Tag Archives: Review

Chris Yukine from Senki Zesshou Symphogear G (Bunny Style Version)

Chris Yukine from Senki Zesshou Symphgear

And we’re back to our irregularly-scheduled program of figure reviews. Today we’ll be looking at Chris Yukine, one of the lead characters from Senki Zesshou Symphogear. For some reason or another, the series hasn’t gotten a lot of figures, despite apparently having been popular enough to receive a two-season anime adaptation. In fact, a quick survey suggests this is the only one scaled-size PVC figure from the show. This is also the first figure I’ve bought that is made by Aquamarine, a company that seems to be under Good Smile Company’s corporate aegis, and it’s always interesting to see whether a figure from a new company can measure up. That is, unless the figure is terrible, but happily, this figure of Chris is anything but.
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Touko in the Lavatory from the Native Creators Collection (NSFW)

Touko from Recollect

Anyone who has been in this hobby for a while can’t be too surprised by the concepts embodied by certain figures. I mean, there’s a figure out there based on an anime-fied Adolf Hitler, every now and then a company shows off a tentacle rape figure, and there’s even a very nice necrophilia-oriented figure up for preorder at the usual stores right now. Still, it was a little strange to see three figures involving toilets going up for preorder at approximately the same time (this one, obviously, and the other two were Ringo Hanamaru and a Kaitendoh figure). To be a fan of anime culture often implies being a fan of certain themes and fetishes, but I freely admit that toilet usage is not amongst mine. Still, if anyone could make this look good, it would be Native, no? Perhaps – but only if they didn’t botch it for other reasons. Which they did, unfortunately.
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Sumika Kagami from Muv-Luv Alternative (Kotobukiya Version)

Sumika Kagami from Muv-Luv Alternative

For the first review of the year we’ll be going back eleven months with this figure of Sumika Kagami, one of the central heroines of the popular eroge Muv-Luv Alternative. She’s the third figure from this series to be produced by Kotobukiya, following lead girl Meiya Mitsurugi and a peculiar figure of Kasumi Yashiro in a skimpy bunnysuit. It’s possible that Sumika will be the last figure that Kotobukiya produces from the core science-fiction series, as it looks like they’ve moved on to the Carnelian-illustrated spinoff Schwarzesmarken, though who knows; they’re still producing model kits of the mecha from the game, so perhaps they’ll revisit Alternative someday. If not, at least Sumika is quite a nice figure to end the mainline run with.
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Kasumi from Dead or Alive 5

Kasumi from Dead or Alive 5

We’ve noted before that fighting games don’t seem to get a ton of figures, at least relative to the number of popular and well-known characters that would seem to make for attractive figures. Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo series has ameliorated this dearth to some extent, though I admit I kinda have a hard time taking that product line seriously. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see some of the girls from Street Fighter and Tekken getting some love from a figure company.

One series that hasn’t gotten much love in terms of merchandising – at least until very recently – is Dead or Alive. It’s an unexpected situation since Dead or Alive’s main appeal stems from its female cast. Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and other fighting games are known for the sophistication and responsiveness of their combat systems, and one can find many videos of tournament matches attesting to their gameplay depth; meanwhile, it is equally facile to find videos of the Dead or Alive girls in their defeated poses, the camera lingering on their succuluent, sweat-streaked bodies. As crude as that may seem, that type of content ought to be old hat for anyone who watches contemporary anime and particularly for anyone who collects anime figures, and it seems like the Dead or Alive series should have more figures than it does. Well, now we have one more, of lead girl Kasumi. Unfortunately, its manufacturer has a reputation that is charitably described as mixed. Seeing the Griffon logo on the box doesn’t engender confidence but it’s not like there’s a surfeit of Kasumi figures to choose from.
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Cover Girl from COMIC X-EROS (NSFW)

Cover Girl from COMIC X-EROS

Alphamax – or SkyTube – has made a number of exceptionally nice ero-figures over the last couple of years, many of them adapted from Tony Taka’s artwork. This time, they’ve turned to the portfolio of another popular artist: Kizuki Aruchu, very well-respected for his doujinshi work with the circle Udon-ya. He is particularly famous for illustrating their long-running series of Monster Hunter doujinshi and like Tony, he combines a unique and readily-identifiable style with an impressive level of skill. Unlike Tony his work has historically not received a great deal of attention from figure manufacturers, although that has begun to change recently, and the figure we’ll be looking at today is the most recent one to be released.
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Mea Kurosaki from To Love-Ru Darkness

Mea Kurosaki from To Love-Ru Darkness

It’s almost always a treat to photograph a Max Factory figure, except when they get tossed in the bargain bin shortly after I pay full price for them. Resentment aside, they very rarely disappoint, and it’s particularly appealing when they produce a figure of a character who hasn’t received many figures prior. Such is the case with Mea Kurosaki, and that circumstance is a bit strange considering how popular To Love-Ru is and how attractive and well-known its female cast is. Nonetheless, it’s great to see her getting a figure, particularly when it looks as nice as this one does.
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Yuria Misaki from Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Yamato Girls Collection 03 Version)

Yuria Misaki from Space Battleship Yamato 2199

MegaHouse has released a number of figures of characters from Space Battleship Yamato 2199, and we’ll be looking at one of them today. Yuria was the third figure to be released in the Yamato Girls Collection series, and she is undoubtedly the easiest of them to procure, being that she went for around 2000 yen at Amiami and she’s still very cheap. I have to admit that the huge price cut she received colored my opinion of this figure to some extent, but having taken her out of her box, she really doesn’t look that bad and I’m not entirely sure why she got such a severe discount. At any rate, let’s take a look at her.
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Yume Kondo from the Native Creators Collection (NSFW)

Yume Kondo from the Native Creators Collection

And we’re back, this short break from posting being productively used to accomplish things (which is to say, I had a lot of business to get done in a couple of video games that I play; both of them have received or will soon receive expansions which modify gameplay and remove content and I had to complete some things before they became impossible to achieve). We’ll resume figure reviewing with this character, named Yume Kondo, an original character from Native’s Creators Collection line. Even though companies like Alphamax and Dragon Toy have made some very nice ero figures, it’s always a treat to look at a Native product, and Yume is no exception.
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Sena Kashiwazaki from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (Gift Swimsuit Version)

Sena Kashiwazaki from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

Strangely enough, we’ve never taken a look at a figure of Sena Kashiwazaki here, despite the healthy number of candidates. In truth I only own two, this one and the similar-looking Alphamax figure, which I received some time ago. Unfortunately, when Gift announced that they were going to do one of Sena in a swimsuit, I lost interest in reviewing the older figure, but perhaps I’ll revisit it sometime in the future. For now, we’ll take a look at this figure, which captures much of Sena’s charm in a singularly impressive and super-sized package.
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Cammy from Street Fighter (Bishoujo Version)

Cammy from Street Fighter

People who’ve visited this site before may know that I’m a big fan of fighting game girls. There are less of them that I’d like, particularly of the characters from Street Fighter. Like many gamers, Street Fighter II was my introduction to fighting games, and though I did not play as Cammy very often, I appreciate her design, particularly in all its immodesty. Therefore, when Kotobukiya rolled out this figure of Cammy, it was a no-brainer to buy it, no? Well, not quite, which is a little odd, because their Bishoujo series synthesizes Shunya Yamashita’s artwork, characters and series popular amongst international audiences (including characters from Star Wars and DC and Marvel comics), and low prices. Should be a no-brainer, but I had to think a bit before buying Cammy, and while I’m happy with this figure in the end, it’s an equivocal level of happiness.
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