The Truth Behind the Mask
Ride the Pig Studio is no longer making Kigurumi masks. What remains is a messy, unfortunate chapter of early Western Kigurumi history.
tldr:
- Pushed “animegao” so a search for the hobby came back with them, not Japan.
- Bootlegged a Build Up Studio Sigma mask, called it their own work.
- Told buyers they would love the mask once it was in their hands.
- Told everyone else an "oriental" mask would never fit a large Western head.
- A mask from anywhere else, and you were not in the community.
- Tried to squash other communities. Failed. Shame Zone was named as the parody.
01
What is animegao?
A search term. Theirs. Japan did not come up.
Kigurumi masking is the hobby. It comes from mascots and Japanese stage shows. Animegao is a Western word for the masks. RTPS and other Western makers pushed it as the word on the product. Search it and you got Western makers and performers. A term they could astroturf.
02
The shop
3D print. Bed liner. Fiberglass. Heavy, and they fell apart.
Ride the Pig Studio took commissions from 2012 to 2020. It started for personal use and turned into a full-time operation. The build was their own recipe: a 3D-printed shell, lined with bed liner and fiberglass. Heavy, and often falling apart due to differences in thermal coefficients between the materials. Questionable build, even more questionable style choices.
03
Bootleg Sigma
They molded a Sigma mask and called it their own work.
A mold of a Build Up Studio Sigma mask (the genuine maker's product is still up). The community did not buy the excuse. Japanese makers really did not buy it.
After the clone, Japanese makers got hesitant to sell to Western buyers at all. That hesitancy was one of the biggest hurdles in the early Western hobby. And once Japan pulled back, other Western makers had more of the market to themselves. A bootleg of the good masks made the good masks harder to get, and left the remaining Western shops with the customers. Pic related.
Original - Build Up Studio Σ
Clone - RTPS bootleg
04
The masks
“You’ll love it so much more once its in your hands.”
And if you found an "oriental" maker: it will never fit your large Western head.
The gaslighting was real. The masks speak for themselves.
Reference RTPS maskCyan - reference vs. RTPS
Reference RTPS maskChaika - reference vs. RTPS
Reference RTPS maskEucliwood - reference vs. RTPS
Kyuubey from Madoka
05
The lasting reputation
Their mask, or you were not in the community.
The masks were half of it. Bootlegs. International fallout. Faces that lost to the reference.
The other half was the circle. Gatekeeping. A closeted kink focus while the public story pretended this was just the hobby. Terminology astroturfed until their word was the word. A mask from anywhere else and you were not welcome. They tried to squash other communities before those communities could form. They failed. Shame Zone, a Discord, was named that as a parody of all of it and quickly became THE community.
That is the cult. The grift is how it got paid. Their word brought the search here. The Western-head warning kept people off Japanese makers. The in-your-hands promise kept buyers from trusting their eyes. The community ended the moment the mask was from a "oriental" maker.
The scene moved on. Better masks. Far more makers kept popping up, especially from China. Relations with Japanese makers healed. Healthier communities formed. A RTPS mask still turns up now and then. The shop does not. The community is better off.
Visit "our" facebook page: facebook.com/ridethepigstudios