Not too long ago, Alphamax was a niche manufacturer in the figure hobby, a purveyor of really expensive polystone statues of characters nobody had ever heard of and that nobody ever bought. But in the last few years, anime figure collecting has really taken off and it is only sensible of Alphamax to want a bigger piece of that action – thus, they’ve repositioned themselves in the market as a mainstream manufacturer of PVC figures, particularly of popular characters wearing swimsuits. Now, they’re staking out another niche – namely, hentai figures – and so having looked at a Tony Taka dakimakura cover last week, we’ll look at Alphamax’s figure of Tony Taka’s Ai Saeki today.
Tony has entered the mainstream anime consciousness thanks to his work on Sega’s Shining series as well as his concept artwork for Max Factory’s Vocaloid figures, but many anime fans – particularly those that collect doujinshi, artbooks, dakimakura covers, and other hobby goods – will already be familiar with him thanks to his ero work. A variety of hentai anime, including Genmukan and the well-regarded Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro, feature his character designs. He’s also had a direct hand in the artwork for a number of H-games, including Fault!!
Originally published by Ciel, Fault!! casts the player as Shuichi Sugiyama, who looks pretty much like a lighter-skinned version of the lead guy from Shining Hearts. He’s a member of the tennis club, as are all the members of the female cast. Besides Ai, Shuichi’s prospective harem consists of his younger sister Mio, a mischievous, rambunctious girl who desires her brother’s sperm; club director Reiko Date Wingfield, a deliberate and assertive but also impish troublemaker who desires Shuichi’s sperm; and Rika Hayama, an inexperienced teacher and the club’s faculty advisor who, strangely, is the shortest girl in the game. She also desires Shuichi’s sperm. Earlier this year, Ciel published a sequel called Fault!! Service: A New Rival, which adds new girl Maya Kamiwazumi, a transfer student who is said to have a polite but icy personality. Looking through the game’s CGs, she seems to have a competitive relationship with Reiko.
The eroge seems to have an actual plot but the three-volume anime adaptation of Fault!! pretty much just focuses on the sex scenes. Not that that’s a bad thing; the characters’ personalities are about as original and distinctive as Tony’s designs so they will be instantly familiar to anyone who has watched anime. In the show, Shuichi is portrayed as a genial, somewhat perverted guy who provides encouragement and sex to the female members of the tennis club. The girls are likeable, the sex scenes are pretty hot, and the tone is fairly lighthearted, with none of the material being extreme or unusual. If, for some reason, you felt compelled to show your mother a hentai anime, Fault!! wouldn’t be a bad choice. (Some other similarly fun, cheerful hentai shows include Anejiru 2, Swing Out Sisters, and Kyuuketsuki.)
Ai Saeki is the nominal lead girl of Fault!! She’s a friendly, innocent, rather diffident and perpetually promiscuous young girl who all but flings herself at Shuuichi, who is only too happy to satisfy her requirements. She’s generally upbeat, determined, energetic, and quite willing to do whatever it takes to get into Shuichi’s pants.
Ai is manufactured by Alphamax in 1/6 scale, which is a bit of a surprise since they seem to have settled on 1/7 scale for many of their swimsuit figures. Ai, of course, is not wearing a swimsuit; in fact, she comes with one breast bared and both nipples visible, and no options are provided for covering them up. Furthermore, her bra and panties are removable to render her even more explicit.
Alphamax is not the first company to make ero figures based on Tony’s art. Native has already made several, including Kotone Ousaka, depicted above. Kotone is a 1/7 scale figure and so she’s slightly smaller than Ai. They make for a pleasing duo, and what is more interesting is that at least at first glance, Ai isn’t immediately overshadowed by the Native figure; in fact, they look fairly comparable in terms of quality and visual appeal.
Ai is closer in size to Collet, Native’s most recent Tony Taka-inspired figure. Again, Ai doesn’t fare too poorly when the two are compared. Ai, however, lacks Collet’s realistically-sculpted anus, although her vagina has a bit more definition – thought not nearly as much as Daiki Kougyou’s Imari.
