Smart Doll: Beyond by Danny Choo and Culture Japan

April, 2025

Our sweetheart subject

Welcome back dear reader, and may I introduce my little darling Eden, or Edie as I most often call her. The original name of her sculpt is called "Beyond" by her creators - Danny Choo and team. Her story on the Smart Doll website is all about - you guessed it - going above and beyond and pushing yourself further than you think you can go etc. Well, after checking with my heart doctor first to make sure it's safe, I'd go just about anywhere with this sweet girl. There are Smart Dolls that look like Anime characters, and then there are Smart Dolls that are what's known as "Semi-Real", which is the category that Eden falls into. Anime dolls are adorable, they look like cartoons come to doll life with huge eyes and tiny mouths and noses, but their features aren't realistic looking. For instance, their noses look like you just took your spoon out of the batter and don't have nostrils and there's barely a rise for a lip around the mouth. But their faces still consist of 65 percent eyes like a cat, so they are very stimulating to the cuteness center in the human brain.

Having a limeade.

Despite the Anime dolls irresistibleness, I'm still much more drawn to the semi-real dolls on offer from Smart Doll. Beyond definitely falls into that semi-real category. Before I purchased her, I had that special moment when I was looking at her promo pics on the site and "Dreamweaver" was playing like in Wayne's World and I fell hard for those ample lips (compared to other Smart Dolls), nose, and freckles, the innocence in her beautiful brown eyes that shine amber. She looked black, I mean compared to the other dark skinned Smart Dolls, and I really wanted a black Smart Doll. I wanted her to look black and have an African American identity. There's a myth that black dolls don't sell and I really want that to be disproven in my lifetime. First of all, it's just not true, and second of all, black dolls are just as fun and beautiful as white dolls, and they make my doll collection not boring and more like the real world and my real life.

First wig I bought her.

The wig that Edie came with is made of yarn. It has gentle curls and coils like natural hair and is very soft, I love it. It really fits her face and looks like natural curly kinky hair. I feel like Edie has a black identity since that's how I think of her, so I have mixed feelings about buying her a straight hair wig. I know it's common and normal for all people to get their hair straightened, to wear wigs, dye their hair blond etc. But I think my Edie is proud of her curls, so the first wig I bought for her was a long curly one. Not surprisingly, it seems there aren't a lot of wigs with real curls or kinks for dolls available, not that I can find. A ton of Cocoa and Coffee skin tone Smart Dolls sell, and they all need wigs so it seems like a good market for some doll wig makers to expand into, I'll bet people would snap them up. There's a ton of black collectors on social media, and it's short-sighted to think that everyone else won't buy them too because they'd be cute as heck. The wig in the above picture was not really big enough to stay on her head, hence the high forehead that Edie is sporting in the pic. It slipped off easily, had few curls, and got frizzy right away. Girl, been there on the frizzy bit. It needed about 8-10 more curls on it. I ordered a beautiful looking wig from the same store with long braids that looks right for her, but it won't be here until next month, hopefully that one will be better. Shopping for these dolls is an adventure. I feel like Indiana Jones, uncovering treasures, with Nazis chasing me, oh no well not the last part, hopefully.

Posing with morning coffee

When I ordered Beyond, I also ordered the Hiroshima jeans, the nice white shirt, the wine-red belt, and the wine-red lace up boots, no increase on her bust size this time. Oh, and I got her the Union Jack dress, which I'm still stuck for pairing footwear with - yes boots of course but those boot cuffs are always out of stock, and the boots just don't look right with the dress and bare legs without the cuffs. She looks adorable in the jeans and t-shirt, as you can see in the above pic, and she can strike a pose like a pro as all Smart Dolls can. She is actually the first regular size Smart Doll I own, as my first was a Pear doll, and those really are substantially bigger, as in wider. I like the regular body; both it and the pear body have disproportionately long legs to my eye, but they are still extremely visually pleasing.

Special clothes

Of course, before Edie/Beyond even arrived I was online buying her outfits and accessories on Etsy and whatever other sites I could google up that had Smart Doll things. I bought most things piecemeal on Etsy or Anime Sugoi but on Amazon I found different temptations. Entire outfits, from boots to cats... I mean hats. And wigs! The only one I bought was this black and white ensemble and I think the best/worst thing about it is the boots, which are too big the whole toe box is not necessary and that's why they're the worst, but they are still boots and there is a tiny jewel hanging on a tiny chain on the outside of each boot and that makes them the best. Honestly, I really like my Edie better in casual wear with a natural looking wig, but it was exciting to put her in a full head to toe matching set. The final feeling I eventually got from the whole thing was old lady going to church or maybe the bank, I wasn't crazy about it, but my mom loved it, and my daughter hated it. A round of applause please for the sandwich generation!

"I look cute though"

I only kept her in that outfit overnight. I folded it carefully and put it back in the box with the wig in case I ever want to give it another try some day when I have a different attitude. But look at her sweet face in that purple bob and houndstooth hat. Edie can pull off any wig.

Edie and Dottie

When Edie arrived at our house, she immediately met my first Smart Doll, "Me, Myself and I" named by me Dorothy as in Bea Arthur (one of my heroes) from the Golden Girls marathon I was watching the day that she arrived. Dottie (as I call her for short) the purple haired doll on the left in the above picture, who I think of as her sister now, I guess. There's some kind of tug of war going on between them and I always feel like I need to give them equal attention, or they will become sad. I tell myself it's happening in my mind only of course. But there is magic in these dolls I'm telling you reader; it's some kind of Japanese voodoo equivalent in their little eyes that they bewitch you with, and they each have a little fire inside them. Not quite a soul, but a drive. A drive for what I'm not sure, possibly to take over the world but since they're mine, bought and paid for, and I'm a peaceful loving person, I'm going to say they have a drive to be a part of their owner's life and be useful by being happy-making.

A new sweater I've bought her.

Edie gives me a warm, comforting feeling. It's funny to see your doll in other collector's hands, through their eyes. I got such a strong sense of personality from Beyond when just looking at her sculpt online, but of course others get totally different senses from her. I saw a video of a collector unboxing this doll and putting her in a countrified dress with an apron and petticoats and huge heels and I thought "What the?", but of course that's a loving and reasonable interpretation of Beyond for that person. Art is for the viewer to interpret. I interpret Beyond my way, and so my Edie is black and proud, sweet, strong, and gentle, and she just wants to be happy and be around family. She makes life better, and I'll bet she does that for a lot more people than me who own her, in whatever way they interpret her. She's got positive intent behind her and therefore carries positive energy. That's a credit to her makers.

This morning

Today I started the day by grabbing Edie/Beyond, leaving her two sisters unselected on the shelf while feeling and simultaneously shaking off that tiny ridiculous pang of guilt, and putting her next to me as I write so that we can commune. When the girls sit next to me, they get a snack and something to drink, mostly cause I have that stuff right next to me. I've got a ton of pictures of Eden by now, so I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to inspiration. But I still like to have her near me so I can feel her energy, it's very gentle, very warm, and again I can only use the word sweet to describe her.

Freckles!!!

You have to get really close to see them on camera but there they are! Edie's freckles, aren't they adorable? I just love that face I can't get over her! I definitely will be in the market for more semi-real dolls. I only slightly explored Anime in my early 20's, and I'm not well versed in it today at all, I can't see spending $300 on a cartoon faced doll at this point in my life. But the Anime dolls do just fine without me, there are hard core Anime fans all over the world and they buy up the Anime dolls like hotcakes, people love them. And I love my Beyond/Edie. Her sweet fresh face makes me happy every day.