Smart Doll

What is Smart Doll?

Smart Doll is a new standard in fashion doll that not only enables artists, designers and photographers to enhance their creativity, but to also enrich the lifestyles of folks who not only appreciate Japanese culture - but cute things too.

Designed by Danny Choo, the 1/3 scale (60 cm or 2 feet tall) Smart Doll encompasses Japanese cultural elements such as design philosophy, the Anime (Japanese animation) look and feel through to the traditional casting methods used in the manufacturing process right here in Japan.

The physical size of Smart Doll means that we can create apparel and hair style designs that closely match the detail of their human counterparts.

Various eye color and hair styles are also available as customization options. Just as some folks prefer coffee in Grande or Venti, we also provide large cup sizes too.
Check out our customization options for Smart Doll >

Smart Doll Apparel

Smart Doll was designed to be taken outdoors - with this in mind, the range of street apparel designed by Danny Choo reflects this vision and also provides our customers with the freedom to customize the look and feel of their Smart Doll.

Check out our line of Smart Doll apparel >

A New Standard for the Fashion Industry

The distinct model look of Smart Doll has been recognized by the human fashion scene and has already walked the catwalk of international fashion shows and has been introduced into the curriculum of fashion design colleges.

Fashion brands such as Isetan continue to collaborate with Smart Doll as a fresh new way to show case their human apparel items.

Did I forget to mention that Smart Doll shoes are designed by Jimmy Choo OBE himself?

Footwear Designed by Jimmy Choo OBE

It's an honor to have shoe designer and entrepreneur Jimmy Choo OBE himself work on the designs of Smart Doll footwear. I've known Jimmy since the age of zero (work that one out) so it just made sense that we work together on this project.
Check out Smart Doll Footwear >

Diversity & Smart Doll

Smart Doll comes in 3 skin tones to reflect our diverse world - Cinnamon, Cocoa and Tea and we will add a new color in 2020 to represent aliens who come (mostly) in peace - Interstellar Blue ;-)

Housing an internal frame, Smart Doll strikes a balance between aesthetics and pose-ability. Conventional dolls have a parting line located in the middle of the waist but Smart Doll was designed with the parting located behind the bust line which provides a more natural look.

Smart Doll was also designed to stand on its own without support but for situations where more stability is required - the Smart Support Socket located at the back means that the Telescopic Stand (included with all Smart Dolls) can be discreetly placed without hindering the aesthetic form of the doll or designers apparel.

Learn more about Smart Doll body design >

No Need to Break Vases

Not only was Smart Doll designed as an inspiration to be taken outdoors, Danny's vision was also to create a piece of art that would look great as an interior item too. A vase can't change it's appearance (unless you drop and break it) but with Smart Doll's wide variety of apparel, you can now have something that will look great at anytime of the year - in any part of the house - in any style that you want.

Designed and Made in Japan

Smart Doll is designed and manufactured in Japan utilizing modern 3D prototyping technologies together with traditional casting techniques.
I’ve documented the manufacture processes extensively - folks interested in any form of product manufacture can apply the ideas and knowledge to their own creative projects too.

Learn more about the manufacture process of Smart Doll >

Precision Apparel Design

Designing apparel for Smart Doll requires extreme precision and patience. While the size that we work with (1/3 scale) enables us to create a realistic look and feel, the techniques involved go above and beyond the skill set of your average human fashion designer.

Our team of designers all hail from a background of human fashion who took the leap out of their comfort zone to take on the challenge to learn apparel design for Smart Doll. Our prototypes are all developed in our HQ and patterns are then sent to our partner factories located mainly in Kyuushu and Tokyo.

Design Philosophy

Not only do we make Smart Doll in Japan, we also employ Japanese design principles in its creation - there are 7 zen aesthetic design principles known as Wabi-Sabi of which we focus on three:-

FUKINSEI (不均整) Imbalanced. Beauty in imperfection, asymmetry.
SHIZEN (自然) Naturalness. Absence of pretense or artificiality.
DATSUZOKU (脱俗) Unworldly. Unconventional.

Wabi-Sabi (no not Wasabi!) states that beauty can only be achieved if there is a correlate amount of imperfection. Smart Doll is beautiful because it has imperfections which have been factored into the design not only on the 3D modeling level but also because we decided to use a traditional casting method called Slush Casting which by its nature introduces imperfections.

If you are working in design then understanding these values may inspire some of the work you do.

Learn more about our design philosophy >

Your Photography Model

Whether shooting in the city or on a mountain hike - the wide variety of apparel choice and articulation range will enable you to customize and pose your Smart Doll to match the scenery that you are out to capture. And unlike a human photography model - a Smart Doll wont mind if you put them in your bag or not feed them for prolonged periods.

TECH SPECS

And for those of you who like tech specs - we've got loads for you. Sizes and weight listed below are for our Smart Doll girls.