The Native figures do beat the Alphamax figure in the number of supplied accessories, though. Native figures usually come with all sorts of additional stuff, but Ai comes with nothing but a base. It’s a flat plastic covered with a fuzzy white material, extremely similar to Collet’s base.
One noticeable difference between Collet and Ai Saeki is in the body style the sculptors selected for the respective characters. Collet has a curvy, full-figured body form, while Ai is rather lanky, even spindly-looking from some angles.
Ai’s clothing is removable via a nicely-executed castoff system. However, if one wants to keep her in her partially-dressed state, her clothing doesn’t look overly thick or bulky. That’s a commendable job by Alphamax, as there are a lot of figures with castoff systems that look really bad when fully dressed (because the clothing looks too bulky) or undressed (because the bodies were made too thin to accommodate the clothing). An illustrated instruction sheet is provided to guide Ai’s owners in taking off her clothes.
Note that with her skirt removed, her lithe form becomes obvious; her right leg looks particularly elongated. Also note that at least with my figure, there was some paint transfer from her skirt to the lower side of her thigh, and the stains wouldn’t come off even with rubbing alcohol.
Tony’s trademark style is recognizable, though perhaps less so than with, say, Max Factory’s figures of the various Shining series characters. The look on her face is also open to interpretation; she could be expressing embarrassment, she could be evincing fear or anxiety, or she could be caught in a moment of orgasmic bliss. That sort of mutability might seem a small thing but by stimulating the imagination, the uncertain nature of her expression elevates the eroticism of this figure.
In a much baser sense, the eroticism of this figure is heightened by its simple explicitness. And so, here is her vagina.
And here are her buttocks. No realistically-sculpted anus, as mentioned, and also, her thigh is flattened out to keep her steady on her base or on a shelf or living room table or wherever one chooses to display her. Her vagina isn’t as detailed as some other figures, I guess, but even so, it’s still amazes me that one can easily buy products like this. Only a few years ago, when I was starting to collect scale-size figures, just the idea that a figure might have exposed nipples was almost too racy to contemplate.
This figure’s lewdness is also emphasized by the positioning of her fingers. Arguably her pose works better with her panties in place, where she’s suggestively sliding her panties to the side, giving a tantalizing glimpse of the flesh beneath. Me, though, I like her best without her underwear, where her hand and her spread legs serve to vector attention to her genitalia, which acts as a locus of sorts for the figure.
I’ve been unimpressed by the previous Alphamax figures I own. The last two I reviewed, Total Eclipse’s Yui Takamura and Cryska Barchenowa, had some problems – Yui has a strange barrel-shaped head and Cryska has oddly-shaped breasts and an oversized head. Ai Saeki’s sculpt, however, is quite impressive. Of course, it does have its own idiosyncrasies, such as the gangliness mentioned earlier, but that’s not necessarily a problem; indeed, I think some people might prefer that sort of body build.
In particular, she has a nicely-sculpted abdomen, and very appealing breasts. Her breasts aren’t too large and aren’t too small; they have good shape and the nipples look good, too. The sculptor did a great job there.
I’m also very impressed by how Ai seems free of paint or sculpting defects. Usually a macro lens is rather unforgiving to figures, but even up close, Ai looks like a very high-quality product. I don’t see any specks or odd marks; the paint application is clean and crisp.
And she even has this cute blush.
Given the explicit nature of this figure, there wasn’t any question that I was going to purchase it. However, I was expecting a mediocre product. Imagine my surprise when I see that Ai doesn’t look at all out of place compared to the Tony figures Native has produced. Everything about this figure is high quality; she looks superb with or without clothes, the sculpt is excellent, and the manufacturing quality is beyond reproach. Alphamax’s Ai Saeki is not just a very sexy figure, it’s one of the finest ero figures out there.
