The last few dakimakura covers featured here have been mostly of rather young-looking, physically-undeveloped characters, so to speak, so this time we’ll look at a pillowcase depicting a full-grown lady. This character is Kimi Aoi, the older sister of Toori Aoi, the lead male character of the light novel and recently-concluded anime series Horizon on (or in) the Middle of Nowhere. Although the anime seems reasonably popular – surely due in no small part to its attractive and expansive cast of colorful, likeable characters – it hasn’t gotten a lot of love from the figure industry. That’s rather unfortunate, since I really like the character designs and they would lend themselves well to figures. However, we’ll talk more about the anime and the few figures it has spawned later on; for now, let’s take a closer look at this dakimakura cover.
This pillowcase comes from the circle Anko Koubou. They’ve been around for a while and have made many, many pillowcases, but they perhaps have a lower profile than a lot of other dakimakura cover-oriented circles since as far as I know, they only sell their goods during specific events such as Comiket, rather than also selling through consignment shops like Toranoana. I suppose that’s just as well because their website is difficult to navigate, having seemingly been designed for 640×480 displays.
There is nothing to disparage regarding the artist’s drawing talent, though. Kimi is drawn in the artist’s style, though she still looks pretty close to her official design. The front side shows her with a friendly look, holding up one of her breasts for inspection. Kimi appears to be the most-racked character in the Horizon world – though in some artwork Tomo Asama can compete with her.
Kimi is wearing a slightly customized version of the official Musashi Academy girl’s uniform. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the Horizon series – I think they’re the nicest school uniforms in all of anime – and it’s drawn here with great attention to detail and texture.
Her feet are also drawn very well. One of the things I didn’t like about Kimi’s official dakimakura cover is that her lower legs and feet look really weird – sort of like how American comic book artists (mostly from the Jim Lee school of style) used to draw feet back in the 1990s. However, they look very nice here, with lots of detail – even her toenails are drawn on her left foot. The text on her right foot reads “Ariadust,” lead character Horizon’s surname.
The reverse side offers a rear view of Kimi, along with some sideboob. It also offers a look at Kimi’s enormous, impressive, borderline-ridiculous hairstyle (though Kimi doesn’t even have the most hair amongst the series’ principal cast).
Unusually, this pillowcase measures 170 centimeters in length, ten centimeters longer than most doujin-made dakimakura covers and twenty centimeters longer than Kimi’s official case. I don’t think anybody makes a pillow body that will fit this pillowcase without additional padding. It also makes this one of the heaviest pillowcases I own; it’s made of a thick, stretchy, sturdy spandex material that feels smooth to the touch. Conversely, I also have the official, Cospa-produced pillowcase featuring Horizon Ariadust and it feels rougher and much flimsier in comparison. (The artwork is also a lot sketchier, in a literal sense, but we’ll look at it individually when I write a post about it.)
This side maintains the same level of detail as the front side, though the effect of the image seems perhaps more detached since Kimi is looking off to the side rather than back at the viewer.
Being that this is a doujin-produced dakimakura cover, the level of explicitness is far higher than that of the official pillowcases – not that the official pillowcases are all that demure themselves.
This is the first Anko Koubou pillowcase I’ve purchased, and I’m really impressed. The artwork is exquisitely detailed and expertly drawn. I particularly appreciate how she still looks like she does in the anime; that’s a feature of some other pillowcases I’ve recently received (like Inori and Catherine) that I like a lot. Overall, it’s a fantastic dakimakura cover. Hopefully someone will make a really good pillowcase of Tomo, too.
I dunno I think Neito’s Mama wins in the boobs contest haha…Still love me some Kimi! Why Tomo got a figure before her I have no clue…
Do kinda wish her nipples were larger though. Something odd to me about such large breasts but such small buds. Personal preference though really.
