What is "Manna's Models," a company that sends out sophisticated sculptures from China?　We asked Mr. Osamu Kanda, the representative of the Japan branch! Hobby Industry Inside Vol. 35

Have you ever heard of "Manna's Models"?　I happened to find it through an image search of Chinese modeling works. Fantastic creatures, monsters, and comical characters are sculpted with a dense amount of information and texture, and these works are sold as well as private works. And the names of Japanese sculptors such as Takashi Tsukada, Michihiro Matsuoka, Akinori Takagi, Keita Okada, Akishi Ueda, and Takayuki Takeya are all listed here and there as prototype artists. What in the world is going on in China?
We had the opportunity to interview Mr. Osamu Kanda, the manager of the Japan office, who travels back and forth between China and Japan every three months. I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Kanda, who travels back and forth between China and Japan every three months.

Chinese modelers still admire "S.M.H.

─ I understand that Manna's Models is operated as a company, but how many years ago was it established?

Kanda: Eight years ago. We started out as a small company with a total of four people: two prototype designers, a painter, and a sales representative. The first garage kit we made was so well received that a Chinese movie director asked us to help him with concept art for a movie. I was also involved in creating props for "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," and from then on, half of my work was for movies and the other half was making figures for video games. But that's not interesting enough. The president of our headquarters entered the figure industry because he admired Mr. Takayuki Takeya (a Japanese modeling artist), and he often said, "It would be great if I could work with Mr. Takeya in the future. So we talked about collaborating with Japanese figurative artists to release a new art series, and around October 2016, I created a branch office in Japan.

─ So the headquarters is in China?

Kanda Yes, Manna's Models is the most famous company in the figure industry in China, and our headquarters is a three-story building of about 3,000 square meters. Of course, when we first started out, it was a small room of about 6 tatami mats. ...... (laughs)

─ ─ Do you sell garage kits?

Kanda: We used to sell kits, but since we started working on films, we only sell finished products. There used to be a book called "S.M.H." (a mook specializing in modeling published by Hobby Japan from the late 1990s to the early 2000s). Many of the artists who are active in the front lines in China were strongly influenced by the works in "S.M.H.," and they still work in the spirit of that era. After all, Mr. Takeya's influence is the biggest.

───Then, there are many works in China that have an artist's style at the forefront, aren't there?

Kanda: Large Japanese companies are not interested in original works by artists, are they? So we thought, "Can't we create a relationship in which we support excellent Japanese artists and receive good feedback from them? However, if we tried to sell artist-oriented finished figurines only in Japan, it would not work. I think we are doing well in the Chinese market.
This is because in China, anime and two-dimensional characters are not the main focus. If you have moe figures at home, your parents will be upset and you will be embarrassed if your girlfriend sees them. But if you have a cool figure collaborated with an artist, you can be proud of it.