Awesome! I am really glad that I decide to pick up this figure, now it seems it will be well worth it!
She shall be! She’s a really great figure. I was very surprised that Alphamax made this figure, since they have had almost no history of making ero figures, but I’m glad they did.
Good to see Obama getting some action (though I’d like to have seen tentacles).
I’m not in to ero figures, but she does look really quite well detailed, without the usual quality issues many ero figures have, and the clothing looks decent compared to… all of my castoffable figures, where it’s just chunky and weird.
I really like what you did with the shoot. Simple black backdrop but that nice gloss wood with the gym equipment. Very fitting for such a figure, also I assume she (and any other girls in the game) would be having the majority of the sex at school. I vaguely recall watching an ep of the anime, but dismissed it since I didn’t really like any of the char designs (really not a Tony fan, very bland. And boobs are always too large).
Obama really makes the shoot though. He really does rock.
Yeah, maybe I should’ve brought out the tentacles. They would’ve been a bit difficult to use, since they are so large, too large to fit into the spaces between her body and her arms, but tentacles improve everything, so I should’ve brought them out.
This was a really tough shoot to do, which is a bit odd because the final pictures are pretty close to what I wanted. I shot the first pictures in this style, and then decided to experiment with some other backgrounds because I thought the black looked kinda empty. I used a variety of other backgrounds before coming back to the black. I experimented with lighting the props a bit more brightly and I think that made me more satisfied with the results than I was with the initial shots.
Did you try the background you used for Hotori Yoshii? I think that may have worked, but I really like how this turned out as you shot it.
Yeah, I should’ve tried that one. In fact, I had meant to, but I couldn’t find it. I’ve put it someplace here but it’s buried somewhere, probably under the rest of my set-building materials. I’m going to have to see if I can find it.
if the tentacles are too big you could try and use like putty thats shiny the science putty it looks great as tentacles and its cheap you can make the tentacles any shape or size just a thought
I will have to look into that. I did try using soft modeling clay before and the results were not fantastic, but I hadn’t thought of trying putty (even though I actually use adhesive putty quite often for building backdrops).
yeah i mean the only thing about the science putty it dosent stay in place but it would still do the job
also please just do a tentacle folder
Great body and cute face. I love those long legs and would’ve preferred to see them standing or otherwise stretched out.
I’m not too sure about the brown heavy set, seems to make her a bit bland by blending her accent colors. Then again, I’m not a fan of generic school uniforms (most generic uniforms really) Also, tentacles are a must for school girls :p
The subdued, monochromatic was actually what I was looking for; I’m pretty happy (though I didn’t notice this at first) that she doesn’t have any brightly-colored bracelets or accessories or funky-colored eyes that would’ve stood out. Usually the face is the center of attention for any human (or human-looking) subject but for Ai, I really wanted the viewer’s attention to be directed to the obvious place, since all the lines of her body converge there.
Yeah, I should’ve brought out the tentacles; tentacles and schoolgirls go together like America and obesity. I do actually have a schoolgirl figure in the review queue, and unlike Ai this figure’s the proper size for tentacle usage.
i got this PVC too but there have a color shift problem. The skirt cant wear on the pvc for a long time it because the color on the skirt will shift to the pvc body. http://i.imgur.com/mWc3wh.jpg
Yeah, the skirt causes color transfer. I could not remove the transferred paint, and I think that anyone who is concerned about this might want to keep her skirt off (or keep a little piece of plastic or something between the leg and the skirt).
That gym setting is really simple but effective. I like that Obama puts Imari’s dildo to good use, and Ai seems to like it, too. For that reason alone, you guys just have to reelect him 😉
The president knows how to please the ladies. This could theoretically be the last time I can use the presidential doll, but we shall see; I’ll be keeping an eye on the television all night tonight.
