I hadn’t planned on picking up any of Alter’s other Ikki Tousen figures, but Amiami had Ryomou and Kanu in stock the other week and with their shipping discount promotion still ongoing, I couldn’t really think of any reason not to buy them, so I did.
I covered Ryomou’s background in my writeup for Daiki Kougyou’s figure, so I’ll dispense with the character bio and go straight to the figure. At about 13.5 centimeters tall, Ryomou is not a very large figure and Alter has happily made her base quite small, measuring about 8.5 centimeters in diameter. This makes for a very compact figure that doesn’t take up a lot of shelf space, and given my dwindling amount of available room, that’s certainly not something that I have a problem with.
Ryomou is dressed up in an archetypical maid outfit. I can’t remember when or why Ryomou started wearing a maid uniform but she looks pretty good in one so I don’t have a problem with that either. She comes with a set of handcuffs that slide open and closed, but they’re very flimsy and fall apart easily so I didn’t mess around with them very much.
Her socks have a shiny sheen similar to Kakouen Myousai‘s dress, although the rest of her clothing looks normal and as a result comes off as a bit flat in comparison. The front of her apron in particular seems a bit lacking in detail around her stomach, although that’s being really nitpicky since the viewer’s attention is meant to be drawn slightly above that.
Alter’s sculpt comes from the cover of the fourth Japanese DVD volume of Ikki Tousen Great Guardians. It deviates a bit from the source in that she’s sitting up straight whereas in the art she appears to be leaning forward. The figure version also looks a bit angrier. I like the figure version better as nobody does angry faces as well as Alter.
Perched on a shelf or desk, Ryomou is quite small, and while she looks very impressive in a full-size close-up photograph, a lot of that is lost when she’s barely five inches tall.
I think this figure would be improved had Alter elected to depict her in an action pose rather than on one knee but despite that, she still looks pretty good, although not as good as Myousai. To be fair, few figures look as good as Myousai.
Alter really made some awesome Ikki Tousen figures! I don’t care for the series or the characters/designs but if I had to buy any Ikki Tousen figure it would have to be one made by Alter or Daiki Kougyou. Both companies definitely puts Taki Corp to shame. I can’t believe Taki Corp charges more for their garbage. I think they made a Ryomou with a similar pose to this one. The difference in quality is mind-boggling.
Your pictures for this review came out so nice! I love the flowers in the background. *-*
Wow, nice shots! How did you manage the reflective foreground? Glass?
>> Ami
They crush Griffon into the dirt, too. I wonder if Taki has any fans out there? I check up on a few Japanese-language review sites and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fan review of a Taki figure. I was really disappointed when I saw that they’re the only company so far putting out scale-size Seikon no Qwaser (the greatest anime of all time) figures … they’ve got this one figure of Katja that looks what Frankenstein might look like as a twintailed loli.
And thanks for the kind words XD Those flowers always come in handy when I’m not quite sure how I want to shoot a figure.
>> Chag
It’s a big sheet of clear acrylic. I used to use a transparent plastic cover from a poster frame but it got all scratched up, and getting the sheet from Lowe’s was cheaper than getting a new poster frame (I think it was like fifteen bucks).
Thanks for the tip, Tier! I’ll be on the lookout next time I stop by a hardware store.
My father actually suggested using a large piece of glass a couple of weeks ago, but the only thing available to me at the time was a large picture frame housing a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to disassemble that monster for the sake of experimentation, haha.
Nice figure indeed, Alter has proven themselves to be more stable in terms of quality over all other manufacturers including Good Smile
Was slightly tempted by this when I first saw the order go up, but the pose is just so damn dull…And even with your usual quality shots the pose still leaves me rather… -_-
I’d kill for Alter to do a version of this pose. http://myfigurecollection.net/figure/663_ryomou_shimei
Quality of that figure is meh, but the nice latex bondage wear-esque nurse uniform plus a flat-out badass pose still makes it my favorite Ryo-chan figure…ah well.
>> Chag
Ha, so I’d imagine! I’m guessing whoever put that puzzle together might be displeased by its dismantling as well.
>> Wolfheinrich
Yeah, apart from a couple issues I’ve had with leaning figures, I can’t really say anything bad about any of my Alter figures. Most of my favorite PVC figures come from Alter.
You know what would be really, really cool? It’d be really cool if Alter kicked off a line of ero figures like Max Factory did with Native. I guess that’s really unlikely but then again, I didn’t think Alter would ever start up an imprint centered on figures of dudes.
>> Ashlotte
I picked Ryomou up mainly for the sake of being a completionist (Amiami didn’t have Chouun so I’m lacking her and I dunno if I want to get her, anyway) but I’m not really hugely excited by this figure. I mean, it’s a good figure and I can’t knock its quality, but it doesn’t really get the blood pumping or the testicles quaking like a lot of Alter’s other figures (like, Kakouen Myousai).
Yeah, that figure is great, I think I remember seeing a variation of that color on, hmm … maybe it was HappySoda. Anyway, I remember seeing some photos of that figure that made it look badass. Don’t really remember Ryomou ever using a katana but I’ve got absolutely no problem with girls with swords.
This doesn’t really look a lot like Ryomou but I’m assuming it is by the handcuffs and the eyepatch. I think it’d make for an awesome-looking figure, too.
