The sexy bodysuit is a staple of science fiction anime. The most famous, of course, are the Evangelion plugsuits, but personally, the Muv-Luv Alternative pilot suits are my favorite designs. They are borderline ridiculous and very sexy, and are instantly identifiable by anyone with even a passing familiarity with the series. There aren’t many Muv-Luv figures out there, so I was happy to hear that Alphamax was going to be making figures of the Total Eclipse characters, and I was looking forward to seeing Yui in her black suit and the Scarlet Sisters in their distinctive navy and turquoise suits. But instead of featuring the distinctive Muv-Luv piloting suits, Alphamax has chosen instead to put the characters in their underwear. Oh well.
Yui Takamura is nominally the lead girl in the cast of Total Eclipse, but she’s the second Muv-Luv figure in Alphamax’s lineup. Russian pilot Cryska Barchenowa was the first figure in the series, and though no subsequent figures have been announced, presumably Inia Sestina would be the most likely candidate to be third. We’ll get to see all of these characters in the Total Eclipse anime, though it appears that it won’t be airing until next spring at the earliest.
Alphamax has been around for a while, but they’re mostly known for their very expensive polystone statues, and it wasn’t until recently that they made mass-market PVC figures the focus of their production. They have several promising figures in the pipeline, such as Erio Touwa and Astraea, who both look very nice. On the other hand, both Yagyu Jubei and Senhime from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls have been released, and they don’t look quite so nice, to put it mildly. I have to admit I was feeling some trepidation as Yui’s release date approached.
Like Cryska, Yui is sculpted in 1/7 scale, though she looks to be more like 1/8 scale. She comes with a gun and a base – note that her base is actually more oval in shape. I’ve misplaced her base so I substituted Cryska’s.
Click for Danbooru.
This figure is based off of an illustration by Miyata Sou. The artwork was used for a 2009 calendar, and was also published in clean form in Miyata Sou’s Comiket 78 artbook.
As the figure’s name suggests, Yui is wearing just her underwear. That’s not too uncommon amongst anime figures but most of them just wear white panties; there aren’t too many that wear sexy lingerie. Yui is clad in a slinky ensemble, with bra, panties, garter belt, stockings, and high heels. So far, so good.
One doesn’t have to look too closely to spot some curious design decisions. Her garter belt is cast as a separate piece, almost as if it were supposed to be removable, but it’s not. As a result, it’s very thick, more reminsicent of hip padding or armor plating than sexy lingerie, and it doesn’t conform to her body, making it look like it’s going to fall off her hips as soon as she stands up. In contrast, Sigui’s garter belt is much thinner, more realistic, and more appealing.
Another oddity is her brassiere, which, like her garter belt, is also quite thick. But that’s completely fine, because it’s removable, right? I mean, you can tell by the way her straps are slipping off her shoulders. It totally looks like it can be cast off.
Umm, no. Her bra strap appears to be glued to her back, and I’m not about to try ripping it off of her to see just how strongly it’s attached. The best you can do is to slide the cups off of her breasts. It’s an odd design feature – the figure has all the negatives of removable plastic clothing with none of the appeal of removable clothing. Strange.
I have this policy that nipples, genitals, or a completely uncovered backside merits an NSFW tag on a post. The picture above is the only explicit photo in this review. Sorta weak.
Yui is a military girl and in classic pinup fashion, she’s clutching a gun of some sort. I have no idea what kind of gun it is. I sort of thought maybe it was a British SA-80 but two seconds with Google Images indicates that that’s definitely not right. At any rate, it’s a pain to get it into her hand because the grip has a guard in front of it so you sort of have to wiggle it into her grasp while hoping you don’t snap her fingers off. Having some rubbing alcohol on hand to deal with the inevitable paint transfer is recommended.
The gun doesn’t look that fantastic. It’s moderately detailed but has a very plastic look. Though as I understand it, quite a few modern firearms are made of plastic, so maybe that’s appropriate.
Another strange thing is that her head can be detached, but I’m not sure why you would want to do that. Maybe it helps in getting her gun into her hand.
Yui has a nondescript face, with a sideways-D mouth and a blank look to her eyes. The most noticeable aspect of her face is how flat it is. It doesn’t look quite like she ran a hundred yard dash in a ninety yard gym but it’s close, particularly when you view her from below. From above, it’s not quite so apparent, which mitigates the problem to a large extent since she’s probably best displayed on a lower shelf or at eye level, like most figures that are seated or lying down.
