Kashima – Kantai Collection – Amakuni

Today we will take a look at Kashima, the Amakuni version was made under the direction of Hobby Japan. She was sold as limited and exclusive figure. Like their Mutsu, all their Kancolle figures are scaled 1/7 and not 1/8 like the other manufacturers do. Kashima measures 25 cm in height and was sculpted by Pinpoint and Yokota Ken, her figure was released in March 2018.

I have bought quite a number of Kantai Collection figures in the last few years, but this one is especially nice. Amakuni’s Kashima has a number of additional  parts; 1 alternative arm and hand part for left and right. The figure also has a second smaller base, for displaying her without weapons, for this also a nice back cover is provided.

Kashima is a character from the Kantai Collection browser game, she is very popular and with her voice and overall appearance she is especially cute. Unlike her sadistic sister ship Katori, Kashima is a very gentle girl, her general pattern of speech is friendly, slightly flirty and coquettish. Twitter and Pixiv or fanart in general portrayed her as easy to have girl, which I found rather cruel, but more about it in a later paragraph.

On a historical note Kashima was officially a training cruiser for the Imperial Japanese Navy, sometimes she was used as flagship but her main purpose was that of a training cruiser. The Kashima cruiser actually survived World War II and was not used for tests of nuclear weapons afterwards. Instead she was made a repatriation transport ship that under the command of the American authorities, transported japanese prisoners of war back to the homeland, which is rather sweet when I think about it.

I didn’t have much interest in Kashima before, she wasn’t part of my Kancolle online fleet and I wondered about all the hype. Shortly after the figures was announced a friend showed me a short doujinshi about Kashima. It showed her in different situations where she acts quite lewd like to be expected from her and breaks in tears in the end, because she doesn’t like it at all ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

That poorly illustrated piece created a deep feeling of guilt and sadness inside me, it points out a critique on anime pop culture, Kashima is a good girl but in most fanart she is bluntly put, mainly portrayed as slut, which is honestly often happening with female anime characters. Since that day I cant’t enjoy ecchi fanart like I used to. To protect Kashima’s dignity I decided to buy her figure and take good care of it. Show some respect for your anime waifus!

Now lets talk about the figure in detail, Kashima is wearing a sassy beret with Uniform Yankee signal flags at the sides.

Kashima’s hair is nicely sculpted and painted in a light purple tone, she sports a curly twintail hairstyle of rather short length. Overall her hairstyle is slightly curly at the tips. It is a very cute hairstyle that matches the characters overall sweet appearance. Her face has a very smooth texture without sharp corners, the figure has blue eyes with a distinctive design that makes her look attractive and adorable. Her sweet lips add the final touch to her beautiful face.

Kashima wears a gorgeous looking uniform, the cream white color and overall design create an elegant look, her olive green shirt shows it’s collar and frilly sleeves under the jacket, also her nice and modestly sized chest begins to show.

She wears a dark colored pleated miniskirt with decorative white line and inlay. Its shortness reveals her curvy thighs. While the overall figure has a slender silhouette, those meaty and womanly legs do stand out. I like that a lot about her. Amakuni added a special surface to her legs, the feature is called “soft skin” and you can feel the difference ♡.

The figure is castoffable, the skirt is, it’s absence reveals her fancy black panties. Unfortunately Kashima’s butt is more or less flat, compared to her thighs it’s a small disappointment for me, so I better leave her skirt where it belongs.

Kashima’s weapon backpack is the coolest and realistic looking that I have ever seen on a kancolle figure since Yuudachi. Between the main turrets she has two AA guns, one on each side, under those two searchlights are installed, the shiny lenses look really great. Her main turrets, AA guns and searchlights are extremely moveable. Furthermore Kashima’s equipment involves a pair of binoculars and a depth charge launcher carried like a briefcase.

Optionally the arm that hold the binoculars and has a ship part like bag can be exchanged with an arm where Kashima touches her collarbone. On the left side you can exchange  the hand that holds the depth charge launcher briefcase with a hand where Kashima moves her fingers playfully. When you don’t want to use the weapon backpack, because it requires too much space or for whatever reason, Amakuni was so kind to include a smaller base and a pretty plug.

Final Words

Amakuni’s Kashima deserves a premium tag and it’s worth every Yen. The figure has a very sweet face, a super beautiful and detailed uniform, exceptionally cool weapon backpack and different options to display her, make her an awesome figure from the Kancolle franchise. Also the big size gives her an iconic appearance. She is actually a bit better than the Kancolle figures that GSC or Max Factory made so far.