Here we have a figure from Amagami SS, a school romance show featuring a male lead who sleeps in a closet. Ordinarily, I’d rather have nothing to do with a harem-based school romance show, given how bad Princess Lover! was and how bad Mayo Chiki! is looking to be, but one guess should suffice to divine what aspect of this figure enticed me enough to buy it.
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The love that some people have for certain anime character traits can be a funny thing. There are entire communities dedicated to some particular aspect, like flat chests, or glasses, or the tsundere archetype, or tentacle violation. Equally funny is the fervor with which some people will champion their chosen fetishes. There are some people who will lash out with unbridled hostility if you dare attack their favorite things. I’m definitely among their number – insult my doll collection and I will hate you forever.
Nonetheless, I will go ahead and simply say it – I really don’t like animal ears on anime characters. They bug the hell out of me. No, I don’t know why I feel that way – one may as well ask why my favorite food is my favorite or why I hate certain sports teams or musical groups or waking up early or why I go absolutely ballistic if somebody driving slower than me passes in front of my car. It’s just the way things are.
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The child-soldiers of Neon Genesis Evangelion comprise some of the most recognizable characters in anime, and figure makers show no signs of jumping off of the Rei and Asuka gravy train. Thus, here’s another figure of Rei. Plugsuit, wreckage, blank stare, blue afro, you’ve seen it all before. Actually, wait – you probably haven’t ever seen this figure. Imagine that.
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Every now and then, you will see a whole bunch of figure makers schedule figures of the same character or from the same series all at about the same time. This happened with Ignis a few years back, when Alter, Orchid Seed, and Max Factory dropped their figures within a few months of each other, and with Haruka Takamori, when Alter, Volks, and Kotobukiya all released figures that looked very similar to each other, all at about the same time. And now it’s happened with Sonico, although Orchid Seed’s Sonico looks very much different than Yamato’s Sonico. Both of Yamato’s Sonicos, actually.
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For the past few weeks, it seems like there’s been nothing up for preorder but re-releases and recolors and figures from series that already have a ton of figures like Strike Witches, Bakemonogatari, and K-On! Some of the recolors are attractive, except I already have the originals, or I’ve got them on preorder. But there have been a few interesting figures that have gone up for order in the last few days, so now is as good a time as any to take a look at them.
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And back to fighting girl figures. A number of great fighting girl figures have been released this year, which is enormously gratifying. Quite a few of them aren’t wearing pants or skirts, which is also very pleasing. One such figure is presented here, and while Matabei took a bit of additional hassle to acquire, it’s easy to see why she was worth the effort.
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While I buy lots of figures, a quick glance at my collection indicates that I tend to buy figures of older characters who are often wielding weapons. You won’t find that many loli characters on my shelves, for the simple reason that while I don’t dislike them, they’re not really my thing. I usually like characters that are a bit older. So why did I buy this figure of Nymph? A careful and deliberate examination of the image above will reveal the reason.
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Another day, another figure from Sega’s Shining franchise. Personally, I’d like to see figures of Tao and Anri and Amon and May, but I’m quite certain they are never going to be made. It’s a shame that the figure hobby didn’t really take off before the last few years; maybe Sega could’ve saved their hardware division with their figure licensing profits.
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The internet is a pervasive force in everyday life. One of the things the internet is good for is finding reviews of stuff. In particular, I find movie and video game reviews to be helpful because people whose tastes are similar to mine generally view games and films in a similar way that I would. Not a long while ago I asked a friend what he thought of the film Sucker Punch and he said he didn’t really like it, and I knew I probably wouldn’t like it much, either. Our subjective tastes significantly overlap, and on top of that, there are objective criteria that one can use to assess a game or movie, such as plot coherence, the quality of dialogue, the quality of graphics, and so on.
Figures, however, are a funny thing because their appeal is so personal, at least to me. Take the Black Rock Shooter figures, for instance. On the surface, they seem to match many of the things I like: cute girls, fearsome weapons, and not many clothes. And yet I don’t particularly like them very much. Or take Miku Hatsune, whose character design I don’t particularly care for either. Certainly her design looks very similar to many characters that I do like and yet I don’t have much affection for her. Or take Yuri from Angel Beats. She’s cute, has a short skirt, and packs a big gun. Okay, I heard Angel Beats got a mixed reception but I haven’t even seen it and don’t plan to, so that doesn’t affect me at all. Why didn’t I buy the figure? Beats me. I’m thinking maybe I should check whether she’s in stock anywhere.
Basically what it comes down to is that every collector is going to decide for him or herself whether a figure is a worthwhile purchase, and that decision is going to be influenced by very nuanced and very personal factors. It’s a decision that really can only be made by the individual.
I’m guessing that a large majority of people reading this post have no idea where I’m coming from with this intro. That’s okay. I wish I were among you, to be honest. But enough of that, we have a figure to look at. This is my opinion of Rin Tohsaka.
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Dizzy? Great figure. Junko? Great figure. Saber Alter? Great figure. But as great as those figures are, sometimes a person wants something different. Sometimes a person wants something really special. Sometimes a person wants a porno figure. Okay, Erina was pretty nice but she’s more on the softcore side of things, as far as figures go. Fortunately, Native is always willing to oblige the more explicit side of the hobby. Except for this figure, anyway. And this one. Oh, and this one. Okay, maybe they’re going soft on us, and that’s a bit disappointing coming from a company whose motto is “Naked & Creative,” but beggars can’t be choosers. And fortunately, Ishikei’s Chie is such a nice figure that she more than makes up for any concessions those upcoming figures make.
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