The TOM Figure Photo Contest has become a staple here at Tokyo Otaku Mode. From the judges to our staff, we all enjoy seeing the amazing figure photos that are submitted. We started the contest during the spring of 2020 as a way for fans to express themselves, share their hobby with others, and be inspired during a time when the world most needed it. What started with hundreds of submissions has grown to upward of 1000. There’s even a special fan voting prize tier! We’ve also seen just how much the technical skill, diversity, and quality of the submissions have consistently increased over the years.
This grand prize winner for Summer 2025 is HikariMashiroz, and here’s our exclusive interview with them in the TOMZINE.
About HikariMashiroz
When did you begin taking photos of figures and why?
My figure photography journey began in January 2024.
Growing up with Pokémon, Digimon 01, Inuyasha, DBZ, Gundam SEED, and many others, I’ve been a fan of anime since childhood. As soon as I had some disposable income, I started collecting anime figures, and that’s when I stumbled upon the My Figure Collection website.
The site has a “Photo of the Day, Week, and Month” section where you can see pretty shots taken by other anime figure photographers. That’s what awakened my interest in figure photography. I wanted to showcase how beautiful these figures are, craft my own stories with them, and express my love for these characters through photography.
Who are some of the figure photographers, or general photographers, that have inspired you?
Since I focus mostly on anime figures and cosplay photography, photographers who inspired me are from this niche genre.
For figure photographers, I love the work of Exkurogane, Tungpham.toy and TheTravelingSee to name a few. There are a lot of skilled figure photographers out there.
As for cosplay photographers, that would be Kcckomtan and
PaperFlyVisuals. How would you best describe your style of figure photography?
I don’t think I have a fixed style. I tend to experiment with different ideas from slice of life, battle scenes to Nendoroid interacting with our daily items or even with me. Something that is more consistent in all my photos is the way I light the scene. I tend to use hard light to give the figures a bright outline on the edges.
Where do you think you’ve improved the most as a figure photographer since you’ve started?
Definitely saw improvement in lighting and composition. Some of my early photos looked more like a casual snapshot than a photo taken with an intention.
What’s still the most difficult aspect of figure photography?
Posing and getting props. I think they are both equally difficult for me, depending on how complex the idea I got for the shoot is. Nendoroids are way more posable compared to scale figures, but they are still limited compared to Nendoroid dolls, Figma or Dollfie Dream. Not to mention, Nendoroids don’t really balance well without support.
Getting props for the figures and finding the right size or matching theme for them can be hard. I don’t usually take my photos outdoors. Since I am not good with handiwork and crafting my own props, I tend to look for those that are already premade, such as Re-ment or Rolife items. So, even if I have an idea in my mind, I am also kind of at the mercy of what props exist out there.
What do you enjoy the most about figure photography?
Making the scene and idea that I have conjured up in my head come to realisation in perfect manner, just the way I have imagined it, all while looking good too.
Regarding the Grand Prize Photo
How did you arrive at the concept for this photo?
It is partly inspired by Re: CREATORS (An anime where the artist’s artworks come to life) and partly by my imagination of “What if these Nendoroids are secretly alive?”. Pretty sure we Otaku have dreamt of our anime waifu being real at one time or another ^⩊^
As a photographer, we have to clean our lenses from time to time, so I came up with the idea of “What if the anime figures I’m always photographing, and pouring my love into, came to life while I was asleep and started cleaning my lenses?”.
What did you hope viewers would first notice when they looked at this photo, or how did you want them to feel?
I want to capture the feeling that this is taken at night time, the owner is asleep, and the two Mikus go about secretly helping the owner clean the lenses. They are racing against time and have to finish before morning comes. The Miku on the lens has a more serious-looking face, hoping to finish cleaning the lens on time, while the Miku holding the brush is just happy-go-lucky. She is just happy being helpful to her owner.
Could you walk us through the shot composition and creation process?
Initially, I set up the scene with one Miku, the one holding the brush, along with the three lenses. The background was just black, without all the lens cleaning equipment and pouches.
At first, I positioned the stronger light (Ulanzi L2 Cube Lite) on the right side, but I wasn’t happy with how the light fell, so I switched it to the left side. This makes the scene look much better as the light comes from between the two lenses, creating shadow in the background and foreground and giving Miku's hair a strong highlight and gradation. It also felt like the Mikus brought their floodlight and placed it there to clean the lens.
