Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

I don’t watch a ton of anime, so it’s rare that I get a character from a series that I’m familiar with. I preordered Ikaros before watching Sora no Otoshimono, but I’m going through the first season now and I like it a lot. It’s a fun, unpretentious show that knows what it’s trying to do and does it well. One of its goals is to establish a cast of sexy female characters that can be exploited commercially, and Ikaros here is a big part of that plan.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

Sora no Otoshimono is a manga and anime that stars a teenaged guy named Tomoki, a well-meaning pervert who lives in rural Japan. One day, a female angel literally falls out of the sky and into his life. Introducing herself as Ikaros, she pledges to serve Tomoki, which gets him into all sorts of trouble as he tries to balance his desire for a quiet life with his baser instincts. When not actively serving at Tomoki’s whim, Ikaros enjoys carrying watermelons and taking long walks on the seafloor. The cast of the show also includes Sohara, his busty, insecure next-door neighbor; Mikako, a sadistic gangster and student council president; Sugata, a student who is half Stephen Hawking and half Unabomber; and Nymph, a haughty and snotty loli Angelroid. The second season of the anime introduces Astraea, the blonde girl in the back.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

Grands has announced a figure of Nymph, and perhaps we’ll see one of Astraea as well, but here we have Ikaros. Sculpted in 1/7 scale, she’s about 27 centimeters tall from the bottom of that odd toothpaste-looking thing she’s standing on to the top of her head, and about 30 centimeters tall from the bottom of her base to her left wingtip. She comes more or less ready for display right out of the box; she just needs to be mounted to her base via two pegs in her foot.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

Ikaros has a couple of obvious charms and they’re front and center here, with her low-cut dress hiding almost nothing. She has her trademark sad eyes and childlike, innocent expression. She also has her other trademark, a collar with a short leash, which gives her character design a big boost in kinkiness. She’s wearing her normal angel outfit rather than casual clothing, which is an attractive black and white take on a schoolgirl uniform. It’s a bit plain, I suppose; the colors of this figure probably aren’t going to excite anybody. Though really, that’s a job for her tits, not the color of her clothes.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

I’m not sure where Grands came from, but Tadao Kouno, the sculptor of this figure, seems to have done work for Atelier Sai, Musashiya, and most recently Taki Corporation, which doesn’t really instill a great sense of confidence in them. Nonetheless, Ikaros looks pretty good at first glance. She looks very close to her anime design and she’s got a great body. Up close, you can notice that there’s not really a great deal of shading on her skin, giving it a flat look that clashes with the three-tone color of her hair, and you might notice some little specks of paint over her outfit and wings. From a normal viewing distance, that’s not a big deal, though.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

The sculptor has done a great job on Ikaros’s wings. They look very nice, spreading majestically behind her. Certainly much nicer than Kotobukiya’s Dizzy, whose wings sadly resemble cheap plastic props. They probably won’t look as nice as Alter’s Dizzy, but how can normal angel wings contend against the awesomeness that are Undine and Necro?

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

The flying panties ending sequence is one of the things that Sora no Otoshimono is most famous for and true to form, one can remove Ikaros’s skirt so that everyone can observe and admire her unmentionables. Or that’s the idea, anyway; unfortunately, her underpants look more like an adult diaper than sexy panties, which greatly reduces the appeal of taking her skirt off. They also have this fake printed bow on them that looks rather cheesy. Nonetheless, if anybody wants to see her panties, it’s easy enough to do so; she easily separates at the waist to facilitate the removal of her skirt.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review

Ikaros is lacking a certain measure of refinement; her paint is kinda flat and she’s not as detailed as some other figures. For example, she lacks fingernails and the soles of her boots is just a featureless plastic surface. Her face also has a flattened look to it that seems unusual, particularly from the side. Even so, I like this figure; it’s a pretty good representation of Ikaros that captures her personality well. In the anime, she is borderline autistic and always wears a depressed look, and I think that this figure mimics that expression accurately. Add to that a nice rack and some attractive wings, and I think this is a pretty good figure. I don’t know how much I’m looking forward to Nymph – I don’t particularly like her – but I’m interested in seeing whether Grands adapts the other Sora no Otoshimono characters.

Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
Grands Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono Figure Review
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32 Responses to Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono

  1. Shashin says:

    Heh, I like the figure. I had thought about ordering a figure for her, but I’m not sure if it was this version or if she has a few other versions floating around, but I didn’t know the character so I didn’t. Your description of the anime sounds fun enough, and the picture you linked shows a delicious twin-tailed and blue-haired loli, so you know I’m all over that.