However, her backside is magnificently sculpted. It’s probably the best part of the figure, with prominent curvature emphasized by the narrow back of her panties. I wish the garter belt didn’t draw so much attention in this view.
The rest of her body is sculpted quite well; Yui has a lithe, fit body and an attractive bust, which are important elements for a figure that is dressed like this. Her long legs and the prominent swell of her hip give her a more sensual appearance than Cryska.
On the whole, I’d say this figure is decent, and I’m probably being overly generous. I’m a big fan of the Muv-Luv character designs, though, and that weighs heavily on my opinion. While I would have preferred to see Yui in her dataskin, I’m happy that she’s gotten one figure this year and is getting another one next year – though that one also has her showing off her underwear. This figure doesn’t assuage my misgivings regarding Alphamax’s PVC line as a whole, and while I’m thinking about ordering their Erio figure, I’m also thinking maybe I should wait and see what other people say about it when it comes out. Regarding Yui, I like the figure because she’s a Muv-Luv character and I like figures of girls in their underwear. Anybody who doesn’t care much for either of these things probably isn’t going to find this figure too interesting.
Eh. Alphamax makes great figures, but they’re stupid expensive, and this one doesn’t really tickle my noddle enough. The bizarre cast-off not-really costume is wierd, and is it just me, or does she lack areolas?
She does have them, though I sorta lit her up too brightly so they’re kinda hard to see. I was really half-assing these pictures – a combination of me not feeling particularly inspired and shooting on a weekday. I’m never at my best when I have to shoot the evening before having to go to work.
Nice review and she is a nice sculpt. Never watched Muv-Luv though but hot girl with a gun is always good.
As for the gun, it looks a mix of a few different bullpups or a generic tactical bullpup. Kel-Tec RFB and FA-MAS Variant Series 50 and 60 seem to have the closest features.
It is! Wish the girls with guns genre would make more of a comeback. And I’m not talking about stuff like that Scarlet Ammo show.
Yeah, I was also thinking maybe it was that Israeli gun … I seem to remember their army is using some bullpup rifle now instead of Galils or whatever they used to use. But I looked it up on Google Images and it doesn’t look quite right, either. I think Yui has a real-life gun since Muv-Luv Alternative is all about realistic hardware (to the extent a giant alien-fighting robot can be realistic, anyway … maybe detailed hardware is a better term) but I’m still not sure what it might be.
Scarlet Ammo? Haven’t seen it. Heard it compared to Gunslinger Girl a time or two but it didn’t seem looked on as favorably. That was a nice one. Character depth and lots of wonderful weapons. A few of which I’ve even handled.
Other pics I’ve seen her in, she’s definitely carrying a FAMAS its Maybe they had to mod the gun sculpt to fit how she’s holding it?
It’s, uhh, Aria the Scarlet Ammo? Something like that. Cute girl but she appears to be a loli tsundere type, which I suppose makes sense given the studio that produced it, but it pretty much means I’m not gonna watch it.
Yeah, maybe they took some liberties with whatever gun they based it off of. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t give her a P90, that gun seems to show up a lot in anime art. Personally, I think it’s a pretty ugly gun.
Hmm…might have to check it out. For research of course. Let you know how it is. (So busted, I know.)
I agree, it and the F2000 (5.56 NATO assault rifle version) both look ugly as hell to me. They preform their functions well though, particularly with the massive (comparatively) ammo capacity they have. I think they show up a lot because their aesthetic is easy to draw. Personally I’m an MP5 and M4 Carbine guy. Go with what you know.
Blow it all to hell if I didn’t get wrapped up in some of my biggest weaknesses in this comment thread.
Pray do so! Me, I found a pretty cool hentai video of Aria undergoing certain erotic things while dressed in a kinky outfit and I think that may be more quality than the anime itself.
I tried. I seriously tried to watch it. I got to the second episode but you’re right. Loli sized tsun with a flat chest complex and a violent streak was just too damn annoying. The premise of the school wasn’t half bad. The MC’s genetic quirk (which amounts to split personalities) wasn’t anything that groundbreakingly new. Though, wouldn’t mind seeing that vid you mention.
