Inia Sestina from Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse (Kourai Version)

We looked at the querulous Yui Takamura earlier in the year and the petulant Cryska Barchenowa a few weeks ago; today we’ll look at Inia Sestina, the younger-looking, more affable member of the Scarlet duo.

But first, a bit of editorializing on the currently-airing Total Eclipse anime. I had high hopes that the show would be good, but I expected it to be bad, as the majority of anime spans the gamut between bad and mediocre. Unfortunately, after an inconsistent but promising start, the show has become quite bad indeed. The first couple of episodes featured compelling drama and violence, but ensuing shows have been hampered by torpid pacing and silly characterization. The series is also handicapped by a simplistic portrayal of nationalistic identities, reminiscent of a bad Tom Clancy novel. Thus far, it’s the sort of show I might enjoy if I were eleven years old – indeed, it’s the sort of story I’d try to write myself at that age. I’m still watching it, though, if only because Yui and the Stalinist girls look good in their tight suits. Hopefully things will get better whenever they introduce Chinese girl Cui Yifei and she drapes herself over Yuuya.

And back to Inia. This figure is made by Kotobukiya in 1/7 scale and sits about 11 centimeters tall. Like the two other figures in this series, Inia is based off of artwork by since-departed Age artist Miyata Sou. Unlike Yui, she doesn’t come with any special accessories, and unlike Cryska, her head does not seem to come off – not that there’s any reason for it to. Her sole special addition is a soft aqua blue cushion that serves as a base.

Also unlike her Kotobukiya counterparts, Inia doesn’t represent any particular theme; Yui has the refined Japanese lady look and Cryska is rocking the commie Santa bikini, but Inia is wearing a straightforward school swimsuit. It does emphasize her youthful appearance relative to her two compatriots, which seems appropriate as she often assumes the role of the figurative little sister. One wouldn’t guess such by looking at her breast size here, though; like many of the Muv-Luv Alternative girls, Inia is substantially racked, the way that her breasts are squeezed only serving to further highlight their size and shape.

Inia is one of the more inscrutable characters of the Total Eclipse cast, and her expression matches her depiction. Her look is friendly but faraway, with no discernible emotion. Her visage is enigmatic and seraphic, a marked contrast from Yui’s look of surprise and Cryska’s apparent puzzlement.

Eschewing the helmet hair featured on a number of figures, Inia’s hair majestically blooms outward, sort of like an onion.

I don’t normally have a big fetish for school swimsuits, per se, but I make an exception for when they are paired with thigh-high socks. I really like this combination, and Inia looks great in it. Also notable is that Inia’s suit features an unusual metallic sheen. The pearl-like white color of her suit looks particularly attractive paired with Inia’s lilac hair and eyes.

Also unlike some makers, Kotobukiya gives us some cameltoe. Pity you can’t see it under normal circumstances.

Inia conveys an impression of placidity, but there is still some dynamism to be found here, particularly in the movement of her hair, which swirls and curls seemingly of its own accord. The effect adds to her almost otherworldly aura. There is, of course, also some implied movement in the way that her breasts are straining against her suit, which conform to their shape most impressively.

Back when Kotobukiya showed off Yui, Cryska, and Inia, I lamented that nobody was making figures of the Total Eclipse girls in their piloting suits. That sentiment has abated as of late, partially since Kotobukiya has since shown off a figure of Yui in her sexy tight suit but mostly because the figures have been uniformly excellent. Inia was the one I was least excited about but now that she’s here, I think that that was an unfair assessment, and I’d now say that I like her as much as I like Cryska. Inia is a fine-looking figure of a character from a show whose only redeeming aspect is its character designs.

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31 Responses to Inia Sestina from Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse (Kourai Version)

  1. bear says:

    “Inia’s hair majestically blooms outward, sort of like an onion.”

    I can see what you mean, but I still think those words are comedy gold.
    I’ve been planning on buying this in a slow month.

    • Tier says:

      That was sort of a stream-of-consciousness remark on my part, while I was looking at the pictures. I keep telling myself that one day, I’m going to write a figure review in a completely stream-of-consciousness manner, without pausing to edit or collect my thoughts. It’s probably going to have to be a Giga Pulse figure or similar for this idea to work, I think.

  2. Asa says:

    Inia is the only character in the show I like at all, though much of that is simply due to Mamiko’s seductively soft voice. The nationalism in the story is moronic (as any nationalism and patriotism is, really, but particularly given they’re facing an alien threat that should unite them).

    However, I dislike how large her breasts are for how young she generally appears (no idea how old she is supposed to be canonically). But still, it is a lovely figure, however since she lacks kemono features or weapons, not one I shall have.

    Where’d you get that prop bed, anyway?

