On the surface, dakimakura covers might appear to comprise a flagrant waste of money. Well, on the other hand, most hobbies are massive wastes of money and when a dakimakura cover depicts one of my favorite characters – maybe my favorite character – in all of pop culture, I ain’t going to say no.
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Any figure labeled the “Sexy Version” is going to get my attention, particularly when it’s of a destructive sword-wielding English girl prone to entering a berserker rage. It’s a mildly humorous label, though, since sexiness is surely in the eye of the beholder and there’s probably a not-insignificant fraction of the figure collecting community who would not consider a buxom blonde girl like Satella to be sexy. Believe it or not.
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I’ve been looking for a good dakimakura cover of Fate Testarossa for a while now, and it’s been surprisingly difficult to find one despite the popularity of the Nanoha franchise’s number two lady. For one, many of her pillowcases depict her in her younger form, and while I don’t dislike her original appearance, I prefer her as an adult. Also, being that I’m fond of the character, I was going to be more discriminating than I might have been if I were unfamiliar with Fate.
One of my favorite dakimakura covers is Vivio, and I knew the artist had done one of Fate earlier. I had skipped it then, but being that I liked his work with the Vivio pillowcase, I decided that passing on it had been a mistake. When I heard that this Fate pillowcase showed up on Mandarake, I went ahead and picked it up. While I like the illustrations better than I did at first, this dakimakura cover came with an unexpected and quite unwelcome surprise.
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It’s time for dakimakura cover show and tell, and today’s pillowcase features a character that needs no introduction at all.
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Like school swimwear, bunnysuits, and catgirls, nurses are a well-loved staple of anime art and anime character design. Not by me, though – school swimwear, bunnysuits, catgirls, and nurse uniforms don’t do a whole lot for me by themselves, not like, say, bodysuits or sportswear or revealing body armor. However, I ordered Miyuu less for her clothing and more for how she looks sans clothing. How does she look and how detailed is she?
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Staying with the theme of Japan-exclusive ero figures released a few months ago, now’s a good time to take a look at Native’s Trunk Girl. Native had a bit of an odd year last year, with several of their figures not actually being much more explicit than the average Queen’s Blade figure – though perhaps it’s telling that the average Queen’s Blade figure likely wouldn’t shock an experienced figure collector. However, Trunk Girl and their lineup for this year seem to mark a resurgent commitment to their Naked & Creative motto.
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Time for more pillowcase talk. This one features Sena Kashiwazaki, the rich, insecure, somewhat bisexual eroge enthusiast from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. I like the manga and I’ve been a fan of Buriki’s art for a while – entirely because of this picture – and I was pleased that the anime adaptation was a lot of fun to watch. Despite not straying past the bounds of convention, the characters are likeably quirky, and it was refreshing to see a show with a male lead that wasn’t completely clueless, milquetoast, or pathetic. It’s one of the few harem-style shows where I didn’t dislike any of the characters, and I’m not sure which one is my favorite. I guess I’d call it a tie among Sena, Kobato, and Rika, but all the characters are cool. Grading strictly on appearance, I’d probably roll with Sena, though, which is why I have this dakimakura cover.
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Numerous figures of the Queen’s Gate characters have been released, offering different takes on the characters depending on the artist that illustrated the respective game book. The Queen’s Gate version of Senhime, however is rather unusual in that she has no game book; her appearance is based off of a single illustration by the artist Yoshikazu Miwa. Perhaps better known by his doujin circle name Synthetic Garden, I’ve been a fan of his art for a long time, particularly because his work encompasses themes like tentacle hentai, girls in bondage, and girls with big breasts. He seems an unlikely choice to provide a Queen’s Gate illustration, particularly one of a character like Sen Tokugawa, and the resulting figure is one that comprises an unusual synthesis that is much more about his style and much less about the anime character.
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Time for more pillowcase show-and-tell. This one comes from Carnelian, surely one of the most famous illustrators in the anime world. She’s a veteran artist, having been around as long as I’ve been on the internet, which goes back to the mid-90s, but although she’s quite well-known, she’s never had the sort of commercial stature of someone like Tony Taka or even newer artists like redjuice or Huke. She’s contributed character designs to just a couple of mainstream anime – Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito probably being the most prominent – though H-anime fans will also remember her work in Moonlight Lady. Instead, her work is much more visible in the doujin community, where she is very active. In particular, there are a number of dakimakura covers featuring her art; this particular one was released last summer during Comiket 80 and depicts an original character named Lucrezia.
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Anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like ero figures. And anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like big figures. Unfortunately, few figure manufacturers have made big ero figures – at least until recently. However, FREEing has stepped up to the plate to fill this niche, which is quite gratifying, particularly when the figure is as nice as Amane is.
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