Figures of Hoshizora, Rin and Yazawa, Nico were also part of this lineup of three.

In general Hanayo is a shy and demure person, but she is an ambitious Idol fan. Deep down she wanted to be part of µ’s very early, but thought that she wasn’t good enough and had the wrong personality for it. Rin and Maki litterally had to drag her to the roof to make her decide to join the group, but actually Hanayo took the final step. Episode 4 of Love Live! School Idol Project season one was really great. Eventually, Hanayo can overcome her shyness and is able perform on stage with everyone on a same level. I really like Hanayo for everything she is, her looks, the cute behaviour and funny antics. Oh and her obsession with rice is just hilarious

Hanayo looks perfectly like Hanayo in this figure adadaption from the good looking hair to the chin she has a pretty head. She is very charming with her beautiful eyes which are precisely printed and a cute mouth with her gentle smile.
I was really happy that Hanayo came with glasses, I like such figure a lot, Hanayo is my 2nd figure with such a feature.

Often in anime media you see glasses as kind of beauty defect and to be exchanged with contact lenses and characters suddenly getting prettier, to me such such things are unnecessary, wearing glasses doesn’t mean that you are an ugly duckling. I always thought of glasses as fashionable item, also before it became an hipster item for people that don’t need it. Aside from being a big help for people with bad eyes it can give a certain look interesting or also attractive look to a person. Hanayo can also be displayed without glasses, but why should I do that? she looks gorgeous this way .

Hanayo’s regular school uniform set looks lovely, it was adapted faithfully and looks elegantly casual, the dark blue blazer with it’s dark shading has a convincing look, also the white collar and sleeves from the shirt below give it a lively appearance. Her skirt is painted in a lighter blue color it has a nice pattern, although it’s not as detailed as the blazer, it also looks good. The number of details and the texture give her outfit a very good and dynamic look, the cute ribbon around her neck and the golden buttons add the finishing touch to her appealing uniform. Hanayo likes to wear panty hose, the brown one suits her very well and the dark shading at the right places accentuates the girls beautiful legs.

The cute Hanayo is a modest figure, nevertheless with some tricks here and there the sculptor managed to accentuates her pretty body with the help of her clothes. The blazers sits quite close to her body, which highlights her narrow waist and wider hips. As already mentioned the pantyhose also makes her legs very pretty, haha I really like her cute thighs. Alltogether the outfit and bodysculpting gives Koizumi, Hanayo an attractive but also still a decent appearance.

The chosen pose of Hanayo is very nice, the lively articulation or her body, limps and hands is cute and appealing.

Final Words

This figure of Hanayo turned out lovely, sweet and lively. Even though when ALTER plays in another league with their fancy Love Live! School Idol Festival figures, FREEing also did a very good job with their Koizomi, Hanayo in her regular school uniform that follows the anime design closely, considering the price it was a real surprise for me that the figure turned out so nicely made. I did not always have the best opinion of the smaller scale figures from FREEing, but sculptor Yokoyama and the manufacturer apparently did an excellent job, since this figure here is surprisingly detailed and elaborately sculpted, a pretty uniform, a sweet pose and most importantly a beautiful head make an appealing figure out of her. As fan of Hanayo I’m extremely satisfied with this figure and happy about my decision to order her.
 

Today‘s figure review is about Akaza Akari, the sweet announcer and heroine of Yuru Yuri.

The naughty anime always makes always fun of her lack of presence, but actually Akari is the most popular character. She was featured in a number of figures and other related products.

This Akari was manufactured by ALTER , she was also delayed like so many other figures from them, anyway she was finally released in June 2013. Akari is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 18 cm.

I’m quite attached to Akari Akaza, cause we have a lot in common, I’d even call her my anime soulmate, it seems bad to find someone like this in a silly comedy show, but underneath the” no presence” running gag, Akari has a beautiful personality. Akari is polite, kind and also cares for others,  she likes animals, even the creepy ones (snakes). Even when her kindness is often unrequited Akari won’t change trying to be a good person. What we also have in common is that we always stay sheerful, even when the world around us isn’t always nice to us. These are things I can relate to. Well, maybe I also have a lack of presence, but that is another topic.

