Dakimakura Review – Tiana from Maou to Odore! Code: Arcana (NSFW)

Tiana from Maou to Odore! Code: Arcana

The last time we looked at a dakimakura cover, we looked at a warrior girl with no name. This time, we’ll be looking at another fighter girl, one who apparently has no last name.

Tiana front side

Tiana is one of the main characters of Catwalk’s video game Maou to Odore! Code: Arcana. It’s the third game in the Maou to Odore! series and unusually, it’s an RPG rather than a straightforward visual novel. I’d love to tell you more about it but unfortunately, the demo version seems to have a country lockout that doesn’t allow it to run on non-Japanese computers (even if the computer’s administrative region is set to Japan). So sad. I think that’s a lame thing for them to do but oh well, it’s their game.

Tiana Dakimakura Review

The pillowcase measures 160 centimeters by 50 centimeters and is made of the usual two-way spandex fabric that most non-mass market pillowcases are made of. It’s a somewhat lightweight material, though; I recently got a different pillowcase (also featuring an eroge character) that has a much heavier feel. Not that this pillowcase feels flimsy or anything, but the difference in weight was very noticeable to me.

The front side shows Tiana in her usual uniform, albeit in a slight state of disarray. She presents a very cute look, and a somewhat familiar one, too; the game’s artwork was drawn by Noboru Kannatsuki, perhaps best known for his work on Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica. Certainly his style – long bodies, big, expressive eyes, and slightly pouty lips – is evident here. I also can’t help but think that Tiana bears a slightly resemblance to Evangelion’s Asuka.

Tiana Dakimakura Review
Tiana Dakimakura Review

The artwork gives Tiana very long legs, which seems to be a standard practice for dakimakura cover artwork. Also, one could make the argument that her feet are reversed here, but I’m going to believe that’s just an effect caused by the perspective and her socks. At any rate, mixing up hands and feet is, unfortunately, not a rare thing; there was another pillowcase I was thinking of getting by another well-respected artist, and then I noticed the character’s left hand was actually a right hand. Such a shame.

Catwalk may not want dirty gaijin playing their porno game, but we can still infer some things about the characters thanks to its Getchu page. (I’m using machine translation to read the bios so some of this may be wrong.)

This is you, also known as Alec. He’s a prince of a small kingdom and is thought to be the reincarnation of a great demon – the titular demon – sealed away a thousand years ago. But other than that, he seems to be a nice dude. He is said to be lazy and laid-back in outlook, but he’s also a talented leader and tactician.

Tiana is a princess – which perhaps explains the lack of last name – and a childhood friend of Alec. Despite her royal status, she’s also a skilled swordsperson. She’s also proud, confident, and rather willful.

Ariel (that might not be the correct romanization of her name) is a dragon knight, which is probably fairly obvious from the horns sprouting from her head. She’s a taciturn, expressionless girl who nonetheless decides to protect Alec.

Reese is an elven priestess who travels the world looking for a place to plant the seed of the great world tree. Though graceful and of regal bearing, she is unfamiliar with human society and is thus a bit innocent and inexperienced. She hears rumors about the resurrection of a great demon and is confused by the fear it engenders in humankind.

Mericia is an artifical life form, the product of a highly-advanced ancient civilization (a minor contradiction in terms there, if you ask me). She possesses superior intelligence, strength, cell regrowth abilities, but appears in virtually all respects to be a normal human being. She views Alec as being her long-awaited master.

Tiana reverse side

The reverse side of the dakimakura cover shows Tiana in a state of both undress and distress. She’s wearing some body armor here, and it has a normal metal color rather than the red-colored armor that she wears in the game. I think that’s a good change since I like the natural metal look better.

Tiana Dakimakura Review

The resemblance to Asuka might be more evident here, with the red hair ribbons and twintail hairstyle.

Tiana Dakimakura Review

She has an elongated torso, a hallmark of the artist’s style.

Tiana Dakimakura Review

And here’s her legs, complete with high heels – always the practical choice for getting into a swordfight.

