DDdy (lack of) popularity in Japan?

A while ago, I read an article about USA Dolpa where Japanese staff were surprised to discover so many American customers like DDdy & wanted an update to it. Apparently at Japanese events, there are only a few DDdy owners and most people are interested in MDD. 

That's surprising when there are so many successful anime franchises built on the appeal of characters with even more exaggerated bodies than Dynamite... like, Blue Archive, Azur Lane and Nikke. Games like Taimanin or Senran Kagura. And there's the whole kyonyuu/bakunyuu category of ecchi & hentai.

Maybe the doll audience doesn't have overlap with gacha gamers? Maybe people find 60cm dolls too large to take to conventions? Or they prefer premium figures of these "mature" busty characters, rather than dolls?

Hopefully someone more familiar with the JP doll scene can give a better explanation!

PS. Merry Christmas & happy holidays, everyone!

46 minutes ago, meteorite said:

Apparently at Japanese events, there are only a few DDdy owners and most people are interested in MDD.

It’s not so much that DDdy is unpopular so much as that MDD is far and away the most popular size, and everything else is just an afterthought. It’s so popular that even if Volks stopped selling all other sizes, they would probably still be alright.

Idk exactly why that is, but I suspect a lot of it comes down to lack of space, cute aesthetic, and unfortunately lolicon preferences. You don’t have to look too hard on JP doll Twitter to run into people doing questionable things with their obviously underage dolls.

52 minutes ago, meteorite said:

like, Blue Archive, Azur Lane and Nikke.

These games aren’t Japanese and their aesthetic reflects that. I think aesthetic preferences are changing in Japan, but it’s not really normalized yet. To give an example, Gust didn’t expect Ryza to be as popular as she is because her body type is not what the JP market usually likes.

But I also think it’s wild to compare niche porn categories to the overall doll hobby. Not everyone wants their dolls to reflect their degenerate preferences, and most doll owners are women that probably have no interest in that kind of stuff to begin with.

1 hour ago, meteorite said:

Maybe the doll audience doesn't have overlap with gacha gamers? Maybe people find 60cm dolls too large to take to conventions? Or they prefer premium figures of these "mature" busty characters, rather than dolls?

I have this theory that the Volks doll community is divided into four groups: Miku fans, anime/game otaku, MDD enthusiasts, and a small group of people that collect dolls regardless of size or IP. They’re not mutually exclusive, of course, but there’s less overlap than you might expect. Sometimes I think the DD size is largely held up by Miku fans, and without them Volks might have pivoted entirely to MDD… 🤔 

1 hour ago, ragnamuffin said:

These games aren’t Japanese and their aesthetic reflects that. I think aesthetic preferences are changing in Japan, but it’s not really normalized yet. To give an example, Gust didn’t expect Ryza to be as popular as she is because her body type is not what the JP market usually likes.

But I also think it’s wild to compare niche porn categories to the overall doll hobby. Not everyone wants their dolls to reflect their degenerate preferences, and most doll owners are women that probably have no interest in that kind of stuff to begin with.

Sorry if I offended you. I'm not personally a fan of any of the games I mentioned, and I'm only familiar with the porn terms because, to be honest, it's hard to escape them if you're an anime fan. (Was the language too vulgar for this forum?) I'm also under the impression that a lot of owners do sexualize their DDs (including MDDs, as you pointed out...), and Volks themselves have made eroge characters into DDs in the past. 

Maybe I shouldn't have asked.

My two cents is that I think that Volks doesn't want to fill that need as much. It seems like brands like Angelphilia are filling that gap for larger breasts and more stylized builds.

Same thing with more "mature" faces molds. Smartdoll with as many flaws as it has does skew more mature looking, at least imo. Volks seems to want to keep towards more cutesy girls. Not that bigger breasts=less cute, but they are going for a certain style.

3 hours ago, meteorite said:

Sorry if I offended you. I'm not personally a fan of any of the games I mentioned, and I'm only familiar with the porn terms because, to be honest, it's hard to escape them if you're an anime fan. (Was the language too vulgar for this forum?) I'm also under the impression that a lot of owners do sexualize their DDs (including MDDs, as you pointed out...), and Volks themselves have made eroge characters into DDs in the past. 

Maybe I shouldn't have asked.

Ah, no, I’m not offended and I’m sorry that my response came off so acerbically. I’m very critical of porn and the sex industry in general, and don’t feel the need to hide that sentiment so it comes out in my responses sometimes, but it’s not personal.

It’s true Volks used to make dolls of eroge characters, but afaik they stopped doing that years ago. If they still do, it seems to be with games where the censored re-release is the better known version, like Fate and ToHeart.

I can’t comment on how common it is for doll owners to sexualize their dolls, but my impression is that they’re a minority. I get the feeling a lot of people in the JP doll scene at least view their dolls as little kids or pets or something like that.

Edited December 13, 2025 by ragnamuffin
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