We’ll take a short respite from reviewing hentai figures and instead look at this figure of Black Heart – not the demonic villain from the Marvel Comics universe, but the Sony-themed goddess from the Hyperdimension Neptune video game franchise. Compile Heart and parent company Idea Factory have made a number of anime-themed RPGs, most of which have languished in obscurity, but they hit it big with the Neptune series, which has since spawned numerous games, a mediocre television anime, but surprisingly few figures, meaning that any time we get to look at a figure from this series is a special moment.
Black Heart is the alter ego of Noire, one of the central characters of the Neptune series. She is the personification of the Sony PlayStation console and is unsurprisingly amongst the most popular characters of the series. She has even starred in her own spinoff game, which debuted on the PS Vita and was later ported to PC.
The original Neptune game was generally panned for its frustrating game mechanics but the series has survived that criticism, and I suppose that is also unsurprising as the main draw of the series is not found in its gameplay but in its quirky and deliberately self-conscious sense of humor, its appealing, scantily-clad all-female cast, and a shamelessly unrepentant commitment to providing a prodigious portion of fanservice to its players. Strangely, though I feel like the Neptune series is something I should have gotten into, I’ve never played the games, even though I own the first three games (and then bought the remake of the first game on Steam). I’ll admit that a major reason for this circumstance is that although I’m as much a sucker for fanservice as any anime fan – this website is ample evidence of that – I really don’t have the inclination to spend so much time playing unremarkable games. That said, I am fond of the character designs. I hope that Green Heart will get a figure someday, as I’m something of an Xbox fanboy and more significantly, she has the largest and best rack of any of the original characters.
This figure is manufactured by Alter in 1/7 scale. Counting the wings, this figure is about 30 centimeters in total height. Somewhat unusually for an Alter figure, Black Heart has two detachable right hands, one holding a sword and one clenched in a fist.
It’s fairly plain that Black Heart is a high-quality, good-looking figure, as most Alter products are, but the initial impression after unboxing her is a profoundly negative one as she has a profoundly irritating assembly procedure. Four of her wing blades slot into notches in her hair, which is a bizarre way to do things, but the real trouble stems from the difficulty in getting those wings securely placed, which I was not quite able to do; just getting them slightly inserted requires a great deal of force both on the wing and on the figure’s hair, and more than once I found myself hoping that I wouldn’t snap either.
Moving past that, she is a very nice figure. She is reminiscent of a number of older Alter mecha girl and magical girl figures, such as Shin Sonic Fate and Exelica with her energetic midair pose, aggressive expression, and complex design.
The Neptune series is noted for embracing fanservice, and Black Heart’s costume is in keeping with this philosophy. She wears a leotard with a prominent cutout that displays her cleavage, thigh-high boots, and a pair of long gloves that end in talons. While sexy, her costume isn’t quite as revealing as it could be; I’d like a higher leg cut, personally.
As is typical for a mecha girl, she comes with a constellation of machinery that sprouts out of her body, her outfit, and orbits around her. They do a nice job of providing a hard, mechanical contrast to her lithe, half-exposed body. One odd thing I noticed is that the left antenna-like thing that emerges from her head doesn’t quite fit in all the way, although its right-side counterpart does. I’m not sure why that is but it bothers me more than it probably should.
Her wings do look nice as well, adding a touch of color to what is an otherwise monochrome design.
Alter did a nice job with her eyes, which feature power symbol-shaped pupils.
Black Heart comes with two right hands, one holding her gigantic sword and one clenched into a fist. Without the sword, the balance of interest is wholly centered on the figure, and I think I prefer to display her this way. This mode also doesn’t take up nearly as much valuable shelf space.
I like that Noire has a fairly serious expression here. That’s a fairly common thing for Alter and I haven’t really thought about it, but perhaps that’s another reason why I like their products so much; they’ve made figures from series like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls and while those shows are generally happy-spirited and lighthearted, their figures generally evince a sense of determination and solemnity rather than the gleeful open-mouthed smile that a different manufacturer might go with.
The paintwork is superb, which should come as no surprise. The metallic accents of Black Heart’s leotard are a particularly nice touch, but every technical aspect of this figure impresses.
That is, except for the required assembly, but aside from that, this is an exceptional figure. It’s in keeping with Alter’s history of producing ambitious and dynamic action girl figures, and it’s nice to see that they can still make figures like this, after having recently produced quite a few figures that look rather staid in comparison. It’s a great figure of a character with a lovely design. Hopefully they do Green Heart someday, too.
Lovely figure; pity about all the armaments and attachments which make the whole look far too busy and distracts from the centrepiece.
I’d prefer a cleaner silhouette myself. Otherwise, a top notch buy.
Yeah, as neat as the sword is, I kinda prefer her without it, and not just because she takes up so much less space that way. I might also toss those two odd semi-oval things floating alongside her back in the box, too; I’m not sure what they are and they are, as you say, kinda distracting.