I’m 200% picky with figures of my favorite characters and rarely by such figures, but Akari received a wonderful figure adaption. Whenever I sit at my desk and look at her I say Akarin !!!
In a melodic tone. Let’s have a closer look at Akari’s qualities in the next 100 sentences (lol) .

Hair & Face

She has a red short haircut with many rounded, tapering strands around her face, at the sides there are little pigtails, Kyoko one of her friends calls her buns rockets, but of course they aren’t. There is also a thin ahoge on top. On her red hair there isn’t much shading applied, it only seems to be present at the strands tips.

The face turned out really nice, with the three dimensional sculpting it appears a bit squishy. Akari has purple eyes, designed in the Yuru Yuri art style she also has soft blush marks around her cheeks and a cute open mouth. How can someone say that there is a lack of presence when Akari is so adorable

Body & Outfit

Akari is a middle school girl, so her body is rather short and petite, something between a loli and a teenager. Well I haven’t ordered her for being sexy, but I like her innocent and cute charm.

Yeah as you can see Akari is another school uniform figure, but this is nothing bad since her very uniform is really chic in terms of color palette and design, she is wearing a nice one buttoned, sailor uniform over her long sleeved red dress. Im actually a fan of such double sleeve outfits. The wrinkles and flow of it are marvelous and the harmonic colors gives the whole thing a nice look. As little eyecatcher Akari has a navy blue school bag, which she carries over her shoulder, it is very detailed, the little teddy bar is something that will make women hearts jump higher.

The figure is sculpted in a standing pose, with her outstretched arm and waving fingers she cheerfully greets her friends on her way to school. I like this captured moment a lot, since it shows a part of the characters personality. The base is a cool eyecatcher, it is a clear disk with a red outer circle, that also shows her name and inside the circle are pink polka dots.

Final Words

What brought me too Yuru Yuri was Chinatsu, but as I learned that her personality is rotten to the core, my interest was quickly directed towards Akari, she is cute and I could partially identify myself with her character, which actually never happened to me in anime show before, at least not to such an extent.

ALTER made a great figure of Akaza Akari, the figure of her is sweet and petite, she looks really cute and her cheerfulness was nicely captured in this pose and her facial expression. The creative outfit is great and offers many details, the use of wrinkles and flow of the clothes create a convincing scene of Akari in her natural surrounding. I’m totally convinced by this figure.

Do you like Akari from Yuru Yuri? If yes I would really recommend this figure.

Today I’ll present you a review of one of my most awaited figures in this year, this Kan’u Unchou.
It’s actually my first figure from this manufacturer and also my very first Ikki Tousen figure.

The Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor version of Kan’u Unchou was manufactured by Daiki Kougyou, the figure was announced nine months ago and the release occured on November 16th 2012.
The figure of Kan’u is scaled 1/6 and has a good height of 28 cm (32 cm with her spear weapon).

I ordered her for 11920 Yen at Ami Ami, SAL shipping turned out cheaper than expected.

Her origin is the anime adaption of Ikki Tousen, the show is loosely based on the events and characters from the “Romance of the three kingdoms”, where modern Japan sees a similar struggle for power between different rival schools with the three strongest leaders. There are many healthy female Warriors who are involved into a lot of fights and battle damaged clothes.

I started to like the anime, after I’ve watched all three seasons that were available at that time at once. After the terrible first season from J.C. Staff, Arms continued the franchise in a better way, Dragon Destiny was a lot better and Great Guardians would be my favorite of these three.

Compared to the manga the anime is a bit different and it’s a pity that each season so far was only 12-13 episodes long, but overall it is a very entertaining show for me with appealing character designs. I especially like the characters from Seito and Nanyu and their interactions.

