The harem high school comedy is a staple of contemporary anime. To Love-Ru is representative of the genre and, judging by its three seasons of shows, is one of the most popular examples of the type. However, despite its success – and its expansive and attractive female cast – it hasn’t gotten a lot of figures. The few that it has gotten come from a variety of manufacturers, several of them being rather less well-known. Such is the case with this figure of Mikan Yuuki; let’s take a look at it.
To Love-Ru was originally created as a manga by Saki Hasemi and Kentarou Yabuki; an anime adaptation soon followed. It is normative rather than innovative, never straying too far from the familiar conventions of its genre. Like most such shows, the male protagonist is a well-meaning guy who goes into a seizure when exposed to tits, and its female cast includes the usual array of character tropes: there’s the tsundere, yandere, little sister, airhead, seductress, and longtime friend, among others. And of course, pretty much every show has the protagonist doing perverted things, generally by accident and invariably at the expense of one or more of the female characters’ dignity.
That said, from what I’ve seen of To Love-Ru Darkness, it’s a fun show and there’s nothing too objectionable about it, unless one disapproves of the unabashed nudity and sexual innuendo. My biggest beef with it is the same problem I have with all harem shows, which is that many of the jokes are stale and recycled and the constant buildup without payoff gets tiresome. However, the characters are quite likeable – I don’t think I dislike any of the principal characters, which is sort of rare – and the designs, of course, are very appealing.
Of all the characters in the show, Mikan is one of my favorites. I tend to like the quiet, mature, duty-minded characters, and that’s basically what Mikan is. She makes for a distinctive foil compared to the show’s wackier characters. It also helps that she stars in some very nice doujinshi.
This figure is by a company called Art Spirits, whom I have never heard of and have no idea if they’ve ever produced anything prior. It’s a 1/8 scale figure, but it’s rather small; counting the sprig of hair sprouting from her head, she’s about 17 centimeters tall. Then again, she’s only supposed to be twelve years old so this figure might not be that undersized.
I don’t typically like talking about manufacturing quality or paint application or whatever, but this is the first Art Spirits figure that I’ve seen and so that’s a logical place to start. In a word, the quality of this figure is mediocre; there are paint specks all over the place and my figure has some small but noticeable scratches and smudge marks, particularly right on her blouse’s left breast. There are some questionable design decisions, the most obvious of which is the big-ass crack where her blouse separates for removal. Mikan’s pose and the position of her head basically dictates that her left side is going to be visible, so I don’t know why they didn’t place the seam on the other side instead.
There’s another seam along the inside of her left leg, though it’s not noticeable if viewing from the most typical angle. Also, her clothing looks a bit bulky, and the re-attachment system of her blouse – composed of three pegs which slot into holes along the facing edge – doesn’t fit tightly, and it’s also a real pain to get the middle peg properly inserted.
Fortunately, one need not bother, since Mikan’s clothes can be removed. No instruction sheet is provided, but the castoff system will be familiar to many figure collectors; her head detaches from her neck, her torso detaches directly above the waistband of her panties, and both arms detach from her shoulders, with the seams merged with the straps of her bra. It does take a bit of force to get her arms off, even though the seam lines could have been a bit tighter; as they are, they are more noticeable than one would prefer.
Without her clothes, some of the aforementioned problems become irrelevant. The more prominent issues on my particular figure include paint flecks on her left shoulder, but this is a lot less noticeable in person than in an up-close photograph.
Mikan is really quite cute, with an attractive, winning smile and a prominent feeling of exuberance. Her playful pose is lively and appealing, complemented nicely by her messy, tousled hair. I noticed just recently that Alter is making a figure of Mikan, and while I’m sure it’s going to be vastly superior in terms of production quality, their figure has her literally just lying down. I think I prefer this sort of pose instead; I almost always prefer figures that are standing up and Mikan’s breezy, lighthearted pose really give this figure a nice touch.
This is a twelve year-old?
Her panties are also cute, being not too revealing but not too conservative, either.
Although both arms detach, they do fit together reasonably well when the figure is re-assembled.
Overall, the manufacturing quality of this figure doesn’t impress but Mikan’s carefree pose and her infectious happiness go a long way in compensating for the technical deficiencies. The lean of her body, the tilt of her head, and the positioning of her arms all work well when integrated together. This is by no means a great figure, but if one is looking for a figure of Mikan – particularly one that is standing up – there isn’t much else to choose from. It’s a nice figure, though probably one that’s best purchased from the bargain bin, assuming it gets there.
She is pretty, but typical failures of a castoffable figure; it seems effort is never put in to the clothes.
I enjoyed TLR:D far more than the earlier seasons, specifically because there was far less Lala. All the other girls are fine, but Lala is insufferably stupid. I’m fine with mindless fanservice and no real story, but annoying characters are always annoying.
I did notice that Lala didn’t seem to be featured as much as her sisters. I don’t know too much about her but I can already get a sense of her personality. Sometimes I like the airhead characters but other times, as you say, it gets really old. Hakufu in Ikkitousen, for example, was never amongst my favorite characters since she is so brainless (though my impression of her is influenced by the English translation, which took enormous liberties in the adaptation).
I knew from the minute that this figure went up for preorder, whether I purchased it would depend entirely on what’s underneath her terrible clothing; the seam was incredibly noticeable and ugly, even in the best of her promo shots. There was no way she wouldn’t be a cast off, it was just a matter of what she would be wearing underneath. I’m really happy that I held off from ordering her, since the manufacturer never published any cast off shots, I figured she had to be wearing underwear. Considering what I presumed would be the overall quality of the figure, I wasn’t going to purchase her unless her bra was removable at the very least. Sadly, that didn’t appear to be the case after the first review came out, so I definitely knew that I wouldn’t be picking her up unless she hit the bargain bin. She’s still fairly cute, though.