    That’s interesting about the details, though. I think if you really look at it, that’s what separates the great manufacturers from the okay from the terrible. Overall, her form is very nice, with great assets, but the details are where she’s lacking. Not a bad figure by any means, but if it were done by Alter or some other top notch company, not only would the form be amazing, but all the details would be there too. I still like the figure well enough though, and I really do like the wings in the shots you took.

    And of course the first shot is amazing; really caught my eye as soon as I opened up the page. Love what you did with it.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, Nymph is a pretty popular character, as most loli tsundere types are, it seems. Hopefully she settles down some in the remaining episodes; she’s sorta grating compared to the other characters (haven’t watched Forte yet so I dunno what Astraea is like).

      Yeah, when I was looking at this figure, it kinda reminds me of an Orchid Seed figure. Though I’ve got this other figure in the review queue that also looks like an Orchid Seed figure so I didn’t bring it up. Personally, I think Alter’s the only top-notch company making figures now; MF seems to be mostly an action figure company and GSC … well … when you forget to paint a part of one of the top two most anticipated figures of this year, you’re not top-notch anymore. Sorry, GSC. Incidentally, this whole BRS thing is absolutely hilarious and I’m very much enjoying the drama, even though I know I’m getting a defective figure. Now if they screw up Saber Alter, I will be very displeased.

      Thanks, I have absolutely no idea how to take a picture outdoors so I got pretty lucky that the sun was in the right place. Though it made things really tough since I had no idea how hard it is for a camera to focus on a backlit subject.

  2. Shashin says:

    That’s disappointing; I always hate going into a series really digging one character based on their art, and finding that I can’t stand them in the anime. Though I’m a fairly forgiving when it comes to this sort of thing, and if I ever become attached to a character, I tend to overlook any future faults… unless they’re really bad. I’ll definitely give the anime a chance when I have some spare time.

    Yeah, I’d agree with that. I like other companies, but Alter almost always has consistently good products; even their Nodocchi figure looks amazing if you can forgive the weak wings. Heh, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Personally it wouldn’t have bothered me at all if it’s just a missing star, but you know tons of otaku are going to go crazy over the ordeal. I almost wish I had purchased the figure now; it will be a rarity in the future and might sell for more… though that’s unlikely. On the plus side, maybe the defective version will hit the bargain bin and I can pick it up cheap. Mistakes do happen, and if it were a good/great producer, I’d still probably consider them as such, but I agree with you when we’re talking top notch producers; they earned a reputation based on both creative/details figures and production quality.

    I’ve had minimal use with my camera, but I can understand to an extent. My camera has a focus light that for whatever reason you can’t turn off. I was at Blizzcon a couple years back and was scoring some shots of the Korean StarCraft players. I feel like a complete jackass about it now, but I was taking shots while they were playing in their enclosed little area; despite it being fairly dark, I kept the flash off because I didn’t want to disturb them. After a couple shots, security came over and yelled at me due to my focus light… as I had been shining it into one of the player’s eyes. I was a big fan of the player too, so I felt really bad about it. Anyhow, I couldn’t turn off the light, so I tried taking some more pictures awkwardly while my finger covered the light; the camera was never able to auto focus without the light.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I’m thinking ignorance is bliss for some of the figures that I buy. For example, I really liked MegaHouse’s Sora Kasugano figure but when I skipped through the first episode of her anime, I found that she is a belligerent douchebag and now I find myself not liking that figure as much as I used to. Well, technically I knew she was something of a jerk from reading her character description but I was unprepared for how annoying she is. I’m not really liking the Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls anime much either, and that’s affecting my desire to collect the figures. Though I guess on the plus side, it means I save a ton of money by not getting Alter’s revised Sanada figure. I did watch part of the second episode of the second season of Sora no Otoshimono while slacking off at work and Nymph’s temperament seems to become more tolerable, as it usually does with tsundere types (man I hate that word, by the way). Astraea seems cool too; she’s a big-breasted blonde airhead who tends to crash into the ground while trying to fly. Or walk.