I really like this pillowcase a lot; I’d say it’s one of my favorites in my collection. Tiana has a beautiful character design and she looks great on both sides. I just wish I could play the game; it looks pretty cool.

Tiana Dakimakura Review
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44 Responses to Dakimakura Review – Tiana from Maou to Odore! Code: Arcana (NSFW)

  1. Tian says:

    No birth canals this time?? I am disappoint.

    • Tier says:

      You ask and I deliver (heh). Never let it be said that I don’t understand the tastes of my readers.

      • Tian says:

        Thanks! With that out of the way, Tiana definitely has a case of foot reversal. How hard is it to check a pose with like one of those wooden artist’s dummies?

        • Tier says:

          You are most welcome! I’ve got more of this sort of stuff if you want more. As for your assertion, I’m ignoring you and everyone else and all of reality … kinda like Derrick Rose, actually.

          • Tian says:

            Too soon, man. Too soon.

          • Tier says:

            If he is inclined to come back, Wade’s injury would seem to be propitious.

          • Tian says:

            I think LeBron + his Boshtrich mount are enough to beat the Bulls even with Rose back. That’s essentially what happened in the 2011 ECF cause Wade didn’t have a good series then either. Chicago would need Rose back and also have Deng and Gibson healthy. Then it might be a closer series.

      • Hideyoshi says:

        ^ can u give me the source of that yummy doujinshi? =D

  2. Asa says:

    I’m surprised her breasts are a reasonably realistic (albeit larger) size, quite rare! Japan loves its mutant melon chests or washboards.

    Never heard of the company before. Not that I am an eroge aficionado or anysuch, but the character design is to be respected, anyhow. I rather dislike the eroge with huge RPG elements, though. I never end up finishing them because I really quite dislike jRPGs. I don’t mind a little bit now and then, but when you need to level a whole part of chars to clear a dungeon to advance and get to the next girl, it gets really frustrating. I barely scratched the surface of Kamidori recently because its RPG side was infuriating. I play eroge for the ero, not the ge.

    So VNs work better for me rather than these ero RPGs. But I still haven’t played many, all the same. I’d rather watch anime!

    • Tier says:

      I am a big huge fan of JRPGs … well, at least, I used to be, until Xenosaga took care of that, but lately there have been a number that I have liked. In fact, I have a post upcoming where I’ll talk about my fondness for a particular Japanese RPG; I just need to get around to taking some pictures of the relevant figure. I have no idea if this game is any good, but I commend them for doing something different than the usual clicky-clicky VN. (I also play eroge mostly for the porny aspects, which is why I don’t really have much interest in playing any all-ages VNs. Though I have to admit, I tend to skip through a lot of the text during the sex scenes … it gets kinda old, reading a character saying, “OMG it’s so biiiig! Iku ikuuuuuuu!”)

      • Aaron says:

        My favorite has always been, “If you touch me (put that) there I’ll go crazy.”

        • Tier says:

          Haha, yeah, that’s a great one. I’m also a big fan of “You’re breaking my womb!” I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to mean. (Though I guess it actually does happen every now and then … in fact, it happens in the doujinshi whose sample page I linked a few comments up.) My favorite, though, is “I’m going to get pregnant with a monster baby!” whenever a female character is engaging in copulation with a partner of a different species. I mean, I know basic genetics is pretty much common knowledge these days …. (Though then again, I guess I’ve seen some hentai where the girl does in fact give birth following impregnation by said partner of a different species.)

  3. cantan says:

    Cute, shame about the dodgy feet though.

    Recently got the grind fest which appears to be Agarest 2 and had another look at the Eva dakimakura. Still not entirely sure about her right hand on that but willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. As you say, this is quite a common issue… you’d think they would actually check if they knew it was an issue!

