"Feature By Andrew McKirdy
Big Kids
From comics to figurines, toys aren’t just for boys anymore. Grownups, even women, can play too
Bandai’s giant Gundam robot appeal to all ages.
Photo: Andrew McKirdy
This December, a new toy will hit shops all over Japan. But it’s unlikely that many children will wake up on Christmas morning to find it at the bottom of their stockings. For one thing, there can’t be many stockings big enough to hold it.
Standing 1.5 meters tall and weighing 35 kilograms, the model of the main character from the popular cartoon series Mobile Suit Gundam is a serious piece of kit. The giant robot can move 14 body parts, including its arms, legs and finger joints, and is capable of producing a variety of sound effects to simulate rocket launchers and other weapons.
The proud owner will have to spend four hours assembling the 260 or so parts. But it is not just the sheer size of the toy that might make parents balk at buying it for their awe-struck children. The new Gundam model will retail at ¥350,000.
Despite the prohibitive price tag, manufacturers Bandai are not worried that their new product will be left on the shelf. They expect to shift 1,000 units before the end of the fiscal year and know the money they bring in will not come from smashed piggy banks or harassed parents. They have a different market in mind.
“We want anime fans in their 20s to 40s to enjoy our sophisticated plastic model,� a Bandai spokesperson said on announcing the new toy’s release. The company’s strategy cannot be faulted. After all, what can a child do with a robot it can barely even lift, let alone throw around a sand pit? But it also begs the question why a fully-grown, middle-aged man would want to pay so much money for what is essentially, no matter how state-of-the-art, a toy.
Photo: Andrew McKirdy
Bandai is not alone. Its rival TakaraTomy says it currently markets several of its products, including Microman and Transformers, to adults, not children. The wisdom of a similar marketing campaign in the West would be highly questionable, given the general assumption there that toys are for kids. But then, it could be argued that there are a lot of 40-year-old kids in Japan.
The ‘hobby’ industry, covering everything from models to train sets, comics to role-playing card games, draws hundreds of thousands of young and not-so-young Japanese into its fantasy worlds. The culture of the otaku, or to translate it bluntly—the nerd—has its epicenter in Akihabara, where shop racks groan under the weight of products needed to satisfy the massive demand.
Gundam is one of the most popular and well established brands. The Gundam world revolves around an imagined future where war has broken out amid the complex politics of Earth and its outer space colonies. As the conflict escalates, giant robots are developed, with pilots operating their movements and weaponry from a cockpit in the midriff.
The original cartoon was first shown on Japanese TV in 1979, gaining massive popularity and spawning a host of spin-off merchandising products over the years. Until last month, it even had its own museum, as part of the Bandai Museum in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture. Cartoon creations were rendered real as 3D models, all displayed with the solemn reverence of an exhibit in the Louvre. Visitors could have their picture taken in full flight officer uniform, raised on a platform in front of a 5m high Gundam head, or try their hand at taking control of a robot flight simulator. Judging by the look on some of the pilots’ faces, this was a moment they had long been waiting for. It was not the time to tell them it’s only a toy.
But despite Gundam fans' obvious enthusiasm, they are unwilling to talk about their hobby. Being an otaku generally carries the same stigma in Japanese society that it does in any Western country. Still, for some, geek-dom is there to be embraced.
Naoki Ogasawara is 30 years old, slightly overweight, and wearing clothes and an unkempt hairstyle that no observer, no matter how charitable, could classify as fashionable. To the naked eye, he fits the classic stereotype of the otaku. But in his outgoing, friendly and highly personable response to inquiries about himself and his hobby, he breaks the mold entirely.
“I first saw Gundam when I was eight, and I thought the robots were cool,� he says. “Then when I was about 11 years old, I understood the story more and became more involved in it. Around that time, plastic Gundam models came out, and they became very popular. Everyone at our school was collecting them and talking about them. Films started coming out as well. That time was sort of a Gundam boom, and it’s like that again now. High school kids are also watching new Gundam TV programs, and then when they get hooked on that they buy old Gundam DVDs and get into that as well.�
Ogasawara sees his continuing interest in Gundam as an evolution, and sees no reason to stop just because he has reached his 30s. “People who liked Gundam as kids are older now,� he says. “Now they are making money, so they can buy anything they want. There has already been an expensive Gundam toy on the market, which cost ¥30,000. Even though it was so expensive, hundreds or even thousands of people bought it, so I think people will buy this new one too. Not me, though. It’s too expensive.�
Mariko Fujiwara, who studies changing trends in Japanese society with the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, agrees that Japanese adults are as comfortable with toys as when they were children.
