Original Character (オリジナルキャラクター / OC) refers to a character created as an original design rather than originating from an established anime, manga, game, film, or other pre-existing franchise. In the Japanese figure market, original characters frequently begin as illustrations by independent artists, character designers, sculptors, doujin creators, or original projects developed directly by figure manufacturers.
These designs may later be officially commercialized as scale figures, statues, soft-vinyl toys, articulated figures, art toys, illustration goods, or limited collectibles. For Japan Figure, this collection focuses on commercially released or creator-authorized original-character products rather than unauthorized fan-made merchandise.
Original Character collectibles give figure makers more freedom than products tied to established animation model sheets. A sculpt can be developed directly from one illustrator’s artwork, an original concept created specifically for a figure, or even a sculptor’s own three-dimensional character. Good Smile Company-distributed examples include Hitowa’s original character Bibi, illustrator K Pring’s Dongtan, Myabit’s Mia, and sculptor yoshi.’s original soft-vinyl character Putun.
Popular Original Character merchandise types
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Scale Figures: 1/7, 1/6 and other scale figures are among the most common premium formats for illustrator-original characters. These releases attempt to translate a specific two-dimensional artwork into a detailed three-dimensional collectible.
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Illustrator Original Figures: Many products are marketed directly around the artist who created the character. Solarain’s Bibi: Chill Bunny Ver., for example, is officially identified as a figure of popular illustrator Hitowa’s original character.
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Creator-Owned Character Figures: Some characters develop independently through an artist’s personal illustration series before being licensed to a figure manufacturer.
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Original Concept Figures: Certain products are conceived specifically as collectible figures rather than adaptations of characters that first appeared in a narrative franchise.
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Soft Vinyl Figures: Original creatures and stylized characters are particularly suitable for sofubi-style production. Putun is an example of a sculptor-created original character produced as a 1/1 soft-vinyl figure.
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Art Toys: Designer toys emphasize the creator’s visual language, silhouette, material treatment, and artistic concept rather than anime canon or screen accuracy.
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Statues & Display Figures: Fixed-pose collectibles allow sculptors to closely follow an illustration’s intended body language, facial expression, clothing movement, and composition.
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Bunny-Style Original Figures: Bunny costumes are a major recurring theme across original-character figure projects, including manufacturer and illustrator-led original series.
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Fashion Figures: Streetwear, office clothing, swimsuits, lingerie-inspired fashion, sportswear, fantasy clothing, and contemporary lifestyle outfits are common because the artist is not restricted to a franchise costume.
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Creature Characters: OC collections are not limited to human anime-style girls or boys. Sculptors may create monsters, mascots, animals, fantasy creatures, robots, and surreal characters specifically for physical production.
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Limited Color Variants: Successful original figures may receive alternate colors, special editions, event variants, or manufacturer-store bonuses.
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Bonus Edition Figures: Creator artwork, postcards, tapestry bonuses, collector cards, acrylic keychains, or alternate parts may accompany selected releases. Bibi: Chill Bunny Ver., for example, included a collector card and acrylic keychain as an in-box bonus.
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Acrylic & Illustration Goods: When a character originates in illustration, acrylic stands, prints, tapestries, postcards, and art boards can complement the three-dimensional figure.
Original Character creator and design groups
Unlike a normal anime collection, Original Character does not have one fixed character lineup. It is better organized according to where the design originated.
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Illustrator Original Characters: Characters first created through an artist’s personal illustrations are one of the largest groups in the category. Hitowa’s Bibi and K Pring’s Dongtan are official examples of illustrator-created characters later adapted into figures.
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Original Illustration Series: Some artists develop multiple original characters around one recurring visual world, fashion concept, fantasy universe, or character series.
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Manufacturer Original Series: Figure makers may commission artists and sculptors to create character lines specifically for collectible production.
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Sculptor Original Characters: In some projects, the sculptor is also the character creator. Good Smile’s Putun listing identifies it as sculptor yoshi.’s original character and notes that yoshi. personally sculpted the figure.
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Doujin & Independent Creator Characters: Original characters may grow from independent artwork, self-published illustration books, creator events, or online portfolios before receiving an authorized commercial figure.
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Creator Collaboration Characters: Figure brands may collaborate with illustrators whose existing fanbase helps transform a single illustration into a physical collector product.
