I learned that from Pokémon when I was a kid!

I like the iDOLM@STER, I like the iDOLM@STER girls, one of those girls is Ranko.

I want more Ranko in my life and it seems Alter heard my prayers since they decided to make not one but two Ranko figures. Sadly one has been delayed to early next year but Alter didn’t leave me empty handed and released their Kanzaki Ranko Memories Version from the popular iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls spin off.

It was great to see Ranko has gotten a bit of attention on the spin off Cinderella Girls Theater showing all of her chuunibyou glory. I hope she continues to make appearances in the upcoming episodes.

This past summer there was recent event featuring Ranko and fellow chuunibyou Cinderella Girl Asuka Ninomiya in the iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage game. They perform the song Souyoku no Aria with the super cool MV together and shared a nice heartwarming event story.

It had been a long time since I had gone all out on an event in the game. During the Love Letter event I missed on Uzuki because I got complacent on the last day of the event with my ranking. This time during the event I played every waking moment, used up all the energy drinks and other stamina recovering items I had stockpiled. Not only did I gather up enough points to get Ranko I also went and made sure I would rank well enough to get a second card!

Sadly playing the game like that during the duration of the event sure burned me out. While I still do my daily logins I haven’t really participated in any of events in earnest. I will just say I am saving up my energy for Nono’s event some day in the future!

I mentioned last time how I was bit disappointed how she went mostly out of focus after her featured episode, I still am to some extend. However, we cannot forget when in a time of need at the end of the first season of the show she stepped up to provide a helping hand, taking up Minami’s place while she was ill. This lead to her brief stint with Love Laika and performed Memories together with Anastasia.

Alter decided to capitalize on this scene with a Love Laika set, rather than just doing the expected Anastasia and Minami they also included Ranko for a nice a trio. This of course makes me a happy fan. More Ranko figures? Yes please!

Alter has depicted Ranko wearing the Love Laika stage outfit in a pose reminiscent from the intro of Memories showing her in all her gracefulness. The figure primarily features the white color, Alter has added various hues of blue in order to give it a nice feeling of depth.

The various folds and ripples through the overcoat skirt and along the trim of the dress provide ample volume and good sense of movement. I can just feel this pose is really a single snapshot of a performance.

There is a few accents as well provided by the chain near Ranko’s waist, the fluffy bits near her neck and necklace.

Ranko is sporting a nice airy expression, her bright red eyes provide a wonderful contrast against the cooler colors of the figure.

She is wearing her usual curly twintails, Alter did a wonderful amount of detail, you can easily follow each of the individually sculpted curls providing a nice volume to her hair.

The translucent hat adorning her head provides a nice amount of detail with the texture, pearl like inserts and the shading on the white tuff.

The dress has a marvelous open back design showing Rankos sexy back. The shoulder blades and dimple down the center are very well defined, it all just makes me want to run a finger down Ranko’s back.

If you are a fan of some nice armpits the shoulderless design of the dress provides ample opportunity with the the raised right arm over Ranko’s head.

Her arms are encased in long gloves, the finish gives them the texture of smooth satin or silk with each finger delicately sculpted. The gloves provide just the slightest bit of pressure against her arm portraying a nice soft look.

Ranko’s slim legs are clad in tights as well as knee high boots with a gradient white and blue tone giving them volume.

The base while circular in shape is outlined by various straight angled shapes. The Cinderella Girls logo and name is included as well as Ranko’s in case you forget. The figure is attached with a metal peg so no worries there.

While this could have a been a very boring looking figure with a single primary color Alter has done an excellent job with the detail of the outfit and the shading all throughout. If I had more space and more money I wouldn’t really mind getting Minami and Anastasia to complete the set if they are the same quality as Ranko.

Luckily for me Alter is making a second Ranko figure as I mentioned earlier, so I will get to continue to enjoy more Ranko hopefully early next year. I can’t wait, if it’s just as a good as this coupled with the more elaborate design it’s going to be amazing!

Looking at the near future it seems Alter will continue to monopolise my future iDOLM@STER figures, I can’t wait to take photos of their next Ranko, upcoming swimsuit Uzuki and the number 1 cutest idol Sachiko. My blog continues to slowly turn into nothing but idol figures!

For the time being I hope you enjoyed taking a closer at Ranko, I sure did while taking these photos! Until next time, peeps!

Nico Nico Ni~ is everyone enjoying the specialest of most special days that is Nico’s birthday?

Happy bday, here is to another year and many more of Nico Nico Ni!