Kan’u is from Seito Academy, together with Chouhi, Koumei and Chou’un she is protecting her leader Ryuubi Gentoku, who is actually more into reading books than fighting and the school.

Kan’u is actually no lesbian, but she has strong romantic feelings torwards her leader Ryuubi.

With Special A Toushi Rank, Kan’u is one of the strongest and skilled fighters in Ikki Tousen.

Hair & Face

Kanu’u is a pretty girl with very long dark aubergine-colored hair with some lighter shading, the sculpting of it was done in a rather dynamic way even at the back it looks very nice. Her hair is showing many single strands all around, one of her eyes is hidden by a bang. At the back of her hair there is a metallic colored pipe like hairclip that holds everything together at the end.

A part I really like about the figure is the pretty face which shows an convincing expression, that is full angry determination and pride. In general I stay away from figures with in my eyes, too serious facial expression, but I like how Kan’u looks in this figure adaption. The slanted eye(s) captures the attractive style from the anime very well and lets the figure appear very lively.

Her mouth also looks very good, both lips are nicely sculpted and add a lot facial detail to the figure, the slightly rosy cheeks are another little but nice detail of her face.

Body & Outfit

Kan’u Unchou is a 19 year old girl, with the three sizes 96 – 60 – 91. Her height of 1,72 m makes her taller than your average Japanese women. I really like how sexy this figure is, the subtle muscular limbs show her well toned body, yet Kan’u looks still very feminine and curvy.

Her big round boobs are really nice in my opinion, they have an appealing shape and some underboob appeal is implemented, it might appear a bit odd that her boobs point upwards, but it can be justified with her dynamic fighting pose and some overflowing Chi, I don’t really mind.
Aside from that the body of Kan’u offers a nice belly as well as nice hips and meaty thighs.

The schools in Ikki Tousen were always lawless areas, I actually never saw a teacher or student council there and therefore nobody cares about the modified length of her shirt. Aside from this little modification Kan’u wears the Seito typical sailor uniform, a white short sleeved shirt with blue stripes, a blue skirt, loose socks and school model shoes. The sculpting of both, shirt and skirt looks very elaborate, detailed wrinkles and shading give her dress a nearly lifelike appearance.

The skirt comes off at the side and high cut panties are revealed. With her boobs so nice, round, ripe and bouncy it’s quite a shame that the shirt won’t come of on Moeyo it was shown that the figure can be forcefully castoff, but I think she was actually too expensive to make such a stunt.

As weapon Kan’u is wielding her “Blue Dragon Crescent Blade” Spear, it has a nice metallic like color with some shading. The spears has to be pushed (not pressed) it into her left hand, with the right technique it is a do-able task and once in place it’s stays firm and looks cool.

A more major letdown is actually the base, I already expected that I wouldn’t get the wooden disk from the promo shots, but a plain black disk with a cheap plastic shine is underwhelming for such a high quality figure. The figure is supported via two pegs, unfortunately the small peg broke during the shooting, from two other owners of her I heard of the same problem, maybe Daiki should have used sturdier material. Anyway the bigger peg is enough to keep the figure in place.

Final Words

Im very satisfied with this figure of Kan’u Unchou, she turned out like the promo shots implied (except the base). My image of Kan’u was recreated very well and even though she isn’t my favorite Ikki Tousen character, I’m totally happy about my decision of ordering this figure.

She has a very powerful, sexy and proud appearance and the quality is also very good, painting and sculpting are well executed, Daiki Kougyou left a very convincing impression with their
Kan’u Unchou – Xtreme Xecutor figure. It’s a nice feeling when a figure turned out as expected.

Another review can be  found at Tentacle Armada

This version and an alternative Pink version are still available at Ami Ami

For these review pictures I used two new items, the Sigma 28 mm F1,8 EX DG Macro, which works very well with bigger figures like Kan’u and a LQ-103 LumiQuest Ultrasoft bouncer.