I got a shipping payment request for Shoujo S from Tokyo Hunter the other week, and after I sent off the money, I had the feeling that something felt unusual about the whole deal. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but after thinking about it for a moment, I realized what it was: Shoujo S came out right on time! How rare is that? Native listed June as her release month, and she came out right on schedule, which is very peculiar. It’s a bit like where I work; we had this big party a few months back because we managed to ship out a patch for our product on time. Now that’s more sad than peculiar.
Shoujo S is manufactured in 1/7 scale by Native. She’s about 21 centimeters tall, which would make her right around five feet tall in real life. I’d be tempted to say that that seems a bit short for an actual person, except I’m barely five feet tall myself. Presumably the “S” in her name is for “strawberry” but in my world, it stands for “shokushu.”
Like Shoujo M and Collet, she comes with an assortment of loose accessories, including a mass of plastic strawberries, a bowl to hold them, a lone strawberry for her mouth, a little tube of cream, a cap for that little tube (!), and a chair. Unfortunately she does not come with any tentacles. If you ask me, tentacles ought to be a standard accessory for any schoolgirl figure, but sadly, I don’t make the rules.
Shoujo S is based off of artwork by Hanaharu Naruko, as is Shoujo M. She comes with this small illustration card and, like all of Native figures, is packed in a gimmicky box that folds out a bit like a wardrobe closet door. It’s a nice touch that emphasizes Native’s distinctive place in Max Factory’s product line.
Her skirt stays up by hooking onto her thumb and can be slipped off her legs if one so chooses. Her underwear or uniform blouse are not removable, however. Incidentally, I think this is the first figure I’ve seen that includes zipper teeth on a skirt.
This figure is sculpted by Max Factory – it says as such on the box but doesn’t identify a specific sculptor – and so it’s not surprising that it looks great. Her wasp waist and the tilt of her body show off the alluring curve of her hips. In the artwork, Shoujo S has something of a neutral expression, but without the strawberry, her face can express fear, which works out perfectly for my purposes. Her toes are nicely done, with one big toe curling upwards; for some reason, I always look at a figure’s toes, so I’m happy that they took care to detail them.
No figure is perfect and Shoujo S does have a few problems. The seams where her sleeves join to her blouse are very conspicuous, even when looking at her from a few feet away. Her head and face have kind of a squarish, boxy shape – it’s hard to explain it in words or pictures, but you’ll know exactly what I mean if you see this figure in person. And – perhaps most annoying to me – her base is huge. It’s way bigger than it needs to be, and being strapped for space, it restricts where I can put her. Also, all of her accessories are loose which means that I’m very likely to lose them. While I think she looks best with a strawberry in her mouth, I’d rather not risk misplacing it, so back into the box it goes. Fortunately, we can fill Shoujo S’s mouth with other things.
One other thing that would’ve been nice if they give the cleft of her buttocks a bit more definition. Like, maybe a deeper groove. Given how untoward talking about a plastic figure’s ass crack seems to be, however, I suppose I can let it go.
These small problems aside, I think she looks fantastic, so I’m very happy to have her. My favorite aspect of the figure is her body sculpt – her hips are sexy as hell, as mentioned, and so is her stomach and her chest. I also love her legs – they have a bit of thickness to them and their length gives her lower body a substantativeness seemingly incongruous with her slender upper body, but her womanly legs and girlish torso blend together beautifully nonetheless. Shoujo S is a fine addition to my collection and I’m hoping that Native announces more figures soon. I suppose I’ll have to track down a thingy of Daiki Gel for Chie sometime soon.
Another review of Shoujo is available at foo-bar-baz, as usual.
Loving the tentacles, and so very jealous you already have yours.
Is the base not so big so that the chair fits, and they like to make them round so by having to extend it out for the chair…
I need some tentacles…
The dedication evident in your home-made tentacles never ceases to amaze me. If only you were a biochemist or something in your day job — then you could be making your own living monstrosity while pretending to find a cure for cancer.
Great pics and review!
