Figures

2009/07/22
204 words
by Fredrik Olsen

I’ve always known about japanese figures and I’ve seen them a bunch of times. But most (read almost all) have some quite significant sexual tendencies, that is — they’re always half-naked.

The thing is that I’ve always thought people bought them for their half-nakedness and the sexual thing about them. But after reading a lot of Danny Choos’ blog about Japan and a bit of how figures play into the Otaku culture I’ve changed my mind.

So it kind of hit me and I’ve really come around to liking figures a lot — maybe not as much as Danny Choo or some other nerds around Akihabara, but I certainly am a nerd and as such it felt very wrong to go home without a proper figure in my bag!

So I went out today to find something cool and I think I hit the jackpot, cool and cheap!

50% off! Its a really good-sized high detail figure, so I’m really happy :)

Some images when it’s assembled:

And a final image with its proper base (which I think is supposed to look like snow or something) and the other clothes I got with it, plus the book and CD that I really haven’t checked what it is yet.

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Fredrik Olsen

@Emanuel, I just kind of read through most of his posts and figured it out from there. So I'm not sure if there's a big post about it somewhere specifically. But I'm sure you get a good explanation if you google.

@Maho, I've noticed the openness of sex here :P
Of course I know Murakami, he's awesome! Done so many super awesome cool stuff!

I think I could call a lot of figures art, there more expensive and exclusive ones. But the cheaper and more tacky ones (like the ones you buy for 500 yen in a box and you don't know which it is) that's not really art, those are more toys -- but still quite fun!
Dxe

Nerds and Geeks make this world go round! ;D
Maho

I'm really glad to hear that you accepted our figure culture. And I'm glad that I was right to introduce you to Danny Choo's site! He is really cool guy, isn't he? :D

I understand what you feeled about them, though.
Japan is more freely about expression of sex from ancient times than other country, so most people outside of Japan are concerned about them.
But I think it's just from cultural difference, and I've been considered them as a another form of art.
Do you know Takashi Murakami? He is a popular contemporary artist who adapts Otaku culture to Art works, and his figure works came up for Christies auction, and even MOMA has his works in their collections.
It is very difficult to judge what is or isn't the art, and I know it's too early to call them as "Art" in the true sense of the term, but I think they have a potential for that. :)

Also, many famous creators(movie, music, etc...) are nerds actually and many celebrity who come to Japan chase some figures in Akihabara. (Recently, McG(director of Terminator Salvation) came to here and went to figure shop and confessed "I love Sailor Moon!!" in TV program. lol)

TL;DR, you don't need to hesitate to like figures!!
It's privilege of nerds!! (And we are superior~ lol)
Dxe

She sure looks awesome, really cool!

LOL @ blood stains on the katana ;D
Emanuel

They would probably look cool for desktop/shelf pimpin'. By the way, where can I find the explanations behind "how figures play into the Otaku culture"?