Asuna gets a one-of-a-kind gown to show off to fans.
If you’re a fan of Japanese pop culture, the Parco department store branch in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood is someplace you’ll definitely want to pay a visit to. It’s home to Japan’s first-ever dedicated Nintendo shop, and also a Pokémon Center superstore with special items you can’t find anywhere else.
And if you need another reason to go? Right now Shibuya Parco is displaying a lovingly crafted 1:1-scale figure of one of anime’s most popular characters wearing a wedding dress.
While fans of anime/light novel/video game franchise Sword Art Online won’t need the introduction, that’s Asuna, the adventurer swordswoman who’s the series’ first, and by far most important, heroine. Within the bounds of the Sword Art Online story, Asuna and male lead pretty clearly have romantic feelings for each other, but since the life-size Asuna is a solo piece, fans are free to create their own head-canon that her new-bride smile is just for them.
Sometimes with full-scale anime figures, the use of plastic or resin pieces for their clothing can look distractingly unnatural, but that’s not a concern here since Asuna is wearing an actual wedding dress, created and sewn by designers from Tokyo’s Mejiro Fashion Art College.
The wedding-dress Asuna is being displayed on the fifth floor of Shibuya Parco in the showroom of 1/One Slash (pronounced “One Slash”), Parco’s proprietary figure brand. While the full-size version isn’t for sale, the showroom is also displaying an unpainted prototype of the 1:7-scale Asuna figure of the same pose/outfit, which will be offered for sale in the near future. In addition, the 1/One Slash has a collection of special Sword Art Online merch in honor of Asuna’s stay, with super-deformed versions of the anime’s cast on acrylic key chains, mini art stands, and pins, and ticket holders, with prices ranging from 440 to 660 yen (US$3.30-US$5).
And with both a deep devotion to Asuna and deep pockets, there’s a hoodie with artwork of the character, as she appeared in the Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night anime movie, on the back for 7,480 yen.
▼ Though you might feel a little underdressed wearing this while the life-size Asuna is in wedding attire.
1/One Slash’s Asuna display is going on now, and continues until February 7.
Source, images: PR Times
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