Can you believe it has been over a year since ?’s Final Live? It feels just like yesterday when I was enjoying their antics and looking forward to Aqours. It is a quite a shame then that I didn’t get to enjoy ?’s until near it’s tail end.

Typically I find there is a disconnect between the time when a new show airs and when figures are actually released. A lot of the time this might end up being years after the fact. I suppose figure manufacturers prefer to play it safe and wait until after a given show has proven its popularity. Typically this is an annoyance as I’m the most excited about a show when I first experience it.

As such while riding the hype train, I just wanna buy figures of my favorite characters right away but alas I have to play the waiting game. Luckily for me me jumping late on the Love Live hype train allowed for my wait to be a lot shorter than it otherwise would have been. Rather than waiting for years my wait was reduced to a few months, a great side effect!

Not too long after I was fully invested I ordered Good Smile Company’s Picnic Girl Nico, a great figure of Nico in casual clothes , Alter did their version along with the other girls, Freeing gave us Nico in her school uniform and Stronger released one in a rather apt frilly idol outfit. A good time to be if you are a Nico fan, a good time to be if you are a Love Live fan.

I am a Nico fan, she is in fact “my best girl” from ?’s and part of my favorite subunit BiBi. Why Nico you ask yourself? Other girls like Kotori or Hanayo for example might go for a more idealistic, cute depiction but Nico was always a bit more grounded to me.

Yes, she tried to act cute and innocent but everyone could tell she was faking it. She would throw airs of grandeur when in reality her life is a lot more humble. She would try to pass herself as being a natural born talent when in truth it was a result of hard work like everyone else. Quite simply to me, Nico feels a lot more real. I can easily imagine meeting someone like Nico, someone who could do the same things as her but can’t say the same for the other girls.

Plus, she is very amusing to watch even if she is a bit gross sometimes as Maki was ever apt to point out.

This was my first figure from Stronger so I was a bit apprehensive before I received Nico, specially given the high price since this was part of an exclusive set but it was all for naught as they have done a good job overall.

Nico is wearing the outfit shown on the second season of the anime during the climactic final of the Love Live contest were ?’s performed KiRa-KiRa Sensation! that would lead them to take home the winning title.

Nico’s outfit is nicely recreated from the PV, all the ribbon accents look good, their movement against Nico’s body along with her twintails add to that wonderful sense of liveliness.

The different layers of her skirt are done well, from the bottom underskirt to the neat translucent skirt. With Nico’s pose leaning forward it also offers a nice view of her nice round bottom. Since Nico is a nice innocent and pure idol she wears white of course.

Nico’s thigh highs show off her nice, slim thighs showing just the smallest hint of plumpness.

The base comes in the form of a pink exclamation mark, with Nico’s name printed on the side. If you get the full set of all nine girls their bases spell “Love Live!” a nice tough for those completionists that wish to display them together.

I am only a bit disappointed given the exclusive nature of this figure by a couple of things.

If you look closely some of the paint application is a bit rough in some of the sports such as the buttons on her outfit or the black lines along the hem of the skirt and top.

Nico’s hair while sculpted nicely with her trademarked twintails seemingly lacks any sort of shading to my eyes.

Taking a look at the whole package this is essentially nitpicking, fairly inconsequential to my enjoyment of this figure.

I’m quite happy though, this ticks off the checkbox for an idol outfit Nico. Although I wouldn’t mind one of my favorite Nico UR card, she is after all a little devil at heart. Let’s not forget either, Nico is the number one idol in the universe and she should get dozens of figures!

Howdy folks! Is the new year treating you well so far? The first few days have been fairly uneventful for me. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for a nice calm year!

I suppose starting the year with a nice mellow idol is a perfect match for these easy going days. I just so happen to have the perfect idol for such an occasion! Hailing from the ever so popular iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls comes the charming Takagaki Kaede – Hajimari no Basho version from the good folks at Kotobukiya.

Have you ever seen a person from afar and immediately start making all these over the top assumptions about them? Oh look at her, with that style and those looks she probably is high class young woman. Have you heard her voice? Such a sweet and refined sound, could only come from a demure lady right?

That was actually my first impression of Kaede when I first saw her only to discover that while yes she is a fairly classy lady she is quite an odd fish.

At the time I really didn’t know all that much about any of the Cinderella Girls. At best at that point time of time I might have read the first few chapters of the New Generations manga. I don’t recall if she was introduced or not since for whatever reason the author of that manga decided to bombard the reader with dozens of characters introductions from the get go.

