From "Koeda-chan" to "Gamma Twist," "Paroden," "Parenting Quiz," and "Gamma Girls Academy! An interview with President Isamu Sakurai traces the footsteps of Studio Melfan, which continues to support Japanese hobby culture from behind the scenes!

Have you ever heard of Studio Melfan Ltd.

The company has designed numerous toy packages and characters for girls, including "Koeda-chan", and toys for boys, including "Paroden". The company has also designed many toy packages and characters for girls, such as "Koeda-chan," and toys for boys, such as "Paroden. The company has been supporting Japan's toy and hobby culture from behind the scenes since its establishment in 1977, and has even created official illustrations for world-famous characters such as the Moomins and Disney characters.

Currently, the company is also selling the "Gummejo Gakuen" stickers, the spiritual sequel to the hit omake stickers of the past, "Gumla Twist" and "Ramen Baa," and we interviewed the founder and president, Isamu Sakurai.

Tomoaki Hosaka, president of YS Corporation, which is engaged in the omake sticker business with Melfan, including "Gumu Jogakuen" and "Makoto Okunohosomichi," was also present at the interview.

He spoke about the past and future of Studio Melfan.

Isamu Sakurai, President of Studio Melfan

From Animator and Gekiga to "Koeda-chan

───Please tell us about the beginning of your career, Mr. Sakurai.

Sakurai: I was originally an animator at Toei Doga for seven years. I worked on "Tiger Mask," "Kick Demon," and the first "Himitsu no Akko-chan. I was made to do everything from realistic drawings to cute pictures.

Nowadays, there are many people who want to be animators from the start, but back then, people who wanted to be cartoonists were making animations. Many people originally wanted to be Osamu Tezuka or Eiko Mizuno, but it was hard to make a living with manga. It was around this time that animation began to be produced, and people who could draw pictures were in great demand. Although they don't get paid that much now, they were paid quite well at the time, and people who wanted to become animators flocked to the industry, lured by the money. It was a time like that.

But animation is a division of labor. When I was only drawing pictures, I began to want to create stories as well. So I worked on gekiga for about seven years at the same time. I also drew "bound pictures" in the process.

─ Bindings?

Sakurai: There was a magazine called "SM Select" (Tokyo Sansei-sha) at the time, and I was drawing gekiga of bondage pictures for it. My gekiga were not that well received, but my bondage pictures were highly regarded as "sexy. I still have the magazines from that time, but I can't really show them to people (laughs). But I got tired of that kind of thing and decided to draw cute pictures this time. At the time, Sanrio characters were coming out and fancy characters were starting to become popular.

At that time, I worked with Toei and planner 104 to design "Flower Fairy Fairy Fable" and produce illustrations for record jackets and other fancy goods.

Flower Fairy Fairy Fable

Illustrations at that time

─ Was it tough to work both as a hard-core gekiga artist and animator?

SAKURAI Yes, it was. Besides, I was surrounded by many talented people. I felt that I could no longer do this. So I shifted to a cute line. I thought it would be easier to be cute (laughs).

I even went to Kodansha to try to sell my work, but at first I only got small cuts. I was drawing a one-color cut for the reader's birthday page of "Otomodachi" (Kodansha). Every month, whenever I went to Kodansha for a meeting, the editor-in-chief would say to me, "I'm sorry your manuscript fees are so low. After about a year, I was asked if I would like to work on an interesting story. I was asked if I would like to work on a serialized story, and it turned out to be a hit.

Illustration drawn for submission to Kodansha

Koeda-chan and her wooden house

Koeda-chan and the Wooden House" as it appeared in a magazine

─ That was "Koeda-chan to Ki no Ochiuchi" (Koeda-chan and the Wooden House) that was serialized in "Omotodachi" magazine. Were these toys created by Takara first?

SAKURAI Yes. There was a foreign toy called "Tree House," and in order to sell it, we created a character called "Koeda-chan" and developed it into a magazine. After that, the serialization became popular and the Takara toys sold well, so we became very busy around that time.

That is why Melfan's motto is "Never turn down a job, no matter how low the price. It was known in the industry that Sakurai would never turn down a job, no matter how busy he was.

─ ─ As a result of your sincere approach to your work, you came across "Koeda-chan," didn't you?

SAKURAI: At first, there were only the wooden house and Koeda-chan, but later, more and more characters and objects with nature motifs, such as mushrooms and star houses, were added, which was also well received.

