Nearly three years after releasing Eve, Daiki Kougyou has finally gotten around to releasing the second of diskvision‘s original nude figure sculpts. This character is named Elsa, and she is going to be released in three different color formats. This particular figure features blonde hair and pale skin and is the first version to hit stores.
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If there are any certainties in the anime figure industry, it’s that manufacturers will continue chucking out Tamaki Kousakas and Kanu Unchous with great zeal and aplomb, no matter how many pairs of eyes may roll at seeing them in the Amiami preorder list. The weariness that many collectors take no pains to conceal when it comes to Kanu – and the redheaded lady from To Heart – is understandable, but it’s not a sentiment that I share. My very first scale-size figure was one of Kanu Unchou, and I’m still fond of it, even though it’s a terrible figure by current standards (and probably prior standards, as well). And though there are a truckload of Kanus to choose from, we haven’t looked at one here since Alter’s figure. The one we’ll look at today comes from Daiki Kougyou, a company that isn’t shy at all about making Kanu figures.
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Taking a break from the bikini figures for a bit, we will instead look at an older figure today. I did not plan to review this figure because I did not actually like it very much when I got it. However, my opinion has shifted somewhat with the release of Bible Black protagonist Imari Kurumi. I like Imari’s figure quite a bit; how does Kaori compare to her castmate?
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Figure makers used to regularly look towards eroge and ero anime, but these days, that appears to be a diminishing trend. Fortunately, Daiki Kougyou is here to remind us that hardcore hentai properties deserve figures, too.
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Tamaki Kousaka is an exceptionally popular character amongst figure makers and, along with Vocaloid mascot Miku Hatsune and Nitro+ mascot Super Sonico, has had an extraordinary presence in terms of hobby merchandise this past year. However, while Tamaki seemed poised to claim an equal share of the spotlight with the other two characters, one has to feel that her star has dimmed a bit in comparison. Tamaki is a well-developed character with an established personality and background, whereas Sonico is still relatively unknown and Miku is, of course, anything people want her to be. The result is that although Miku and Sonico have received a variety of figures, none of them look unusual or inappropriate – for example, Sonico looks equally comfortable in a nurse’s uniform as she does wearing a bondage collar while rocking out with an electric guitar. Tamaki, in contrast, tends to get stuffed into a school uniform or a swimsuit and one would be forgiven for expressing weariness at seeing yet another figure of Tamaki in the bikini. With this figure, though, Daiki has gone for the hat trick with no fewer than three versions of Tamaki – and I suppose one would say they failed since all of them hit the bargain bin fairly quickly. Not that I saw that coming since if I did, I could’ve saved myself a lot of money. Oh well. Let’s take a look at it anyway.
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Some might say that going into a fight in nothing but your panties isn’t very smart. Well, when your first fight is against a lady with acid for milk, it’s the only thing to do. I mean, anybody who’s seen Aliens knows what happens when you get splashed with acid while encased in body armor; you wind up getting your arm burned off after it goes right through the plating. Nah, when you’re fighting jelly demons and fire mages, less is definitely more when it comes to protective gear.
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The Ikki Tousen franchise is a licensing juggernaut, and with five Kanu Unchous in my collection, I am scarcely immune to its wiles. However, while the manga fields a bewilderingly large cast, for years my only non-Kanu figure was Griffon’s awful Ryofu Housen figure from way back. Now, with Daiki Kougyou’s Ryomou Shimei in my collection, that count increases to two.
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When I look at Alter’s lineup, there aren’t any figures that I’d consider bad. Oh sure, they’ve got quite a few figures that I don’t particularly care for, but they are supreme with respect to quality, and you can see it in every figure they make. On the flip side, consider Taki Corporation; they don’t have a single figure that I like and their works are distinguished only by their misshapenness. Then take a maker like Kotobukiya; they’ve been around forever and they put out pretty good figures. I can’t think of any that stand out, though; there are a number of Alter figures that I knew I was going to buy as soon as I saw them, but I can’t think of any Kotobukiya figures that I can make the same claim for.
Daiki Kougyou, however, is a different sort. While Alter is consistently superb and Kotobukiya is always solid and Taki is reliably bad, Daiki Kougyou’s figures are all over the place. They’ve crafted masterpieces like the miko version of Kanu Unchou, which can easily go toe to toe with anything Alter’s ever chucked out. And then you have figures like this, where you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking. Further, while Alter, Taki, and Kotobukiya all tend to adhere closely to the original character designs, Daiki Kougyou often eschews convention and offers its own spin on existing characters. For example, many of their figures are sculpted by Toshirou, whose style has its own inimitable idiosyncrasies, and they have an upcoming figure of Ikkitousen’s Ryomou Shimei as re-imagined by Shunya Yamashita, who of course has an easily-identifiable and distinctive flair. They’ve also made a figure of Sei which is unusual in that they didn’t bother giving her a left arm, and her face looks a little bit like Dr. Julian Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
So when I look at this figure of Haruhi, it’s a bit surprising to me that it comes from Daiki Kougyou. It looks more akin to something that Max Factory or Good Smile Company would make, since it’s a very faithful representation of the character. It’s also an amazing figure, and while I think miko Kanu is the best figure that Daiki Kougyou’s ever made, Haruhi is right up there as well.
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And the final entry in this week’s Kanu Uncho love affair is here, and nobody can claim that the best wasn’t saved for last. I hesitated to buy this figure simply because of the astronomical price but hey, money is replaceable but sold out is sold out, right? Rather than endure the inevitable mental flagellation that I’d inflict upon my cheapskate self if I let this opportunity slide by, I threw common sense to the wind and picked her up, and now that she’s here all I can really say is daaaayum.
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This post is unsafe for work. For school. For the library. If you get terminated, suspended, disciplined, or defenestrated as a result of viewing this post, I forswear any responsibility for what has happened, but I will point and laugh at you should I learn of your misfortune.
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