Today I will show you the figure of Kaname Madoka – Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden made by Stronger and distributed by Aniplex, you could have bought this figure bundled with Tamaki Iroha, but I just wanted Madoka.

Ah Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, the surprise hit and little disturbing anime about magical girl Madoka and her friends with mental issues from 2011. The latest figure I received was Miki Sayaka from GSC in 2012.

Obviously, her face is damn cute. Without the hatching the eye design from the game is different than from the anime. The difference is not really obvious, anyway the big sparkly eyes make the figure appear quite adorable and lively.

This figure is based on the side story Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden, a smartphone RPG, an anime adaptation of that will follow in January, 2020.

I admit that the Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari left me in despair and confusion. But when I saw this cute adaptation of the Kaname Madoka character I didn’t have to think twice, about ordering.

Kaname Madoka was released in August 2019, she has been sculpted by Miyajima Katsuyoshi. She is scaled 1/8 and measures adorable 20 cm. Somehow I expected to be a little bigger, but that is ok.

I think that figure is beautiful and sweet no matter from where you look, inside the box you will find the figure, a base, a bow and an exchangeable left hand for displaying the figure without bow.

There we have Madoka with her usual hairstyle, the pigtails decorated with big dark pink colored ribbons, the different shade of pink at the tips creates more depth and makes the magical girl look quite fashionable.

Her outfit is as girly as a magical girl outfit can be , without sounding sarcastic it feels like a mix of wedding cake with lots of frills and pink. She wears a red collar around her neck. I really like the corsage with short puffy sleeves, the yellow and pink colors are quite charming as well as the frilly seam lines and the tiny pink buttons.

Bare skin is shown at her arms, the upper chest and at her back. At the backside is a heart shaped cutout. Gosh everything is just so cute. The small figure actually has beautiful knees highlighted by the frilly socks. the shoes are very red and very glossy. The contrast to the matte colors is quite nice.

The most obvious part of her outfit is the voluminous skirt, the pink top layer looks very appealing with the red rim and the tiny pattern at the tips. She wears white gloves, their design again seems to be based on flower petals.

As already mentioned she has a hand for holding her bow and a different hand for the option to display her without it. With the leafs and rose on top, the bow looks quite a lot like a natural stick, except for the gems attached to it, a nice looking detail is the string at the bow. Madoka’s right hands index finger indicates that she could stretch the bow string, but I don’t want to break something.

Final Words

Kaname Madoka – Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden from Stronger is a wonderful figure where the cuteness doesn’t stop. Her cute face is extremely adorable and the outfit is stunning with all details and overall design. the arched back is a bit extreme, but aside from that the figure is flawless in regards of colors and sculpting quality, looking at this enchanting figure makes me happy.

Welcome to a new figure review, it’s about the 1/8 scaled magical girl Prisma ☆ Illya, I like cute magical girls a lot so I didn’t want to miss the cute Illya figure. I received this figure right after my vacation, I had to choose SAL shipping so that Illya won’t arrive when Im not at home.

Illya was manufactured by Phat Company and actually released on the 14th May in 2013.
Illya is scaled 1/8 and is 19 cm in height, she was sculpted by the experienced Mazaki Yuusuke.

Her origin is a Fate/stay Night spinoff manga called Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma ☆ Illya where Illya becomes a magical girl who has to collect cards, sounds a bit like Cardcaptor Sakura, that reminds me that I still have this certain anime review draft, that I should finish someday. In this world Illya is living together with Kiritsugu, Irisviel and Shirou. As she is chosen by the magical stick “Ruby” things happened and Illya becomes the magical girl apprentice of Tohsaka Rin.

Judging from the first few chapters it is quite hilarious. Oh and for the non manga readers (like me) there will be an anime adaption in the upcoming summer season in a few more days.

Hair & Face

Her haircolor is faint blonde with some subtle shading, two longer pigtails appear at the back of her hair with spread strands at the tips. The hair is decorated with cute winglets, the pink shading there is quite nice. The hairstyle is very close to the manga, overall the hair could be a bit more finer detailed but it’s still nice. Magical girl Illya has a beautiful face with big amber colored eyes and adorable blush marks. The figures has a big open mouth thats amplifies Illya’s happy and playful personality, on closer inspection an upper front teeth line has been applied.

Outfit & Body

The outfit is a tribute to more classic and cute  magical girl outfits like in Card Captor Sakura.
Her sleeveless top has a cute collar with a yellowish ribbon hanging down. The half sleeves are ending in the white gloves, at the end there is a golden rim. Further below Illya is wearing a nicely sculpted double layered skirt, the top part is light pink and a bit more solid, while the lower piece is dark and frilly, yeah and not to forget it’s short. Not, it’s the wind, the wind.