I thought it was really weird that they held back from issuing any castoff shots, being that it was blatantly obvious that her clothes were removable. I’m not sure if they were trying to stay classy or if there were being cautious regarding legality, but I would think that their main goal should be selling figures, and playing coy doesn’t do that.
To Love Ru was really funny, even though I haven’t watched Darkness yet, the gifs I’ve seen of it were rather “extreme” for a silly, ecchi comedy. Harem is doomed to never end with a conclusion and this sucks big time. As this show started I was totally rooting for Sairenji, but after all the other girls got introduced, I didn’t do it anymore, I feel still bad about it, a bit.
I stayed away from harem anime lately, but for whatever reason IS 2 is fun so far, mainly because of the cute Yuri vibes between Charles and Laura from the beginning, I don’t need this maincharacter at all with such a likeable female cast.
Mikan is twelve and Rito does this and that to her, what the heck? XD
The face of ths figure is great, sparkling eyes and a sweet open mouth with upper front teeth line, I really like that ^_^
Figures don’t need to be always perfect, as long as the face is as nice as in this case, they will find pleased buyers. This Mikan also seems to have a nice pose and overall appearance, more appealing in underwear, but ok, it doesn’t seems so bad with clothes though. Was this a full price figure?
I haven’t watched anything from this current season, though I might still take a look at Infinite Stratos. I’m not expecting much from it, though, nor am I thinking that Freezing Vibration is going to be good, but hopefully they’ll minimize the lead dude, too.
I agree, I generally don’t pay a ton of attention to the technical stuff, unless it’s so obvious that it can’t be missed. That’s also one reason why I don’t really spend any time reading the user comments at Tsuki-board, since a lot of the discussion seems to focus on manufacturing quality and that’s just not something I care much about.
Yeah, I picked it up at full price. To be honest, I don’t even remember what the price was but it was probably too much. I really wouldn’t be surprised to see this figure under 4000 yen really soon.
One name……..Rin Shin is involved in the animation.
Figure is very cute………….same level as Megahouse? What about Orchidseed?
Hmmm … nah, no way, it’s well below both of those. Well, maybe not below all of Orchid Seed’s stuff, I have a few Orchid Seed figures (like their old Mikuru Asahina and that one Tayutama Kiss on my Deity girl whose name I’m blanking out on right now) that aren’t all that impressive and this figure shares some of its faults. It does, however, have its own charms.
Do your foot pegs fit tightly? Everybody’s complaining (including me) that the rear is too lose and she ultimately leans over. And yes I felt that the job of sculpting the body pose and making the clothes were handled by two different people who did not communicate regularly.
Anyway, technically she certainly does not exhibit polished quality but on the other hand is one of the most warm and charming poses in my collection.
Hmm, nope, they do not. Hopefully it doesn’t become a serious problem; it should help that she’s fairly light.
I agree; it’s not a great figure or anything but she still looks really attractive. She’s one of those figures that makes me smile when I look at her, and I think that’s more important than any technical criteria.
I’ve got the figure standing on my desk here as well, and though she isn’t the greatest, I can’t help but feel a certain fondness for her. Maybe I should’ve picked her up a bit cheaper (full price here as well) but eh, it beats scouring Mandarake yet again. Because despite the ugly seams (why aren’t they on the other side, whyyyy) and some other issues (leg peg), they do perfectly capture Mikan – her face is really well done, in my opinion. Not to mention her pose is at least a bit dynamic, moreso than most of Art Spirits’ other work. So, y’know, I don’t regret getting her. Cast-off is nice too, if a bit of a pain in the ass to set up. Cute underwear, cameltoe, and she looks pretty developed. And now I feel like a perv. Oh well.
I guess it helps that I just like Mikan as well. She’s probably one of the funniest characters, given her sarcastic quips, and it’s no wonder she’s one of the series most popular characters. You summed up the show pretty well too – while it has some typical flaws of the genre as a whole, it has a fun cast and it never fails to keep me amused. Course, the fact that it has one of the highest doujinshi ratio amongst it also helps. I do wonder why there’s never been any nudity cast-offs though, you wouldn’t be seeing anything you haven’t seen before if you have been reading/watching Darkness.
Might go for the Alter one too, as a rare exception from my ‘one figure per character’ rule. Her pose might be boring, but the art she’s based upon looks pretty awesome, so I’m interested to see how the figure will turn out.
Yeah, I feel the same way; of course, some part of that (probably a big part) is that there isn’t really any other option if you want a scale-size Mikan figure. But she’s a figure I enjoy looking at and that’s really the main thing I’m concerned with when I consider a figure.
To Love-Ru is a nicely-executed example of the genre, so even with its banality, I don’t mind watching it (though I’m very much behind, I’ve only seen the first few episodes of Darkness). That’s in contrast to shows like Infinite Stratos, of which I haven’t seen any of the second season but from what I’ve heard, it sounds kinda awful, or Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride, which I know is awful. One can probably come up with many more terrible harem shows than good shows, I think.
I might go with the Alter one as well, even though I don’t really like figures that are laying down, particularly since I have no place to put them. I know it’s going to look good though, since it’s Alter. (And I guess it’s going to be late, too.)
they nailed her pose and face really well, but the somewhat miss on the qc aspect. Despite of this, I think she’s a nice fig to stare at, especially on her undies.