It wouldn’t really be until later that I would I see a colored illustration and notice Kaede’s heterochromia and her beauty mark. I later learned that she was voiced by delightful Hayami Saori as well. These all combine to give me that image of an elegant, graceful lady, something along the lines of Takane from the 765 Pro girls.

As I began to consume more of the supplementary material and fan works I began to quickly learn that while I was correct that she was an nice, elegant lady, much like Takane, she has quite a bit of quirks.

What are some of those quirks you ask?

For starters there is her love of puns that just makes you wanna facepalm sometimes. A pun here and there is fun but sometimes I feel Kaede just goes a little too far. :D Then there is her apparent love of drinking, whatever recreational activities I had in mind for her going down to a pub for a drink was definitely not one of them.

Was I disappointed that Kaede didn’t quite match my initial impression of her? Quite on the contrary in fact, this just made me genuinely like her.

Who doesn’t like a companion with a good sense of humor? Who doesn’t like a girl who can go out a have a a bit of fun at a pub or bar?

The more I read, the more I illustrations I saw, the more I liked her. I was quite very much looking forward to her appearance in the anime. I was quite glad she actually showed up quite early! Then I was quickly disappointed when I learned that she was instead a supporting character rather than part of the main Cinderella Project crew.

Luckily for me she had her day in the limelight during the second half of the show. That episode showcased her wonderful personality, her love of puns and her love for a good drink. Much like myself at first the girls had a bit of shock to learn her personality clashed a bit with her image!

That episode also showed a sublime rendition of Kaede’s wonderful image song Koi Kaze, listening to that song just gave me chills. Not only is Kaede a beautiful young woman, has a great sense of humor, and fun to hang out with, she is also a talented songstress! God, I wanna marry her!

Which leads us to this figure, for a long a while I wanted a nice scaled figure of Kaede but I had little luck aside from garage kits. Luckily for everyone that is a fan of anything Cinderella Girls the show brought some much needed exposure and even more popularity and thus merchandise followed.

This is where Kotobukiya comes in with this gorgeous looking Takagaki Kaede – Hajimari no Basho scaled figure! When it came to Kaede I essentially wanted one of two figures, one where it showed her as the quirky girl she is and one that shows her as the graceful songstress that lives up to the Cinderella monicker.

Koto has opted for the latter and showcases her as she appeared during her performance in the second half of the show. They have done a stellar job in that front. Her dress looks spot on and contains many small details that are pleasing to the eye.

The folds of her skirt, the creases in her dress and the fluttering ribbons all come together to show a perfect sense of motion. I can easily picture in my mind as if she had just turned towards the camera as the photo was taken.

Kaede’s stage outfit contains plenty of delicate details such as the lace in her gloves, her choker containing a small pendant or the translucent skirt. Upon a bit of closer inspection the details might seem a bit rough but this only when looking through the macro lens. When looked upon with the naked eye everything looks quite nice.

Her beautiful fluffy hair is adorned with a pretty headdress consisting of a flower, headdress and feathers. The gradient colors and the translucent feathers are my favorite part.

Kaede’s sumptuous legs are adorned with thigh high sporting similar design as her gloves and a pretty pair of green high heels.

The base of the figure is of a simple circular design, adorned with her namesake maple leaf, Kaede’s name and glittery specs.

If you turn around you can see her luscious back, you can see some well defined shoulder blades giving that sense of authenticity to her body figure. You can also see the ribbon that adorns the back of her dress with a rose ornament.

If you glance upon Kaede’s dazzling face you can gaze into her eyes and notice the aforementioned green and blue colored almond shaped eyes. In addition to that her beauty mark lives up to its name and is easily visible and alluring. I love her calm and regal expression, fitting that part of her image quite well.

Since having shop exclusive bonuses is all the rage nowadays for figures Koto didn’t want to miss on the action. If you ordered Kaede from the Japanese Kotobukiya shop a second, alternate expression was included.

I just love Kaede’s playful winking, I can just imagine her having just cracked a pun at the audience in good jest. Worth every extra penny and the trouble of having to go through a proxy to get it!

Overall I’m very satisfied with Kotobukiya’s work, I feel they have done a great job showcasing Kaede’s majestic form. In addition to Wave’s casual clothes version I’m quite satisfied with in terms of Kaede figures. I don’t feel the need to buy more.

Ah hold on, there is that other figure from Wave. Once I buy that one I will be totally satisfied with Kaede figures… probably!

Until next peeps, see ya at the pub!

Nico is great, she is my favorite! A shame Max Factory had to save the bestest for last making the wait so lengthy though. That said, Nico is so worth it, most awesome Love Live figma ever!

If you are wondering about why this is #2 or which cosplay photo.