    • Tier says:

      I’ve got Agarest War 2 here but I haven’t yet played it, and there’s a good reason for that – I still don’t have a PS3, even though I also have Valkyria Chronicles and all three Neptunia games here. I probably ought to get one, seeing as how the PS4 is supposed to be coming out sometime this year, I guess. (But then, I also have a bunch of PS2 games sitting here that I haven’t played, like Sakura Wars and Ar Tonelico 2, and I probably ought to finish Persona 4 one of these days.)

      It is pretty weird how often this gets missed … I’d definitely double-check the hands and feet if I were part of a dakimakura circle; it seems like it wouldn’t take more than ten seconds to catch.

  4. Aaron says:

    I love this dakimakura…both sides. Thanks a lot for making everyone see the feet, which I doubt will ever be unseen.

    I don’t know what she is wearing on the front side, but the colors are different enough from her hair that they really pop out. I would like to see what the normal outfit actually is because it looks interesting. The rear image cannot be unawesome simply because she is wearing armor and very few clothes.

    My only grip is that I wish she were a little more explicit, even if only on the reverse image.

    I also really want to see the CGs from this game now.

    • Tier says:

      I aim to help! I’m still choosing to believe that her socks are just bunched up at the toes or something, thus making her little toe look larger than it should be.

      Yeah, I would’ve liked it if it were a bit naughtier; I also would’ve liked it if it had the reverse side as its main side and then a rear view for the other side. That would’ve elevated it from one of my favorites to perhaps my favorite.

      The outfit she’s wearing on the front seems to be her standard uniform. Here’s what it looks like:

      Here’s the actual armor she wears, which isn’t quite as flattering, I think.

      • Aaron says:

        Her outfit is way more interesting on the cover that her official art. The black just is too bland while the blue seems different.

        • Tier says:

          The color of her outfit on the dakimakura cover is probably closer to dark gray than blue, I think; I used a lot of light to light up the dakimakura cover and probably got a little carried away.

  5. BentoLover says:

    “He’s a prince of a small kingdom and is thought to be the reincarnation of a great demon – the titular demon – sealed away a thousand years ago.”

    Almost sounds like Leaf’s Tears to Tiara from back in the day.

    Either way. This dakimakura and the last reviewed were my personal favourites as well. Might hit Mandrake and start looking around again.

    • Tier says:

      I’ve never played the game, but I remember being interested in the anime adaptation. I never did see it but I wonder if it was any good; I vaguely remember hearing that it was alright but nothing special, and I also recall that it’s a two-season show, and sometimes it can be tough to find the time to watch a show of that length. (Reading the description for Maou to Odore!, I was sorta reminded of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, which has a similar premise, though I’m sure the eroge is much less comedic.)

  6. York says:

    Is this a custom made one? I really like how it looks, would love to have a simlar one. 🙂

    • Tier says:

      Nope, this one is by Chara@ … I probably should’ve mentioned that in the post, come to think of it. They do a lot of dakimakura covers of characters from H-games.

  7. Wieselhead says:

    Wohoo, thats a really nice character design this is a quite charming 2D girl on both sides.
    The clear blue eyes and the flushed cheeks of her, are really adorable.

    I like the side where is lying on her back the most, her body looks great and the aroused open mouth
    with the upper front teeth line is super sexy ^^

    It looks great with her limbs still covered in armor and the rest of herbody revealed this way
    At first I didn’t see the twintails at all, after that I like her even more hehe.

    The dirty gaijin XD region limited demos are always mean, there must be still a number of nationalist in the Japanese media industry.
    Be it animes and games, they ignore western people quite often.

    On the japanese second Nanoha Movie DVD, King Records was so nice to add subtitles for the main movie, but unfortunately not for the commentary.
    I have yet to check if the specials are subbed.

    • Tier says:

      She has a really nice character design; a lot of eroge seem to have imaginative and appealing-looking characters, so it’s a big huge shame that figure companies don’t seem as enthusiastic about them as they used to be. (This also really makes me wish that Daiki Kougyou’s figure of Celia had a larger head, cuz I would order that figure without hesitation if it did.)

