Hiro Worship

Welcome to Hiro Worship! This is my website dedicated to the most remarkable dolls I have ever owned, my Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. The website is named after my first and still favorite BJD, named Hiro. I currently have twelve dolls, from Japan, Korea and China, and they all have characters, histories and many stories yet to be told.

By March 2005, I had only seen a few BJDs in person, and though I found them interesting, I never thought I would own one. I had barely even handled one. "Too big," I thought. "Too expensive to buy and to dress and maintain." But I started seeing more and more of them among my doll collecting friends and communities. Probably what attracted me the most at first was the Asian aspect. Though I thought it was unusual that most of the dolls didn't look Asian at all, they DID look like anime characters to me. And since I had a little interest in anime, I found myself looking at them, but none of them were appealing enough for me to buy one. Or so I thought.

I started watching eBay auctions for BJDs, and started frequenting websites dedicated to them. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was educating myself about them. Learning about the different sizes, styles, types, companies. It took me a while, but I finally found some BJDs whose faces I liked and even loved. Volks SD13 Mimi was the first BJD I knew I wanted. But something kept me from buying her as my first. SoulDoll Paris was the first boy BJD I liked for sure, but... I just wasn't ready to buy him. Something wasn't quite right. He was too handsome, too perfect. I thought I wanted a girl BJD first, but for some reason, I found myself looking at the boys more and more.

The first BJD I got was my Volks SD13 Link. I bought him almost on a whim. I had been watching an eBay auction for a Volks Kohya, but just couldn't make myself shell out $1000+ for him. As soon as the auction ended, I went to the Volks Japan website and looked around. I had never seriously considered Volks Link before. I only saw his pictures at the Volks website, and had never seen owner pics. I knew that if I got a boy BJD, I didn't want him to look girlish, and Link was the least girly looking boy available. And before I knew it, I had bought him! It was June 2005.

I had an idea for his name even before he came home, Kazuhiro. (His last name, Tanaka, came later.) I knew already that his nickname would be Hiro. I gave him a Japanese name because he was a doll from Japan. That was the only reason. If I had known he would take on a character and "life" of his own, I might have given him an American name, because he is definitely an American boy in his behaviour... but it was too late. His name was already his.

Before he arrived, I was worried. What if I didn't love him? He was sooo expensive! Would I really like how he looked? What would I do if I didn't even LIKE him?? When he finally DID come home, I was afraid to open the box! I actually kept it next to me for two hours before I even opened it. But... as soon as I did, I fell in love with him. Even though he was naked and bald, I knew that he was going to be something special. His smirky, snarky half-smile, his vulnerability, the way his expression changed when I looked at him from different angles. And I was amazed at his size and his poseability. He was different from any other doll I had ever owned.

Please click on the smaller pictures below for a more detailed biography of the characters...

My entire BJD world evolves around Hiro. He looked a little sheepish to me when I changed his clothes. (He still does.) I figured he was around 15 years old, an orphan when he came to live with me (since he had no family that I knew of). When he first made his debut, he was kind of quiet and a little shy, looking around for others like him. And soon his character started to reveal itself. His impetuousness and his penchant for getting into trouble. His talent for play acting. His interest in history. And even his family history started coming out. He was a typical but somehow exceptional kid. Clever, but not always smart. Self-confident but not conceited, and under no illusions about himself. Book-learned and life-learned in some aspects, but not all. Honest and never deliberately deceptive, and usually intending to do good, even if situations didn't always turn out that way. All he needed was a place to call home. And luckily for me... he found it.

And, if it hadn't been for Hiro, I never would have got more BJDs. I fell in love with BJDs because of him. I had no idea what to expect from him before he arrived, but now I knew what to expect from others. And ideas for more characters began to form...

Wynnefred, my second BJD character, was supposed to be a love interest for Hiro, and I knew I wanted her to be SD13 Mimi. A flirty, cute girl. My third character would be a sort of rival for Hiro, an older boy. Someone who would make his life more difficult, and might even try to take Fred away from Hiro... not that Hiro wanted her! Because the three of them were supposed to be a love triangle of sorts. Fred would want Hiro to notice her... the second boy would want Fred to notice HIM... and Hiro would notice no one. I don't quite know what possessed me to want a girl named Fred, but I referred to her as Fred even before she had her full name of Wynnefred. Wynnefred's history evolved even before she came home. Her father was a member of the US Air Force stationed in Japan, and her mother was Japanese. They married and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in America, where Wynnefred was born. However, a tragic car accident took the lives of both her parents, and Wynnefred was the infant survivor of that accident. That twist of fate took her back to Japan. Her only living relatives were her obaasan and ojiisan, her grandmother and grandfather, whom she called Baba and Jiji. She was raised by them and had a loving home... but even her happy life would not always run smooth... and she too would find her way to America, just like Hiro did.