Is that a severed hand in the first picture. O.O
I think I’m convinced, I want her. Almost 10kÂ¥ is also a hefty price, but she definitely looks worth it. I was on the fence with Ai, AlphaMax have hardly instilled confidence in me what with their swimsuit Samurai Girls, so I’m glad to get to see her in more detail here. Plus her promo shots made her skin look chalky in texture and her pants looked more like nappies.
I love her body sculpt. The more fragile slender shape is really nice. Makes a change from the usual curvy ero figures. Her face is also cute, her expression looks like she’s pleasuring herself to me. Her eyes can look a little lifeless from certain angles, but nothing that puts me off in a major way. The cast-off is also a neat addition. She’s pretty much already there when fully cast-on, so being able to finish the job is cool.
The only part of her sculpt that irks me is the way her leg has been flattened to act as a base. She’s lying down, I doubt she would have been wobbling around if they had made it round.
Oh yes, Kyuuketsuki is delightful :P. Swing out sisters was surprising good though. Reminded me of Aki Sora. *commence the derailing to talk about hentai OVAs* Tropical Kiss is the H-OVA I’m really looking forward to see continue. The first OVA was nice, but limited to 1 girl. I hope all 5 get an OVA, but I’ll be content so long as the blue hair girl gets more screen time.
Ha! I was wondering if anyone would notice the hands. In fact that hand on her left boob is attached to an arm.
Alphamax’s stuff definitely has been kinda underwhelming, sorta like big-sized Beach Queens figures or something. I’m really impressed by Ai, not just by her quality but also that Alphamax would make a nude, highly explicit figure at all. Swimsuit figures are nice but there are so many of them that it’s hard for them not to look too bland. I hope Alphamax will continue to make more distinctive (and explicit) figures like Ai.
Even if you can’t see it, flattening out body parts always seems to be a bit strange. I’m reminded of Alter’s Nanoha figure from earlier this year, where her butt was flattened out to keep her stable while sitting. You can’t see it, and it’s necessary to keep her from falling off (though maybe they could’ve put an indentation into the wall she’s sitting on instead), but it stays in the back of your mind regardless.
Kyuuketsuki sure was a great show, one that I enjoyed very much. I wonder if Swing Out Sisters will get a second episode? I liked the first one a lot; the animation was way better than most hentai shows, the censoring was minimal, and the characters were very appealing. Tropical Kiss was very nice, too; almost all the Collaboration Works stuff is good stuff. Harem Time was kind of a disappointment; I liked the manga and was hoping for a better adaptation.
ah a nice ero figure but she miising blush mark or she really a shameless whore ahahaha
on side note good luck on tomorrow election lol this review bad for your image
Ahaha you can’t call Ai a shameless whore XD
even though it’s hilarious 😉
Haha! What a brutal thing to say about such a sweet, innocent, good-natured girl. Though she definitely is shameless, and she definitely offers herself to Shuichi rather cheaply.
I really like this figure. In fact there is really nothing I don’t like about her (except maybe the flat leg). She has an expression that looks to me like she is in ecstasy. When I first saw her I couldn’t wait for your review because the promo pics didn’t show whether she was anatomically correct. I am glad to see she has some definition to her vagina, but an anus would have been nice to see.
With all of that being said, I think I prefer her in her clothed state though. The hand has a much nicer position and I always loves breasts pulled out of a bra. If her hand would have been touching her vagina when unclothed, I would have preferred her to be unclothed.
Between her and Date Winfield I thought I would like Date better (I love the workout clothes she has on), but based off of this review I think that may change.
I love the wooden floor you used this time and it is good to see the vaulting boxes. The shoot kind of reminded me of the tatami mat arena in DOA4. If you don’t remember that stage, it basically was just a patterned floor that went onto infinity.
I like picture 23 with the president. He just looks so forceful with the dildo, but it looks like she likes it.