Popular Original Character themes
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Original Bunny Designs: Bunny outfits remain one of the most established themes, ranging from playful fashion concepts to more stylized collector designs. Native’s official catalog has included the DSmile Original Bunny series across multiple years.
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Contemporary Fashion: Oversized sweaters, tank tops, sportswear, office wear, street fashion and casual outfits allow illustrators to focus on personality and styling without existing franchise restrictions.
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Fantasy Characters: Elves, demons, witches, knights, angels, succubi, kemonomimi characters and other fantasy archetypes are common within creator-owned figure design.
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Animal-Ear Characters: Cat ears, bunny ears, fox ears and other kemonomimi elements frequently appear because they provide an instantly recognizable silhouette.
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Cyber & Sci-Fi Designs: Original robots, mechanical girls, futuristic armor and cyber-fashion characters provide opportunities for more experimental sculpting and materials.
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Swimsuit & Resort Themes: Original illustrations often use beachwear and summer styling because figure makers can reproduce skin, transparent materials, accessories and flowing clothing at larger scales.
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Original Creatures & Mascots: Products such as Putun demonstrate the category’s ability to extend beyond conventional anime-style human characters.
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Single-Illustration Figures: Some characters do not need an anime, manga or full story. One visually strong illustration can be enough to support a commercial figure release.
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Artist Signature Style: The appeal may lie as much in collecting the illustrator’s work as in collecting the character itself.
Popular manufacturers
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Good Smile Company: Good Smile distributes and sells numerous creator-original figures from different manufacturers and regularly identifies products according to their original illustrator or creator.
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Solarain: Produces illustrator-driven scale figures such as Bibi: Chill Bunny Ver., a 1/6 figure based on Hitowa’s original character.
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Native: A major Japanese collector-figure company with numerous original illustration and creator-led projects, including recurring original character series such as DSmile Original Bunny.
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Independent & Specialist Figure Brands: Original-character projects are frequently produced by smaller Japanese and Asian hobby companies working directly with illustrators, sculptors and rights holders rather than with large anime production committees.
Quality & craftsmanship
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Illustration Accuracy: Because many OCs have only a limited number of source illustrations, faithful reproduction of the artist’s face design, body proportions, hairstyle and clothing is especially important.
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Sculpt Interpretation: A sculptor may need to design areas that were never visible in the original two-dimensional artwork, requiring careful interpretation while preserving the creator’s intent.
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Hair Sculpting: Flowing hair, complex braids, loose strands and gravity-defying hairstyles can become major visual focal points on illustration-based figures.
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Fabric Texture: Premium figures may reproduce knitwear, transparent clothing, stockings, denim, leather, lace or sports fabrics using sculpted textures and varied paint finishes.
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Transparent Materials: Bibi: Chill Bunny Ver., for example, uses transparent material for selected parts of the figure, demonstrating how material choice can reproduce details from the original concept.
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Real Fabric Components: Certain figures combine molded plastic with actual fabric or mesh elements. Bibi uses real net tights on one leg.
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Creator-Controlled Sculpting: When the creator is also the sculptor, as with Putun, the final three-dimensional form can closely reflect the original artistic intention.
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Paintwork: Good Smile product pages commonly note that parts of figure painting are completed by hand, meaning minor differences can occur between authentic production pieces.
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Scale Verification: Buyers should confirm whether a product is 1/4, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, non-scale or 1/1, as original-character figures can vary dramatically in physical size.
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Bonus Completeness: Creator cards, postcards, acrylic bonuses, tapestry bonuses and alternate parts can be important when purchasing discontinued figures.
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Authenticity & Creator Rights: An original design being described online as an “OC” does not automatically make every product depicting it authorized. Collectors should verify the creator copyright, manufacturer, distributor and official product listing.
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Original Character vs. Original Character Designer: These terms should not be confused. A figure based on artwork by the “original character designer” of an established anime is still merchandise from that anime franchise, not necessarily an Original Character/OC figure.
Japan Figure offers collectors worldwide access to authentic Original Character figures and creator collectibles sourced directly from Japan. Explore illustrator-original scale figures, statues, soft-vinyl art toys, original bunny designs, fantasy characters, creator collaborations, limited editions and Japan-exclusive releases when available. Whether you collect a favorite Japanese illustrator, search for character designs that exist outside mainstream anime franchises, or simply want unusual display pieces with distinctive artistic identities, shop Original Character collectibles at Japan Figure to discover authorized creator-driven figures and Japanese collector releases.
