If you were to introduce Japan’s three major mobile phone providers by their key points, it would go as follows: Softbank has the cheap talking plans (and the iPhone), AU has the cutting-edge designer phones, and Docomo has the cool mail features. It is the “Deco Mail” feature on Docomo, the ability to create elaborate flash animated text messages, that makes the carrier a hit among the school girl set.
Thanks to contents creator Cybird, Deco Mail is about to get even cooler. This week Cybird announced the launch of Portrait Deco Ani (“ani” being short for animation), a service that allows users to create a digital portrait of themselves, which can appear in a variety of different text message templates compatible with the latest Docomo phones.
Subscribers to the ¥315 (about $3) a month service first design their animated likeness by manipulating facial details such as eyes, skin tone, and hair—according to Cybird there are over 14 billion possible combinations.
Then, for each mail, users can choose a costume and pose, which is really an elaborate form of the emoticon.
Finally a background, from famous sites and seasonal settings to special occasions, like happy birthday, themes, is selected. It is also possible to create a number of characters, such as of friends or family members, and place them together in the same mail.
If you have been following these pages, you’re likely to reach the conclusion that the average school girl has any number of avatars out there on the web—from their StyleWalker doll to their LaForet blog parts. Far from a fad, these individualized characters are becoming the norm as a generation of girls learns (and has likely quickly become accustomed) to portray their individual style through digitized doppelgangers.
