Kotonoha Katsura from School Days


Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

As everybody knows Amiami is now accepting orders from international customers. I order most of my stuff from Hobby Search and HLJ, and seeing as how Amiami’s prices are quite a bit lower than either of those two stores, I was curious as to how good they are. I planned to order MegaHouse’s Aldra since she was on sale, but seeing as how they had one Kotonoha figure left, I tossed her in the shopping cart as well.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

The process of ordering something from Amiami is a bit convoluted. First you add stuff to your cart and check out as usual. About a day later, you’ll get an e-mail from Amiami listing your order’s total amount including shipping. Then you go to Paypal’s website and send off the money, and when Amiami confirms payment, they ship your stuff. All in all though, I’m pretty happy with Amiami; my figures got here fast and their prices are very good.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

Now let’s look at Kotonoha. She comes to us from the well-known H-game and subsequent anime School Days. I’ve not played the game nor watched much of the anime, but Wikipedia tells me that she is a quiet, bookish girl who is the recipient of the affections of one Makoto Ito, a classmate of hers. While I don’t know much about School Days itself, I do know that just about nobody on the planet has ever expressed sympathy for Makoto. Apparently he suffers from pronounced commitment issues and thus engages in relationships with multiple girls simultaneously. He’s one of the aspects of School Days that gives it its notoriety.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

School Days is also known for its endings – 21 of them, according to Wikipedia (the final arbiter for all things trivia and trivial). In particular, its bad endings have achieved fame for their gruesomeness.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

The original H-game contains a great deal of animation for a visual novel, and so it is perhaps not surprising that it received the anime treatment. I am told that the anime is rather dull and that Makoto is again profoundly infuriating. (Actually, I’ve heard that all the characters suck.) Like the game, it explores Makoto’s relationships with Kotonoha and Sekai Saionji, Kotonoha’s romantic rival.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

While the core of the anime may be boring and conventional, the ending is anything but. School Days transcended simple fame to internet meme status during the broadcast of the final episode – or rather, the substitute for the final show, with the broadcasting station’s famous footage of a nice boat.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

The final scenes of the School Days anime are glorious, and if the rest of the series was as bold and uncompromising, it probably would have been much more popular. Maybe. Heh. Anyway, everybody has probably seen the ending but if not, here it is, in all its uncensored awesomeness. Flip on closed captioning to get English subs.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

This figure is manufactured by Kotobukiya in 1/8 scale, although she’s on the low end of that size. I guess Kotonoha isn’t supposed to be all that tall, though. She comes directly attached to her base and I’m not sure if you can pry her off. She seems to be leaning a bit forward and to her left; I’m not sure if she’s supposed to be posed that way or if she’s becoming warped. She’s not too heavy so I’m guessing it’s the former.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

She comes with a cell phone accessory which slides into her hands as well as a couple of tendrils of hair which plug into the sides of her head. Her skirt is also removable.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Panty Shot

Her panties are pretty boring though. They’re kinda a beige or flesh tone color, or maybe salmon. Salmon-colored panties?

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

At any rate, I’m an adherent of the less-is-more principle when it comes to a lady’s undergarments, and since Kotonoha’s drawers are decidedly conservative, I’ll let her keep her dignity.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

Right after this shot.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

Kotonoha also comes with an extra face and her famous bag. Thoughtfully, Kotobukiya provides an instruction sheet for swapping her face; just remove her bangs, yank the face off, and put on the new one. Face … off. Face … off.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura, the Yandere Murderess

I should mention that she doesn’t come with the knife. Sorry if I’ve misled anyone.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

We know what’s in the blue bag but … ohmigod, she killed Mikuru! That bastard! And wait … does that head belong to …

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

“Miss, you’ve got something that belongs to me.”

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

“Err … I’m sorry, Mr. President!”

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

“I’m taking this with me.”
“Of course, Mr. President! Anything for you!”

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

The sculpt is pretty good. I mean, it’s a girl standing up, I guess it’d be kinda hard for Kotobukiya to mess that up. The paint is nice, too; I like how her clothes are a charcoal color rather than straight black, and they’ve done a pretty good of capturing 0verflow’s characteristic facial design. The base is a boring asymmetric piece of white plastic which is a bit larger than it needs to be, but it’s still small relative to most of the other figure bases I have.

Kotobukiya 桂 言葉 from School Days Review

It’s hard to say much about this figure; it’s a bit small and it’s not super special or anything. Kotonoha is very cute though and Kotobukiya’s done a pretty good job rendering her in plastic, not to mention capturing her murderous side. It’s a nice figure, one that I like a lot, although I admit that it’s not very exciting. I’ll also admit that I have no plans to ever watch School Days; I want to remember Kotonoha only as she was at the end of the series, sailing off into her happy new life.

Kotonoha Tapestry

I thought this picture looked nice so I’m going to link it here. I don’t recall Kotonoha being quite this racked but I like the new look regardless. I guess her job as a race queen required some augmentation. (Picture is shamelessly stolen from Hobby Search.)

