PHOTOS: Wonder Festival Brings the Figures and Fun for Summer 2022

 

Note: All photos taken by Daryl Harding

 

Wonder Festival, one of the biggest figure events in the world, has returned to almost full capacity, bringing the best of the figure landscape to Makuhari Messe on July 24 and showcasing what’s to come in the near (and far) future for some of the biggest figure lines.

 

Let’s just say it has been a tumultuous time for Wonder Festival. The twice-yearly event was downsized and even canceled over the past two years as the world faced the pandemic, with the Winter 2022 event, held last February, as the first stepping stone to returning to form. With Summer, Wonder Festival is back, so let’s check out a small sample of the show floor.

 

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Unlike previous year’s reports, this year I’ll be grouping the figure by booth rather than series to keep with the full experience of how the event was laid out.

 

AMIAMI

 

 

For the seasoned buyer, AmiAmi is known as one of the better online stores for international figure buying. The company is also quite large inside Japan, with a decently sized store in Akihabara where all the newest figures can be bought (well, pre-ordered for the more in-demand figures, cause good luck otherwise).

 

 

AmiAmi came to Wonder Festival with a range of figures from different makers. Unlike Good Smile, which produce their own figures, the AmiAmi booth held a collection that would make anyone jealous.

 

 

One of the biggest displays for the booth was the Nakano sisters from The Quintessential Quintuplets sitting on a couch. Each of the girls are wearing their own pure white dress and will soon be available separately.

 

 

 

But that’s not all from the Quins, with all five getting their own adorable chibi-like figures.

 

 

Surprisingly, A Certain Scientific Railgun was everywhere on the show floor this time around, with the AmiAmi booth showing in-production models for both Misaka and Misaki.

 

 

 

Persona 5 also faired pretty well, with both a Violet and in-production Dancing in Starlight Panther figure showcased.

 

 

 

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX also had its time in the dueling arena booth with figures for Jaden, Chazz and even an incredibly imposing Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

 

 

 

 

Here are some other photo’s from the AmiAmi booth:

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANIPLEX

 

The Aniplex booth was one of the more impressive ones at Wonder Festival. Instead of just having figures in glass cases lined up next to each other, Aniplex had a giant circular booth with figures on all sides, making for some…not so great conditions.

 

 

Probably one of the most anticipated characters to be getting a figure soon is Marin from My Dress-Up Darling, who was front and center of the Aniplex booth. However, the booth was actually hiding two Marin figures, one of which you can see above, and another in-production model of Marin in a swimsuit sitting seductively on Gojo’s futon. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to photograph that one.

 

A bunch of newly unveiled Disney Wonderland figures was also not allowed to be photographed. 

 

 

Of course, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was by far the most presented at the event, with more than a dozen ranging from the main trio, some of the Hashira, the characters from the Entertainment District arc and more. Aniplex wasn’t the only booth that had Demon Slayer figures, but they had by far the best looking, especially the figure of Tanjiro wearing real clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More figures from the Aniplex booth:

 

 

 

 

 

ARCADIA

 

The Arcadia booth was by far one of the most interesting booths in the whole exhibition, thanks in part to the number of pre-production models on display. 

 

 

When walking up to the booth for the first time, I was greeted by none other than a faceless Kurumi from Date A Live. 

 

 

 

 

While pre-production figures from many franchises littered the booth, there were some fully painted figures that were nicely detailed – as one would expect from the Kadokawa KD-Colle line. Megumin from KONOSUBA -God's blessing on this wonderful world!, who is above, is a prime example of her cuteness.

 

Other figures from the Arcadia booth:

 

 

 

 

 

 

S-FIRE

 

I last saw S-FIRE at AnimeJapan earlier this year showing off their AR technology that combined figures with sparks, flames and general visual effects you’d see in anime. At AnimeJapan, I saw the concept used on a Deku figure, and while they brought back that same tech demo, the group had another: one of All Might powering up that looked like it was ripped straight from one of the My Hero Academia video games. Sadly, I wasn’t able to capture it like I was the other S-Fire figures.

 

 

 

 

 

Which included some of the cutest Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- pre-production figures I’ve ever seen.