I’m kinda hoping that Daiki Kougyou or someone picks up this Kanu figure for PVC adaptation.
Gorgeous Mou-chan =)
Not fond of Kakouen but should grab Ryomou (love this character) someday at least to go with Kanu and Shiryuu ^^
Lovely shots!
Thanks! I figured Kakouen would be lonely without her pals. Or enemies. I think that Kakouen and Kanu would make a cute couple and that’s the main reason I got Alter’s Kanu, and then I tossed in Ryomou. Maybe I ought to think about looking for Chouun too.
Great review, she looks pretty good in these pictures! I was actually pretty bummed when I originally saw the pics for the Alter Ryomou because she just looked sort of frumpy. Like she just dropped her contact on the ground or something. The quality looks killer, but I fell in love with the Daiki sculpt and ended up ordering all three. Wasn’t expecting the last two to drop in the same month! Thankfully they didn’t disappoint in the quality department at least.
Oh wow, that’s hardcore XD I think I like Alter’s facial sculpt a bit more – I think of Ryomou as being an angry girl with a lot of issues – but size is a big deal to me and I like 1/6 much more than I like 1/8. (I also like transparent maid uniforms, too.)
Haha, yeah, she does look like she’s having a vision problem, doesn’t she? Or maybe she’s reenacting Vincent Vega’s dance while on one knee.
not sure i like their choice of color for the base ^^;
face/expression is probably my favorite part of the figure but alas, never really got into ryomou ^^; maybe if she had longer hair? hahah
Yeah, it’s hard to look tough and badass when you’re standing on a clear blue plastic disc XD Ryomou’s not really my favorite character either; in fact, she’s probably my least favorite of the main characters, mainly since her personality seems really sedate compared to how she started off. I think she works better as an unpredictable psychotic nymphomaniac.
She will actually be my first regular Mou-chan since all other versions I own of her are either colour variants or some other outfit.
Im actually happy that shes in a crouching position since shell give my Detolfs some room to breathe.
Shell offer a better view of the figures ion the back 😀
I definitely should’ve taken more posterior shots but I’ll wait for yours instead XD Her skirt is definitely riding up a bit.
i am no fan of her because i don’t like her design , but tomorrow i get the
Shimei jr, high school student&Shunya Yamashita Ver
from her ( she has long hair and no eye patch )
http://myfigurecollection.net/figure/22563_ryomou_shimei
this version looks really great
Ah, yeah, that figure looks fantastic. All three of them look fantastic, actually, and they’ve all got something cool – one has Shunya Yamashita’s face design, one has long hair, and one has see-through clothes. A little bit of something for everyone.
have you seen the orchid seed’s ryomou shimei??? it’s quite pretty…
Indeed I have, and indeed it is … I’m giving some thought to putting in a preorder for her and Ernula (the Senko no Ronde girl).
Yep!!! Ernula has a giant black rabbit! I love it!
I like Kawai Ameri too… I’ve got Nitro+ Soniko because the chocolate cake is pretty… XD
I saw that Yamato is putting out a figure of Soniko, too … it looks pretty nice though I’ve only seen the unpainted version. Hopefully it’ll come out in PVC form soon.
Yep… Yamato has done a nice sculpture. The bad part about Orchid Seed’s Soniko are the lines by her shoulders when I strip her. I like the Hustler Red Cardinal… ^^ she’s gone to the beach!!! XD
Ah, yeah, I remember seeing those in a review of that figure. That was sort of a shame, especially since Orchid Seed usually does a nice job with ecchi figures. Yeah, the Hustler looks great too XD I’m really looking forward to the motorbike Rider figure from Happoubi Jin’s artwork that Orchid Seed is doing … hopefully they’ll show off a painted sample soon.
Have to say Ryomou is my favourite character in the manga; have only seen the first series of the anime but noone comes off well in that (with the possible exception of Ryofu who is merely a bit lame) – seriously that series is horrible!
Have this figure on order at the moment as this seems to be one of the few decent versions of Ryomou out there. Have to say I quite like the stance as well – makes a change from some of the other posturing, or the crawling on all fours that Kanu appears particularly fond of.
Yeah, I recall seeing a part of the first season and it looked pretty bad. Dragon Destiny was decent, though, and it had much, much higher production values.
You know, I’m not sure who I’d say is my favorite character from the manga. I guess Kanu would be the safe answer, since she doesn’t devolve into the slapstick comedy character she is in the recent anime series. I liked some of Kakouen Myousai’s characterization, but she doesn’t get a lot of time in the spotlight.
It seems like this is one of the few figures of Ryomou that gives her that badass, don’t-fuck-with-me vibe that she has in the manga. I know she’s got a nurse figure, the Daiki Kougyou one where she’s sort of prancing on one foot, a ton of fanservice ones from Griffon, but I can’t think of many figures of her where she looks like she wants to kick your ass. I’m glad that Alter went that route since I think that’s the best fit for her personality.
Kanu’s had some weird poses. There was this one Daiki Kougyou one at the recent Wonder Festival where she looked like she’s trying to cast a voodoo hex or something. It looked really odd, but the funny thing is, I remember the exact panel in the manga that the pose comes from. She looked a lot cooler in print than as that figure, but the pictures I saw weren’t that high quality so I’ll be looking out for more images of it if they turn up.