[Ending Soon!] Accepting Orders for S.H.Figuarts PAIN TENDO -Six Path Rinnegan- Until August 4th (JST)! Read This Interview to Get a Sneak Peak of Its Creation!

This palm-sized action figure series brings together advanced techniques in modeling, movement, and coloring to create realistic renditions of your favorite characters!

Beginning with the four members of Team Seven released in 2022, Naruto has rejoined the brand.

—Today we have the supervisor for the S.H.Figuarts Naruto series, Ninnin Kanno, to discuss the series' charms, starting with the "S.H.Figuarts PAIN TENDO -Six Path Rinnegan-"!

Ninnin Kanno (hereafter, Kanno): Thank you for having me!

—First off, could you give a quick rundown of the development of PAIN TENDO?

Kanno: From the 2022 Team Seven release, all the figures had an alternating pattern of releasing an ally and enemy character together; after young Naruto and Sasuke we had Orochimaru, after Obito it was Kurama Link Mode Naruto, and so on.

—Seems like it would be fun to recreate the scenes from the manga when lining them up together.

Kanno: Well, that is pretty much what we had in mind for people when they play with or display the figures.
Since the figure released just before this one was Sage Mode Naruto, we felt it was only natural that the next should be PAIN TENDO, in order to replicate the battle with Pain.

—What part of the design did you pay particular attention to?

Kanno: That would have to be the Akatsuki cloak.
Starting with the NARUTOP99 Edition Itachi, Akatsuki cloaks have been made from real cloth, and so has Sage Mode Naruto's coat. PAIN TENDO is no exception, and that's definitely the selling point of the figure.

—What was the impetus behind the decision to make the cloaks out of cloth?

Kanno: Some user feedback mentioned that they wanted to see the cloak reproduced with cloth, and since we tend to emphasize quality in all aspects of our designs and we believed this suggestion would help contribute to that goal, we whole-heartedly committed to the idea.

Though that turned out to cause more problems than we initially expected...

—Specifically what kind of problems are we talking about?

Kanno: Well the first point was with the prototype, since unlike when worn by a human, cloaks designed for figures tend to look really puffed-out and bulky, which resulted in a couple issues...
We had to make a lot of tweaks starting from the prototype.

—After the prototype was complete, what was the production process like?

Kanno: We had it mass produced in an overseas factory. However, that mass production process had plenty of problems of its own. Production is supposed to match the prototype, but for some reason the stitching and silhouette didn't line up, and the material used for the cloth caused it to transfer coloring to the actual figure so we had a lot of restrictions on what we could use. Basically, mass-producing to match the sample ended up being a huge mess.

—The details on the cloak seem like they also would have been quite difficult to handle.

Kanno: That's right. The cloak has a hook on the inside of the chest area, but to reproduce the action of the Naruto series and the unique poses of each character, Itachi and Pain had to have their hooks in different places. There were a lot of details like that which caused trouble.

—Were there any other parts apart from the cloak that are special?

Kanno: It was during an earlier step of production, but we paid special attention to the clothes worn under the cloak too. They aren't visible in the story, so we had to take inspiration from the other Akatsuki members and come up with something suitably Pain-like.

Then we had to get the design reviewed by Shueisha, Studio Pierrot, and Masashi Kishimoto before we could even start production.

—You even had supervision from Masashi Kishimoto himself!

Kanno: Honestly I was quite worried about Pain's clothes not lining up with what Kishimoto had in mind, but I was very glad to get the OK on that design.

—Incidentally, have you decided on your next product?

Kanno: Yes! Next up we're going to have a lineup of reliable allies of Naruto's, mostly Hidden Leaf ninja. We're also leaning towards something that recreates the world of Naruto, like the Ichiraku Ramen set we previously released.

The next figure we have planned has been greatly requested, a character whose contribution led to the victory of the Hidden Leaf in the fight against the Akatsuki!

—If possible, could you show us a picture...?

Kanno: Alright, as a special surprise for readers, here's a picture of a portion of the figure!

Kanno: You'll have to wait for more details in a future announcement, but please have a go at figuring out who will appear!

—Finally, a message to everyone at home, please!

Kanno: Since our 2022 revival of the series, we've received a very positive response from all over the world and we're very grateful for that.

The reason we've been able to keep it going is due to both the people who have ordered and those who have left positive comments. Thank you all so much.

Your support will allow us to continue to create new figures for a variety of characters, as well as worldbuilding items like Ichiraku Ramen, so I hope we can count on all of you as we go forward!

—Kanno, thank you very much!