Backstory and info for MVH x Blobpus Enma

Ever since in-development sculpts of the Blobpus Enma head sculpt for MVH's Ollie started surfacing a little while back, the sofubi world has been buzzing with excitement about the figure's release. Here's a shot I took of the finished Enma head sculpt at Pachisummit last month. (More shots here.)

A few days ago, the first pictures of the debut production figure emerged online, and just yesterday at the Blobpus x Guuman custom show, Kaji-san had the sample out for display.( Go here for details on how to pre-order the figure.)

I sat down with Kaji-san at the show and talked about Enma. Here's what I learned.

Enma is a god that stands at a purgatory checkpoint between heaven and hell. Enma is neither good nor evil. His job is to judge people after they die. Notice the monk sculpted on the back of the head. If a person is judged to be good, the monk will see that the deceased is sent to heaven.

If a person is judged to be evil, this fierce gaze will condemn the person to hell:

The character above his center eye means "king."

As Kaji-san explained, the colors for the first production are the colors traditionally associated with Enma. Kaji-san also pointed out that whereas Enma is typically shown as having two eyes. Kaji-san's interpretation in toy form has three.

A couple of pieces of news about this release. First, Kaji-san will paint as many as are ordered. If there are 50 orders, then 50 figures will be sent out. If there are 100 orders, then that's the release number. Finally, and this is huge news, Kaji-san says he is going to paint ALL of the debut release Enma figures himself. So this release is an amazing chance to order a hand-painted figure from one of the true masters of the art.