Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Haqua (The World God Only Knows)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Haqua (The World God Only Knows)

Sunday, July 8, 2018 / No Comments

Haqua from Kami Nomi Shiru zo Sekai is another old-version Nendoroid which I picked up. As with most of these older Nendoroids, their neckplates do not match up entirely with the newer ones so be sure to take note of this if you are planning to use her parts with other newer Nendoroids.

Packaging

Being an older Nendoroid, her box follows a very different design from the newer ones and actually has their own backgrounds. She comes with a mass of purple and pink with slight yellow accents, which matches her purple color scheme and feminine charm.

Haqua doesn't come with many accessories that can be matched with other Nendoroids, but has her two most important ones: her scythe and a special detention bottle! She also has three different faceplates that give the Nendoroid a very good variation in expressions as well as showcase her different sides (blushing and embarrassed, and angry sides).

Figure

 Her base is not the same as the usual square Nendoroid base and this smaller base makes her much more compact and easier to display among your other figures. The side ponytails sticking out are connected by pegs so you can twist and turn them to match the direction you want to use when posing her. Also, her outfit comprises mainly of red and white and a lot of frills at her collar, and the ruffles are very delicately sculpted and painted. On the flipside, there isn't much shading and creases around her outfit. 

The blush on her cheeks for this faceplate doesn't show well on camera but it definitely can pass as a cute flustered expression even when matched with other Nendoroids.

 As this was a second hand Nendoroid from Mandarake, she actually came with a damaged part. There is a broken peg in the peghole on the back of her hair. This peghole is used to insert a part to hold up her raiment. Thankfully, even without the peg in place, the raiment is still able to be held up simply by placing it in the space between her arms and body.

The other faceplate looks very cute alone, but the mouth seems a tad too huge when you fit it with the Nendoroid. In this new pose, I have Haqua in the air, holding a special detention jar. The scythe is also accurate to the design and can be balanced even when she holds it with a single hand.

Another way to pose Haqua with the scythe would be her sitting on it, and this is also the most difficult pose to put her into since you have to space her hands apart wide enough so as to keep her shoulders in place.

The length of the handle is also resting in the gap between the back of her skirt and behind her bottom so Haqua is technically not "sitting" on it. At some angles, this become increasingly apparent as well...

Enjoyment
Unless you are a diehard fan of Haqua or the series, this isn't a Nendoroid that I would recommend getting due to the difficulty in placing her into some of her more memorable poses. The number of accessories that comes with her is also limited and wouldn't mesh well with other Nendoroids that are not of the same series.

~ Reina-rin

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Sakai Wakana (Tari Tari)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Sakai Wakana (Tari Tari)

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Sakai Wakana is the main protagonist of Tari Tari and is one of the members to join the 'Choir and Sometimes Badminton Club' with the other main characters. After her mother's death, she lives with her father and her cat, Dora. To fit in different aspects of Wakana's life, Dora, as well as a piano and a singing faceplate are included.

Packaging

Wakana is one of the older Nendoroids and comes with a different design on the box. Back then, each box has a different design and this soft bubbly look suits the nostalgic and relaxing feel that the series brings.

The blister showcases all the different parts that this Nendoroid contains. Despite only having two faceplates, she comes with quite a bit of accessories including a piano and chair, a stool, Dora, a scoop and cat food, as well as her school bag.

Wakana's school uniform is also different from most other female Nendoroids as she comes in a pinafore and not a usual blouse and skirt. Hence, instead of coming with a separate sitting down skirt part, she actually comes with a whole separate body!

Cat

     

Dora comes with a red collar and uniquely placed black spots. There are no paint flaws with regards to how the collar and the spots meet the white cat's body. Other than that, we will also look at the various other accessories this Nendoroid comes with and how they fit with her, as well as the sculpting and painting on Wakana herself.

