A Native figure … without an NSFW tag? Unthinkable.
Native is a portmanteau of “naked” and “creative,” as their websiite attests, but while this figure may exhibit some level of creativity, it certainly does not depict nakedness. I think it’s their first non-explicit figure, as even the outwardly anodyne Kanna and Mikage had castoff options that showed some tit. Nana, however, has no such options. In fact, she’s just about the simplest Native figure I’ve seen; Collet came with a selection of gift boxes and a little figure of Native’s mascot and Shoujo S came with a bowl of fruit, but all Nana comes with is a base. No optional bathtub or anything for this figure, either.
Although Native’s products typically lean closer to an X rating rather than PG-13, Nana’s relative sedateness isn’t unjustifiable considering where she comes from. Nana is one of the two principal characters of Ryuta Amazume’s long-running manga Nana to Kaoru, a series that depicts her complex relationship with next-door neighbor and classmate Kaoru Sugimura. Nana is an intelligent, lively, and pretty young girl and Kaoru is a rather creepy-looking misfit who is an avid enthusiast of bondage and domination. Kaoru’s passion is a solitary affair until his mother discovers his secret stash of restraints and devices – and a peculiar leather bondage outfit. She confiscates his trove and gives it to Nana for safekeeping. However, Nana is excited by the outfit and tries it on, and she soon reveals her liking for erotic servitude to Kaoru. From that point on the two schoolmates probe the limits of their inhibitions.
The story is highly sensual – being that it basically comprises an exploration of fetishes and erotic power exchange – but it doesn’t reach full-blown hentai territory. Intercourse isn’t shown and the plot isn’t really about that – the major theme is dominance and submission rather than sex and porn. In fact, Kaoru and Nana’s relationship, while rather unconventional, actually has a number of sweet and tender moments. As far as I can remember, anyway; it’s been a couple of years since I read several chapters of the story.
Though Nana isn’t quite as elaborate as most of Native’s other figures, she does have the advantage of being big – she’s 1/6 scale, standing a bit over 25 centimeters tall, and her curvy body build makes her larger than many other 1/6 scale figures.
Nana does come with one odd feature – her box. Native is endlessly creative when it comes to their packaging, and they’ve emphasized Nana’s origin by padlocking the box. A pair of keys is provided to open it up, though one could just rip it open as well. It’s a cute homage to an early scene in the manga.
Nana’s outfit also comes from that scene. The black leather bondage outfit actually belongs to Kaoru, which is a rather disturbing thought, and serves as the catalyst for Nana’s initiation as Kaoru’s submissive. It’s not tremendously elaborate but it looks quite nice anyway, showing off a lot of cleavage and a lot of ass. There’s a cute padlock on the garter belt and the front panel is made of a mesh material which reveals a bit of her midriff. You ask me, though, I like Simone’s bondage suit better.
Nana sports a quizzical expression on her face, and though it appears incongruous with the way she’s dressed, her look comes from a panel in the manga, when she examines herself in the mirror after putting on the bondage clothes. In that context, it looks accurate. However, I can’t help but think that her bemused demeanor would be improved with a ballgag. And perhaps a collar. Can’t have a bondage scene without a collar, right? Admittedly, the scene that this figure comes from occurs in the very first chapter of the manga, so it’s understandable that such kinky stuff isn’t included.
Native’s figures have consistently been high quality, and Nana is … well, I’d say she’s high quality but she doesn’t have the same presence as the other Native figures I own. Her pose is rather simple – though again, that derives from the figure’s faithfulness to the manga – and there aren’t a lot of aspects that stand out. Perhaps the most noticeable is the attractive glossy sheen of her outfit, though let’s be frank – if the most prominent thing about a figure is its shiny paint job, that ain’t saying much in its favor.
Ah, but the other nice thing about this figure is Nana’s ass. But even that has a problem from certain angles; from a certain perspective, her ass has an odd, compressed look, as if it were lifted in some artificial manner. But from the sides and from straight back, it looks fine.
This figure has its problems, and I wouldn’t say that it stands out nearly as much as Native’s other products, but I still like Nana quite a bit. 1/6 scale is a good size and of course, I’m fond of her outfit here. Native must be a fan of her as well, as their homepage shows a second Nana figure that they’ll be taking preorders for next week. I think the slave suit is best, though.
A beautiful figure. Not my kettle of fish personally, but I can’t deny Native do great work. I’d like to get one some day, but none are really up my alley (kemonomimi or weapons) so I doubt I’ll have one any time soon.
I like the shoot; that backdrop looks familiar, though you’ve used different colouring (gels on flashes?) I think. A shot breakdown on this would be nice. ^^
They do great work indeed. Though I’m pretty sure they’re part of Max Factory (they were when they kicked off, I’m not sure if they still are) so if you have Max Factory figures, you know how good Native is.