Nice review. You know, it never occurred to me that the Neptunia CPUs were supposed to represent specific consoles. Dunno how I missed that, but I see the resemblances now that you point it out. I had a similar experience with the assembly of Black Heart. Total pain in the ass. I think I managed to get three of the four wings fairly secure, but one of them (the most difficult one to reach) is barely hanging on. I also had difficulty getting the sword hand to stay in place. She’s definitely a nice figure once you get past all that, but I think Alter could have done a little more user experience testing or something.
I think that console gimmick was sort of the hook that caused the game to be reasonably successful. I wonder why anthropomorphic personification-based properties are so successful? As much as I whined about the assembly being a pain in the ass, the wings do seem reasonably secure, even though I didn’t insert them very well, since I’ve been moving the figure around while I decide where I’m going to display her, and nothing has fallen off yet, which is very surprising to me.
Stunning figure!! Amazing details, i love those wing like things on her back, she’s very beautiful and the photos are fantastic as usual.
Thanks very much XD She really is a nice figure, I might’ve thought about her when I put together my favorite figures list last year had I reviewed her earlier.
Somehow this game never appeared before my eyes, well partially it did I guess. It already has so many titles, I would be playing all eternity XD
I watched half of the anime during last years vacation, well it was mediocre storywise,
but I think the characters were presented good enough.
Weird setting with humans as consoles and their little sisters as handhelds, but the characters were at least designed in an attractive way.
So yeah Black Heart is a cool looking figure, I liked her in the anime the most, next to Compa ^^
Black has a elaborate battle form and the bodysuit is just sexy. I was very interested in this figure and nearly ordered one. In the end I would have prefered a more sweet expression. The expression she has makes her appearance a little younger compared to what I remember.
All in all, she looks impressive anyway, nice details and articulation of her pose. Oh and I love these pupils.
If parts won’t fit or look fragile I just don’t put them on the figure,
well with swimsuit figures I’m not very often in such situations lol.
Yes Vert / Green Heart is a pretty girl, too (´ ▽｀).。ï½â™¡
It was a peculiar setting – though in my opinion, World War II-era warships turning into anime girls is far stranger XD Actually, most of these personifications are really odd, which I suppose is one reason they have so much appeal.
I don’t know if or when I’ll ever play the games but I’m sure I’d like this character as from what I can tell, she’s somewhat of a baseline character, which I guess would make sense as the PlayStation is sort of the baseline console that is strong in all areas. I kinda wonder if they’ll give Vert a little sister in the form of a Surface personification; it’s the obvious choice and the character might appeal to all the flat-chest fans, since that’s the logical design approach for such a character.
It is neat that Alter made a figure like this; they haven’t done as many of these complex-looking figures as they used to. I kinda miss all the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha figures that they used to produce; I didn’t buy a lot of them but they were always interesting to look at.
Really cool design! I like these kinds of mecha musume figures. She ticks all the boxes: wings, floaty things, big weapon.
I miss the days when Alter did these sorts of figures more often. It feels very odd that I’m much more excited by Kotobukiya and SkyTube figures than anything that Alter has on the schedule.
Fantastic figure. Your posts always make me regret not buying these figures. Black bodysuit looks so sexy and she definitely has great thighs and butts. Sci-fi style wings and weapons made it similar as Alter’s Nanoha series but tight bodysuit and leggings absolutely made her way more sexier than any of the Nanoha characters. The hair looks beautiful and you’re right the way some of the wing pieces get into the hair does look weird. I would imagine the wings are something like plasma blades and isn’t that gonna cut or burn her hair hahahah
Alter is also planning for Purple Heart and that should make a nice yuri pair with this one.
Thanks XD Yeah, as much as I liked the Nanoha figures, most of them were lacking in sex appeal and that’s why I didn’t buy many of them. Fate was the main exception and that’s a big reason why I have so many figures of her.
I’m looking forward to Purple Heart; I had thought about buying the Wing version but it was pretty spendy. Sometimes I still kinda regret not picking it up when I had the chance, though.
Power button eyes turn me on.
Yes, the world needs a good Vert. I played a bit of the games and she’s an enjoyable, albeit implausible, mashup of archetypes. Great character designs all but I had always presumed I’d start with Vert and complete the harem from there. That plan is undone as the already released Neptunia figures seem to have come and gone (though a compelling new Purple Heart appears to be in the works) but perhaps I can pick this little lass up sometime if I manage to catch her for a decent price.
Oh and RanRan….gotta have a RanRan figure.
I should play through the games sometime, at least the remake of the first one since I went ahead and bought it. Yeah, I’m not really expecting too many more, either, aside from the Neptune one that Alter’s shown off. I kinda thought that there would be more, though, since the Neptune series seems like it exists mostly for fanservice exploitation.