Today I will show you Kurosawa Dia, Blu-ray Jacket version made by With Fans! She was released in September 2019, I have set my eyes on this figure already before the release, bought her a few weeks later in the end.
It’s obvious that the Love Live!! Sunshine figures get less attention from big figure manufacturers, of course the franchise has a lot of merchandise and many surprisingly nice prize figures are available, but prize figures as nice as they can be, are different from those full price figures. ALTER also made a few figures of the Sunshine crew, but only With Fans! a GSC sub label make figures of everyone based on the covers of the Blu Ray volumes.
How should I excuse that late review, depressions? …maybe.
The figure of Kurosawa Dia measures 21,5 cm in height and is scaled 1/7. This figure from With Fans! was sculpted by Kawagoe Hiromitsu and Saitou Nobuhiro, both also worked on the figure of Kurosawa Ruby Dia’s little sister.
The figure has a pretty head with cute ears and a cute nose. Dia has beautiful green eyes, I’m a big fan of the detailed Love Live! design with all of those sparkling effects and surrounding linings, she is captured with a happy open mouth.
There is the most obvious outer trademark of Dia Kurosawa, her beauty mark at the mouth. The tiny blushing marks are plain adorable. The flying hair looks very good with cleanly manufactured fringe and strands, the dark brown color is elegant. It’s decorated with a white triangle bangle on the left and flower ornament on the right.
Love Live!! Sunshine!! as anime had it rough, an idol group from some backwater village trying to “imitate” the iconic Muse from Tokio and fail with waving flags. The very first Love Live!! means a lot to me. I liked everyone so much and it was great to be part of the group for 2 seasons and the sweet movie. I was sad about the too early parting of Muse and that it ended already.
I also liked Love Live!! Sunshine, it had great moments, but they are generally seen as lesser school idols. A few things were similar to the previous Love Live!! plot, but the characters were unique and I loved how crazy Sunshine could be.
The character of Kurosawa Dia slowly grow on me in season two. As she first appeared in her role as student council president, she acted rather mean and bossy towards the juniors who want to assemble a school idol club. It often was quite amusing what Dia did with her antics or “Desu Wa” or her imitation of a buzzer when someone made a mistake.
After she joined Aquors Dia became less mean and actually liked and cared about her new friends, not as much as about her sister, which she totally adores, in the end Dia became a reliable member and important asset of Aquors.
Dia wore that outfit during the “Mijuku Dreamer” performance, it’s very pretty and the asymmetric design of her sleeves looks quite cool. The two tones of red and strong blue colors give her outfit a strong appearance.
The outfit has a very complex design with lots of layers and there ere are many small details to discover on it,
like the two small rippons at the shoulders or the bigger one at her back. The frilly white under skirt is a good addition. Her interesting footwear is a combination of boots and traditional sandals.
The figure was nicely captured in a dynamic idol dance pose that shows Dia in the middle of a concert with a smiling open mouth.
Final Words
I noticed that the figure received some nasty comments on mfc, even by myfigurecollection standards, mainly about the position of her eyebrows. Even though the figure isn’t perfect and the color is a bit rough at some edges, she is very pretty overall. I like her pose, outfit and hair a lot. Dia’s face turned out especially nice, so I feel quite happy about this purchase.
Otaking, the Statue Conqueror
As usual, I spent at least 20 minutes with this article. The concentration makes my mind work better and be more calm.
I like both backgrounds you used. The electric tower thingies created a really nice atmosphere. It looks like you used some flower petals too? And the red-black flower wall would work well with a scary figurine…or a samurai-ninja one….Did I see it before on your site?
The bow on her belly…red, blue and gold, one of my fav color combos, for some reason 😉 (hint, it has to do with the website I kept linking around here, the country of origin. https://www.101figurine.ro/cautare/?q=Dia+Kurosawa+)
wieselhead
Oh wow so long, but thank you for taking your time, It feels good to have a regular reader.
I hope that doesn’t sound too bitterly XD. I really appreciate some feedback.
The idol stage was my favourite, in the other setting the traditional aspect of Dia’s outfit is more present.
The flower petals are actually glass crystals. Yes, I used it a few times now. Dia has a great looking dress one of the reason why I had to buy her figure ^^.
Otaking, the Statue Conqueror
Bitterly because I comment so much? Or because other people don’t comment? 😉 😛
Ah, so you had two stages to represent two different looks and feelings. One fancyful and one more traditional-asian. I understand.
I saw your comment on Tentacle Armada recently, I’m sorry you have had such troubles with your work-rest-fun balance and with your health (physical and mental). I’ll hang around these kinds of figure websites for atleast 5 years (if nothing really bad happens to me that is) so I’ll try to keep you company. Trust me, I have a lot of free time, and I’m always available to talk…hope I actually have good, useful things to say as well.
wieselhead
Nope, I appreciate your comments quite a bit.
I would be happy about a more active blogosphere, sure there are a few other blogs about figures, but why should I always take the first step to get in contact. I did that in the past, but everyone moved on.
Thank you for worrying about me, really 🙂 I probably made it sound worse than my situation actually is.
After some years of blogging as the last of a kind makes me often feel bitter,
but I’m not tired of my life, don’t think of me as madman please, I’m fine.
Thx for your offer, maybe we should exchange mail (ok, I already have yours) or Twitter?
Otaking, the Statue Conqueror
I understand how you feel. You feel lonely regarding figure collecting, and you feel like you are maintaining this site only for yourself. I take depression and anxiety disorders very seriously, and I think the world would be a LOT better if more people would be more careful regarding his “neighbor”…lots of actions and words slip under the radar, an then the people with them. Sometimes a kind word and an intimate knowledge of a few people around you can do miracles for everyone’s mental health. Too much isolation and loneliness these past few decades in the West. Anime actually tells the truth, as cheesy and edgy as that might sound.
Yeah, just shoot me an email whenever you feel ready. Actually I don’t have any faceberg or twatter or anything like those. I’m an internet ghost, just observing, never to be seen…until these days haha.
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“I’m an old internet man. When I send an email I write a letter on paper (by hand, it’s the polite way), I put it in an envelope (with a stamp, I ain’t no theif !) and I put it in that thing that comes out sometimes, shaped like a doughnut…cd-rom, they call it… why doesn’t anyone ever write back? I got it! I need to put more stamps, inflation is killing me!”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/goodlife/2015/11/11/futurama-professor-farnsworth-small_trans++qVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VQ9aiyyEB-s/hqdefault.jpg