Tag Archives: ninja

Kiriko Hattori from Enka Oudou Dai Shogun

written on January 31, 2011 by Tier

Yamato Kiriko Hattori from Dai Shogun Figure Review

Here is a riddle: gather together a major figure manufacturer, a world-famous anime artist, and a graphics studio whose portfolio includes contributions to Metal Gear Solid 4, Tales of Vesperia, and Valkyria Chronicles, and what do you get? The answer is absolutely nothing other than a pair of boobie mousepads and a figure. Enka Oudou Dai Shogun was touted as a multimedia event, but I haven’t seen any of its media apart from a couple of illustrations in Shunya Yamashita’s One Voice artbook. It looks like nothing more will come of it and presumably it will thus be consigned to the dustbin of memory, just like Shuraki. Anyone remember Shuraki? There were some good figures from that series. Fortunately, Kiriko is a fine figure as well.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/5 scale, bodysuit, enka oudou dai shogun, Figures, kiriko hattori, ninja, reflect, Review, shunya yamashita, sword, Yamato | 45 Comments

Mai Shiranui from The King of Fighters XIII (Hipline Version)

written on January 27, 2011 by Tier

Alphamax Mai Shiranui from KOF Figure Review

Back in my review of Kotobukiya’s Dizzy, I lamented that fighting games aren’t a more popular source for figure makers. That hasn’t changed at all in the year since I received that figure. In fact, I can think of only a few figures of fighting game characters that have been released since then – A-Label’s Vanessa, and I suppose the Noel Vermillion nendoroid, if you count that as a figure. 2011 isn’t looking any more promising, with the major ones being another Dizzy, a peculiarly pachycephalic Kasumi, and this figure right here. With a bunch of fighting games – Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the two Tekken and Street Fighter crossovers, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and the 3DS version of Dead Alive – scheduled for release, and with Super Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue still going strong, hopefully the situation will change and the girls of these games will grace us with more figures.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/5 scale, alphamax, epic ass, Figures, king of fighters, mai shiranui, ninja, Review, thong | 46 Comments

Kagari from Ninja Girls

written on December 16, 2010 by Tier

Back in the day, it was all too common for US anime and video game companies to westernize Japanese titles to make them more commercially viable. Mazinger Z became Tranzor Z, Space Battleship Yamato became Star Blazers, and a whole bunch of titles were rolled into Robotech. My personal favorite title change is Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which translates to “The Eternity You Desire” but was localized as the much less poetic and much more hilarious “Rumbling Hearts.” The first time I saw the new title, I thought it referred to a wrestling anime. Thankfully, with anime becoming more acceptable, if not mainstream, title and content changes have become much less frequent. However, Del Rey Manga reminds us of history by bringing us Hosana Tanaka’s series Rappi Rangai as “Ninja Girls.” Seriously, that’s the best title they could think of? One of the “girls” isn’t even a girl so what the hell?
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/8 scale, embrace-japan, Figures, kagari, ninja, ninja girls, Review, shorts | 19 Comments

Momohime from Muramasa: The Demon Blade

written on August 6, 2010 by Tier

I was very surprised when I saw the first pictures of Alter’s Momohime figure; she was one of those characters that I had hoped would get a figure but didn’t expect to. Alter had already shown some love to Vanillaware’s properties, having produced Gwendolyn over a year before and having announced Mercedes by then, but I had thought that they would unveil a figure of Velvet next. Instead, we got a figure of Momohime, and I’ve got no cause for complaint as it is a gorgeous figure indeed.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/8 scale, Alter, Figures, momohime, muramasa, ninja, Review, sword | 55 Comments

Psylocke from the Uncanny X-Men

written on May 18, 2010 by Tier

When Kotobukiya introduced the world to their Marvel Bishoujo line, I immediately thought that Psylocke was an obvious choice for that series. She’s Asian, she’s hot, she doesn’t wear many clothes, she’s a perfect match. Kotobukiya took their time announcing her, but announce her they did and while I was thrilled, my happiness was tempered by the fact that Rogue and the Black Widow fell short of what they could have been. Regardless, Psylocke is my favorite Marvel Comics character, so there was never any question of whether I would acquire her.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/8 scale, Figures, Kotobukiya, marvel bishoujo, ninja, psylocke, Review, shunya yamashita, sword, thong, weapon | 23 Comments

Haruka Takamori from Beat Blades Haruka

written on March 2, 2009 by Tier

Haruka Takamori is the protagonist of Beat Blades Haruka, an erogame made by Alicesoft (NSFW). I played through part of the game, and under my direction poor Haruka often ended up being explored and abused in ghastly ways. No doubt my lack of comprehension of both Japanese and the game’s mechanics contributed to her inferior battle performance. Beat Blades Haruka has very nice artwork, but I was hesitant to pick this figure up because I thought the face didn’t look entirely accurate to the game graphics.
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