Of course, the biggest reason is simply that I love Katamari Damacy. But first, let me talk a little about the name of this figure series, “A-SYMBOL.”

Katamari Damacy already has all kinds of merchandise featuring its wonderful artwork, and I’m sure many fans collect those items very passionately. That probably means a lot of them have a favorite space at home or at work—almost like their own little sanctuary—where they carefully arrange and display the things they love. I thought that if you placed one larger, iconic piece in that space, it could make the whole display even more enjoyable.

Tokyo has Tokyo Tower. Japan has Mount Fuji. When you think of a place or a region, there’s often something that serves as its symbol. We wanted to create something that could become that kind of symbol for someone’s personal space.

We chose Katamari Damacy as the first title for A-SYMBOL because there haven’t been many three-dimensional collectibles for the series, its world grows out of everyday life, and it has characters with such a strong presence that they can practically define a space on their own.

When I first heard the idea from Iwasaki, I was honestly surprised. I never expected that working at Prime 1 Studio would lead me to Katamari Damacy. (laughs) But once I heard the concept behind the project, I felt that Katamari Damacy—and especially The King and The Prince—were a perfect fit for it.

From there, I started developing the concept with the goal of packing in as much as possible of both what fans would want and the kind of originality that only Katamari Damacy could offer.

I think people who know Prime 1 Studio tend to picture something large, sharply sculpted, and incredibly detailed—almost like a full diorama—when they hear our name. But one of the great things about Katamari Damacy is that simply having the characters in your everyday space can make that space feel like part of the Katamari Damacy world. Your own dishes or stationery, for example, can become part of the diorama.

Thinking about it that way, it felt a little off for us to force in too much story or add too much to the world ourselves, so the project naturally moved in a simpler direction. When I saw the finished pieces, I thought, “Yes, this really is Katamari Damacy.”

The basic structure of the game is simple too, so I guess that connects to this as well. Would you say that simplicity is one of the reasons Katamari Damacy has been loved for so long?

A lot of things you never get tired of looking at tend to be simple.

If we were going to make The King big, then we really wanted him to feel big. And properly imposing. Once we thought about that, crossing his arms and standing there like he owns the place just felt right. The King gets up to all kinds of things in the games, so there were plenty of poses we could have chosen. But because we wanted him to become a symbol of the space he’s displayed in, we chose the pose that makes him look as tall as possible.

As for The Prince, he’s 5 cm tall. To be honest, we did consider making him a little bigger. But since we were making The King too, we wanted the two to feel connected when displayed together, while still keeping The Prince at a size where we could make a Katamari that felt just right. So we decided to stick to his official 5 cm height. And that led us to making The King ten times taller—50 cm!

Incidentally, in the tutorial for Once Upon A KATAMARI, there’s a figure of The King standing in the corner of the room The Prince is cleaning up, and he’s in exactly the same pose. We only noticed that afterward, so it was a complete coincidence. But in a way, it made me feel like we had chosen the right pose after all.

I took that entirely as a compliment. (laughs)

Of course, we also considered poses of The Prince rolling his Katamari. But there’s something about the way he just stands there that speaks through his whole body, and I started to think that might actually be the version you’d never get tired of looking at.

For both The King and The Prince, we also wanted them to work in all kinds of spaces. Compared with wide poses or action poses, a more vertical composition has much more presence while still being easier to display.

The built-in magnets for The Prince were one of the first features I wanted to include once we decided to make him. The idea itself is simple, but I knew it would work extremely well with the whole concept of the Katamari.

Including the objects also came from our desire to bring as many things from the world of Katamari Damacy into physical form as we could.

Prime 1 Studio usually makes very large pieces, so figuring out just how much attention we could put into something small was actually a major challenge. With full CG, incredibly detailed graphics, or lifelike expressions, having more physical size gives you more room for information, which can make it easier to maintain a certain level of quality. But even with The King being large, his unique artwork made the process anything but straightforward.

