Tag Archives: Anime

Anime (アニメ in Japanese) is the style of animation or cartoons popularized in Japan, but appreciated worldwide today. Anime inspires lots of LEGO models from builders everywhere. Whether you love the artistry of Hayao Miyazaki or mecha from shows like Gundam and Evangelion, you’ll find many wonderful LEGO creations inspired by anime here on The Brothers Brick.

LEGO Goes Super Saiyan

Dragon Ball Z is a beloved animated show with many fans across generations, there’s definitely no need for a scouter to check out this LEGO model built by nobu_tary, surely its power level is above 9000. Here we have a figural model of the main protagonist of the series, Goku, in his super Saiyan form. The majority of Goku’s body is fashioned out of orange slopes in a variety of types and sizes, along with tan pieces to flesh out his face and arms. Dark blue bricks and tiles help render Goku’s boots, belt, and t-shirt. The signature spiky golden super Saiyan hair is comprised of slopes and bricks in yellow. A hero factory 1×1 printed round tile is cleverly used here to portray the Kame symbol typically shown on his gi. Nobu_tary also sticks in a couple LEGO dragon wings behind Goku, paying homage to the show’s namesake. Overall it’s always great to see uncommon colors and pieces coming together for an uncommon build – I haven’t seen a ton of models based on Dragon Ball Z.

DRAGON BALL Son Goku

On that day, mankind received a grim reminder. We lived in fear of the Titans...

Shingeki no Kyojin (or Attack on Titan) is regarded as one of the best and most popular manga and anime series. But for some reason, there seems to be a serious lack of LEGO builds of it. Luckily, Funnystuffs built the Attack Titan in great detail, accompanied by custom minifigures of some of the main characters. On the surface, Attack on Titan may appear to be just another kaiju series about cool kids fighting giant monsters, as the original premise has led us to believe. It gradually progressed into “the Game of Thrones of anime,” a dark and heartwrenching series about human nature, war, politics, and so much more. Now that its popularity is at its peak, there is hope for more Attack on Titan creations down the line.

Lego Attack Titan (from Attack on Titan, Shingeki no Kyojin)

Primarily a mech builder, Funnystuffs did a great job with the organic look of the Attack Titan. Covered with tan LEGO elements to represent its skin tone, it is completely accurate and to scale with the minifigures. The only gray bits peeking through are the necessary joints to give the titan full poseability. Funnystuffs gave special attention to the head – its iconic green eyes, grinning jaw, and long hair.

See more pictures of the Attack Titan in this gallery here. (Includes spoilers for those who may care.)

2020 be like...

2020 has been a whirlwind so far. It started off with Australia on fire, then the Coronavirus shuttered the entire globe indoors, the stock market took us to a time when I had other haircut choices and now we have murder hornets. And it’s only May. If this LEGO creation by Eric T is any indicator we’ll be seeing man-eating plants later this month followed closely by taser sharks and then slaughter rabbits. All kidding aside though, this toothy plant is pretty neat. Eric tells us it comes from a Japanese anime called Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? I imagine it would depend on the dungeon. Dungeon Girls…either that’s a cult pulp movie or the forecast for June.

Man Eating Flower Monster ヴィオラス

She’s kinda cute, but the tentacles creep me out...

How do you make a giant red alien lady laugh? With ten tickles! Ha! Get it? Tentacles… Ok, in all seriousness, I’ve never been into Anime, but the images that come out of it can be awe-inspiring sometimes. The highly stylized art form has a strong visual presence, to say the least. And this LEGO build by Sheo. has a strong visual presence, too, with that red alien lady and a spaceship in the background. The ship is the Sidonia, from the Manga and Anime work called Knights of Sidonia. The red figure is Tsumugi, a genetic hybrid of human and alien, designed to fight off the bad aliens with her giant body and immense powers. I love the use of ten tickles, er, tentacles to create a ragged organic shape, and the pirate hats for breasts is inspired. The end result is something disturbingly close to human, but still very much alien. Does it match the source? I don’t really know, and don’t much care, because as a LEGO build, she’s awesome! As long as she keeps her distance.

Tsumugi (Knights of Sidonia)

Dream if you can a courtyard, an ocean of violets in bloom

Suddenly I have Prince tunes going through my head and I don’t know why. It’s weird when that happens. Anyway, Marco De Bon built this delightfully purple mech he calls the FA-13 “Venus” and we’re all tickled pink about it. Or…purple, actually. Well, maybe a little pink. The translucent sparkly pink wings are actually doors that come from a rare Belleville set (good luck finding that!) and are used brilliantly here. The mech stands 8-inches (20cm) tall and is inspired by the insect-like mechs of the Aura Battler Dunbine anime series from the 80s.