      Yeah, there seems to be a curious divide between people who are up in arms and people who are giving GSC a pass, and I suppose there’s probably a quiet majority who don’t really like the situation but aren’t going to sharpen their pitchforks or boycott GSC. Me, I think it’s regrettable that GSC screwed up like that but I’m not hugely bothered. I wonder if Hobby Search is going to send out star decals like Amiami has pledged to … it’d be pretty weak if they didn’t. Though admittedly, I just want to slap the star right on her ass.

      Haha, that’s awesome. My camera lacks a focus lamp, so I guess I don’t have that problem or advantage. I was popping a flash outside and my flash has some red focus assist lights, but I guess I must not have been pointing the unit at the figure since I didn’t see them. They sure would’ve been useful because maybe two-thirds of my pictures were completely out of focus.

      • Shashin says:

        She’s cute enough for me that I can forgive her abrasive personality. But I’ve proven that I’m really easy, and there are very few characters I tend to hate. I don’t expect to like the anime myself, but it hasn’t kept me from ordering the first 2 BDs. I’ll probably order the 3rd as well, and cut it off there, since the screencaps of episode 6 are promising. Sounds fun, I’ll definitely have to add it to my watch list.

        Despite their cumbersome site navigation, I’ve found myself liking AmiAmi more and more these days, probably because I’ve been buying video games/DVDs, which Hobby Search doesn’t sell. I’ve had to email them a time or two, and I’ve just always had a good impression when they did respond; not really sure why. I guess though I didn’t expect them to bend on their policy, I’m still just a bit bitter that I couldn’t cancel Tomoe with Hobby Search. Funny thing is, the figure is just under 20000 yen on AmiAmi, and I would have been able to cancel that price if it had been the same on Hobby Search. I hope you do get the star, then. I’d love to see it placed right where it obviously belongs.

        I’m pretty sure that if I were to look through my pictures of the event, you could actually see a guy pointing directly at me in one of them. At least I’m fairly certain, anyway. Would be really weird if there wasn’t some way to turn off the lamp, but I went through all the options and could never find it.

        • Tier says:

          With Hobby Search having that Paypal exclusion thing on adult figures, I guess I might have to give more business to Amiami whether I want to or not. I’m kinda wondering if they’ll let me buy Daiki Kougyou’s Saeki figure; I tried recombining the order the other day to group together figures that are scheduled to ship in the same month, and it wouldn’t let me.

          Haha, that’d be an awesome picture. I guess that lamp is better than what my camera does to acquire low-light focus in auto mode, which is to pop up the flash and then strobe it over and over. I gotta imagine that’d be annoying as hell for whoever I point it at.

  3. Fabienne says:

    Hey surprise Tier goes out for an outdoor shooting, =D
    that was a very good idea, the warm sunset light fits very well to Ikaros.
    like in the very nice picture ikaros-03.jpg

    The figure looks really good I think even if there isn’t much shading on her outfit,
    It seems like she has an angel like aura.
    Like you’ve mentioned her wings do look really good.
    In the detail shot of her face the face looks quite nice, the eyes with their sad expression and the small mouth.
    Well Ikaros is not my favorite character in the show because she can’t show emotions very good
    like the other girls.
    I prefer Sohara because she’s kind , cute, curvy and always kicks Tomoki’s ass.
    I really want a nice and sexy Sohara figure XD

    • Tier says:

      I did! I wanted to give it a shot before the weather turns too cold or crappy. Winter comes up really fast around here. There’s also the problem that most of my figures aren’t really suitable for shooting outdoors, but Ikaros looks okay outside. And most importantly, she wouldn’t get me arrested.

      Sohara is awesome XD A Sohara figure would be great, especially if they included a tan version. She sure was cute while speaking sweet words to Tomoki over her school’s PA system.

  4. softz says:

    Hi Tier, 🙂

    Finally, I see outdoor photos from you. It’s an unusual sight to me. And they are nicely done. The cast of the ray from sunlight gave me a sense warm feeling.

    As for Sora no Otoshimono, I’ve no slight idea of it. But, she (Ikaros) looks nice from your photos. The wings look solid. I did a google on the series and I definitely prefer Ikaros to the blonde one. Innocent looking girls are for me 😉

    Here are some of my thoughts. I don’t really fancy her face. She appears to be looking more worried than innocent. However, her low deep cut at the front of her does gain some points there (revealing just a little to keep you wanting to see more). And of course, like you’ve said the colors of her clothing are plain. If more vibrant colors were to be used, the whole figure will be brighten up. Thankfully, her skirt is short 😉

    • Tier says:

      Hi! And thanks, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and had to figure out a bunch of problems while sitting by the river. Not the least of which was that the ground was sloped down, so I wound up having to hold the figure in one hand and the camera in the other; I should’ve brought my good tripod but it was too big to fit in my bag.

