Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Chiara Fiorillo

Man who spent £19,000 to 'become a wolf' just wants to be free of human relationships

A man who spent £19,000 on a giant wolf suit says wearing it makes him feel "no longer human" and allows him to be "free of human relationships".

Toru Ueda, an engineer from Tokyo, Japan, bought the suit from Zeppet, a company that creates costumes and models for television and film production.

The total cost of the human-sized and highly realistic costume was 3 million yen (nearly £19,000).

The 32-year-old said he exchanged more than 40 emails and had three face-to-face meetings with Zeppet employees to design the perfect suit.

Mr Ueda, who bought the wolf suit as he is fascinated by animals, said he wanted the costume to look as real as possible but also to allow him to walk in it.

The Japanese engineer spent £19,000 on the wolf suit (The Times / News Licensing)

Details of the suit include realistic eyes, teeth, a pink tongue as well as fur. Mr Ueda said he was "amazed" to see the result at the final fitting.

After buying the costume, he said he doesn't wear it to go out but just on special occasions when he invites his friends to his home, reports The Times.

The engineer said: "When I wear my costume I feel I'm no longer human. I'm free of human relationships.

"All kinds of troubles, related to work and other things - I can forget about them."

He asked for a realistic wolf costume (The Times / News Licensing)

Mr Ueda said the suit gives him a power that he doesn't usually feel like he has in his everyday life, as he explained: "When I look in the mirror, I see a wolf, and that is very moving.

"I'm not a werewolf — that's a kind of monster, and I am not a monster."

Costumes produced by Zeppet span from monsters and robots for sci-fi and horror films to animal suits for children's TV programmes.

Mr Ueda said he doesn't feel human when he wears his wolf costume (The Times / News Licensing)

On the company's website, Mr Ueda's wolf suit is described as: "Modeled on timber wolf, the complete suit turned out as a visually impactful reality."

Other items listed on the website include a Strawberry Chocolate Robot, a Dog Model Suit, a Panda Suit and a Bear Costume.

Last year, we reported the story of another Japanese man named Toko who spent £12,480 on a human-sized collie costume.

The 32-year-old said dressing up as a wolf helps him forget all his troubles (The Times / News Licensing)

It was his lifelong dream to turn into a dog and Zeppet made his unusual request happen.

"I made it a collie because it looks real when I put it on," Toko told Japanese news outlet Mynavi.

"My favourite is quadrupedal animals, especially cute ones. Among them, I thought that a big animal close to me would be good, considering that it would be a realistic model, so I decided to make it a dog.

A Japanese man says he has fulfilled his life-long ambition of becoming a four-legged animal (Twitter/@toco_eevee)

"I met such a condition and made a collie, my favourite breed of dog."

A Zeppet employee spoke about how the team found a way to create the skeleton structure of a dog, and spent a lot of time studying it.

They said: "In addition, we collect photographs taken from various angles so that the beautiful coat of the collie can be reproduced and devised so that the coat will flow naturally."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.