Ah, I will have to take your word for it, since I still have to watch the second season of Horizon (still need to watch the second season of Total Eclipse, too, and just about everything from the fall as well). Tomo gets a figure because she is awesome! Though I still hope someone makes a figure of her standing up. The question I have is when there are so many attractive students to pick from, why did Alter roll with Kazuno instead? Not that Kazuno is bad or that I dislike her, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of character to turn into a figure.
Love the big plump breasts and the luxurious long hair. She’s both cute and sexy as hell. I like how one of the hip braces is open to show the natural waistline. Those hip braces always bothered me in how they break up one of the most important curves on the female body. Something really bugs me about her legs from the front. They look somewhat atrophied due to the pose/angle.
The back view is absolutely amazing though. The overall effect really makes you want to lewdly embrace the daki.
I don’t mind those hip ornaments too much on the Horizon characters, since they emphasize the high-cut leg of their outfits, but I agree that it’s disruptive; not as disruptive as the ones on the Muv-Luv Alternative girls (which I’m not as fond of) but they still do call attention to themselves. A character like Inori, whose outfit still has the same sort of futuristic theme, presents a sleeker look (though I guess the Muv-Luv suits are also supposed to resemble body armor, which is bulky by nature).
Anko is without a doubt my favorite dakimakura artist. That’s definitely no secret, as I know I’ve praised their work time and time again on this site. Most of their work is limited to events, however, they do mail orders maybe 2-3 times a year. They’re definitely one of the most exclusive dakimakura cover producers. My best guess is that it’s their intent to keep a low profile due to the explicitness of their work.
The material is P80’s 2WR, and it happens to be my personal favorite. I think it offers the greatest balance of durability, image quality, and feel; P80 is also the only big producer that allows really explicit images, as seen by two different versions Kyounetsu offers for their Asuna cover. 170cm covers are becoming a lot more popular these days, but that could just be my biased point of view since the majority of the covers I buy are from either Anko, Marks, or other circles that use P80. On an interesting note, there has been at least one cover that was 190cm and Anko’s Alicia cover was 180cm, I believe. As for pillows, I do believe that A&J does an 170cm pillow, but it isn’t usually offered through websites that ship internationally. Your options in the US/elsewhere are definitely limited, since the largest I’ve seen in a retail store is 140cm, but I’ve always heard good things about Royalpillow.com.
I’d love a good Tomo case myself. I was really hoping the Clesta would get around to doing one, but it never came to be. 🙁
Ah, thanks for all of the information. Yeah, I would really like a solid Tomo pillowcase, being that she’s my favorite character. Just from observation, it seems kinda like Nate is the fan favorite, along with Kimi and Horizon; maybe Horizon less so than the other two.
Always happy to barge in and “contribute” when it comes to dakimakura covers. 😛
I kind of liked the C.R.’s Nest Tomo cover, but their art style can definitely be a bit of an acquired taste, and I never saw it pop up for sale at any point, so I’m assuming it was an event exclusive.
It’s hard to pick favorites, considering there wasn’t a character in the show that I disliked, but I’d probably swap back and forth between Tomo, Nate and Kimi. I love Malga too, but I’d probably put the other three ahead of her overall. I think she’s my favorite character aesthetically.
Since it can be hard to get everything you want to say into a message on Twitter, I’ll go off topic (again) and mention WoW here. I still haven’t had any luck with the Glorious pants, and it certainly hasn’t been for a lack of trying. I did see a listing of the Lofty pants on a random server, and made the expensive decision to transfer my 70 warlock, that was on an inactive account, to the realm to swoop them up for 35g. It probably wasn’t the best decision, since I’d have to transfer him again to make use of the pants on any of my active toons, but I figure it wasn’t so bad since he was the last character I had on the inactive account and now I can play him whenever.
The only real luck I’ve had is picking up another spare Glorious belt. >.<
I think I liked Tomo, Kimi, Horizon, Nate, Masazumi … heck, I liked pretty much everyone. It’s a rare show where I really enjoyed watching all the characters and the way they interacted with each other, and there wasn’t a character that I disliked so much that it brought the show down in my esteem.
