Numerous figures of the Queen’s Gate characters have been released, offering different takes on the characters depending on the artist that illustrated the respective game book. The Queen’s Gate version of Senhime, however is rather unusual in that she has no game book; her appearance is based off of a single illustration by the artist Yoshikazu Miwa. Perhaps better known by his doujin circle name Synthetic Garden, I’ve been a fan of his art for a long time, particularly because his work encompasses themes like tentacle hentai, girls in bondage, and girls with big breasts. He seems an unlikely choice to provide a Queen’s Gate illustration, particularly one of a character like Sen Tokugawa, and the resulting figure is one that comprises an unusual synthesis that is much more about his style and much less about the anime character.
Several different manufacturers have made Queen’s Gate products, but this one comes from MegaHouse, the most prolific maker of Queen’s Blade and Queen’s Gate figures. Sculpted in 1/8 scale, she’s about 14 centimeters tall. Proportionally, I would say she’s about in line with most of Alter’s 1/8 scale figures, perhaps even a bit larger. She comes with a purple-painted plastic base – which obviously isn’t necessary to keep her upright – and an unusual segmented weapon rather than her more familiar Japanese-style spear.
I hesitated when I ordered this figure, and not solely because she was a Hobby Japan exclusive and thus necessitated going through a proxy to purchase. Rather, my trepidation spawned from the first impression she delivered, in which her head appeared to be melting. Her suspiciously leprotic appearance was discouraging, to say the least – and yet, I still felt compelled to buy her, even without knowing whether the initial sample was just a hastily-assembled prototype. This compulsion – chiefly guided by my enthusiasm for Miwa’s artwork – was at odds with my usual buying practice. With almost every other purchase I make, I perform a huge amount of research, sometimes weeks of it. I seldom buy a book or movie or video game without first consulting multiple reviews. I don’t buy computer or camera equipment without checking the tech forums I follow for user experiences. But when it comes to figures, I have no problem at all plonking out the skrills despite having no idea whether I’ll actually like the figure. I have to imagine that anyone uninvested in this hobby would be utterly appalled at the ease with which I – and numerous other collectors – shell out $100 or $150 a pop with no certainty that it’s going to be any good.
Happily, Senhime’s face is much improved, at least in a technical sense. The sculptor has done a fine job of translating Miwa’s style, and she has the somewhat blank, vaguely sad expression common to much of his work. This look is also visible in Solid Theater’s String Swimsuit Girl figure, which came out back in 2008 and I think was the first figure based off of his art.
While the faces he draws are easily identifiable, he’s also known for drawing pictures of girls with humongous breasts, and this version of Senhime does not disappoint in that respect, as suffice to say, she has a big-ass rack. Her breasts look larger than they actually are, since her top is removable and her breasts appear very large but not significantly larger than the chests of many other anime characters. But for anyone wanting to display her clothed, her chest is gargantuan and I could see that being a turn-off amongst some collectors.
The original version of Senhime wore an outfit comprising a blend of a traditional kimono and a Japanese schoolgirl uniform, but this version wears a crop top with some kind of corset. Taken together, her outfit resembles a short-sleeved leotard or bodysuit. She also has a beltskirt to provide some backside modesty and another rope belt which is strictly ornamental, being that she has no pants that need holding up.
Like many of MegaHouse’s Queen’s Blade and Queen’s Gate figures, Sen’s clothing can be removed by disassembling the figure. Taking her apart and putting her back together isn’t too difficult, though getting her upper and lower torso reattached does take a good bit of force to pop the pieces together. Pegs are provided on the back of her shirt to hold it together, but I couldn’t fit them together – indeed, they weren’t attached when I took her out of her box – and in the end I decided not to stress over it. I’m not going to be displaying her with her back turned to the front, anyway.
Without her top, her breasts aren’t quite as intimidating. They’re still big, but not as unrealistic as they appear while she is clothed.
The bottom of her suit has this curious circular cutout. It looks like she had some sort of wardrobe malfunction where the seat of her clothes got torn, but a closer look reveals that the cutout is actually part of its design. Quite odd.
