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.
hoshiko
I think this series from GSC has one of the finest lineup. Of course we have Senjougahara’s figure overshadowing the rest but when taking a closer look, each figure in the series are equally gorgeous.
That being said, I’m impressed with the level details found in this Kanbaru figure. I especially like the stack of books she’s casually leaning on.
wieselhead
Yes, it’s nice that they made very nice figures of all the female characters with unique bases.
Too bad they made no Araragi, I would have loved to have a figure of him.
She has an exceptional interesting base, so many books all around 😀
But I also like the figure, since the articulation is lovely
Nopy
It’s always painful to pass on a figure to only come back later and pay even more for it second-hand. I’m not much of a Kanbaaru fan, but I’m glad to hear that you like the figure.
wieselhead
Yes, it is quite bad when this happens, I could have gotten two nice figures for 13000.
But I really wanted to own her and waiting for a dropping second hand price seemed unlikely.
She’s quite the sidecharacter so it’s understandable she’s not all that popular.
Hehe I think she looks lovely 🙂
Pinkcheeks
I truly enjoyed reading your figure reviews, everything was so detailed, I wonder when will I review a figure with a description as detailed as that? T,T
Great set as always. I like the set up and the lighting too. Not a fan of hers, but I like the smug look on her face. 🙂
wieselhead
Thank you very much for reading everything ^^
Sometimes I think that I write too much text, but it’s a style of writing I developep with the years.
It’s how I want to write my reviews. It depends on the author how much and what one wants to write.
Some like to write short reviews, some go a bit off topic and so on.
Thank youthe expression is cool, yeah 🙂
Kai
What kind of sick things? XD I missed buying pre-owned figures for some of my purchases since I bought them first hand before even realizing there were pre-owns. Not sure if I should be happy or sad, lol.
And for the figure, that stand! One of the most elaborately and flashier stands I seen in figures. I wonder just how would you even have space for her, lol.
wieselhead
They fap on them, literally. I think something like that is quite icky X< I don't want to have something preowned when this is the case, hopefully my few preowned figures were owned by non perverted people *lol* Hopefully doing sick stuff with figure is very rare among collectors. Well, as long as they are in good condition, there is nothing wrong with preowned figures. Hehe, yeah it's gotten a little crowded recently, maybe I have to sell a few next. At the moment it's still ok ^^
feal87
I was a bit on the fence when thinking if to pick this figure. It looks really nice, but I never liked the character in the story so I wasn’t sure what to do. I skipped over her in the end, but still…great figure. *_*
wieselhead
Well, she’s a sidecharacter not everyone seem to like. On first sight I didn’t like her, but she grow on me.
I also was a fan of this figure and her design, as you’ve already said she’s very pretty on her own.
Jenn
Kanbaru’s the only one I’m missing from GSC’s Bakemonogatari line! I love her expression. It’s the perfect mixture of snark and satisfaction. Like a cat’s. And her throne of books is infinitely sexy. Maybe I’ll pick her up one day if I find her at a decent resale price. I’ve never had any, ahem, “cleanlineness” issues with used figures before (ew ew ew). The worst I’ve ever gotten was a used figure that was snapped in half, but superglue took care of that. Also, under Outfit and Body, “…she is sitting on her boobs in a very relaxed manner.” Ha! I know it’s a typo, but I can’t stop laughing! Oh, happy accidents…
wieselhead
You have all the others? Im such a set ignorant, I never get everyone, it’s a habit.
It’s a lovely figure, and yeah I never know reading books could look so sexy.
Haha, well I also haven’t received something along these lines or maybe they cleaned it properly ;D
What!? I seriously wrote “boobs” Noooooooooooooo! (my dirty mind) I have to see it for myself.
Fabrice
Great figure and great pictures again, Kanbaru like other bakemonogatari figures is wonderfully done by GSC, these are perhaps the only ones I would probably never get rid off, too important to me given how much i love the series, im looking forward to the releases of all the nisemonogatari ones but it seems to be quite slow.
this picture http://wieselhead.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Kanbaru-Suruga-Bakemonogatari-GSC-22.jpg
is my absolute favorite blends in well!
wieselhead
Thank you, I’ve seen her at your blog and then I really regretted that I haven’t preordered her.
Indeed these figure are a reminder of Bakemonogatari and my great memories with it, it’s such a nice novel/anime.
Even though I don’t own the full line, I think they are all beautiful. Im looking forward to Tsuhiki as figure.
Cool, thank you, it’s good that the figure can sit everywhere, so you can be all creative.