Off-topicness is all good. Yeah, from what I understand, it’s a pretty rare drop. It kinda sucks that they lowered the level of Dire Maul, since I would think it would have been eligible to drop there back in the day. (Also, my character used to wear an Energized Chestplate – I’m the one who submitted the first screenshot of it on Wowhead, actually – and I still kinda miss it). I’m glad I hoarded a few sets back before transmogrification came into effect, though I think my death knight will be my last plate-wearing character. I’ve got that character parked in Silithus farming bugs and snakes, but I don’t really expect to see the belt drop for me. I guess it’s okay, though, since I’m using the belt from one of the AQ40 emperors for visual purposes, and I think it looks pretty good.
Exactly, and that’s why it’s so hard to pick favorites.
Dire Maul likely would have been the best place to farm for all of the pieces, had the level range not been lowered. The way I understand it is Glorious, Lofty, Vanguard and so on, are all Kalimdor exclusive drops with an item level in the 55-60 range. Apparently item level, at least in vanilla, directly corresponds to the mob’s level in what greens have the highest drop chance. So since the Glorious Legplates are level 58, and there aren’t any level 58 mobs in Kalimdor anymore, you have to suffer through a reduced drop chance. My memory of all the dungeons is a bit fuzzy, but I think Dire Maul was the only instance in Kalimdor that was in the 58-60 range.
Now that it’s level 40 something, it’s only good for Saltstone. 🙁 Speaking of which, it shows how observant I am; I had to look up the Energized Chestplate after you mentioned it and you also uploaded the best screenshot for the Saltstone Surcoat. You have a very nice looking Draenei there.
If you happened to have any spare pieces leftover from the set, I’d be willing to try to work out a trade (and the logistics) of some sort, if you were sure you wouldn’t be using any more/ were willing to trade them. The AQ40 belt does look quite nice, but I’m currently using the Death Knight invisi-belt.
I like the outfit design of this character. I would have never guessed that the outfit is their school uniform. I like this cover and was really surprised to see how explicit the reverse image is. I am definitely a fan of the major explicitness on the back. I also like how she is curling her toes on the back like she is in ecstasy.
My major problem with the case is that her big toe looks broken on the front image. I think I would be glad that the cover is an extra 10 cm so I could cover that weird toe.
I was pretty surprised when I first saw the character designs for the Horizon series and found out that this was what they wear to school. Would that more anime series were as innovative in coming up with school uniforms as the Horizon series’ creator.
KIMI!!! The best female character in Horizon bar NONE!!! She’s fundamentally broken in terms of ability as well. I don’t think any other character has a deity which makes her immune to everything and that she powers up by simply being her!!
And despite the artwork being a bit too explicit, I find myself a little tempted, only cos it’s Kimi though.Really hope that volks don’t screw up their planned figure of her, but this is volks and it’s going to be Moekore+…
I think Kimi, Tomo and Futayo encompass the breast triumvirate. Thus, Futayo needs more love!!
Indeed! Kinda wish they’d spent a little more money animating her dance scene in the first season, though … I kinda think a follower of the god of eroticism should have a, well, more erotic dance.
I didn’t know that Volks is going to do a figure of Kimi but I will keep my hopes up, though guarded. Sasara is a really nice figure …. kinda lacking in terms of technical quality but she’s sculpted really well. Some of the older Volks Moekore figures I’ve got aren’t quite as nice.
I would definitely like to see a figure of Futayo. I wonder if Alter will do one? They seem to like making figures of secondary characters and for some reason, whenever I think of figures of characters with spears or polearms, I tend to think of Alter first (though this would not explain why Alter has yet to show off a figure of Judith from Tales of Vesperia … hmm …)
I know that Alter are doing an absurdly large figure of Kazuno (the maid android which showed up in the first few episodes) That’s something to look forward to and I specifically remember a banner at an event saying that Futayo was getting a figure. I just can’t remember which company said it…
If we are talking Futayo, there is Kotobukiya doing a dvd cover pose (I forget what volume from season one) and there is supposed to be a figma in the works as well.
