Another “bargain” purchase from the same retailer as Barnaby. This one I tried to find pics of online… but came up blank. So decided to go for it anyway. 

So let’s see what she looks like:

Her swimsuit is a nice marbled orange colour. From the prototype pics I couldn’t work out if it would have a shiny effect – turns out not, and I think it works fine as-is. The fabric necklace was a nice surprise – I like mixed media touches like this. What is disappointing about this figure for me, however is her hair – it dangles very significantly over her face, and you don’t really see much of her face. In the prototypes they’ve lit her in an unnatural way so there isn’t as much shadow. Displaying this figure, you’re likely to get a decent amount of shadow over her eyes. What compounds this lighting issue is the dark colouring of her eyes – when strongly lit from one angle, this causes her face to look overly plain as it overemphasises the light areas. You can also get the same effect from viewing her from above, where you can’t see anything but face. 

Let’s have a close-up of her face before we move on from it:

It’s not a bad face when viewed close. Just something doesn’t quite work between face and hair. She’s quite cute when viewed from below. 

A closer look at the necklace:

… and the chest. There’s some lifting going on with that swimsuit, despite what those bra straps are saying :P. It does give her body more definition, so I think the curvy boobs are needed. OK, back to the necklace… she has one painted onto her – here the paint does look messy on it, but this really isn’t visible when looking at the figure normally. Here we can see the binding is painted on, and the string simply inserts into this part. Had me fooled until I looked at this photo, lol. And I’m thinking the marbled paint on her outfit is the best feature of this figure. 

In terms of painting, this figure does lack in the body shading department:

This isn’t just my photo-editing whiting things out – as far as I can tell, there isn’t any paint shading on her body, or what’s there is incredibly subtle. She does have some sculptwork that’s gone missing in the editing of this photo, but it is pretty subtle. Imo her stomach could’ve done with a small amount of shading to bring out the curves in her body. 

Base:

A fairly simple base, but I love the heart shape. Contrast got upped a bit too much here, and it’s more of a “red red”. I think the colour complements the figure. 

Left:

Here we see the sculpting carrying the figure. Her pigtails are mostly the same colour, barring the tips. She has nails sculpted, but I think they’re the same colour as her skin. Her toes are definitely not painted in a different colour. 

Some more of her hair:

There is some shading up here, but it’s pretty subtle. Could’ve done with some darker paint all the way down her crown. 

Right:

The gun and gun holster are painted nicely! We have some shading here! And I’m pretty sure she’s knotted her hair to get it into pigtails. Not sure how she managed that, can’t imagine it’s too practical!

Back:

Some distinct join going on under her top. Looks a bit too, erm, linear to be the top pressing into her imo. Backside is sculpted well though. Again, no shading in the paint on her back or legs. 

Time for a break:

Bwah! This is how she comes apart, so you can put her holster on her .

With mine I think I need to have the holster on her:

Due to her leaning back pose, the upper half of her leans back a slight amount, giving a bit of a gap. Fortunately I prefer her with the gun. 

Back, without the gun:

Here the joint is OK. Not sure how prevalent this issue is, as I only have one, and well… there’s a lack of pics of her on the internet. But I’d be prepared to mod her joint to get her upper half to sit fully upright. 

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend spending a lot on this figure. I paid £18, and I think I got my money’s worth. She’s a bit above a prize figure – she doesn’t have the shiny plastic that plagues prize figures and the paint that is there is well-applied without flaws, but equally well she has a lot of areas where the paintwork could’ve done with more detail. Also she’s a short figure, as she’s a fairly short character – she measures just under 18cm without the stand. If you like her simple, clean look, then maybe consider her, but I don’t think I could give a strong recommendation for her. Maybe if you have to have all the Sakuya figures?