Voice synthesis software and eroge company mascots get scads of figures but fighting game characters are mostly an afterthought in the corporate mindset of figure makers. Heck, I’ve got another Super Sonico on order and another one still in its box, and I’ve got an unopened Miku Hatsune figure sitting on the stack, waiting for me to build her machine of joy. If you’re looking for a figure of a fighting game girl, you’re going to have to look at Kotobukiya’s Tekken figures or Hobby Japan’s Queen’s Gate series, which is where this version of Noel Vermillion comes from.

Aside from being licensed for the Queen’s Gate books and the spinoff PSP game Queen’s Gate Spiral Chaos, Noel Vermillion comes from Arc System Works’s fighting game BlazBlue. A spiritual successor of sorts to Guilty Gear, the game is now up to its third iteration, BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend, which succeeds its predecessors Continuum Shift and Calamity Trigger. Its game mechanics are similar to Guilty Gear’s, more or less, though BlazBlue’s Drive button gives the movesets of BlazBlue’s characters a larger level of distinctiveness.

Personally, I like Guilty Gear quite a bit more than BlazBlue; I much prefer its characters and music, and though I shamelessly admit that I’m terrible at both games, I never really got the hang of playing as any of BlazBlue’s characters. BlazBlue seems to have attained a greater level of popularity than its forebear, though; this might be due to each version being released simultaneously on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, where as Guilty Gear’s releases were wildly inconsistent with respect to platform and release dates. I think that the fighting game resurgence led by Street Fighter IV also played a large role in BlazBlue’s mainstream acceptance.

Noel is nominally the lead female character of the game and plays an integral part in its surprisingly convoluted story mode. Time was that if a fighting game had a story at all, it would invariably be about some shadowy organization staging a tournament for combatants from all over the world. In contrast, BlazBlue’s story is a tale of heroism, rebellion against authoritarianism, family ties lost and regained, and a helluva, helluva lot of confusing, made-up vocabulary. I’ll – again – shamelessly admit that I understood almost none of the plot while I played Continuum Shift, though I was really going through it just to unlock Mu-12 so I can’t say I was paying much attention.

In the game, Noel is a young lieutenant in the Novus Orbis Librarium, the organization that governs the world. She is depicted as kind but shy, diffident, and naïve. She fights with a pair of guns called the Arcus Diabolus Bolverk. They are magical artifacts rather than ordinary firearms, and many of her moves involve using them as physical weapons. Her fighting style is strongly patterned after the gun kata movements featured in the film Equilibrium (which was also set in a futuristic, dystopian city with a dictatorial governing body). Incidentally, this isn’t the only Japanese product to borrow some of the style from Kurt Wimmer’s film: one of the fight scenes from the anime series Grenadier was directly patterned after the movie’s final battle, and I think I remember that one of the fight scenes in the recent anime Aria The Scarlet Ammo also featured a gun kata sequence.

Noel possesses a number of similarities to Dizzy, one of the characters from Guilty Gear. Like Dizzy, Noel is not entirely human; her true form is actually that of Mu-12, a dispassionate agent of the apocalypse intent on destroying the world. She also trades Noel’s short dress and socks for a crotch plate, a pair of striker units, and wing-like projections. Her Steins Gunner moves thematically resemble Dizzy’s laser-shooting fish. Like Dizzy, Mu-12 hovers over the ground. They also share a birthday – December 25. In their debut games, both characters are the final bosses of each game’s story mode and must be unlocked to be made playable; subsequent games make them playable from the start.

I’m hoping that Alter will make a Mu-12 figure to go with Dizzy; the only other BlazBlue figures that have been made thus far are a couple of uninspired efforts from FREEing.

This particular figure derives from Noel’s appearance in Queen’s Gate, the spinoff series of Queen’s Blade which is itself derived from Scottsdale, Arizona-based Flying Buffalo‘s and Nova Games’s Lost Worlds series. Her entry is illlustrated by Takatsuki Nagy.

I felt some trepidation about ordering this figure because the Queen’s Gate figures are so variable in terms of quality. Part of the blame for this inconsistency can be laid on the diversity of manufacturers who have made these figures – they include Kotobukiya, MegaHouse, Alpha Omega (which includes Alter), Good Smile Company, and Hobby Japan. I was not very impressed by Hobby Japan’s figure of Ivy Valentine, nor was I very pleased with how small Yagyu Jubei turned out. I was expecting Noel Vermillion to be undersized and undetailed. Also, there was also a compulsory added cost due to having to order this figure from a proxy service, being that it was a Hobby Japan exclusive. As usual, I used Tokyo Hunter to buy it.

In this figure’s favor was the fact that it is sculpted by Hiroshi of Sakura Zensen, the same sculptor who created Saber Alter for Good Smile Company and 1/6 scale Fate Testarossa for Cospa, among numerous other figures. I figured that if Noel turned out to be smaller than her listed 1/8 scale size, at least she would still probably look good displayed next to Dizzy, who is also somewhat smaller than her scale size suggests.

Happily, Noel is reasonably-sized. She’s 16 centimeters tall to the top of her hat and about 20.5 centimeters tall overall, even though her wideset stance lowers her closer to the ground. In terms of body proportions, she’s similar to Alter’s Buddy, and as both characters appear to barely be five feet tall, that seems realistic. Noel’s accurate scale size is a very welcome surprise, particularly since Hobby Japan’s Ivy disappointed in that respect.

Noel requires minor assembly after unpacking her from her box; the two red ribbons need to be inserted into slots in her armbands. Pop her onto her base – which is a rather peculiar transparent aqua color – and she’s ready for display.

Noel is set in an action girl stance, sighting along one gun barrel while holding the other one ready, her arm cocked and the gun pointed skyward. The energy of her pose is one of the most attractive aspects of this figure, though her left leg looks awkwardly contorted when viewing her from behind, with her face turned away. Then again, even though she has an attractive back, I’m not sure why anybody would display her facing away from the viewer.

Her dynamic pose is accentuated by the red ribbons twirling around her body as well as the movement of her short dress. Her dress also emphasizes her backside, providing a good deal of fanservice from a character who isn’t really cast as a sex symbol within the game. However, Noel is sexualized to an almost ridiculous extent in the game’s supplemental artwork, and of course, her Queen’s Gate artbook is all about fanservice. Nevertheless, her bust is as reserved as it is in the game, perhaps even moreso – in a rather extreme example of anime-style body proportions, her eyes appear to be about the same size as her breasts.

One of the enduring mysteries of BlazBlue is whether Noel Vermillion wears panties while in uniform. I’m not even kidding about that. And while this figure doesn’t definitively settle the issue – being that it’s based off of her Queen’s Gate appearance – it should come as no surprise that she is indeed wearing underwear: white thong panties, to be exact.

They’re not very easy to see, though; the figure is cleverly sculpted to provide the illusion of no underpants from most viewing angles.

Aside from her pose and her shapely rear, her face is also very attractive. Her expression embodies steely determination, evincing none of the timidity that typifies her personality. Rather, she appears resolute, her mouth turned down in a defiant scowl. It perhaps doesn’t represent her true nature but she looks great regardless.