I don’t think many people bought this figure. Shino has a review up, and there’s also one up on foo-bar-baz.

Kotobukiya Kotonoha Katsura from School Days Review

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20 Responses to Kotonoha Katsura from School Days

  1. Leonia says:

    Really nice review. On your photos without the white bottom, Kotonoha really frightens! I did’nt like School Day for the nice boat, and the unhealthy atmosphere during this anime. That is why, I don’t like this figure ^^ But she seems nice. Thank for this presentation!

  2. Wolfheinrich says:

    I couldn’t bring myself to watch or play School Days after I found out that Makoto was a total prick, the most hated male lead ever. But I was inclined to click on that ending link you provided… oh man, that was rather graphical…

    I was attracted to Kotonoha at one point but I think School Days totally robbed my interest of her all together. I mean just look at some of the illustrations, she can be so much more.

    Nice figure btw, if I ever wanted to take a look at Kotonoha again, I know where I can find her now~

  3. Ashlotte says:

    Mmm actually she has a pretty absurd rack…I guess the School Uniform doesn’t really show that off well. >_<

    Ah either way she looks great just a shame I can't really stand SD after watching the entire Anime…

  4. Tier says:

    >> Leonia
    Thanks! Yeah, I have the feeling that the abrupt change in Kotonoha’s character at the end is probably a pretty divisive thing XD

    >> Wolfheinrich
    I am told that during most of the show, the female characters are lovestruck and emo and are probably annoying to watch. So I’m not going to watch the show, I’m going to remember Kotonoha as being the decisive one who administers justice in the end.

    >> Ashlotte
    I wouldn’t have minded if Kotobukiya had been more faithful to the character design then, although I guess it might’ve been hard to sculpt her arms so that her cell phone is held up like that.

    I find that School Days is a great show if you read synopses for the first eleven episodes and then watch only the ending XD

  5. Guy says:

    I’ll opine on the figure later, she is a bit boring, ok, more than a bit.

    My one problem with AmiAmi is that one you order, you are promising to pay, or perhaps that’s just pre-orders, and I have no idea how much shipping they charge, so how much shipping did they charge for your figures, how much did they weigh, how big were the boxes? Inquiring minds who want to save money want to know!

  6. @wolfheinrich: I only watched through the whole thing because I knew how it was going to end up. Tho I would have referred the original ending where Kotonoha just walks up to Makoto and Sekai and she slashes Sekais’ throat just before completing her breakdown! (But then Makoto would still be alive…)

    And Kotonoha was the better of the 2, even tho a girl like that is rather difficult to date, including the pre-yandere parts.

  7. lee says:

    awesome review Tier, love the dark pictures! how did you do the background(too realistic for pc image)?

    started this show when it first aired cause I was bored to death by all other animes at the time, differ from other people thou, I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought character developments were very in-depth, connected events leading up to the explosive ending and this anime also becomes one of my favor all time.

    I was just reading wiki about reason for delaying of the final ep..talk about hardcore..

  8. Lylibellule says:

    Really funny pictures of your review with Kotonha and the knife … 😀

    I’m not attracted by this kind of figure too simple.
    I haven’t yet watched the anime. Maybe I’ll try to watch the first episode to make me an idea.

  9. Tier says:

    >> Guy
    I don’t have a clue, I didn’t bother looking at the invoice. Let me go find it.

    Shipping was 3200 yen for two figures. I have no idea how much it weighed, but the box wasn’t excessively large (unlike Hobby Search, who seem to often pack things in boxes much larger than they need to be).

    >> lee
    The background is just a piece of black foamboard; the fake bloody “bed” is just a rectangular piece of cardboard with some wooden sticks glued to the sides (I bought a bag of these sticks from a arts & crafts store for a few bucks). I brushed on some black and red paint to simulate the blood, but I’m thinking I should’ve mixed some of that paint with water and let it drip down to mimic blood trails.

    >> Lylibellule
    Thanks! If you’re going to watch one episode of the show, I recommend going with the last episode XD

  10. lee says:

    woah, talk about artistic dude! that’s uh..pretty impressive work there! I won’t ever figure out what they are if you don’t tell me..brilliant!

  11. Blowfish says:

    Here! I admit it!
    I simply watched the shgow for its famed ending and didnt find it particulary interesting until Ep 9 or whenever Makoto went into Casanova Mode and became the biggest prick ever.I mean he wasnt a sympathetic character before but you should have seen me getting angry over a fictional character XD

    I felt so much satifsaction when he finally got his punishment for his dirty deeds ^^;;;;;

    SchoolDays is in itself a very simple Anime that simply tries to provocate.The best thing about it is indeed the ending.

    Nice Boat! eh review!

  12. Tier says:

    Thanks! That’s awesome, Makoto sounds like the mack. Till he got what was coming to him, anyway. School Days has to have one of the best endings to any anime series I’ve ever seen.

