Preorder Outlook LIX

And it’s time for another preorder outlook. This list is shorter than I thought it would be, being that it’s been three months since the last post, but I really don’t mind considering that my bank account needs a break given the number of figures on my preorder list that are being released this month and next. I’m planning on photographing Olga Discordia in the next few days, just as soon as I can figure out where to put her, and I’d like to get some America-themed figures reviewed (perhaps Iowa and Ms. Marvel, amongst others) next weekend, being that it’s the Fourth of July holiday here in the United States. For now though, here’s a quick run-through of some of the figures I’ve got my eye on.

August 2019

Claire Victorious from God Eater 3
Bandai Namco’s hack-and-slash series God Eater has gained a good deal of popularity amongst both video game players and figure manufacturers, thanks in some part to its telegenic characters. However, despite being one of the main non-player characters of the most recently-released game in the series, Claire Victorious seems to not have attracted much attention if one goes by how much fanart she’s generated – a mere 57 posts on Pixiv at the time of this writing, compared to 1,825 posts for Alisa Illinichina Amiella, probably the series’ most popular character. That said, she’s got an attractive character design and she’s getting a figure release courtesy of Plum. Actually, she’s technically getting two releases – Amiami is selling a version where she is smiling but I’m going with the standard version instead.

October 2019

Oshiri-hime from Kanban Musume
This is the second figure to be announced in recent months from the artwork of Mataro (the first being Baseball Girl. With a name like Oshiri-hime – which, as I understand it, translates simply to “Ass Princess”, it’s pretty obvious what this figure’s selling point is. I’m not sure where the source illustration comes from; the preorder posts list her origin as an illustration series called “Kanban Musume” (that title, as someone who doesn’t really care for agile development methods, threatens to give me an ulcer) but I’ve seen this illustration in a doujinshi called Sex Symbols 2.

November 2019

Lily Ramses Futaba from Tentacle and Witches
Tentacle and Witches was a fun four-episode OVA that I enjoyed watching several years back (I’m sure the game was enjoyable as well). I’m happy to see series heroine Lily Futaba Ramses get a figure (as I generally am with all of Lilith’s properties; their games always have nice character designs). I’m even happier that this figure is 1/6 scale, which is a bit unexpected, even as figure sizes seem to be trending upwards a bit as of late. There are two versions of this figure, one where she is sitting on a tentacle and another where she is standing up; I’m getting the latter version, although the backside seems much less nice than on the other one.

December 2019

Shelly Aeonium from Caress of Venus
Following the trend of figure makers adapting artwork from long-tenured anime illustrators, Kalmia Project is producing this figure based off Houtengeki’s artwork. I’m very happy to see Houtengeki’s artwork being recognized this way, and I’m pretty sure I am going to order this figure, but I really hope that that leg is reinforced in some way so that the figure doesn’t topple over in a few years. (Some of the figures in my collection are over ten years old and are not in the greatest condition. Maybe I should do a post pointing out some of my figures that haven’t fared that well over the years.)

April 2020

Scathach from Fate/Grand Order
We skip from December 2019 all the way to April 2020 for the first bunnygirl on this list. Alter is doing a 1/7 scale version of Scathach but I’m going with FREEing’s version, which is obviously better because it is substantially larger. (Less flippantly, the Alter version does have some nicer attributes, such as where her legs connect to her hips; FREEing’s version is much less defined in this respect, and the Alter version seems to have a nicer face, though maybe their photographs are just better-lit. Regardless, I’m rolling with the bigger figure, though not without some reservations.)

May 2020

Erina Nakiri from Food Wars
I don’t know a thing about Food Wars, having not watched much of any anime for the last couple of years (it’s depressing how many anime adaptations there are of awful light novels and imbecilic wish-fulfillment fantasies of teenagers being transported into massively-multiplayer video game worlds). Therefore, I’m really only considering this figure because it looks very nice, with the cute thigh gap, the crossed arms and of course, the large bust, which is even highlighted by the product description.

Takao from Azur Lane
I have to admit that one of the major reasons why posts have been so sparse on this site over the last few months is due to Azur Lane; every day I do three hard mode maps, six daily training sorties, amd ten exercises, on top of whatever event may be going on. (I also played this mobile RPG called Epic Seven for a little while, after hearing that they were doing a crossover event with Arc Systems’s Guilty Gear characters, but the game wasn’t interesting enough to me to continue playing it. Regardless, it’s surprising and a little scary how much time and money mobile games can consume.) Therefore, it seems only fitting that I should attempt to resume figure reviewing by photographing figures from this series (I have Eldridge around here somewhere, waiting for her turn in the queue). Takao looks great, as one expects from an Alter figure, and I’m very much looking forward to both her and St. Louis, whenever they unveil her (perhaps at Wonder Festival in July?).

Reika Shimohira from Gantz:O
And lastly, the figure – or statue – that I am most looking forward to, Prime 1 Studio’s Reika Shimohira. It seems like Gantz:O has come up a lot in the figure world lately, and perhaps the best product of all will be this one. And well it should be, with a price tag of $599 (plus $120 to ship to the United States). As is typical, there are two versions of this statue, one with black panties and a smiling face, and this one, with white panties and a more determined face. Personally, I’d prefer to have a statue with black panties and this face, but I’m not crazy enough to buy two statues to make that happen. At least, I don’t think that I am.