The twice-yearly Wonder Festival exhibition is all about models of anime, video game, and other 2-D characters. Just like with model airplanes or trains, you can often find multiple versions of the same character in different scales, usually several times smaller than the heroes and heroines they’re based on are actually supposed to be.

Walking around the convention, though, we came across two stunning life-sized figures. It wasn’t just their size that impressed us, though, but their amazing attention to detail. Not only did we stop to gawk and snap pictures, we also got an explanation of how they were made, and it involves a 3-D printer!

Among the presenters at this year’s Summer Wonder Festival was Design Coco. The Miyagi Prefecture-based company is responsible for this beauty.

That’s Momo Deviluke from popular science fiction harem anime To Love-Ru, or more specifically the To-Love-Ru Darkness arc of the franchise.

Momo already had a pretty large-scale 1:6 figure produced by Max Factory. The pictures here, though, are of Design Coco’s 1:1 scale recreation.

▼ Momo and the 150-centimeter (four-foot, 11-inch) Meg, head of RocketNews24’s Standing Next to Life-Size Anime Figures Department

While the basic design and pose of the gigantic figure is based off of Max Factory’s, working in such a larger scale meant Design Coco had to put even more effort into each and every part of the character, since even the smallest imperfections would be multiplied many times over. The extra attention to detail paid off, as there’s a startling difference in how much more lifelike Design Coco’s Momo is when viewed next to the 1:6-scale version.

▼ 1:1 Design Coco (left) and 1:6 Max Factory (right)

Since manga and anime characters start off as purely 2-D designs, they can look a little off when rendered in all three dimensions. That’s not an issue for the life-size, Momo, though, who looks startlingly similar to how she does in the source material.

▼ A lot of care went into the hands…

▼ …the hips…

▼ …and the…costume.

▼ Really, just exquisite work on the frills, wouldn’t you say?

But it’s not just the female form Design Coco knows how to work with. While Momo was being displayed at the joint Max Factory/Good Smile Company booth, Design Coco had another life-size manga character on its own patch of the convention floor.

Standing guard at the Design Coco booth was Drifters’ lead Toyohisa Shimazu.

We asked just how the company makes these 1:1 scale figures, and the Design Coco representative on duty said the physical construction process starts with a 3-D printer!

▼ Unfortunately, we humans still have to do plenty of crunches in order to get six-pack abs like the ones the printer spits out.

It’s not as simple as just feeding the data into the printer and calling it a day, though. The component parts are machine-printed one at a time, but there’s still an immense amount of by-hand assembly and detailing that needs to be done, including sanding, polishing, and painting.

▼ A piece of Toyohisa’s leg

In addition, thinner sections need to be reinforced along their inner surface with putty. And of course, pieces this large and heavy will bend without proper support, so there’s also a metal framework that goes inside hollow sections of the figure.

▼ You can see the putty being applied here.

These are the same methods that produced the amazing life-size Ultimate Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica we saw a while back, which it turns out was also a Design Coco creation.

As awed as we were by the finished versions of the life-size Momo and Toyohisa, we were even more impressed once we learned all the craftsmanship that goes into them. They’re works of art on both the outside and the inside, and we can’t wait to see which character gets the Design Coco treatment next.

Related: Design Coco website
Photos ©RocketNews24

Origin: How do they make those amazing life-size anime statues? We find out (and snap tons of pictures)
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Related Stories

• Desserts in Wonderland – Our lesson in decorating storybook sweets
• Move over itasha, here come itachoko – anime chocolates!
• Doubly-cool anime character made out of chilled noodles perfect for beating the heat
• What if Sailor Moon characters were lingerie models? They’d look stunning like this 【Photos】
• Import immediately! The top 3 Japanese chain restaurants

老美有复仇者联盟，日本有奥特曼，我们大天朝也有自己的超级英雄，各省守护神曝光，快来看看你们省的是哪位！无臂考生的事迹感 动无数网友，大事件特地对他进行一期专访，全程正能量！

牛人给《GTA V》做了一个钢铁侠MOD~~

The eyes can’t unsee this. Spotted in a Hong Kong supermarket were cans of Coke, individually wrapped and sealed in plastic containers. Despite consulting all the scientists we know, we can’t find a single explanation to warrant such an excessive use of unnecessary plastic packaging.

If you’ve ever lived or visited Japan, you’ll agree that it is one of the most over-packaged countries in the world. In fact, the ridiculously excessive and unnecessary usage of plastic in Japan can be downright baffling to people from abroad. After all, it’s a country where every prune inside a packet of prunes is individually wrapped, because who knows when you might want to carry around a single prune in your handbag.

But apparently someone across the sea has decided that they will not be outdone! Cans of Coca Cola were found individually wrapped and sealed in plastic containers and stocked on a supermarket shelf in the deli section of a supermarket in Central Hong Kong.

▼ Why?!

We’re not sure if they were marketing it as “buy a can of coke and get a free plastic container”, but I think we can all agree that this is a serious waste of plastic and irresponsible packaging.