• Size: Approx 60cm tall / 11cm wide at shoulders
• Size when knees bent: Approx 41cm tall / 25cm from toe to knee (you need this info to figure out what bag to buy)
• Weight: Approx 650gms with wig
• Category: Fashion Doll
• Outer Shell Material: Soft Vinyl
• Inner Frame Material: POM (Polyoxymethylene)
• Wig Material: PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)
• Wig size: roughly 8 - 9 inches (wigs standards are measured in inches for some reason)
• Eye Material: Acrylic
• Eye size: 22mm
• 3D Software used for design: Zbrush, Solid Works
• 3D Printer used for prototyping and masters: ATOM
• Country of manufacture: Japan
• Designed by: Danny Choo
• Distributed & sold by: Culture Japan (Mirai Inc)

Designed for Simplicity

80% of our customers are first time fashion doll owners for a good reason - Smart Doll is designed for simplicity.

All you need to do is to pick a face design that appeals to you - each Smart Doll comes wearing a sports bra and undies so that they don't catch a cold on the flight over to you. You do not need to buy extra wig or eyes as they come ready to play out of the box. The wig can be a pain to put on but check out the Welcome Guide and you should be up n running in no time.

If you are not sure which Smart Doll to go for then pick the most popular - Mirai!

Who is Smart Doll for?

Smart Doll is designed for all races, ages and genders. Owners are from all walks of life from a variety of backgrounds such as tech, advertising, design, etc who are notably creative which can be seen in the way they customize the look and feel of their Smart Doll.

So far we have shipped Smart Doll to thousands of customers to more than 88 regions around the world.

Smart Doll in Education

Incorporating the Anime look and feel, Smart Doll has been introduced into the curriculum of educational institutes - Toyo Institute of Art & Design, Kadokawa Contents Academy and Yamanashi Gakuin High School and for example uses Smart Doll as a reference to aid students with their character design and illustration while Equator college uses Smart Doll in their apparel design classes.

Smart Doll as a Business Partner

Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros., Japanese animation studios such as Sunrise, the Japanese government, fashion brands and educational institutes have chosen to partner with the Smart Doll platform as part of their business and operations.

Smart Doll is chosen by not only for its unique aesthetic design but also for our flexibility and speed in creating tailored solutions to compliment the business and promotion of these organizations. Learn more about our partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

It's a Smart Doll

Sony uses Smart Doll as a photo subject for their Alpha series of cameras and their Xperia mobile phones too. The fine detail of Smart Doll apparel and hair styles makes them a perfect photo subject to test the abilities of Sony's hardware.

Smart Doll in the Media

The Smart Doll concept, design and business model has been featured worldwide not only on news channels such as Bloomberg, CBS, KTLA and Taiwan Sanli but also in newspapers and lifestyle magazines too.

Smart Doll in Entertainment

Smart Doll has been featured in various Japanese variety shows such as "Sekai Fushigi Hakken, Konokao Ga Sugoi" and starred in a Japanese TV drama called "Doesu Deka" starring Mikako Tabe and Yo Yoshida.

Smart Doll Serving Her Country

Smart Doll is modeled after the Culture Japan mascot character Mirai Suenaga. Since her creation in 2007, Mirai has gone on to not only become a tourism ambassador for Japan but also work with the Japanese government on projects such as the Cool Japan Fund.

Our Startup Story

Our Founder Danny Choo has given talks around the world about our startup at colleges and conferences such as the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry - Mobile World Congress and pop culture events.

Our business is not only fun, creative, rewarding and challenging but unique too. Up until now dolls have either been marketed only at children or a small niche adult group of hobbyists. Danny has re-designed and re-established a new standard of fashion doll and built a whole new global market. Folks didn't realize that they needed a fashion doll as part of their lifestyles until they saw Smart Doll.

Keep an eye on Danny's Twitter or Instagram to find out where he will be giving a talk next.

About Culture Japan

Established in Tokyo by Danny Choo and wifey in 2007, Culture Japan is an umbrella brand formed under the company Mirai Kabushiki Gaisha [MIRAI株式会社] - the brand is associated with our 3 consumer facing businesses which are TV Production, Character Development and the development of Smart Doll.

Our clientele include the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat, Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism, KONAMI, KADOKAWA, Sony Computer Entertainment, Dentsu, Good Smile Company, Bushiroad, Disney Japan, King Records, Production IG, Megahouse, Sunrise, Bandai Visual and Isetan.

Don't Take Our Word For It

Smart Doll is changing the world not only through our business and design philosophy but also through our customer-centric support too. But don't take our word for it - on all the product detail pages of our online store you will be able to see a load of photos posted by real humans - click them to check out their accounts. You can also search for the #smartdoll hashtag on Instagram or Twitter.

YouTube also has quite a few unboxing videos that you can check out too. As for the photo - they are the students of Summerfield Elementary School who use Smart Doll as part of their STEM classes.