It’s Hammer time! The warrior of love, Naoe Kanetsugu makes her appearance.
Today I can present you my review of ALTER‘s latest figure from the Hyakka Ryouran lineup. There already have been a few reviews of her, but it would be nice if you would also read mine.
Naoe Kanetsugu is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 225 mm including the height of her hammer. She was sculpted by Makio Munetoshi who mainly works for ALTER and Kotobukiya as well.
Naoe’s release date was on the 24th February, I’ve ordered her at a german store and therefore I had to wait a little longer. I wasn’t that convinced to order her at first, after a lot of debating for and against her purchase, I decided to get her, but at that time she was already sold out in the big and also small japanese shops. Luckily the german shop still had a few copy’s in stock.
Intro
Overall the Hyakka Ryouran figure Line up was and still is a big hit for ALTER. The popularity of the figures apparently isn’t based on the anime itself. It received rather mixed opinions from the audience and I think only a few people really liked it, like me who already watched it several times. Aside from the flaws in the storytelling the comedy was always overly entertaining for me.
In the story Naoe Kanetsugu is a side character who joins the party halfway in the story. She has a goofy personality and often pretends to be good at certain things, but the outcome always showed us something different. On the other hand she’s a funny girl and caused some hilarious moments. Aside from being a cute weirdo in terms of fighting she’s not completely useless.
One appeal point of this figure Line up are the outfits, which are a mix of school uniform and traditional japanese clothes. In comparison with the other Samurai girls, Naoe’s outfit appears more like the uniform of a private school, aside from her weapon the knots and the sake bottle there aren’t that many traditional japanese traits. Anyway her outfit looks nice and stylish.
Review part
The black and white colored jacket is a nice piece of her outfit and together with the red tie a very modern look is created, her skirt is a simple grey and short one. What also draws attention are the stockings with the cherry blossom petals pattern and the white lines. The shading gives them a slightly transparent look and the dark color accentuates her bare thighs area very well. Smaller but not less eyecatching parts are the fighter like red gloves and the fancy design of her shoes.
I don’t know if Naoe is a hard drinker, but this sake bottle is a interesting detail and I really like the level of detail they added to the cork, it looks almost real.
From my impression ALTER’s figures became cuter than in the years before, be it Kaminagi Ryoko, Charlotte Dunois or the child version of Takamachi Vivio, all of them have a cute and adorable flair. Also Naoe received this cuter finishing with her big eyes which are pointed to the left, the joyful open mouth and the rosy cheeks, she’s just an enchanting pretty young girl.
A lot of effort has been put into Naoe’s hairstyle as well, the hair has a very nice look and feel to it, all the sculpted strands are giving her hair a very three dimensional and detailed appearance.
At the end of each of the twintails are some big metallic colored bells connected via a white rope.
The bendover pose appears quite cheerful like she wants to play her next prank on someone, despite her modest appearance from the front, her rear is quite exposed and with her tight fit white panties there is not much space for imagination left. The figure is showing her nice buttocks, her thighs and overall very pretty legs garnished by some pretty black stockings.
There are also come some optional parts with the figure, there are two different arts for the end of the staff. One is a simple end part while the other one has a fixed chain made of flexible PVC attached to it. To attach the hammer you have to take off the end part and push it in her hand, to make the assembly a bit easier one of the twintails can be taken off.
Me and the Hammer…
My impression of the Hammer is not entirely positive, overall it has a fancy design, the hilt is very well crafted and has a nice texture, also the golden parts of it with the flower ornaments look pretty. Unfortunately the things in between, which resemble a temple look a bit cheap with the glossy plastic texture and show only very little shading. I somehow felt reminded of Playmobil.
A bigger point for criticism is the balance of the weapon, it is a bit annoying to put it in place, cause it won’t stay in place even with the clear stand ALTER included. It is such a hassle to use it. I can’t shake off the impression that it was done in a somewhat half assed way. On their blog ALTER provided a detailed explanation how to use it, but in my case it only worked for an hour.
A hole for the shaft in the base would have probably solved the balancing problem. I came up with my own solution, you have to turn the shaft of the hammer so that the purple ribbon of it sits on Naoe’s back, so far it’s still in place and puts less stress on Naoe’s arm.
