Back to the bikini figures, and today we’ll be looking at the self-described Warrior of Love, Naoe Kanetsugu.
I have a bunch of figures of the Samurai Girls characters and I’ve been consistently negative in my opinion of the show. However, I watched through the whole series earlier this year and it actually wasn’t that bad. In fact, I’d say for the most part, I even liked it. Jubei was cute, Gisen was smoking hot, and Hanzo, Matabei, and Kanetsugu were very funny. The male lead wasn’t terrible, either. The same can’t be said for the ending, though – the show’s production staff decided to inject dramatic tension into the last few episodes, even though most of the series’ run consists of comedy and the usual harem-centric relationships, and the contrast is stark and the transition is handled predictably badly. It reminds me a bit of some other shows I’ve seen, like Sora Kake Girl, Sora no Otoshimono, and Beck, where I liked them at first but then they fell apart following poorly-executed plot development.
When I wrote about Alter’s first figure of Kanetsugu, I knew next to nothing about her character, but now that I’ve seen it, I can say that her actual personality and mannerisms are not quite what I expected. I figured she’d be lively and loud, in the way that twintailed anime girls with giant weapons typically are, but in addition to that, she’s an enormous airhead, a monomaniacal braggart, and a borderline-insane romantic. As such, her main role is as comic relief, which typically involves her being pummeled to a bruised pulp, sometimes at the hands of the central cast.
Fortunately, this figure depicts her in a better state, sort of (I’ll explain that in a bit). It’s by Hobby Japan and Alter, who’ve made a number of figures of the Samurai Girls characters, though Charles D’Artagnan is conspicuously absent in both their catalog and their release announcements. Like all of Alter’s Samurai Girls figures, Kanetsugu is sculpted in 1/8 scale and is about 13.5 centimeters tall. Like a lot of Hobby Japan’s stuff, this figure was a Japan-only exclusive and so necessitated going through a proxy; I used Tokyo Hunter.
This figure is listed as a “swimsuit version,” much like Yagyu Jubei’s earlier figure, though in my opinion, her outfit looks more like lingerie than swimwear. Personally, I think it’s a bit unfortunate that Kanetsugu’s outfit isn’t listed as lingerie since despite the obvious appeal of sexy underwear, lingerie is not something that is often fetishized in anime, unlike swimsuits, thighhigh socks, school uniforms, and so many other things.
Regardless of what she’s actually wearing, Kanetsugu definitely looks fine. Her outfit features a number of straps, which is a bit unusual but looks very attractive. It stays faithful to the style of the series, which marries contemporary fashion with traditional Japanese aesthetics; for example, she’s got some neat fingerless gloves encircled with ropes, which looks both modern and classic at the same time. The contrasting sea-green and black color motif is also very pleasing, particularly with the way the pastel green complements her lilac hair.
Five days you work, one whole day to play, come on everybody wear your rollerskates today.
She’s also got some roller blades; they aren’t too noticeable from the front, but they are an interesting and fun addition to her design.
My particular figure comes with a less welcome feature: she’s got a big-ass crack in her hair and a smaller scratch on her face (the latter of which is edited out of these photos; I doubt anyone cares to see my figure’s problems). When I saw the damage, I did what any thoughtful and level-headed person would do; I hauled ass to Tokyo Hunter’s website and ordered another figure. Hopefully it won’t have any flaws. Admittedly, it’s difficult to see the damage from a distance of even a couple of feet, but I’m overreactive like that.
Besides that specific problem, though, Kanetsugu really looks great. Her outfit is very sexy; naughty-minded people will appreciate Kanetsugu’s saucy nipples and tiny micro-bikini.
I think it’d look nicer if she were wearing a thong but instead, the seat of her bikini offers tremendously more coverage than the front of her suit. It does offer a rather tentacle-friendly opening below the waistband, though.
Tongue out and eyes veritably twinkling, Kanetsugu wears a very cute, flirty expression, one that conveys a sense of lively, youthful mischief. It’s mildly out of keeping with Kanetsugu’s personality, I think, but still looks perfect nonetheless.
She also comes with this drinking gourd, which puts a modern twist on the traditionally-styled Japanese vessel by giving it the appearance of a Nalgene container. Her arm detaches to facilitate pushing it up against her side; if you’re an idiot like me, you can also just push it through the gap between her arm and body, but be warned that doing so will probably cause a paint transfer problem; it’s easily cleaned up with some rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip but still rather annoying nonetheless.
