Shopping Guide
This is the 11th episode of Japacon TV , and part 5 of “Moulding a Business - The Latent Potential of Figure Makers”! Japacon TV is a program that introduces Japan’s subcultures and is currently broadcasting to good reviews at 12:00 a.m. Friday on the satellite broadcast channel, BS Fuji. On today’s schedule is the introduction of Kotobukiya, a Japanese figure company that has a strong link with America and its huge figure market.
In the interview with representative director and company president Kazuyuki Kiyomizu and his wife and managing director Hiroyo, we learn that producing figures for the Final Fantasy series, a game immensely popular even abroad, gave them the opportunity to make a full-fledged advance into overseas markets. These figures had a high reputation not only among American model fans, but even among the creators of Lucasfilm, the company that created the Star Wars series, and through connections, Kotobukiya managed to acquire the license for making Star Wars figures.
The supervision check for Lucasfilm is very strict, and production wasn’t easy. Despite that, Kotobukiya was able to splendidly complete such wonderful figures, and thus built up their present position. It is said that George Lucas himself also conducted check-ups on those figures. In the end, what evaluation did they get? You can check the answer in the show!
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
