I hadn’t planned on getting any more of Good Smile Company’s Muv-Luv figures after Meiya Mitsurugi, but I can’t deny that Sumika really is cute. Furthermore, my Rogue preorder at BBTS was scheduled to ship at the end of August, and as fate would have it, that same store had Sumika on sale for a relatively cheap price. How could I not take advantage of such a serendipitous occurrence? It is like the planets have aligned, the cards have turned up just so, fates have intersected at a confluence of capitalism and happiness. It was meant to be, and so I tossed her in my shopping cart, added her to my order with Rogue, and now she is here.
Like Meiya, Sumika is rather small for a 1/8 scale figure. She’s standing here next to Alter’s Metatron, and she’s a good head shorter than her. A bit disappointing, but I expected as much, so it’s not a huge issue for me.
Her cheerful expression combined with her oversized yellow hair tie and the odd orange heart make her irresistibly cute, which contrasts a bit with her tight pilot suit. I can’t really think of too many figures that comprise cuteness, sexiness, and sluttiness in equal measure, but Sumika is one of them.
Speaking of that orange heart, it has a mounting peg that slides into her hand so that it doesn’t fall loose. Sumika’s base is a set of hexagons similar to Meiya’s, and she has two mounting pegs to keep her stable on one foot.
I don’t know very much about Sumika’s story in Muv-Luv Alternative. A quick read through the relevant Wikipedia article reveals some interesting facts about her place in the storyline, and as I don’t want to include any spoilers here should anybody ever play through the game, I will omit those details here.
Meiya and Sumika in happier times, in a happier universe.
Sculpting and paint are pretty good; I do not see any obvious problems. She has a particularly nice butt. Her uniform is very shiny, which complicated the task of taking pictures.
I wonder what those things on her thighs are. They look sort of like ejection seat handles or something.
I’m glad I changed my mind about not picking up Sumika. She looks adorable, and I really like the Muv-Luv character designs, and she’s a very welcome addition to my figure collection.
The third figure in Good Smile Company’s Muv-Luv lineup is Kasumi, whom I’m not sure whether I will buy or not. Perhaps if I can get her on the cheap somewhere. Shino recently wrote a review of her with some nice pictures.
Can’t say I’m really fond of the heart, since it feels to me like it’s kind of out of place really (Though one can say the same of Kasumi’s bunny I guess, but well, bunnies are lots cuter than hearts :p).
But other than that, the colors on Sumika actually works really nicely for me and I quite like how the pink looks. The butt is really nicely sculpted though and the hair band is a very nice touch. With any luck, maybe she’ll pop up locally for me for cheap and I can complete the series as well 😉
Yeah, I’m not sure what the deal is with the heart. I saw it in some of the Muv-Luv CGs; I guess maybe it’s some sort of signature item for her? I dunno. Kasumi’s bunny is much cooler and adds a touch of youthful innocence to her.
I’m hoping the same for Kasumi; I saw BBTS put her up on sale and got excited, and then I noticed they only docked $7 off of her price >.< Maybe if I wait a little bit longer they'll be more aggressive with their price cuts.
This play of mirror is an excellent idea!
Thanks! I wanted to do something a bit more elaborate with multiple mirrors, kind of like a dressing room. Unfortunately, I found out that I really don’t know how to cut glass very well, and that sometimes you can see the reflections of things you don’t want people to see in the mirror. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t think of that when I was planning the photo shoot, but I’m glad the final photos came out okay.
Such a tight uniform 😛
It is! Still can’t believe this hasn’t been made into an anime yet; cute girls in tight suits and combat mecha, how can they not see the potential in this? Not just potential, the inevitable, preordained success! It boggles the brain.
I think mainstream anime is actually more risk averse than eroge or visual novels or manga. That’s because I often see “censoring” things going on, like making sure the fireworks lady of Bleach has two arms, when in the manga she has one arm and the other one is cut off at the shoulder.
One would think that with the amount of “fan service” that the Japanese would be able to present more “gruesome” violence, but not in mainstream anime. Only Seinen anime such as Gantz, but seinen doesn’t MAKE AS MUCH MONEY demographically as shounen or shoujo manga/anime. So the market tends to push people into taking guru or mature original material, and converting it into shounen action/harem/comedy. Much is lost in transition.
So while they can convert MLA’s characters and aesthetics to the mainstream tv, they can’t do the same with the plot .And if they can’t do it with the plot, it’s not MLA. It’s just some Chronicle fan story of the “Extended Universe”.
was her release date really in spring 2009?
I’d not saw her anywhere until reading your Kasumi review.
she looks very pretty with this plugsuit and the cute accessories like the big yellow ribbon and the red heart.
The happy expression is my liking and she seems to look nice from every side.
Picture sumika-kagami-09.jpg, sumika-kagami-12.jpg ,sumika-kagami-04.jpg and sumika-kagami-05.jpg are my favs
I have to check my budget now XD
Yeah, January 2009, actually, according to Tsuki-board. She’s a pretty old figure, and I don’t think any of GSC’s Muv-Luv figures sold all that well since I hardly ever see pictures of any of them. If you want Sumika, you might be able to find her for cheap, since I keep seeing her in the bargain bin.
I would like to buy her for cheap.but unfortunately I’ve only found her for around 108$
If you don’t mind preowned, Mandarake appears to have her for 3500 yen.
ah thx a lot 😉
The heart in her hands signifies Sumika’s heart but it also signifies an abstract: eternal love.
You’ll get it if you read the visual novels of Muv Luv trilogy.
What does Muv Luv even mean? Judging from all 3 stories in the trilogy, it means a love that transcends time and space. And I’ll leave it at that.
Can i find this figure anywhere except eBay? Seems like this won’t be possible… : /