But before more BJDs came home to live with me, another character began to form. An older brother for Hiro, someone like him yet different. Why did Hiro have no family? I decided that his parents had died when he was very young, and he had only an older brother surviving with him. A secretive, tragic character, who had disappeared without explanation and left Hiro alone in the world. But how would Hiro ever find out what truly happened to his brother Tadashi? It was then that I conceived the idea that Tournai, the second boy and rival of Hiro's, would be a reincarnated soul. That, at some point, he had met Tadashi when both of them were in spirit form, and Tadashi revealed to Nai how he had died, and that Hiro was his brother. And somehow Nai would find his way to my house, and his purpose would be to tell Hiro about his brother's ultimate fate. And suddenly Tournai was no longer just a boy but a grown man -- a three thousand year old one, in fact. Nai has the strange ability to recall his previous earthly lives, as well as all of the times in between when he was disembodied and observant of the world moving on without him. In his long life, Nai has seen many things and learned a great deal. He is supremely arrogant in his knowledge of the ways of the world and the behaviour of men (and women), but if he had spent ALL of his years on earth (rather than as a disembodied spirit most of the time), it is possible that he would have grown weary of corporeal life long ago. He is prone to bouts of unaccountable melancholy. He is extremely intelligent, but is also stoic and old fashioned, and he still subscribes to the theory that a good whack (when deserved) will not do a boy any harm (undoubtedly a carryover from his previous life in the 19th century).

What had happened to Hiro between the time he lost his brother and and the time he arrived home to me? I came up with the idea that perhaps Hiro and Tadashi were put into separate foster houses after they had lost their parents. But by the age of fourteen (when Hiro was eleven), Tadashi had had enough, and wanted to live with Hiro as a family once again. He came to Hiro's window one night, as he had many times before to see him, but this time it was different. Tadashi asked Hiro to run away from the foster home and go with him -- and Hiro was so eager to go that he would have left with nothing if Tadashi hadn't made him pack up his meager personal belongings and some clothes. They lived on the streets for about two years, usually staying in boarding houses and eating at street stalls, although Tadashi was Hiro's shelter more than any building. Then, one night, Tadashi did not come home... and after the longest day of his short life, Hiro did as he had once promised his brother he would do if he was left alone in the world... he turned himself in to a teen homeless shelter that the two of them had passed by many times in their home town. Hiro's life would change yet again after that night and long day. Somehow Hiro was certain that Tadashi was dead and gone forever. He reasoned to himself that nothing short of death would keep Tadashi from him, and since Tadashi never showed up... he must be gone. But after he arrived at the shelter, and even though he no longer had his brother, Hiro would soon find that his quality of life would change for the better.

Originally, my k-doll kill_U 2nd head was supposed to portray the character of Tournai. When I had first got the kill_U head, I thought he would make a wonderful kabuki character, but I tried to make him fit Nai's character instead. But somehow he just didn't fit. Or refused to fit! Tournai needed to be older, more self-assured -- and much more vain! Luckily for me the SoulDoll Paris came along at just the right time... leaving the kill_U 2nd free to become the kabuki character instead. And so Shakkyo was created. He would not speak when I had tried to make him into Tournai... and he still refuses to speak, even in his new persona. Shakkyo is contrary, stubborn, quirky and unpredictable. He doesn't really tolerate anyone at the house except for Tadashi and Wynnefred, and Hiro least of all. Tadashi has often said that Shakkyo has plenty to say, it's just that no one else is patient enough to listen and actually HEAR what he is saying. Shakkyo likes to communicate non-verbally via emails and on message boards, and has a quirky, semi-literate style of writing. I have a theory that Shakkyo is in fact a frustrated actor, and for some reason he identifies very strongly with Japanese culture -- though none of us even knows for sure if he IS Japanese or not. He shows aptitude at various things like growing bonsai and doing origami, so he pretty much has us fooled. But we still don't know who he is, where he is from -- and where he is going. He is the closest thing I have to a beautiful doll who is mainly displayed and not played with... but Shakkyo is very much an active member of my resin family.

Eventually, I came up with the idea of a nemesis for Tournai. A seemingly eternal one, who had followed him through history and time, and a polar opposite of Tournai. Since in several of his previous lives, Tournai had been English, I decided to make his enemy French in at least one life... and he took on a French name, Etienne Gavreau. (However, as Hiro likes to say, Gavreau is about as French as a French fry.) But over the years, Gavreau's methods of reincarnating have become quite different from Tournai's... and are considerably less scrupulous. I am still not certain what caused the rift between them. Perhaps they had been friends once, or even brothers, but now they are enemies, and bitter, mortal ones at that. Perhaps it is because Tournai learned from his lives as he lived them, and he grew more mature, more sensible, more morally upright, more observant, more steadfast... while through some moral weakness, Gavreau did not. Possibly Gavreau envies Tournai, though he would never admit it even to himself. And perhaps Gavreau is angry because of the loss of the man whom had once been his closest comrade, and had seen eye to eye with him on so many things... and perhaps sometimes he even regrets the passing of those carefree earlier days, when the two of them were reckless, ungoverned and free.