Figure

First up is a pose of Wakana with her school bag and Dora with a bowl of cat food. The bowl is light green, which contrasts well against the dry texture of the brown chunks of cat food. In addition, the pinafore that Wakana wears is adequately creased around her waist and these creases are also mirrored on the back of her outfit.

Her ponytail is also sculpted and painted well, and these details help to give the impression that her hair is tied back tightly, which forms her trademark hairstyle.

Her schoolbag also comes with a properly sculpted and painted metal zip as well as a soft-looking plushie strap. It isn't difficult to slide the bag into place but there is only one plausible way to display her holding the bag. 

To display her seated on the piano chair, you would need to join her sitting parts to the chair. There is a peg hole on these two parts that can be securely joined with a plastic peg to hold them together (image below). Good Smile Company gave two different plastic pegs (one longer and one shorter) to use with her sitting body.

After placing her on the chair, you will have to insert the Nendoroid head and hands to give her the pose you would like her to have. Personally, I love how the skirt flares out at the sides as it meets the chair!

By using the other plastic peg you are able to join her to this "stool" sitting part as well. The logic is the same as with the piano chair.

     

The miniature Nendoroid piano is very beautifully detailed. I love how it is quite an accurate reflection of a piano and the bright gold accents inside of the piano helps to add a more elegant feel to this Nendoroid as well.

However, the piano does seem slightly small in comparison when you match the Nendoroid together with it.

     

Enjoyment
This Nendoroid comes with many different accessories that you can display with other Nendoroids as well, which makes this a very good purchase. With this being an old Nendoroid and hence a slightly lower price, I would say that this is a very good purchase for any collector who wants to use her accessories, and especially for fans of her and the series!

~ Reina-rin

「Book Review」Sakura Quest: Official Memorial Book

「Book Review」Sakura Quest: Official Memorial Book

Friday, July 6, 2018 / No Comments

Here's a book review on another one of P.A. Works' anime, Sakura Quest. The cover of the book shows the main five girls in the series, although the artstyle for this cover is unlike that of the anime.

In Sakura Quest, the five girls come together to attempt to bring tourists and life back to a rural town, Manoyama, together with some of the influential people in the town itself. They are faced with many hurdles as some of the plans fail, while others seemingly succeed, and along the way they unearth the feelings of the townspeople who want to change the town for the better, and those who want things to remain as they are.

Koharu also battles with her own emotions as she grew up in a similar rural town and has always aspired to live in Tokyo, but is instead dragged into this debacle in Manoyama, a town similar to the one she grew up in. Here, she finds a new sense of belonging and pride for being born in a rural town, as well as meaning in her life that was lost in the hustle and bustle of repeated failed job interviews back in Tokyo.

The book begins with showcasing the different views and outfits that the main five girls wore throughout the series. This probably helps if you like a throwback or wish to draw them in their various outfits. As with most P.A. Works artbooks, they put a lot of emphasis on the main cast, but add the other cast members in later in the book as well.

Being in a rural area, there is a very special festival that happens in Manoyama. This festival was lost for a long time, and with Koharu's persistence, they decided to hold the festival again! This page in the artbook showcases the different objects that are used in the festival, especially the dragon which plays a huge role in their folktale.

Along with the map of Manoyama included, we also see several important locations highlighted in the town. This isn't something normally highlighted in other artbooks so I find it interesting and a nice addition!

One of the cast members is a famous artist that specializes in tribal art. This page showcases some of his works and the colorful image in the middle is actually his design for the rebuilding of the castle (that never really happened in the end) but it was still one of the girls' plans for their Manoyama revival strategy.

We then get a lot more character based art with the main five girls in even more outfits. This is becoming akin to a fashion magazine at this point...

Thankfully some love is given to the other characters as well, though unlike the main five, they do not have a full page dedicated to them.

Props are something that is highly valued in the series. This includes the bags the girls use, and the "Excalibur" sword ploy that they did to try to convince Koharu to stay in Manoyama. The Chukakabura manjuu is also a recurring item that appears throughout the series so it's definitely heartwarming to see them add it in here!

