We’ll take a break from the sci-fi bodysuits and turn instead to everyone’s favorite figure type: ero figures. This particular figure is named Yuki; she’s a character from the ero-manga Maid Bride, which can claim the impressive feat of having spawned three figures from just the artwork on its dust jacket. I’m a big fan of the artist, as are a lot of people, so it’s great to see more of his art getting the 3D treatment; let’s take a look at how this figure turned out.
Maid Bride is a compilation of several stories illustrated by Kizuki Aruchu, perhaps better known for his work with the doujinshi circle Udon-ya. The main story of Maid Bride centers on Akira Midorikawa, the titular maid whose search for a new home and a new master takes up the bulk of the book. There are also a few shorter, self-contained stories, including “Variable Maid,” whose lead girl got a figure from Daiki Kougyou (which I’ve had sitting in my closet, unopened, for over two years now), and “Otaku in Summer,” which is where Yuki comes from.
Yuki is a shut-in girl who spends her days in her darkened bedroom, playing eroge and otherwise letting life pass her by. One day, her brother bribes her to go to the beach, and after some fun frolicking in the ocean, they, as is fashionable amongst anime siblings these days, end their holiday by fornicating furiously. It’s the sort of story that can exist only in the male imagination, but it’s pretty cute nonetheless.
This figure is made by Orchid Seed in 1/7 scale. Standing (or sitting, as it were) at about 12.5 centimeters in height, it’s a little larger than I thought it would be; I’ve had a few Orchid Seed figures that turned out smaller than expected, so Yuki’s size is a nice surprise. She comes with several accessories, including a set of exposed breasts, which are completely visible within the box and are sure to give a thrill to customers and customs inspectors alike. She also comes with a rather ugly transparent blue base, which she obviously doesn’t need to stay upright.
The artwork that this figure is based off shows Yuki sitting down, looking out into space with a relatively blank expression on her face. The main draw of the image is her sizeable ass, which is no surprise since the illustration is intended to sell volumes of H-manga.
However, in my view at least, the main draw of a figure is its face, and so there’s some conflict there. The figure doesn’t actually work as well when turned to match the artwork because her face is not turned as much to the side; you can hardly see her expression from that angle.
From the front, her expression is more visible but remains unreadable; mouth agape, she’s evidently looking at something but it’s hard to tell what she’s feeling. The open mouth seems to suggest embarrasment but the narrowed eyes do not convey distress. Another interpretation might be that she’s sleepy. Or maybe she’s being hypnotized.
On one hand, the seemingly incongruous expression is pretty neat, considering her unusual situation; on the other hand, something about her vacant store and slack-jawed mouth looks odd. Of course, there was no possibility for Orchid Seed to go any other way, given that this is the way the illustration presents her, but it makes me wonder why fidelity to artwork is prized so highly by figure companies.
Yuki comes with a few accessories, including a pair of black shorts that can be placed around her leg. An instruction sheet is included, and I was surprised to see that an English translation is provided. Considering that it seemed like Orchid Seed didn’t care about international customers following the whole Amiami thing earlier this year, it’s good to see them taking a friendlier stance towards English-speaking collectors. I attempted to put the shorts on her leg but then I noticed it was scraping paint onto her skin, and I then decided not to bother. I didn’t buy this figure for her shorts, anyway.
Yuki has an interesting castoff method. Her breasts are a separate piece that attaches to her torso, and then a separate shirt piece fits around them so that it looks like a pulled-up T-shirt. It actually works pretty well but it does mean that there’s no way to show her off fully nude.
Making her shirt removable means that it doesn’t cling that closely to her body and so it looks a little strange, as if someone specifically and carefully wetted down just her breasts. Granted, that’s the way the artwork looks but again, it’s another instance of where something that works in the art doesn’t work as well with a figure.
But then, I didn’t buy this figure to have her covered up by a shirt, either. She looks great with her shirt lifted up; she has a really nice chest with impressive volume and pointy nipples. The rest of her body is nicely-shaped too, except for her lower legs, which look peculiarly tiny compared to her thick thighs.
