Making Of: Kamuro Tapes

I think enough time has passed to where I can talk about these lol. A lot of people have bought them (THANK YOU <3) and maybe some of those people would be interested in a write-up. I also just really wanna talk about these :) I put a lot of effort into them so lemme have this

(A lot of this talk will mention characters and locations from the Yakuza games- nothing spoilery, but this probably wouldn't make much sense to non-fans)

I don't remember how I got the idea for these tapes, exactly. I think I got bored and took a look at my washi tape collection and was like, "Wait, I've done charms. I can probably do tapes too :O"

So this was my first time producing washi tape! And it had to be a complex one like a stamp washi tape, because of course 🙃

When I do make merch, it's always something that I want to have and use myself. And I really like washi tape lol, especially the ones shaped like stamps. I hadn't seen much of Yakuza washi tape merch from anyone... so I guess it was now my job to make it 🤷‍♀️

I booted up my save of Yakuza Kiwami and roamed around the map to take screenshots of various landmarks- which was really hard and annoying to do, mind you!! Every minute or so, a group of goons would gang up on Kiryu, forcing me into a fight. Or worse, I would encounter Majima 💀

This is the intended gameplay though lmao, but this is literally the one time I do not want to play the game. I'm just here to take pictures 😭

in-game screenshot of the Champion District vs the final stamp design

"But gdoodlez! You've played other Yakuza games. Why did it have to be this one?"

Good question!

The goal with designing these tapes was to make something recognizable by most fans, (and to make it appeal to non-fans- more on that later). Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 1/Kiwami are the two RGG games that a majority of fans start off with (and I guess Y7 too, but that's a whole other conversation), and are thus, most memorable- so those were my options. However, I especially wanted the Millenium Tower to be featured as a stamp design, but that building does not exist in Y0. I had to take pictures in YK1.

Which is too bad! Because, Yakuza Kiwami 2 has a first-person photo mode, so that would've been nice. Or, I could've booted up Yakuza 5 and played as Haruka, and the neat thing about playing as her, is that she doesn't have people wanting to pick fights whilst roaming the map. Would've made the picture-taking process much easier >_>

But those versions of Kamurocho are just too different from what most players would recognize, if they haven't played that far into the series. The thing with the RGG games is that each game has a slightly different version of Kamurocho- just like cities in the real world, businesses come and go, and the city changes over time.

So the stamp designs had to be of Kamurocho from YK1. That game takes place in 2005.

in-game screenshot of the Millenium Tower vs the final stamp design

Now here's the research! I wanted these to look like real (but not real enough to where I could get in trouble) stamps. I looked up info on Japanese stamps from 2005 and how much they cost. I found that the common denominations were 50¥ and 80¥ for stamps issued in 2005. I'm no philatelist, so I'm not 100% on this info; I just looked this up on various stamp websites. Sure hope I'm not wrong 🙃

50¥ and 80¥ stamps. hey fun fact, I actually own the stamp on the right :^) (img source: touchstamps.com)

All of the stamps I've seen while researching had 4 main texts consistent throughout all of them. They all had written:

• the denomination (50 or 80)

• "NIPPON"

• "日本郵便" (read as nippon yuubin, "Japan Post")

• the name of the thing that's being depicted (the examples above read "ヒマワリ•千葉県" himawari chiba-ken, "sunflowers [in] Chiba Prefecture," and "ガンダム" gandamu, gundam; respectively)

Placement of the text didn't seem to matter across stamp designs, so I didn't need to worry about that. What I was a bit worried about was people potentially mistaking this for real postage LOL- not that I think people are dumb, but this is just to prevent a potential mixup among postal workers should the tapes get used for, say, decorating postcards or envelopes. Best to be safe than sorry~

SO, to make it more obvious that this is not real postage lmao, the text says "KAMURO" in place of "NIPPON", and "神室郵便" (read as kamuro yuubin, "Kamuro Post") in place of "日本郵便" instead. It works 🤷‍♀️ The places depicted technically aren't real, anyway (save for Don Quijote, Gindaco, and Karaokekan- pls don't sue me)

in-game screenshot of the Don Quijote on Nakamichi Street vs the final stamp design

As mentioned earlier, I wanted the stamp designs to depict various landmarks in Kamurocho. I tried to pick some locations that were central to Y1 (like Millenium Tower and the batting center), but I couldn't pick all of them because most weren't really photogenic (Shangri-La was a contender, but I didn't like any of the pictures I took of it. Also, not sure if having a soapland be the central subject is appealing...).

