Fist Of The North Star: Kenshiro vs. Raoh anime statue artist interview

Find out the how and why our Fist Of The North Star statue is the best offering in out there directly from the artists that worked on this beautiful piece and Figurama Collectors CEO Shanab as art director for this piece. 

The whole Figurama Collectors team have poured their hearts and souls into creating this masterpiece and want to bring you on the journey of how we ended up with this statue and what it encapsulates in our hearts and minds. 

Let’s start with some very special information from our CEO, Shanab about working on Fist Of The North Star: 

Why FOTNS? 

“There is a gap in the market with Fist Of The North Star, with nothing depicting the action, masculinity and fights properly. Most statues on the market are a single character standing without any dynamic pose.” - Shanab, CEO Figurama Collectors 

What face piece from the statue? 

“I couldn’t possibly choose one piece, if I was really pushed to, it would have to be the punches. It’s such an iconic part of the visuals for Fist Of The North Star and we have brought this to life perfectly.” - Shanab, CEO Figurama Collectors 

Interesting details people might not know? 

“The base could be it’s own statue with such intricate detail and impact. I insisted on using gold leaf for the base and on the characters to give it a real tone and shine that you can’t get any other way.” - Shanab, CEO Figurama Collectors 

“There are so many layers of paint used on this statue to give the full effect from these two fighters going at it in the wasteland.” - Shanab, CEO Figurama Collectors 

“We worked very closely with Buronson and Tetsuo Hara when designing the Fist Of The North Star statue, they were drawing over our designs to give feedback and made some big exceptions specially for us with what character designs and clothing we were allowed to have because they loved the design so much.” - Shanab, CEO Figurama Collectors 

And now for the artists, so you can get an insight into the process here: 

Who are you and what was your role on this statue? 

“Hi, I’m Daniel and I was the concept artist and gave art direction when needed.” 

“Thank you very much for this interview. I am Miguel Leonardo, a digital sculptor with a huge passion for art who is surfing this new wave of art expression and collectibles. I was the sculptor behind this fantastic piece, and since I received the concept from the art team of Figurama Collectors I felt amazed. It was a huge challenge but with a stunning result, thanks to the art team involved too, and thanks for such an amazing honor.” 

How did it feel to create a statue for such a renowned series like Fist Of The North Star? 

“Cool since the licensors allowed 2 characters in a single composition for the first time.” 

“For me it was a huge responsibility, with many fans around the globe, claiming for the more accurate details involved in these characters, it was hard work but more passion overall. I saw many things related to these characters, and even the music inspired me, as a curious tip I always like to sculpt with the original soundtracks of each anime project in which I have to be involved, getting a completely immersive experience. For me, each piece has to translate everything from the source that it came from, and as an artist pushing myself to add everything to it with the must care as possible and use the best of my skill.” 

What challenges did you face when concepting and designing this statue? 

“The biggest issue was composition. Two big guys are hard to design around while keeping the general footprint reasonable.” 

“Ok for this character Two big challenges, the first one was understanding the anatomical style of this kind of exaggerated body musculature, and then his faces, we had to be extremely careful looking to get the most accurate sculpt possible close to the hand drawing style and design from the great Tetsuo Hara the artist. Even other sculptor artists were involved in adjusting the facial expressions over and over, then returning to me to add the final adjustments and finalize the piece; it took time.” 

What did you want our wonderful collectors to feel when seeing the FOTNS statue? 

“I want to bring out those feelings of nostalgia, as they play out this fight in their heads.” 

“For me, I would like to see him trying to catch every detail and hard work that we put into this piece, I want to translate to them the same sensation that I have, feeling proud about this result, complete satisfaction, and catch the energy and the power of the impact between those amazing characters.” 

What made this statue design unique? 

“I believe it's the only Raoh vs Kenshiro statue of this scale and detail level” 

“Everything, the scene, the action between the characters, and definitely, take the risk of having these massive and powerful characters both into a dynamic pose, over one post apocalyptic scenario, the special effects, and why not, small easter eggs and tons of details sculpted.” 

What’s your favourite moment from the FOTNS series? 

“The scene that inspired this piece, is where the amazing fight between Raoh and Kenshiro happens, tearing their clothes and destroying each other.” 

What’s your favourite piece of the statue? 

“The swapout with a bunch of fists flying!” 

“The fun part for me to work on was the details sculpted over the Kenshiro outfit, but I can't have any favorite part the whole statue is amazing to me, is my favorite.” 

How long did it take? 

“Took a month or so to finalise the design. the 3d started in like 2019 and just got approved this year” 

“Related to time, I can't measure it, what can I say, when you have to be careful about adding details and following directions to get the most accurate as possible, as an artist we just need time, but also do our best to work as another important engine for the production, reaching the best time goals, but I want to tell you the important that was the piece to us, the sculpting time was around fours months, adding two months more after a rigorous feedback work, with the art team and almost one year of small adjustments until get the final approval from the licensors, approximately.”