Her backside is particularly nice. Female anime characters are sometimes lacking in this respect, which is really a shame, but there is no cause for complaint regarding Yuki’s rear.
Bravo to Orchid Seed for giving her a realistically-sculpted anus, too. You’ll never be able to see it under normal viewing conditions, of course, but it’s nice to know that it’s there.
This figure does deviate from the artwork in one respect: no headphone cord is provided. Regardless, her headphones do look quite realistic; they even have right and left markers on them.
Yuki is an interesting figure. It’s based off of artwork by a well-known artist, but without knowing that you probably wouldn’t be able to guess whose artwork it comes from. It remains mostly faithful to the artwork but a slight change to the position of her head makes it so that you can’t actually mimic the pose in the illustration. But I think it’s still a good-looking figure; she’s quite pretty, and the ero quotient is high. She may not be as good as she could have been with a little more imagination and a freer hand, but I suppose them’s the breaks when trying to adapt a character that only has one color illustration. At any rate, I like the figure and it’s good to see Orchid Seed rolling out the figures that they’ve hinted at during Wonder Festivals in previous years.
Another review of Yuki is available at Reflective Boundary.
I also have Yuki, and I quite like her. I even purchased the manga because of her. Needless to say, I didn’t understand a word, and I’m surprised to hear that it’s her brother who takes care of her. I would have assumed it was her boyfriend judging by the way they got it on, but having been a figure collector for two years now and having heard a thing or two about what’s going on in anime these days, I guess I’m not surprised by anything anymore.
While I appreciate 3D figures that are sculpted after 2D art, I have no problem if sculptors take their liberties when interpreting the source art. That’s why I hadn’t noticed the “wrongly” angled head before. Her facial expression is indeed somewhat blank, but if the sculptors had decided on any other expression, most collectors would have come down on them like thunder and lighning.
Both display options are rather nice, but the wet t-shirt is too yellowish for my taste. I know it’s supposed to be her skin shining through the wet fabric, but in my eyes it should be a bit more rosy instead of yellow. So I thnik I have to display her with her boobs out…
I had already read about the paint transfer issue, so I didn’t bother to take the shorts and panties out of the box. In my humble opinion they don’t add to or take from the figure, so they can be left off just as well.
Yeah, it’s hard to be too shocked by incest now. It used to be that a lot of shows, manga, and visual novels would tiptoe around the taboo by making the characters step-siblings rather than blood-related, but it seems a lot of them don’t even bother with that anymore. (It is kinda amusing to watch the reactions of people who aren’t into anime, when they hear about stuff like this. The level of disbelief they often show can be hilarious.)
It does seem like some collectors also place a high value on faithfulness to a source illustration. I guess I would too, if I really liked the illustration. That said, if the choice were between a faithful interpretation or an improved figure, I’d really rather have the latter.
Yeah, the yellowish tint looked odd to me, too; it looked more like spilled paint than cotton-covered flesh, so I’m using the bare boobs option, too. But then, even if the wet shirt were more realistic, I would’ve used the bare boobs anyway.
Great shots! I love every aspect of this figure except the huge gaps where the arms connect to the shoulders. I’m slightly disappointed by Orchid Seed about this because I thought they are experienced in how to make castoff figures and hide these joints invisible. Generally I can understand that figures get slightly different pose than the original artwork, figures can be looked at from all different angles after all. I’ve noticed in some figures the sculptors adjust the pose so that you look into the eyes of the character while at the same level rather than from a higher/lower angle as in the artwork.
Make sure that the parts of her shirt that are supposed to go into the grooves below her armpits (see pic #9) do fit properly in there. if they do, the arms should slide right into her shoulders, leaving only minimal gaps.
Yeah, it can be a bit tricky to get the arms placed; I think I found the right arm to fit a little more loosely but that was okay with me, since it’s the arm that will typically be facing away. I would’ve liked it if they’d made more changes to this figure, personally; I don’t think the illustration they used lends itself all that well to a 3D adaptation.
Great pictures as always, love the realistic detailing. I expect no less than greatness from OrchidSeed.
Thanks! I was surprised when I looked through my old posts and found that this is the first Orchid Seed figure I’ve photographed in over two years. (I do have a couple more of their figures sitting in the closet, unphotographed, though.)
