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.

Todays review is about Kanbaru Suruga from the popular anime Bakemonogatari.

I was always interested in getting this certain figure, but I didn’t order her back in 2011,
the year she was released. With Senjougahara as spearhead most of GSC’s figures from the Bakemonogatari line – up are super popular and so the figures rise in price on the aftermarket.

After a lot of thinking if I really wanted the Kanbaru figure, I couldn’t wait any longer and gort her from a friendly American, who never unpacked his Kanbaru. Not that I can really understand, but I’m happy that I got a new, unopened Kanbaru. I’ve recently seen what sick things some people do things with their figures, so I got a bit cautious of used figures :p

Kanbaru Suruga is an 1/8 scaled figure that was manufactured by GSC, after the sculpt of Tokunaga Hironori. The release happend on July 28, 2011, one day before my birthday actually. The retail price was 9333 Yen, I paid 135 $ (13872 Yen). Quite a lot more *cough* *cough*

All of GSC’s Bakemonogatari figures are based on the Blu-Ray/DVD Covers, and Kanbaru is no exception, she’s an elaborate figure, Kanbaru has an impressive base, that shows her sitting in between towers of yaoi literature with an satisfied evil expression of a smile on her face.

In the anime Kanbaru is one of the girls the main character coincidentally mets. Kanbaru is actually into girls, even though she doesn’t bother to flirt with Araragi and reads yaoi related literature. She was a bit scary at first and I actually hated her for butchering Araragi, but in the Nadeko Snake story, she became a friendly girl, still a bit perverted, but likeable. She’s not that much focused on as others in the show, but Kanbaru definitely made an impression.

Hair & Face

The figure has a tomboyish short hair style, it has rounded edges and is colored in dark with a blueish tint. A bit hidden underneath she has quite strong eyebrows. Kanbaru’s face has a nice tone and a soft looking shape. The half closed eyes create a nice expression and some kind of atmosphere, under her eyes some subtle color for the rosy cheeks has been applied like they are often shown in anime. On her mouth Kanbaru Suruga shows a satisfied wide smile, Im actually not a fan of GSC’s red lined mouths, but here it is rather acceptable and looks good.

The short hair with the bushy eyebrows and half closed eyes gives this  figure a kind of subtle wild sex appeal, I really like that about her. From the right her face looks best, from the left the stronger jaw and chin give her a slightly monkey like look, like in the art she is based on.

Outfit & Body

In contrast to the sexy look on her face Kanbaru’s outfit is the innocent standard uniform of her High School, like Hanekawa and Hitagi are wearing. Yeah it’s a summer uniform with some nice shading and realistic wrinkles, but it is nothing really fancy actually. Kanbaru has some extra details, like her bandaged arm or the basketball sport-shoes. Under the purple skirt she is wearing black biker shorts instead of panties.

The figure has a nicely articulated pose, she is sitting on her boobs books in a very relaxed manner. It is cute how she supports her tilted head with one arm, the other arm with that she holds a book, these little fingers looks quite realistic with these joints. Ah yes the book isn’t fixed to her hand.

Kanbaru Suruga is a normal healthy High School girl, there are no parts on her body that stand out especially, maybe her chest is more developed than Hitagi’s. Sitting figures have their own appeal, in terms of display and photography options they offer many possibilities. In most cases such figures can be taken off their base and placed on different things or on different places.

Base

The base of this figure is quite awesome and elaborately made, it shows Kanbaru sitting on her throne of books on green floor which slightly resembles grass. It consist of five pillars and as little accesoires there is also a potted plant and a basketball, who find their place on the base.

The different sized books are very detailed with several bookmarks and clean transitions between the white pages and the cover. A cool figure on a cool base.

Final Word

Kanbaru is a great figure, I should have made this purchase a lot earlier, but no I had to wait and payed the aftermarket price, I nevertheless think she’s worth the money. On first sight she might appear a bit unimposing on her quite elaborate throne of books, but the interesting pose and cute ,bold face expession are something that make her special. This is no T & A figure, but it’s something really nice to be put on ones shelf. Im quite satisfied with Kanbaru chan and her pretty face, she’s actually nearly as nice as Oshino Shinobu (that I bought on release *u*).

Adapting  Blu-Ray/DVD covers into figures can be a great idea, the Bakemonogatari line up was quite succesful as a whole, but sometimes it works less good, which can partially be said about the Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica figures, who stayed a little behind the expectations.

Hi there Im here again after 18 days of abstinence, september was an empty month in terms of figures. Today I will present you one of my rare figma reviews. It’s old news that Im no big figma collector, but when I really like a certain figma, I won’t hesitate to buy it. So here we have figma number 105, Hachikuji Mayoi from the ultra cool Bakemonogatari universe. I aways liked her funny, lively and cute character in this anime and I already bought a scaled figure of her.
This figma was made by Max Factory, as elementary schoolgirl she only measures 12cm ^-^

sitting on my new 70mm lens – isn’t she lovely

Hachikuji Mayoi has many accessoires in her box, aside from the obligatory three faces, the set of hands and the figma base, there are also parts included like the backpack, an closed umbrella, an open umbrella and a second lower body called “shiftbody” which puts her into a cower pose.

Impressions

Hachikuji wears her normal school uniform, sculpting and painting on it are very accurate, it resembles the look from the anime very well, especially the friendly face with the open eyes is great. Honestly, the face with it’s deep eyes, the lovely blushmarks as well the typical for Max Factory black lined mouth give Hachikuji Mayoi a nicely detailed and lively appearance.

Also other details like the hairband, the green ribbons, the bracelet, the cherry on her skirt, the band aid and even the snail pattern under her shoes are accurately based on her character. The backpack also has all the details we know from the show, there a small straps where Hachikuji can put her arms through, at the inside is a moveable peg who fits into the back of the figma.

The posing ability is very good, the joints stay in place after being put into position. Because of the small size, the joints don’t stick out too much. A funny part are the ball jointed twintails^^. Everything is very tiny, I was a bit scared of breaking something, please handle her with care.

You can display Hachikuji with or without the backpack, it is quite heavy and so you need to use the base, or the figma will fall over. There are two holes where the figma base can be put into.

uaaah! my bag

muhaha now I steal your homework

Not so fast! I’ll teach you a lesson!

F*** Im screwed TT

Hachikuji says “Who fights can lose. Who does not fight has already lost”

cheap FX

You can have a lot of fun with the Hachikuji Mayoi figma, the different kinds of accessoires gives you a lot of stuff to play around with, the open umbrella for example is a beautiful item, it looks so adorable when she is holding it, you can also use it with other figmas like Shizuno Izumi.

Final Words

Max Factory delivered another great figma, in my eyes it’s one of the best ones :D. The level of detail at such a tiny 12cm figma are remarkable. The posing works well like with most other figmas, but the small size increases the cuteness of this one. The included accessories will give you a lot of display possibilities, the umbrella and the “shiftbody” parts are my personal favorites.

If you like figma and Hachikuji Mayoi you should get your copy, even if you are not into figma I would recommend to get her, you don’t have to play with her, just put her into a cute pose and let her be. The only understandable reason not to buy her would be in case you dislike Hachikuji.

thx for reading, this time it was shorter than usual, I hope you don’t mind.
next time I will give you my impression about the shows of anime summer season 2011.