Final Words
Naoe Kanetsugu is my second figure of ALTER’s Hyakka Ryoran Line up. In 2010 I got this Hattori Hanzo. Naoe is another very nice figure from that Line up from all the girls she has the most modern looking outfit with just a few traits of samurai and traditional japanese fashion elements. The school uniform in combination with the lovely stockings is very well done.
ALTER created a pretty Naoe figure with a very cute facial expression. They delivered another figure with next to zero flaws in terms of sculpting and painting. One letdown I can’t sugarcoat was the bad balancing of the hammer weapon but with my method it stays in place at least.
Other reviews of her can be found at the blogs of my valued review colleagues.
some more pics …
Vamppy
Thank you for the review of the cute Naoe! ^^
I love the picture with the little black cat on her head! The expression from the cat says: “OMG, what a crazy and noisy girl! g2g”
So funny……LOL
wieselhead
Hi, thx for your comment and the nice words ^-^
Ahaha you think the cat dislikes Naoe?
Vamppy
@wieselhead, No no, I think the cat loves Naoe because they have the same characteristics: cute, prickly & a little clumsy! ^^
The cat is only in position of attention to jump from her head before Naoe swings her hammer……LOL
exilehero
Nice thighs :D! I haven’t seen anything from Samurai Girls but they sure make a lot of nice figures of them!
I never noticed that they were school girl uniform themed haha just thought they wore kinda weird. I always like thigh highs on girls and even more so with ridiculously short skirts like she does!
I wonder what the kanji on the hammer says. It’s a shame that it can’t stay in place for you.
wieselhead
Yay they are lovely! what a shame, at least watch the funny specials these are awesome
What! seriously ? weird tz! thats very fashionable and pretty.
Too bad you don’t see this kind of fashion very often, all the girls are wearing trousers these days 🙁
Oh it simply says love, which is somehow funny written on her hammer, its like written happy birthday on a bomb XD
Miette-chan
“It’s Hammer time”… makes me wanna smack something… or someone… XP
I still find it funny how this figure has Naoe just sticking her bum out of her rather short skirt. I love the Samurai Girls girls, so bouncy and curvacious in all the right places and Naoe is no exception.
wieselhead
Do you know MC Hammer ?
Its actually a more funny figure than a sexy figure.
Well but Naoe is a quite funny girl I really liked her and the nerdy weirdness.
Yes they are hot, but I also found most of them likeable in this show.
anonymous_object
I gotta agree. I know next to nothing about this series but I like every one of the figures from it 😉 Quite a sexy one here as well..
Shame the weapon balance was poorly planned but the rest of the figure look great ^^.
wieselhead
At least you like the design of these fashionable Samurai Ladys 😉
It was a bit annoying at first, but after it stays in place Im feeling at ease about it, its a nice figure overall.
hoshiko
I have no idea who she is except that she reminded me of Gaara from Naruto (The “Ai” and the gourd >.<) But she's such a cutie.
Well, the hammer is huge so I'm not surprised that is hard to balance. I'd a few figures with big weapons and they keep dropping. It can be really annoying.
Tell me something, do the bells on her hair ring? Do they make clinging sound?
wieselhead
Yeah I should have expected that it would be difficult to balance a weapon of this size.
Hehe that would have been a super cute detail, but unfortunately they make no sound.
feal87
She’s my favourite character in Hyakka Ryouran so I can’t do much else than approve this figure…*__*
wieselhead
I see thats good, she was a very cute weirdo girl, I also liked her a lot.
Visual Fanfare
We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t intend on reading your reviews! =) I intended on reviewing her as well, but time’s limited. And usually when I see there’s already a review of a figure at a popular site (like yours, Tier’s, Aka’s, Chag’s, etc.) it sort of downgrades the priority. So you can guess where Naoe now sits on my priority list. LOL
Very nice pics, I like what you did with the vignettes and nice use of the background. My only critique would be to watch out for the horizon lines on the background, looks a bit weird being crooked if that wasn’t the intention.
That said, Naoe seems to be a fairly popular figure amongst figure reviewers and it’s clear to see why. Alter did an amazing job with her, and I think, the rest of the Hyakka Ryoran line. I’ve been very impressed with the colours and detail in paint work on these Hyakka Ryoran girls. I think I have them all except Hattori Hanzo, as I was trying to order the exclusive version and missed out on the standard version. I never did receive the exclusive version though… I guess it’s not a big loss since I’m not into maid outfits nor anime characters with glasses.