At her back  is small cape with a long, wing like shape, these wings have golden crosses at the tips. Her shoes are also equipped with winglets, they are a little different than the ones on her head. She is wearing light pink stockings with a jagged rim, there is a little distance between her legs and the jags. Of course Illya would be no real magical girl without zettai ryouiki.

The outfit radiates a lot of innocent cuteness, aside from her skirt being short and the revealed underside of her left thigh, which is a nice sight for sure. But it is not too bold for a magical girl to wear. The figure has a pastel like, subtle color theme, spiced up with a lot of interesting shading.

Illya ia a young girl with a petite body, the magical girl costume suits her very well and does a good job in amplifying her youthful charm and appearance. the slender arms are really cute. Quite som effort has been used to make her legs look attractive, the uplifted leg gives Illya some modest sex appeal. Under her cape Illya’s back is a little exposed, not as detailed as I wished, but her shoulderblades are covered by her cape anyway.

The magical stick “Ruby” looks like it’s manga counterpart gold, white and dark red. At the neck it has a nice clear part and a small golden cross can be found at the end. Getting it in place was a bit tricky, but therefor it won’t fell off too easily. Sturdiness is also a word that can be used for the connection to her base, even though Illya is only balanced on one leg, it is a stable solution.

Im enchanted by Illya’s pose where she seems to float forward in midair in an attempt to land, there is this kind of flow in the pose which is quite appealing, I really like  the articulation with her waving hand and the bend leg. The figure has an appealing fluttering appearance.

Final Words

Ahh, it has been some time since my last figure review and Im all rusty this time, anyway the figure of Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma ☆ Illya turned out quite nice. Her face is beautiful and even has nice blushmarks. I like the classic magical girl outfit of this figure a lot. I like the design and flower petal like wings of her top. It’s cute, it’s short and has a cute pastel like color theme.

After Hibari Phat Company again delivered a very nice figure that overall met my expectations. Qualitywise the figure is quite clean, there are only very few seamlines if they are noticeable at all. The colors are cleanly applied and the shading is great. From a nitpicky point of view I would say that a few parts of her dress, appear a few mm thicker than they could have been made.

Of course Phat Company is not on the same level as Max Factory or ALTER but only by a few percent, they manufactur solid and pretty, quality figures. I like this certain sturdiness of Phat’s figures, I am so bold to say that their figures are more durable than products of top manufacturers.

The anime adaption is starting soon, don’t miss the adorable magical girl Illya!
 httpvh://youtu.be/66JY7HRFpcE

Hi and welcome to my review of Sayaka Miki from Good Smile Company

Haha after all the the ecchi figure reviews recently it’s kind of a combo breaker.

This figure of Sayaka is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 20 cm, her release date was in July 11th.
Her origin is the very popular anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica which is considered to be a revolutunary anime inside the magical girl genre. I was happy with the magical animes before, but oh well who asks me anyway. Sayaka Miki is the best friend of Madoka, the main heroine of the show. Sayaka is a very kind and cheerful person, she has a tomboyish personality and likes fooling around. In dangerous situations she protects her small fragile looking friend Madoka.

After the anime ended people wished for cool and dynamic figures of the characters in their fancy costumes, there didn’t pass much time until GSC presented their figure lineup of this anime.

Well, how should I say it all of them appeared rather underwhelming in terms of posing, they could have been adapted from a more interesting illustration than the one which was used.

Nevertheless these figures still had their lovely outfits and a very good quality. Additional to that the Puella Magi Madoka Magica girls also resembled the look of the anime very close.

From the figure line up Sayaka caught my interest the most, I really liked the design and colors. She wasn’t my favorite character, in case you’ve watched the anime you might know why. Her naive thinking of being a magical girl was a bit odd, lets say she wasn’t suited for that job.

I found a nice part of an  Staff discussion where the persons in charge of crucial elements of the anime were talking about the character of Sayaka.

[spoiler]
SHINBO: When the filming was done, I started to feel “she is such a poor girl,” and moreover when I listened to the performance during the after-recording session my heart gradually started to ache more and more, and I started to think “couldn’t there be a little bit salvation for her?”. At first I took a rational point of view, thinking so she is (written as) such a character, but gradually my emotion gushed out and took over.

