I usually review figures in no particular order other than what I feel like photographing, but today we’ll take a look at a figure that was released relatively recently: Lacia from the light novel, manga, and anime series Beatless. She was released earlier this month, making this one of the few times I’ve reviewed a figure in the same month of its release. This will likely be even less common in the future, since many of my figures are being shipped by surface mail and are thus taking a long boat ride from Japan to the east coast of the United States.
This is the second figure of Lacia to be released by Good Smile Company, joining the original figure which we looked at over nine years ago. That’s kind of surprising and perhaps a bit appalling as well; I don’t really think that much about how long I’ve been photographing figures but nearly a decade between figures is a very long time. This version of Lacia is labeled the 2018 version, even though it was released in 2021; presumably 2018 refers to the release date of Beatless’s anime, though I’m not certain about that.
Speaking of the anime, I was moderately interested in it, since I had picked up the figure years before its announcement, but from what I can tell it seems to be thoroughly mediocre. Viewers particularly disparaged its uneventful plot, one-note characters, and frequent recap episodes. I’d add that it appears to lack in fan service which could otherwise salvage a series, at least in my judgment.
Lacia is sculpted in 1/8 scale, standing about 21.5 centimeters in height. This figure came in two different versions, one with the Black Monolith and one without. My figure is of the latter variety, since it was a lot cheaper and takes up less space. However, without it, the figure loses quite a bit of impact, I think. We’ll talk a bit more about that down below.
It’s instinctive to think about Inori Yuzuriha when looking at Lacia; both characters were designed by the artist redjuice and serve as the lead heroines in dystopian science-fiction series. They are visually similar, with thematically analogous outfits and complementing color palettes. Their Good Smile Company figures, however, aren’t a very good match; this version of Lacia is considerably larger than Inori despite being nominally sculpted in the same scale size.
Lacia’s outfit comprises a black-and-white leotard with long sleeves and thighhighs. It’s not as provocative as Inori’s costume, though there is still a conspicuously-placed cleavage cutout revealing her modest chest. She has some kind of mechanical plating girding her hips; oddly, it’s detachable from the figure, though I’m not entirely sure why. It might have some type of interaction with the more expensive version of this figure, but I’m not sure about that.
Lacia’s design will be familiar to fans of redjuice’s work. She has a very pretty face, with a relatively neutral expression compared to the older figure. One odd aspect of this figure’s design is that her eyes are tinged with blue, giving them a strangely faded appearance, though admittedly this effect isn’t that noticeable from a normal viewing distance. Her hair fades from a pale blue-white to a more pronounced aqua color at the tips; I sometimes find hair gimmicks to be not quite to my liking (translucent hair in particular) but I think it looks really good here.
She’s posed in something of an action stance, one leg lifted and her arms angled out to her sides. She looks good but her pose looks a little odd without further context, and I think this is where the Black Monolith device would have enhanced the visual impact of the figure. Without it, Lacia’s pose looks a little awkward, like she is trying to run, jump and find her balance all at once.
None of this is to say that I wish that I had bought the deluxe version of this figure, however; I don’t have the shelf space nor the desire to spend nearly twice the price of this figure on an accessory.
I like this figure quite a bit; more than the original version of Lacia, I think. She has a very attractive design, revealing quite a bit of skin in the appropriate places. Her color scheme – pale blue hair and monochromatic clothing – is eye-catching despite not being overly flashy. The futuristic aspects of her costume, accentuated by its glossy, vinyl-like sheen – is also attractive. And while I usually don’t talk much about price – we all know this hobby is expensive – Lacia clocked in at just under 10,000 yen, a rare occurrence amongst figures these days. Pretty much the only thing I would have preferred to have been done differently would have been to make the figure larger – 1/8 scale is not that common these days, and seeing her next to some of her contemporary figure releases reinforces my preference for bigger figures. But that’s a relatively small concern, all in all.
She is quite lovely, though without the Monolith there does seem to be an awkwardness in her pose. Pretty understandable that you opted out with that price increase. But, honestly I’m kind of surprised they did two releases rather than simply forcing it on you at a higher price.
I did check out the other release on mfc and feel like it isn’t quite as visually impressive as her original monolith. I remember reading your review and considered tracking her down, though I honestly hate 1/8 scale figures.
Yeah, I’m glad they did offer the less expensive version; if the higher price tag is mostly due to accessories or props, I think I’d rather go with the cheaper figure most of the time. Comparing the newer figure to the older one, it kinda feels like the monolith is more of a background piece whereas the original figure makes you wonder just what it’s supposed to be, given the way she’s holding it over her shoulder. Yeah, I’m really not a 1/8 scale fan, either. I’m happy that larger-sized figures are a lot more common than they were ten years ago or so.