      There was a funny and somewhat discouraging story over at Tenka Seiha, where he tried to get in contact with an eroge company about potentially translating one of their titles. He actually got a response, which seemed to say that foreigners were all dirty pirates and if any foreigners wanted to play their games, they should move to Japan. I don’t know how common a view this is, but it’s a bit disheartening as someone who’d really like to see some games and VNs come out in the West.

      It’s nice that they did so for the Nanoha movie, especially since it seems like Nanoha isn’t actually getting an English-language release. Or at least, the TV shows seem to be in limbo; I couldn’t find the Nanoha As DVDs for sale anywhere (though I know they exist) and I don’t believe StrikerS ever got an English release at all.

      • Wieselhead says:

        A figure like this cover here would make me faint that would look gorgeous XD It’s a pity that anime is the main focus nowadays.
        There are game figures, but ero game figures became so rare.

        Thats more than harsh X<. Back then in the AmiAmi incident I thought Orchid Seed would also see their western buyers as insects, but I guess I was wrong, I've heard from a german fellow blogger that they have send him spare parts for the Sonico nurse figure, after he e-mailed them.

        Mhh Im not sure about it, it appears like there was none.

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, it really does suck. I’ve been looking for more eroge to play recently and one of the things I’m looking for (besides games that can be translated by machine translators) are attractive characters, and there are a whole bunch of them.

          That’s good to hear about Orchid Seed’s customer service, particularly since that Amiami thing was so peculiar (though I mainly buy my figures from Hobby Search anyway). Despite having heard that (at least mild forms of) xenophobia is somewhat common in Japan (and having grown up in Korea, I can believe it), I’ve always gotten good customer service from Japanese companies.

  8. nagisa says:

    Agreeing with the majority as well. She’s one of of the best on your collection. In her ponytails though, she looks like Teana from Nanoha. Too bad that their game is region locked.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I’m still thinking of trying to find away around their region protection. I’m sure it can be done and I bet there’s someone on the internet with instructions.

      • nagisa says:

        As last resort, buying a japanese pc will be an easy way out. I guess removing that region lock is almost the same as modifying a ps2 console.

  9. John says:

    Hello. I have an off-topic question. Have you recently ordered any items using the proxy service, Yokatta Shopping? If so, are they reliable? I’m wondering if I should order a dakimakura from them.

    • Tier says:

      I have, I generally use them for proxy shopping. I think they are reliable; I’ve never really had a problem with them, and on the couple of occasions where something did go awry (due to the store screwing up, not Yokatta), they’ve done a good job of getting things worked out. Their communication is lacking, however; if you need a response, it’s better to be proactive and e-mail them rather than waiting for them to contact you.

  10. Mr.G says:

    Hello there, I was wondering if you had any posts detailing the dakimakura schedule, like with the figures? I’m mostly interested to learn whether or not a certain dakimakura is going to be featured.

    This Patchouli Knowledge dakimakura really caught my attention: http://www.eveningcall.net/InformationDetail.aspx?NewsId=284 and I’d love to see an in-depth review of it from you. Of course I understand if you don’t like the character, or the series, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.

    • Tier says:

      You mean such as my preorder posts? I wasn’t planning on doing anything like that, since I don’t buy nearly as many pillowcases as figures, but I would recommend taking a look at the Umoreru Dakimakura blog; it has release information for many dakimakura covers. I’m not planning on purchasing that particular pillowcase, but what I’d recommend doing is after it is released, just punch in the Japanese name and “dakimakura” (抱き枕) into Google Images and see what you get.

      • Mr.G says:

        Ah, thanks for the reply and the help!

        • Shashin says:

          If you were interested in purchasing it yourself, there’s currently a listing on YJA For 11k. http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k160938068

          Sadly, it would likely be cheaper than ordering direct from Evening Call (they do ship internationally), even if you paid more than the 12k retail. Due to the poor yen performance, Evening Call has changed their payment policies for foreigners; 12k covers are not set at a $150 price point, regardless of conversion rate. It sucks because with the current exchange rate, it’s likely to make using a proxy the more affordable option. :/

          • Tier says:

            Yeah, I found that out the other month, when I ordered a pillowcase and it turned out to be quite a bit more expensive than I thought it would have been. Peculiar, but oh well.

