A photo of Angel Arnval from Konami’s Busou Shinki line.
Boy’s toys (and even toys aimed at men) have always been flavoured with machismo, aggression and implied violence. Muscle-bound he-men with snarls and grimaces wielding swords and guns are the traditional action figure standards.
But Japan also has a long-standing love affair with all things cute with kawaisa flavouring everything from commercial goods to military mascots. Putting a cute face on a fearsome heavily armed, battle-ready warrior is a quirky but natural next step for Japanese action figures.
As a franchise, Busou Shinki is Konami’s cunning attempt to separate the otaku from their money. Otaku like moe female figures so Busou Shinki features moe designs. Otaku like mecha so Busou Shinki features weapons and add-on armour pieces. Otaku like videogames so Busou Shinki features an online game component.
Konami has recently begun selling the figures in the US. I have my doubts about how well the line is going to do States-side since the moe movement hasn’t taken off in gaijinland the way it has in Japan. Still, who knows? Pokemon’s kawaisa conquered the world. Perhaps moe will follow suit.