That’s unfortunate; I was sort of tempted to try it since it looks like a girl with guns show and this picture is really cool, but I guess its downsides are probably going to be too much for me to accept.
You’ve got the link to the preview version of the video! I hope you enjoy it.
Seriously? No Cast-off? Seriously? ARGH. First Junko, now this…I wonder if there’s some form of pressure on figure makers to puss out on the cast-off. No matter how you look at it, Yui is supposed to be cast-off, otherwise Alphamax would’ve taken a much simpler route with that lingerie. Do some stores refuse to stock cast-off figures? Are there moral crusaders cramping their vaginas over plastic tits? *shrug* It’s a bloody mystery to me.
Anyhow, in spite of all you said, Yui still look pretty good in these photos. The details may not hold up under close scrutiny, but from a normal viewing distance she looks damn hot, owing no small part to that ass of hers. Thanks for sharing her — seeing her reviewed reminds me of that horrible first episode of Double H in which Ash and I talked about her. Ahhh, good times~
It’s a peculiar thing. As far as I know, Alphamax has no problem with exposed breasts, since their Sen Tokugawa figure has a removable bikini top. It appears that Total Eclipse has no hentai aspects, unlike its forebear and despite a huge amount of fanservice. It could also just be that Alphamax couldn’t figure out a way to make a removable bra look good but they still wanted to show nipples so they made a compromise.
Yeah, Yui’s looks great from some angles. And less good from other angles. It’s great that her ass looks fine in just about all her ideal viewing angles.
I do remember that show and how you couldn’t figure out what gun she’s holding, either. It’s a great mystery, it seems.
I have to admit that I felt so disappointed when I read she’s not cast-off able, god she has nice sculpted boobs…and that garter belt indeed looks too thick. Compromise is never good I guess, completely no cast-off may even be better than this kind of design. Anyway great review as usual, helps me make my final decision.
I think I would’ve preferred thinner clothes that are glued to the figure. Sexy underwear is quite erotic as it is, so I don’t think the option to expose the nipples brings a whole lot. Frankly, I have so many figures with removable tops that castoff features generally don’t count for a whole lot in my esteem.
Nice pictures, but Ahh why are these underwear parts so thick 🙁
The figure itself looks pretty and sexy overall, the curvy back is nice and her meaty butt looks especially well done, in fact it looks great !
Unfortunately these thick straps, the cups and the garter belt “armor” are no eyecandy at all. Too bad that this plastic stuff called lingerine isn’t really ought to be castoffable in the end. “use a knife Tier, use a knife” XD. Alphamax could’ve made theses parts a lot thinner.
Albeit the fixed to the main body panties looks very good with the wrinkles and shading.
The face looks quite cute in your pictures, also the hairstyle fits very well. The fingers seem to be very well sculpted, I like to see such small single sculpted fingers on figures.
I wouldn’t mind to have Yui in my collection, but the bulky plastic underwear would have gone already, forst castoff style ;D
Haha, I did try tugging them but I think I’ll stay away from performing surgery on her clothes. I agree, she has a really sexy back and backside, and I wish that they had gone for a more natural look like MegaHouse did with their Sigui figure.
Hm, she is kinda nice. Not my kettle of fish, but the sculpt quality as a whole looks quite good, even if the clothing is poorly designed (really, make it cast off or not) — maybe they changed their mind, it was designed to be castoffable, but they cut costs and half-assed it? Really not sure.
She does look nice with Cryska, though. I need more gun girls. Only one on order (GSC’s Akemi Homura) and she’s quite tame, on all fronts. Small gun, fully clothed etc. Doesn’t really compare to this sort of thing. I would like a figure with some hand cannons and such, but I’ve not seen any that really take my fancy; some of Alter’s Strike Witches are lovely, but I dislike the striker units. They’re also quite large with their posing.
How do you display your figures, anyway? You have a huge collection, do you actually have display cabinets/shelving for them or do you just buy them, shoot and rebox ’em? I’d like to see your displays if you do so. 😀
Girls with guns are a classic trope and I wish that the genre would make more of a comeback. Although given that I have the Madlax and El Cazador DVDs sitting here unwatched, I guess I ought to go through what I’ve got before whining for more. I probably ought to watch Madoka one of these days too, since the series is not so long and everybody seems to like it. It doesn’t make sense that I am watching through Infinite Stratos now and watched Freezing but still haven’t seen Madoka.
