Before the summer of this year I was interesting in the figure of Tamaki Kōsaka of To Heart 2 by New Line after having seen pictures that PitaPowa made. I planned to take a picture of her and to manipulate the photo to make a kind of poster for women’s underwear ad if one day I finally bought her… and I bought her.
First I thought of Passionata ’cause I remembered a funny ad with wolves that were watching a scrolling poster.
Then I remembered Aubade’s calendars with the “leçons de séduction” (lessons about how to seduce). That’s a French advertisement campaign: on B&W photos bodies with underwears are shown. The face does not appear and of course it highlights the body (and the underwears). Besides there is a sentence to teach “how seduce him”. Most of time there is a word play alluding to the stance of the body =)
So I finally chose to draw one’s inspiration from this ad campaign ’cause it had something special.

The French pronunciation of Aubade is /obad/ and I changed it in Autake that could be pronounced /otak/. Just hearing it phonetically, it could also be written otak’ which is a shortcut for “otaku”.

I was also wondering what kind of text I could write for the lesson. I thought of “how to make an otaku buy a figure?”… so I planned to do several lessons ’cause I had several figures. I gave myself a goal: to do 12 lessons.

Here are the 12 lessons. I will translate them and add comments. Of course I tried to link the text with the picture and I also wanted to use jargon of figures.

Lesson 1: highlight her MOE specifities.
There so many MOE modes to use to make figures…
Lesson 2: think about another version with a limited production.
Limited versions make the prices increase… and finally make buy : it gives the feeling to have something special, something better… something less common. Ignis the White by Orchid Seed matches with this lesson because there were 2 limited figures : the bleeding version (available at the summer WF 2007) and Nimbus the Black (Hobby Japan Mail order).
Lesson 3: enchant him/her (Void Magic).
The time I did this lesson I was watching the anime Zero no Tsukaima. I was a bit found of Louise and I bought a figure. For the text of the lesson I thought about something more abstract =)
Lesson 4: refer to the artwork of a famous illustrator.
Some figures are based on drawings of famous illustrators : Shunya Yamashita, Tony Taka, Masamune Shirow, etc… a step from 2D to 3D : most of time they have success. Btw the number of the lesson matches with the number of the Shuraki
Lesson 5: customize her base.
Shuraki’s bases are really well made : each base is specific to the figure. This one has beautiful crystals. But I also chose this figure like if it was a joke because the base of this 5th Shuaki is fragile and lot of people broke the little sprocket under her shoe.
Lesson 6: make pantsu shots easier.
Akatsuki Mishiro is my favorite figure… I needed to do a lesson with her xD In fact the figure has 2 kinds cloth : of course I chose the one that let see the pantsu x3

Lesson 7: have a dynamic stance.
The stance of the figure is really important. “on a single foot” is a classical trendy stance (like Wind Walker by Alter, Haruka Takamori by Alter, etc… ), but the danger is  bending =/
Lesson 8: find out the best zettai ryouiki.
In fact I lately learned the meaning on the word “zettai ryouiki” on Darkmirage’s blog. I was so impressed by this article I told myself I had to use this word in one of my lesson xD I was hesitating with Rin Tōsaka (Fate/stay night) but I finally chose Kallen Stadtfeld (Code Geass).
Lesson 9: be cast-offable.
After having done the 8 previous lessons I realized that this lesson was so basic. I should have written it for the first lesson… somewhere this argument is too evident. Char (for those who did not recognize her) with her DNA hair is very beautiful : I had the idea to let her dress opened… just for taking the picture ‘coz I’m not going to let her catch a cold
Lesson 10: appear in an eroge.
What can be found in an eroge? Gorgeous shapely women with a careful chara design I thought of Ignis… but she was already the teacher of the 2nd lesson. I wanted to have variety. So I chose Al Azif by Max Factory which is a very cute figure.
Lesson 11: switch to SD mode.
Kawaii stuff and lovely items… will you able to resist? Among kawaii stuff there are SD/chibi.
Several companies created their own SD lines: Nendoroid by GSC, Pinky:St by Vance Project, Picture Studio and Character Studio by Megahouse, etc…
Once Again PitaPowa made me wanna get some figures with his nice pics. I find that the nendoroid of Kotona Elegance is so cute. Hard to resist this face :s But I do not have (yet) bought her. I asked PitaPowa: he accepted to do this picture specially for me =3 I thank him once again
Lesson 12: remind them their childhood.
Nostalgia is a very lucrative line : people who were children 10 years ago have a job and earn money… so the makers produce very expensive toys of old series : Saint Seiya Cloth Myth, transformable Valkyries from Macross, the action figure of Wingman by Medicom Toys, etc…

For the lessons that’s all folks !! =)
The 1st ones were focused on “underwear” shots ’cause I was in the mood of Aubade’s parody. Then I thought that it is not the only motivation for an otaku. I finally chose to let the head appear with the Kotona’s nendo. It makes that the lessons 11 and 12 finally look like apart.

I also did calendar versions for the first lessons : I made it start with August ’cause I was doing them on July. I also added a shadow with the logo of the company that produced the figure: N of Newline, O of Orchid Seed, the face for GSC, etc… I have just finished January 09’s one. I guess I’ll stop calendar versions ’cause the interest is limited.

I had to put numbers in the picture that I already did. I put them under the hand of Ignis for the 2nd lesson and it makes as is she was letting them fall =)

And after having shown some of my pics, Momoko told me that someone already thought ’bout it with figures: Jerkotaking did a similar picture.

I also find on Flickr Plastic Erotica by Sid.Ceaser:
Sid.Ceaser does better light effects than mine. And I find it is harder to recognize the figure

I have some ideas for other lessons… maybe one day I’ll drop one or two lessons…

Links Aubade:
Official website Aubade
Les pubs de Tom
http://www.voisin.ch/aubade/index.html