The Ikki Tousen franchise is a licensing juggernaut, and with five Kanu Unchous in my collection, I am scarcely immune to its wiles. However, while the manga fields a bewilderingly large cast, for years my only non-Kanu figure was Griffon’s awful Ryofu Housen figure from way back. Now, with Daiki Kougyou’s Ryomou Shimei in my collection, that count increases to two.
Kanu, Ryomou and Hakufu Sonsaku comprise the trifecta of major Ikki Tousen characters but while Kanu is my favorite girl in the series, I’m less enamored with the other two. I don’t mind that Hakufu is a brainless ditz – I find it quite charming, actually – but there’s not much more than that to her personality and she simply doesn’t have many good figures. My reticence to like Ryomou has a more peculiar explanation. When Tokyopop localized the manga, they renamed it Battle Vixens and handed the translation duties to Keith Giffen, who’s more noted for his mainstream work with Marvel and DC Comics. Apparently, he was given a very basic version of what the characters were saying and was told to write the dialogue in a way that would appeal to Americans. So he did that, eschewing subtlety and charging every scene with blatant, profane sexuality. I gather that most of the manga’s readership here did not support this decision, but I didn’t actually mind; I felt that the vulgar writing fit well with the lewd nature of the art. It was crude, perhaps sophomoric, and excessive, but at that time Ikki Tousen’s core themes were nothing but excessive, and Ryomou was the very essence of that; when she accosts Gakushu in the first volume, she is loud and carnal, threatening to climax with every arm lock.
Despite having bought and read all of the manga volumes, I was surprised as anybody when Ikki Tousen took a turn towards the conventional, moderating the innuendo and bestowing distinct, well-defined backgrounds on its characters. I wonder if Yuji Shiozaki knew what which direction he wanted to take the series when he started off; I tend to doubt it, as the early volumes portray Hakufu and Koukin as the main characters and present Kaku Bunwa, Ryofu Housen, and Chuuei Toutaku as antagonists, with Kannei and Ryomou being somewhat enigmatic but generally troublesome wild cards. However, Toutaku and Ryofu are killed off in short order, Kaku just sort of shifts into the background as eye candy, and Kanu and the Seito Academy group eventually move in as co-leads against Moutoku. In the anime, Ryomou becomes the even-keeled, quiet, logical foil to the boisterous and impulsive Hakufu, replacing Koukin to some extent in that role. However, my view of Ryomou is still colored by her depiction early in the series, and even though I found the idea of a violent, uncontrollable, sadistic Rei Ayanami clone to be irresistible at first, she also faded a bit as the story progressed and I can’t quite remember much of what she did subsequent to her introduction. It’s also hard for me to think of her as one of the more normal characters in the anime, given the first impression given of her in Battle Vixens.
Anyway, on to the figure. This rendition of Ryomou Shimei comes from Daiki Kougyou and is sculpted in 1/6 scale, standing about 26 centimeters tall at the top of her head, plus about another two centimeters to account for the optional handcuffs. Her base is a featureless black plastic disc which does all that it needs to do without getting in the way.
This figure is based off of an illustration done by Shunya Yamashita, making Daiki Kougyou the latest manufacturer to have found inspiration in his artwork. Ryomou is often depicted in maid garb, a sartorial choice that is wholly incongruous with her sober, introspective mannerisms, and Yamashita has given his typical spin on Ryomou’s wardrobe, decking her out in a leather collar, bonnet and dress with frills and ribbons in plenty, and chunky purple boots. She also wears her trademark sealing eyepatch.
She’s given more of a realistic, adult body build here than in the anime or manga and I think it suits this figure very well. Her pose is also quite distinctive, although I’m not quite certain what she’s supposed to be doing … is she dancing, maybe? Regardless, it’s dynamic and appealing even if it does look a bit silly, although considering her wild outfit, perhaps that’s fitting.
The sculpting of her clothing is quite detailed, with her skirt, headdress, and garters all crinkled with ruffles. Her blouse features folds that emphasize the forward thrust of her lower torso, and her panties are, uhh, realistically creased as well. One flaw is there is a seam right on the front side of her left leg; it’s difficult to notice under normal room lighting and I didn’t even see it until I looked at my full-size photos, but once you know it’s there, it’s hard to miss.
The paintwork is also very nice. Her hair and ribbons have strong shading which give depth to the figure. Her overall color scheme is rather muted, with lots of black and white, but the bright red bow ties and the violet boots and gloves give her the appearance of being much more colorful than she really is. A hint of blush and lipstick highlight her facial features, and she also has her mole next to her lower lip.
She comes with just one accessory, her favorite set of handcuffs. They’re made of fairly rigid plastic with one open end which slides into her right hand. Besides that, she keeps faith with the source material by separating at the torso so that her skirt can be removed, revealing plain but lovingly-detailed underpants.