A close-up look reveals a few manufacturing flaws, including a black speck on the inside of her right arm, a seam line under her breast and some odd gunk near her groin, in the fold of her right leg. It also shows the loving detail of her crotch. Nice touch.
Instead of a long spear, Queen’s Gate Sen gets a segmented bladed weapon. The core is made of flexible metal wire, allowing the weapon to be bent into any desired position. I’m not sure how durable the wire is, though, and I’m not planning on testing how much bending it can take before fracturing.
The blade of her weapon, which is nicely detailed.
As is her suit, which is reminiscent of the floral patterns on the original Senhime’s robe.
This version of Sen Tokugawa is a strange one, one that is doubly divorced from the anime character’s design. Her clothing, weapon, and even hair color have been changed from Niθ’s original concept, and the basic design is much more reflective of Yoshikazu Miwa’s artwork, so much so that this figure almost represents a whole new character. Placed side by side with Alter’s figure, they look almost nothing alike.
However, as much as I like Sen Tokugawa’s original design, I think I like this version better. A large part of that is my fondness for Synthetic Garden’s doujinshi, of which I own a few, but I think the combination of Miwa’s style, Senhime’s revealing clothing, her unusual weapon – and okay, her humongous tits – give the character a very unique look. I wasn’t confident at all that this figure was going to be any good, but now that I’ve taken her out of her box, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.
Here’s Alter’s Sen with MegaHouse’s Sen, showing the major differences between them.
And here’s Queen’s Gate Senhime with Queen’s Gate Yagyu Jubei. Same manufacturer, same series, same listed scale size, but very different body shapes. Although the characters had similar heights and body builds in the anime, Queen’s Gate Jubei looks like a waif next to Synthetic Garden Sen.
Doujinshi time! Here’s a few of the Synthetic Garden books I own. Miwa often collaborates with another artist named Blade, whose circle is named Galaxist. They’re sort of an odd couple in doujinshi – Miwa often draws full-figured, big-breasted girls and Blade almost always draws very young-looking, flat-chested girls. Nonetheless, they do share a fondness for drawing tentacle hentai, a suggestion that a love of tentacles can overcome all differences.
Here’s an indication that I ought to check which doujinshi I already own before ordering books.
Hm, quite different to the anime version indeed. I’m also not a fan of mutant breasts as I have stated before; massive breasts in anime (and Japanese art in general) make me a sad panda. Not to say I like DFC (well, I do, but not as any specific preference) — I just prefer… realistic sizes, from flat to a decent D, and absolutely no bigger.
The thing that strikes me the most odd about this figure, though, are her pantsu. Big cutout in the back, so tentacles can enter from behind unhindered, or… what. That’s really strange. I’m as much of a fan of anal as the next person (well probably moreso than most women, as it seems unpopular whereas I don’t mind it at all) but wearing something like that is probably still in the no realm. Though it could tie in to cosplay/bondage fetish type play I suppose.
As usual, I like the shoot. Recycled bg is fine because those panels suit this sort of figure, though the floor is perhaps a tad lacking; needs tatami mats. Or much finer (scale) floorboards. I do like the lighting on this, your lighting always impresses me. And depresses me because I struggle so much with it, even now I have my lamps (and a flex arm). It really makes or breaks a shoot, and in my case generally utterly destroys it.
But all is well, I can still appreciate other people’s shoots, such as your own.
It’s definitely a very intrusion-friendly undergarment, no doubt. That’s one of the great things about anime characters designs; when a Western comic book or video game maker designs a character, they’re often looking to make them realistic or believable, when a Japanese artist designs a character, the motivating imperative seems to be, “Why not?”
This was definitely a shoot where I was thinking that I wanted to play more Fallout 3, but I really needed to get a review done over the weekend. The floor is actually the same wall I used for Amane Shiratori; I’d meant to re-paint it more of a yellow, straw-like color, but clearing the Pitt expansion seemed more attractive to me.