I was kinda surprised at how difficult it was to confirm her anatomical realism until after she was released. I wouldn’t have been too surprised if they had gone the wimp’s route and censored her genitalia (like some of Diskvision’s figures) but I am very glad they did not. (I’m also glad that this figure was available normally rather than having to go through a proxy shop, like Native’s stuff.)
The suggestiveness of her hand positioning does work quite a bit better when she is clothed. It might also work better with her expression, where her look suggests she’s inviting the viewer to take a peek.
I think I remember that stage; or rather, I remember launching characters (and having my characters launched) through the screen doors and walls. Fighting games – actually, video games in general – are always great for environmental ideas. (Sometimes if I need to envision what a set might look like, I’ll go search for game screenshots.)
I was editing the pictures and I was kinda surprised at how Ai’s expression seemed to change throughout that sequence of photos. Of course it really doesn’t, but I think that’s another reason why I like this figure so much.
I hear that Reiko is out now, but I haven’t her yet because I have her combined in an order with other not-yet-released figures. But if this Ai is anything to go by, Reiko will be truly fantastic, and I’m eagerly waiting for her.
Regarding the placing of Ai’s hand: (Please excuse my poor vocabulary, but English is not my first language, so describing something “technical” is sort of difficult to me.) She comes apart at three joints – above both elbows and below the left elbow. By pulling out the “right elbow joint” just a little bit (0.5 to 1mm) you bring the “below left elbow joint” a little tad closer towards her crotch. Then you can play a bit with the positioning of her left forearm, and ultimately you may place the tip of her left middle finger right on her cherry button. In my eyes, this is close enough for me to make sense displaying her fully cast-off.
Perhaps you don’t even have to follow these instructions to the letter, just experiment yourself a bit with the relative positons of her joints and see if you can achieve a look that you like.
Yeah, same here; I have her bundled with another figure order. Most of the stuff I have ordered has gotten delayed and it has been a bit difficult managing when I want stuff to ship.
Ah, I do see what you mean; there’s definitely some leeway in the way her arms can be positioned and I’ll probably play around with adjusting her limbs for greater effect. Also, your English is fine; in fact, I did not know that English is not your primary language.
Ah right, this is also based on Toni Taka artwork.
The thing I can remember from the Fault H-anime was that Ai didn’t bleed XD
This figure is too explicit for me, but I love the way she looks. Her moaning face with the blush is just too cute. I really like how her skintone reacts to the light you’ve used. It creates the illusion of very soft skin.
Alphamax did a great job with her, the level of quality appears amazing for them. I like my Gravure Idol Sonico, but she’s not as good as other figures I own.
It’s no big deal when displaying Ai like it’s supposed to be, but the flattened but is a letdown I must say, like with this certain adult Nanoha.
The president won’t get more votes by playing with white minor tennis club girls XD
*rofl* Kyuuketsuki isn’t cheerful :p, Im wondering if they canceled this project after ep 01.
I wouldn’t have mind more eps if there would have been a more or less good end for the cute girl ^^
I digress from the topic, anyway nice review nice figure.
Too explicit :O I’m half-expecting that full frontal nudity will be the norm in at least some televised series soon, given the way things in anime are going.
She definitely exceeds my expectations by a large amount. I was expecting something fairly mediocre but she’s a really impressive figure in all respects.
Ha, the president’s adventures have led him to a crushing win! I’m very happy I get to use him for four more years, because I just got a new outfit for him and I would’ve been feeling extremely stupid if I couldn’t use it because he got thrown out of office.
That is a matter of perspective! Kyuuketsuki was a great show. Man the voice actress for Mikage was great; very, very few seiyuu can scream and moan and grunt like she did. I too would like to see a second episode, and I’d be happy if she reached a happy end, too. Although I like the sort of themes in Kyuuketsuki, I also like happy endings. Shows like Torikohime and Mahou Shoujo Ai where the girls go through a tough time but come out strong in the end are the kinds of shows I like best, I think.