However, at the time, I was doing all the drawing and sales work, so I gradually ran out of time. So I hired an assistant and divided the work between us, with me doing only preliminary sketches. In the process, the number of staff members increased, leading to the establishment of MELPHAN. The name "MELPHAN" is a combination of "fairy tale" and "fantasy.

The omake stickers that boasted phenomenal sales

───With the success of "Koeda-chan," Melfan was born, wasn't it?

Sakurai Yes, that's right. At that time, three or four of us were making packages for Takara toys.

However, when "Koeda-chan" was finished, the company was on the verge of going under. ...... So around that time, we started working with companies other than Takara, and we did Bandai's "Kururin-mura 9-banchi". Yumiko Kanai, one of our staff members, was in charge of Bandai's packaging and characters, which sold quite well.

Kururinmura 9Banchi" (Bandai)

While I was doing various things like that, I began to receive work for magazine supplements and illustrations for "Moomin.

Around this time, a designer friend of mine told me that stickers called "Bikkuriman" were very popular right now, and that there were no illustrators who could do them. Is there any illustrator who can do this kind of work? I asked him if he knew of any illustrators who could do this kind of work. I was introduced to some illustrators at Melphan.

─ That was your first encounter with Melfan and the omake stickers, wasn't it?

Sakurai: That's right. Around this time, Miharu Shimojo, who would later be in charge of illustrations for "Gamla Twist" and "Ramen Baa," and Mayumi Yasujima, who would later be in charge of stories, arrived at Melfan. They joined us at just the right time, and Shimojo has been our ace illustrator ever since.

Gamora Twist's popular character " Gamura-den-shin-no" (The God King)

─ So you were able to gather the right talent at the right time.

Sakurai: That's right. The manga was done in Kodansha's Comic Bonbon, but that was done by Gosaku Sakurata. At the time, Shimojo was in charge of our manga, but he was not involved in this serialization.

Gamla" and "Ramen Baa" were extremely successful, and from there we started to create new stickers. It was a sticker boom, and I started working on "Time Slip Battle," "Labyrinth of the Magic Sky," "Showdown in the Warring States Period," "Bic Rico," etc., one after another, and I was extremely busy. I was designing stickers every day back then. No, it was amazing.

Bic Rico" (Lotte), which should be called "Bikkuriman" for girls

Monster Card" (Meiji)

Material of stickers at that time. They were put on a backing paper like this, and organized in such a way that they could be listed.

───Was the sales of the stickers also great?

Sakurai: The unit price per sticker was not that much, but the design cost about ³,000 per sticker. The text for the story on the back of the sticker was about ³,000. We would make 30 to 40 stickers at a time for each piece. I was doing that for 3 or 4 works at the same time. ......

─ ─ New rounds of omake stickers came out in a cycle of two to three months, so ...... was a very large amount of money. So there was a tremendous amount of money involved.

Sakurai: We also created characters in the planning stage before they were commercialized. Most of them were rejected, but illustrators other than Ace's Shimojo were in charge of them.

Hosaka: Shimojo-san is very quick, so he could create new characters and put them in pen, but his assistants were in charge of the final coloring.

The "King Gold Warrior Coindaman" (Bandai) was developed as a Shokugan and Gachapon product. It could actually store coins in its belly.

One of the projects that was posh (?). One of the projects. Is it an elemeka that rides on the head of a Gundam and can be played with?

──It was around 1988-1991, wasn't it? Those years were the sticker bubble, right?

Sakurai: Well, but the boom will go away. ...... At that time, 90% of our sales were from extra sticker work, but when that goes away, ....... I had imagined that the sticker jobs would come and go, but there were times when they didn't, so I continued to accept magazine jobs in parallel. Magazines always come out every month, don't they? The amount of money was modest, but the work continued uninterrupted, so I decided to keep working on that side of the business as well.

Also, although the boom in story-based omake stickers like "Gamla" and "Ramen Baba" was over, the stickers that came with furikake and ochazuke (rice seasoning) that featured Doraemon and Disney characters never disappeared, so I continued to work on those stickers after that.

Godzilla" toy cards. Toy cards have now been renamed "children's gift certificates.

Paroden," featuring robots from "Wataru: The Legend of Heroic Gods" and "The King of Magic: Granzort.