If you paid more money, you also got this pack-in, which is a table mat of some sort. I don’t think I’m ever going to ever use it as such, which no doubt is what Hobby Japan expected. It’s interesting how all sorts of things – table mats, Kleenex box covers, pillowcases and so on – can be turned into prized collectibles just by printing a picture of an anime girl on them.
Kanetsugu also comes with a base, which she obviously does not need to stay upright.
Leaving my particular figure’s problems aside, I think this is a really great figure, one that I’m very glad to have. I liked Kanetsugu in the show, more than I thought I would, and though the figure doesn’t really do much as far as embodying what she is like, she still looks fantastic. Her tiny bikini is very attractive, and her playful expression is very cute. The Samurai Girls designs have always demonstrated a slick sense of style while providing fanservice in spades, and Kanetsugu is a superb example of this synthesis. When my replacement figure gets here, I’ll be able to say this is one of my favorite figures of this year.
She’s quite nice overall, but I think her thighs are too thick, and something about her waist/hips are a bit too chunky. I don’t like lumpy girls. Often the case with ones that are meant to look muscle-bound and such. They just end up looking… weird.
I like the shoot, though. Nice background and lighting as per usual. I wish I had the space to do sets like that. Unfortunately if I put any kind of real backdrops in place (as if I could actually make any to begin with) I wouldn’t be able to fit figures on my shooting table. ;.;
That seems to be a common theme with Nitroplus’s work; NiΓΒΈ seems to like drawing characters that are more fully figured than most. Sometimes I don’t like it as much – I’ve got a review somewhere here of Amanda Werner from Blassreiter where I thought she was a bit too chunky, but I like Kanetsugu’s proportions here, with her semi-loli body build with broad hips. It’s not something one often sees, it looks pretty sexy, and well, I feel less dirty looking at a rather young-looking character than I might otherwise.
The background was a colossal pain in the ass to build, particularly for the payoff. I decided to stain the panel rather than painting it, and wood stain is some of the nastiest crap I’ve had to deal with (well, recently, anyway; the hydrofluoric acid I used back in one of my labs in college was probably nastier). I had to rebuild the crisscrossing wood pattern since I initially wanted to keep it separate, so that I could use the wood panel by itself later on, but it looked terrible so I glued the darker wood sticks down. I’ll have to get another panel if I want a stained wooden backdrop.
“Jaw drops to the floor”
It is indeed a good-ass figure.
Me like! I have no problem with her physique but bigger tits would be grand!
More crotch shots please!
That crack bugs me >.>
To be perfectly honest, I was confused on whether if that red on Kanetsugu’s mouth was her lip or tongue sticking out at first glance. I really couldn’t tell until I read your description. -_-
Btw Tier, do you store all your shots onto a HDD or do you use some sort of storage service?
When I say crack, I mean in her hair.
Kanetsugu has a rather petite physique – I remember reading that Kanetsugu’s design bears a lot of similarities to Miku Hatsune, who isn’t too busty, and that seems to carry over here. Maybe Alter will do swimsuit figures of Senhime and Gisen someday.
Yeah, the crack bugs me too. I really want to edit it out of the pictures but I figure it’s part of this particular figure, plus doing so would have been more work than I wanted to do, especially since I was trying to watch football and the vice presidential debate at the time. Hopefully the replacement figure will be in good condition (I expect it to be in good condition).
Gee, my workflow is all kinds of messed up. I store my pictures on my main data drive, and I also keep a backup archive on a second hard drive in my computer (it probably would’ve been more efficient to have set up a RAID array at the start, but I didn’t think I’d get into photography when I built my computer). I keep backups on a bunch of external hard disks, and that reminds me that I haven’t performed a backup in a couple of months.
I do like her petite physique but I was just saying boobs are nice with that kind of appearance. Jubei and Kanetsugu have quite the similar physique but the only difference I see are their breasts π
Hold on a second, a replacement figure–you got another one?
I’ve recently started to back up my files–mainly my anime. What capacity size are your external units, I currently have a 3TB and two 500GBs. I still want to back up my back up lol, so I’ve been asking around to see which storage sizes/brands are best for multimedia.
That is true. When it comes to breast sizes on anime characters, I usually prefer larger, though not so large as to be unwieldy or grotesque.
Yeah, I got another one, since that scratch bugs me. I even wrote about it in the post!
