Today I will talk about Shinobu from Good Smile Company, as you might know she is based on the Bakemonogatari anime/light novel, some people still haven’t watched it, how weird ;p

Bakemonogatari was well received by the audience and manufacturer GSC turned all of the 6 heroines of the show into 1/8 scaled figures, they were all based on the Blu Ray/DVD front cover illustrations. Other Companies like Kotobukiya or ALTER also made nice figures of that franchise, but from my impression Good Smile Company offered the better looking figures, overall. I was tempted to buy the figure of Kanbaru, but I was doomed by the sold out tag, actually I wanted to wait for a price discount. Unfortunately that never happened.

A few more months ago a prototype of Shinobu was shown at Wonderfestival. I really liked the cute appearance of her sitting on a donut pile with a motorcycle helmet. I waited for pre orders being opened, her price was quite good and I better not wait for the sold out curse.

For this shooting I wanted to recreate something like in this illustration and did some arts and crafts, I bought a cheap medium density fiberboard and cutted out an rectangular shape, I used some adhesive tape to cover the holes in the board and sprayed everything with grey to get the run- down cram school look, the other props were already in my posession so I was good to go.

I wanted to test my newly aquired wireless PixelKing TTL flash trigger and so I didn’t use my 60×40 softbox lamp this time, instead of that I’ve used a combination of natural light, my now wireless external flash and my little automatic slave flash. It worked surprisingly well for a noob.

Anyway in Bakemonogatari, Shinobu is a cute little vampire girl, she was a grown up vampire lady before, but she was somehow turned into a small girl, the story about the true reason behind it will be revealed in Kizumonogatari. Being turned into loli might be a reason for her mainly gloomy and bored appearance in Bakemonogatari, she didn’t even talk in any episode.

The reason for buying this figure was actually based on the design than my liking towards the character. In the Nisemonogatari adaption of the Monogatari novels, it seems Shinobu got used to her new self and cheered up, it was a big surprise as she started talking, she’s naughty, but enchanting at the same time. I hope GSC will make a figure of her like this in the future as well.

On top she is wearing this great vintage helmet with cool brown straps and a goggle part, painting and shading on it are top notch, as little extra you can take it off. Beneath you see her long blonde hair, the tips have a interesting comic banana look, the strands and bangs in her face are clean and detailed and show some sublime orange shading.

The face of Shinobu turned out very nice it’s really cute how her eyebrows shine through her bangs. She also has beautiful detailed eyes, BUT the fact that the figure is based on the Blu Ray DVD front cover illustration  she differs to her appearance in the anime. The eyes are red instead of a gold yellow tone. In the anime they gold/yellow all the time, I’ve checked this to be sure.

On her cheeks she has rosy marks which give the face a very lively expression, have you also noticed her spiky ears kawaii! The face is overall very well recreated. In her mouth she has a soggy donut. Good Smile Company also created a little extra here, the donut comes off, but it leaves no silly looking gap, there is a fully sculpted mouth with upper front teeth lines behind it. That way she looks a bit like “Hau Hau buy me donuts, my master!”

Shinobu is wearing a light pink summer dress with a white petticoat inside. The fit and sculpting of it are nothing less than great, the shading on it is also great, I’ve never seen such a realistic looking shading on a dress before, it looks really pretty. Shinobu also has a little bit erotic going on with dress and the ribbon hanging down between her legs. Some people proofed (R18) that the dress is castoffable with some force, but the mere thought of it is just wrong in my eyes XD

As to be expected from a 1/8 scaled loli figure, Shinobu is small if not even tiny, but she’s very detailed nevertheless, the little toes and fingers have sculpted nails. In the right hand she is holding a donut, which can be turned a bit in her hand. Her pose is also very well done with her arms placed backwards and the bent legs sitting, she looks good from many angles.

Hahaha you are probably wondering where I hid the pictures with Shinobu and her base, but rest assured there is also a base included and some pics are below this block. As I’ve mentioned earlier the base is a pile of donuts on close view the shading on it looks a bit blurry, somehow like donut mud, but overall it looks good. As last figure from the Bakemonogatari anime (I doubt that GSC will ever make a Araragi figure, unfortunately) it is very fitting that traits of all the characters are incorporated next to the donuts. There is Araragi‘s hair with a stapler at his ahoge and the fried egg hairclips from his sisters, Hanekawa‘s cat ears and glasses, the bandage arm of Kanbaru, Hachikuji’s backpack and Oshino‘s shoe , but I can’t remember the yellow flower?

Final Words

Well, what should I say, I think I never had so much fun with photographing a figure from Good Smile Company before, ok I don’t own that many figures from them to tell you the truth, but anyway this was a convincing figure for me and I’m very satisfied with the final product. Shinobu is a great figure in a cute yet cool looking dress, everything on her is done in a very detailed way.

The base has an interesting design and the opportunity to display her in different places, without her base is a nice gimmick as well as the helmet and donut in her mouth which can be taken off.

At first I only bought her for the cute and interesting design, but after watching Nisemonogatari I even found a liking to her character, which increases the value of the figure for me in this case.

Another (sweet) english review can be found at neathgrim and a japanese one at figuephoto2

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A figure that was manufacturered by PLUM, it’s Astraea from the Sora no Otoshimono anime/manga. Her release date was in December 2011. On first sight, I got quite interested in this figure, but my opinion of Plums craftsmanship so far was just based on this Nymph figure and honestly it wasn’t that convincing to me.

