Shopping Guide
Fashion items featuring the world of Tsutomu Nihei, creator of the currently ongoing Knights of Sidonia, are now available on Tokyo Otaku Mode, all developed by MHz Co., Ltd., a company that makes designs in the subjects of comics, music, and hobby. They are active in a number of areas including book cover design, original figure production, and album jacket illustration. We interviewed them in Hz, a selection shop under MHz’s management, about their newly released items and their company.
The Chuo Line runs through the heart of Tokyo. It also runs through a shopping district lined with old buildings, and in there hides a selection shop called Hz, run by MHz Co., Ltd. The shop is only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and it is so well hidden that you would never find it unless you knew of its existence. The interior is filled with a range of carefully selected clothes and accessories of brands from in and outside Japan, and they also have a few CDs, mostly from the dance music genre. Abstract electronic music is streamed inside, and everything from the selection and layout of goods down to the choice of music gives off a vibe of the efforts that they “want to create a unique world.” In the changing room, which was restructured from a bathroom, figures created by MHz representative matic-log are on display, enabling guests to enjoy themselves while trying on clothes.
Besides the aforementioned Knights of Sidonia, MHz also sells items of Dorohedoro, a popular manga series by Q Hayashida, all made by the hands of MHz’s representative and designer, matic-log.
TOA Heavy Industries items take their motif from a fictional company by the same name that emerges in a number of works by Tsutomu Nihei. In Blame, Biomega, and Knights of Sidonia alike, TOA Heavy Industries appears as a company carrying an important role. These items designed by MHz are sold in a setting as if it was TOA Heavy Industries officially selling these goods, assuming they are work clothes or cold-resistant heavy outfits actually worn by the employees of the company. There are also scenes in Knights of Sidonia where we can see the characters wearing the same apparel. Apart from orthodox items such as T-shirts or hooded sweatshirts, rare items that take the manga and anime as their motif, such as work gloves, were also produced. These items express the cold, machine-like atmosphere surrounding Tsutomu Nihei’s works in a simple manner.
The Knights of Sidonia T-shirts were also designed by MHz. They were made from scenes from the original work by thinning down the colors as much as possible and keeping the lines at a minimum. These printed T-shirts also have a sense of tranquility to them.
Unlike the designs of TOA Heavy Industries and Knights of Sidonia, which are inorganic, Dorohedoro apparel, just like in the manga, was designed to show a greatly organic presence. Dorohedoro is a comic by manga artist Q Hayashida that began serialization in 2000 in the monthly comic magazine Ikki (Shogakukan). It revolves around Kaiman, a man with a reptile face who has lost his memories, and it depicts Kaiman’s battle with a magician in order to recover his past (There’s slightly more to it than that, however.). Apart from the apparel based on the characters, they also sell goods inspired by “Living Dead Day,” an event appearing in the manga. They entertain customers with a wide range of items including T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, cardigans, and stockings. Unlike the stiff, industrial atmosphere of TOA Heavy Industries, these designs have a kind of rough coolness to them influenced by hardcore and grindcore music.
MHz’s person in charge shared his views on producing their merchandise: “We want to make products that are more than merchandise with merely illustrations printed on them, which you often see in comic and character fan goods. When designing them, we aimed for items our customers could stylishly wear as casual, everyday clothing.” The items posses the atmosphere permeating the entirety of these works and designs that looks as if they were just turned out of their original world, giving customers a taste of the strength of MHz’s love for these works. It could be well said that this is a wonderful collaboration with a strong and cool bond between comic artist and designer.
TOA Heavy Industries and Dorohedoro apparel by MHz are available on the Tokyo Otaku Mode Premium Shop. TOM is the only company that officially sells these goods abroad. We invite you to see with your own eyes the high value of these works not only as fan items but as fashion items as well.
*This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.*
