Custom Anime Pillow Of Your Own Character

Search for an anime pillow and most results are 150 cm body pillows. That is one format, and a popular one, but plenty of people want something smaller and easier to live with.

A chibi version of an original character, cut to its outline, for a desk or a shelf. A square cushion printed with a commissioned illustration, for a gaming chair or the sofa. A small plush of a VTuber model or a webcomic mascot, to give away to a community or sell at an artist alley table. None of these need a body pillow, and all of them look better at cushion size.

This page covers those smaller formats: how die cut character pillows work, how to prepare art for them, and what can and cannot be printed. If you do want the full length format, full length anime body pillows covers sizes, fabrics and poses at 150 cm.

Either way, the rule is the same: the art has to be yours, commissioned with permission, or belong to your own brand.

A chibi of your original character

The most ordered version. A chibi drawing of a character you created, cut to its outline at 20 or 40 cm, sits on a desk, a shelf or a monitor stand and looks like official merch for a series that only exists in your head.

A commissioned illustration, square

A detailed piece you paid an artist for, printed edge to edge on a 40 or 60 cm cushion. Ideal for a gaming chair or a bed, and the art finally gets seen every day instead of living in a folder.

Your VTuber model or channel mascot

Streamers use small die cut pillows of their own model for subscriber giveaways, stream backgrounds and a first run of merch. With no minimum order, a test batch of ten is as easy as one.

Two of your characters together

Art of two original characters as a pair, one on each side, or both on the front in a compact pose that cuts as a single shape.

A character sheet, front and back

Commission a front view and a back view of the same pose, and the die cut pillow shows the character from both sides, the way a figure would.

Stock for an artist alley table

Small pillows of your own characters sell well alongside prints and stickers. For larger items, short runs of dakimakura for conventions use the same no minimum approach.

Art that looks perfect on a screen sometimes needs small adjustments to print and cut well at cushion size.

• Use the original, full size file. Images saved from social media are compressed and look soft once printed. Ask your artist for the export they made, not the posted version.
• Transparent backgrounds for die cut. A PNG with no background lets the outline follow the character exactly.
• Fill the square for cushions. For an edge to edge print, the art or its background needs to reach all four sides, or the cushion prints with a margin.
• Keep faces away from edges. On a square cushion, the outer few centimetres curve round the seam, so important details belong nearer the centre.
• Mind thin lines at small sizes. Very fine linework drawn for a large canvas can disappear on a 20 cm pillow. Slightly heavier lines read better.
• Remove watermarks. Artists often post with a watermark or signature across the art. Ask for the clean file you paid for.

The free preview shows the art on the actual shape, including the cut line, so problems are visible before anything is printed.

This is the question every anime pillow printer has to answer, and it is better to be clear up front than to have an order declined after the preview.

Yes

• Original characters you created
• Art you commissioned and paid for, with the artist's agreement to print it
• Photographs you took or own the rights to
• Mascots and artwork belonging to your own brand, channel or event

No

• Characters owned by a studio, publisher or game company
• Fan art of those characters, however well drawn and whoever drew it

Shops selling official merchandise and a printer taking your own file are two different businesses. If you love an existing series, the official store is where its pillows come from. If you have a character of your own, that is exactly what this is for, and the same rules apply to waifu pillows of a character you designed.

If you do not draw yourself, commissioning an artist is the usual route, and a few details in the brief save a lot of back and forth later.

• Say it is for a pillow. Tell the artist whether it will be die cut or square, and at what size, so they can compose for it.
• Ask for print permission in writing. Many artists include personal printing in their terms. If you plan to sell the pillows, ask about commercial rights separately, because they are usually priced differently.
• Request a front and a back. For a die cut character, a matching back view makes the pillow feel like a figure rather than a flat print.
• Ask for a transparent PNG at full size, without a watermark, alongside whatever version they post publicly.
• Keep the pose compact for die cut. Arms close to the body, no long weapons extending out, hair that stays near the head.

A good commission brief also helps the artist quote accurately. Being clear about the format, the sides and the rights at the start is fairer to them and gets you art that prints well first time.

• 20 cm, a desk or shelf chibi, and the most popular size for giveaways.
• 40 cm, for a gaming chair, a bed or the sofa.
• 60 cm, for a detailed illustration that deserves space, or a statement character pillow.
• 150 cm, in the body pillow format, for full length art.

Both sides are printed at no extra cost. The art is dyed into the fibres rather than printed on the surface, which keeps colours bright, avoids the plasticky feel of transfer prints and means nothing cracks when the pillow is squeezed. Each pillow arrives filled and sewn shut. To clean it, wash on a cool cycle in a laundry bag and air dry. Saturated anime palettes hold up well this way, which matters for something that gets used every day.

Hair and accessories that are too thin

Ahoge strands, ribbons, antennae and weapons drawn as thin lines cannot be cut individually. They become part of the border, which can change the silhouette more than expected.

Art cropped at the canvas edge

For die cut pillows, a character whose feet or hair run off the edge of the canvas leaves a straight line in the outline. The whole character needs to be inside the frame.

A white character on a white background

Pale characters on pale backgrounds make the outline hard to find. A transparent background solves it completely.

Screenshots instead of files

A screenshot of art from a timeline loses most of its resolution. Always use the original export.

Characters you do not own

Fan art of studio owned characters cannot be printed, however good it is. Original characters are the whole point of this format.

Forgetting the back

A blank or mirrored back on a die cut character looks unfinished. A simple back view, or even a solid colour that matches the design, makes a big difference.

The larger anime formats, all printed from your own art.

• anime guy body pillows, for male original characters at full length
• Dakimakura covers, if you already own an insert
• how die cut outlines are planned, for any kind of artwork
• face pillows of real people, for cosplayers who want themselves in character