Japanimation Custom Contest
Giant robots with incredibly destructive firepower, superhuman masters of obscure and deadly schools of martial arts, adorable school girls with amazing magical powers---you'll find all of these things, and more, bursting off of the pages, or out of the television screen, of your favorite Japanese comics and cartoons. The object of this challenge is to make a customized anime/manga themed character of your choice (for the benefit of those that might be unfamiliar with the terms, "anime" is simply the Japanese phonetic interpretation of the English word "animation" and "manga" is the Japanese word for "comic/cartoon".)

You have two options for your entries for this challenge:

1) You can customize a toy of any character/thing from an existing Japanese anime/manga. There are thousands of titles to choose from, so, there should be something for almost any taste imaginable. Akira, Appleseed, Cowboy Bebop, Cutey Honey, Dragonball, Fist of The Northstar, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in The Shell, Gundam, Inuyasha, Naruto, Ranma 1/2, Robotech, Sailor Moon, Vampire Hunter D, and Voltron are just a handful of the many franchises that you could potentially select as the subject matter for your entry.

2) You can give your favorite non-anime/manga character a Japanese cartoon/comic makeover so that they look the part. Both DC Direct's Ame-Comi and Kotobukiya's Bishoujo comic book character statues are excellent examples of that kind of reinterpretation that you could look to for inspiration.

There are no size/scale limitations and you may utilize whatever materials/parts/tools you like when crafting your entry. And please remember NOT to put any logos/names/watermarks on your entry photos that identify you as the customizer; each toy's creator is supposed to remain a secret until the conclusion of the contest's voting period!
 
Please remember to follow the Contest Rules and to Vote Fairly.
 
Contest Winners:
1st
2nd
3rd
 

What is the contest schedule?
Begins: Contest Closed
Ends: January 15th, 2012 - Last day for submissions. No exceptions! Cut off is at midnight Central Standard Time.
Voting: January 16th - 22nd.

Example Pictures for Ideas

  View Contest Entries   

User Comments
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DR.EVIL -
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I'm so Glad there so many entries this time.Had fun judging...But I can see already the potential winners. Its just crazy to see how people declaring their bet as winners already.OO

Too bad, some people are blinded by PHOTO ENHANCED CUSTOM FIGURE entries. I just hope people would vote objectively and because of the quality and amount of work not because of the popularity of the character and digitally enhanced pictures. Where in if you will actually see them in person, they looked simply done or not that exciting as it appears in their photos.

Its a plus to have nice picture shots just to show the clearly the details but bottom line, this is still a custom figure custom contest not a photography contest. So I would give higher points based on quality of the works.

Congrats every one for a job well done!
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cuztomiza -
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
How about SoulCaliber characters? Final Fantasy Characters?Tekken?
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Patraw -
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
I know that there's Tekken and Final Fantasy anime, not sure about Soul Calibur. Regardless, even if there isn't any anime/manga, under option #2, you can still make your own manga/anime interpretation of the character.
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markdamalerio -
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Is darkstalkers ok for this contest?
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Patraw -
Monday, January 9, 2012
There are both anime and manga adaptations of Darkstalkers, so yes (you might have to look under the Japanese moniker for the franchise, "Vampire Hunter/Savior" in order to find some examples).
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markdamalerio -
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
TY Patraw
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zach8265 -
Sunday, January 1, 2012
What if I were to post something not specific, but is in many anime. For example, a generic robot. Many anime have robots,But my robot wouldn't be a specific robot from any anime, just a generic robot. I may be confusing you.
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Patraw -
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A non-specific, generic robot would fall under the category of original characters, which isn't an option for this particular challenge. You can make an anime/manga robot, but it has to be of an existing character, not your own creation.
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KJL2381 -
Friday, December 30, 2011
Is Afro Samurai considered japanimation and/or eligible?
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Patraw -
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Yes, Afro Samurai is very much a Japanese anime/manga (it was originally created by manga artist Takashi Okazaki) and, as such, would be perfectly legal subject matter for this challenge.
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toxinvenom -
Thursday, December 8, 2011
is Ninja Scroll fair game?
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Patraw -
Friday, December 9, 2011
Yes, Ninja Scroll is a Japanese anime, so it's legal subject matter.
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yugiohcardmaker1 -
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
allright ill tell my friend that he has to enter some thing from something thanks patraw
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yugiohcardmaker1 -
Sunday, December 4, 2011
will like something original count or does it have to be from something because my friend whants to either a original piece or ichigo
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Patraw -
Monday, December 5, 2011
No original characters for this particular contest, sorry. We want to see something from an actual manga/anime or how well you can interpret an existing character, from some other media, in that artistic style.
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boris -
Friday, November 25, 2011
What about some existing submitted custom work here, but never been used in any contest? can those be part of this contest?
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Patraw -
Friday, December 2, 2011
Nope, you're not allowed to submit old figures (that's one of the standing Figure Realm custom contest rules), it has to be a new piece created for the contest that no one has seen before.
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FFVIIVFF -
Thursday, November 17, 2011
will characters from a japanese-made video game work with a manga art style work?
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Patraw -
Friday, November 18, 2011
it is very true that a lot of Japanese video games do use the anime/manga aesthetic, so, it is tricky to really differentiate them from one another in the visual sense. Further blurring the line, some games have production-quality, in-game anime cut scenes or openings/endings, and a lot of the more popular Japanese game franchises have separate anime or manga adaptations to boot. In the interest of simplicity, I'll say that you can make a video game character, provided that they are done in the anime/manga style.

Under option #2 you could also do a Western video game character, provided you redesign them to look like an anime/manga character.
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cogmandino -
Thursday, November 17, 2011
What about marvel anime?
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Patraw -
Friday, November 18, 2011
Any anime is fine. Even if there wasn't any Marvel anime, you could still make your own anime/manga interpretation of a Marvel character under option #2.
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cuztomiza -
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
ahah!Can't wait to submit my Hentai club.. right Mr. Patraw?.
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Patraw -
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Well, there is certainly no shortage of explicit Japanese figures/statues to use as base bodies for such an endeavor...

In all seriousness though, keep it PG-13 if you want the moderators to approve your submission(s).
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cuztomiza -
Thursday, November 17, 2011
o'ayt! Sir!..
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timone317 -
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Looks like I'll be submitting a custom to this site for the first time in years...I can't wait to see how this contest turns out.
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Shinigami -
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What about stuff like Power Rangers/Super Sentai and other henshin live action shows?
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Patraw -
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The core subject matter here is cartoons/comics, so live action doesn't really fit into that.

That said, option #2 allows you to make a comic/cartoon interpretation of any non-anime/manga character, so you could potentially go that route to make an animated version of a live action Super Sentai character. Also, if you do a search, some of the more popular shows might actually have manga associated with them, just like popular movies/television shows here sometimes get comic books.
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