She also looks great from a technical viewpoint. The paint application is sharp and clean, with no visible issues, at least to my eyes. A mixture of paint finishes is evident; metallic paint is used on the band of her hat, the toes of her boots, and her armbands, her socks are a matte black, and her necktie is a glossy red. Subtle shading on the two red ribbons trailing off her arms gives them more of a three-dimensional look.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this figure, much moreso than I thought I would be. She looks like the quintessential anime action girl: two guns, a dangerous look, and a strong dash of sex appeal. The manufacturing quality is quite good, much better than Hobby Japan’s effort on Ivy, which comes as a very pleasant surprise I don’t want to suggest it’s as high quality as an Alter or Good Smile Company figure, but I don’t see a great deal to criticize, except perhaps the additional expense requisite to all Hobby Japan exclusive figures, but that’s just the reality of the hobby, and for a figure that looks as nice as Noel, I’m not going to complain.

Here’s a size comparison with Alter’s Dizzy; perhaps a better comparison would be with Kotobukiya’s Dizzy instead, since that was also based off of her Queen’s Gate incarnation and features the same anime-style body proportions as Noel. My figure is covered in dust and I remember her hair was a colossal pain in the ass to keep in place, so I didn’t use it for pictures.

Here’s Noel’s theme song, Bullet Dance. Of the songs in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, I like Oriental Flower (Litchi’s theme) best.

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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.

Satellizer is from Freezing, originally a manga series – manhwa, whatever – by Dall-Young Lim and Kwang-Hyun Kim. Its anime adaptation was, for a while, the worst anime series I’d ever seen in its entirety; it’s since been eclipsed by Guilty Crown in my loathing.

Freezing’s plot features Satellizer, the taciturn and ultraviolent girl who hates to be touched; Kazuya Aoi, a callow, fiat-powered teenager possessed of astonishing imbecility; and a bunch of mouthy high schoolers with deathwishes who serve mostly to get chopped up by either Satellizer or the evil alien Nova. On the surface, it’s the sort of show that I ought to like; all of the fighters are female, most of them busty and visually appealing. Their clothes inevitably get torn off their bodies during combat, and bloodshed and brutality are rampant. However, I cannot stand Kazuya, the lead male character. He’s clueless, breathtakingly ignorant, and bafflingly immature. There’s almost nothing about him that can be praised, and he’s down there with Emiya Shirou and every guy from Guilty Crown in terms of the most idiotic, odious, and abhorrent male characters I’ve ever seen in anime. In a show that features copious violence and outfits such as this, his presence is sufficient to sink the show. Remove him – and all the other male characters, who don’t contribute anything apart from casting Blessing of Freedom on the female combatants, anyway – and Freezing would be pretty good, I think.

Satellizer shares a number of traits with Saber, so much so that I initially assumed Freezing would be thematically similar to Fate/stay night. They are not, of course, though Satellizer and Saber share a few archetypical traits: both are fairly quiet, humorless, blonde-haired English girls handicapped by moronic partners. However, there’s a curious difference in how the series creators treat each character; although Saber technically comes from an eroge, Type-Moon seems uncomfortable with this fact, at least as far as figures go, and I don’t know of any PVC figures of the Fate/stay night characters that features nudity. Freezing is not an H series, as far as I know, but its writer has himself published a number of pornographic doujinshi featuring the Freezing characters.

Back to the figure: this figure is manufactured by FREEing and was released late last year. Shortly thereafter, they released a figure of Ingrid Bernstein, and they’ve indicated that the haughty competitor Ganessa Roland and the shameless homewrecker Rana Linchen will also be getting figures. Hopefully we’ll see some news on those soon.

All of these figures are sculpted in a mighty 1/4 scale – God’s scale – and feature removable clothing. Satellizer measures about 40 centimeters in length, and she’ll demand a significant chunk of shelf space for proper display. FREEing did release another figure of Satellizer – right around the same time as this one – that was 1/8 scale and depicted her in her red dress with her sword, though I don’t recall whether it had a special name or not.

Satellizer offers a number of display options. She can wear eyeglasses; as with FREEing’s Amane Shiratori figure, the arms of her spectacles slide into slots within her head that are exposed by removing her bangs, ensuring that they stay in place. They have clear plastic lenses, giving them a greater sense of realism.

She wears a white dress shirt out of the box but it can be removed to leave her in her lingerie. Her arms detach to facilitate its removal; a pair of lacy black armbands is provided to cover up the join lines circumscribing her upper arms. Like many of FREEing’s 1/4 scale figures, Satellizer can also wear black fishnet stockings, which, unlike FREEing’s Amane figure, are packaged separately, possibly because Amane wears shoes while Satellizer is barefoot.

A figure that stretches well over a foot in length ought to provide a number of opportunities for intricate detail but like many figures of this size, Satellizer’s sculpt is not particularly complex. She’s got helmet hair and her hairband isn’t convincing in the least.

Similarly, the paint application is rather flat, particularly on her hair.

And her underwear.

The seat of her panties looks better, though. Also, as indelicate as this probably sounds, it’s nice that Satellizer got some proper-fitting panties; I’m all for anime girls who wear revealing clothes, but it’s sort of strange to see that the plumber’s crack look is so fashionable amongst female anime characters these days.

The stigmata marks are included on her back.

Satellizer’s bra can also be removed. This is as naked as she gets.

Although she might be lacking in detail, I think the sculpt looks great, overall. She’s lean, lithe, wasp-waisted, with long legs and with a particularly impressive chest. Her breasts seem to have a sense of weight to them – though probably not enough to be termed realistic.

I also like her facial expression; she has a neutral look which leaves the interpretation of her emotions and disposition up to the viewer.

FREEing’s 1/4 scale version of Satellizer isn’t particularly elaborate or technically impressive, but I think it’s a great figure regardless. This is a figure that’s much more about the subject matter than the manufacturing prowess of the maker, and Satellizer does indeed look sexy. She’s appealing in all her modes of dress, and her body sculpt is very attractive. I’m quite happy with this figure and I wish I’d gotten Ingrid Bernstein as well, especially since she was discounted for a while. I’m looking forward to seeing what Ganessa and Rana are going to look like – though I’m less enthusiastic about the prospect of finding shelf space for all of them when they do come out, particularly since their unusual recumbent positions place large limitations on how they should be displayed.

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When you’ve got a figure that is posed like this, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. And the number of tentacle stands that you own.

As everybody knows, Sonico is the mascot of software developer Nitroplus. This Sonico figure is manufactured by Gift and is sculpted by Takayuki Kondou, the same sculptor responsible for crafting Gift’s 1/4 scale Tamaki Kousaka and the 1/4 scale Nanoha StrikerS swimsuit figures. Unlike those figures, this Sonico is 1/6 scale, and her legs-up pose and small base give her a compact shelf footprint.

This version of Sonico has no castoff option, so setup is quite straightforward; she simply needs to be unboxed and placed on her base. The base is a black piece of plastic meant to look like a cushion, and there’s a helpful imprint matching the bow on her back that informs her new owner as to how she should be oriented. However, as the base is slightly inclined, she can be turned the other way to have her fully lying down rather than merely reclining.

Many female anime-type characters that become popular get put into a maid uniform at some point, and so it is with Sonico. This particular figure is labeled the “gothic maid” version, and I don’t know what differentiates a “gothic maid” from the garden-variety of maid. At any rate, while she lacks cleaning supplies and does not appear to be in a position to handle her duties, her outfit clearly marks her as an anime-type maid.