I am chomping at the bit for these….
Ah, thanks for that. It’s great to hear that more companies are doing figures from the Horizon series; I was a bit disheartened to see that the first two figures of Horizon were strictly exclusives.
Yeah, it looks like a pretty cool figure. Nice that they added her asphalt swords, too; I remember seeing the promo artwork at Wonder Festival the other year and it didn’t show the swords, so I wasn’t expecting them.
That’s, uh, quite a nice birth canal she’s got there.
Indeed! Even better that we can admire it to our heart’s content.
Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere is a great anime, I was glad that I gave it a second chance.
At first it was so unusual to me that I dropped it after a few episodes. But together with the second season it developed into one of my favorite animes in recent time.
Kimi looks very nice at the front with her friendly face and the overall attractive look.
It’s cute how she lifts up one of her breasts, I would lend her a hand with pleasure.
Hehe the backside really explicit, well fully stretched it not that appealing I have to say
I hope there will be figures of this show at the upcoming Wonderfestival, most are only illustrations status.
It is! Though I still have to watch the second half. Along with a ton of other stuff. It started off pretty slow and I have to admit that the main reason I kept with it was because of the likeability of the characters, but it got a lot better once they started focusing on the Musashi Academy kids.
I really hope it gets more figures … it really deserves more figures, it’s a great show and the characters are both attractive in looks and appealing in personality. There’ve been some shows that I liked a lot that did not get a lot of figures (like Kampfer, Seikon no Qwaser [though I think Taki was one of its producers, and that might explain why most of its figures came from them], and Sora Kake Girl [still waiting on a figure of Itsuki, being that GSC was one of the show’s main sponsors]) and I hope Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere doesn’t suffer the same fate.
Hisashiburi! lol
Popping in to drop my 2 cents. The artwork is great but I feels the proportions of her legs are all wrong. Now I don’t know the character but just expected her legs to to be more plump. Makes her look disproportionate and throws me off.
Nice pick up either way.
I’m with you. The artwork’s lovely but it feels like there should be a lot more meat in her thighs, especially considering how pronounced her hips are.
Yeah, I would agree with that; I think that her legs could use a little more definition. It’s something I kinda notice amongst dakimakura cover illustrations; sometimes I wonder if artists elongate the legs a bit more than they otherwise would to fit the dimensions of the dakimakura cover.
very nice dakimakura, I immediately saw the well drawn feet, in contrast to many official dakimakuras, where the feet aren’t good looking, like too long toes.
and may I ask how you’re ordering the doujin dakimakuras? directly from their website? (sry for the dumb question, I’m new here :o)
Many of the ones I’ve got have come from the circles’ respective websites; most of them don’t ship overseas, so I order the products through a proxy service like Yokatta. A few of them do ship internationally, though, like BWStore (and its various affiliated circles) and Evening Call. This one, though, came from Mandarake, where I paid way too much money, partly because I ordered it right after Comiket when prices were still high, and partly because the dollar/yen exchange rate sucked back then. The third place to shop is Yahoo Japan Auctions, where you will also need to use a proxy service in most cases.
>> Shashin
Heh, yeah, that’s paladin #3 … I don’t really play that character anymore since one paladin is probably enough (and I actually have four paladins). I did kick off a death knight and uhh, man am I clueless about their mechanics. I pretty much spam everything that comes off cooldown. Particularly blood boil and the Gatorade attack. I don’t remember what it’s called but it looks like a cooler of Gatorade being dumped on the mob. I’m thinking maybe I should’ve given her a more normal skin complexion, though … I went with a really pasty white skin color and she looks really unhealthy.
If you’ve got an extra Glorious belt, I’d be interested in trading the legplates, but I’m pretty sure you are not playing on the same server that I am and I wouldn’t really recommend jumping servers back and forth, myself. However, if you really want them, I do think I have an extra set.