It had to look, first and foremost, pretty, for non-fans. But it also had to be recognizable for actual fans. The most obvious inclusions were the neon signs on Tenkaichi Street and Pink Street.

in-game screenshot of the sign at Tenkaichi Street vs the final stamp design

in-game screenshot of the sign at Pink Street vs the final stamp design

I also didn't want repeat locations, so while I did want to include Bar Serena, it's located on Tenkaichi Street, and I think the neon sign is more iconic than the bar entrance 🤷‍♀️

Other contenders included Bantam, Stardust, Purgatory (these are significant locations to Y1), Smile Burger, Kanrai, and Poppo (these are frequently visited locations by players that I think people would recognize). But they didn't look appealing enough for stamp designs.

Let it be known that I also really really wanted to include the giant traffic cone on Nakamichi Street and "BIG FAT PAPA?" because funny. But, er, it clashed with the scenic theming I had going on lol

The final locations I ended up with were:

• The sign on Tenkaichi Street

  • Iconic, it's almost always the first thing people think of about Kamurocho

• The Don Quijote on Nakamichi Street

  • Pretty hard-to-miss store that is consistent throughout most RGG games

• The Karaokekan on Senryo Avenue

  • While the Karaokekan does move locations across games, I wanted it here because who doesn't play the karaoke minigames?

• Millenium Tower

  • The root of Kiryu's problems

• The Champion District

  • Hole-in-the-wall area that I wanted showcased. Also a certain someone paid me a visit while I was taking pictures 💀

• The sign on Pink Street

  • Again, also iconic. There also wasn't really anything else on Pink Street that I thought would be nice lol

• Facing the Koma Stadium building on Theater Avenue

  • This is one of the three "eye candy" type designs I wanted to appeal to non-fans lol. Not a significant building in-game

• Facing Gindaco on Taihei Boulevard

  • Another "eye candy" type design; also I feel that this is a commonly visited eatery by players

• Facing Mach Bowl on Theater Square

  • Another "eye candy" type design. I think a lot of players have played the bowling minigame

• The Yoshida Batting Center in the Hotel District

  • Has important events in Y1 (and Y4, to people who played that far), and I wanted a cameo by someone here

Oh, cameos? Yes! If you look closely, there are a few character cameos I included in locations that I thought made sense. They are, admittedly, very small...

in-game screenshot of the Karaokekan on Senryo Avenue vs the final stamp design

I guess in hindsight, I should've fiddled more with test prints to make sure that the character cameos are noticeable... but on the other hand I didn't want them to be too noticeable?? I want people to make the effort to find them, if that makes sense LOL

Speaking of test prints, BOY, were there test prints.

sketchbook spread of test prints (the blurred part is irrelevant, just ignore)

Hats off to you if you can read my tiny handwriting lmao, but the tl;dr of all that is just me exploring different iterations of the stamp designs.

Most notably, I was figuring out how to include a border to make them look more like actual stamps. But having a white border made the designs feel too small :/ I liked the look of full bleed, so I opted for that while also including a white line to indicate a border. After some tinkering, I found a design I liked :-)

the final stamp designs

Sooooo yeah! You can imagine my excitement when the shipment for these arrived lmao! First time producing washi tape and they turned out really nice! And they're pretty vibrant too :) I use them frequently in my sketchbooks hahah

This ended up being a pretty involved process lol. But it was fun, and I'd do it again!

I have other plans on making more similar to this, but at the moment, plans are on hold. :') Maybe one day.

My eternal thanks to anyone who bought these tapes, and any other merch I make, for that matter! It's surprising to think that there's a lot of people out there who have my art in some tangible form. I'm super grateful <3

(I have to shill the tapes. Of course I have to and I'M SORRY but this is my blog LOL- the Kamuro Tapes are for sale here!!! go go go gooooo)