Sonico wouldn’t be Sonico without her headphones, and in a cute touch her phones are integrated into her maid headdress.

Less cute and considerably more slutty is her maid dress, which is wide open in front, giving everyone a view of her breasts, or at least as much as her legs permit.

However, though her outfit is nominally the main attraction – her costume being the only thing that identifies her as a maid – the highlight of this figure is really her pose. It’s quite obviously a very sexualized pose, and it ought to come as no surprise that this figure is based in large part off of a 3D mousepad which was sold a couple of years back. While the main themes are present, the figure deviates from the illustration in a number of respects: the positioning of her hands is different, as is her facial expression, and she lacks the mysterious white substance coating her thighs. One additional thing that this particular figure lacks is the red ribbon restraining her legs; this is the cheaper edition of this figure, and the more expensive version comes with the ribbon as well as a more elaborate base. I didn’t care to spend the extra money on what amounts to accessories.

I freely admit that Sonico’s pose is really what compelled me to buy this figure; her pose, and the things that her pose allows to be done to her.

Her pose is anything but subtle; she’s essentially begging for people to study her crotch, and it looks a bit puffy, a bit bulbous, even. This appears to be something that carries over from the illustration, and I’m not going to posit any explanations as to why her cameltoe is so swollen. I’ll just say that it looks a bit odd.

Moving on, Sonico’s face is not particularly emotive, which I suppose can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you choose to view it. She doesn’t seem particularly distressed – she seems to be more embarrassed than panicked – so it can be assumed that nothing bad is about to happen to her. On the other hand, if bad things were to happen to her, a more worried and anxious expression would’ve been appreciated.

Looking at her, I can’t shake the impression that her torso seems overly long. It could just be my imagination, though.

However, all in all, I think this is a pretty good figure of Sonico. If I were only going to own one figure of Sonico, it wouldn’t be my first choice, and given the sheer number of figures she has in the marketplace, it probably wouldn’t be my second pick, either. However, she still looks very nice, and she’s also fairly large, which I always regard as a plus. Sonico integrates well with some of the photographic props I use, which is really the reason I bought her, and this was a fun shoot to do.

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When you don’t have a belt or a strap to hang your swords off of, you make do the best that you can.

Yagyu Jubei is, of course, from the anime and manga property Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls. Despite finishing up its broadcast run way back in December 2010, its popularity endures amongst figure companies, with makers as obscure as Penguin Parade and U-Art paying tribute to her and her castmates. This figure, however, is from Alter, the best maker in the business and a very enthusiastic supporter of the franchise.

Unlike Orchid Seed, Yamato, and Griffin, Alter historically hasn’t made many recolored versions of their figures. However, that seems to be changing as of late, at least as far as their swimsuiit figures are concerned; they’ll be offering a limited edition version of their Selvaria figure at this year’s Mega Hobby Expo and of course, there’s this figure, which follows the original version released last year which put her in an orange swimsuit.

Like all of Alter’s figures of the Samurai Girls characters, this version of Jubei is sculpted in 1/8 scale and stands about 19 centimeters tall. She comes with no accessories or castoff options; there’s no need to fiddle with her weapons, she’s ready for display right after sticking her to her base.

Alter’s Samurai Girls figures are known for their visual complexity and at first, it seems like a lot of that intricacy should be lost here, given that Jubei’s outfit is quite abbreviated compared to what she normally wears. However, even though she’s showing a lot of skin, the figure still features a number of distinctive aspects, mostly due to her weapons. She’s holding two swords of traditional samurai style, one larger and the other smaller, though in keeping with the stylized motifs of the Samurai Girls series, both swords are rather oversized. Both swords are also very nicely sculpted and painted, with a lacquer-like finish on the scabbards and painted metallic accents on the handles and hilts.

Of course, perhaps the most visually interesting aspect of the figure isn’t just her swords but also the way that she’s holding them. The sexual innuendo of her pose is unmistakable; she’s doing the paizuri thing with her katana, treating the viewer to a good look at her cleavage. The erotic allusions are further emphasized by the placement of her left hand, which seems to be pushing her sword towards her crotch. Furthermore, her sword is actually running underneath one of the straps of her swimsuit. All in all, it’s a wonderful pose that is quite in keeping with the spirit of the anime.

Another thing that Alter’s Samurai Girls figures are known for are their expressive faces. I particularly liked Senhime’s face, which was transfixed in a mighty, homicidal scowl. Their recent Naoe Kanetsugu also had a memorable – if less distinctive – face, one that manifested pure joy. Of all of them, however, I think Jubei’s face is my favorite; she’s beaming with happiness, a warm and flirty smile on her lips and her eyes veritably dancing with mischief. Her gregarious innocence makes for an appealing contrast next to the wanton sexuality of her stance.

I also really like Jubei’s hair; tendrils of hair are going off everywhere, lending a sense of dynamic energy to what would otherwise be a fairly staid figure, as figures go. Her hair is voluminous, much more like MegaHouse’s figure than Alter’s older figure. I particularly like the way she’s got not one, not two, but three ahoge sprouting out of the top of her head like headcrab legs. The older figure had them as well, but they seem much more noticeable on this figure, perhaps because her hair color is a much brighter red. In fact, her paint job seems much more saturated than her first figure, which is noticeably muted in comparison.

Moving on from the fun and innocent aspects of her design to the fun and saucy parts: her pose obviously emphasizes her buttocks, and while the first version of this figure had a solid orange suit, this Jubei wears a white suit that is partially see-through, at least in the back. It’s more on the subtle side but it’s very well-executed, with her suit appearing as if wet. The seat of her swimsuit is a bit on the modest side considering its cleavage-emphasizing design in front, but it still doesn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination.

Like all of Alter’s Samurai Girls figures – heck, like just about all of Alter’s figures – Jubei looks fantastic. It’s probably my favorite one of all the figures from that series. She loses some of the retro-contemporary styling that characterizes the show, but I think the playfulness and innocence she evinces more than makes up for it.

For a review of the original figure with the orange swimsuit, check out this very nice review at Figyura.

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It’s pillowcase show-and-tell time, and in a first for this site, today’s pillowcase features a subject that isn’t human. Rather, Android C is – obviously – an android, one of the main characters from the Xbox 360 visual novel Instant Brain, which I’m sure almost nobody has heard of.

Microsoft’s Xbox consoles have been maligned – unfairly, in my view – for featuring a preponderance of shooters, foremost amongst them the Halo series. Curiously, the Xbox 360 has become the console of choice for a different type of shooter – the 2D shoot’em up. A staple of 8-bit and 16-bit gaming, the 2D shmup has, like magnetic media, pagers, and photographic film, been consigned almost to historic irrelevance by the inexorable march of technology. However, a few companies still specialize in making games of this type, and perhaps none of them are as dedicated and prolific as Cave. They’ve made many shooters over the last two decades, including Mushihime-sama, DoDonPachi, DeathSmiles, and Espgaluda, among others, and a number of them have been ported to the Xbox 360. Besides Cave’s games, shmups like Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, Triggerheart Exelica, Otomedius Excellent, the Raiden series, and Strike Witches have been released on the 360, establishing it as the unlikely console to own for fans of the genre.