I bought Ryomou mainly to go with Daiki Kougyou’s Kanu, but I think she’s a great figure on her own merits. It’s a bit of a different take on the character, coming from Shunya Yamashita’s art and putting her in an unusual costume, but it all comes together very well. Now, I’m ready for a manufacturer to make some figures of Roshuku, Bashoku, and Houtou Shigen, who’s with me?
Daiki Kougyou is putting out two more versions of this figure. The Junior High School Student figure purports to depict her as she might have looked in the 7th grade, although I know of no junior high schoolers with breasts like that. Mou-chan looks quite cute anyway. The Original Face version dispenses with the Shunya Yamashita-inspired face in favor of a design a bit closer to the anime. Her undergarments are given a wet, transparent look, making this version the Ryomou of choice for perverts and letches.
Wooow!!! with out fair to be wrong, this is the best figure version of Ryomou that i´ve ever seen, the others one are not so good than this version.. the detail is very realistic, the body, face , eyes are awesome… to the end justice for Ryomou!! yea!!!
Woow ! Ryomou is really sensual and sexy in this Shunya Yamashita version ^^ I really like her. I hesitated to buy the Gathering on E2046, but I don’t have money for the moment (sadly). This one is really cute too (and expensive lol). Thank a lot for these beautiful pictures! It’s probably the only one Ryomei that I like
One of the first Ikki Tousen figs that I actually like. For example her dress.
But since I’m not so a big fan of Ikki Tousen, I won’t get her. But she looks great.
Agree 100% on what became of Ryo…I never read the manga, but the same basic thing happens to her in the anime…She starts out as a mysterious sadistic glorious bitch who enjoys brutalizing people, but after she got “befriended” into being a good guy she became dead boring…Crying shame really.
I choose to just remember her as she was and not what she became…Lets me enjoy my one Ryo figure more. :p
Ah anyway looks like Daiki did a nice job on this one…still overpriced though to me… >_>
I really loved this one, but was too expensive for me. Nice to see you bought it. I envy you 😀
Very nice photos you have there. This Ryomou figure looks real sexy with the tight undies she is wearing and some of her panties being sucked into the butt. Very sensual. Very good choice!
I unpacked her yesterday after a 5 day delay by the german customs….
You know what? My heart was beating hardcore when I unboxed because I feared to have another unpleasant expensive figure experience.
Luckily she turned out great and I am more than happy tpo have a Shunya Yamashita designed Mou-chan in my collection.
Too bad youve beaten me with posting her review and I actually planned to use a flower in the background like you >.<
As about the other versions:
I found the 7th grader Version a charming Idea since I was pretty shocked when I saw her with long her the first time in the Manga but the Face wasnt Shunya Yamashita enough for me.
Ive gotta say the Eye of your Ryomou looks better though.Mine is a little bit more shifted to the left and theres too much white of the eye exposed.Makes her look a bit distorted.
>> Marcucho
I think so too, I haven’t been hugely impressed with most of the figures of Ryomou out there, but this one definitely stands out.
>> Leonia
Lack of money surely does suck 🙁 I was tempted by the Gathering version but I usually go with the PVC version if there is one. I was pretty happy that Daiki Kougyou picked it up, they do a good job if they aren’t doing something really weird.
>> GREW
Yeah, with this price tag I think she’s only going to appeal to Ikki Tousen fans or maybe fans of really weird maid costumes. I love Ikki Tousen but I want to know where the Roshuku figures are.
>> Ashlotte
Ikki Tousen needs at least one psycho character on the good guys’ side. They’ve already got a bunch of normal characters, with Koukin and Choun and Ryomou now, and they’ve got a ton of comic relief characters, but they need someone who can snap in an instant. The bad guys have Teni and Moutoku and Kakouen Myousai, although I don’t quite recall how Moutoku was portrayed in Dragon Destiny and Myousai seems to get beaten up a lot in both the manga and anime.
>> Alex
Daiki Kougyou definitely doesn’t price their figures cheap. That reminds me, I need to roll out a review of 1/4 scale Saber one of these days.
>> softz
Thanks! They did a great job with the detail there XD They know what Ikki Tousen fans want.
>> Blowfish
Congrats on your acquisition! You should go through with your shooting plans anyway … I’m pretty sure that I have a pretty low profile in the figure picture community (which is the way I like it >.> ) and I do not think anybody would make any connections between yours and mine.
If I had waited to put in my preorder, I think I would’ve gone with the normal face version just for the transparent underpants but I like the first version’s face the best. I am interested in seeing what your figure’s eyeball looks like, now that you say that.
For this time i would say PVC is beautifuler than the gathering and at the end i regret not for having taken the Daiki.
I love those small buttocks so incredibly sexy. A dreamy ass!