I never noticed how short Naoe’s skirt is until her release and I’m not too sure what to comment on that. It is what it is, I suppose! ^_^’ I’m really interested to see what they’ll do for Charles D’Artagnan, though I’m surprised they called her Charlie instead (more unisex). LOL
wieselhead
Ahaha these line was embarrasing don’t quote it :p
Oh Im a popular site, don’t make me blush.
Oh no, sorry it already felt a bit odd to make the fourth review I have to admit ^^
But I like writing reviews and skipping Naoe would have been wrong, all of my figures ge a review,
except nendoroids, since Im scared of breakng them.
Thank you. haha It actually was my intention to let the brown paper parts look like that, something like an used wooden hut or wall.
Yeah she is and I like he modern outfit a lot. So Hattori really was lost during shipment, that must be horrible, not to receive something you’ve paid for.
It is quite short and thats good about it XD I rather would be interested in Gisen cause she’s hot and bad *yay*
Visual Fanfare
Well, looks like Gisen is next up on the list for release, so I’m excited about that as well.
I didin’t lose Hattori Hanzo in shipment, I meant to saythe order never materialized – the online store couldn’t get one in stock. So oh well! ^_^
wieselhead
She should be next, since they already presented the prototype, might turn out very well.
Maybe AmiAmi zero will make a little more ecchi figure of Gisen, I would love to see her in a slightly hot contextt to be honest XD
Ah ok, a little misunderstanding from my side 😉
Aya
Don’t have chance to watch the anime but i can say naoe is my favorite (also due to clumsy impression ^^) she looks so cute 😀 , i can see the hammer problem and also you put the hammer with different angle from the official pictures, hope the Swimsuit version not disappointing me
wieselhead
Yeah Naoe is and adorable girl and her antics are hilarious 😀
The hammer mainly moved on it’s own, the swimsuit version should be fine, since it comes with no oversized weapons XD
Nadav
I love this figure! I didn’t like the anime very much, and actually hated Naoe’s personality. But this figure is absolutely gorgeous! The funny thing is, the part I love the most about it is her hammer (you wrote that it is the most problematic part, but visually it looks amazing). Alter really likes to craft girls with huge weapons. My Fate T. Harlaown figure can attest for that!
wieselhead
Sometimes a figure looks so nice that it doesn’t really matter how you felt for the character the figure is based on ^^
Ah that’s interesting, I mainly bought her because of the face and the outfit. As long as the weapons and the figure are balanced I don’t mind.
softz
Great review! Like you, I also hesitated and she was already sold out. LOL! The color of the uniforms are really matching. However, I don’t like the idea of the huge hammer on her back. It gives me the idea that the hammer is too bulky and heavy for her.. (opps.. she is a samurai) 😀
wieselhead
Thx a lot. Too bad nowadays you have to hurry with ordering popular figures or you won’t get no copy ^^
It’s not my favorite part of her, but I like the figure itself enough to overlook the little oversized weapon.
Haha she’s a strong girl, don’t wory ;D
Tier
The hammer is definitely frustrating to set up for display. I might try sticking some adhesive putty under the support pole to keep it from sliding away all the time. A mounting hole in the hammer would’ve definitely been a better way to do it, and I’m sure Alter could’ve figured out a way to make it inconspicuous.
I found it the hard way that Naoe is a very robust figure; I accidentally knocked her off my desk and she survived with barely a scratch. I also learned that you can pop out one of her twintails from that.
wieselhead
Yeah quite a pain, its a bit odd that the hammer stand offers such weak balancing when the figure itself is very well made. I guess it was a last minute solution :p
Oh no ^^ Good that she survived that crash, but at best you shouldn’t push figures from your desk
Persocom
I’ll refrain from MC Hammer comments since I come from a childhood when he was still cool. Naoe is quite a beauty, it’s a real shame her hammer has balance/quality issues, but I think it looks good from an outsider’s view. I like that her hammer says love on it, maybe it keeps people from fighting when they see it? I really should pick Hyakka Ryoran back up and finish it, I started it out and got turned off by the main girl suddenly becoming a Hakufu clone XD
wieselhead
I was probably a little bit younger at that time, but I remember seeing him on MTV back then, he was cool 😉
Well,, since I found a solution for the hammer, my overall impression isn’t overshadowed by it anymore. She’s a wonderful figure with beautiful twintails ;D
That’s a nice thought ^-^ , but its hard to imagine Naoe like this, she’s no peacekeeper. Haha yeah Jubei was quite silly, but I always liked Hakufu since she’s a lot of fun XD
Otakumouse
Very lovely photos!!! 🙂 btw, how’s the hammer? do you think in time it could actually bend the figure over?
wieselhead
thank you 🙂
When you place the hammer with the ribbon oh her back like I mentioned in the text there should be no problem with this figure, her arm and the back are sharing the weight.