Unlike most of Cave’s portfolio, Instant Brain is a visual novel, the first that they have developed. It was released last year on the Xbox 360 to reasonably good reviews, scoring a 9/8/7/8 in Famitsu for a total of 32/40. The game’s protagonist is a spiky-haired man named Zenya Barataki, an amnesiac photographer with a unique camera that captures the memories of what he photographs. The heroine is Android C, often just called C, a model H4667C maid-type android. According to the game’s character page, an android like her costs as much as a luxury apartment. Apparently she is the only family that Zenya has.

This pillowcase was sold through Cave’s shop late last year, right at Christmas time. It’s 160 centimeters by 50 centimeters long and is listed as being made of polyester, but it has the same heavyweight feel and elastic stretch as the dakimakura covers I own that are made of roica. It feels like a durable, good-quality material; I’ve had a few pillowcases that were made of fabric so thin that the printing on the opposite side of the pillowcase would bleed through when you photographed it, but C’s pillowcase has no such problem.

The illustration for this pillowcase was done by Iruma Kamiri, the artist who did the character designs and artwork for the game. He’s probably best known for his doujin work, produced under Hellabunna, the name of his circle. In particular, he published a lot of good Dead or Alive doujinshi back in the mid 2000s, which is how I became familiar with his work. I thought he was a curious choice to provide artwork for an Xbox 360 visual novel, given that much of his work is pornographic in nature, but I’m certainly not complaining.

The front side of the pillowcase depicts Android C in an abbreviated form of her maid costume. While she’s not restrained, there’s an unmistakable bondage theme in her design, with lots of leather, straps, and buckles. I’m not an enormous fan of the archetypical maid outfit – frilly skirts and such – but I like C’s uniform a great deal.

The reverse side shows that Android C has shed much of her outfit. Instant Brain got a CERO C rating in Japan, signifying that it is suitable for ages 15 and up, so presumably this is as much skin as is shown in the game, if she even shows this much.

I really do like Android C’s design; the bondage aspect is attractive, and as I mentioned in my post on Alice, I like the combination of black hair and red eyes. I think her facial expression on both sides is very appealing; a bit of shyness, a bit of vulnerability, but also a sense of impassiveness. And of course, she also has an attractive body.

Talking about a pillowcase can get a bit dry, so I’m going to digress from the dakimakura cover discussion for a bit and show off a few pages from a couple of artbooks. I recently purchased the Instant Brain Official Material Book and the Cave Shooting Artworks book and I think they are interesting enough to share.

Here is the cover of the book. You can see Android C, and the man in the middle is Zenya, the protagonist. I do not know who the girl on the right is; she also appears on the cover of the limited edition version of the game, and I assume she’s someone important. She resembles a younger version of Android C, but androids surely do not grow in the same manner as organisms, so one wonders who she is, or how synthetic Android C really is.

Android C is shown here cosplaying as Reco, the heroine of Mushihime-sama, probably Cave’s best-known game. If I remember right, this image was used for a promotional telephone card. The girl on the right is Kirin Yatsuhisha; she’s voiced by Rie Kugimiya, an actress famous for giving voice to a billion loli tsundere characters. For a game as relatively obscure as Instant Brain is, it features a very impressive voice cast. Android C is voiced by Mamiko Noto, who has performed as Masane Amaha in Witchblade and Satellizer El-Bridget in Freezing, among numerous other roles. Instant Brain’s other seiyuu include Marina Inoue (Yozora in Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai and Laura in Infinite Stratos, to name just a few roles from recent anime), Miyuki Sawashiro (Suruga Kanbaru in Bakemonogatari and Yomi/Dead Master in Black Rock Shooter), Kana Hanazawa (Zessica Wong in Aquarion Evol, Nadeko Sengoku in Bakemonogatari, and Matou/Black Rock Shooter in the anime of the same name), Chiaki Takahashi (Azusa Miura in THE iDOLM@STER), and Akio Otsuka (Rider in Fate/zero, Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid). That’s a lot of high-profile talent for a company’s first visual novel.

Here is Android C’s basic character design in the game. Her maid outfit isn’t exactly modest, but it covers up quite a bit more than what she’s wearing on the pillowcase.

Here’s one of the pictures in the book; the book is mostly a compilation of character profiles and design sketches, but there’s about a dozen pages in the beginning of the book that feature full-page artwork.

Here are the design sketches for the dakimakura cover. The artist considered using a different pose for the front side, where C is covering herself up. I like it a lot; if Cave made an alternate dakimakura cover using the discarded sketch, I’d definitely buy it.

Now here’s some artwork from the Cave Shooting Artworks book. Instant Brain doesn’t show up in this book, being that it’s not a shooter (though it does include a playable version of DoDonPachi, with Kinect controls, even), but it shows artwork from a number of Cave’s other games.

Here’s a couple of pieces of art from DeathSmiles. The book is 159 pages long and the first 52 pages are Deathsmiles art.

Here is one piece of character art. I haven’t played DeathSmiles, though the Xbox 360 version did actually get localized in the United States and is available reasonably cheaply, and DeathSmiles II is available in North America through the Games on Demand service.

These characters are from DoDonPachi Daioujou, which hit arcades back in 2002. The character design and illustrations are credited to Shohei Sato and Junya Inoue. Cave’s newest game is DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, released in arcades just this month. Besides the bullet hell gameplay Cave’s games are known and notorious for, it features character designs done by Nagi Ryou, best known for his work on the Ar Tonelico series.

Here’s Reco from Mushihime-sama. These images were drawn by Tomoyuki Kotani.

And here she is again, this time from the sequel Mushihime-sama Futari. This time, the art is credited to HACCAN. I do own this game; the Xbox 360 version was region-free, an unfortunate rarity amongst 360 games. Cave has been quite appreciative of their overseas fans, moreso than one might expect from a fairly obscure developer of games decidedly outside of the mainstream. (Incidentally, Instant Brain is not region-free and requires a solid knowledge of Japanese to enjoy, anyway. I’m hoping that someone will pick it up for localization but frankly, there’s zero chance of that ever happening).

Despite owning the game, I don’t mind admitting that I completely suck at it, as I do with all bullet-hell shooters. I’d probably do better at the game if I were younger; I spent a lot of my childhood in arcades playing games like 1942, Tiger Heli, and Carrier Air Wing, but these days, I play games like Robo Defense, which doesn’t require much skill, and I’ve played games like World of Warcraft, which requires even less skill.

Here are the sisters from Pink Sweets. They originally showed up in a game called Ibara, where they were the bad guys; in the sequel Pink Sweets, they become the playable characters. I had planned on picking up this game, since it was also released region-free (along with the game Muchi Muchi Pork), but money was short at the time and I never did get it. I still hope to add it to my collection someday, though.

This is Element Daughter 01 A.I from DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu. This game was localized in Europe by Rising Star Games, but the disc is playable on North American 360s. This character got a colored model kit that was sold through Cave’s store and, I think, at various hobby shows and events. Off the top of my head, it’s just the second Cave character to get a figure, the first being, of course, Reco, who got a figure from Max Factory a couple of years back.

She also got a dakimakura cover; it was sold at the same time as Android C. I thought about getting it but I was already spending quite a bit on pillowcases at the time so I passed on it.

I probably should’ve just scanned these pages; it’s hard as hell holding up a camera that weighs five pounds with one hand. I’ve got Darth Talon and Uesugi Kenshin standing on my scanner, though.