Painting is magnificent. Love it.:)
Excellent photos, you got better and better. Blurry effects make your photos very soft 🙂
Yeah, what IS she doing? If she is dancing, she is dancing like a complete dork. This is a very nice, well-detailed figure though.
Those are some great pictures – the flowers in the background really help set it off!
I’ve had mine for over a week now and it’s still in the box ’cause I’ve got no place to display it… This is my 2nd Ryomou – the 1st being the Cerberus Project version (which is also still in it’s box).
As for Kanu, the original Daiki Kougyou Kanu is the one that started my figure collection back in December 2008. Since then, I’ve added the Alter and Project Dynamite (Extra Color Ver.) Kanu’s… I can see myself getting more of her in the future…
Speaking more of Kanu, I don’t know much about her character – or Ikki Tousen for that matter – but there’s something about her that appeals to me on a somewhat,… dare I say,… sexual level, more so than any other character I’ve ever seen. I wish I could figure out what her mojo is… Maybe it’s the hair…
Regardless, congratulations on the new acquisition!
Hey, if you think about it, doesn’t she kinda look like she’s gonna kick someone in the face?! 😀 <– inappropriate smiley usage. Doesn't really explain the handcuffs, though you did say they were her favorite thing, so… I'm just gonna assume she carries it with her everywhere. ^^ Or just whipped it out to look cool. Spur of the moment. Anything goes. XD
It must seem like I say this all the time, but I really like the photos you took for this shoot ^^ The flowers went together really well with the figure! It seems my favorites are always the close-ups, love the fourth shot where you can only see one of her eyes ^^
I seriously don't know what Ikki Tousen is about, so I can't say anything for that part XD But I have to admit, even though I don't really like her character design in general, Ryoumou looks quite nice in this figure! The detail on her looks really well-done. Well, except for her face. The style of it is just not quite my thing. ^^;
But either way, congrats on your recent acquisition of yet another pretty PVC lady. Hope you enjoy her! ^^
>> Lylibellule
I like E2046’s prepainted figures, but I’ve noticed that most of their figures have the same style of face regardless of what character it is. I’m guessing that they aren’t too good at duplicating the style of a specific artist.
Ryomou does indeed have a fantastic backside XD And thanks for the kind words!
>> BurntHam
I dunno, maybe she’s got no rhythm. Off the top of my head, I can’t say I know any Japanese people who are skilled dancers.
>> MONOLITHIC
Thanks! I’m thinking of picking up Alter’s re-issue of Kanu to go with Kakouen Myousai … I always thought that they’d make a great pairing in the anime and manga, maybe I can make it happen in PVC format … hmm …
In the manga, Kanu is sort of the strong, silent type, sort of a warrior monk, definitely a follower rather than a leader. Unfortunately, she becomes more of a comic relief character in the anime and I don’t think that really fits her too well, especially with so many other slapstick characters around.
>> Iced
Thanks too! I’m thinking I should do more portrait-type shots, I usually do a couple sets of full-body shots from different heights but I don’t think they’re as interesting as head-and-shoulder shots. Ikki Tousen is nominally about a bunch of high schoolers beating each other up. The start of the manga emphasizes the warrior spirit that each high schooler possesses and their inability to change fate, but that theme sorta gets dropped as the series goes on and it becomes a bunch of high schoolers searching for the One Ring … err, I mean, trying to get the Genesis Device … uhh, rather, trying to obtain super-powerful and super-secret artifacts that will give them astounding powers. Or somesuch.
Ryomou likes to grapple when she tussles, so she keeps her cuffs around to keep her opponents close. It’s pretty kinky.
She’s gorgeous, i especially love her lips. So sensual 🙂 I think this is the very few figure i would expose without a part, in this case her dress.
Her pantie and buttocks are so damn sexy i just couldn’t hide it, no way !
I guess she’s sold out everywhere now 🙁 But i’ll check anyway hehe 🙂
She is! She makes for a nice contrast to all the trashy Ikkitousen figures out there (mainly from Griffon). Daiki Kougyou is milking this sculpt for all it is worth so even if this version is sold out, you can look into one of the two other versions they’re putting out. They aren’t cheap though <.<
Pingback: Flying Pussyfoot » Blog Archive » 1/6 Daiki Kougyou Ryomou Shimei
Every once in a while a good Ikkitousen figure appears. I rather like this one. Anyway, I kind of gave up on Ikkitousen after a while. I liked it a lot at first, but sort of lost track of it. Now that I read your description where it seems like the main characters start shifting around is probably where I got derailed.
The anime series seem to be more tightly-plotted than the manga (which sorta jumps all over the place and brings in a ton of characters, many of whom are hard to tell apart) … I wonder if the author decided to shift the franchise’s plot development over to the anime, seeing as how Battle Vixens books are being released on an annual basis now.