You also have this one as a photo subject? Talk about impeccable taste. I ordered mine from Toyslogic, but that got delayed by two months from her (IIRC) July/August release. 🙁
This figure draws the same mixed feelings too. I know she looks good, but it takes some time getting used to. For appearances sake, the Alpha bikini version looks closest to her (anime wise that is). Nice backgrounder on the original artist, he is no NiO but more than makes up for it with his/her style.(So that rope girl figure was also based on his art?)
Again, presentation………..presentation. Tier, hands down with the Japanese motif (wouldn’t expect any less from you)
One weird thing though………….Yukimura Sanada has her own QG book yet no figure while Sen, a figure with no QG book. What the…….?
Yeah, I’ve actually had this figure for a few months; I think it came out back in September but Tokyo Hunter had some supply issues and I didn’t get it until October, and it had been sitting unopened with a few other figures.
I forgot to mention that Yoshikazu Miwa also provided the character illustrations for the H-game Guilty: The Sin, which I bought from MangaGamer mostly because of his work. And because it has tentacles. Supposedly; there’s not actually much H content in it; in fact, the first sex scene in the game involves the (male) player character getting raped, which I wasn’t expecting at all.
Yeah, I’m surprised that we haven’t seen a Sanada figure; she seems to be one of the more popular characters in the show but as far as I can remember, she’s only gotten a couple figures from Alter – both basically the same figure – and one from someone else … Amiami, maybe? Whereas Senhime’s got this one, the Alter one, the Alphamax swimsuit one, another swimsuit one, and a giant-sized Azone doll … but no Queen’s Gate book. Weird.
Sanada’s figures are the Alter ver. 1 and 2, and the Amiami Zero swimsuit. Don’t recall any neandoroids. Again, was there a mix up in Hobby Japans’ priority list? lol Sorry for changing the subject.
hmm, sorry, but this is the first figure youve reviwed that i absolutely dislike. i only liek her weapon, though i doubt this mixture of the original chinese verion of nunchuks (that thing had a different name but i forgot it) and a naginata/spear would actually work in real combat, so its only point it looking good… im not sure abut taht of course, but i doubt i’d work. other than that, there is not a single point of this figure that i like, and the manufacturing flaws are another down…good thing i didnt get her.
Was a bit surprised it took you so long to review this figure as you must have received this months ago.
I tend to display all my figures fully clothed which brings me to one of my main complaints about many of MegaHouse’s figures: those bloody poppers and tight fitting outfits!
Seriously they are such a pain – at least this figure only has one for her top… their original Siggy had an insane number of those damn things – think I resorted to the tip of a kitchen knife to enlarge the holes in the end.
I think the flaws you observed on yours are probably unique to each to each figure. Mine does not have the lumpiness around her groin nor the spot on her arm, but does have a black spot on the tip of her nose which is a bit annoying.
Personally I liked this figure from the start and had no reservations about pre-ordering her… right up until the moment you linked to that crappy Moeyo photoshoot in one of your Preorder Outlooks – cheers for that by the way – you had me worried for a while there!
Have to say that I do like a lot of MegaHouse QG & QB figures and have a fair few of them now :
¬Risty (2p doesn’t look as much like a blowup doll as yours!)
¬Senhime
¬Siggy
¬Echidna (one of the variants)
¬Liliana who is particularly nice
and Branka on order
Ironically I have a lot of other QG & QB figures too:
¬Daiki’s Leina 2p (still a favourite)
¬Toranoana’s Alleyne (another one I think was well worth getting)
¬Alter’s Irma
¬GSC’s Junko Hattori
despite never watching the anime or reading the manga.
OK the third one down was a lie but I couldn’t resist it!
I groan inwardly every time I get a MegaHouse Queen’s Blade/Gate figure because I know I’m going to have to spend a ton of time figuring out how to remove all the parts to get all the protective plastic sheeting off after unboxing the figure. Thankfully Senhime was pretty straightforward but I remember that it was such a pain taking Aldra apart that I literally never put her back together; I put her on a shelf with all her clothing parts in a pile, and over time I’ve lost most of them so that now she’s always naked.
I felt the same way about this figure; I was all excited because the figure looked like it was designed by Yoshikazu Miwa, which made me happy, and then I saw that Moeyo preview and I was like WTF. I’ve never seen a figure sample look like that; most of them look just like the production figures. That got me pretty anxious for a long time.
