Culture
There is a sizeable community dedicated to Super Dollfie and other ball-jointed dolls. The largest English BJD forum has over 30,000 members as of March 2011. Doll owners customize their dolls and share photos and photo stories online. The dolls are usually named by their owner, and sometimes assigned individual characteristics and personality traits. In the West, enthusiasts organize offline doll meetups and conventions, which include other BJDs along with Super Dollfie. In Japan, Volks hold Dolpa conventions and Tenshi no Sumika store meetups. These are exclusively Super Dollfie events, and other BJD brands are not allowed.
Super Dollfie is associated with the Gothic Lolita and Lolita fashion subcultures in Japan, as well as the Cosplay subculture, with some dressing their Super Dollfie up as famous characters. Volks have a history of collaborating with Lolita fashion designers going back to 2002, when they released limited edition Super Dollfie with clothes designed by Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, Black Peace Now and Atelier-Pierrot.
The character Momoko from the Lolita fashion themed movie Kamikaze Girls was released as a limited Super Dollfie, wearing a Baby, The Stars Shine Bright outfit, coinciding with the release of the movie in Japan in 2004. Baby, The Stars Shine Bright have created several other Super Dollfie outfits as well. Some sold separately, some with limited edition dolls. They have also made matching human and doll sized outfits, like the outfits worn by the limited edition Toppi and Luna released in early 2007.
The Gothic Lolita fashion designer H. Naoto created an exclusive outfit for a limited Super Dollfie in 2006, and have since created several other Super Dollfie outfits.
Super Dollfie are influenced by the anime style, but they also have some more direct ties with anime and manga. In 2003, the android character Chi from the manga and anime Chobits, as well as Yumi and Sachiko from Maria-sama ga Miteru were produced as limited edition Super Dollfie. The main characters in the manga and anime Rozen Maiden are all BJD-like "living dolls", and five of them were released as limited Super Dollfie dolls in 2005 and 2007.
Super Dollfie have also been featured in various work. A fashion shoot with Super Dollfie was featured in the November 2007 issue of Vogue Nippon. The virtual band Mistula is composed of customized ball-jointed dolls, several of which are Super Dollfie. The 2006 Kawaii episode of the British TV series Japanorama featured a segment on Super Dollfie.
Read more about this topic: Super Dollfie
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