I’ve got a 3TB drive as my main backup drive, and a couple of 1TB drives which are now quite inadequate. I think one of my external drives might be a 2TB drive … I’ve been so negligent on performing backups that I don’t even remember. My backup drives are a mix of Hitachi (the 3TB drive), Western Digital, and Seagate (I think the 2TB drive – if that’s what it is – is a Seagate). It doesn’t seem like any one of the major brands is more reliable than any other (I haven’t had too many disk failures in my experience, but I’ve had one Maxtor and one Western Digital drive fail, and two IBM drives failed on me. The IBM drives were the infamous 45GB Deathstars, so I was prepared for them to fail.)
Redundant backups are definitely the right way to go. I’ve been thinking I ought to get another 3TB external drive as a second backup drive. The value I put on my data is way, way greater than the $150ish or so cost of another drive.
LOL – a Deathstar! With that name, it was predestined to fail…
I did read your post but I must have missed that part >.<
I've seen some pretty gnarly external hard drives after snooping around a week. If your files are worth more to you than $150 I suggest you go crazy with backing up: backup your backup and then back that up… Lol that was my original plan.
btw, I think she looks good!
Maybe you’ll like her?
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10177309
Indeed she does! I’ll find out for myself in a day or two.
Well I’m of the complete opposite mind of Asa haha…I absofuckinglutely love her body sculpt! Nice curvy tummy paired with the small breasts? Yes please!
I wonder who sculpted her such a damn nice job…Haha ah he sculpted Jun and Nanako too which are easily some of my favorites in the collection. They also both have very nice stomachs like Naoe here as well. I’m guessing he’s a fellow midsection admirer! Good on him.
Sigh if only she wasn’t an exclusive…Just find it hard to justify that kind of cost anymore these days. Guess I’ll just be satisfied with looking at your photos. :p
The sculptor did a superlative job sculpting her stomach; she’s not a very large figure and so I was surprised that her abs were that nicely defined. Unlike GSC’s Inori figure, maybe. Maybe I’ll take a comparison shot of them together, whenever Inori gets here. I’d better write that idea down somewhere so that I don’t forget.
Yeah, exclusivity is a pain … hopefully it doesn’t become more of a pain with Orchid Seed putting that odd sales moratorium on Amiami. I know the other stores are still selling their stuff but it isn’t difficult to imagine them getting the same notice from Orchid Seed in the future.
K…K….k…k… KYAHHHH!
What is this? I knew she was super pretty and hot, but here she looks fantastic (Γ’ΒΒΓ´ÒβΒ‘`Γ’ΒΒ)
It’s quite unfortunate that she is an exclusive run, I really considered to order her *damn*
The slightly altered face makes Naoe even more attractive, I like that she looks a little more mature here. Ah so she’s sticking out her tongue, I actually thought it was her lower lip :p
It’s funny that she makes the same hand pose as my lately reviewed Jubei.
The petite body and her compact pose are lovely, it’s also enchanting how her giant twintails touching the ground.I really like how the slip accentuates her pelvis and the lower regions of it, kinda hypnotizing how her skin shines through this strap structure, the body sculpting is just too nice.
It’s so sad that I can’t really justify another figure purchase this month , Miku arrived which I have already paid months ago. Stocking arrived and for the rest of the month Hibari, big Kanu and the Sonico nendoroid have to be paid, what a pinch.
If you change your mind, she’s definitely worth getting. She looks great, and she’s made by Alter, so you know you’re getting a good figure. Unless it has a scratch or something. You could cancel the Sonico nendoroid to free up some money. <.< Ahh, mentioning Stocking reminds me that I've got Panty around here, somewhere. Literally somewhere, because I have no idea where it is now. I'm gonna have to go through the stack of figure boxes and see if I can find her.
Very nice that reminds me why I ordered this one and I have no idea about samurai girl at all lol. I really like the face especially with the sticking out toque,her body proportion just my like ^^ ,hope my copy don’t get any important defects as I read you are not the only one have π and I think the swimsuit looks like lingerie
Ah, well, Samurai Girls is a harem show with a typical male lead (a courageous, skilled swordsman who is absolutely terrified of tits) and typical female characters. It’s nothing you have not ever seen before, probably, though I still enjoyed most of it. It probably could’ve used a few more episodes, I guess, like a lot of anime.
There are too many things I like about this figure to list, but I will talk about a couple.
I love that micro bikini. It covers just enough to be modest, but is extremely erotic. I also like her bikini top with her nipples poking through. The sculptor did a great job on these items.
My other favorite aspect is her body type. She has a more full figured body type, but her breasts aren’t huge like most anime characters with that type of body. I really like the stomach on this figure.
This figure may have to go on a watch list in case I can ever find a great deal on her.