I’ve said before that I haven’t lost hope in seeing an Irma figure but I think now I’ve moved past hoping to plain apathy. I’m not even sure how happy I’d be if someone does make an Irma figure; my first reaction might be something like, “Took them long enough.” (It’s kinda like the recent San Francisco 49er loss in the NFC Championship Game; they’ve been bad for so long that I was happy that they just got into the playoffs, and even though they lost in heartbreaking fashion, I was just kinda like, “Ahh well, that’s the way it goes.”)
Thank god they fixed her melting face. I’m quite surprised you decided to go ahead with your order after seeing those monstrous previews. A risk that has certainly paid off since she now looks quite nice.
I really like the look of her face now. It’s just a shame she’s looking downwards which causes her fringe to cover those beautiful eyes. She’s got a beautifully serene facial expression.
The weapon looks neat. Plus the fact you can choose it’s shape by bending the wire is cool. Sounds awfully risky though, like a paper clip you never quite know when it’s about to fracture.
The change of outfit from “standard” Sen is also welcome. The colours seem to flow more naturally whereas her standard outfit looks like a mishmash of anything lying around. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just the matching colours look better in this case.
Your first picture of her cast-off at a distance I was like “eww no, nipples look bad”. But the very next picture up close I was “actually, those are really quite nice”. I would have liked to see some belly button cast-off action, but for a Queen’s Gate figure that’s perhaps asking for too much.
It’s unfortunate she still has some manufacturing defects. At least they’re not as bad as they could have been :P.
Completely unrelated remark: Mmm I’m still loving Queen’s Gate Jubei, she’s so tempting.
Yeah, I was pretty worried about preordering, but I figured that MegaHouse would have fixed the problems before releasing the figure. I’d have been much more cautious if someone like BEAT or something were the one doing the figure.
I really like her face as well, I think it might be my favorite aspect of this figure, along with her outfit design. It’s very faithful to Miwa’s art style, which is something I like a lot.
Yeah, her nipples are a bit strange looking under harder lighting; her areolae are very circular and sharply-defined, which looks a bit odd at first glance. That’s actually a contributing reason why I put her top back on.
Mmmmm, those be some big titties indeed. Not a fan of comically large breasts myself, but I think they look nice on Senhime even with the clothes on. She’s got a nice and healthy frame to support that frontal baggage, and as long as she doesn’t give off the appearance of chronic backpain, she’s alright by me.
I do like the pose of this figure — arched back + knees on the ground? Hell, that’s a great stripper pose. In fact, the only thing that bugs be about the figure is that weapon. As interesting as it is, I don’t think Senhime’s pose passes off very well as a fighting stance. It doesn’t seem like she knows what to do with the thing. If you ask me, she should just trade that pointy stick for a stripper pole.
It’s funny that you bring that up, because I ordered Alphamax’s swimsuit Senhime almost entirely because I had wanted to photograph her with a stripper pole. I mean, she looks like a stripper, right? Funky belt, high heels, ass hanging out of her swimsuit. But after seeing BioToxic’s review I was kinda like, maybe I’ll keep her in her box and try to pawn the figure off on eBay down the line instead. It’s weird how two very different versions of the same character inspire the exact same idea in two different people … maybe that says something about Senhime.
To me her breasts look larger sans clothes. I like the clothed version slightly more because she reminds me of Taki.
On an off note…Does E2046 do a good job with their pre-painted recasts? There is one that interests me, but based off what limited knowledge I have about them (all from your reviews), I am concerned about the casting quality and paint quality.
I’d say they generally do a good job, but their paintjobs generally incorporate a shiny skin tone which can be a bit off-putting. It’s generally a lot more noticeable when photographing the figures, though; it’s less conspicuous under normal room lighting. Casting quality is pretty good; I haven’t noticed any major molding issues as far as casting goes. I did get a couple of Sengoku Rance figures from them (the first two reviews on this site) that are missing a couple of hair parts; Senhime is supposed to have a couple of antennae-like sprigs of hair sprouting from the top of her head, and Ran has an ahoge; the Volks pre-painted figures have them but I don’t think the E2046 recasts do. Though, hmm … looking at E2046’s pictures, the show Senhime as having those hair sprigs, but not in the one photo of the actual figure in the box. I wonder if they came detached in a plastic bag.