It is indeed the same background I used for Gotou Matabei, albeit fixed up so that there aren’t those ugly shadows under the crisscrossed wooden beams. I didn’t even think to take any setup shots, but you are right, the background is lit by two flashes with red gels. The figure is side-lit on most of the shots partially to give a more eerie feel to the picture, but mostly to keep light from hitting the background; the white light from the key light desaturates the red color of the backdrop, turning it a rather discordant pink color. I also wanted to try to keep that light from hitting the chains; if the chains are only backlit, they turn black, which I think looks very dramatic. Contrast the look of the chains in picture 1 and picture 3 for an example of that effect. There’s a couple of rimlights in most of the shots; one is snooted and is the more obvious light, and is positioned to camera right for most of the pictures. The other has a grid and isn’t as conspicuous; I probably could’ve omitted it.
Ah, so you’ve chosen the black one ^^
It was a great review and the pictures look like from a high gloss magazine.
I didn’t ordered her, well because of the price and the not so interesting appearing face.
Thx for explaining her quizzical face expression, if you see it the way you’ve mentioned, it makes much more sense. When you don’t know the origin her expression leaves you with questions. Haha ok better this expression than the close to tears one from the new Nana ^^
Anyway this figure of her is quite pretty in her glossy dress.
Overall I really like what I see here, also the small details like her neck and the collarbones look very well made. I also like the big white ribbon at the back of her hair.
From her curves I think her thighs and butt look the most appealing, a sexy girl that Nana 😉
regarding her size she fits very well to Obama, looks like he is with his trainee XD
It’s too bad there’s no matching figure of Kaoru, I could have set up an NTR scene with him and Nana and the president.
She is indeed a sexy girl with a great outfit. Though yeah, having to go through a proxy is a bit of a hassle. I think Native’s stuff is often worth it, though I decided to preorder Trunk Girl from an American retailer. I wonder if they’ll actually fill my order?
A mirror would have been a nice accessory. You could see her from both sides when displayed and it would be clear what she is doing.
Yeah, that would’ve been neat, and it would’ve made a lot of sense given the look on her face. I didn’t even think to build one; I probably ought to, I’ve got some mirror tile here that I intended to use for some figure shoots that never worked out.
Oh Mr. Obama — even though I expected you to show up, I was not ready for those smug-ass shades. I love you for that photo.
Thanks for reminding the scene when she checks herself out in the mirror, because I was puzzled this entire time as to why native picked this pose over the many, many more scandalous alternatives. I’ll have to admit that the pose is a little tame for my tastes, but boy is the sculpt great to look at. I really do love how far the suit is digging up her ass (no “epic ass” tag for this post?), and the mesh in front looks great as well. While I would’ve wanted a spicier pose/expression even at the expense of faithfulness to the source material, Nana is a great example of how a figure can look bloody fantastic without a flashy pose or expression.
By the way, FANTASTIC work on the backdrop. You’ve done some great stuff before, but I think this trumps everything else when it comes to setting a mood. It does give me more of a horror vibe, but it definitely works with Nana. Nice job, man.
Yeah, I thought it was an odd pose to select as well, since most of Native’s figures show a strong sense of personality. Then I looked through the manga pages while writing this post and was like, “Oh, that’s where it’s from.”
Man, the epic ass tag, I don’t use that enough. Yeah, Nana should probably get it, and Tsuneko will definitely get it, I think. I guess I need to start building Tsuneko’s backdrop since I want to get her out of the box already. Probably should start thinking about how I want to shoot Satellizer, too. Or how I can shoot Satellizer; I’m thinking her size is going to dictate that rather than creativity.
Thanks! This idea came to me pretty quickly, and what’s better, I think it’s good practice for how I want to shoot Love Is War Miku, whenever she comes out. Man I’m looking forward to that figure now.
Unthinkable, maybe but doable!! Btw great figure shoot but the figure itself seem to be rather modest. Okay I admit the outfit is very *Nice* but the look on the figure’s face is somewhat lacking for such a nice figure.
I agree … I guess they wanted to stick to the manga panel but personally, I think they (and the people who bought Nana) would’ve been better served had they taken more liberties with her pose and expression. Kinda see that a lot, where you can tell the sculptor really wanted to stick to the source art and the figure comes out weaker than it might otherwise have.