So as their Astraea was announced I decided to wait a bit more with the purchase, I also expected that she might end up in the bargain bin like Plum’s Nymph before, but the opposite happened, at the shops I use more regularly the figure was already sold out that was fast.

Astraea is scaled 1/6 and has impressive dimensions, she is 23 cm in height and 22 cm in length, from wing to wing she measures around 30 cm. You should have seen the huge box.

Astraea’s character at first appeared in the 2nd season of the Sora no Otoshimono anime and in chapter 22 of the manga. She is a close combat Angeloid Type Delta. She is a little airheaded and has limited intelligence, but she is equipped with high combat abilities and can show emotions unlike Ikaros. She is 159 cm in height and her bust measures 103 cm.

Later on on she became part Tomoki and his friends. I really like this cute big boobed girl with her cheeeful personailty. She is gluttonous and always scrounges off food from Tomoki.

It seems like a lot of people bought this figure but actually not a single one wrote a review (correct me if I’m wrong), which was another reason for me to track this figure down.

Fortunately I could find it the figure a few month after release at Plamoya, sometimes they have nice discounts, no Im not sponsored. During the shipment I started to doubt my decision, I didn’t know what to expect from Plum or this figure, would I be satisfied with her?
Anyway Im glad that I ordered Astraea, I would have regret it if I had passed on her.

The base is made of ABS and is connected without a peg, you just have to hook it under the backside of her top and gravity does the rest. It is quite stable and the figure has no holes at the back. You can also display her without the base, she just needs a little support from behind.

Hair & Face

Her straw blonde hair looks very well made, the strands as well as the shading are clean and nicely done. Further below the hair is splitted into two huge braids with detailed tips. The voluminous hair part isn’t made in one piece there are 4 smaller seam lines, but it’s no big deal.

On the promo pics the figure seemed to have a rather aroused *kyaaah* face, but in person it turned into a somehow cute and surprised look from most angles, overall her face is very well recreated, the red eyes are lively and have a shiny finish, underneath are some nice blushmarks which were used in a more sublimal way. The figure has an deep open mouth with a nice upper front teeth line. Her naughty °v° mouth would have also been nice, but Im fine with °@° as well.

Body & Outfit

Astraea has a quite buxom body, she is probably the figure with the most impressive bosom in my collection, but she’s still within my so called “not bigger than her head, please” rule.
Im wondering if I can bend this rule enough to make the bath time Hinako figure fit into it XD

Astraea also offers a wasp waist, and a quite big butt for anime figure standards. Nevertheless calling her chubby would be incorrect since her abs appear very well trained. Other amenities of her are the  lovely meaty thighs, the long blonde hair and the beautifully sculpted wings with the diffuse and soft shading. Astraea herself has a delicious pale skintone with subliminal shading.

The figure also has  a nicely designed outfit as well, it is a mix of warrior and cheerleader clothes. The armor parts, the tight corsage and the playful skirt are a fitting combination overall. With her outfit, the buxom body and the sword shield combination, she looks like a Valkyrie. Astraea seems much more like a close combat warrior than her Angeloid friends Ikaros and Nymph.

The clearly outlined and strong colors, work very well with the haircolor and the skintone.

Around her neck she is wearing a  detailed choker in shaded gunmetal color with a few single sculpted chain links. It looks definitely more detailed than the one of Kotobukiya’s Nymph.

PLUM’s Astraea has a castoff feature, but it’s just limited to her skirt, sadly no bare boobs XD. The body separates right under her boobs, you should pay attention to put the two parts of her body back together firmly or you will have a weird looking gap. It’s not like the skirt would cover much in the first place, but I enjoy the clear view at her broad hips and narrow waist.

Depending on the viewing angle at the figure, the crotch is sometimes more or sometimes less visible. Astraea wears innocent white panties but is showing some kind of a small camel toe.

I guess I would have also bought this Astraea in a more simple standing pose, but PLUM went for a more elaborate pose which was based on the illustration below. It isn’t really clear what is happening, either someone is peeking under her skirt or Astraea did something clumsy. Anyway the sculpting is very well done an Astraea is presenting her nice attributes towards the viewer.

This figure is also equipped with a few weapons, the huge thing is a oscillating photon blade called ‘Chrysaor‘, and the shield is known as ‘Aegis L‘. You can display her with and without them, the sword can be placed in her hand and you can exchange the shield hand with a normal one.

Final Words

As some of you maybe already expected, Im really satisfied about how this figure turned out, with 1/6 she’s is a figure of the larger kind and leaves a good impression like that.

With PLUM as a rather new figure manufacturing Company you would probably like to know about their quality, in terms of Astraea I can say that she’s a great figure, they did a great job with the smooth sculpting, of the body and the outfit, it shows nearly no signs of seamlines.
The paintjob is applied in a quite clean manner with next to zero overapaintnig issues. Also her shading looks very good. There is really not much to complain about Astraea.
PLUM’s upcoming Erio and the recently announced God Eater Burst – Alisa from Wonfes also appear quite promising.

On a side note, it was somehow difficult to photograph a figure of such a size and pose, finding the right combination of aperture and distance for example. Im more used to smaller ones and most of my props were just too small.