Comments on: Kid-crack: Japanese "paper doll" fashion stickers

By: Sarah Gabriel

Sarah Gabriel — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Egyptian-Canadian in Tokyo, checking in.

By: Sarah Gabriel

Sarah Gabriel — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:16:00 +0000

Not if you’re black.

By: vertigo25

vertigo25 — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Because everyone in Japan is Japanese, right?

By: blueelm

blueelm — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 14:38:00 +0000

It’s just in time for the original sticker generation’s kids to be old enough to play with stickers too!

By: benher

benher — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 13:09:00 +0000

Brother, people and their ethnic wambity-pambity broo-broo-froo-froo.
Give these dolls to a group of kids and the rest of the adults get the hell out of the room.

By: benher

benher — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 13:07:00 +0000

You take issue with a toy developed in Japan for Japanese consumption? We-he-hell, take it away!

By: IndexMe

IndexMe — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:11:00 +0000

Isn’t this something that could somehow enter 3d printing land so you could make your own?

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:41:00 +0000

Wow–they’re kind of the same. I enjoy things that differ a bit. But it’s no good without examples, and for example: while visiting Alaska for the first time this summer, I saw two kayak guides wearing t-shirts with gorgeous curly smart octopusses across ‘em. Which made me realize I dig octopusses. It would be so cool if there were e.g. tentacle heads to these designs.

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 09:41:00 +0000

Jools sounds fun!

By: majormattmasonite

majormattmasonite — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 07:21:00 +0000

Remember that strange little Kisekae program from years ago? Well P
Works calls their puffy sticker doll line “Kisekae Girls Collection.”

Here is a Facebook page for the P Works parent company:

http://www.facebook.com/SealsOverseas

Look here! Holy cow:

http://www.facebook.com/SealsOverseas/app_208195102528120

And here’s their Rakuten store (all links say ‘currently undergoing a remodeling’):

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/p-work/

(Rakuten itself is pretty mind blowing if you’ve never checked it out; they own buy.com)…

By: Dollsaga

Dollsaga — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 05:51:00 +0000

there are many dolls dressed in Chinese ethnic groups’ traditional costumes. These are dolls created by Japanese Artists, the dolls wear pretty costumes that from different cultures. so calling them Japanese paper doll fashion stikers is very misleading.

By: Believer

Believer — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 05:40:00 +0000

KISS natsukashii!!

By: C D

C D — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 04:33:00 +0000

I assume you’re thinking of 80′s and early 90′s anime when you speak of horrible depictions of black people. They were often depicted very much like the blackface caricatures of American past, and therefore were quite cringe inducing.

This has changed, however, and you can find a lot of realistic depictions of black people in Japanese anime and other graphic arts nowadays. I’m curious to know the reason it’s changed, but thankfully it has.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:49:00 +0000

Stickers were a huge thing in the 70′s in the U.S. So if anything, the fad sloshed over to the other side of the Pacific, and maybe it’ll slosh back again some day.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:48:00 +0000

Tears of laughter?

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Colorforms.

By: John Treiber

John Treiber — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:26:00 +0000

I live in Japan and while at a party back in February a couple of young girls introduced my two daughters (5 and 9) to this amazing world of stickers シール and sticker books シール帳. While my girls’ interest has waned a bit in recent months, I can vouch that these stickers are huge out here and that some shops have entire rows dedicated to them. Kid-crack is accurate — for a while were making weekly trips to the local mall for new sheets of these things, and the girls would always have their sticker books with them to trade stickers with each other or other kids. The variety is endless, and the dress-up ones in the photo are just one genre. Food is popular (sushi, bread, pastries), as are animals, shapes, letters, mascot characters, you name it. Some are filled with liquid, others have smells, and some of the really puffy ones have plastic gems embedded in them. For a while my older daughter’s favorite was a small plastic “book” sticker that had actual pages. She could stick smaller stickers into it and then flip through its little pages. It’s a fad of course, but fads from Japan often work their way to the US. Therefore don’t be surprised if this catches on big time among 5-11 year olds in the States in the coming months.

By: Melissa Clancy

Melissa Clancy — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:37:00 +0000

My mom had something like this in the seventies and allowed me to play with them in the eighties. The stickers were vinyl I think, with sticky backsides, and they were in the shape of teddy bears. You could dress them up with various vinyl outfits, toys and props, and they came with a vinyl coated backdrop to put them on. I think she still has them. So the idea isn’t new but the execution might be. I think my niece would really like these so if someone knows where you can buy them in the US I’d love a heads up.

By: Erin Paris Truesdell

Erin Paris Truesdell — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:44:00 +0000

It’s real life Poupee Girl.

By: eloriane

eloriane — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:27:00 +0000

I’d actually say that the vast majority of them are intended to be non-white (namely, Japanese)– it’s my understanding that Japanese artistic conventions use “neutral” designs (even “neutral” designs with blonde hair and blue eyes, or purple hair and pink eyes) to represent ethnically Japanese characters. So, all the girls in kimonos don’t have to be racially distinguished from the girls in “normal” clothes because they’re already assumed to be Japanese.

I’d say only the ones whose clothes evoke “traditional” European styles (I think I spotted a Dutch girl) are actually meant to be read as white. But by that same token, I’m pretty sure the girls in saris were meant to be read as Indian. And I think I spotted some Chinese and Korean girls too. And two Spanish girls. All in all, it’s a remarkably ethnically-diverse collection, as long as you remember that there are more ethnicities than white and black.

Anyway, trust me, you don’t want to see a Japanese artist’s idea of what a black person looks like. It always ends in tears.

By: Tom B.

Tom B. — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Those look killer. My daughter would love those. Melissa and Doug have way less cool sticker dress-up sets, but those are mostly one and done – no layering and they aren’t reusable. If anyone can point me to a link to find these sets online, I’d appreciate it.

By: Tom Tjarks

Tom Tjarks — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:31:00 +0000

Isn’t this just a different version of the KISS dolls that you could print (or use on your computer)?

By: Christian Buggedei

Christian Buggedei — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:56:00 +0000

I remember the virtual variant of these, which alas devolved into hentai rather quickly…. Nonetheless, on a tablet that might be easier on the money in the long run than the material variants :)

By: Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:52:00 +0000

It’s true, though there are a ton of vendors doing similar (and sometimes interoperable) dolls in a large variety of options

By: vertigo25

vertigo25 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:43:00 +0000

These seem pretty cool. I’m sure my daughter and her best friend would love them. I do take issue with the fact that there are 90 dolls, and not a single non-white one among them, though.