  13. meronpan says:

    i’ve actually played through quite a bit of school days but never watched the anime… when you’re placed in makoto’s shoes as the main character i imagine it’s a bit different than watching his ineptitude in the anime. still annoying though. ^^; though if you’re the type that has never been good with girls and is shy/timid… perhaps you’d be ever so slightly less enraged by his decisions (that and the fact that you’re choosing them while playing ^^;)

    playing the game and experiencing the bloody endings sounds like it was a lot more chilling than in the anime. my memory’s a bit bad, so i may not have this completely right, but i thought the girls were pretty messed up in the game too – i.e. makoto was just way in over his head and he wasn’t the only crazy one ^^; i felt myself grasping for dialog routes that would gravitate towards something positive but eventually it just felt futile. and if you really mess up, well then seeing kotonoha or sekai meet their doom was pretty heavy.

    not sure if anyone cares, but *game spoiler*

    the one ending i do remember with makoto dying is really chilling too. i think it’s where makoto is openly going out with both kotonoha & sekai (somehow you get in a threesome or something and kotonoha & sekai agree to share makoto), but while makoto & kotonoha are doing it kotonoha has him pretend that he loves only her – sekai overhears this (without hearing the part that it was pretend) and silently leaves.

    she returns years later, stabs makoto in the stomach… as he’s dying he simply says he’s so happy that she was ok.

    *end spoiler*

    So yeah, i’m not really surprised that the anime portrayal of makoto was infuriating but it sounds like they didn’t convey as much of his “inexperienced teenager surrounded by insane females” situation ^^;

    Well then, that was fun, shall I talk about kotonoha now? ^^;;

    i would actually say her huge bust is one of her defining traits (after yandere of course :P) so perhaps that pic isn’t so far off. ^^; was tempted to get this figure but i guess i wanted the alter treatment ^^; chances of that are prolly pretty low thou so maybe i should reconsider…

  14. Tier says:

    When I play a game with a protagonist that I don’t like, I try my hardest to get him horribly killed. I once bought Metal Gear Solid 2 after playing the demo for the first Splinter Cell, and after about three minutes, I decided that Solid Snake was a mulleted nancy boy compared to Sam Fisher, so I ran him right up to guards and hit the drop-down button so that the guards would shoot him in the ass. I had a lot of fun doing this and making Snake crawl around on his belly while the guards shot him in his ass, and then I turned the game off. I never got off of the boat in that game.

    I can sorta see where they were going as far as presenting the characters as typically indecisive teenagers, but I don’t think it makes for a compelling story. You’ve got a guy who can’t commit to one girl and two girls who can’t commit to dumping him, and that’s not something I’m interested in watching (if I did like that sort of thing, I’d probably watch Jerry Springer reruns instead). I wonder if the creators came up with the bad endings first and then worked backwards when they were defining the characters.

    I’m kinda miffed then that Kotobukiya didn’t do proper justice to her mightiness, then. Maybe the ongoing obvious plastic shortage in Japan had something to do with it <.<

  15. lee says:

    na, I think koto did a very fine job of her with that extra crazy yandere face.

    meronpan mentioned the bad endings for the game, but the games got over 20 different endings and only a hand full of them are bad, most endings actually turns out pretty nice. but then again the story is just a teenage love triangle/adventure and a pretty entertain one in my opinion. since those few bad endings are most memorable, people started to use them to define school days as a whole which is somewhat misleading(excluding anime and manga, game did come out first). I remember another bad ending where matoko is walking with sekai to his apartment, as they got close, they saw kotonoha jumping off from the roof of his building and she mumbled out that they shall be together now forever when their eyes met right before her head hits the ground and exploded. that ending left me just as much of AWW as those murder ones..

    well anyways kotonoha is by far my favor char of the series and that’s why shes my next target on the list!

  16. Tier says:

    I guess this is one of those things where one aspect of the game gains so much notoriety that it overshadows all the other parts of the game. I wonder if the anime creators gave any thought to using any of the good endings.

    I’ve seen that ending XD It made me pretty sad since I like Kotonoha. I’m going to guess that there is no ending where Kotonoha and Sekai jointly decide to murder Makoto in bloody fashion and then live the rest of their days Thelma and Louise-style as lovers on the run. Man, that’d be a really cool ending.

  17. lee says:

    somehow I doubt, if that happens then the story wouldn’t be able to attract any new fans, so they did the obvious right thing by showing a original and bloody ending.

    lol I totally wish there were a ending like that, that’d make school days even more attractiveXD

  18. Yan Fan says:

    Could you take a picture of her with her face off, holding the knife? : D

  19. Tier says:

    Late late late … I dunno if this is exactly what you’re looking for but here it is … if it isn’t, I can take another shot.

  20. Kotonoha Georgette says:

    Adooooooro a Katsura-San soy su fan #1 XD

    I LOVE KOTONOHA!!! <3 <3

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