Like school swimwear, bunnysuits, and catgirls, nurses are a well-loved staple of anime art and anime character design. Not by me, though – school swimwear, bunnysuits, catgirls, and nurse uniforms don’t do a whole lot for me by themselves, not like, say, bodysuits or sportswear or revealing body armor. However, I ordered Miyuu less for her clothing and more for how she looks sans clothing. How does she look and how detailed is she?
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If you’re a figure collector and a fan of Tamaki Kousaka, you are probably a happy person. Characters come and go with respect to their popularity amongst figure makers – Iroha was a favorite character for some time, as was Ignis, and the Ikkitousen and Sengoku Rance girls had their heyday … but Tamaki – her popularity is as high as it’s ever been, at least among figure manufacturers. This particular figure puts her in a swimsuit, which isn’t particularly noteworthy. What is special about this figure is its size – she’s got many, many figures, but few of them offer a solid fifteen inches of Tamaki.
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Alter is one of the most well-respected figure makers in the hobby, and they have a diverse product portfolio that encompasses a huge variety of properties. There are a few franchises that they seem to particularly prize – in particular, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Strike Witches, and Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls. One could make a good argument that Samurai Girls doesn’t deserve figures of this quality but although the show is quite terrible, the character designs are, at least, fairly pleasing to the eye. They’ve trickled out over the last few years, and though Alter seems committed to making figures of all of the show’s characters, they’ve shown little of the alacrity that they evince with chucking out Strike Witches figures, who seem to get a new one every few months. Nonetheless, the newest one is Naoe, an evidently happy young girl who carries a very big stick.
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If I remember right, Alice was one of the first Queen’s Gate characters, if not the very first. While the characters of the Queen’s Gate series are, for the most part, licensed from existing properties, I think Alice was an original design contributed by Nitroplus artist Niθ. However, even though she’s a relative unknown in a lineup stocked with famous characters from fighting games and anime, Alice is no less loved by figure makers – she’s represented in the hobby by no fewer than six figures. Her first figure – reviewed at HappySoda and foo-bar-baz – sported light green hair; a second version had white hair and the third version – which is this figure – has black hair. Alice also got three versions of her as a rather buxom grown-up character; as I understand it, that’s one of her combat moves. Or somesuch. Although it’s a bit out of character for me, I like this loli-style figure better. Let’s take a look at it.
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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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Staying with the theme of Japan-exclusive ero figures released a few months ago, now’s a good time to take a look at Native’s Trunk Girl. Native had a bit of an odd year last year, with several of their figures not actually being much more explicit than the average Queen’s Blade figure – though perhaps it’s telling that the average Queen’s Blade figure likely wouldn’t shock an experienced figure collector. However, Trunk Girl and their lineup for this year seem to mark a resurgent commitment to their Naked & Creative motto.
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Time for more pillowcase talk. This one features Sena Kashiwazaki, the rich, insecure, somewhat bisexual eroge enthusiast from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. I like the manga and I’ve been a fan of Buriki’s art for a while – entirely because of this picture – and I was pleased that the anime adaptation was a lot of fun to watch. Despite not straying past the bounds of convention, the characters are likeably quirky, and it was refreshing to see a show with a male lead that wasn’t completely clueless, milquetoast, or pathetic. It’s one of the few harem-style shows where I didn’t dislike any of the characters, and I’m not sure which one is my favorite. I guess I’d call it a tie among Sena, Kobato, and Rika, but all the characters are cool. Grading strictly on appearance, I’d probably roll with Sena, though, which is why I have this dakimakura cover.
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Numerous figures of the Queen’s Gate characters have been released, offering different takes on the characters depending on the artist that illustrated the respective game book. The Queen’s Gate version of Senhime, however is rather unusual in that she has no game book; her appearance is based off of a single illustration by the artist Yoshikazu Miwa. Perhaps better known by his doujin circle name Synthetic Garden, I’ve been a fan of his art for a long time, particularly because his work encompasses themes like tentacle hentai, girls in bondage, and girls with big breasts. He seems an unlikely choice to provide a Queen’s Gate illustration, particularly one of a character like Sen Tokugawa, and the resulting figure is one that comprises an unusual synthesis that is much more about his style and much less about the anime character.
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Time for more pillowcase show-and-tell. This one comes from Carnelian, surely one of the most famous illustrators in the anime world. She’s a veteran artist, having been around as long as I’ve been on the internet, which goes back to the mid-90s, but although she’s quite well-known, she’s never had the sort of commercial stature of someone like Tony Taka or even newer artists like redjuice or Huke. She’s contributed character designs to just a couple of mainstream anime – Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito probably being the most prominent – though H-anime fans will also remember her work in Moonlight Lady. Instead, her work is much more visible in the doujin community, where she is very active. In particular, there are a number of dakimakura covers featuring her art; this particular one was released last summer during Comiket 80 and depicts an original character named Lucrezia.
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Anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like ero figures. And anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like big figures. Unfortunately, few figure manufacturers have made big ero figures – at least until recently. However, FREEing has stepped up to the plate to fill this niche, which is quite gratifying, particularly when the figure is as nice as Amane is.
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