I can’t deny that I like trashy figures (this blog is full of them) but it’s nice to see an Ikki Tousen character given a reasonably classy PVC treatment. Sort of classy, anyway.
I think it’d be great if you took more close-up shots! ^^ They’d look amazing, I swear.
For some reason, I’m not surprised. XD The title translation is Battle Vixens, right? It kinda gave me the idea when I saw that.
That’s amazingly convenient, lmao (for the watchers too, I suppose).
I think I shall! Yeah, the US localization of the manga is called Battle Vixens; however,the US localization of the anime series is still called Ikki Tousen, which confuses things a bit. I guess Tokyopop thought that Ikki Tousen wouldn’t be a marketable brand name, but with all the Ikki Tousen anime series, figures, video games, and other merchandise available, but it seems to have backfired on them since I bet far more people are familiar with that name than Battle Vixens.
OK, Daiki do some very unusual things with some of the faces and I have to say that I’m not a great fan of this one, The original face one isn’t bad but I really don’t like the Junior High version at all either.
That said, despite not being a great fan, I am sorely tempted by BOTH versions of the Daiki Kanu Sei Shoujo models coming out soon… but I am trying not to buy anything else for a while having committed to buying 3 figures over the next 2 months (and wanting to get one more by the end of this month – Alter’s Selvaria may not be a patch on Enter Brain’s but it is still kinda cute! – oh and I can’t afford $350+ for EB’s) and having just shelled out a fair amount on both versions of Keumaya’s Goat Daughters… but that’s beside the point
Back to the point – I’m not sure those boots go – just make her to clunky and heavy looking imo…
It’s a shame as Ryomou has been increasingly portrayed as cute and vulnerable in the Manga, even losing a lot of her perversion from the earlier books, but none of her figures seem to capture that.
Both of the Sei Shoujo-inspired Kanu figures look pretty good, though I’m passing on them since I have so many Kanu figures already and they’re really expensive. I usually budget with the expectation that figures are going to get delayed and I’m surprised that most of the stuff I’ve ordered this summer hasn’t been bumped back much.
Yeah, I can see how her boots might detract from the figure. I’m not too familiar with Ryomou’s character because her characterization has been so inconsistent across the English translation of the manga and the anime.
I like everything about this figure but the face. I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I do like the Jr. High version though (although I agree on the whole “not looking like a jr. high student” thing). In fact I found that one on eBay for relatively cheap, but unfortunately I’ve already blown way over my figure budget for the month……..again (so much for a new laptop). Part of me wishes I’d lose that auction for Saber Lily so I can get that one, but then the other part tells the first one to shut up.
I’m thinking that second part of you is the wiser one; Saber Lily’s a figure that I like a lot. It wasn’t one of my favorites of last year – though it might be in the top ten – but I think it’s a better figure than this one. Though admittedly, I’ve got a big thing for warrior girls with broadswords, and much less of a thing for maid outfits.
I think it is the wiser one lol. I’m sure I’ll stumble across that Ryomou again, but something tells me I probably won’t find Saber Lily for that cheap a second time. I really do want all three of GSC’s versions of Saber (whenever Saber Alter is released), so I don’t think that second part will allow me to lose that auction. Only a day to go and I’ve yet to be outbid! Unless some bastard waits till the last minute……………but that’ll be irrelevant, cause I’ll be right there watching it too lol.
I’d agree with that, plus all three of GSC’s Sabers look to be definitive … like, when I think of Saber, I think of one of those three figures. I don’t know what the definitive Ryomou Shimei figure is, but I don’t think any of Daiki Kougyou’s qualify. Plus, those three Sabers would look incredible on a shelf. Heck, now I’m thinking I oughta get the Triumphant Excalibur version … hmm …
You should do it lol. I originally only wanted Saber Lily, but then I saw the early pictures of Saber Alter and thought “she looks pretty awesome”. Then I figured if I was gonna have two of them; I might as well make it all three. In that same vein I thought that one more Saber couldn’t hurt, so I also preordered that really regal looking one from E2046. You can never have too many Sabers…………lol.
Well, I won Saber Lily. Kinda wish someone had tried to outbid; I love the thrill of eBay combat lol. I’m sure my wallet’s glad that I didn’t have to spend more than I planned though.
Congrats! Me, I like a nice, peaceful auction, with nobody else noticing the item. My favorite auctions are the ones with buyout prices, particularly on YJA … it simplifies things a great deal.
So much for my wallet being happy. I checked my order status for Fei Yan and Jian Xue from E2046, and it was actually moved FORWARD to this Friday. My bank account’s gonna be smoking by the end of the week lol. Oh well, at least I’ll get them sooner than I expected.
Yeah, I sorta expect E2046 to charge my card whenever, their release dates are consistently inconsistent. Great figures, though; I don’t have Fei Yan but Jian Xue is excellent.