I ordered mine from Hobbyfan, which means it’ll arrive there at the end of the month. VERY good for me ’cause I’m currently broke and I’ve got other figures (Momohime from Muramasa and Senhime from Hyakka Ryoran) to pay for this month.
I wonder if (my “simple” names for those two Native figures) Strawberry Girl’s chair will fit under Banana Girl’s desk? Can’t wait to find out.
>> Aka
You definitely do. This hobby needs more tentacles, there aren’t nearly enough tentacle figures out there. There’s only, like, 17 up on Tsuki-board. Maybe I can start an internet meme if I keep putting them in my pictures.
>> Chag
Or maybe I could turn myself into a tentacle monster! An unstoppable many-appendaged love machine is what I would be. Life would be so much better if I were a tentacle monster. High school for today’s collective female student body would never be the same.
>> MONOLITHIC
It looks like Alter’s figures might actually be on time this month too, which would be very unusual indeed (Senhime’s release date is this week! Yay!). I’m thinking I might cancel Revy for this month since I’ve got some other stuff to pay for.
Hmm, dunno if she’ll fit under Kotone’s desk but maybe you can find a way to wedge her in there XD
There thats more like it…But damnit Native allow regular retailers to sell your stuff…Too poor and lazy to bother with this exclusive non-sense! T_T
Always nice to see more moderately sized breasts instead of giant “size of my head” basketball ones though eh…Not to mention squeezably round bums…mmm squeezable…
your tentacles are cool XD
thx for sharing these nice pictures I like picture sm-shoujo-s-07.jpg a lot.
I wanted to buy this figure, but in the end I wasn’t too convinced or maybe not brave enough to buy her ;D.
she looks very young maybe its better that her age isn’t mentioned *cough*.
but without a doubt she is a very
attractive figure, her body looks very nice and the boobs are cute.
The face looks also pretty, the only thing I don’t like about her is the wide open mouth.
Sweet! More uses for your tentacles. LOL
I ordered mine from HobbyFan too, so who knows when I’ll get my order, if ever. I tend to get bumped to the “next shipment” list quite a lot with HF. I did eventually get the Maid that you reviewed before, thought I grab it from HF since they had it in stock. I really like how Native packaged the figure, it’s definitely much more interesting than Collet’s box.
Glad Shoujo S turned out well – I just don’t know if I’ll ever be able to display her anywhere (like the other Native figures). XD
The release date on this snuck up on me. Hopefully, where I ordered it from actually gets this in stock, since I decided after the TH deadline. Still be a while before they send it to me, if they get it.
Would you say that in terms of finish quality she’s a little less than the native banana girl, Kotone?
>> Ashlotte
They do! At least, I always see Native figures up for preorders at US retailers. Weird how that is; their stuff is exclusive and limited in Japan but gets a general release in the United States. I wonder if other overseas, non-Japanese retailers also stock Native figures?
I will have to take your word for that … small, medium, big, it’s all good to me, as long as they aren’t longer than the person’s forearm or something, anyway.
>> Fabienne
I had a lot of fun planning this photoshoot XD I’ve got the feeling that this figure may be a bit too risque for a lot of people, especially since she’s topless and doesn’t come with anything to cover her up. I agree about her mouth, she looks best with the strawberry in it. I put it back in its box, but she looks like she’s screaming on my shelf. It works great when tentacles are wrapping around her but it just looks weird when she’s standing next to Saber Lily and Narika.
>> VF
I’m thinking I ought to use them much more often, especially for characters where it makes no sense. Like I’ve got Vivio preordered, and I’ve got some ideas for how I want to shoot her, but I think I may just slip in a tentacle picture out of nowhere. I’d like to make some more distinctive ones, too; in hentai I always see tentacles that have nodules or segments or are even mechanical, so I think it’d be cool if I could pay some tribute to that in my reviews.
Yeah, probably not XD Though she’d absolutely be an interesting conversation piece.