Actually, given the way her right hand is positioned, it looks like this is her O-face after a period of…. personal enjoyment, shall we say.
Kinda curious, did you pick up Gamer Girl, by Native? She’s based off of art by the same artist, and personally I do think she’s superior to Yuki, despite the price tag attached.
That could be the case, especially since the manga has just such a scene. If it were up to me, I would’ve been okay with a little more definite evidence, like a saliva trail coming from her mouth, or maybe some liquid discharge … the next figure I plan to photograph actually has just that, I think, so I don’t think that’s too much to ask for …
Yeah, I did; I need to ask the proxy service I used if they’ve gotten the parcel, since I understand Native has released her already. I haven’t seen the figure in person, of course, but I’d agree; she looks like a much superior figure to me, and I think she’s also more recognizable as being from Udon-ya’s artwork than Yuki (or Daiki Kougyou’s Tsuneko).
Gamer Girl has been released for over a week now, I think. I have her right in front of me, picked her up last Saturday, thought I had to fast through the weekend, due to me blowing most of my budget on her. So completely worth it.
My proxy service said they just got her, so I guess I should get mine in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to getting her, though I guess I’m not in a huge hurry since I’ve got a ton of figures piled up here … it’s like all the manufacturers decided to release everything at the end of November and December.
Thanks for explaining her undecipherable facial expression. One less mystery of humanity solved!
I love ecchi figures, but Im actually not as nonchalant as you when the figure touches herself.
So I nearly missed this figure, but Hobbylink Japan had one copy for me, shortly after release.
Her face is just lovely, with the blush it’s really appealing. For some reason the vanilla colored hair gives her something sweet and innocent( not sure about the last word ^^) Her somehow airheaded expression can also be seen as if Yuki is concentrated in her action with a little moaning or heavy breathing.
The pose is partially the reason why her butt appears so big, but it is balanced by a huge rack, these boobs looks really nice. I guess she looks better with exposed boobs.
I think the pictures turned out really good.
In the first shooting with her I didn’t pay enough attention to closing the gaps properly, what ended in a “disaster”, well I have to redo XD I feel so sillly when forgettings these details.
I like it better when figures touch each other! I’ve got the C:Mo Rei Ayanami here (the 1/8 scale poseable figure from Yamato/Arcadia) and I’ve been thinking of reviewing it but I know all I would do is pose her in lewd poses and have other figures feel her up and stuff.
Yeah, the expression works better if you focus on the onanistic aspects, which makes this figure even hotter. I didn’t actually think too much about it when I was taking the pictures, but if I had noticed it, I would’ve done the pictures a little differently, I think. I’ll have to file that idea away in my brain for another time.
I took fifty pictures of Yuki and while looking at the last one, I saw this little fluffy white thing while reviewing the pictures on the camera LCD and was like, “WTF is that?” Then I noticed there was this little foam piece squished into her hair, to protect it. It always really sucks when that happens and it’s happened to me more times than I want to remember.
i’m a sucker for headphone chicks (except Sonico). Which is why i also ordered Gamer Girl along with Yuki. Wished they had a more “decent” display option though. I’ve placed Yuki on the high shelf so she ain’t too prominent among the whole platoon of other figures.
Gosh I had first-hand crayon-drawing experience within the five seconds of attempting to assemble some (however minor) level of modesty with her shorts. Took me a long time to wash off the stinking paint mark. This is undisputedly the longest time ever spent rubbing the thigh of a pvc figure with such intensity; I can just imagine how I appear to an outsider doing this…
Headphones are definitely a neat accessory. I’m kinda surprised there weren’t lots more figures of Mio Akiyama with headphones on. (I’m also kinda disappointed that there aren’t any anime girls who wear Sennheiser phones.)
Yeah, I was pretty peeved when I saw that happen; given that the nature of the shorts means that there’s going to be friction between them and the leg, I think they ought to have done a better job of sealing in the paint. Fortunately I haven’t seen this sort of thing happen with many other figures; I can’t think of another one off the top of my head, actually.
Think it would be necessary to apply some enamel along the edges one fine day…