My figures are sprawled out everywhere, and I’m boxing up the ones I don’t like as much and putting them back in storage, with plans to eBay some of them. My shelves are definitely not a pretty sight; I’ve got stuff piled up on top of other stuff in a very literal sense.
Madoka was a nice series; just make sure you watch DVD/Bluray, not broadcast version, since as per usual with SHAFT shows they “improved” a lot of the art, particularly fleshing in backgrounds and such that were bland in the broadcast.
If you sell stuff, make sure to list it on MFC, or at least post your sales here to let us know. I’m sure you have some nice stuff that can find good homes even if you don’t like them as much any more. 😀
So she’s not cast-offable? or just Semi Cast-offable? @_@? the NSFW tag was misleading XD (Although given the content understandably so)
It was! My policy is that if there’s a nipple shot somewhere, the post gets a NSFW tag. I guess I could’ve just linked the image instead and saved the trouble.
Overall she’s a nice piece ^_^, although I’m a bit partial to the Kotobukiya version that’s coming out next year. 😀
That’s a good-looking figure too, I’m leaning towards ordering it. I’m still hoping that somebody will do a figure of her in her piloting suit, though. Maybe we’ll get to see something like that when the Total Eclipse anime gets on TV.
Yui looks quite nice and she has the prefect underwear – deep red with black lacing :D. She has a cute face too although it looks a little lifeless at certain angles. It’s as if she staring vacantly into space and her expression has drifted into it’s current state.
It’s a shame her clothing looks so thick though. Luckily it’s not hugely distracting so you can ignore it somewhat. It’s odd her clothing is ‘in pieces’. My Samurai Girls were the same. It’s as if they were assembled in parts as opposed to having some sort of functionality.
I’m really tempted to pick up Kotobukiyas Yui. She looks both cute and sexy. Dunno though, I’m still trying to decide. If she had a gun instead of the parasol then I’d probably have pre-ordered her instantly. I probably should pick her up now that I think about. Kotobukiya have been impressing me lately.
With Sen I had to ‘break’ her bikini top for cast-off. It was glued to her back and left a little piece of purple plastic. Maybe Yui is the same? But then her bra is much thicker than Sens’ bikini top was so maybe not. Chances are it’ll leave a huge crater in her breasts anyway ¬¬.
How’s her stability? Does she wobble a little?
Yeah, I like the color of her lingerie a lot as well; the dark red color is very sensual and very erotic. This figure wouldn’t look nearly as good if it were, say, white or lemon yellow or something.
I wonder if this is just the way Alphamax sculpts things. Or Skytube, perhaps; I notice that many of their recent figures have the Skytube logo, and I’m not entirely certain what Skytube is. They appear to operate under Alphamax but curiously, some of Alphamax’s PVC figures – like Erio Touwa – do not appear under Skytube’s product list.
I think I’m going to order Kotobukiya’s Yui, just because I’m a fan of the Muv-Luv character designs. God I hope Yui doesn’t turn out to be a dork when the anime comes out. I’ve got the feeling she could basically turn out to be something like Houki from Infinite Stratos and then I’d have to hate her, and that would make me really sad.
Yui might be the same, but I am not nearly man enough to make the attempt. I admit I didn’t do a very thorough inspection but if parts don’t come off with a tug, then I assume they are glued on and are not meant to be removed. Though then again, if I took Sen out of her box, I think I might be displeased enough with her appearance that I wouldn’t mind defacing her anyway.
She seems to be okay on her base, though I noticed she could not stay upright on the towel I was using for many of these pictures (she’s leaning up against the wall in the ones where the base wasn’t used). Her thigh is flattened out so she doesn’t roll around much, though she has to be displayed on a flat surface. That actually works a bit against me because I tend to pile up my prone-position figures on top of other figures in order to save space.
I heard a promo about how Total Eclipse had some episodes concerning the attack on the Original Hive. So wanted to read that story.
dat ass
I’m no gun expert but that looks a lot like it was inspired by the Tar 21.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, that it looked like that Israeli gun. Maybe it’ll show up in the anime and they’ll say what it is.