    • Tier says:

      I like Mamiko Noto’s voice too, but unlike a lot of anime watchers, I first became acquainted with her by her role as Masane Amaha in Witchblade, where she grunted and rasped and moaned in orgasm while she chopped up robots.

      LIES. JOO ESS AY. JOO ESS AY. Next bikini figure I review is going to be all about nationalism, I think.

      I was kinda surprised by how big her breasts are; I’ve always kinda thought of her as being less-endowed and I suppose she is, but I keep forgetting that the other two lead girls are really, really racked. As is Stella; figure makers don’t seem to care for Stella and Tarisa, I guess.

      It’s ER Nurse Miyuu’s bed! It sure does come in handy. The best props are the ones that you don’t have to build yourself.

      • Asa says:

        I need some props to make my shoots more interesting, but finding such is oddly difficult. Never bought any figures with anything like that, only nendos, and they’re obviously too small to use for figures.

        And yeah, I like Mamiko when she’s not in her typecast cutesy roles, such as Witchblade, Mnemosyne and even BRS TV. She’s most well known for the cute stuff, but I think she shines in atypical roles. She has a broad range, either way.

        But, big breasts are never okay, especially on girls as seemingly great as Inia is!

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, it’s pretty tough to find them; I’ve found a bunch of stuff at the local crafts store, but it’s mostly small-scale stuff that’d work better for Figmas than 1/8 scale figures. I’m sure finding 1/6 scale stuff isn’t too difficult since there are quite a few dolls in that size, but that may be too big for most anime figures. I generally exclude props when I build my sets since I don’t have the talent to construct them.

          I’ve heard that she is most associated with cutesy roles, but I’ve actually only ever heard her in more adult shows, such as Witchblade and Mnemosyne, and also Freezing, though she didn’t really have much to say in that show.

          LIES. Tits need to be treasured, regardless of their size. Unless they’re like, wider than her waist, or something – those sorts of breasts look kinda weird to me.

          • Asa says:

            I was interested to note that Mamiko is voicing Gokicha. It is an adorable role, but still quite unusual (given she’s the anthropomorphisation of a cockroach and all).

          • Tier says:

            Uhh, I must admit I have only vaguely heard of that show. An anthropomorphic cockroach, you say? Well, being that one of the figures in my review queue is a moe-fied Hitler, I guess I can’t say I’m surprised …

  3. Tyjos Azari says:

    Wow! Inia looks great here, excellent shots! Looking forward to her arriving here soon even more now from seeing these pictures!

    You do some wonderful shots!

    Inia looks to be the better out of the set of her and Cryska…..

    • Tier says:

      Thanks! I like Cryska and Inia about evenly, but I like Yui’s figure the best out of the three; I think she has the most interesting outfit and pose. Curiously, she didn’t get nearly the same sort of cheap price at BBTS that the Soviet girls did.

  4. Devastator001 says:

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but both Cryska and Inia figures are the same scale right? It’s surprising that she appears to be the larger of the two when in the series she was the shorter/younger of the duo @_@?

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, they’re the same scale. And yeah, that is a good point – Inia should be the smaller of the two, but looking at the figures side-by-side, their body builds are approximately the same size, but Inia has a bigger head and a lot more hair. That’s probably a mistake by the sculptor but since I like bigger figures, even at the expense of accuracy, I will refrain from complaining.

  5. Wieselhead says:

    Oh, you’ll probably bring me to make a new figure purchase after reading your review and seeing your pictures of Inia. Well, I had her Inia on order once, but canceled her as too many figure orders were piling up 🙁

    Haha, but Inia looks so cute in this figure adaption, the face is just adorable, I really like her eyes, especially the small white line in them and the nicely sculted mouth. Her body doesn’t disappoint either, the pose is appealing and also the boobs which seems some sizes bigger compared to the anime ^^. The swimsuit suit accentuates her body quite well with the stockings the figure looks even better. I really want her now 😀

    I actually like how the show turned out so far it features very attractive female characters and some good straight action. It’s simple and Im easy to please, but I always liked such animes wiho are set in a nearly hopeless scenario. The thing that bothered me a bit was the lack of team development, they were all bitchy towards eachother at the start and in the next episode they were already buddies : /

    • Tier says:

      There is indeed a good deal of good stuff coming out through the rest of this year; I hadn’t planned on getting Inia since I had a lot of other stuff ordered, but then she showed up fairly cheaply at BBTS. I probably should’ve gotten Cryska there, too, since they cost about $72 shipped, which is quite a bit cheaper than getting them shipped from Japan.

      Inia really is cute, though; I hadn’t noticed how attractive her facial expression is but close up, it’s really very appealing. I also really like her shiny suit, which I hadn’t paid any attention to when looking at the promo pictures. I wonder how well Alphamax’s Inia will turn out; thus far, I much prefer the Kotobukiya figures versus the Alphamax ones, but their Inia will be coming out over a year after they released their bra and panties figures, so hopefully it will show improvements over those.