Here is artwork from Akai Katana, a horizontal 2D shmup that Cave released a couple of years ago. It’s getting localized in North America by Rising Star Games, which means if you own a 360, you should buy it. Here, I’ll even give you an Amazon link.

This wallscroll depicts Sumire Asaka, one of the characters in the game. The game features gorgeous character art (sort of superfluous, since you fly in an airplane through most of the game, but still appreciated). You can see high-res images of the characters over at Andriasang.

I’ll conclude this very cursory overview of Cave’s games by mentioning that the music for Akai Katana and part of the soundtrack for Instant Brain was composed by Ryu Umemoto, who also scored many of Cave’s other games. He was a completely self-taught musician, which is something I admire a lot, being that I never studied any form of creative art myself. Tragically, he passed away last year at just 37 years of age, after a long illness. It’s sad to read his Twitter timeline, in which his last posts are mentions of his illness and of the Tohoku earthquake. There’s also a mention of a planned trip to Sweden, where he’d visited before. (In a bit of an odd coincidence, I got an e-mail just a couple days ago from Mangagamer announcing that they had acquired the rights to Eve Burst Error, which Umemoto had composed the music for.)

Back on the subject, I really like this pillowcase a lot. Should you happen to play this game, there is a walkthrough available on Cave-STG. In the meantime, I’m going to continue doing my rain dance, hoping that someone will pick Instant Brain up for localization.

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When you’re out swinging a big-ass sword that’s taller than you are, it’s best to dress right for the job.

Making her debut – I think – at Wonder Festival all the way back in February 2011, Solange is the first – and to this point, only – figure made by empty. She was initially sold only through empty’s online shop, but like Native’s figures, a bunch of US retailers are also selling her; I got mine from BBTS. She’s listed as 1/7 scale, although that might actually be a pessimistic estimate being that Solange stands about 26 centimeters tall without the base. With the base, the figure is about 31 centimeters tall; whatever scale size she is, she is very large and quite impressive.

Solange Blanchefleur de Luxe is the star of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS game Code of Princess, though there are other playable characters in that game. The game is a side-scrolling beat-em-up reminiscent of Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn – and well it should be, since some of its developers worked on the older game while at Treasure. It’s a game I’d very much like to play, being that I liked Guardian Heroes a lot on the Saturn, but I have no plans to ever buy a 3DS. Unfortunate, but perhaps someday it will hit Xbox Live, like Guardian Heroes has.

This figure is based off of an illustration by Kinu Nishimura. It’s the second figure I own based on her artwork, the first being Max Factory’s old but highly-regarded Mai Shiranui. Curiously, I think that the Code of Princess game was announced after the figure was unveiled, which makes me wonder if the figure is from the game or if the game was inspired by the figure and Nishimura’s illustration.

At any rate, we’re here to look at the figure, and it is reasonably faithful to the source illustration. Solange wears the same abbreviated outfit and carries a very elaborate greatsword of some sort and is captured in mid-stride, ascending some sort of ruined platform while wearing chunky high heels.

A quick look reveals some differences, and perhaps foremost is the change to her expression. In the art, Solange appears mildly worried, as she should be, given the implicit unsteadiness of her choice of shoes, but in the figure, she looks positively terrified. Much of that effect is due to the small pupils of her eyes; also, she now appears to be definitely looking at something, whereas in the art, she’s staring off into space in an abstract manner.

Her eyebrows are also crucial for establishing her disposition, and I think they would look better if they were darker than they are. Solange is obviously blonde but her eyebrows are the same yellow color, which makes them difficult to see, and it also makes her forehead look larger than it is. Indeed, in the source illustration, Solange’s eyebrows are darker than her hair color.

Solange has a very stylized body design, with broad hips, an extremely thin waist, and rather pendulous breasts. It’s an eclectic design, I think, and probably a controversial one, as well. It’s not the sort of design that everybody is going to love.

And I suppose her outfit isn’t going to win universal acclaim, either. In the great tradition of fantasy art, Solange is wearing minimal armor plating – basically gloves, a gorget, and cast iron pasties – and some war panties with a thong back. Her belt is removable, as is her gorget, but her chest armor is not. She also has some fashionable high heels, as mentioned earlier, which look incongruously contemporary compared to the rest of her clothes – what clothes she has, anyway – but I’m not going to quibble about that.

What I will quibble about is that silly crooked crown she’s wearing on her head. I really do not like this sort of tilted hat – I blame K-On! for starting this trend, though it might predate Mio Akiyama. Unfortunately, Solange’s crown is stuck to her head. I passed on ordering Native’s Mordina because of her hat, and I also passed on Alter’s Houmei (from some Shining game – I forget which one) because of that – later on, I found out that her hat is removable and felt a bit silly, but that’s how much I dislike this style of hat.

However, perhaps it’s a bit unfair to single out her hat as it can be easily overlooked given the complexity of other aspects of her design. For instance, despite not featuring a girlish body in the least, Solange does feature a number of feminine details, such as the lace trim on her armor, the heart patterns under her collar, along her garter, and on her shoes, and the flowers in her hair. They give her a younger appearance that seems more in accord with her illustrated design.

The straight-on front view seems to be her best viewing angle; the thinness of her waist is less conspicuous. From other angles, the size of her hips becomes more prominent.

As do other anatomical issues, like the way her hipbone juts out. Admittedly, this is a rather unusual viewing angle that isn’t likely to be seen very much, but still, I can’t help but be reminded of the bulge an alien xenomorph makes just before tearing its way out of its host.

Her sword is certainly one of the highlights of this figure; it is elaborate to an almost ridiculous degree. Curiously, the hilt includes an hourglass and the tip of the handle comprises some kind of astrolabe. It’s about as unrealistic as her outfit is but strangely, you never hear any arguments against impractical weapons from those dreary, tiresome people who deride bikini armor.

I’ll freely admit that Solange’s bikini armor is a major reason that I like this figure, and it may be that I like the themes espoused by this figure more than the figure itself. She looks a bit unusual, more like a perversely adult-oriented Disney design than an anime design, I think – the Disney of the early 90s, that is, when they did ordinary animation rather than the computer-generated 3D stuff everyone does now. Solange seems to have been enthusiastically received, with a number of people liking this figure and quite a few 3DS owners eager to play her game. That’s surprising to me, since I thought the anatomical quirks of this figure might put people off, as it did with the mysterious, illusory gangsta lean Saber figure. At any rate, I think this is a pretty good figure; perhaps not worth the premium price tag it commands, but I’m happy to own it anyway.

Let me qualify that last sentence – I’m happy to own Solange but I’d be happier to own the upcoming black version of the figure, which has a cooler color scheme and, it seems, darker eyebrows. Unfortunately, I forgot to cancel my preorder for the original figure in time to order the newer one.

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The first few months of 2012 were fairly quiet with respect to preorder updates, but figure collectors will soon be enjoying an embarrassment of riches. Figuratively, of course – collectors will be anything but rich come this summer.

June

Alvis Hamilton from Last Exile
I didn’t watch a lot of anime in the late 90s; when I got to college, I played PC games like Starcraft and EverQuest rather than the JRPGs I’d grown up with and didn’t really have much interest in the anime series that came out around that time. However, around 2001, I got back into anime, watching shows like Noir, Jin-Roh, Angelic Layer, and later, Last Exile. I was a fan of Range Murata’s art style and I loved the setting he designed, with its 19th century steampunk aesthetic. I never actually finished watching the show, though; I watched about half of it and lost interest. I can remember the way the ships and vanships looked, but I can’t say I remember much about the plot or the characters.