Another character who evolved from Tournai was Rachel Willoughby, his wife from his previous life. But at one point, Tournai was killed in battle by his enemy Gavreau, and was tragically separated from his young bride forever. And Tournai, once he entered my house, would find himself being highly protective of Wynnefred in much the same way... as if he were trying somehow to make up for his deficiency for failing to protect his Rachel after his death. I had not planned to buy a doll to portray Rachel. Volks SD13 Emma was the character's primary inspiration. I only used the doll to write some history for Nai. But I could not resist buying her, because there were so few girl BJDs that I truly loved. But after I purchased her, I realized that I didn't want a doll to portray a character from the past, a character who was long dead and gone. She wouldn't be able to interact with my other dolls in the household, except for Nai... and I wanted to PLAY with her! I didn't want another reincarnated character either. (Two in one household is plenty, thanks.) The Rachel who had been Nai's wife was indeed lost to him forever. So... I decided she would be a wonderful best friend for my previously solitary girl in the house, Wynnefred... and the two have been inseparable ever since. And despite the complacent, pensive and serene countenance that inspired her original character, the new Rachel is much more impetuous, more outspoken and not quite as sweet as she appears.

Hiro had other friends when he lived back in Japan, characters whom I never intended to have in BJD form. But when the opportunity came to purchase a SoulDoll Lune, a sculpt I had always loved, with a beautiful faceup, I couldn't pass him up. And as it turned out, he was perfect for the character of Kaoru Akiyoshi, a young man who was a client at the shelter where Hiro turned himself in for safety. Kaoru was quite the opposite of Hiro -- thoughtful, quiet, introspective, and rarely impulsive. He is a dedicated athlete, strong and self-assured in most aspects of his life. Since Hiro left, Kaoru has pursued a new life interest he has, counseling other homeless youths like himself. He is pleased to have found a new direction for his life, and continues to further his education in the same field. Kaoru also has a twin sister, Kiyako, who is quite different from him. She is often quick to anger, and makes decisions that she would sometimes regret later. Kiyako has also found a career for herself in counseling, though her methods and her brother's are sometimes quite different! But despite their differences, they are quite devoted to each other, and respect each other greatly. Their nicknames for each other are Kayo and Kiki, his nickname coming partly from his involvement in martial arts and boxing at the gym. I have not yet found the perfect BJD to play Kiyako, since the girl BJDs I love don't come along every day, but I do hope to find one someday soon.

Luke was an unexpected member of my household. I first met him when I saw him several times at a friend's house. Though I decided he is no relation to Hiro or to anyone else, I just couldn't forget his cute little smiling face, and I thought that maybe a little responsibility would do Hiro some good. So... DoD Too came home to live with us. He was christened Lucas Macauley Minton. He is quite proud of his rather pretentious sounding name, and likes to use it whenever possible. Luke is a normal little boy of seven, probably something like Hiro would have been at his age, and he fits into our family very well. Occasionally he gets into trouble, usually from something he has inadvertently learned from Hiro! Luke was my only mini-sized BJD for a long time, but now another has come into my family. Rachel's little brother, Roger, was mentioned a few times as a schoolmate of Luke's, and has finally joined us...

Roger is rather an opposite of Luke's, so it is surprising that they became friends at school. Rachel often calls her younger brother a "little monster", and Hiro describes him as "a heinous little turd." But we mustn't just assume that everything they say is true... should we? Roger's parents, on the other hand, believe he is a little angel... but Rachel knows her brother too well. She still loves him nevertheless, and in his own way, I think he really loves her too. When I originally planned for Roger, he was supposed to be a little older, and Luke was going to look up to him a bit. But Volks Enn and DoD Too seem to be about the same age to me, so I will have them be in the same grade at school. So far, Roger seems to be the pessimist to Luke's eternal optimist... but time will tell more about what Roger is really like, as he is my newest arrival and hasn't had the opportunity to be in many stories just yet.

Demetrius first came about as a character because I wanted Gavreau (the little sociopath that he is!) to expand his horizons a little. In my storyline, Gavreau lives alone, and doesn't even associate with the other BJDs here at my house. I got tired of him having to talk to the camera or speak monologues to express what he was feeling... so I started having him see a therapist named Trevor (played by Hiro, of course). But this wasn't quite enough. One of Trevor's other patients, this shy and quiet young man named Demetrius Folcwine, first encountered Gavreau in the waiting room of the therapist's office. And the next thing Gavreau knew, his house was invaded by someone who LOOKED like Demetrius, but called himself by the Elvish sounding name of Glorfindel Rowantree -- who would not take no for an answer! Demetrius' full story has yet to emerge, since he is fairly new around here, but I have a feeling that his alter ego Glorfindel finds it amusing to press Gavreau, and in a way he is testing the limits of his newly found confidence in himself and his abilities.

The BJD for Akone was an unexpected trade, so I didn't have a character for him when I brought him home. It didn't take very long for me to come up with something for him, though! I had lived in Hawaii for three years when I was in the Navy, and I loved it so much I was inspired to make my DollZone Yuu-2 into a Hawaiian character. He has proved serendipitous indeed, and has helped several members of my resin family, including Shakkyo and Demetrius/Glorfindel. Akone still has family members living in Hawaii on the islands of Molokai and Oahu, including his parents and three brothers (and plenty cousins!). He's a very easygoing sort... it takes a lot to make him angry or impatient.