Hobby Industry Inside Vol. 13: Interview with Hiroshi Inagaki, prototype sculptor, on "preferences" and "biases" that plague figure prototype makers!

This summer, too, there has been a lot of talk about the "Wonder Festival," a garage kit festival. We wonder how modelers and figure enthusiasts are feeling.

On the other hand, what are the thoughts and concerns of the prototype designers working for figure manufacturers, who are constantly being asked to create "figures that sell to as many people as possible and are the greatest common denominator"?　We visited Alter Co., Ltd. again, which we interviewed a year ago, and asked veteran prototype sculptor Hiroshi Inagaki about the complexities of the situation.

I feel a complex toward people who have clear hobbies and tastes.

─ I heard that you started your modeling hobby with scale models.

Inagaki Yes, I started with Tamiya's military miniatures. I liked soldier figures more than tanks. After graduating from junior high school, I stayed away from models, but in my late 20s, when I was stuck in various situations, the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" boom happened. At that time, an old friend of mine showed me a modeling magazine, and I suddenly brought in a prototype to a figure company, thinking, "I didn't know such modeling materials were available now," "I could make figures by myself," and "I probably could.

─ ─ What did you make at that time?

InagakiI didn't watch much anime at the time, so I made "Godzilla" and "Kochikame" on a whim. I made two figures of Asuka and Ritsuko Akagi from "Evangelion".

─ ─ Did you decide to try figure modeling because you had made military miniatures in the past?

Inagaki: Military miniatures and another thing I saw in a magazine when I was little were plastic models of monsters made by Aurora. I liked those kind of small sized human-scene models of people doing something. I think that the fascination of the process of assembling small parts to form a human form was probably at the root of my love for such models.

─ So you didn't care if the subject was a beautiful girl character, but a soldier or a monster?

Inagaki That's right. I didn't really understand the cuteness of bishojo figures as they are commonly known, and I couldn't make them well. So I was given a product sample from a figure company that I brought my work to, and the prototype I made based on that face became my commercial debut. The character was Iris from "Sakura Wars. Before my debut as a prototype artist, I had been drawing pictures as a hobby, but I knew that I was not the type to be so assertive, nor the type to draw and sculpt out of a love of characters.

─ So you didn't become a prototype modeler because you liked beautiful girl characters?

Inagaki: If anything, I was more influenced by military miniatures, and in the beginning I said, "I want to make more realistic figures of my uncle. Now, my interests have broadened, but I sometimes feel a sense of crisis that I am not actively interested in bishojo characters.

─ Conversely, there are people who "only make characters with big tits," and I think there are many figure lovers who "like these attributes"?

Inagaki I feel a complex toward those who make and buy figures that are honest about their own tastes and preferences. ...... I sometimes wonder if I'm just trying to look cool by wanting to make all kinds of neat things. I sometimes worry about it. When I first became a prototype modeler, I was surprised when I saw a Garaade kit of "Tokimeki Memorial. I had heard that the underpants were sculpted, but they were so graphic that I was even disgusted. I even felt human body heat and humidity in the pants, but I meant that they were soaked with the sweat of the person who made them, not the body heat of the character (laughs). At the same time, I felt a sense of impatience, wondering if I could handle this job if I couldn't be so determined.