I then added another softer 7-inch LED panel (A generic LED panel) to the right side of the scene to light up Miku’s face. This shot itself was okay, but the background felt empty, so I decided to try to fill the background with camera cleaning equipment and pouches behind to make the scene feel more authentic. Then, from the front, shining over my head, I use a 200W speedlight (Neewer Q3) to make the colour of the photo more even.
The shot at this stage was decent, but I was playing it safe with a simple centre composition. It felt a bit boring, so I decided to add another Miku on top of the lens to introduce some tension and interaction. The glance of Miku on the lens also redirects the viewer's eyes to Miku holding the brush.
Finally, I add the black brush, which is pointing at the Miku holding the brush and the camera body cap as a foreground element to create depth and direct the viewer's eyes to the Mikus.
Which aspects of the photo gave you the most trouble?
That would be posing the second Miku on the lens. It was tricky to make her stay up there, look natural and not slip off the lens. I end up adding a tiny amount of clear nano double tape (the type that doesn’t leave glue residue) on her body in the end to make sure she doesn’t slip off the lens.
What cleaning task is each Miku doing, and why did you choose to include two of them instead of one?
The Miku holding the brush is dusting off the lens while the Miku on top of the lens is cleaning the outer body of the lens for any oil, fingerprints or dust. The Miku on the top hands over her extra wet wipe to the Miku holding the brush to clean the glass of the lens too.
Initially, the scene was shot with just one Miku holding the brush, but the top right feels empty, and overall, the scene doesn’t feel that interactive, so I added the second Miku to interact with the first Miku. This forms a subtle Golden Triangle, including the lens that is being cleaned. The gaze of Miku on top of the lens also guides the viewer's eyes back to Miku holding the brush in the centre.
Are there any secrets or fun easter eggs hidden in the photo? If so, what are they and why did you include them?
Unfortunately, No. But now that you mention it, I think I will try to include some easter eggs in some of the future photos I take. Sounds like a fun idea to hide some easter eggs and see who will notice them.
What’s Next?
What advice do you have for those looking to get into figure photography?
The most important thing is to study light, composition and colour theory. You can have a thousand-dollar worth of cameras and lenses, but if the lighting is bad, the photo will look bad. If the light, composition and colour theory are sound, even a photo taken with a smartphone will look decent.
If you already have a DSLR, a macro lens is handy and allows you to get close to your figures, especially if your aim is to photograph Nendoroids.
Also, learning a bit of post-processing/editing is a good idea. I personally brightened the figure's eyes and made them a bit more saturated since we as humans are naturally drawn to the eyes. You can also remove the wire and stand to make your Nendoroid float or stand in post-processing.
What are your future figure photography goals?
In the near future, I want to try photographing more of my scale figures. I am still not good at photographing scale figures due to their larger size and difficulty in finding props. Not to mention, they got fixed poses.
For the far future, it would be nice if I could help anime figure manufacturers photograph their prototype before they release it.
Fun Question
Describe your dream figure photo shoot if you had unlimited budget and time. Which series or characters would you include, how much would it cost, etc.?
Surprisingly, the hardest question to answer >_<
I’ll probably get a lot of Dollfie Dream dolls along with a bunch of outfits and wigs to recreate several grand scenes from anime opening visuals in my own personal studio. I could get a professional props maker to make the props for the shoot, along with my own crew of like-minded photographers. I could even turn the photo shoot into a multi-phase production spanning different scenes, either in studio or real-life locations around the world and turn them into one continuous story.
As for characters, it would be Holo from Spice & Wolf or Rem and Emilia from Re: Zero. They are my favourite waifus from my favourite anime after all.
That’s a Wrap
Congrats again to HikariMashiroz on the grand prize, and thank you for answering our questions. It was fascinating to learn more about your start in photography and the growth you’ve achieved! Keep up with them and see their latest photos by following HikariMashiroz on Instagram, X/Twitter, and on MyFigureCollection.
I’d also like to say congratulations to all of the winners and entrants throughout our figure photo contest over the years. You can find all the previous year’s winners here, so give them a look. You just may find the inspiration to start your figure photography journey or ideas to help you along your current one.
Our 12th Figure Photo Contest is coming up in November, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of your submissions. Who knows, you just may be the next big winner?