Oh ya. I wanted to get this after it was released, but I would love to get this figure despite its lack of cast-off. The manga never did show her… intimate parts after all. Manga is great. OVA is great… Reserving my judgment for the live action movie…
I still need to watch the OVA, I never did see it, curiously, nor have I read a great deal of the manga, which I’m guessing I’d enjoy. Though, uhh, I think I will skip the live-action movie unless they get someone really hot to play Nana and if Kaoru doesn’t look quite as creepy as he does in the manga. Or if they did the best thing they could do and cast Kaoru as another hot girl. I’d watch it for sure then.
Haha I agree with you on that last comment. That’d be an awesome movie!
The killer for me is her rather blank stare. It’s almost as if nobody’s home!! Haven’t read a chapter of the manga for ages… I wonder what happened. The OVA was passable though.
She does have that hypnotized look going on. Which is an odd trope that you see a lot in hentai, it seems … I actually have another dakimakura cover I need to photograph from a hypnosis-based H-game.
Safe for work from Native? Tier you’ve been short changed! hahahaha What was Native thinking? I mean, no cast off?
Yeah, no cast off. And it looks like Native’s second Nana figure is only going to sort of have a castoff option (she’s got a blindfold, so I’m guessing they’re providing two faces). Yoshii Hotori is looking awesome though, no complaints there.
Excellent photo shoot of the figure! The photos look so clear and you really captured all of Nana’s good angles (;D). Honestly, I actually really love the way Native pulled off this figure- the fact that it’s faithful to the scene where Nana first puts on the suit and sees herself in it really is significant to those who have read the manga. I guess the fact that this figure is so simple, the viewer can better appreciate Nana’s body and curves (that’s what I find makes it very detailed and impressive). Plus, her slave suit is stunning too!
Although, I do agree when people say that the figure could have a more interesting expression- I won’t say the expression she has makes the figure lack- but I know what you all mean. Maybe her aroused face would have been more appealing?(when she blushes and licks her lips…that would’ve been amazing if they could pull that one off) Overall, this figure looks amazing and I am definetly considering buying it thanks to this nice review!
Although, no matter how many people say it’s very modest, I find it might be alittle risky to buy for myself since….well my parents might not agree with it…I am still considered a minor, sadly. I am a huge fan of the manga though, so I think this is well worth the money! (I might have to hide it in my closet for 2 years, but I’ll patiently wait knowing I own the darling already :D)
Very nice review and pictures, once again!
Thanks! I agree that she’s a great figure, and I think my opinion of her as improved over time. Yeah, I think her aroused face would look good; she looks a bit confused here, which is understandable considering the scene but I think a little more emotion would give this figure more spice (and though it’d been a while since I’ve read the manga, I do remember that Nana’s relationship with Kaoru was all about spice).
Good luck purchasing this figure if you decide to get her! It’s a very nice figure indeed. Heck, maybe your parents will like her! Assuming they discover it, anyway.
She really is, infact, I actually purchased her! The red version of her anyways. For some reason it seems that version is less popular, but I kind of like it. Red is a very lustful and appealing color. I guess it’s because the black is more true to the source, but I don’t mind either color. I wonder why the black is the most popular version of this Nana figure…?
Yeah, it would look very spicy if she had her aroused face, hehe.
Haha, I don’t know if I’ll ever let them discover it! I think it would blow their mind away that I’d even buy such a figure! But it’s so gorgeous, I just can’t help myself. All of Natives figures are amazing.
I really love your collection, by the way! I hope to see more of your reviews!
Hoorays! Congrats on your new figure, she looks fantastic. Yeah, I know I like the black version a little better just because black leather is sort of a classic, typical look for this sort of thing, but the red version is great, too, and as you say, comes with its own implications.
Haha, yeah, some things are better kept as secrets. I do have a couple more Native figures that should be here soon that I ought to be reviewing shortly.
Thanks! I’m very glad to finally buy her!
Yeah, honestly my mind was first set on her black version, but seeing as how they are more expensive…I don’t mind going with the lovely red one! Either one is pretty much good with me.
Yay! I can’t wait to see more from them! I’ve been dying to find and buy the Collet “bad Santa” (original vers.) figure. It seems fairly rare now. That one’s even MORE risque than the Nana, haha!
I saw a few Collets listed up on Mandarake the other day, and RACS has the blonde-haired version up for about $150 US. It’s a great figure; I kinda wish Native would make more figures in 1/6 scale.
Thanks for the shop links!
I’ll look into them alittle more then.
Amazon.com has a couple for nice prices, so I might try to get one from there as well.
Thank you very much 😀
You are welcome! Good luck with your search.
Hi,
Your pictures are splendid. I sent you a message about this. I have a question.
I sent you back a reply, I hope that it helps.
Ok and I answered twice because I have always difficulties.
I’m sorry but I answered again.
Hi,
I sent you a new message again.