Yeah, I love all of those things as well. The sculptor did an amazing job with this figure. As nice as Alter’s other Kanetsugu figure is, and as detailed as it is, I like this one quite a bit more. As much as I might whine about Alter sticking to a few core franchises (Nanoha, Strike Witches, Samurai Girls, and so on), I hope they do more swimsuit figures of these characters.
i was pleasantly surprised to find Hyakka Ryouran enjoyable due to all the comedy play, without being an all-out blatant breast-fest like *cough cough* Queen’s Blade. Kanetsugu Naoe was probably the only technical character i liked most (oh wow how “dare” they render her with realistic bust size!) but on the flip side her characterisation and role did not attract me.
I knew the figure was pretty well done but yea foreknowledge of the character told me to back off this time unfortunately.
You know, given that I’m obviously a big fan of fanservice anime, action girl anime, and pretty much anything involving cute girls in bikini armor, I’ve not actually seen either of the Queen’s Blade series all the way through. Though that’s mainly because it has a huge cast and I’m not really a fan of about half the character roster.
Yeah, I’ve had some times where I bought a figure not knowing much about the character and then regretted it somewhat later on when I learned more about the character’s personality. Like, say, with Inori Yuzuriha, who should be arriving soon. Man Guilty Crown was bad.
Ah ha ha, I know what you mean. Guilty Crown disappoints on many levels, but it is typical of so many other titles that just can’t seem to muster together a well thought-out plot and cast.
Nonetheless I did obtain all three Inori figures π as she didn’t bother me that much as the entire story did.
Indeed! Yeah, I’ve heard Guilty Crown compared to other shows (Code Geass comes up a lot). I must admit I don’t watch a ton of anime, and a lot of what I watch is fanservice-oriented (or straight-up hentai), so I haven’t seen Code Geass; I think that if I had, maybe I would have been more prepared for the way Guilty Crown went off the proverbial rails.
I have Inori here, and I guess I should take her pictures soon. I did not think she was a great character – well, nobody in that show was interesting, except maybe for that evil Major guy – but I don’t hold that against her. Indeed, I kinda see her as a victim of the writers’ incompetence; they got this great character design from redjuice and then completely botched her up.
You haven’t watched Code Geass???
OH YOU GREAT SINNER π
And after that, you’d see comparisons made between Code Geass and Death Note….
Yep, haven’t seen it! I do know how it ends, though, since I read through the Wikipedia article. Maybe I should watch it, C.C. seems to have a nice butt and that’s really the only reason I need to get interested in an anime series.
Haven’t seen Death Note either! Don’t know anything about it other than that the main male character looks like a dork, and that’s the only reason I need not to get interested in a show.
Whoa, she really came out nice. I for one find her proportions to be very attractive, I love the little additions like the rollerskates and she’s got a nice variety of colours in her design. I think she’s better than the other Kanetsugu as well. I hate the base though, I prefer pillows on these types of poses (like with Koto’s Inia Sestina I just got in). Luckily she can be posed without it. I haven’t managed to get my hands on any of the Samurai Girls (mostly because a lot of them came out before I started seriously collecting), but maybe someday…
As far as the show goes, I thought it was nothing special, but nothing terrible either. It had nice character designs, a rather unique visual style and some fun characters, of which Kanetsugu was probably my favourite (she was often kind of playing the same role Team Rocket did). The story sucked, especially near the end, but it’s a dumb harem show, so it’s not like I was expecting anything to begin with. It was good material for figures, anyway.
Yeah, that’s how I’d characterize the show as well. When I was writing this post, I could not remember why I disliked the ending so much. All I could remember was that I enjoyed the first ten episodes but I loathed the last two episodes so much that a lot of my warm feelings for the series evaporated. That’s sort of a contrast to a show like Guilty Crown, where I’ve forgotten a lot of the finer points but I can still remember why it’s such a dumb show.
Guilty Crown is one of the worst written pieces of fiction I’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing, so it’s burned into my mind as well. In a bad way.
But yeah, Samurai Girls just falls into the age-old trap of cramming in a lot of sudden drama in a show that doesn’t need any. I’ve noticed a lot of shows (especially comedies) have been falling into that trap lately and it can seriously hamper my enjoyment of it (mostly because it feels so forced and out of place).
Indeed! It’s the only show I’ve wanted to write a post about, and I probably ought to work on it, since I’ve got the Inori figure here and it’d make sense to try to get them done together. I do not think it will happen, though, since I’d have to re-watch Guilty Crown, or a substantial fraction of it, and I really don’t think I want to subject myself to that (especially since I need to catch up on Total Eclipse, and I think I want to watch only one disappointing sci-fi action anime at a time).