      Yeah, Ikaros has only one main facial expression, which is what you see here. Nymph and Astraea are a lot more expressive, as are the other female characters in the show. Ikaros does have her good points though, as you point out XD I’m interested in seeing Grands’s color sample of Nymph now.

  5. Chag says:

    I just noticed the back of the dress is non-existent. FUCKING CLOTHES, HOW DO THEY WORK?

    Of course, no one’s really looking at the clothes, as she’s got a VERY nice set of knockers. I especially like they sag slightly, which gives them a good sense of weight. The side boob angle is great, and I love the cleavage shadow in these shots. I used to like physics-defying torpedo tits, but nowadays those just look plain silly to me, like bad implants.

    • Tier says:

      Magic! Or duct tape. You can solve almost any situation with duct tape. Or gaffer’s tape, which I use a helluva lot of these days and is probably much less painful to remove from the skin.

      I’ve got Klan Klang here in the review queue, and her rack definitely resembles your remark. I was unwrapping her from the tissue paper that Hobby Search tapes over the figure box and when I glanced through the front window, I wondered what the hell I was looking at. Then I realized I was looking at her tits; they look so odd that I didn’t recognize what they were at all.

  6. Aka says:

    Wow, I don’t even like the zettai ryouiki on her, that’s rare.

    It’s curious to hear this artist worked for Taki Corp. Because Ikaros isn’t Taki Corp level, she’s average I would say. Does that mean Taki Corp would take otherwise average sculpts and change them into the shit we used to see? If so, that hurts, if they didn’t smother the talent of the artists they had like that I could have had a decent 1/6th Horo from them.

    • Tier says:

      It could be; I mean, I can’t think of any reason why anybody would be that consistently bad. It’s kinda like Stalin saying “It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army”; you’ve got to work really, really hard to suck that bad.

  7. Ashlotte says:

    Don’t like her…Not sure why…I like Ikaros too as a character just something about this feels..off…Mmm hard to put my finger on it…

    Wait this was really shot outside? I thought it was taken against a computer background! The lighting on the figure just feels so disconnected from what you get behind her. O.o

    Ah well I guess I’m just used to my lazy self who exclusively uses natural lighting (Durrrwatsaflash?). >_<

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I shot this outside, except for the ones on the white background. Natural lighting was going to be a problem since I was looking straight at the sun, and the figure would be a backlit black mass without a flash. And I’d still keep a flash around for fill even if the figure was lit, because I always see a lot of pictures where the figure has some really harsh shadows across it or is in the shade and has the skin complexion of a corpse, and I don’t find that too attractive.

  8. JessyP says:

    Yes! So happy to see you experimenting with outdoor shots. It’s all about finding a good location and the exact right time of day. Then just experiment with the flash so it balances well so it’s not so obviously fill flash. Great first effort though.

    • Tier says:

      I was pretty clueless about what I was doing. I needed to find a spot where not too many people were around so I climbed down to a riverbank where nobody was around, until a couple dudes sailed by in a motorboat. I also realized I had no place to put the figure, so I wound up holding it in my outstretched left hand while snapping pictures with my right. Then I learned that TTL metering kinda sucks when the subject is backlit by the sun, and that lighting conditions vary considerably when the sun is dropping behind clouds and trees. It was still a very interesting learning experience though, since I’ve never shot any serious pictures outside before this.

      • JessyP says:

        Do you have a light meter? They are kind of pricey, the one I have was about $190, but they make a huge difference in portrait work. This will allow you to shoot the camera in Manual by dialing in the readings you get from the meter. That way you get consistent exposures every time. That frees you up to worry only about framing and focus. It will save you so much time, especially at the beginning when you are nailing down the light.

        • Tier says:

          I do not; I sorta just go by gut and experience for indoors shots. This was actually the first time I’ve seriously tried E-TTL metering for anything. I probably would’ve been better off picking a different spot but I was completely unfamiliar with the area; I never even found the hiking or bike trails. I might look into that if I shoot outside more often; inside, I can usually just wing it through trial and error, but I have no clue how to manage light outside.

  9. BioToxic says:

    I really liked the prototype of this Ikaros when she was first announced, but after I saw her painted I was not impressed. It looks like the paint job has improved since then but she still looks flat and uninteresting – and her face looks totally off. Which is a shame since I would love to own an Ikaros figure.