However, even though the show itself didn’t make a big impression on me, it made a big impact on my life; I really wanted Range Murata’s Spheres doujinshi and I managed to buy it through a middleman service in Japan. That led to collecting more anime merchandise, and so while I don’t remember much of the anime, Last Exile is one of the major reasons this site exists. (I also really wanted a figure of Hikaru from Angelic Layer, but nobody ever made one; even so, that was about where I began getting interested in figures. I wonder how many people on this planet would say they got into anime figures because of Angelic Layer?)

Anyway, Last Exile did well enough to get a sequel (many years later), which is where this figure of Alvis comes from. It doesn’t look like the sort of figure I’d order, normally, but I preordered it anyway. One of these days I’ll dig out my DVDs and finish up the second half of the show.

Retia Adolf from Daiteikoku
Hailing from Alicesoft strategy/porn game Daiteikoku, Retia Adolf is, well, a most unusual adaptation of former German chancellor Adolf Hitler. One might indignantly assert that the evils he inflicted upon the world should not be trivialized in this manner, and I suppose the only argument in its defense is the one that so many Japanese anime and game makers have made, that one simple question that lies at the core of so many aspects of anime culture: why not? With so many elements of anime culture already pushing – or defiantly pissing upon – the boundaries of good taste, it’s difficult to be too shocked at seeing the fuehrer get turned into a blonde anime idol girl.

It seems like Alicesoft’s developers took great pains to make Daiteikoku as gloriously offensive as possible. It’s kinda surprising they didn’t include a cartel of scheming Jewish bankers or a frothy-mouthed band of crazed, fanatical anti-whaling pirates in the game (there are pirates, though, and they are crazy).

Apparently Daiteikoku is not well-regarded amongst eroge players, and I suppose it’s not nearly as complex as Sengoku Rance, but I’m enjoying it regardless. It reminds me a bit of some of the strategy games I played while growing up, such as Star Control and The Ancient Art of War, albeit with a good deal more evil cyborg rape.

Anyway, I wasn’t overly excited by this figure of Adolf at first, but I’ve since changed my mind. Her commanding pose looks hilarious given her skimpy swimsuit, and the figure’s sculptor has done a number of highly-regarded figures, including Rin Tohsaka and Good Smile Company’s recent Shinobu Oshina. We’ll just try to ignore the historical baggage that accompanies this figure and enjoy it for what it is.

July

Alisa Amiella from God Eater Burst
I don’t know a thing about this character or God Eater Burst, to be honest. Wikipedia says it’s a PSP game, which explains why I’ve never heard of it, as I don’t play handheld consoles much and I only recently bought a PSP to play Persona 3 Portable and Pangya Fantasy Golf. That leaves me to assess this figure purely on its looks and it looks great. I’m mildly apprehensive of the fact that Plum is producting it and I wasn’t thrilled by their Nymph figure, but it’s good to see that they know exactly what this figure’s charms are; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manufacturer explicitly point out low-angle shots.

August

Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono
The next in FREEing’s line of 1/4 scale bunnygirls is Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono. This figure comes directly from this illustration and looks reasonably accurate, though I can’t help thinking there’s something off with her face. That might just be an idiosyncrasy of her character design, though. More problematic is her price and the fact that August is stacked with expensive figures, and though I like this figure, it might get squeezed out of the budget.

Incidentally, FREEing’s photos of Ikaros are really, really dark; sort of an odd choice for product photography.

Kanu Unchou from Ikkitousen
There was a time not too long ago where you couldn’t go more than a week or two without seeing an Ikkitousen figure pop up for preorder. Now, the Ikkitousen manga is no longer published in the US, the anime series are long forgotten, and there are far fewer figures of its characters – particularly of Kanu Unchou, who, despite not being the main character, is the banner-bearer of the franchise. I have a fondness for Kanu, particularly in her school uniform, as Yamato’s figure was the first scale-size PVC figure I ever owned (not counting my non-scale size Kaiyodo and Yamato figures and a few Sakura Taisen figures of indeterminate manufacture). I thought that Alter’s figure would be the best one that anyone would make, but Daiki’s version looks better, and it’s also quite a bit larger. I’m pretty sure that despite its high price, I’m going to order this one. Incidentally, this figure was sculpted by Shunjii Hagii and I’ve bought quite a few of his figures without knowing it: he’s also sculpted Kotobukiya’s Masane Amaha, Max Factory’s Kureha, transvestite Yoko, Shunya Yamashita Ryomou, Leina, Tsuneko, bargain bin bikini Tamaki, and samurai Sasara.

Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
After making figures of Nanoha and Fate (under the Good Smile Company name) and Hayate as adults, Gift cranks up the loli factor with this figure of Nanoha. She’s 1/4 scale, ensuring that she’ll get odd stares from anyone who isn’t familiar with anime. Despite her obvious youth, she’s wearing a tiny swimsuit, which looks great. I think I’m going to order this one, particularly if Gift unwraps their matching Fate figure soon, though I have to admit I’m going to feel like a pedophile whenever I look at it.

Saber from Fate/stay night
Lots of figures scheduled this month have lofty price tags but Azone’s Saber is far and away the winner, with an astounding price of 68,000 yen at Hobby Search. For that sort of scratch, some people might ask, “Why not just get a Dollfie?” Well, I don’t have any plans to buy any Dollfies, though a lot of my reasons for that have nothing to do with the dolls themselves. Also, this Saber doll uses Obitsu’s 50-centimeter body, the same basic body design that Yamato’s vmf50 dolls use, which means that she’ll be about the same size as those dolls as well as the Fate Testarossa doll that I have. It also means that I have a ready supply of skirts, shoes, and bondage harnesses that she can wear. Her price is exorbitant, but I went ahead and ordered her anyway, and I’m looking forward to getting her. Saber, get your big-girl panties on, you’ve got a date with the tentacle stand this summer!

September

Aegis from Persona 3
Just a few weeks after Alter’s 1/6 scale Aegis dropped, here’s another (approximately) 1/6 scale Aegis, this time from Yamato by way of REFLECT. Although not nearly as visually interesting as Alter’s figure, it does distinguish itself by putting her in a maid costume. It also incorporates REFLECT’s unique style, which I like quite a bit – I own a number of figures by the sculptor and I like them all. However, while I like this figure (of course, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be writing about it), the price tag is very high for a fairly nondescript figure and I don’t have a huge thing for maids. I do like Aegis but this’ll likely be a figure that I take a wait-and-see approach to. I gotta admit though, of all the figures on my list, I think my opinion of Aegis is improving the most quickly.

Blanc Neige from Shining Wind
Ehh … I guess I’ve ranted enough about how Sega has ruined the Shining franchise (and just about all of their other franchises), so I’ll just say this is a nice figure. Might even be nice enough that I might buy it. I like Tony Taka’s style best when he’s doing porn, and I’m less enthused about his work on the Shining series, but I guess I’d say that Blanc Neige is one of my favorite designs out of those games.

