The Mother Rosario arc started recently that finally shifts focus to Asuna, Kirito’s girlfriend if you remember. Sword Art Online always focused about the future of MMOPRG worlds and shows us games like they could be possible in the close future. Since Asuna started to behave like a NEET, it would be interesting to analyze what is happening in SAO II at the moment.

In the first season it was shown how deadly the future of gaming can be, when security measures are hacked. In Sword Art Online II our heroes and heroines are cheerfully playing ALFheim Online without having to risk their lives or other upsetting things. After Kirito saved Asada san she also joins the ALO group and it seems like everyone enjoys their time.

After the first Sword Art Online incident and being saved from Aincard, Asuna and a number of high school kids attend a special school, to close the gap between the time they lost when they were imprisoned in the virtual world. What we never saw so far was, that at Asuna’s home, her life appears like a golden cage with a rich family that seems to have fallen apart.

She is faced with a mother who is disappointed with her daughters development and doesn’t understand her true feelings. She wants to pull her to arranged meetings in order to get a social fitting husband, to strengthen the families social status. Her mother also wants Asuna to change into a for her standards, real school with a higher ranking and career options.

What appeared rather heartless and cold in episode 19 might have a certain truth. It’s the reaction of a mother who lost patience and worries about her childs future, since she’s has no real idea how to help Asuna to move on, she’s pushy and her method is very questionable.

Well, she’s definetely a bitchy mum, but far away from being a villain.

Asuna’s passive behaviour at home and her long gaming sessions might have triggered her mothers outbreak, as well. One day Asuna lost track of time, while playing ALFheim Online and her mother interrupted her game, because she missed dinner again. She gave Asuna a tongue lashing and announces to take her beloved device away if it will ever happen again.

The mother can’t understand why Asuna is still attached to virtual worlds after it send her in a comatose state for 2 years, to me it’s reasonable that her mother worries about her daughter.

Faced with too high expectations, a mother denying her boyfriend and no real life friends around Asuna is desperate and feels very lonely. This is a truly heart wrenching scene.

Is gaming the whole day something you would do in Asuna’s situation ?

We might realize now that Asuna uses ALO as source for escapism from reality. She was overjoyed about buying a home in ALO where she can live with Kirito and Yui in the cozy virtual world. Sorry little lady this not the right way, it’s a sign that Asuna hasn’t found her place in the real world yet.

I know about the appeal of gaming in general as source for entertainment, free time activity and also escapism. My first MMOPRG was Final Fantasy XIV and it was quite captivating how everything was designed and fascinating how you could design your unique character, it was great to dive into such a different world. I played quite a bit and you have to invest quite some time to increase your stats, some days I played all of my free time before my persistent sense of moderation stopped me *lol*.Well, I haven’t touched it since a few months yet.

Do you sometimes reflect about the time you invest into your gaming ?

As advanced as the virtual world in this anime is, I imagine it to be very difficult not to prefer such an augmented reality virtual world over your real life, especially when your real life seems to be a mess like in Asuna’s case. In the recent events Asuna found a new friend called Yuuki, I’m pretty sure she can give her some helpful life advice.

Sword Art Online always was very positive about MMORPG’s, sometimes with all the tech talk it felt a bit nerdy and boss battles were taken too serious. I wonder if the author/director will push all the blame on the mother or if they also intend to question Asuna’s escape from reality. After watching two seasons of SAO I don’t have the highest expectations of Kawahara, Reki’s talents as writer, but the Mother Rosario arc has quite some potential.

Part 24! It’s been a while since I preordered a figure, but I recently added 3 more lovely figures to my basket, additional I’ve listed a few figures I consider to preorder or not in this post.
I will also talk about a few cool figures that recently showed up, but aren’t up for ordering yet.

September was quite a crazy month, so many delayed items one after another, I had to edit my Preorder Roadmap around 6 times. Now October is a whole mess, but I believe in more delays.

Recent  Preorders

 I-168 – Chuuha ver.

Haha, I was impatiently waiting for preordering my Kancolle waifu, she’s among my top favorite characters in the game. Max Factory did a great job with her damaged state and the cute details like inflatable tube and the simple sandals. I – 168 is so sweet with her embarassed expression an her body looks great. It’s nice to see her in a shiny swimsuit and how it adds some contrast.

manufacturer: Max Factory release date: March 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 10.926 Y

Taimanin Asagi – Igawa Asagi

I really considered about ordering this attractive Ninja woman back and forth, as she was delayed to October I hit the button. Except Asagi, October was ought to be free of preorders, but it never goes as planned in the figure collectors world. You would actually think that a character from really naughty Hentai game, would get a really naughty figure, but her convincing curves aside she is presented as cool looking action heroine. My additional reasons for ordering are her really lovely face, the purple suit and her very promising promo pictures.

manufacturer: Milestone release date: October 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 9.000 Y

Comic Market – Event Staff Onna no Ko

Wing constantly increased their reputation as figure manufacturer and they became rather lively in announcing new figures. Back then there was this lovely official Comic Market mascot illustration, two Wonderfestivals ago it was announced that Wing would turn it into a figure, as soon as I got the news, I was really happy about that. I have to say that this adaption turned out very well, they captured both, the sex appeal and cuteness of the mascot and she looks gorgeous.  Nice hair, a sweet face with glasses, the pose and an odd, but pretty choice of outfit turn her into something really nice. She is also a big scale figure and is partially castoff able.

manufacturer: Wing release date: January 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 12.800 Y

Asuna – Titania version

I actually thought I could pass on this figure since I wasn’t that convinced by the promotional pictures and Asuna never was a character I cared about at first. In the story Asuna grow on me when she and Kirito took in Yui, the little cyber girl. As first user pictures of the figure appeared after release, I was quite surprised about the very adaption of the character. I’m really not into bondage or other tricks with ropes, but I’m a sucker when it comes to expressive faces and this Asuna  has it for sure. Her sorrowful  facial expression is beautiful and she even has Elf ears. Under her pure white dress, Max Factory gave this figure quite risky underwear, which is really in need for adjustment and reveals details I never expected from a figure of this company.

