Curiously, I have no scale-size Nanoha figures in my collection. I have six Fates, but no Nanoha. This imbalance must be amended – Fate is a lonely girl and she needs a friend. Somebody who will stand by her and give her a big hug. Somebody who will liberate her from a life of thralldom and unrequited love. Somebody who will occasionally Divine Buster her ass when she needs it.
Continue reading
It’s pillowcase time and while this one is not nearly as salacious as the ones I usually buy, I’m a fan of Seikon no Qwaser and I particularly like Teresa Beria, the reserved and taciturn Maria. In anime and video games, I like quiet, duty-minded girls. I’m more of a Rei fan than an Asuka fan and more of a Yuki fan than a Haruhi fan. I like KOS-MOS a lot though that sentiment is tempered by how bloody awful Xenosaga is. Fate is my favorite Nanoha character, though admittedly I’ve only seen the movie and the first few episodes of StrikerS. I really liked Noir, and that’s mainly because the female characters weren’t whiny, tsundere, or clingy – they just went around doing their business. And that’s what Teresa is like; she’s a quiet tulip enthusiast who helps out series lead Sasha in his quest for revenge. She occasionally steps into the fight with a bow and arrows. And she occasionally gets sexually assaulted, but that’s par for the course for all the Qwaser characters – including Sasha – so it’s all good.
Continue reading
Continuing the girls with guns theme, this is a saucily-dressed character named Felicia Andress. She’s a figure sculpted by a Japanese artist and manufactured by a Japanese company, but the box says Yamato USA and as part of their Fantasy Figure Gallery collection, she is clearly targeted at a western audience. Personally, though, I think that regardless of where you come from, what color your skin might be, what religion you believe in or even what gender you belong to, everybody can appreciate and respect an ass like Felicia’s.
Continue reading
Girls with guns time continues with a look at Alphamax’s rendition of Cryska Barchenowa. Previously known for their lineup of exorbitantly expensive polystone statues that seemingly nobody bought, Alphamax has in recent times redirected themselves towards mainstream PVC figure production. Many of their figures come from the usual franchises – Ikkitousen, K-On!, and To Heart, among others – and so I was surprised to see that they were going to make figures from Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse. Personally, I would have much preferred to see figures of the girls in their military data suits, but as there are so few Muv-Luv figures despite its long history and expansive cast, beggars can hardly be choosers.
Continue reading
It’s girls with guns time. I’m a big fan of the genre in anime but I skipped over Gunslinger Girl entirely. I like girls with guns but there’s an unstated qualifier there – which is to say, I like attractive girls with guns, and the cast of Gunslinger Girl does not exactly drip with sex appeal. However, the boxy heads and rectangular eyes of the characters appear to be peculiar to the anime, and this figure features a more conventional face – a welcome decision that shifts the principal focus from the atypical facial proportions to the attractiveness of the character and in particular, the mood that she expresses.
Continue reading
I placed my order for Heat Blade with Hobby Search on June 15, 2010. She was originally scheduled for a fall release, but that got pushed back, and back, and back, and it was not until just this month that she finally hit stores. In the period between the placement of my order and the writing of this post, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks won NBA championships, the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and (effectively) Libya fell to populist revolutions, the NFL went through a lockout, Japan was devastated by an earthquake, the collective manhood of Washington, D.C. was devastated by an earthquake, Charlie Sheen somehow got fifteen minutes of fame despite already being famous, the exchange rate dropped from 91 to 77 yen to the dollar, and I wrote 58 figure reviews. And one tentacle stand review. What a busy time it’s been.
Continue reading
Fate Testarossa is undoubtedly one of the most visible characters in anime culture, and it’s no surprise that figure makers turn to her again and again. For example, Alter is on schedule to release or re-release five figures of her this year alone – an astonishing number for a character who doesn’t even take top billing in her show. Lesser-known scale figure manufacturers also enjoy showing love to Fate; this particular figure comes from Banpresto, who I know more for making trading-sized figures and mecha toys than 1/7 scale figures. Regardless of my unfamiliarity with Banpresto’s products, I have a mandate to be the world’s biggest Fate fan who hasn’t actually watched her television series, and so I went ahead and picked this one up.
Continue reading
Here we have a figure from Amagami SS, a school romance show featuring a male lead who sleeps in a closet. Ordinarily, I’d rather have nothing to do with a harem-based school romance show, given how bad Princess Lover! was and how bad Mayo Chiki! is looking to be, but one guess should suffice to divine what aspect of this figure enticed me enough to buy it.
Continue reading
Time to give pillowcases a little bit of love. Lolis aren’t really my thing, but when the loli is named Takeda Shingen-chan, how can I say no?
Continue reading
The love that some people have for certain anime character traits can be a funny thing. There are entire communities dedicated to some particular aspect, like flat chests, or glasses, or the tsundere archetype, or tentacle violation. Equally funny is the fervor with which some people will champion their chosen fetishes. There are some people who will lash out with unbridled hostility if you dare attack their favorite things. I’m definitely among their number – insult my doll collection and I will hate you forever.
Nonetheless, I will go ahead and simply say it – I really don’t like animal ears on anime characters. They bug the hell out of me. No, I don’t know why I feel that way – one may as well ask why my favorite food is my favorite or why I hate certain sports teams or musical groups or waking up early or why I go absolutely ballistic if somebody driving slower than me passes in front of my car. It’s just the way things are.
Continue reading
