Time for a new review and today we take a look at the Yagyu Jubei – swimsuit version figure.

The figure was recently released by AmiAmi zero, a company known for pretty and sexy figures like Menace from Queens Blade or Hinako from the silly but cute Issho ni Training Ofuro OVA.

Jubei the sexy godess of the beach which I review here is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 15 cm. The release occured in early October this year. Yagyu Jubei arrived after 3 1/2 weeks with SAL shipment, if I had known about the many delays of my other figure orders I had chosen a faster shipping method. Anyway I’m very happy to be able to write a new figure review again.

There have been a number of Yagyu Jubei figures, but I fell in love with this one after I’ve seen some unofficial pictures from a certain fair. She is part of AmiAmi zero’s Hyakka Ryouran swimsuit line Hattori Hanzo was the first one Jubei the second one and Tokugawa Sen will be the next.

This Yagyu Jubei wore this outfit in the beach episode of the Hyakka Ryouran anime where she was wearing this exotic bikini. The outer appearance of Jubei is that of a fine women, but she’s rather an airhead and has the mind of a child in the story, I can’t say that she’s one of my favorite characters, but I like happy girls, be they silly or airheaded, it doesn’t really matter to me.

Hair & Face

Yagyu Jubei has a wild and rather complex hairstyle with dynamic strands, a twin ponytail with a knot in between and antenna strands at the front. The hair is painted in a straight red, I think the colortone is very well chosen, it’s not too gaudy and not to dark either. There is no color shading, but since the detailed sculpting already creates nice shadows it’s fair enough. The sculpting of the hair is detailed and clean overall. As optional item Ami Ami zero included the black samurai themed hairclip Jubei is wearing all the time, you have to put in place by yourself, it’s equipped with thin doublefaced adhesive tape since it’s very sticky there is no real danger of loosing it.

A alluring face expression with slanted eyes and a lustful mouth, would also have been a fitting choice considering the overall apppearance of this Jubei figure, but with the recreated expression of childish, cheerful innocence this figure is true to her origin in the light novel and anime show.

The round face is showing dark eyebrows and striking blue eyes with subtle blushmarks below.
Jubei has a tiny nose and is presented with a deeply engraved open mouth the lower lip is slightly sculpted and is painted with a nice faint glossy finish, she’s actually very cute like that.

Body & Outfit

The figure is without a doubt very sexy and has a very well defined body with broad hips and a sexy waistline and other nice curves, the details on her belly look really appealing, one would like to poke an tickle her :D. The very good sculpting can also be found at the back, the round butt looks especially great, further above she also has  nicely defined scapulas. The accurately applied shading effects on her body accentuate her sensual features even more. The figure has a kneeling pose with a attractive arched back, with one hand she is playfully stretching her bikini slip (๑¯ω¯๑)

What I always like about figures are single sculpted fingers and the sculptor Ozawa Shingo put a lot of attention to these little fingers they look quite lifelike. The toes also appear very detailed and like the nails on the fingers they are painted. The posing of her left hand is no homage to the German Metal festival “Wacken“. In Japan this sign means something like “I love you”.

Yagyu Jubei has quite the revealing bikini which is nice, the level of detail is really good, I really like the seamlines and wrinkles. The thin bikini material is very well recreated overall. The slip has a tight fit and so not much is left for imagination at her private parts. A castoff feature is also integrated in this figure, the bikini top comes off easily, but you have take off the head and arms before. The white rope bracelets do a good job with hiding the area where the arms seperate.

Her breast actually aren’t as big as expected, sure the arched back lifts them up quite a bit, but underneath the bikini top they appear “normal” sized compared to some legendary cleavage figures in my collection. I really like the shape of Jubei’s breasts, her nipples are in a neutral state and are painted in a pastel pink color. With such a bright red bikini you would think about some nasty paint transfer all over her body, but fortunately that’s not the case with this figure.

To dress this redheaded darling up again there are little spikes made of wire at the ends of the straps of her bikini who slide in into the holes of her bikini pants, in most pictures I was too lazy to put them back into the holes, but it’s possible to display her in more proper way like I did here.

Final Words

I’ve ordered this figure mainly out of curiosity and actually had subdued expectations, so now I can say that she turned out a lot better than expected. Jubei has a cute face and her well defined body is just hot and sexy. This figure really has a superior body sculpting and the overall quality of her is also very good. This was my second figure of Ami Ami zero and Im quite satisfied again.