But on a different subject … seriously, the Shining series is now an anime about bread baking? Back when I played Shining Force, you had centaurs, robots, armadillos, and a hero in a bitching minidress. But now … Christ, bread baking.

Inori Yuzuriha from Guilty Crown
The two best reasons to watch Guilty Crown are to witness just how ludicrous it gets and because it has a lot of cute girls. It’s a terrible, terrible show and Inori is only in it to look sexy and become the main character’s love interest. Too bad the show’s writers weren’t interested in giving her a personality. She gets better treatment from Good Smile Company, though … on the surface, that is, because while this figure looks good, it’s listed at 17 centimeters in height, which is miniscule even for its listed 1/8 scale (notably, that makes her shorter than GSC’s Lacia). She looks good in the promo photos and I’m looking forward to her, but I’m expecting to be disappointed by this figure’s size.

Miku Hatsune from Vocaloid
There’ve been a lot of really good Miku Hatsune figures as of late, almost all of them coming from Good Smile Company. I think this one looks to be my favorite, though; her outfit is awesome and I really like her more mature look here. The only thing I’m hoping for is that her umbrella can be removed; I like to think of her as wearing a futuristic bodysuit rather than a race queen uniform. She’s listed as 21 centimeters tall, which is a good size for 1/8 scale; she’s a good inch-and-a-half taller than Inori, which is worrisome.

Milla Maxwell from Tales of Xillia
With two guys and a girl from Tales of Vesperia in their catalog, Alter is moving on to Tales of Xillia. Personally, I’m still holding out hope for a Judith figure, but I’m guessing they’re as likely to make a figure of her as they are to make one of Subaru from Beat Blades Haruka (though Narika’s re-release later this year gives me some hope). Anyway, Milla looks fantastic. She doesn’t have the most dynamic pose, but she looks dignified and sexy. I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

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The Muv-Luv Alternative series is well-known and well-respected for its complex storyline, its realism – insofar as big battles between giant mechs and space aliens can be deemed realistic – and, of course, its sexy female characters vacuum-sealed into impossibly tight pilot suits. Not that you’d know that from any of the figures featuring Total Eclipse characters, though; Alphamax’s figure of Yui Takamura put her in her panties and this figure puts her in, well, her panties. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course – I’m not ever going to say that panties are bad. When a man has lost his ability to appreciate a cute girl in her panties, he’s lost pretty much everything.

Yui Takamura is one of the lead female characters in the Muv-Luv Alternative spinoff series Total Eclipse, which is getting an anime this summer. A short trailer is available on the show’s website, which shows off some of the mecha as well as offering very brief glimpse of Yui, series hero Yuuya Bridges, and Russian pilot Cryska Barchenowa. Hopefully the show will be good but if it isn’t, at least we’ll still get to see cute girls in tight suits during the second half of Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere.

This figure is made by Kotobukiya and is nominally listed as 1/7 scale, though she doesn’t look quite that large and a 1/8 scale classification would be more accurate. She comes with a parasol and a square base, and her clothing is molded to fit over the edges of her base, though it does not drape perfectly. It’s termed the “gekka” version, which means something like “moonlight,” I think. I’m not really sure what that connotes; it fits with the astrophysical name of the series but seems to make less sense given that she’s carrying a sun shade.

This figure is inspired by an illustration from Miyata Sou, who has done much of the artwork for Total Eclipse. It’s mostly faithful to the art, and the few changes made are generally for the better. For example, the size of her parasol has been increased to a more realistic scale.

Although her clothing is falling off of her body, Yui maintains an air of dignity and elegance. Her comportment is one of surprise but she still appears serene, more inquisitive than startled.

Her kimono is exquisite, its crimson color perfectly complemented by the metallic gold accents. It looks voluminous but still fits closely to her body, emphasizing the bare skin of her legs and shoulders. The suggestiveness of its disarray is clearly the highlight of this figure, and renders the giant bow affixed to her obi a sense of inconspicuousness that its size might otherwise command.

Her costume is completed by some bells tied to her ankle, and though they are innocuous enough, they also provide a subtle but unmistakable erotic subtext.

Yui’s parasol is beautifully made, with a lacquer finish that emphasizes the traditional Japanese aesthetic of her appearance. The shade is detachable from the shaft to facilitate getting it into her hand. Unlike Kotobukiya’s Kokoro figure from ages ago, the parasol does not fold up.

Her feet are sculpted very well; surprisingly well, even. It’s not uncommon for feet to be rendered badly in artwork, and though I wouldn’t say that Yui’s feet are poorly drawn in the source illustration, it’s not surprising that the artist drew the toes on only one foot. The sculptor goes beyond what was drawn by curling her toes; it’s a subtle effect but still quite noticeable from the right angles.

Yui’s legs are beautiful, as they should be, as she is all but nude from the waist down. Her rear is also very attractive, again almost completely revealed thanks to the white thong she’s wearing.

I have to admit, I was biased against this figure before I received it. I really like the design of the pilot suits in Muv-Luv Alternative, and I do not understand why nobody is making figures of the Total Eclipse characters in their combat uniforms. In addition, while there aren’t too many Kotobukiya figures that I dislike, in my mind, I tend to associate them with mediocrity. Many of their figures feature unambitious poses and unexceptional technical quality. However, every now and then they make a figure that far outstrips what might be expected from them. Yui is one of them; she looks fantastic and now I’m excited about their upcoming Cryska and Inia figures – Cryska moreso, because for some reason Inia is still sold out everywhere.

Here’s Kotobukiya Yui next to Alphamax Yui. I think Kotobukiya’s version looks a lot better.

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I was surprised when I learned that Alter was making another Aegis figure. They’d already done a figure of Aegis and their current catalog is mostly focused on popular, recent anime – Strike Witches, Bakemonogatari, K-On! and Railgun in their time, and so on. And though Persona 3 is a great game, it feels like it’s been overshadowed and overwhelmed by its sequel. While Persona 3 spawned a derivative and mostly-forgotten anime series, Persona 4 received a direct anime adaptation, on top of getting a fighting game developed by Arc System Works (to be fair, a few Persona 3 characters will be appearing in that game). And while several Persona 4 characters – such as Teddie, Nanako, and every female member of the player’s party – seem to be fan favorites, you don’t really hear anybody wax rhapsodically about Yukari or Ken. Me, personally, I like Persona 3 much more than Persona 4, so I’m glad that Alter chose Aegis once more.

Unlike Alter’s earlier figure, this version of Aegis is made in 1/6 scale – a bit surprising since Alter doesn’t make many figures that large. However, this is not even the first time Alter’s followed up a 1/8 scale figure of a sexy female combat android RPG heroine with a 1/6 scale one; they did a couple of 1/8 scale versions of KOS-MOS before making a 1/6 scale figure of her, albeit in a bikini. At any rate, the big size of this figure is one thing I really like about it. Aegis is about 28 centimeters tall, giving her a very impressive shelf presence.

One of the other things I really like about this figure is that minimal setup is necessary to get her ready for display. She comes with just two parts – the figure and the base. Snap the figure into the base and bam, you’re done. I suppose I wouldn’t have minded if she came with an optional arm accessory to replace her right arm with a rifle – I liked that look for her in the video game – but then again, it probably would look silly given her pose.