      Haha, yeah, I would say that I even like the show, but I can’t help groaning whenever the Russians start saying stupid stuff (which lately, is pretty much all of the time) or when Yuuya does that clenched-teeth hiss whenever somebody criticizes him. I kinda miss the island; maybe they should maroon the cast on an island again and have them pool their resources to get off, like that Survivor show on TV. Haha, yeah, I was really surprised at how quickly they became best buddies. Tarisa was really annoying at the start but she’s even gotten cute since she’s taken to defending Yuuya all of the time.

      • Wieselhead says:

        I saw her quite cheap at anime-island, but she was sold out then.
        With all the delays this month I have actually some money left, I would like to get Inia, maybe I’ll buy my copy, sooner or later.

        Haha yeah the Russians appear as quite psycho communists and say annoying stuff. The clenched-teeth hiss is his trademark, somehow it’s funny to watch him being frustrated. Tarisa is quite cute, nevertheless her first scene portrayed her in a very annoying and hyperactive way, not very likeable 😀

        • Tier says:

          Perhaps she will show up cheaply on Mandarake; I’ve seen the Alphamax figures pretty cheaply on Mandarake before. Though I’m still not quite sure why Inia sold out so rapidly amongst the Japanese stores when Cryska and Yui were fairly easy to get, even after their respective releases.

          The delays this month are kinda nuts, though I don’t mind at all. I’d been used to figures coming out on time, since it seems like delays are less common than they used to be, but just about everything I ordered for August got delayed to this month, and most of that has gotten delayed till October now. I don’t have a problem with that, though, since I just had to pay off Azone Saber.

          Yeah, Tarisa definitely made a bad first impression. Yuuya too, and Yui wasn’t too likeable when she got to the Yukon. The show still has some ways to go, I think, and the sooner they get out of Russia, the better.

  6. Aaron says:

    I like the motif of this figure…swimsuit and stockings. Unfortunately I know nothing about the amine other than your posts about it from the figure reviews. I definitely like this one more than Cryska though.

    On a side note: Do any doll makers make girls like this in their pilot suits? Can you get an Asuka or Cryska or Charlotte Dunois in piloting suit in 1/3 scale?

    • Tier says:

      Swimsuit and socks are a solid combination. It should happen more often.

      The anime is … ehh, a fairly predictable giant robot show, I guess. It starts off strong and then starts throwing out pretty much all of the usual anime tropes – emo male lead, one level-headed buddy and one perverted body, female harem cast, tsundere female, yandere female, quasi-little sister female, and so on.

      They generally do not, not even in 1/6 scale. It’s really tough to make any sort of tight clothing for dolls, I think, since it limits articulation to a great extent. I have a couple of 1/6 scale Medicom Real Action Hero dolls of Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu and their poseability is really limited by their suits (and also the poor construction of the dolls). Though something like Charlotte’s suit would be practical since it’s more of a school swimsuit or leotard style than a full bodysuit; a big Charlotte or Laura doll would be really cute, I think.

  7. Blackimari says:

    Lighting is great U can’t wait to see your tutorial on all that Magic 🙂 and the saeki figure

  8. BostonBrandon says:

    I especially enjoy when you shoot figures together, more specifically when they are from the same series. Theres no difficulty in guessing which shot in this series was my favorite(no, not the camel toe)so please keep up the trend of joint photo shoots in the future. I was a little disappointed that the recent Planet of the Cats girls didn’t get the same treatment.
    Also, excellent use of Nurse Miyuu’s bed and the camel toe was actually a contender as I feel not enough reviewers are willing to go the distance and show of the finer detail. While it may not be important to some, a properly sculpted genital region can greatly enhance almost any figure in my eyes.

    • Tier says:

      Thanks! To be honest, I really do not like shooting figures together, because it presents a lot of technical challenges that give me lots of headaches. Lighting becomes more difficult since the figure closest to the light gets overexposed relative to the other figure, and I generally can’t use my macro lens to shoot groups. I think what I’m going to do in the future whenever I have to shoot two figures is put them up together next to a wall, like I did with Cryska and Inia up there; I can light that sort of scene with one light and fix up the exposure imbalance in Lightroom, and I can use a wide-angle lens without having to worry about perspective distortion. Yeah, I had thought about putting the two Mamecchi figures together; I decided not to since the chair cat wasn’t wearing any panties and I’d have to tag the post NSFW if I showed them together (or I could’ve put the chair cat’s clothes back on, I guess, but I did not think the effort was warranted).

      I definitely agree with your sentiment. I was very pleased to see that Moeyo had some pictures of Alphamax’s figure of Ai from Fault!!, and though the pictures are censored they seem to show that she is properly detailed. I hope that figure comes out soon, but Amazon JP ominously labeled it as a January 2013 release, the last time I checked.