I bought this figure and while I don’t regret my purchase I think it’s clear that this figure is inferior to most of Native’s offerings. The pose is interesting, but her breasts look like bolt-ons, and her paint job is very flat, very little shading to accentuate curves. Her hair, a simple ponytail, is cute but it doesn’t compare to the elaborate detail you’ll find on Native. It is, however, probably the porniest figure I own now, beating out even the Native Chie.
I think she compares reasonably well, even favorably in some cases. If I had to rank them, from least favorite to most, Trunk Girl, Super Sonico, Shoujo S, and Shoujo M would bring up the rear. Then I’d have a hard time deciding between Kotone and Ai. I’d probably put Collet in front of Ai, and Chie would definitely be at the top. I think Ai’s breasts are one of the best parts of the figures; in fact, she has one of the best busts of any figures in my collection. The paint is a bit flat though, I agree, particularly when compared to something like Daiki’s Imari, where the shading on her breasts is quite a bit more complex.
Regardless of her quality, it’s great that one of the porniest figures around is released by Alphamax, of all companies. Someone needs to get Alter on the ero figure bandwagon.
The Obama Figure is Creepy as Always.
She is TASTY!!
Try Magic Eraser on your Marks. That is what i used on mine Just go lightly
Ha, he is merely enjoying the spoils of victory. Yeah, that might be something I try, I even have a Magic Eraser somewhere here; I bought a box of them since I heard a lot of people use them to remove marks and stains on dolls. The spot on her leg is ordinarily covered up so even if I mess up, I guess it’ll be okay.
Now I went to download the anime because of this review. Although I would never collect them, or maybe in some later time I’m still impressed with their body sculpt. Again, her breasts are one of the most impressive features of this figure. The butthole and genitals is I think one of the most difficult parts to be reproduced in full detail. And since Obama won, I guess its really a right time to do some victory party, after all he deserves some break, haha.
He does! No rest for him, though, since I don’t want to get more money chopped out of my paycheck. I need that money to pay for those FREEing bunnygirl figures and Rana. And maybe Halo 4. I hope you enjoyed the anime! It’s a pretty good show; a bit straightforward but still fun.
yup, the anime is really great. The plot is almost the same as Sora no Iro, but with more girls and nasty outdoor scenes. I guess you’ll also snag Reita as well?
Yeah, I ordered her too; I think she’s actually in stock at Hobby Search but I have that figure set to ship with GSC’s racing Miku, whenever that comes out.
Man I feel unworthy of the hentai figure collector label since I missed both this one and Collet.
I particularly regret not picking up Collet since I’m more attracted to her position ass up in the air, but I have to say Ai Saeki is really sexy too. Like you said, I could have only dreamed of a figure that pornographic only a few years ago and now I can’t even keep track of them!
Now I would love to see western figure manufacturers going down that path but I guess there’s probably no market for it.
Both are really great figures. Curiously, I’ve seen the blonde version of Collet still up for sale at some places; that’s a bit unusual for a Native figure, but I guess they did do two production runs of her.
they all want me~ hmm mhh
I am in absolute awe of the images, your photography and the detail in these figures.
I just so happened to stumble upon this and am now fascinated by this artwork!
Being a complete newbie to this, can anybody let me know where I can order this figure and more like her?
Thanks! And keep up the great work!
Uhh, man, this is over three months late, but I got this figure from Hobby Search. Amiami is the other popular store; Ai has been long sold out at both stores but they do have Maya Kamiwazumi for sale still.
http://kotaku.com/5990283/okay-this-bread-really-looks-like-vaginas?popular=true
I know this ain’t related but this looks so much like hers…………
Reminds me a bit of this photo.
Pingback: Fault! | Macro55's Blog
http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/review?scode=FIGURE-000186&page=top
Tony alert!
Obama hit her hard XD
good figure review I want this one now too
Oho! I hope you’ve got a big fat wallet. She became rather expensive over time. I think you’ll have to shell out some 180 bucks plus shipping if you want her in an unopened box.