Graphic designer Ryoko Baba, 33, speaking in front of her Likka-chan collection. The appeal of dolls is spreading across all ages. photo credit: AFP
With her wide eyes and demure smile, Likka-chan is known as the “Barbie of Japan”. And her appeal is spreading across all ages, with adults turning the doll into a social media superstar.
One fan posts videos of plastic poppets to her more than one million Instagram followers, while others painstakingly create tiny clothes and share photos from their fashion shoots.
Minami Murayama, a 34-year-old housewife who once had ambitions of becoming a fashion designer, reveals AFP Thanks to Likka-chan that her “dream come true at one sixth of the size”.
“If I see a stylish woman wearing something I can’t wear because of my age or body shape, Likka-chan can still wear it and look good,” said Murayama, who is about 40. The dolls are masterfully made and over 1,000 are hand made. dress for them.
Likka-chan has been a favorite of Japanese children since they appeared in toy stores in 1967, and creator Takara Tomy has sold over 60 million of them. The company’s official biography depicts her as an 11-year-old girl with a Japanese designer mother and a French musician father.
With a height of 22 cm (8.5 in), she is smaller and less glamorous than Barbie, whom Murayama describes as a “supermodel” compared to Laika-chan’s more “familiar” look.
Murayama spends hours making clothes for her dolls and favors denim, which her husband helps her bleach and tear for a “distressed” look. She has created a range of intricate sets using small props to decorate mini cafes and fashion studios.
“There are so many different jobs I’d love to do, like run a cafe or a bakery or be a fashion designer,” she said. “Of course, in real life I can’t do them all, but I can do them all in a doll’s world.”
‘She Makes Mistakes’
Murayama is a fan of a popular social media channel whose name translates as “The Real Life of Laika-chan”.
This includes tongue-in-cheek videos and pictures of dolls in mundane situations such as struggling with an overly full garbage bag or relaxing at home in pyjamas.
The channel offers an antidote to the ideal life people project online, said its creator, who has more than a million Instagram followers but prefers to remain anonymous so his videos don’t get him in trouble at work.
“Laika-chan’s real life Laika-chan doesn’t live a glamorous life – she lives a real life in a messy room and she makes mistakes,” she explained. AFP,
“If you show people that someone like Lyka-chan lives like this, it gives them the courage to be comfortable with themselves.”
Takara Tomie is not keen on “the real life of Laika-chan”, saying that the doll in the video has “a different worldview” from her fiercely guarded official image.
But the channel has forged a relationship with adult fans of Lyca-chan, who form an online community and swap home clothing and accessories.
Ryoko Baba, a 33-year-old graphic designer, used to play with Lika-chan as a child and revived her interest about two years ago as a way to relieve stress. She thinks that the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have given people more time to spend at home with their hobbies and less chance to step out of the house.
“When you want to go out but you can’t, you have very few opportunities to buy new clothes,” she said. Many have “satisfied that desire by crafting dolls instead”, said Baba, who often recreates clothes from her own wardrobe to dress her dozens of dolls.
Takara Tomy is aware of its growing adult fan base and has launched a “stylish doll collection” aimed at older customers.
Maruyama said “there are a lot of adults in Japan who play with children’s toys” where “there’s really no separation” between the two, with train set collectors being one example.
Baba, who describes Likka-chan as a “national symbol”, believes the doll’s appeal will only grow.
“Lately I’ve seen a lot of comments from people saying they didn’t know this world existed,” she said. “I hope I can help spread the word.”