Sofmap Wall

About

The Sofmap Wall (Japanese: ソフマップの壁), also called "That Wall" (例の壁, Rei no Kabe), is a nickname given to photoshoot backdrops in event venues of Japanese electronics and entertainment retailer Sofmap (ソフマップ).^[1] While being one of the most famous places in the Japanese idol business since late-2000s, the wall has a dishonorable reputation to make any woman standing in front of it look unattractive, and also often gets associated with low-quality idols.

Origin

The Sofmap Wall is usually placed at its flagship branches' event venue in Japan. Its visibility began increasing when the company changed the venues for idols' promoting events to its own branches in Akihabara district from its subsidiary Yamagiwa Soft (ヤマギワソフト)^[2] in September 2007. Since then, the blue & white checkered walls have frequently appeared on media reports for idol singers, swimsuit or gravure idols^[3], and sometimes porn actress' events held in Akihabara every weekend. Particularly among gravure idols, cosplayers and their fans, Sofmap Akiba shops' large venues are very famous while being dubbed as "The sacred spot for gravure idols" (グラドルの聖地) or "The holy place for events in Akihabara" (秋葉原イベントの聖地). Even news outlets refer the venues by this alias.^[4][5][6][7]

Spread

Against a backdrop of its huge presence in the Japanese entertainment industry, the Sofmap Wall has become one of the representative backgrounds for sexy illustrations in online illustrators communities since late 2000s.^[8][9] Also, the wall became to be dubbed as "That Wall" in the same manner of That Pool after the infamous pool earned high online visibility in early 2010s. Even Sofmap itself came to officially call the wall the "Sofmap Wall" or "Sofmap Background" (ソフマップ背景) around that time, and has sometimes set a photobooth with the wall at its booth in anime/otaku conventions since late 2010s (shown below, left). The company also released the official showcase box for figurines in a limited quantity in May of 2014 (shown below, center)^[10], and Good Smile Company added the officially-licensed Sofmap Photobooth to its Dioramansion 150 series in December 2018 (shown below, right).^[11]

Sofmap Wall has sometimes made appearances in other media franchises in official collaborations or as a parody. An online golf simulator game PangYa^[12] held a collaboration campaign with Sofmap, and introduced the walls into the game's backgrounds in August 2014 (shown below, left). Marvelous Entertainment introduced Sofmap Wall to a backdrop for photo shooting mode in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus^[13] released in 2015 (shown below, center). Koei Tecmo Game's DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme 3^[14] and Sony Interactive Entertainment's Gravity Rush 2^[15] released the Sofmap photoshoot booth as a free DLC in December 2016^[16] and January 2017, respectively.^[17] A smartphone game Azur Lane gave a Sofmap wall-like in-game furniture as a gift for celebrating the number of the users had reached to 200,000, in November 2017 (shown below, right). The Chinese-developed game will release the official in-game furniture "Sofmap Panel" during its official collaborating campaign with Sofmap in Autumn of 2019.

Some viewers claim that the wall has makes woman standing in front of itself look pale and unattractive. This wall's negative effect is called "Sofmap Effect" (ソフマップ効果, or ソフマップ補正)^[18], with lack of photoshopping, poor skills of photographers, poor lighting of fluorescents, and the wall's colors and design blamed for the effect. The phrase "Win against Sofmap" (ソフマップに勝つ) is occasionally used to praise the idols who take an attractive photo in front of the wall. Furthermore, as popular actress and idol singers seldom descend to the Sofmap's stages, the words "Sofmap Idols" (ソフマップアイドル) and "Sofmap Quality" (ソフマップクオリティ) are used to refer to minor idols, including Chilidols described below, which are below certain quality or popularity.

Square Logo Wall

Sofmap walls are roughly classified into 2 types: Rectangle and Square. In Akihabara district, the latter logo wall has been placed in small venues which tend to be used by more minor idols since 2000s. Hence, it's well-known among viewers that which wall appears behind an idol is the important barometer of her quality. Some of 5channel users came to notice this difference around 2016, and made a comparison image (Shown below) which call the square logo wall's venues by a derogatory nickname "Monster House" (お化け屋敷).

Rectangle: For normal idols | Square: Monster House

Chilidol

Chilidol (チリドル, Chiridoru) was a collective term used to refer to the idols featured by Chile-jin (チリ人φ, Chirijin), a former voluntary staff in 2channel's /mnewsplus/ (sports and entertainment news) board who had continued posting threads for his favorite models/idols' promoting events between 2008 and 2014. Japanese online glossary Hatena Keyword explains Chilidol refers to idols and actress with "distinctive" atmosphere.^[19] Because those whom he recommended were largely very obscure gravure idols, they caught much attention among the anonymous board users and on matome blogs, and became to be categorized under this compound word. Even major magazines came to feature Chilidols around the end period of his active time,^[20] though the term has faded out from the internet along with his retirement.

The increase of Sofmap Wall's online presence till early 2010s and the establishment of the concepts of "Sofmap Idols" and "Sofmap Quality" had been heavily boosted by many Chilidols in those days, whose event venue was often Akihabara Sofmap.

Various Examples

Photos & Illustrations

For more images featuring this wall, check out KYM Collection – Sofmap Wall

Sofmap Stance

The Sofmap Stance (ソフマップ立ち, Sofmap Dachi), also called as the "Sofmap Pose" (ソフマップポーズ), refers to a stance of looking over one's shoulder. This basic photo shoot pose has become to be dubbed in this nickname around 2013 because many idols perform it in front of the wall. The more awkward their pose (shown below), the more easily it is recognized as the Sofmap Stance.

Compilation of Sofmap Stance

Search Interest

External References