Tier, though I’ve been around concerning anime pop culture references ( bouncy boobies, schoolgirl uniforms and band aid to cover the modesty), I’ve noticed recent Queen’s blade: Rebellion figures and most recently the QG Jubei, and Sen having this extra white paint apps on their cheeks near their eyes.(a new fashion style?)
Well, on Megahouse’s anyway. Is it like an in game joke or weird cultural reference I’m missing? Iirc, all the “Rebellion” babes have that white thingie on ther faces. (With the exception of Ymir and Annelotte)
I am not sure; I’m guessing it’s supposed to be something like cheek reflections or something. I haven’t noticed it specifically on the Queen’s Gate characters since it’s a bit subtle, but Alter’s Fate Testarossa swimsuit figure has big white ovals near the corners of her eyes.
Finally, an awesome review for this figure. Thank you very much for expounding on her good points! I’ve been searching for a good and decent review for quite some time now since I own one but you saved the day!
Thanks! I haven’t seen too many people review this figure, apart from a few Japanese (and one Chinese, I think) websites, which is a bit of a shame, since it’s definitely a unique take on a somewhat derivative character.
I finally got my Sen from Hobby Fan a couple of weeks ago and she’s been out for months. Blah! >_<' They usually come through, but recent orders have been delayed a lot from my experience. That said, I really like your lighting here, the yellow-ish lighting is a perfect match with the purple. I like the "floor" material you used as well, it matches the background. Who cares if you've used that background a number of times, if I could find a decent backdrop, I'd abuse it as much as I can. LOL
Her breast size seems okay to me, or perhaps I'm desensitized; but compared to the upcoming Selvaria Bles by Alter, I think Sen looks okay. I like Selvaria's character, but for some reason I saw the size of that swimsuit figure's breasts and got really turned off. It just strayed too far away from her character – there's a line drawn (for me anyway) and I think they crossed it on the new figure. =(
I need to get back to doing some reviews – too much Battlefield 3 and League of Legends lately. And it doesn't help with Final Fantsy XIII-2 being released tonight at midnight. ^_^'
Waiting for stuff sucks >.< I ordered a couple things from Hobby Search via SAL a few months back and each box took two months to arrive. Admittedly, one of the orders was just for the Rider Figma, for which my testicles weren't shaking in anticipation, but I dunno if having to wait two months is worth saving ten or fifteen bucks. I think I'd be even more annoyed if I ordered something from a domestic retailer and they weren't able to fulfill my order for months. I'm gonna be re-using the floor a lot, I think XD I'll probably just re-paint it as needed. I want to finish Fallout 3 so I'm really not trying to custom-make sets for each individual figure, and it'd probably be a bit surprising if people knew how many parts I recycle for shoots. I think Selvaria's stretched-out body shape is bothering me the most, and that's the main reason I'm still waffling on the figure. Her breasts are really big - but I went to another website and people were complaining about her boobs being too big, and I figure any time other people are bitching about breasts, that means they're the right size. You should! Though I can understand not having enough time, I want to play New Vegas after I beat Fallout 3, and then there's Skyrim, and Mass Effect 3 soon. Heck, I haven't even beaten the first Mass Effect.
Oh SNAP, each Mass Effect can take 100+ hrs. And Skyrim, don’t even get me started on how much time that takes. LOL
Good luck! XD
Yeah, I’m thinking these are going to take a while to get through XD I just got into the Diablo 3 beta the other day too, so that’s another game I’m gonna have to find time for. If updates on this site slow down a bit, it won’t be hard for everyone to guess the cause XD
She looks rather like a sexy Senhime cosplayer girl than the character herself which isn’t a bad thing, since Im no big fan of Senhime ;D
The face turned out very pretty with the eyes and the small mouth, it looks better than I remember from the promo shots. Too bad it is tilted down like that.