  9. Dvalinn says:

    I kinda like the show, personally, in a guilty pleasure kind of way. Yes, it may not the most perfectly plotted show, it has lots of cliché’s and the animation is really wonky at times, but I’m still amused at watching the antics of Ensign Screwup, Princess Hardass and the Soviet Twins every week (not to mention that it’s not like this season has many better shows anyway). The patriotism thing doesn’t bother me too much either; I’d kind of expect the human race to adopt an ‘every man for himself’ approach in a situation like that, as illogical as it may be (history has proven that already).

    Anyway, figure wise, this is the one that attracts me the most out of the three Koto’s made so far. I prefer Yui in the pilot suit and I would have preferred the hammer-and-sickle bikini (from the island eps) for Cryska instead of the Santa one (or her pilot suit), but Inia nails it for me. I like her expression, the white school swimsuit and thigh-high socks are a winning combination and her color scheme looks quite mesmerizing. The little pillow is a fun addition too; I quite dislike plastic bases on sitting figures.

    I’m certainly going to pick this one up at some point (and maybe her sister too, unless Koto announces a pilot suit version for her in the meantime).

    • Tier says:

      Haha, yeah, the show is disappointing to me, since I was hoping for something more intellectual and emotional (at least on par with something like Macross Plus, which isn’t exactly a philosophical show) rather than something resembling a high school harem show with robots, but oh well; the chemistry of the show’s cast is still entertaining. Hopefully things will get spiced up even more whenever the Chinese girl joins the cast instead of just making cameos; I’m sorta expecting the show to become something like Infinite Stratos at that point.

      Yeah, I would’ve liked a figure of Yui in her pilot suit as well. Fortunately Kotobukiya is going to do one, and hopefully that means the two Soviets will get one each as well; I figure they seem to be the main female leads of the show and it would be peculiar for Yui to be singled out in that respect.

  10. Negativezero says:

    you’re seriously ruining my wallet man. Please stop (not really). Now I have to find her source material and add her to my collection.

  11. Halbred says:

    I like her! I like Cryska more, though, because she’s showing more skin and she’s not as youthful. Actually just got Christmas Cryska (as she will now be known) from a fella in exchange for a piece of E3 memorabilia–good deal!

    I think the thing that’s most impressive to me about Inia, here is that her hair is so damn flowing and detailed. I much prefer hair like this to short cuts.

    • Tier says:

      Truedat, Cryska has the more mature look while Inia definitely looks very young, like a peculiarly well-endowed loli. That sounds like a pretty good deal indeed.

      Yeah, it’s a big contrast between Inia and, say, the Gift 1/4 scale Nanoha I just photographed. Strange how the much larger figure is so much less detailed than Inia; stranger still that the guy who sculpted Nanoha is a veteran sculptor who has been in the industry for many, many years.

  12. Aya says:

    She is a total beauty
    damn stop staring me with that innocent look @_@

    • Tier says:

      She is! I really like the look on her face; I like the look on all of the Kotobukiya Total Eclipse figures’ faces, actually. Kotobukiya’s stuff is often hit or miss but I think they did a fine job with these three.

  13. Safehold says:

    When the world of MLA was introduced in ML Unlimited, the reader got the impression that everyone was a big happy family under the auspices of the United Nations. When in fact, the true face of the world was more like pseudo Cold War times, hence the stereotypes. Because that was exactly how things were during the Cold War, back when this world sat on the precipice of mutual annihilation. Something later generations forgot, because they never experienced it.

    I presume most of the background political information was not transfered over from the original source. Surprising A1 did a great job transferring the material of Sword Art Online into an anime and continues to do so even now.

    Total Eclipse is set about half a year to a year before Operation Sakura Blossom of MLA fame. The setting is an interesting one, as it appears to specifically address the national identities, crisis, political infighting, that was not addressed much when the topic was eternal love and saving humanity in MLU-MLA. Of course, given my better grasp of the political and world setting, I can make a few inferences from the anime that other viewers may not be able to. If people wished to be introduced to the MLA world setting, this anime doesn’t appear to be focused much on that. Most of the fun with reading test pilot experiences is with their internal monologues and the technical spec differences of the TSFs, not the small unit overviews of character development. Whatever decision the animation studio made and for whatever reason, MLA world setting’s main draw is military ruthlessness and survival. As such, the animation for the uniforms are not quite to the right scale. It appears the initial episodes were very military in tone, but later episodes featured some kind of slice of base life priority. I do like their characterization and animation of fighting though. While I will always prefer the original source, I’ll take as much enjoyment out of the anime as it is feasible to do so on a pragmatic level. The rich complexities of a world under siege is hard for modern peace loving Japanese businessmen to contemplate, let alone “reWrite”.

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