>> super_rats
It seems like US retailers have no trouble getting these … I’ve still got my extra Kotone and Collet from Otakufuel and Toylet, respectively. I’ve also noticed that Toyslogic and Hobbyfan filled orders for the limited Yagyu Jubei swimsuit figure that was recently released. I wonder if they know the people who unload the trucks? >.>
I’d say they’re about equivalent … I think that S has much nicer detailing in the abdomen and stomach area, which is nice since it’s such a prominent aspect of the figure. I did read some criticism regarding the white stripes on S’s sailor blouse; I didn’t notice it at first but looking at it, it certainly could use some improvement. The paint is not very precise, particularly on the sleeve cuffs. I’m inclined to give that a pass since those stripes are like a half millimeter in width but if you look at them, it’s pretty obvious, as are her sleeves’ join lines. One other thing is that her chair accessory is kinda flimsy; I’m going to have to glue the seat down since it’s come undone from the legs.
Hmm…She looks really nice. I didn’t know Native was a sub-division (or partner) of Max Factory. I’ll definitely look into their figures now since I’m looking for something different for my collection.
Her face does look awkward though, especially at an angle. But her body looks really nice. I still think collet is the best from Native so far. Looks like I missed out on Collet pre-order again. “orz
It seems to be something that they don’t publicize all that much, but I remember seeing a photograph of M-ko (the tentacle girl) at a convention with a Max Factory logo; I’m guessing that they decided to spin off their ero figures to a separate line sometime after that.
I think I’d agree with that; all of Native’s figures are superlative but Collet is transcendant in both quality and general perversity. You might have some luck checking in with US retailers (the ones that will ship to Canada, anyway); they seem to have had no problem stocking Collet during her initial production run.
Can’t wait for mine. A part of me wishes that it was fully cast-offable(blouse&pantsu) but I think I’ll be adequately pleased.
Small typo under the 3rd pic where you say “Naruko Hanaharu”.
Great photos, and your right, she does need some tentacles. Awesome work 😉
If I had known this was even available I would have picked it up. I have a tough time keeping up with new figures for some reason.
The artwork she is based off of is pretty common. In fact I am sure I have at least 6 variations of the same piece used for wallpapers. (I was using one of them as my main wallpaper at one time as well.)
Great photos, been keeping up with your posts a lot lately actually.
She looks nice. Even her body have nice details.
But… not my type of figure. Anyway nice get ^^
Not my type of figure, either. I prefer more pin-up figures…also, and more importantly, Shoujo here is about as well-endowed as a stop sign.
Well, by comparison to my current crop of girls, anyway, which include such busty beauties as Brandy from Liberty Meadows (Clayburn Moore), Kokoro, and Tifa Lockheart, among others.
>> motaku96
Oops, thanks for the heads-up. I ordered a figure of a character from Little Busters, and I was thinking about how I wanted to photograph her when I was writing this review. When I think of Little Busters, I think of FLCL, and when I think of FLCL I think of Haruko Haruhara, which sounds sorta like Hanaharu Naruko. Funny how my brain misfires like that.
I’m kinda surprised that they went for full frontal nudity with no option to cover her up. I remember a few years back, I paid a ridiculous amount of money for a figure (MegaHouse’s Tsukasa Bullet Mizuki) just because you could remove her top and expose her breasts. Nowadays, that thing is so passe, even mainstream figure manufacturers don’t bother with the top! I like the direction this hobby is going.
>> Kairu90
Thanks! I probably spend way too much time looking for figure news XD Though on the other hand, if I didn’t collect figures I’d probably be doing something unproductive like playing World of Warcraft (now with 100% less anonymity!). It’s not a coincidence that I started this site a month after cancelling my Warcraft accounts.
>> GREW
Yeah, I get the feeling this is why Max Factory spun off their h-figures, I’m sure they didn’t want their porno stuff lumped in with their Figmas and such. (Me, I think porno Figmas would be pretty cool … that is, female porno Figmas, I know they’ve already got one of a gay male porn star …)
>> Halbred
Haha, she’s a bit small in the bust department compared to some (okay, a lot) of my other figures. Though she’s got a little more than, say, Black Rock Shooter. I do got some pin-up style figures on order, though, and they all have impressive racks and most importantly, they’re big! 1/7 scale is nice, 1/6 scale is better but 1/4 scale truly is God’s scale.