As the figure’s title suggests, this figure is based off of an illustration by Shigenori Soejima, the character designer and art director for Persona 3 and 4. I’ve been a fan of his artwork for a while, ever since I saw his illustrations for a relatively obscure PlayStation 2 tactical RPG called Stella Deus. I loved the art style of that game, so much so that I intended to buy it solely on the attractiveness of its cover. However, I was apprehensive of the lack of Japanese voices, and I wrote a post on Atlus’s forum asking whether they’d consider including the original voice track and suggesting that my purchasing decision would be influenced by the voice acting. An Atlus forum rep wrote back and suggested I ought to find a new hobby if I actually cared about voices in video games. Upon its release, Stella Deus received mediocre reviews, with many critiques commenting on the poor voice acting. I didn’t pick it up then; faced with Atlus’s arrogance and indifference, I resolved to boycott their games. I later bought Stella Deus really cheaply out of the used game bin at a local Gamestop.

My boycott lasted only a couple of years, when I picked up Persona 3. While Atlus didn’t include the Japanese voices – and to my knowledge, they generally don’t with any of their games – they did, to their credit, make a much stronger effort at giving the game a high-quality localization. I also picked up Persona 3 FES when it came out and loved it, so much so that it’d probably be fifth on my list of all-time favorite RPGs (right behind Phantasy Star II, Wasteland, Baldur’s Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). I even bought a PSP mostly to play Persona 3 Portable. Conversely, I still haven’t beaten Persona 4 (though I’m pretty close to the end and I know who the boss bad guy is, because it was revealed in the artbook that Atlus included with preorders. Thanks, Atlus.) and I don’t like the characters quite as much; in particular, I dislike Nanako (because I don’t like little kids in my video games) and I really don’t like Teddie. I like the Persona 3 characters quite a bit more – or rather, I like the starting party members quite a bit more, since I never bothered using Ken or the dog. Admittedly, despite my affection for Mitsuru, I frequently rolled my eyes and stared at the ceiling whenever she busted out Marin Karin, which was often at the most inopportune times.

Aegis was my favorite character in the game, though – I have a thing for quiet, emotionless female characters, and I also have a thing for sexy female cyborgs and androids. A lot of people must feel the same way as me because Aegis has gotten quite a few figures – two from Alter, a couple from Cospa – also based direclty off of Soejima’s artwork, a Kotobukiya one, (probably) an upcoming maid figure by REFLECT, and several action figures, including a couple of Figmas. Atlus has also recognized her popularity since she becomes the main character of Persona 3′s epilogue segment, and she was quickly announced as a playable character in Persona 4 Arena.

The character designs for Persona 3 and 4 are heavily influenced by the conventions of anime – big eyes, big heads, relatively small torsos and slender limbs – but this figure of Aegis features much more realistic proportions than is the norm. Aegis’s head is about human-sized and while her legs are quite long, her body build looks much more like a grown adult rather than an adolescent, which is what she resembled in the game.

This realism extends to her facial features as well. While her eyes are still big, she’s unusual in that she has a normally-sized nose rather than a small pointed stub like so many anime figures, and she’s particularly unusual in that her lips are a highlight of her design. Lips are seldom a focus point in anime character design, and they seem to show up most often on older characters. I have to admit, I was quite worried when I saw the painted prototype of this figure; I didn’t think her lips looked very attractive. In fact, I thought some of the promo photos made her look like the Joker from Batman; the red slash of her mouth and the flat look of her face didn’t seem very appealing.

However, my initial impression was as completely wrong as it could possibly be. Aegis’s face is gorgeous and the promo photos weren’t too successful in conveying how beautiful her lips are. Their inclusion here goes a long way in making Aegis look older than she usually does, and though she has just a small smile on her face, her lips are sensuous and her expression is enigmatic. Alter has done a fantastic job with giving Aegis a very unique look.

Another aspect of this figure that sets it apart is its complexity. The level of detail included in Aegis’s sculpt is absolutely astonishing. A cursory glance at pictures shows just how accurate this figure is to her design.

I particularly like how the metallic golden paint contrasts with the matte white color of her body shell.

I also really like how the white covering looks both rigid yet elastic. Wrinkles are visible at her joints, giving it the appearance of clothing, but the damage on her right thigh gives it the appearance of protective polymer.

Even tiny, inconsequential details are not overlooked. This knob on her left forearm is maybe a few millimeters in diameter and one or two millimeters in height – and yet it features rows of knurls on its exterior surface. How many figure makers would go through the trouble of achieving this level of detail and realism? How many even have the capability to do so?

I suppose the one quibble I might have is that they used a faux-transparent material to craft Aegis’s hair. It doesn’t look bad at all in real life, but perhaps a more matte look might’ve been preferable. It calls to mind Alter’s original figure of KOS-MOS; I remember being disappointed that they used a transparent material for her hair rather than the solid powder blue color present in all her promo photos.

I guess another quibble – an unfair one but one that should probably be mentioned – is that her character design doesn’t offer much to satisfy backside fans. Fans of feet aren’t going to be too pleased either, since her feet are more like hooves. I don’t know how many people are fans of feet but I know that there’s one coaching a professional football team in the United States, so perhaps it’s more common a fetish than I imagine.

But in all seriousness, I don’t think there’s anything negative I can say about this figure. It’s amazing, one of the finest figures I’ve ever seen. That it’s of a character that I like is a great bonus, as is its size. I think Alter is the best figure maker out there but with Aegis, they’ve surpassed even their own august standards.

When you’re packing firepower in the form of an M41A pulse rifle – ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher – who needs Palladion?

The sinuous, slithery, seductive tentacle stand loves all women, whether they be flesh and blood or stainless steel and circuit boards.

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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.

This dakimakura cover is drawn by Tetsuya Yatsushima of the circle Briest and distributed by Hold On Pillow. If I remember right, I think this was the first Nanoha-themed pillowcase drawn by the artist, but I’m not certain of that. He’s subsequently done pillowcase art of Vivio and Nanoha. It measures 160 centimeters by 50 centimeters and is made of two-way tricot.

The front side shows Fate shyly smiling. It’s pretty cute and not objectionable in the least, though the way her breasts seem pressed together looks a bit odd, given that she’s lying down. She’s a magical girl though so realism need not be considered a sine qua non here.

Her genitalia shows the puffiness that the artist seems to often incorporate in his work.

The reverse side shows Fate’s backside as she gives off more of a flirty look, tongue out.

A friend of mine reacted negatively to her squished-out breasts; he termed them cancerous boob tumors. I think he has a point, but again, she’s a magical girl and I think she still looks cute. Besides, this is anime, where wars are fought by teenaged child-soldiers, transfer students always have exciting adventures, and every girl is 18 years old, even when they’re 9.

Looking at her torso gives us a good luck at the detail in her strip club fighting suit, which she has thoughtfully pulled to the side to show off her anus and genitalia. Again, her anatomy is very detailed with … wait, what is that? Let’s get closer.

A closer examination reveals that, for some mysterious reason, her genitals are covered by mosaic censoring, and I cannot divine the rationale for such a bizarre decision. It’s not hiding anything, the front side of the pillowcase isn’t censored, and I don’t think any of the other HOP pillowcases I own are censored, which makes it all the more mystifying. Thankfully, it’s not too noticeable from a distance, but it’s still irksome. I like this pillowcase but I’d like it a lot more without the mosaic, and I think I’m still searching for the perfect Fate Testarossa dakimakura cover.

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