Yeah, that seems to be a common thing, especially with single-season shows; it takes them so long to introduce the characters that there’s very little time for adequate plot development (and sometimes it happens the other way; for example, I thought Ga-rei Zero took too long to get going). Given how formulaic so many of those shows are, I’m not really expecting this to change, and I sometimes wonder at myself that I keep watching them (and buying figures based off such characters).
The problem with these shows is they rush to resolve some catastrophic world crisis in the most spectacularly unbelievable way during the closing episodes. Even titles like Soul Eater or Ao no Exorcist fall victim to this pattern.
Guilty Crown strongly reminded me of The Matrix films and some of the Final Fantasy games I’ve played. They all dazzle stylistically but that slick presentation can’t keep the plotline from eventually collapsing under the weight of the poor storytelling technique (mainly thinking of Final Fantasy VIII, but FFX was sort of the same as well). I guess the major difference is that I liked the Final Fantasy games I’ve played (although I don’t think any of them are all-time great games) and I liked the first Matrix film a lot, but I could tell Guilty Crown was going to be a stinker by the end of the first episode.
Indeed. It doesn’t even look like swimwear π But it’s still one sexy outfit. The detail put into the figure is surprising from the small size of the figure.
But dat crack, lol π I haven’t faced such issues with my figures yet and I’m not sure what to do if that happens. I think one of my figure has a small red stain though..
Yeah, the crack sucks. I’ve got my replacement though and she’s in great condition, so it is all good, minus the expense of having to buy a second figure. Naoe’s detailing is pretty impressive, and I’m thinking I might contrast her and Inori when I start working on her post.
Is it odd I’m reading your review before opening up the box containing Naoe right next to me?
She looks fantastic, can’t wait to get the time to open her up and photograph her myself. Everything looks exactly as expected – no nasty surprises.
I love the bikini design. The black rose shaped strings and straps are wonderful particularly who the black contrasts with her pale skin. I especially like her back, the way it arches and is hugged by the bikini straps just looks dead sexy. The cyan is a suitable colour as well since it contrasts with her purple hair, yet is soft enough to not overwhelm your attention. The strap round her neck is also a really nice design feature.
The roller blades are something I was looking forward to as well. You don’t see many figures risking the 4 wheels, although to be fair shes kneeling which is kind of cheating.
So you decided to finish the Samurai Girls anime. I have to agree with you, the final episodes just ruined it. If they’d just kept the light hearted fun instead of trying to go all serious I would have been happy. I believe we’re getting a second season of the anime which hopefully means more Naoe antics. I’m also hoping to see a figure of Charles pop-up in an issue of Hobby Japan one day. I was looking forward to Gisen as well but found her painted form to be a little disappointing.
Not in the least! Everyone on the planet should read my posts. Kanetsugu really is a great figure. As annoyed as I am to have had to buy a replacement, I’m glad I’ve got a figure in good condition, since she is worth it.
Yeah, that’s how I feel about the show as well; I wasn’t terribly enthused by how Gisen developed as well, and the villain was pretty silly. A second season would be curious, since it seemed like the show was wrapped up, albeit in a haphazard and inept manner. I guess the additional ending in the home video version gives them an out for another season, though. I’d be cautiously optimistic, though, since I did like the first 90% or so and to be honest, these sorts of shows are really not difficult to execute.
I considered purchasing this to go with my original release of the swimsuit version, I guess I’m just really paranoid about the potential paint transfer with the thing she’s supposed to hold.
I’ll probably jump on it if I can find it for under 10k.
It definitely could be a problem. It wasn’t too hard to remove it with rubbing alcohol, but I’m also paranoid about that, so much that I took the easiest route and put the jug back in the box.
I needed to pad out an order at Mandarake and saw a couple of Kanetsugus right at 10k; that seems to be about what she’s going for.
I just came across you website and saw your nice photos. Love the background and lights.
Naoe looks better then I thought. Too bad i haven’t bought her. I really want her now. =D
Thanks for the kind words! It’s a very nice figure indeed; I didn’t actually expect to like this figure as much as I do (though actually watching Samurai Girls earlier this year probably plays some role in that). Good luck looking for her if you change your mind!
I’m thinking of buying this fig soon and I’m torn between this green colored swimsuit and the pink one…..
As a pro-collector (if that makes any sense) which one would you pick?
Honestly, I really like the pink one a lot; if I could pick either, that’d be the first one I’d select. I really like the way the lighter color makes you focus more on the color of her hair, which makes her look kinda like she’s wearing nothing at all.