    I enjoyed Sora no Otoshimono (so much so that I remember how to spell it without having to copy paste from wikipedia) when it was just Tomoki messing around. When they started going all violent I didn’t really like it. Second season so far has been fun, not as fun as the first though. I’m looking forward to the movie as well.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I remember the prototype was pretty nice and I even liked the painted sample, but when the publicity pics went up on Amiami and HS I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I like the final product but I think I would’ve canceled it if I hadn’t watched the anime. I think I’m only on like episode 7 or 8 so I guess I haven’t quite gotten to that part yet; from reading some anime blogs, it seems like a lot of recent series have had trouble with ending adequately. I wonder if studios just blow their budgets on the early episodes to get people hooked and buying merchandise and then cobble together the ending without much thought.

  10. Wolfheinrich says:

    I was following Sora no Otoshimono at the beginning but somehow I lost interest in the show, it was rather difficult for me to cope with the absent minded Ikaros to be honest, I think I like Sohara more if anything XD. Nice to see your making your round outside, it’s a totally different beast to do figure shooting outdoor, good job~

    • Tier says:

      Sohara is fun XD Actually, I think I like Mikako best, especially when she expressed enthusiasm for chicken curry and broadcast Tomoki and Sohara’s escapades over the school PA. Though Astraea seems like she could be a cool character too, based on the one episode I saw her in. I need to finish watching the show sometime.

      • Shashin says:

        Heh, I just watched the first two episodes, and it’s highly entertaining. My only disappointment thus far is that the service seems to be fairly tame, but I guess that’s not a bad thing; I find myself watching terrible shows only because of the promised nudity, and that’s not really the best trend to follow. I’m still hoping that it will get a bit more erotic as the show progresses, but if it doesn’t, it’s still fun to watch.

        The first five minutes drew me into the series. Sugata is fun, especially with Pretty-kun. And I love Mikako; not only does she have my beloved purple hair, but her personality is great; her devilish remarks and teasing of the other characters.

        I could definitely see Ikaros getting on my nerves eventually, but as long as she continues to have her boobs out on display, I don’t think I’ll mind.

        • Tier says:

          I don’t remember seeing nipples or ass, unfortunately, at least not in the first season. It’s more suggestive than anything, but as you say, the comedy is great. I like this sort of comedy more than something like, say, Ikkitousen. Though I think the funniest anime-related thing I might’ve seen recently are a couple of manga series titled Yuria 100 Shiki and Ore Tama.

          • Shashin says:

            Hmm, that’s too bad. But I guess a break from the endless stream of boobs I’ve been watching lately will do me good.. okay, not really, but I’ll deal with it. The plot summary of Ore Tama sounds amazing, so I’ll definitely have to check it out soon.

            I came across a Mikako dakimakura on Mandarake, and went looking for a sample image. I have to say, the people doing the initial sample image engaged in either the most creative use of shadows ever, or the most deceptive. I feel bad for anyone who bought the cover based on the shadowed sample image.

      • Ashlotte says:

        I generally don’t like characters with big boobs and Asterea are borderline gag size…But I’d still say she’s my favorite character of the lot for now.

        She’s slightly grating at first, but you warm up to her fast. Although she doesn’t have one shred of sex appeal with that personality of hers she certainly is a true bro of sorts to Tomo it feels like haha.

        • Tier says:

          I’m looking forward to getting to the second season then. Maybe I ought to just load the files onto a flash drive and take them to work this week; it’s a short week so nobody’s gonna be doing anything.

  11. Phil says:

    Love the outdoors shots :p

    Oh and the skins won. McNabb is working for his money. I am at peace with the world 🙂

    • Tier says:

      Thanks! And they did. It’s too bad Tennessee doesn’t have a quarterback. And this week, I hate Vick; I’m up against him in my fantasy league and he and Maclin scored more points than I was hoping for. Now I need to hope Brandon Lloyd gets less than 90 yards tomorrow night and I don’t think that’s gonna happen.

  12. Hey…. an outdoor shoot! Not bad! Not bad at all! =D Got some nice bokeh and the sunset makes for a great background.

    The outfit really reminds me of Kaguya Nanbu’s outfit, black and white cow dress. ^_^’ I’m not familiar with this character but there seems to be quite a few angel and devil girl figures lately – or is it just me?

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