I don’t mean that the design is simple—because it isn’t. It’s extremely iconic and almost symbolic in shape, but at the same time, it also feels incredibly organic. That made it surprisingly difficult to find the “right” lines, and it really showed me just how much depth there is to the design. The area around the jaw, the balance of the forehead, the depth of the eyes—he was a difficult gentleman in all sorts of ways.

But once it was finished, especially when I finally saw him as a physical object, I felt like we had captured a face that just makes you grin every time you look at it.

To give The King’s eyes that depth and intensity, we separated the parts so that the eyes are inserted from behind the face. That creates a clear boundary between the eyes and the face, giving them a more natural sense of depth. It’s actually a technique that’s also used in Buddhist statues...

It was a very rewarding supervision process. It really made me appreciate just how much depth there is to The King’s face.

The biggest reason was that we wanted to communicate the concept behind the product first—having it become a symbol of your room. Our promotional videos are usually more like visual pieces without much explanation, but this time we really wanted The King to do plenty of talking.

In his usual way, of course. And then, once viewers have seen The Prince as well, we hope fans will start imagining things like, “I could display them like this,” or “I could put them over there.” That was something we worked on together with the PV production team.

There’s also the idea that, in Katamari Damacy, everything starts with The King. So naturally, The King should appear first! This may be a completely unnecessary detail, but each of our products has a product code made up of letters and numbers. We made The King 01 and The Prince 02. It’s also a little reference to the lyric “That’s why the Prince is Number 2” from the opening song of Once Upon A KATAMARI.

So we wanted to preserve that idea that The King comes before The Prince. Of course, the song also says he’s “really Number 1,” so maybe this truly is a completely unnecessary detail... But if you’re curious, both the video and the product codes are on the product pages, so have a look.

Note　The King is ASYMKD-01, and The Prince is ASYMKD-02.

Actually, let me turn the question around. From your perspective, Mr. Ishida, what kind of person is The King?

I think Katamari Damacy has this quality where its charm gradually works its way into you, and before you know it, you’re thinking, “There’s just something about this that’s addictive.” The King is probably the character who embodies that feeling most strongly.

The way you gradually find yourself drawn to his personality actually feels very similar to the way people gradually fall in love with Katamari Damacy itself.

The King and The Prince figures are our attempt to pack in as many of those different elements as we could in our own way. Mr. Ishida, how would you like fans to enjoy them?

I’m planning to have one King at the office and another at home. Where would you put yours, Mr. Ishida?

If we’re allowed to, I’d love to keep bringing as much of the world of Katamari Damacy into three dimensions as possible, so honestly, there’s no end to what we could make. But I’d really like to make The Queen. We’ve made these two, after all... And of course, I’d love to make the Cousins too.

I genuinely want to keep going, so we need everyone’s support. I’ll just come out and say it: please buy them. (laughs)

Of course I’d love to make more of the Cousins. I’d also like to try The Queen and Papa.

The King himself has had all kinds of different designs beyond the original game, so if we ever had the chance, I’d love to see some of those versions too. But as a personal goal, I’d love to make Jumboman someday. (laughs) He’s one of the regulars in Katamari Damacy, and he even had that great movie in Katamari Forever, so I’m sure there are some extremely hardcore fans out there.

It might be a dream, but I think it would be really fun if we could make it happen someday.

Is there anything you’d like to see from us, Mr. Ishida? Anything you wish we’d try next?

We poured all the love we have for Katamari Damacy into bringing its world to life in three dimensions. The King and The Prince offer endless ways to enjoy them even after you put them on display, and I truly believe they’re figures you won’t regret adding to your collection.

We hope you’ll enjoy creating a space with the two of them in it!

As a fan myself, I obsessed over every detail to make these truly one-of-a-kind figures!

I hope you’ll welcome The King and The Prince into your everyday life and enjoy creating your very own Katamari Damacy world!

Mr. Ishida, could we get a final word from you as well?