          • Shashin says:

            Their response was basically because they’re a Chinese circle, the yen not doing well has absolutely killed their profits in the last few months. They can’t increase the yen price for everybody, and since they have to pay more fees when using Paypal (though we pay the first conversion fee, so I don’t know what other fees there are), the foreigners are the ones who get stuck with the bill. Actually, I don’t want to do them a disservice and misrepresent them, so here’s their actual response:

            I’m sorry I make the response late. I will explain our price.If we are Japanese circle, I’ll very glad to receive JPY, or USD in the current conversion rate. Because we will receive JPY12000 at last regardless of conversion rate, so you can buy our dakimakura by low price than before. But we are not Japanese circle, we will change JPY to CNY at last. From January, our income has been reduced 25%! because of the JPY slump, but our expenses have not reduced at all. So we almost can’t keep our circle survival. We will pay more cost if we use Paypal. So we almost have no profit if we receive payment from other contries’ customers in the current conversion rate. But we can not raise our JPY price, because the CPI of Japan didn’t change. So we have to make an changeless price(JPY12000 to USD150, JPY13000 to USD165, JPY13800 to USD175) to protect ourself from the JPY slump and foreign customers just need to Pay the same with the price six months ago. Our circle is different from other Chinese circles. We make our dakimakura in Japan for the high quality. So we will pay much more cost than other Chinese circles at first. They can also make profit even JPY slump to 50%! because their cost is so cheap, but we can’t. I beg your understanding. Thank you very much!

  11. Tier says:

    Ah, well, that’s unfortunate. It does suggest that the profit margins on pillowcases can’t be that high at all, and I guess that’d make sense; I’ve printed stuff at large sizes and it always costs a lot to do so, and I imagine printing two gigantic pictures on a pillowcase has to be pricey. I’m surprised and impressed by their candor, too.

    • Shashin says:

      As they mentioned, it does depend largely upon the printers you use, I guess. I don’t know what the profits for the printers themselves are making, but I do know that most circles aren’t working in a ton of profit. There was a recent post on the B&W Store blog, mostly about piracy as far as I could tell, and they said their profit margin was bout 7% after all things considered.

      It does suck, and I’m going to support them as much as I can in the future, but the sad truth is that with as many covers as I buy, I never have enough money to buy them all. If it boils down to buying a cover for 12k versus $150, at least as long as the exchange rate holds, the 12k will be a lot more temping unless the other is a must have.

      On a semi-related note, I recently found a Taobao store that was selling covers from the catalog of a particular Chinese circle, at about $60 a piece. I contacted the circle because it wasn’t as shady as most bootleggers are, and sure enough, they said it was their store for customers in China. They said that the prices were lower because they used a cheaper material and it was mainly for students and such who can’t pay the higher price. Though it made me really curious, because the manufacturer for their covers for sale through Japanese sites was never listed. I just always make the assumption that if the manufacturer isn’t listed as Seiren, P80, A&J or a few others, that it’s printed in China at a lower price.

  12. Lee says:

    Yo TA. Where did you get your 160×50 Cm Dakimakura case pillow only? Been trying to search for it to no avail.

    • Tier says:

      I don’t actually have a 160 centimeter pillow body; the one I have is 54 inches long, which is something like 135 centimeters. I got it at Bed Bath & Beyond for like $15, and Amazon.com has a bunch more like it. That does mean there’s nearly a foot of empty slack at the bottom, though, so one would need to put another pillow or something in there. Me, I just live with the slack.

  13. Ronald says:

    I see they are doing releasing this one again, how would one from the US order this the site seems to be in Japanese only.

    • Tier says:

      You’d have to use a proxy service. Basically this is someone in Japan who will order the item on your behalf and then mail it to you. The two I use the most are Yokatta and Shopping Mall Japan.

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