Sakurai: At the time, I designed many toy cards. In the "SD Club" magazine, a Bandai affiliate, I wrote a series called "Dragon Wars," in which we tried to create stories using dragons from all over the world. The idea was to collect dragon stickers or cards. Shimojo also created a work called "Ninpu Den Fuma. There was also "Gegebo Majuu," a set that included a plastic model and extra stickers. At Takara, I did everything from character design for "Paroden" to illustrations for merchandise. There were many other projects that never saw the light of day.

SD CLUB" published by Bandai

─ After that, Shimojo-san also participated in special effects works, didn't you?

SAKURAI Yes, that's right. I worked with Toei's partner company, Kikakusha 104, on character designs and settings for Super Sentai productions such as "Gekiso Sentai Car Rangers" and "Ambulance Sentai Go Go Five.

Becoming a Hit Maker in the Bishojo Game World

─ ─ In the mid-1990s, the popularity of stickers gradually began to wane.

Sakurai: Just when I was thinking, "This is getting me into trouble," I received an offer for a game called "Findlove 2. This game was not based on our work, but we asked Yasumi Wagatsuma to do the illustrations. Wagatsuma was also in charge of the extra sticker "Bic Rico.

Find Love 2," for which a number of related books were also published.

Find Love! It was a bishojo game with some pretty raunchy and sexy cuts, wasn't it?

Sakurai: I was a little embarrassed because it was a bit erotic, and I thought it would be difficult to do it (laughs). (laughs). This kept me busy in various ways, and I had to hire another illustrator.

This is Kyoko Ikusawa, who was by far the most popular in the "National Seifuku Bishojo Grand Prix" series

─ ─ The game for the Sega Saturn was born from the "National Conquest Bishojo Grand Prix" content, which was quite ahead of its time, with fans voting to decide which girls would appear in the games and novels, wasn't it?

Sakurai: Fan voting, you did that, didn't you? So, while I was doing this work, I started getting these slightly naughty illustration jobs. Eventually, I started getting requests for (hard games) that I couldn't say anything about, but I turned them down, saying that we couldn't do that kind of thing. We only did soft games.

For games, we designed the characters for Namco's "Parenting Quiz: My Angel. In the 1990s, I worked mainly on games and bishojo characters.

─ ─ When you talk about it, it seems that Studio Melfan has been very successful in keeping up with the trends of the times. I think this may be due in part to the high level of basic drawing skills of the Melfan staff.

SAKURAI I would call it good timing, or perhaps just good luck. Of course, I think it is also due to the high level of our painting skills. I think the level of our staff, including Shimojo, was high.

───What happened in the 2000s?

SAKURAI: At that time, we began to do animation and character design for pachinko and pachislot machines. I worked on "Lupin the Third" and other such projects. I wasn't very good at it, but I had done original drawings and animations when I was an animator, so I was able to create simple animations with simple movements for pachinko and pachislot machines. I created characters of Kiyoshi Hikawa and Akiko Wada, and drew pictures for "Jarinko Chie.

I also did some work arranging official LINE characters, and once had the job of reworking a character based on one created by a LINE artist.

President Sakurai is still very much active in his work even now that he is approaching the age of 80.

The appeal of omake stickers over time

─ Then, around 2013, you met Mr. Hosaka of YS Corporation.

Sakurai: Yes, that's right.

Hosaka: I called him in June 2013. He said, "Let's make stickers.

Sakurai: Well, I thought it wouldn't make much money (laughs), but I thought, "No, no, I didn't expect much from "Koeda-chan" at first, but it turned out well. I thought, "No, no, I didn't have high hopes for "Koeda-chan" at first, but it turned out well. Then, it turned out to be a success.

Shin Okunohosomichi" stickers launched in collaboration with Wyeth Corporation

─ ─ The period when Mel fans were excited by the omake stickers was only a few years in the long history of the company. From the company's point of view, I think it was probably one of the past jobs that had already ended.

Sakurai: Melfan has been in business for 44 years this year, and in that time, we were busy making stickers for only about five years.

───What did you think when you were asked to do it again?

SAKURAI: I wasn't that familiar with the Internet, and I didn't really understand the value of stickers. So I gave stickers that I had stocked at a library in the countryside and asked people to take them freely. So I wished I had known the market value of stickers back then (laughs).

Tomoaki Hosaka, President of Wyeth Corporation

─ ─ How was the response when you announced the news that Studio Melfan would be doing another extra seal with the "True Okunohosomichi Seal" after your encounter with Wyeth Corporation?

