When you don’t have a belt or a strap to hang your swords off of, you make do the best that you can.
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When you’re out swinging a big-ass sword that’s taller than you are, it’s best to dress right for the job.
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The Muv-Luv Alternative series is well-known and well-respected for its complex storyline, its realism – insofar as big battles between giant mechs and space aliens can be deemed realistic – and, of course, its sexy female characters vacuum-sealed into impossibly tight pilot suits. Not that you’d know that from any of the figures featuring Total Eclipse characters, though; Alphamax’s figure of Yui Takamura put her in her panties and this figure puts her in, well, her panties. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course – I’m not ever going to say that panties are bad. When a man has lost his ability to appreciate a cute girl in her panties, he’s lost pretty much everything.
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I was surprised when I learned that Alter was making another Aegis figure. They’d already done a figure of Aegis and their current catalog is mostly focused on popular, recent anime – Strike Witches, Bakemonogatari, K-On! and Railgun in their time, and so on. And though Persona 3 is a great game, it feels like it’s been overshadowed and overwhelmed by its sequel. While Persona 3 spawned a derivative and mostly-forgotten anime series, Persona 4 received a direct anime adaptation, on top of getting a fighting game developed by Arc System Works (to be fair, a few Persona 3 characters will be appearing in that game). And while several Persona 4 characters – such as Teddie, Nanako, and every female member of the player’s party – seem to be fan favorites, you don’t really hear anybody wax rhapsodically about Yukari or Ken. Me, personally, I like Persona 3 much more than Persona 4, so I’m glad that Alter chose Aegis once more.
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Like school swimwear, bunnysuits, and catgirls, nurses are a well-loved staple of anime art and anime character design. Not by me, though – school swimwear, bunnysuits, catgirls, and nurse uniforms don’t do a whole lot for me by themselves, not like, say, bodysuits or sportswear or revealing body armor. However, I ordered Miyuu less for her clothing and more for how she looks sans clothing. How does she look and how detailed is she?
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If you’re a figure collector and a fan of Tamaki Kousaka, you are probably a happy person. Characters come and go with respect to their popularity amongst figure makers – Iroha was a favorite character for some time, as was Ignis, and the Ikkitousen and Sengoku Rance girls had their heyday … but Tamaki – her popularity is as high as it’s ever been, at least among figure manufacturers. This particular figure puts her in a swimsuit, which isn’t particularly noteworthy. What is special about this figure is its size – she’s got many, many figures, but few of them offer a solid fifteen inches of Tamaki.
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Alter is one of the most well-respected figure makers in the hobby, and they have a diverse product portfolio that encompasses a huge variety of properties. There are a few franchises that they seem to particularly prize – in particular, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Strike Witches, and Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls. One could make a good argument that Samurai Girls doesn’t deserve figures of this quality but although the show is quite terrible, the character designs are, at least, fairly pleasing to the eye. They’ve trickled out over the last few years, and though Alter seems committed to making figures of all of the show’s characters, they’ve shown little of the alacrity that they evince with chucking out Strike Witches figures, who seem to get a new one every few months. Nonetheless, the newest one is Naoe Kanetsugu, an evidently happy young girl who carries a very big stick.
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If I remember right, Alice was one of the first Queen’s Gate characters, if not the very first. While the characters of the Queen’s Gate series are, for the most part, licensed from existing properties, I think Alice was an original design contributed by Nitroplus artist Niθ. However, even though she’s a relative unknown in a lineup stocked with famous characters from fighting games and anime, Alice is no less loved by figure makers – she’s represented in the hobby by no fewer than six figures. Her first figure – reviewed at HappySoda and foo-bar-baz – sported light green hair; a second version had white hair and the third version – which is this figure – has black hair. Alice also got three versions of her as a rather buxom grown-up character; as I understand it, that’s one of her combat moves. Or somesuch. Although it’s a bit out of character for me, I like this loli-style figure better. Let’s take a look at it.
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Tamaki Kousaka is an exceptionally popular character amongst figure makers and, along with Vocaloid mascot Miku Hatsune and Nitro+ mascot Super Sonico, has had an extraordinary presence in terms of hobby merchandise this past year. However, while Tamaki seemed poised to claim an equal share of the spotlight with the other two characters, one has to feel that her star has dimmed a bit in comparison. Tamaki is a well-developed character with an established personality and background, whereas Sonico is still relatively unknown and Miku is, of course, anything people want her to be. The result is that although Miku and Sonico have received a variety of figures, none of them look unusual or inappropriate – for example, Sonico looks equally comfortable in a nurse’s uniform as she does wearing a bondage collar while rocking out with an electric guitar. Tamaki, in contrast, tends to get stuffed into a school uniform or a swimsuit and one would be forgiven for expressing weariness at seeing yet another figure of Tamaki in the bikini. With this figure, though, Daiki has gone for the hat trick with no fewer than three versions of Tamaki – and I suppose one would say they failed since all of them hit the bargain bin fairly quickly. Not that I saw that coming since if I did, I could’ve saved myself a lot of money. Oh well. Let’s take a look at it anyway.
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Staying with the theme of Japan-exclusive ero figures released a few months ago, now’s a good time to take a look at Native’s Trunk Girl. Native had a bit of an odd year last year, with several of their figures not actually being much more explicit than the average Queen’s Blade figure – though perhaps it’s telling that the average Queen’s Blade figure likely wouldn’t shock an experienced figure collector. However, Trunk Girl and their lineup for this year seem to mark a resurgent commitment to their Naked & Creative motto.
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