UROBUCHI: And then I answered, “That would be impossible now.” (LOL)

UROBUCHI: Guess I bullied Sayaka a bit too much (LOL). But then the reason why I do not feel that sorry for Sayaka is this thing, that I just do not feel that even if she hooked up with Kyosuke that girl would really be happy ever after. Most likely Kyosuke is a guy who will stand her up in dates and go to practice the violin, I think.

[/spoiler]

Hair & Face

Ok, sorry for the slightly off topic talk now I’ll start with review part of this Sayaka Miki figure.

The first thing that meets the eye is her hair, look there is no seamline to be found. Her hair is nice and smoothly sculpted with the strands in the right position the hair resembles the look from the anime very well. Nevertheless there was a shirtstorm about the changes which were made to the final figure in terms of haircolor. People were cursing “seagrass“, “too dark“, “GSC betrayed“.

I rewatched some episodes of this show and now I would say that this figure has the right haircolor, a mixture of blue and grey, if at all the prototype had the wrong too bright hair color.

Im really satisfied with the way the face turned the eyes with the partially dotted iris and pupil.  The unique 2D character designs of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica appear to be a bit more difficult to put into 3D shape, but  it wturned out very nice in this case, there is not really an odd angle were Sayaka looks disappointing. Furthermore this figure features all the facial details from the anime character design, like the blush marks and the dark lined mouth.

Well it might be a bit odd, that the face still looks kind and happy, even when she is wielding the two optional cutlass swords. An optional head would have been a great feature to match the look of a girl in a fancy suit with sharp weapons weapons in her hands.

Outfit & Body

From the girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica I liked the outfit of Sayaka the most I guess it was also the main reason I ordered this figure. The design is a little on the tomboyish side but also has a prominent female appearance. Her outfit looks more suited for close combat than the one of Mami or Madoka for example. Her top is a shoulder free corsage resembling dress, the quillings above and below are kind of cute, the top exposes her belly with the blue C symbol.

The white cape gives Sayaka  the extra  chivalrous touch, I like the flow of it a lot. At her nice skirt there are these impressively detailed creases. Im a big fan of her stockings with the blue belts around her thighs. I really like the color combination of navy blue, white and golden details.
The colors and the golden lines and buckles are applied in a quite accurate way.

Quality wise there is not much to complain about in terms of outfit and painting.

Her weapon looks like a combination of a cutlass, a weapon often used by Naval forces, and a katana. The long straight blade indeed resembles a katana. On the hilt has the typical cutlass look, in case you are wondering about the look of the hilt, no there is no trigger function it’s just a design element. The base is a small transparent diesk with a blue radial gradient effect.

Sayaka is actually captured in a happy situation with her arms and hands stretched out it looks like she imitates a plane, while having a kind smile on her face. GSC decided to give this figure a second hand option, where Sayaka can hold her two cutlass weapons. In this stage the face expression is a bit too friendly I would say but overall she looks nice in both display options.

Typically for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime Sayaka has a big wide head, she is 13-14 years old so her body is young and petite. She was crafted with care, there are nice armpits, also the transition from arms to body looks quite nice, her shoulder free outfit slightly reveals one of her collarbones and her budding chest. Sayaka also has nice legs, they are accentuated by her stockings and the crossed pose. In my opinion she has the best pose of the bunch.

Final Words

I’m glad about this purchase and that I didn’t cancel her order, like I intended close before the release. I like her overall design a lot, a pretty head, a nice body and very nice colors. Even though I’m still not a big fan of her character, she is a beautiful figure and that is what counts. She has very nice details and the quality of sculpting  and paintjob are very well done.

I purchased this Sayaka Miki figure for 5,750 Yen at AmiAmi, now she is sold out unfortunately.

Reviews of Madoka Kanami can be found at Figyura and Nopy’s blog who also reviewed Homura Akemi

After my Ikoku Meiro no Croisée post another entry for the Anime Summerseason 2011.
Today I’d like to share my opinion about the magical girl comedy show Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!! is a 12 episode long anime show produced by J.C. Staff, originally based on a pachinko slot machine game. The story of this show is simple, it centers around Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki, two students of St. Cherine academy, at night they are the magical girl duo Twin Angel who fight against the organisation Black Auction and protect the seven amulets who contains an immense power from them. In 2008 there already was a two episode long Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA made by studio Nomad.

[singlepic id=1397 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1400 w=320 h=240 float=none]
Haruka is a cheerful and upbeat character, in Twin Angel mode she is a close combat type, while Aoi the more calm and collected character does long range attacks with her bow. My favorite character was Haruka because she’s cute, but in terms of character depth their teacher is the more interesting person, she is debt ridden and while searching for a part time job she gets pulled to the side of the main villain Black Trader who wants the 7 amulets to fullfill his wrath.