Lego FA-13 "Venus"

Marco also constructed a stand for flying and action poses.

Lego FA-13 "Venus"

Delivering tofu with style in a Toyota AE86

This build by Peter Blackert is a throwback to the culture that sparked drifting and made the Toyota AE86 an iconic phenomenon. It’s said that, to date, Toyota AE86’s inflated price is not only because of its rarity but also because of its cult following from fans seeing it featured in the Japanese manga Initial D in the mid-90s and its appearance into the anime scene in the late 90s. The AE86 was popular for its capability to drift with its relatively lightweight and rear-wheel drive combination and also the main premise of the legendary stories in the aforementioned manga. In LEGO, the 10-stud wide design gives it a lot more room for design language compared to the regular 6-stud wide designs from the Speed Champions series from LEGO’s own take on popular cars.

Initial D - Toyota AE86 Trueno Sprinter

Initial D - Toyota AE86 Trueno Sprinter

LEGO EVA Unit 02 has activated

Mathijs Dubbeldam had a goal: to build the world’s most accurate EVA Unit 02 from the anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The head in particular reads strikingly accurate to me, but I am also impressed with the iconic long limbs, lanky frame, and spot-on details right down to the fingernails.

EVA Unit 02 in Tokyo-3

See more of this intricate model, including one of the building’s interiors.

Off the grid to find Akira

The prototypical LEGO piece is the 2×4 rectangular brick. It has ninety-degree angles on every side, and using it, together with most other LEGO bricks, one can build things with lots of right angles. Unless you are Thorsten Bonsch, that is, and you are building off the grid, setting your scene at a cool forty-five degree angle. The greebled elements that comprise the science fiction setting, all the pipes and valves and whatnot, are a lovely backdrop to an epic showdown between Tetsuo, a character from Akira, and one of the authorities trying to stop him. I hope Tetsuo can avoid those rockets firing at him!

Akira – Off to the Containment Unit 1

There is nothing that fancy going on in the sloped section, though I do enjoy the ubiquitous fence piece making an appearance; it is just a masterfully arranged assortment of textured elements and repetitive piping. The cumulative effect of it, however, is brilliant. But the platform is what catches my eye. The yellow and black striping is excellent, and the various subtle offsets of the grey surface are gorgeous. Now, I don’t know much about Akira, but if this creation is anything to go by, it must be awesome!

The ultimate crossover anime movie of the century, if it ever happens

If the right copyright holders ever found a way to collaborate, any movie featuring this legendary trio would probably be an instant blockbuster hit. The Gundam RX-78-2, Voltron, and Optimus Prime all in a single scene saving the world is what Tom Vanhaelen teases us with. I found it quite delightful how Voltron was sized down tremendously from its official LEGO Ideas Voltron set using some of the printed parts and looks like a medium-sized model of its larger cousin.

RX-78-2 - Voltron - Optimus Prime

A different kind of Thunderbird

Ted Andes says his latest LEGO spaceship was partly modelled on the Cosmo-class starfighters of anime series Space Battleship Yamato. Regardless of the original inspiration, this is an excellent model, packed full of interesting angles, nice integration of Technic panels along with the regular bricks, and strong colour blocking. The white and orange add a pleasing burst of colour against the military-grey styling, and the restrained use of stickers works well, adding touches of detail without distracting the eye from the overall shape.

Cosmo Thunderbird

A laser axe for felling enemies, not space trees

If you have been following the Brothers Brick for a while, you are probably familiar with the figure-building madman known as Eero Okkonen, who is known to often produce his masterful figure builds on a weekly basis or faster. This time Eero brings us a creation that he built a while back, but only recently shared online. It is a part of a series of Japanese video-game inspired characters we have been following on the Brothers Brick for a while now.

HAVOC-DISSECT IV

The build is faithful to the series, using the striking colour scheme and Clickits strings as laser blades on the amazing space axe. On the other hand, it is unique and a clear improvement on previous installments. There are so many exotic pieces used in unique ways that I can not even begin to cover, but what stands out most is the wildly flowing hair made of balloon panels in earth orange.

Friends in the rain: LEGO BrickHeadz Totoro and Satsuki

It would take a hard heart not to be moved by Kendall Brown‘s adorable digital LEGO Totoro and Satsuki. As with his Elf and Narwhal and Wizard of Oz characters, which we recently featured, it’s a perfect example of how to build in the BrickHeadz theme. In this case it’s the selection of cartoon tile eyes, perfectly spaced, which captures Totoro’s quizzical expression and lifts the build to another level. Mix in all those extra touches like the flicks in Satsuki’s hair, Totoro’s tummy fur, and atmospheric Photoshop rain and you have a fitting tribute to one of the greatest animated films of all time.

Totoro & Satsuki - BrickHeadz Moc