Looking at my pile of unreviewed Asuka figures – and it’s a sizeable pile – I wondered how long it’s been since the last time I’ve written a review of one of her figures. I couldn’t imagine it’s been that long; I have so many of them. Perusing the archives, I find that the last Asuka review I’ve done was written … thirteen years ago. I’m more than a little amazed and aghast that it’s been that long but I suppose there’s no time like now to rectify that. Accordingly, we’ll take a look at this figure of Asuka, which shows her as she appeared in the final Evangelion film. After so many figures depicting her in her iconic red plugsuit, the white suit is still a little jarring to me, but it can’t be denied that she fills it out just as well.
Asuka is manufactured by Kotobukiya and was released in January 2022. She is sculpted in 1/6 scale and is about 23.5 centimeters in overall height. She’s comes out of the box fully assembled and ready for display.
At least to me, the most eye-catching feature of this figure is Asuka’s white plugsuit. Normally this is Rei Ayanami’s color but it looks good on Asuka. Red strips around her shoulders and chest recall Asuka’s original uniform color.
An obvious corollary to this aspect is how closely her plugsuit hugs her body. Asuka’s outfit is all but vacuum-sealed to her body, showing every contour of her physique. The sculpting is particularly commendable in this regard.
This particularly holds true for her backside, which is modeled with admirable care.
Asuka’s pose is an element that is also quite attractive. Asuka’s back is strongly arched, emphasizing the curves of her body.
Asuka includes a feature that Kotobukiya incorporates into a lot of their figures that I don’t care for: her hair is translucent, fading in color towards the ends. It doesn’t look bad I guess, but I prefer solid-colored hair.
Kotobukiya has released several figures of Asuka in this theme, where she’s perched above a stone statue featuring an Evangelion unit’s head. In this one, Asuka’s expression is pensive and distant, gazing upwards with her lips parted. The Asuka I’m most familiar with is the one from the television shows, where she was tempestuous, willful, and emotive, and so this calm expression is a little foreign to me, though I haven’t seen the films and perhaps her personality is different there.
This is a superb figure of Asuka; in fact, it might be my favorite figure of Asuka in my collection. I love the sculpt and the size, being that I’m always partial to larger figures. Asuka’s plugsuit looks great and her pose is very striking. Seeing this figure makes me think I ought to review the other versions of Asuka from Kotobukiya, and I think I will.
Quite a striking figure, and nicely photographed. I agree with you that the facial expression seems out of character for Asuka, though I do vaguely recall that at various times in the movies I saw that she was both older and more serious, so perhaps that is the result. (Still aren’t keen on the movies elevated New Girl Mari to such a prominent role over Asuka and Rei, but I suppose the writers got bored telling the same story, so some change and the need to sell an additional set of character goods besides different colored plug suits made it inevitable.)
Yeah, the hair looks good from the front but a bit odd from the back. Asuka also never struck me as having translucent hair tips… But, again, it’s a nice figure in many respects! And I enjoy seeing more figures from anime (which I watch) as opposed to games (which I’m less familiar with…).
I still haven’t seen the films and while I don’t know much about Mari (other than that she likes sniffing things, I think? I think I remember hearing something like that about her), I have a hard time thinking of her as one of the main Eva characters. It’s telling that I’ve only ever bought two of her figures and I don’t display either, but maybe I’ll like her better after I watch the movies. Unfortunately a lot of the figures I’ve photographed recently are from video games, especially gacha games, or are either original figures or are based on artwork, but I’ll see what sort of figures I can photograph that come from anime series.
I like this figure a lot. I think there is a total of three or four Asuka figures with the stone eva below. I have to say my favorite one is the one were she is holding a helmet (which tends to fall easily) and probably has the best behind of them all. This one is very nice indeed, the white plug suit, is just perfect. Are you going to review the Mari figure of the same type?
I think I know which one you’re talking about; it’s the one with her wearing her standard plugsuit but with an eyepatch, if I remember right. I have it here somewhere but I’ve never reviewed it, and I think I should since it’s one of my favorite ones too. Unfortunately I don’t have the Mari figure; the one Mari figure I still need to review is the one based on Shunya Yamashita’s artwork, so it’s a very different sort of figure.