One paladin can definitely be enough, but it’s fairly fun to dual box them, I must admit. Heh, I feel you on Death Knights… dual-boxing them to 80 was the most absurd thing ever. About 95% of mobs would die in two global cooldowns, with a Howling Blast (x2) and Blood Boil (x2.) The other 5% would usually die with the third Blood Boil added to the mix, but there were some elites that were a bit heartier. Regardless, it made leveling to 80 with the pair an absolute joke; I’d just gather up as many mobs as my main toon could tank without dying, and then do the Howling Blast (possibly the spell you’re thinking of, but I’m not sure – my DKs are Frost) + Blood Boil combo. Blood Boil is just absurdly scaled in that level range, but it unfortunately loses much of its power once entering the Cataclysm zones. That’s when I actually had to sit down and learn what the other abilities I had did, because the 4-6k damage that Blood Boil hit for wasn’t enough to kill mobs anymore.
Heh, yeah, that’s what I meant about the logistics of it. I don’t really want to spend $25 (or $50 to transfer back) for the one item, but at this point it would probably be a better use of my resources than farming the island for hours on end. If you want to add me in game to discuss the possibility of a trade, it’s my Paypal email but at hotmail.
Yeah, a friend told me that blood boil isn’t covered by DK mastery, so he recommended I get used to using Obliterate instead. The problem with my DK, other than her skin complexion, which I might pay to alter, is that she’s running through Outland and I just did these zones on my priest, and I’ve got a ton of characters piled up at level 70 to 75 and I don’t really want to run the same content over again so soon.
I have no idea how this new cross-realm friend thing works, but you can send me a direct message or something and I’ll probably see it, unless I don’t get a notification, which seems to happen pretty often.
Outland is definitely a drag, even with the 3x experience that RAF provides. Leveling from 1-60 is really quick, with most levels taking about 3-10 quests if I remember correctly. Then things in Outland really slowed down, before picking back up again in Northrend. It’s still really quick; you can hit 70 in about 2.5 zones in Outland and 80 in about 1.5. That definitely allowed me to deal with the process 3 times, since I was able to skip zones that I had just done. I don’t think I’d be ready to do it right after the other if I had to more or less complete each continent.
It’s mostly thanks to the Real ID system, which is based off an email. It allows you to add them as a friend across all Blizzard games versus just specific character names, and thus you’re able to talk with someone even if they’re playing a different game or on a different server/faction. It does offer some pretty cool features when you are playing the same faction. A friend on a different server had invited to me to a party and I was told that I might temporarily “transfer” servers. I didn’t end up meeting up with him on the map, but we were able to instance together despite being in different battlegroups. I think had we met up on the map, that we might have been able to quest together, as well.
I actually kinda like Outland, particularly some of the longer chains, like the Cipher of Damnation and some of the obsolete attunement chains. The trouble is that in the last few months, I’ve leveled one paladin from scratch to 78, one priest to 73, and another paladin from 70 to 90, which means I’ve gone through Northrend twice and I’m about to go through it again on that priest. I’m seriously thinking I might just run my alts through instances instead.
Very nice. Kimi’s my favorite Horizon gal. Where did you get this? Any chance they have more in stock? I’ve never seen this one before! (I have a reproduction of the official and her head is disproportionately small.)
Uhh, dang, I missed answering this comment. I got it from Mandarake; I know they had several in stock earlier this year but I have no idea if they still do. I do remember that they did not seem to be selling all that well, though.
So Tier, were you able to find any images of this dakimakura before you bought it? I was curious to see some of this circles other work, but it seems like your pics of this daki are just about the only fullsize ones – censored or otherwise – that show up when searching for anko koubou/ã‚ã‚“ã“工房
I did, since I got this pillowcase shortly after it was released at Comiket and if I remember right, they had a picture up on their website. Their website is otherwise not too helpful, though, since I don’t think they keep old information on the page. Shashin (who comments here frequently) has a bunch of their pillowcases, so I can ask him if he has some pictures.