Cool figure, and glad to see another review.
Just a heads up, if you post a SFW review as your next review, it might be the first time in this website theme that you’ve ever had ONLY SFW reviews on the right hand side of the site!
Not sure you have any NSFW figures in the queue, but maybe move one forward for the next review? 😛
Ahahaha, and such is the case now since I just put up Kouhai-chan’s review. I guess technically Narika’s review would have been NSFW if I had bothered to photograph her without her panties, but then again, I’m pretty sure the next figure review is going to be SFW as well, just because I already have several figures photographed and waiting for editing and writeups.
I actually do have a bunch of SkyTube and Native figures here that are still in their boxes though, and I think Native is going to finally be shipping me the remaining figures they’ve been holding in their warehouse, so I think I should be doing some lewd figure reviews in the near future.
Well, now I’m wondering what Narika looks like without panties… LOL (I headed over to myfigurecollection.net out of curiosity, and that figure only has four photos, all official)
Honestly, all I could notice in the Narika review was the awkward arm that wouldn’t seat properly. That would drive me nuts.
Love the recent reviews, and very happy to hear that some SkyTube and Native figures may be coming soon. 🙂
Apparently everyone was smarter than me! I’m not actually sure what she looks like but maybe one day I’ll see what’s under there … I guess I’m not too concerned about damaging the figure.
I think all of the figures in the review queue are SFW but I did recently get almost all of the Native figures that had previously been locked up in Japan so I’d like to photograph them, hopefully soon.
Nice figure and photography; I gather she’s supposed to be an advanced android. Her character design is very attractive; it’s a shame Redjuice’s designs keep getting coupled to mediocre anime! I also tried watching Beatless anime, largely because she looked good. While the anime had a few interesting concepts, its first cour was very slow and boring. I did check in at the second cour and found it looked like some more interesting things were happening, but was not motivated enough to go back and finish the series.
Yeah, she’s an android, and from what I gather the anime (and its original sources) are partly about the relationship between humans and sentient machines. I’m not sure how good of a job it does exploring this topic but I’m guessing not particularly well. I think your assessment of the show would match my impressions if I did watch the whole thing, so I’m not inclined to watch through it. I think I learned my lesson with Guilty Crown.
Ah great that you reviewed her so quick after the release ^^
I have problems to catch up with all the figures that arrived recently.
I bought the figures full version with Black Monolith Deployed, it was so long ago that I preordered. It was the figure I was looking forward the most in the first quarter of 2021.
Aparently I totally fell in love with Lacia when watched that underrated boy meets girl (Cyborg) anime. It was really cute, yeah it had a few shortcomings, it’s still by my standards a nice story with a nice end. I also liked the more or less realistic outlook to the future of artificial intelligence. Lacia was voiced by Touyama, Nao which really made character appealing.
While the figure doesn’t look as cute as anime Lacia, I’m happy that it is quite close to it.
The face and outfit are great and with Black Monolith it’s quite an impressive figure.
I can’t deny that the big base appears a bit fragile. But since the spikes are springy they won’t break off that easily but in no way it will survive a crash, so I am a little worried lol.
Anyway it’s a wonderful figure with a beautiful battle suit.
I did! Yeah, I’ve got a big backlog of reviews to do, too. It’s good to hear that you enjoyed the show. If I do watch it, maybe I should just try not to be so critical about it; I haven’t watched any anime series in a while so I think I might be less serious about it when I do follow a series.
I’ll look forward to seeing your review! I’m curious as to how much the monolith enhances the impression of the figure. I feel like it’s more important than I first gave it credit for.
The face colors having the effect of almost looking translucent are growing on me as I see this figure every time I visit.
You mentioned it looks almost faded. Does it look better in your photos, or in person?
I think it looks better in person, though up close it does become apparent. Thinking about it a little more, I think her eyes seem to lack depth because they are all in blue tones; her eyes look printed on, like ink on newsprint. Most other figures do a much more convincing job of conveying the feeling of depth in the eyes.
Hmm, is it just me or does she look like a blue version of Inori?
Anyway, I think her eyes are not painted prominently enough. Reminds me of dragontoy, where the paint seems translucent.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what she is. I remember that redjuice also designed one of the Girls Frontline characters (the M82 rifle, I think), and she also looks a helluva lot like Inori. Being that she’s one of his more popular character designs, I guess he found a winning formula. I’m certainly not complaining away. Yeah, I’d agree that the eyes could use more contrast; I think a more conventional design with black outlines instead of all blue tones would’ve looked better.
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