Japan

As someone who has been collecting action figures since junior high, I feel like I’ve seen a lot of shifting in the nature of figural collecting over the years. We’ve gone from simplistic to excessively complex, around to sleek, and back to the 3 3/4” figures of the 80s. During all of these shifts, the advent of the internet has created a huge influx of Japanese action figures into the American market. And they’re really weird.

While I love the large figures that are produced by Medicom and Hot Toys, one company that’s consistently my favorite is Revoltech, which manages to combine all of these things in a relatively tiny scale. When it comes to small action figures, there’s always the risk of snapping joints, but Revoltech manages to completely eliminate these issues by making solid figures of pliable plastic, and allowing the joints to pop out before they suffer any damage. These same removable joints allow for switching out parts and clothing. It’s a small stroke of engineering genius which I don’t believe is possible within the US due to bizarre sets of laws that govern small parts and toys, no matter what age they are intended for – and some of these are definitely intended for an adult audience.

There is no consistency in scale between figures and properties, and robots (which are presumably gigantic) appear to be the same size as your average anime hero – something that normally gets a lot of purist figure collectors in the US in a tizzy. In this way, each figure also establishes itself as a kind of iconic mini-monument to figuredom, and the cultural aspects of just what an action figure is. They make a statement, whether they intend to or not.

So, while much of Revoltech’s repertoire consists of warrior robots from both good and evil alignments, they have also incorporated a collection of anime heroines into the larger lineup under sub-series of figures, as well more cartoonish, animated characters.

I’m not a huge anime devotee, but I enjoyed Evangelion. This is what attracted me to the ‘Fraulein Revoltech’ line of figures, which is an ongoing line of female anime characters. Toy enthusiasts are aware that capturing female characters as action figures is usually a lot more difficult than depicting their male counterparts, simply due to body structure. Four words, my action figure friends : Marvel Legends Scarlet Witch. You remember. Revoltech captures everything perfectly, with plenty of interchangeable parts and accessories, and has even chosen a few characters with a great ‘future art nouveau’ aesthetic, such as Pocco.

And while the tiny robots are pretty incredible, the strangest release from Revoltech has been their ‘Queen’s Blade’ line of figures, which will essentially cause you to question all that is good and holy. A quick Google search will reveal a cavalcade of ‘NSFW’ images, which the anime community would call ‘fan service’ – a glimpse at a sexualized version of a female cartoon character. The anime itself follows a plotline that involves lots of women fighting each other in tiny costumes that have a tendency to get torn off. While not explicitly pornographic, it is definitely not for children. Or really very interesting.

While ‘cast-off’ figures, or figures with removable clothing elements and detailed bodies, are nothing new from Japan, Revoltech’s Queen’s Blade line brings it to a whole new level – as if it weren’t enough to have a character whose clothing consists of a translucent, semi-gelatinous mass and uses morphing hands for a bra. These figures are advertised as having both ‘S’ and ‘M’ configurations, with ‘S’ being some kind of ‘fighting mode, and ‘M’ being presumably standing for ‘mature’. These incorporate a whole bunch of variant pieces that can be swapped out to create a more sexualized version of the same figure, sometimes even including bodily fluids and alternate ‘pleasure’ faces. Six have been released, with at least three more revealed by Revoltech.

While many might see this as perverse, it’s been said that every new invention and every new technology will almost immediately be used for something sexual. And don’t blame Japan – we had US-based ‘Adult Superstars’ figures years ago which depicted porn stars in great detail. Subject matter aside, Revoltech is one of the best small-scale action figure makers out there, so it’s hard to go wrong.

As I was watching the ‘Pathetic Losers’ edition of American Idol last night, I was hit in the face with a big, fat stereotype. A self-proclaimed ‘otaku’ was auditioning to be part of the apocalypse that is televised pop music, and she was very enthusiastic. And terrible.

There was a time in college where I dabbled in a few different Japanese cartoons, and even enjoyed them. Unfortunately, the company that these habits entertained was less than optimal, and I bowed out before I fell in too deeply. I’ve known plenty of anime enthusiasts, and a good handful of them have been wonderful people – but just as with any hobby, there are very severe stereotypes that follow around those who are intensely interested.

Comic book collectors are all presumably bespectacled and awkward, and either terribly overweight or underweight. Toy collectors lean towards the overweight, balding, and unwashed demographic. Hot Wheels collectors are all middle aged and angry. Of course, these things aren’t true statements – but there are countless stereotypes that come to mind when the word ‘collector’ is mentioned. Hummel figurines, Pez dispensers, miniature gamers – all of these things come with a stereotype that is only marginally true. For a while, I collected anime.

I was initially drawn into anime because many shows actually feature a dominant theme of ‘collecting’, and even had real world artifacts from the show that were collectible. For someone who is inherently drawn to completing sets of things as well as animation, this was a very alluring space for me.

Pokemon’s classic tag line was ‘Gotta Catch ‘Em All!’, and I did. Even though the show was more about making little slave-monsters beat the living hell out of everyone else’s enslaved monsters and somehow attaining your superiority over other slave owners in this fashion than actually collecting monsters, the video games focused more on the ‘collecting’ aspect of Pokemon. The moment that the number of existing Pokemon went from 151 well-defined monsters into a countless number of poorly designed OTHER monsters, I gave it up. I still have a box of Pokemon stuff around here, including a number of plushes, various games, and lots of weird little artifacts from Japan. Collecting monsters was fun. The show, however, always sucked.

The story behind Cardcaptor Sakura held my interest for a while also. In this anime, a girl accidentally releases a whole mess of magical cards-slash-creatures into the world and she needs to go out and find all of these cards before they cause too much havok. Not only were these monsters pretty neat, but the cards themselves featured very nice art nouveau designs. When the show was eventually aired on Saturday mornings in the US, American TV stations edited out all of the pubescent sexual subtext (much of it homosexual) and any of the content that was actually meaningful. I lost track of the show and sold off all of my cards.

While I never intently watched InuYasha, I saw enough mixed in with my [adult swim] watching to know that it was about traversing a weird ancient, magical version of Japan to find a ton of tiny broken crystal shards (most of which were embedded in monsters or otherwise guarded by monstery things) that were dispersed in the series pilot. Again, collecting objects played a vital role in the plot.

Many of these shows are about collecting multiple powerful or magical items, rather than a single talisman, so it’s hard to ignore the idea that ‘collecting’ is a pretty unique aspect of Japanese cartoons. While the US blatantly airs cartoons to sell vehicles and characters from the toy shelves based on a recognition factor, anime creates these fictional talismanic items for the characters and then asks you to go out and buy them for yourself. Which is pretty hardcore – and sometimes, pretty fun.

I have this casual collection of keychain items, and the best ones always somehow come out of Japan – little adorable characters, Sound Drop devices that play a single sound from Super Mario Bros., and flashing solar-powered things, among other neatness. The most curious set of keychains to come out of Japan has been the ‘Mugen’ series.

‘Mugen’ means ‘infinite’ or ‘endless’ in Japanese – and these Mugen keychains are meant to simulate a certain feeling or experience infinitely,  usually focusing on experiences that are exhausted after one use : tearing open a new toy package (Mugen Peri Peri), popping soy beans out of their pods (Mugen Edamame), and now, popping bubble wrap with Mugen Pop Pop, which has recently entered the states via Bandai.

Of course, popping bubble wrap is something that translates to most cultures, whereas popping open soybeans isn’t something that the US does on a regular basis (though I do suggest going to your local Japanese eatery, ordering a plate of steaming edamame and trying it out!). The real question is this : is infinite bubble wrap worth $6, and does it suitably simulate bubble wrap, and does it warrant precious keychain real estate? I know that my PVC Batman mini-figure is looking fairly ragged, but I have no plans on evicting him until his thin little plastic arm gives way.

Mugen Pop Pop comes in four colors, and each has eight buttons across its face. These are pressed, and they make a clicking noise, and respond with that visceral little bubble-wrap-like ‘pop’. This has led me to analyze exactly what is it about the experience of popping bubble wrap that makes it enjoyable, and why that differs from the unique experience of this toy. Is is the louder sound of bubble wrap, or is it the very fact that bubble wrap remains defeated after it deflates, and doesn’t fight its way back into fullness?

One would also think that the general experience of a well-executed bubble wrap simulacrum would be enough, but this bubble wrap is battery powered. Two tiny batteries rest in its back, right neat a small speaker, and emit this quiet digital popping noise reminiscent of an 8-bit video game. Every 100 ‘pops’, the device also emits one of five or six alternate noises – a hiccup, a bark, a flatulent noise, and so on. If we’re going to digitize popping, we might as well add little animal noises and Hilary Duff song clips and hell, why not a button that shoots vanilla pudding at your face? That’s what bubble wrap is all about, right?

Most telling, though, is that after I put it down, I actually and genuinely picked it up again subconsciously and started popping away without realizing it – until the spell was broken by what sounded like a little digi-cat meowing at me from my hands. Popping during commercials, popping between writing paragraphs as I ponder my next hilarious and cutting observation – it’s unstoppable, and it’s a perfect little bizarre stocking stuffer, and I have little doubt that it’ll infectiously spread through the keychain owning population, and on into the younger generations who don’t have any use for keys just yet as well.

It started innocently enough. as always. I drove up Route 9 into Poughkeepsie, NY, because my mom needed to buy some work pants. As she shopped, I wandered around the Galleria, and I came across a store I’d never seen before – C-T Japanese Gifts. Being a huge fan of Japanese strangeness – the odd and inappropriate toys, the unusual snackfoods, the unfamiliar social customs and attitudes – I ventured inside.

I watched some anime in college, and enjoyed most of what I saw. Unfortunately, the largely unshowered social scene associated with it drove me away, half-blind and convinced that I should never speak of it again. Still, some lingering attraction to the culture always draws me back. There’s just something about giant robots and huge fighting reptiles that I can’t get out of my system.

Among the squid snacks and Naruto figurines, I came cross a whole aisle of gashapon and capsule toys. The selection of mini-figures included everything from Super Mario toys that made sounds, to busty and barely-clad vixens, strange aliens and characters from a hundred cartoons I’d never heard of. All of these, in true capsule toy style, were blind-boxed – meaning that you don’t know which toy you get until you opened the package. There’s usually a display of six or seven different figures on the back of the box, and usually an unpictured (and rare) mystery figure or two, but there’s really no telling what you’ll score. And I needed to find out.

I grabbed a few boxes, not knowing what anything was (since everything was printed in Japanese), but featuring very attractive pictures. What i bought ended up being a mystery figure from Golgo 13 and another figure from the Gamera series of films. I ended up getting the best of both worlds.

Now, I’m not sure exactly what this Golgo figure is depicting, but I can’t imagine that it’s anything but curiously perverse. A lone man, smoking a cigarette in his underwear and barely obscured by a curtain, proudly on display for all the world to see. Further research on the character of ‘Golgo’ reveals him to be something of an ‘amoral James Bond’-type assassin, so such a window display wouldn’t be too far out of character. He’s had a whole bunch of comics, some cartoons, some live action movies and three video games based on his exploits. In some cases, I prefer ignorance to the actual events, and I’ll let people just wonder quietly about me when they see this underpants-ed man staring at me from my workbench. I’ll just tell them, “I like it when he watches. And clearly, he does too.”

The second figure I got was that of a flying Gamera, and as if the smiling toy gods of Japan were personally smiling upon me that day, he’s fighting a giant Squid. Further exploration of this reveals that Gamera is actually fighting a monster named Viras (or Bairasu, in the original pronunciation) from the fourth Gamera film, 1968’s ‘Destroy All Planets’. The scene depicted here is a mirror of the actual movie poster used for the film. Gamera himself has an interesting and varied history, originally conceived as a parallel to Godzilla in an attempt to capitalize off of the kaiju craze in Japan, and re-written every few years to have a slightly different history and origin. Subsequent figures in this series also depict various Gamera-related monsters and movie posters.

By all means, it’s not the extend of the possible wierdness, but it was this weekend’s wierdness, and that’s enough for me.

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Cloisonné is a type of enameling on metal commonly practiced in Asian countries. While cloisonné has been around for thousands of years, the art became popular in Asia in the early 1400s and today most cloisonné originates in China or Japan.

Some people like to collect modern cloisonné objects such as small boxes and group them together for an eye-catching display, while others prefer to search out examples of antique cloisonné from the Victorian era up to the 1950s. The pieces often carry makers marks that help the buyer identify the age and origin of the piece. Still others prefer to wear their cloisonné in the form of colorful jewelry.

To create cloisonné objects, the artisan begins by drawing a design on a base. While metals like copper and brass are commonly used for bases, porcelain is sometimes used as well. Wires are attached to the base to outline the design, creating many cells. The cells are then filled with colorful enamel paste and fired to harden the enamel. The wires prevent the different colors from mixing together. More enamel is added, and the object is fired again until the enamel extends above the top of the wires. The enamel is then ground down until it is level with the top of the wires and polished until it shines.

The cloisonné technique is used to create numerous functional and decorative objects. It is a popular design for chopsticks, ceremonial objects, vases, ornaments and snuff boxes. Beads are also made using cloisonné techniques, then turned into colorful earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Larger objects such as screens and tables can be found as well. While cloisonné is perfect when displayed in homes decorated with an Asian flair, a pretty cloisonné vase can add a bright spot of color to just about any room.