[singlepic id=1401 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1402 w=320 h=240 float=none]
In the later episodes another character joins the Twin Angel Duo, Kurumi Hazuki, a tsundere character who always gets into arguments with Haruka, they are like cat and dog. She is something like the explosive expert of Twin Angel who throws different kinds of bombs at her opponents. In the last quarter of Twin Angel two new villains appear, Tesla and Nine, the adopted daughters of Black Trader, they hate Twin Angel and bring more life into the story.

[singlepic id=1399 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1398 w=320 h=240 float=none]
The voice acting is done by a talented cast, the main characters, Aoi and Haruka are voiced by Noto, Mamiko (Sawako – Kimi ni Todoke) and Tamura, Yukari (Nanoha – Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha) Kurumi Hazuki is voiced by Kurumi Kugimiya, Rie (Louise – Zero no Tsukaima).

[singlepic id=1403 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1404 w=320 h=240 float=none]
The show wants to be a parody of magical girl anime and a magical girl anime at the same time, but that doesn’t work especially well most of the time I have to say. Even though Twin Angel has it’s good and funny moments, the second half of the anime also feels a bit out of good ideas and also a bit rushed and therefore development from the story and the characters lack in substance.

I think when you have such great voice actors, you should make a less half assed job with the plot. Well, there are a few good action scenes and overall the characters and the magical girl outfits are very cute, but something crucal is missing.
It was a cute, cheesy and funny anime, but it could have been better in terms of plot and pacing.

Also the catchy Op “Onna no Kotte Maji Chō Angel” and Ed song “Shining☆Star” were nice.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dfb6T-UVQo

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1juBCBhFVQo&feature=related

Thx for reading, see you in two days with another review of an anime from Summerseason 2011.

Today I will show you a review about this very cute and adorable magical girl themed figure.

She is called Maaryan – Changing Now version and was manufactured by Kotobukiya.

Her release date was in June 2008 but never caught my attention at that time, so I just bought her some weeks ago, when I saw her at Hobby Link Japan. Maaryan or Maako Asagiri is from the popular Game/anime To Heart 2 Another Days. She is a a rather wild and energetic person, who likes to tease her friends. With her small and petite body Maaryan  has the appearance of a loli, but she’s actually a senior in high school. Below is the illustration, this figure is based on.

Kotobukiya also made a fully clothed magical girl fgure version of Maaryan, but I prefered the other version with the white swimsuit. As I said at the beginning of this post Maaryan is manufactured by Kotobukiya and the figure is scaled 1/8 her with a height is about 200 mm

Hair & Face

The hair of this figure has a light strawberry blonde color with some lighter shading here and there. Overall Maaryan has a wild hairstyle with many strands and a sidetail which is held up by a brown ribbon. Above her eyes she has a cute fringe, the  fringe is equipped with two nice heart hairclips. Her face has a very cheerful and energetic expression, I love her sparkling green eyes as well as the blush marks. Her happy open mouth with the small fang gives her a whimsical touch.

Outfit & Body

As Changing Now version she is wearing a white and shiny school swimsuit, the pearl gloss and the detailed seamlines are nice and are adding an realistic look to it. This figure is sculpted very nicely, the sculptor put a lot attention and effort into the big and small details of her. Also her body looks very appealing, Maaryan is petite and has an attractive waistline. She also has a cute and sexy little butt which is complimented by her tight dress. The long legs are also very pretty.

The magical girl concept of this figure looks really well done, especially all these small details, like the small heart badges everywhere are cute details. Her stockings and the gloves have some nice purple outlines. In the middle of Maaryan’s chest is as brooch from where some long semi transparent ribbons are coming out. The figure also comes with an detailed wand that she can hold in her hand. These small details are nice and underlines the magical girl look of this figure.

Her pose looks very energetic it’s like she’ll lift off into the blue sky every second, there are no angles where she looks strange. A semi transparent spiral can also be attached to her base,  in case you don’t like it you can display her without the spiral. Even though she is just standing with one foot on a small pink colored base the figure is very well balance and has a very stable stance.

Final words

Maryan – changing now version is a very well made figure, as I ordered her I didn’t expect
that the figure would turn out that nice I am very happy that I’ve ordered her in the end.
I like petite magical girls and in this figure adaption the overall magical girl look is very well done. She emits a cheerful happy mood and every time I look at her it puts a big smile on my face. The sculpting and the paintjob is done very good and one of my favorite figures from Kotobukiya. My only critique point is the spiral which looks a bit rough at some points, but compared to the overall impression it’s just a small flaw.