“First of all, compared to the West, children in Japan are surrounded by model toys and robots,� she says. “When you talk about those in their 20s to 40s, they are the people who grew up with the Gundam toys as children. Now there is no real difference between the children and the adults. Adults in this country have proven that they are never too old to enjoy toys. For adults it is not so much a toy as a hobby, just like playing tennis or fishing.�
A Mandarake staff member looks the part
Photo by Tsutomu Fujita
A visit to Akihabara on any weekend will confirm this, the streets and trains teeming with men, young and old, excitedly examining their latest purchase, be it a toy, comic, model or computer game. But that doesn’t mean that girls, or indeed women, are excluded from the otaku party.
Doujinshi is a particular strand of manga aimed at, and written by, women. It has attracted almost as fervent a support among its readers as Gundam has among men.
Along Otome Road in Higashi-Ikebukuro, the swathes of high rise comic shops are almost exclusively patronized by women. Female staff are on hand to advise customers who range from high-school girls to middle-aged women. Many are dressed in the style of their favorite characters.
According to Jeremy Moussa from Mandarake, the largest manga and anime chain store in the world, Otome Road offers a counterpoint to the male-dominated hobbies of Akihabara.
“Doujinshi is so popular because it is written by fans, so you don’t have any intermediate between the creator and the fans,� he says. “The main difference between boys’ and girls’ manga is that in boys’ manga there is a lot of sex. It is really strong, like having five guys to one girl, and the girls all have really big boobs. For girls, it is really much sweeter. When there is sex it is not so strong, and with not so much violence.�
But sex plays a major role in doujinshi’s most popular sub-genre. As the name suggests, Boy’s Love manga specifically deals with stories of homosexual love between men. And Otome Road has it in spades.
Entire shop floors are devoted to Boy’s Love, with some amateur doujinshi even portraying romantic trysts between male film characters like Harry Potter and his arch-nemesis Draco Malfoy. Even C3PO and R2-D2 get it on in one particularly imaginative edition.
Photo by Tsutomu Fujita
But despite titles such as Forcibly but Sweetly, He is Beast and Supervise Me Please, the content is a far cry from the hardcore hentai manga pornography to be found in Akihabara. Willowy, slender dreamboats gaze out from the cover with doe-eyes, locked in a tender embrace with their fellow baseball teammate, male teacher or forbidden friend.
“Some characters in doujinshi have characteristics that are really close to girls,� Moussa says. “They really like the cute men. They are not so strong. In Japan, men have the upper hand, but in this type of doujinshi the boys are nicer and sweeter. We sell a lot of that type of manga. The sales are almost like hentai is for men. We sell so much of that type of girls’ doujinshi that we have a special store in Ikebukuro.�
And according to Moussa, Mandarake’s clientele is not so different from Bandai’s in terms of age. “Now the main customer is between 15 and 40 years old. Sometimes we have women around 50 years old,� he says. “The older women are sometimes disappointed by men, and in those doujinshi they can find the sweet relationship that they are looking for. Maybe their husbands are working hard every day and not taking care of them. In this type of manga they can find some really good stories with love, even if it is between men. They are the really nice men that they are looking for.�
On the shelves at Mandarake are manga for all ages and sexes, including doujinshi and Boy’s Love comics.
Photo by Tsutomu Fujita
The Hakuhodo Institute's Fujiwara is not surprised that Japanese men and women are shutting out the real world to spend more and more time indulging their fantasies. “Compared to the West, Japan as a society is segregated,� she says. “Often you work long hours and your company is far away from your home. You are not expected to be home for dinner, and your wife is free to go on holiday by herself. A lot of social activities, even when you are married, are done separately. A living room is no longer a living room as it once was. People pass through it, but it is not necessarily a place where they stay. Today we have more opportunities to be alone.�
And Fujiwara also thinks the pressure of an intense working environment fuels the need for some kind of release. “With pressure and competition, some need more excuses to shy away from it. Competition is good generally, but not everyone is built for extreme competition. Some perform well, but others don’t. Some workers find it a bit too much, so they need some excuse to escape from the world.�
And with giant robots, comics full of gentle Casanovas, and all manner of other worlds to immerse yourself in so readily available everywhere you turn, where better a place to do so than here in Japan. "
Whats really annoying is that I live NEAR the sodding Bandai Museum and it closed just after I found out about it. Gits.
Anyway, I took some pics of the actual magazine, including to the front cover. Im sure, if the Gundam was holding a beer can then it would be something many of us here would hapilly have as our last sight before we died eh readers?
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/490/jobs.asp
Front cover:
(nice eh?)Pages:
