Tomopop After Dark: My adventure with Konoe Nanami

10:00 PM on 03.13.2009   |   DickMcVengeance

This figure brings up a funny story. So please, take a seat and listen in for a moment.

So, while I was in Japan, I loved going through just about every store in Den Den Town. By the end of my time there, most of the store owners recognized me on sight as that foreigner. There was one shop, though, where the store owners never said hi to me. It took forever for me to figure out why.

It was when the Bridget figure first came out in Japan last year, and I was asking at every shop to try and get it. Most of them just laughed and waved me off. But at this store, the clerks met my inquiry with raised eyebrows. After mulling over my question for a moment, the clerk at the desk went back and met with some of the other employees who were watching me from the stockroom.

They huddled together, whispering in a form of Kansai dialect that I couldn't understand. Something was up. They kept looking back at me. I didn't want to just stand there like a discussion piece, so I decided to browse around the store.

While I was meandering, one of the employees, a huskier man, came up to me and said that they were checking in the back to see if they had any left. He stared intently at the boxes I picked up. Of course, at that time, I was holding a figure of Konokoe Rin from Kodomo no Jikan. He asked if I liked the series. I explained to him that my girlfriend was a big fan of the manga and anime. He raised an eyebrow and went back to his co-workers.

After a minute, several of them approached me. Oh god, I'm going to get gangbanged , I thought. "We've got something to show you in the back, Gaijin-san." I figure I might as well get it over with. I wasn't carrying anything too valuable on me, so I won't be robbed. I just had to hope this wasn't going to involve bukkake or a slime monster -- I did have to ride home on the train that night.

When I got to the back, though, I was surprised to see that they didn't have a torture rack or any form of restraint prepared for me. Instead, they had a girl set up, in this exact position, with the exact same clothing set. "We're planning to make a figure like this," they said. "What do you think?"

Well, I thought it was pretty goddamned great, actually. It may have been the lighting, but the colors on her clothes, the pose, and everything just came together. I also had to marvel at how the girl glistened while holding that pose. She went through a dozen different facial expressions, but once I pushed the cat tail in a little further, she gave off that face of ecstacy, and at that point, it was chosen as the ideal face for the figure.

...and now you know how figures are made! Japan has a very unique and dedicated process when it comes to making figures, and I'm really indebted to the people at Okayama Figure Engineering for letting me help in the creation process.