Otherwise the arm is under a lot of physical stress, it will start to bend cause its holding most of the weight.
fabrice
Wow shes pretty popular this figure, I see a lot of other users have her and have been reviewing her.
She should be careful not the bend down to often, lots of perverts will stare haha
Anyway Like i said shes wonderful I think the attention to details is there ALTER sure doesnt disappoint, you can see with the hammer, dam how lovely it looks and the colors!
Even the stockings are well done!
wieselhead
Yeah there were many reviews of her ^^
I guess she likes to bendover XD, but I display her from the front like its supposed to be*lol*
Overall a very nice figure
Nopy
I didn’t notice the cherry blossom petals on her stockings until you pointed them out, they actually make her look nicer. My favourite aspect of the figure is the hammer, it’s disappointing to hear that the temple inside of it has a cheap look, Alter is usually good at making everything look high quality. Even though there are some problems with the hammer, I think overall the figure still looks great.
wieselhead
These little details are always nice on figures, sometimes I didn’t notice them at first ^^
It could look a little less glossy and more shaded, but it doesn’t look extremely cheap, just in comparison with the rest it feels a bit simple and cheap.
Now everything is fine with her and I can’t appreciate her more, she’s very nice.
Sevie
Ich hab mich lange auf diese Figur gefreut *_* Hätte ich noch die liebe Hattori, wäre mein Samurai Girls-Team für mich komplett (zumindest nach dem aktuellen Stand).
Sicher war es etwas schwierig mit dem Hammer. Wie du sagtest, ist das nicht sehr gut ausbalanciert. Die Erklärung auf dem Alter-Blog funktioniert nicht nur nicht richtig, sondern sieht auch unheimlich blöd aus, da der Hammer nicht mehr lässig auf der Schulter liegt, sondern ganz komisch in der Luft hängt -_-”
Letztendlich steht es nach herumprobieren ganz gut im Regal, aber ich bin mal gespannt, wie es wird, wenn ich sie fotografiere…
Deine Fotos sind wirklich sehr schön geworden. Besonders gut gefällt mir das, mit Hattori im Hintergrund! : D
Die Wellpappe und die Steine, bzw. das ganze Setting in solchen natürlich Farben zu halten, passt wirklich super zum Samurai-angehauchten Design : )
wieselhead
Ich hätte sie um ein Haar nicht bestellt, aber bin nun doch zufrieden mit ihr, sie hat eine sehr niedliche Ausstrahlug.
Achso, ja ich hab nur Naoe und Hattori, bald hab ich auch eine bikini Yubei, aber die ist von Ami Ami zero, die die ständig alles verschieben XS
Ja, nach ner Menge Ärger ist der Hammer garnicht mehr so schlimm, hätte aber besser gelöst sein können, das Ganze.
Dankeschön, ich hab den Hintergrund schon Woch vorher für Naoe gebastelt, hatte ich mir in etwa auch so vorgestellt.
BioToxic
Nice to see you got your Naoe as well (yeah I’m super behind with reading through blogs) and enjoy her. All the little details she has are great, and being able to appreciate them in person is much better.
I use the same method as you for balancing her hammer. The purple knot works quite well. The stand Alter intended to be used is just hopeless.
I like the little black cat you used for sitting on her head. Too bad she didn’t have a side kick to sit on her head in the anime :lol:. Where’s it from? I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.
wieselhead
Yeah I finally got her, Ahaha it’s ok =)
In person it’s a slightly different feeling, the face, the stockings and the other details turned out great
It’s probably the best solution out there, it was a bit unusual for ALTER to includimh a useless stand, I hope this won’t happen again with any big weapon wielding figure.
It was a funny addition on the figure. Definitely a good idea with the sidekick
The cat is from the petite Nendoroid Hanekawa