I prefer the figure without the top to be honest, with the top the boobs look really ovesized, maybe its also the position of them which let them appear so big, they seem to be placed a little bit too high for boobs of that size.
Its actually funny how the top changes the appearance of her boobs from well endowed to gigantic :p
The purple corsage with the white pattern looks really pretty, I also like the high cut style of it, its quite sexy how her hips and the beginning of her thighs are revealed. Stockings and boots are also cool design elements. Overall the design of the figure is very appealing, purple clothes and skincolor are a nice combination. Thx for the nice review about her.
picture number 10 is my favorite, a really alluring one ^-^
Haha, yeah, neither am I. In fact, I’d say she was one of the two big reasons I stopped watching the show. Yukimura was the other. That might be one of the reasons I like this figure a lot, since it takes a character I don’t particularly like and gives her such a dramatically different appearance that it’s not hard to imagine that her personality ought to be different, too.
Without her top, her breasts aren’t that much larger than, say, Sonico’s, which is about the size I like the most in anime characters, I think. Even though I’d probably prefer them a bit smaller, I have to admit that her gigantic bust makes this figure look very different from the majority of anime figures out there.
I remember seeing this figure when it was up for pre-order and I really liked the color setup and pose, and still do. The clothes are nicely detailed, just like that belly button. It all makes for a rather interesting expression when you look at her face and left hand, then you notice her right arm in full swing. I prefer her in full attire but she doesn’t look too bad while being semi-nude either. I’ve yet to see a cast-off figure with weaponry that outshines the dressed up version. And yeah, that cutout around back looks a bit out of place.
I’m with Visual Fanfare on the scenery topic. There’s nothing wrong with recycling backdrops, especially when it looks this good. Considering the amount of figures you review, it’s already impressive seeing this much variety in your work. Excellent falling light on those shoji screens as well.
I like her fully clothed as well, I think, which is somewhat unusual for me with respect to a Queen’s Blade figure, but the purple metallic sheen of her outfit is too attractive to leave it off of her. Plus I’m not too bothered by her breasts; they’re a bit larger than I typically like but I’ve been a fan of Miwa’s artwork long enough that it doesn’t bug me too much.
I need to start working on the backdrop for the next figure I want to do, and there’s a couple more that I’ve got reasonably well-defined ideas for but haven’t yet started on. I’m probably going to re-use that floor when I review one of the Tamaki figures I’ve got laying around here, though; I really built it to be sized for 1/4 scale figures.
Wow, although I prefer the Alter ver of her, this one isn’t so bad. Except for the ginormous breasts when she’s clothed. I’m a fan of big boobies and all but when the breasts start becoming larger than their head, a line has been crossed. She looks fantastic topless though and her face and hair are very nice.
It’s a shame that the thickness and limitations of plastic make her clothes so bulky like that. I wonder what it’d be like if they incorporated some vinyl/rubber for their clothes instead of PVC? It might be more expensive but it’d be awesome novel, the way that fishnet stockings in Freeings 1/4 stuff are one of their major selling points.
It’d be nice if they could make a plastic that is thin and elastic enough to stretch but is strong enough to not tear when handled. An actual fabric would probably look a bit out of place, the way doll clothes can look kinda bulky sometimes on 1/6 scale dolls and smaller. I think the best solution would’ve been to just provide two torso pieces, one clothed and one not. She already separates into a ton of parts, and such a move isn’t without precedent; Daiki’s Leina figure included two upper torsos even though she didn’t actually have a castoff option.
AH, I remembered the actual name of the vinyl/rubber material I was thinking about. Latex. Which I thought is what Alphamax Swimsuit Jubei was supposed to have but then got jipped on.
But 2 torsos is an even better idea. No fiddling around with silly pegs and worrying about paint transfer is always a good thing.
An interesting character I must say, the design looks appealing to me but the face is also very important factor for me. Judging from your review though, this Senhime certainly has good design elements, but I wish it was better executed.
Definitely a different – and rather odd – look for her. I like her face – and Miwa’s style – but he’s surely more known for the content and themes of his artwork rather than the expressiveness of his faces.