Hosaka: It was very big. I think the big thing for me was the creation of the "Tenzan Ebisu" hologram sticker. It had been a long time since we had released hologram stickers, and I think it had a big impact on our customers.

After that, in 2014 and 2015, we held exchange meetings with sticker fans, and as we listened to their stories, we learned for the first time that this is the kind of sticker fans want, and this is the kind of character they want.

Sakurai: Hosaka-san, you do a good job of incorporating fans' opinions into your stickers.

Omake sticker "Shin Okunohosomichi" based on Matsuo Basho's famous book "Okunohosomichi

───Having returned to the world of omake stickers after a long absence, what did you think, Mr. Sakurai?

SAKURAI: As a painter, I had never organized my stickers properly. Recently, I have reorganized them, and I think I finally understand the psychology of collectors. Before, I didn't really understand how enthusiasts felt, but now that I have started following Hosaka's example and organizing my stickers into files, I feel bad if even one piece is missing.

And when I looked at the stickers one by one, I realized that fans of any age would be moved by the richness of the content, such as the drawings that follow the storyline.

Since I started working with Mr. Hosaka, I have finally come to understand how interesting stickers can be.

──Have you ever had a chance to look back at your own work seriously?

SAKURAI: At the time when I was doing the omake stickers, I didn't really want to look at what I had drawn. I would think, "Did I really draw this kind of picture? I really wanted to go all the way through, but I had deadlines to meet, so I often gave up halfway through.

But now that I look back on it, I realize how much fun it was. And nowadays, I am practically like a sales person, with Shimojo and the other designers doing the drawings and Yasujima and his team doing the stories, so maybe I am seeing things objectively.

───What was the point at which you actually participated in the work by working with your hands?

SAKURAI I think it was around the "Showdown Sengoku Jidai" period. However, I still have a desire to be involved in the initial layout and design of new projects. When I worked on the "Shinoku" manga, the pictures were done by Shimojo, but I did the layout.

Comic published on the official website of "Shin Oku no Hosomichi

─ ─ This time, a new series called "Gum Girl Academy" has started. Is this a sequel to "Gamma Twist"?

Hosaka: It is not a sequel, but it is a product that users may think of as a sequel. There are two types of stickers: the normal sticker and the back sticker. On the back sticker, there is an image of an "ancestor character" that reminds us of a character that was in "Gamla". This is not a sequel, but if you used to collect them, you can understand the back setting, such as "This character is a child of that character.

The "Gum Girl Academy" package.

I came up with that in 2019, and at first I just let it sleep. In the meantime, last year the new coronavirus put me in a mood of self-restraint and I was no longer busy with work, so while I was rewatching the "Gamla" and "Ramen Baa" stickers again, I started working with Shimojo-san to finalize the project.

This time, we started by having Mr. Shimojo design the characters freely.

Sakurai: Your character design is very spontaneous.

Hosaka Based on those freely drawn characters, we created the setting for the back mount. The root of the story was also checked by Mr. Yasujima.

Gum Girl Academy" sticker

──What do you think of the situation in which the omake stickers that once swept Japan are now gaining momentum again?

SAKURAI: Of course I am happy, but I think Shimojo, the artist, is also happy. He has had a hard time up until now, but he seems to be enjoying his work now, so that makes me the happiest.

───While doing this kind of work, you are still continuing to work for magazines.

SAKURAI Yes, that's right. And so this year marks the 44th anniversary of MELPHAN.

Melfan's work is still popular with children all over Japan.

───Do you still enjoy your job as much as before?

SAKURAI: I still enjoy my job. However, I also want to retire eventually (laughs). When I was younger, I used to move around and do all the work myself, but now we have high quality artists in Melfan, and although we have no assets, we have many characters including "Gamla," so we have talked about ...... if Hosaka-san could take over that work. I have already told him that I would be happy to have Hosaka-san take over the project at . So I and Merfan would like to go one step further.

Hosaka: I'm so sorry to hear that you are taking over ....... I hope I can help you enjoy your work and make it a solid business. I am now in business as Studio Merfan as well. I hope to make a move to promote and revitalize the local community through the use of omake stickers. Finally, we may have something that will take shape around the summer of 2021. We hope that you will support Melfan at that time.

We also hope to create an environment in which all of our artists can continue to work in the future. Please contact us if you are interested in working with us, not only for stickers, but also for any other kind of work you would like to do!