Since this figure is so detailed Ami Ami zero could have easily sculpted her at a bigger scale, like the with first Hyakka Ryouran figures they’ve made, but since the actual lineup is done at 1/8 it can’t be helped. Despite all the praise for this Jubei there are a few not so good points; the base for example is very, very simple. I expected a bit more than clear blue disk with no engraved text.

Another not so nice part is the stability of her pose a little more rough vibrations when she’s placed on a desk or an while taking pictures on uneven floor makes her flip over easily.  Well, she’s not completely instable, when left alone on a shelf, the figure won’t cause such problems.

More pictures below…  Ah well I took a lot =D

Today I will write my very first figure review, about my latest purchased figure, Hattori Hanzo.
This figure was manufactured by ALTER and  is scaled 1/8 with a height of 22 cm. The release date was in April 2010. Back then I bought her for around 8800 Yen at Hobby Link Japan.

Her origin is the anime adaption Hyakka Ryouran which started airing in September 2010.

ALTER actually has more figures from this show in line Yagyu Jubei, Yagyu Jubei-Swimsuit Version, Senhime, Sanada Yukimura, Gotou Matabei , Naoe Kanetsugu and a second Naoe figure as exclusive swimsuit version. A figure of Yagyuu Gisen was already announced as well.

Aside from ALTER also other figure manufacturers made Hyakka Ryoran figures, AMIAMi zero also planned some nice and promising ones, which are more of the sexy category.

“The story of Hyakka Ryouran takes place in Japan in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power. Here student councils are tasked with oppressing schools. Yagyuu Muneakira is a high school student who rebels against his student council with the help of girls who’ve had the names of famous samurai here.

Hattori Hanzo has a pretty unique design, I really like how they mixed a maid outfit with the straditional japanese details. The style of traditional japanese samurai themed elements and anime fashion is a very cool feature of these Hyakka Ryoran characters and figure adaptions.

One odd story about Hyakka Ryoran the figures is that they were made and released before the anime aired. Even though I don’t care much about the origins of the figures I purchase, but I was quite surprised when Hattori Hanzo turned out as the masochistic servant of princess Senhime.

Hair & Face

Hattori has beautiful long purple hair, which is sculpted in a dynamic flying way. It has many detailed strands and shows light dark shading at some areas, her fringe looks especially nice.
On her head she has a maid cap that features these traditional Japanese design elements.

Her face looks also very good she got beautiful blue eyes and purple eyebrows. The face shows an angry expression or at least a tense fighting expression with an open mouth that features a nice upper front teeth line. The glasses has a silver frame and clear parts which are adding a nice touch to her, the glasses can’t be taken off, but fans of girls with glass would enjoy her like this.

Outfit & Body

Hattori Hanzo comes in a nearly normal maid attire with a long shirt and a apron at the front. At her hands the figure has bandage like gloves, she is also wearing white ropes all her limbs. The skirt which is full of sharp and shiny blades, first I thought these blades were made of PVC, but they are made of hard and spiky plastic. These narrow layers of different sized blades create a very impressive look. Under her maid you can see a small part of the purple rhombus patterned mesh shirt also one of her stockings has this pattern. Hattori is wearing a wine red panties which is quite nice and attractive. Her outfit looks cool and the different colors are chosen very well.

At her feet she is wearing Tabi socks and a extreme version of traditionsl tengu geta shoes, you have to be a real masochist to be able to walk in these shoes.What I like about Hattori is her a buxom girl appearance she looks more voluptuous than the other Hyakka Ryoran girls. She has meaty and attractive thighs and a very nice round butt =D

As weapon Hattori comes with a giant Shuriken weapon, she is able to hold it in both hands, you can also put other things in her hands, as you can see I gave her a broom “Maid Business”.

She is fixed to the base with one  bended metal bar when you put it all together for the first time, it’s a bit difficult to connect the metal bar and the figure together, but it works. Her pose is very expressive and due to her Pose its inevitable to look a bit under her skirt. There is one minor detail that bothers me a bit, when putting her on a high shelf it is be difficult to see her face. There is a little makeshift to display in a more face revealing position you cen use the metal bar in two directions, so you have the possibility to pose her in a different angle where she looks down.

Final words

Hattori Hanzo is a very pretty and cool looking figure from the Hyakka Ryoran lineup. With her maid attire and the blade equipped skirt she look s very martial at first, but I think she is beautiful in her own way. She has nice glasses and a very detailed hairstyle. Her sculpting looks good and clean and offers a lot of details to explore, her paintjob is great as well and the different colors are a interesting combination. Aside from the limitating posing option Alter did a very good job.