I have the alternate version of the statue, including the arm.

Painting is much more subdued, with a lot less gloss, and flater tones. The nipples are only faintly so, but are a differnt color than her skin.

A very nice piece. Well designed and assembled.

Funny that you mention the bunny girl Haruhi now …

Tenjo Tenge also has much better female designs but a much smaller cast. Oh Great! might not like the idea of figures for his works so might be “difficult” to get permission. That would also explain the lack of Air Gear stuff as well. There’s been, what, 1 ringo and 2 simcas. That’s it!

But I do agree that Kanu is overexposed in terms of the number of figures. but then, so are Saber, the evangelion girls and, arguably, yoko but you don’t hear people complaining about that.

>> Blowfish
Nah, I guess it’s British English or something. I got my handle from page 1234 of the edition of Webster’s Dictionary that I had at the time (note to kids: in those days, we didn’t have no dictionary.com or Wikipedia to help us out. We had to go get big heavy books from the library to write papers. And we had to look them up using a card catalog! No Google for us.) Pretty much every kid who goes to college has to take a foreign language in high school, and usually French, Spanish, and German are offered. Out of those languages, I think German is usually the least popular; I took Spanish for its practical usefulness, since a lot of people here speak Spanish, and a lot of students take French since it sounds sexy. (Unfortunately, since I’ve graduated from high school I’ve pretty much forgotten any Spanish that I may have learned.)

Ah, so basically they’re a pop band! That reminds me a bit about something I read about the Japanese rap industry. In the US, rap music through the 80s and early 90s was a vehicle used to describe the sociopolitical conditions of urban African-American life. Some artists – like Public Enemy and Paris – described the politics of said people in a militant sense. Other groups like NWA documented the violence and drug culture which was a very real part of inner-city life. Others like a Tribe Called Quest attempted to lift the black consciousness by recounting their ethnic heritage and connecting rap music to other notable elements of their culture, such as jazz.

Of course, when the music gets exported internationally, all of this context is lost, and what you’re left with is pop music. Then again, over here mainstream rap is pretty much pop music too, so I suppose I have no room to criticize.

I understand a bit about not having a definite national identity. I’m half-Japanese (an aggressor in World War II) and half-Korean (which was invaded and occupied by Japan), and I hold US citizenship and neither speak nor read Japanese or Korean. On top of that, my father’s side of the family lives in Hawaii, which has its own unique culture. I usually just identify as being American if anyone asks.

I always thought it was weird that Tenjo Tenge and Ikkitousen came out at around the same time and one was successful and the other is forgotten. I even remember seeing some pages where Ikkitousen’s creators lifted scenes directly from Tenjo Tenge. I guess it didn’t help that there was a big stink about how the US publisher censored numerous scenes from Tenjo Tenge (a major reason that I didn’t buy it).

>> Guy
Yeah, I think her skin paint looks rather plasticky, sort of like figures from maybe about three or four years ago, back when figures were more akin to toys.

I tossed in another shot of her face. It’s pretty hard to get a good picture of it, since her bangs cover her face and they also cast some pretty strong shadows. It’s a little easier to see under normal room lighting, but room lighting makes for some awful-looking photos.

Yeah, there are some real bad Kanu figures out there. I’ve read some comments from people going through Kanu fatigue, although I wonder if it’s that specific character they’re tired of or the entire Ikkitousen franchise. I get the sense that people who don’t like Kanu’s character design probably wouldn’t like many of the other characters in Ikkitousen.

It’s the can itself! This particular can is awesome. It can stop locomotives. It can dunk on Jordan. It is the alpha and omega, the Kwisatz Haderach of canned fruit.