Tag Archives: shorts

Mordred from Fate/Apocrypha (Saber of Red Version)

Mordred from Fate/Apocrypha

I’ve written a lot about my newfound fondness for mobile games – specifically, gacha games. Besides Epic Seven, which is my main game, I’m enjoying Counter Side, though I know little about its game mechanics – a rather liberating circumstance, in actuality – and I gave Genshin Impact a try, though I’m not sure it’s the game for me. I still play Azur Lane every now and then, and there’s a few newer games – like Girl Cafe Gun and Nier: Reincarnation – and a few older games – like Arknights and Langrisser – that I’m curious about. However, there’s one gacha game that I have zero interest in playing and that’s Fate/Grand Order. From what I can tell, it’s not a newbie-friendly game. Nor is it a particularly modern game, and I’ve heard its gameplay systems are not one of its strengths (that said, I did enjoy the old PSP RPG Fate/Extra, a game whose combat was basically a randomized rock-paper-scissors system). On top of that, its summoning system lacks a pity mechanic, and I’ve heard of unfortunate players who’ve sunk over a thousand dollars chasing a particular character and came away with nothing. It’s difficult not to think that those funds would be better spent elsewhere – on Fate figures, doujinshi, and dakimakura covers, for example.

While I have no emotional connection to the Fate franchise aside from a residual curiosity as to whether I might actually like some of its series (this has not yet been the case with the anime adaptations that I’ve watched), I do very much like the character designs. That brings us to this figure; this is Mordred, the son of King Arthur, or Artoria or Altria as she is known in the Fate universe. I’m not entirely familiar with how gender works in the franchise – I assume it has something to do with servants not being human – but that’s not what we’re here for, anyway.
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Hotori Yoshii from the Native Creator’s Collection (NSFW)

Hotori Yoshii Native Figure Review

Any day where one gets two Native figures is a fairly good day. Add that one Saber-on-a-bike figure to the delivery and that makes for a rather great day.
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Kagari from Ninja Girls

Embrace-Japan Kagari from Ninja Girls Figure Review

Back in the day, it was all too common for US anime and video game companies to westernize Japanese titles to make them more commercially viable. Mazinger Z became Tranzor Z, Space Battleship Yamato became Star Blazers, and a whole bunch of titles were rolled into Robotech. My personal favorite title change is Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which translates to “The Eternity You Desire” but was localized as the much less poetic and much more hilarious “Rumbling Hearts.” The first time I saw the new title, I thought it referred to a wrestling anime. Thankfully, with anime becoming more acceptable, if not mainstream, title and content changes have become much less frequent. However, Del Rey Manga reminds us of history by bringing us Hosana Tanaka’s series Rappi Rangai as “Ninja Girls.” Seriously, that’s the best title they could think of? One of the “girls” isn’t even a girl so what the hell?
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Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Real Image Version)


Max Factory Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Review

Backstage we’re having the time
Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun and tried to blow me away!

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Black Rock Shooter


Good Smile Company Black Rock Shooter Review

A couple of months ago, I was reading The Lord of the Rings, and one of the things that’s always struck me about J.R.R. Tolkien is how few books he ever had published. His bibliography basically comprises The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and several short stories. His most famous work is barely over a thousand pages in aggregate, shorter than many single volumes of contemporary fantasy series, and he labored virtually his entire adult lifetime on The Silmarillion without completing it.

That’s not to say that he wasn’t an active writer, though. Tolkien wrote prodigiously; the thing is, he constantly trashed his stories and started anew, coming up with new ideas, defining and redefining characters. One of his most famous characters, Frodo Baggins, was originally Bingo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins’s son. The character is refined over decades through numerous iterations and revisions until he becomes the Frodo that everyone knows from the movies. Despite the paucity of Tolkien’s published work, it’s safe to say that his characters are some of the most beloved in all of fiction and have, thanks to the films and the books’ enduring appeal, become pop-culture icons.

There is, however, another way to develop characters and ensconce them in the hearts and minds of the masses, one that doesn’t require a lifetime of toil. Start with a female anime character with big eyes, give her some attributes that hit on a variety of fetishes held by anime fans, get an associated video or a song up on the web, and chuck some merchandise out into the market. Then, when the inevitable anime and manga and video game tie-ins come out, you’ll be able to move more merchandise and sit back and watch panting fans drop thousands of yen on your goods. Character background? Don’t need it. Personality? Make it up as you go. Just be sure that it falls within one of the common, proven-to-sell archetypes. If it does, you’re good.
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Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann


E2046 Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Review

There are numerous figures of Gurren Lagann’s redheaded sniper, and they generally take one of two approaches: most, like Gift’s and Kotobukiya’s, emphasize her cuteness, but a few, most notably Alter’s version, depict her as a gunslinging badass. This particular figure undoubtedly belongs in the second group.
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Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Bounty Hunter Version)


Alter Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Review

My long national nightmare is over! I had preordered Yoko back in spring from a retailer that listed June as her release date. June came and went, as did July and the rest of summer and half of autumn. Finally I said the hell with this and ordered her from OtakuFuel. That reminds me, I probably ought to cancel my original preorder.
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Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier


MegaHouse Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier Review

I hadn’t planned on buying Sheryl Nome, but after seeing early reviews of her, I decided that she passed the eyeball test and that I should acquire her. To my consternation, she was sold out everywhere I looked. HLJ and Hobby Search briefly restocked her the day that she was released; she sold out hours later literally as I was removing my credit card from my wallet (one would think that I’d have my number memorized by now). As I resigned myself to the reality that she wouldn’t be entering my inventory, I took a look at BeNippon, a retailer that I hadn’t ordered from before, much less heard of. Hope was rekindled as they listed her as in stock with one unit left, and I quickly paid up and now she’s here.
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Nadie from El Cazador de la Bruja


Alter Nadie from El Cazador de la Bruja Review

With no figures in the mail, I turn to my existing collection for photography practice. Let’s take a look at Nadie, one of the heroines of El Cazador de la Bruja. Nadie is a fairly old figure and she’s been on my shelf for a while; I had to clean some spiderwebs off of her before I took pictures. Yucko.
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