Next up is the art board where we get to see the different background art and architecture drawn and shaded in great detail. I love the use of colors and light here! It makes it look like pretty backgrounds that you're likely to find in high-end visual novels :)

Other than these, there is also an interview corner which is completely in Japanese. If you can't read Japanese, fret not, because there are translations online. Besides, this interview only takes up several pages, so you are definitely not missing out too much in terms of material, even if you skip this section!

The last part of the book is actually a contribution corner which you can see many different art styles displayed as many different artists draw the cast members. There are quite a number of hilarious as well as pretty art in this section so be sure not to miss it when you flip through the book!

Enjoyment
Personally, I like how the book focuses on background art and fleshing out the different aspects of Manoyama. It really helps create a better image of Manoyama when you have a map and famous spots indicated clearly on it! Besides, the backgrounds are of even higher quality than the anime which makes it miles better as a keepsake!

That being said, I think too much emphasis was put into highlighting the different outfits each girl has and all the different angles and views of them. I find that those pages can be put to even better use. It feels slightly lackluster for the price of 2,500 yen and this is even more so if you are not a hyped fan of the series.

~ Reina-rin

「Book Review」Shirobako: Artworks

「Book Review」Shirobako: Artworks

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I'm back for another visual artbook review and this time it's SHIROBAKO and the glorious thing is that this entire book is simply filled from start to end with glorious illustrations of the cast! The main focus of this book is of course the main five girls (or more specifically, Aoi, Ema and Rii-chan) but fret not because the other cast members also have their own share of screen time in this illustration book as well!

The cover has a very beautiful glittery shine that is on both the front and back covers. However, if you don't like it, this same illustration is present in a page inside of the book itself! 

Firstly, the book treats us to a range of illustration featuring different cast members that worked together with the main five during the series, such as the artists, producers, directors as well as other members of the production team!

Following up, we have solo shots of the main five girls to act as part of a pre-introduction before we move on to the main bulk of the book, which would be the illustrations.

Most illustrations only take up a single page and while they are usually unique illustrations in the book, there are two instances where very similar artworks are used. One of them is seen in the image above, where the left has Aoi and Ema in more conservative clothing than the illustration on the right.

 There are quite a few artworks which span two full pages and in many of such instances, the other cast members would have a cameo appearance as well!

There are actually quite a few illustrations featuring the female cast in hot springs and also at the beach (swimsuits) which shouldn't be that strange considering that the main cast members are all females :/ Otherwise, the other recurring theme in this book would include donuts, which is the favorite get-together food for the main five!

 I totally love works like this where they feature everyone!!!

A little more than halfway through the book, we are rewarded with another set of solo shots. The main five girls are given two pages each and I've chosen to show the illustrations dedicated to Rii-chan.

The other female cast members that are essential to the series are given a single page each. I do wish that equal love was given to them though, as they grew on me quite a bit as well.

The males are typically grouped together into a single illustration though... 

In addition, we also have several chibi to keep us company and while the left illustration of them in their usual outfit is quite normal, it's nice to have them in their yukata outfits! These look psyched up to be turned into merchandise so I hope we'll get rubber straps of these at some point.

One thing I really love about Shirobako is how they always take the extra step to showcase the behind the scenes of anime production. In the OVA, we even had the chance to watch the series that the Shirobako cast worked on, such as Aria, so being able to have illustrations of the Shirobako cast with characters in these works really help to increase the feels for the series!

Enjoyment

While some of the illustrations are repeated and can be found online, it's definitely fresh and good to have a physical copy of these illustrations as well as many more which are new. I love collecting artbooks and I think that this book definitely gave a very new outlook to what Shirobako had to offer.

I wished that there would be more artworks that encompassed the anime which the cast was working on throughout the series as I did find their storylines (in the OVA) to be interesting and the design of the characters were amazing as well. I would have loved to know and learn more about them.

~ Reina-rin