To have less pressure with incoming packages, I placed my order at a local dealer, where I realized that 10o,00€ are actually worth a lot of Yen. I paid a little much, but at least I won’t regret not getting her.

A number of people said that they disliked it when Asuna was kept hostage in ALO and also disliked the figure because it reminded them of that certain part, where Asuna was turned into the damsel in distress. Well, the figure is nevertheless beautiful in my eyes, they could have given her clothes a slightly lighter appearance, but we can figure that out when she arrives.

picture is from Garm_guarddog on Flickr

manufacturer:  Max Factory release date: released scale: 1/7 price: 10.926 Y

Interesting figures

I haven’t ordered these figures, but at least I find them overly interesting and like to list them.
Feel free to tell my which one you like or which not, or would like to see in a review

Original Character – Zettai Tora – normal version

This figure is a fresh GK adaption from Mouse Unit, now they have a PVC version of her ready for preordering. The girl looks a little bit bored, but she has beautiful hair, glasses and a great looking hat. Don’t ask me for what reason she has a tiger tail. This figure features Raita’s distinctive character design with a prominent sculpted ribcage and prominent nipples. She’s a big figure of a nicely sculpted beach woman with castoff feature, the price appears a little fierce, but buying from overseas is still somewhat cost efficient in the EUR regions.

manufacturer: Mouse Unit release date: January 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 14.800 Y

Grisaia no Kajitsu – Suou Amane

Grisaia no Kajitsu is a visual novel, it’s anime adaption will start to air very soon, while Im not sure how they want to adapt this complex material, Kotobukiya shows us one of the heroines of the game in a happy manner. Her background is rather difficult to explain in few sentences, on first impression Amane is a very kind and likes to take care of others like a mother. She’s not shy about showing her buxom body and seems to be quite carefree about morals in general.
This figure looks promising. the hair and face are close to the game design, I love her eyes. The pose is cute and playful, it’s rather cool that she’s 1/6, will give her a bigger impact as figure.

manufacturer: Kotobukiya release date: February 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 11.000 Y

Kasugano Sora

This figure was announced just ten months ago, I have the feeling that it has been longer.
I noticed her appeal some weeks ago, she looks really pretty in her cream white chinese dress and the fine strands of her hair. The soft bright colors of her are quite enchanting. Sora is obviously a younger character, together with blush and huge ribbons she’s also very cute.

manufacturer: ALTER release date: October 2014 scale: 1/7 price: 13.800 Y

Tamaki Kousaka Miwaku no Twister Game version

This figure is based on a GK which has been around for some time, only in parts though, Orca Toys came around the corner and added this Tamaki Kosaka (another one) to their catalog. The girl looks pretty alluring with her body and facial expressions. I like this creative pose, as well as the idea behind it, playing Twister seems to be more fun with Tamaki. The GK had a prettier bikini color, but Ora Toys actually produced some nice figure, this one turn out nice either.

manufacturer: Orca Toys release date: February 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 13.800 Y

Alisia Heart

I actually don’t know who this character is, but the short girl with the flowing red hair looks very nice all around. It’s the typical pretty Japanese Game design outfit, some armor, boots and for female characters there is a cute skirt added. The dynamic pose together with the pretty character design makes a nice package.

manufacturer: ALTER release date: December 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 10.800 Y

Upcoming figures I’m interested in

Featured and announced figures that will be made sooner or later.

Kiryuuin Satsuki – Senketsu version

Haha ok, this is honestly not the girl of my dreams (maybe nightmare), but from an artistic perspective this planned GK adaption is simply awesome. I hope GSC will produce the figure without big design changes, to make her more suitable for mainstream, the unique style makes her special and appealing. I also think that Senketsu, the uniform suits her perfectly.

manufacturer: GSC scale: 1/8

Sailor Sapphire Succubus

Hmm, this post turns out to have certain trend, but now I drop da bomb. …Well, there is nothing to sweet talk about, the figure is a daringly posed Succubus. I actually kind of like the design of Orchid Seeds currently in development prototype, while her exaggerated proportions are not what I demand, there is really something charming in her face that I can hardly resist.

manufacturer: Orchid Seed scale: 1/6

Moco

Captain Earth finished, time for figures! I already assumed that my beloved anime would get no scale figure at all, so as the news surfaced my heart literally skipped a beat. Embrace Japan will make Moco, the charming and enigmatic villain of the show. She is quite the hot lady, always wearing her eccentric, bold outfit. The alien really enjoys her human avatar and I really like her playfully sexy personality. I would be even happier when someone would make a figure of Akari.

manufacturer: Embrace Japan scale: 1/8

We reached the end of this post, I was happy to be able to place a few orders again and share my thoughts about some new figures. Was there anything that caught your interest?
Maybe you have already ordered something from that list, just tell me in the comment area.