I just find this depressing. For what possible reason would a can of soft drink need to be packaged like this? It’s physically and ethically unnecessary! And we’re guessing that this would then likely be placed into another plastic shopping bag. We urge you to consider purchasing your next soft drink from a vending machine. Thankfully, Japan has no shortage of those.

▼ “Soda ne.”

 Source: Coconuts Hong Kong
Top image: TVMOST HK
Images: TVMOST HK via Coconuts Hong Kong, Yahoo! Japan

Origin: Cans of Coca Cola wrapped and sealed in plastic containers leave us wondering “WHY?!”
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Related Stories

• Can’t Be Bothered with Halloween Decorations? Celebrate with These Cute Mini Pumpkin Dumplings!
• What’s the best (and worst) cola in the world according to our Japanese writer?
• How deep is Japan’s love of Coke in a glass bottle?
• Don’t get your lips stuck to this Coke bottle made entirely of ice
• We can’t get enough of these clever pouches inspired by Japanese amulets

Talk about paying it forward.

Liz Woodward is a 24-year-old server at 130 Diner in Delran, New Jersey. She served a table of two exhausted firefighters last week who came in at 5:30 a.m. and asked for "the biggest cup of coffee they had," according to Today.

facebook.com

The two firefighters, Tim Young and Paul Hullings, had just returned from battling a warehouse fire in nearby New Brunswick.

9news.com.au

Realizing the men were exhausted, Woodward decided to cover their bill and left a note thanking them for their service.

The note read:

"Your breakfast is on me today — Thank you for all that you do; for serving others & for running into the places everyone else runs away from. No matter your role, you are courageous, brave, and strong... Thank you for being bold and badass everyday! Fueled by fire and driven by courage — what an example you are. Get some rest."

facebook.com

Young was so moved by the gesture that he posted a photo of the note on Facebook and encouraged others to patronize the diner.

View Video ›

Facebook: Im.Timmy

View Entire List ›

The Gion Festival, or Gion Matsuri, has been celebrated consistently for over one thousand years and is one of the most famous festivals in Japan. The highlight is the Yamahoko Parade which occurs twice, on July 17 and July 24, and our competition winner’s wish was to see it happen with her own eyes here in Japan. This year, with a incoming typhoon, there were rumors swirling about the festival being cancelled, but with hardly any interruptions in its long history, this parade wasn’t about to be stopped by mere weather!

When we first posted about our Japan Wish competition, we asked our readers to submit a video telling us what wish they wanted to have granted here in Japan. From the many wonderful entries we chose our winner, Ashley, whose dream it was to see the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. This was the day her dream came true.

However, there’s always one part of a trip that can’t be planned for – the weather. Unfortunately there just happened to be a typhoon blowing across the country on the day of the main parade of the festival, but despite strong winds and heavy rain the show still went on.

On the night prior to the main parade, referred to as Yoiyama, Kyoto’s central streets are closed to traffic and festivalgoers cram into the area. You can take in the sights of a traditional Japanese festival on a grand scale – yattai, or street stalls, selling yakitori, yakisoba, takoyaki, and so on, girls dressed in beautiful yukata, and of course plenty of beer. Visitors also have the rare opportunity to see valuable family heirlooms as some private homes in the old kimono merchant district put their treasures on display for the public in a tradition known as the Byobu Matsuri, or Folding Screen Festival.

The Yamahoko Parade is a parade of floats that called Hoko and Yama, hence the name Yamahoko. The nine large Hoko have long poles on the top to represent the spears used in the festival when it originated as a purification ritual, and the 23 smaller Yama carry life-sized figures of important people. All are gorgeously decorated and gilded with gold leaf.

During the year, local families store and maintain the floats in the old merchant area of the city, and as festival time draws near a meeting is held and lots are drawn to determine the order of the procession. These huge floats are moved entirely by hand, and as some of them weigh over one tonne this means that turning them around a corner is no small feat. You can see the process of turning one of the Hoko floats in the video above. Despite the whipping rain and wind, men perched themselves high up on top of the dangerously swaying float, and the people pulling the huge contraptions fought through the weather in traditional outfits. Floats, lanterns, and other important objects were covered with plastic sheets to protect them from the elements.

Despite the abominable weather, the parade went ahead as usual, following the same route it has taken for over a thousand years. And Ashley wasn’t one to be defeated by a little rain, either, keeping her spirits up throughout the very wet day and night. As she says in the video, the Gion Matsuri is an incredibly impressive spectacle that shows how humans could, and still can, work together to accomplish great things even without modern technology. Ashley says that witnessing it is definitely something to go on your bucket list, and I’m sure that many would agree. So be sure to stick it on your must-see list — and let’s just hope that the weather is better in the years to come!

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Despite raging typhoon, Gion Matsuri goes on as it has for over 1000 years【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

Related Stories

• Hello Kitty shows off her backside in tribute to the fundoshi-clad men of Fukuoka
• Our winner is on her way to Japan!
• The Grave of Christ and Vampire Ice Cream – Japanese Town Solves Many of the World’s Mysteries
• The most crowded place in Tokyo? Might be the Kanda Matsuri festival, but it’s still awesome
• Aichi fertility festival surprises everyone with gigantic membership