just good to know that opinions always vary about what the best anime figures are made out of. Like any experienced collector will share with a new hobbyist, much in anime figure collecting comes down to personal preference and budget.

Casting Call

Before your new Hatsune Miku is ready for her close-up, she has to be cast for the role! And here we mean “casting” in how she gets ready! With the final design approved, the mold created, and the materials determined, the anime figures are ready to be made. How each manufacturer does this can be a bit of a trade secret, with a balance of relying on the right factory equipment and even higher quality control standards.

Once these literally hot new collectibles cool, they are inspected multiple times before being ready for painting. Many anime figure designers even employ teams of individuals to hand-paint some of the more rare and highest-quality models, often using high-level acrylic paints, to the delight of collectors worldwide.

Ready for Your Story Arc

Once these figures evolve into their final form, they are packaged securely and in a display-worthy manner, as some collectors prefer to leave and show off their trophies in their original packaging. For such long-standing series like Pokemon and anime-infused Final Fantasy, where there is a long tradition of creating new, exciting characters, packaging can especially be as much of an art form as any other method of protecting and showing off the loot.

Just be prepared that once you decide which gets shipped to your door, deciding how your anime figure displays are made is just the beginning of what might be the most interesting story arc yet.

Happy collecting!

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