I hadn’t thought very much about it, but I haven’t ever reviewed a figure from the Taimanin series, even though I’m generally a fan of the series. Actually, this is the first figure I’ve bought of a character from the franchise, but it’s a great one to start with, I think, as Yukikaze looks fantastic.
Continue reading
After a long string of featuring figures of girls in leotards, we’ll switch things up slightly and look at a figure of a girl in a racing swimsuit instead. This girl is Kouhai-chan from Ryousuke Fukai’s illustration series Arms Note. Kouhai-chan is the second scale-size figure in this series, following Bionic Joushi Kousei and some Figmas, and like the other characters in the series (some of whom can be seen in this Pixiv article), has no given name, letting us wonder about her background.
Continue reading
Mai Shiranui has been a favorite muse for figure manufacturers for well over a decade now, and for good reason; she is one of the earliest female fighting game heroines and stars in one of the most long-running game franchises, with The King of Fighters celebrating its fourteenth core game release in 2016. Her exuberant personality and agreeable appearance are also obvious explanations for her enduring popularity. Curiously, she’s scheduled to get at least three – and perhaps four – figure releases this year; quite a respectable quantity for any character. One is a large 1/4 scale figure from Chinese maker Infinity Studio; it’s of rather unconventional design being that she appears far more realistic than the anime-style designs that have represented her since her Fatal Fury days. Another is an exorbitantly-priced 1/6 scale figure from Gantaku, which looks to be very much in the same style as Alphamax’s polystone figures, before they switched gears and become a purveyor of high-quality pornographic PVC figures. The third – which hasn’t been shown off yet – is one that will supposedly be done by Kinetiquettes based off of an illustration drawn by Stanley Lau. But of the ones that have been sculpted, this one – by Amakuni – is in my view the best of the group.
Continue reading
My interest was piqued when Bikini Warriors was announced, being that I have a thing for scantily-clad female battlers. My enthusiasm was dampened when I learned that each episode would be less than five minutes in duration; I anticipated that viewing the show would be both pointless and disappointing. However, having watched the series, it actually works out okay. The truncated run time actually works in its favor as it excises most of the inconsequential filler that constitutes most contemporary anime. Each episode of Bikini Warriors generally comprises a brief action sequence – typically lewd in content – a silly joke that lubricates the progression of the encounter, and then a quick wrap-up, with none of the tedious exposition and anesthetizing monologues that pervade so many anime series. More shows ought to follow this model. The Fate/stay night anime adaptations, for example.
The purpose of Bikini Warriors is, of course, to move merchandise, and that’s why we’re looking at this figure here. This is the Cleric, who didn’t actually appear in the television commercial-cum-anime, but that’s okay since she still looks good and really, that’s what counts here.
Continue reading
Happy International Women’s Day! These days, the anime industry is the light novel and mobile/web/card game adaptation industry, and thus it shouldn’t be a surprise that the character that this figure portrays comes from one of those categories. This unfortunate reality is a major reason why I don’t watch much anime at all anymore, but at least they typically have attractive characters. Such is the case here with Umr, this unusually-named little girl with a most peculiar sartorial sensibility. We’ll observe this auspicious day by taking a look at this most dignified and well-dressed little girl.
Continue reading
We looked at Illya last time, so logically, today we’ll be looking at her counterpart, Chloe (sometimes romanized as Kuro, which I think sounds better and is thematically more appropriate, but nobody consulted me). We’ll keep this review brief as almost everything I thought about Illya applies to Chloe as well, so we’ll just touch on the high points.
Continue reading
As it is way too hot in this part of the world, we’ll look this week at Illya and Chloe von Einzbern, two girls who are dressed to beat the heat. They’re a little young-looking but that shouldn’t be anything too unusual for fans of contemporary anime. As the tradition here is to feature only one figure per post, we’ll start with the white girl and then take a look at Chloe in a couple of days.
Continue reading