 

 

 

 

EDICOS

 

The EDICOS booth was another which had a range of figures from different companies. Weirdly enough, unlike the AmiAmi booth, there didn’t seem to be much of a theme. From pose-able JoJo's Bizarre Adventure figures (and a Steel Ball Run dino!) to pre-production The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious figure and even an anniversary figure of Revi from cult-classic Black Lagoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F:NEX

 

The F:NEX booth was also one of the more interesting booths, with not only normal-sized figures but massive, near-life-sized ones of some of their most popular characters on show (and soon to be on sale!). The most impressive of which was Nanachi from Made in Abyss, which had her normal figure in the booth area, then a life-sized version (life-sized for her) to the side.

 

 

 

Me for scale

 

Overlord’s Albedo was also given the “bigger than normal” treatment with two of her figures.

 

 

 

F:NEX was also kind enough to show off a few of the figures that will likely be sought after heavily when they’re released to stores in the near future. Power and what could be a life-sized Pochita from Chainsaw Man and little Anya from SPY x FAMILY.

 

 

 

 

More figures from the F:NEX booth:

 

 

 

 

 

FURUYA

 

Furuya Prize, rather than selling their figures, usually gives them away in prize machines across the country. Because of this, their figures usually have some sort of gimmick to them. This can include Tanjiro, Yuji and Gojo holding some stationary for example.

 

 

 

Or a copious amount of characters sitting on a ramen cup. My personal favorites from the new line are Yuji and Gojo in their ending theme outfits and Anya looking adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But Furuya doesn’t just have gimmicks — they also have some highly detailed exclusive prized figures that are a bit harder to get than anime characters on cup ramen, with Rem from Re:ZERO being a highlight.

 

 

 

QUEST

 

Figures found at the Quest booth were another strange mix. On one side you had Cobra from Space Adventure Cobra, then on the other side you had some of the most detailed pre-production figures I’ve ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEGA

 

Although SEGA has given up its arcade business and lost the branding on all the arcades across Japan, they’re not out of the figure game yet. They have to fill up their amusement machines somehow!

 

 

I think I can speak for everyone when I say we’re all excited to finally get some SPY x FAMILY anime figures from SEGA. They’re some of the most reasonably priced (on the second-hand market because you can’t buy the figures outright from crane games) and their posing is some of the best — you just have to love how Yor looks! I also like the tease for what Anya will soon be riding!

 

 

 

 

 

But that’s not all when it comes to SPY x FAMILY x SEGA, with the company also coming out with adorable cat-eared Forgers and a pair of suave Twilight and Thorn Princess.

 

 

 

Here are more figures coming from SEGA:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE

 

While the Shibuya Scramble booth may have been one of the smallest at Wonder Festival, they are the figure makers with the best quality across the industry. This exhibition’s centerpiece was none other than their upcoming Chainsaw Man figure.

 

 

 

The detail on Denji is outstanding, next level compared to literally everything else on the show floor.

 

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But that’s not to decry from the other figures at their booth, with Shibuya Scrambles’ upcoming JUJUTSU KAISEN figures making it look like the sculptors have just transported Manami, Sukuna and Inumaki from screen to 3D model.

 

 

 

 

Most of the other figures at the booth were pre-production models of upcoming releases:

 

 

 

 

SPIRITALE

 

Spiritale was another booth where the level of detail on their figures was incredible. From hololive’s Korone to My Hero Academia’s Toga and Uraraka and all the pre-production figures in-between. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAITO

 

Like SEGA, Taito’s figures are also destined for crane games and UFO catchers in arcades across Japan. While outside Japan they’re cheaper than the usual figure, the quality of the figures is higher than expected of some of the more popular franchises for anime right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOKYO FIGURE

 

Out of all the booths at Wonder Festival 2022 Summer, the Tokyo Figure booth had the widest range of figures that span from a summer series that will soon include Nagatoro from DON’T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO and the girls from Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

 

 

 

To highly detailed Radio Eva Hobby Max Evangelion figures of Mari and Kaworu, as well as a pre-production Shinji looking fly as heck.

 

 

 

 

 

Some other figures from the booth:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNION CREATIVE

 

The Union Creative booth was also another interesting booth. Figures ranged from a posable Roboco, to pre-production models and even a small figure of a dog drinking a beer.

 

 

 

 

 

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Despite the heat from the blazing summer sun, Wonder Festival 2022 Summer felt like pre-pandemic times with the scale of the event and the materials on display. Sure, there were fewer people, masks everywhere and hand sanitizers at every entrance, but that didn’t take away from the figures being shown and previewed.

 

And as with every year, my wallet cries from my desire to collect all the figures. Which ones would you like to have in your house? Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram. He needs to build more shelf space for the figures.

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