Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Natsume Rin (GSC)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Natsume Rin (GSC)

Saturday, February 4, 2017 / No Comments

Another cat-girl makes her appearance today: Nendoroid Natsume Rin!

Little Busters is a show I was recommended to watch by a friend. While it didn't leave a very fantastic impression on me since I didn't play the visual novel before or after the TV series, I'll admit it was an enjoyable watch. Moreover it was definitely a very popular show and game, giving them three different Nendoroids of the heroines. Today I'll be looking at Natsume Rin, my friend's best girl~

Packaging

Red as her image color is normal but pink makes her look even more feminine. Though I must mention that the cat she's holding up looks rather yandere.

In the blister pack comes all the accessories Rin comes with. she has three faceplates as per the older Nendoroid lines, with a default expression, a shy expression and an infuriated yelling one. Little Busters also shows her being a cat-lover. As such, she comes with two cats and cat accessories, even nekomimi. Also, base ball accessories as Rin is a pitcher in the series.

Posing and Assembly + Sculpting and Painting
I'll be examining these two areas together as many of the images would overlap otherwise. This section would be long as a result but please bear with me!

I like her shy expression the best of all because it shows the side of her that was on for the later half of the series. The blush isn't that obvious in this image but trust me when I say that she does come with a slight blush, shown with thin pink lines.

Using the same image, we'll first look at the baseball equipment. The mitt is adequately colored and sculpted. It has all the intricacies of a mitt and looks quite hardy and durable. The baseball itself comes with the right texture and stitches as well. Though, the ball cannot be removed from the hand part, making it more limited in posing, or the hand without the ball might pass for a waving hand too.

This image will showcase all the cat-based accessories. We'll start with the top, with Rin's ears. These are removable, unlike Tsukiko's which come with a plastic piece to clip in between the front and back pieces. I'll cover how to remove and replace the hair parts with the ears later. For now, I'll look at the sculpt and painting of the ears. Personally, I like the rugged fluffy bottom end of it but the flat pink in the inside is quite off-putting as more shading and detail could have been placed in this aspect. The ears could have been more pointed to look more cat-like rather than mouse-like.

The cat stick toy (I wonder what's its official name) is not very detailed. It looks quite large, diameter wise, and the pink part isn't fluffy at all. However, it does get the message of what it is across at least.

The cats, white cat Lennon and the brown cat Dorj each comes with their own good and bad points. Lennon first, he has two bodies, one to pose him alone and another to pose him on Rin's arm. Thus, his hollowed head can be removed to be placed on the pegs on either bodies. Unfortunately, his face scares me a little lot, but I guess it does fit his sinister persona in the series.

Dorj is so cute and looks so squishy. The brown stripes are all painted cleanly and I like how they took the extra effort to paint that double chin part in too. It does make up for the lack of accurate and detailed anatomy.

Her shouting face is definitely one that I don't like. The highlights on both sides of her eyes increases her fierceness but she doesn't really have any accessories which would suit this pose. I also don't like the cat-like eyes matched with the hissy feel she is giving off but at least the sculpt and painting is clean.

Down to her school uniform, the paint in clean even with all the intricate lining like the red on black for instance, and even the pink lines on her checkered plait skirt. The pocket area on her vest is well accentuated with the top part sculpted as a higher layer. Buttons on the red lining is shown clearly as well.

The ribbon on her chest is made with a lighter shade of red, pink actually, and looks rather cutesy. The design makes it appear fluffy, hence standing out from the rest of the rest of her boxy attire.

Next up is her shoes, though not much design is placed into the shoes themselves, time and effort were still taken to paint them in two separate colors. Very much appreciated!

Finally, we get to the hair. Let's first talk about the design before moving on to the removing part. Her white hair tie for the ponytail is there, but there is no particular design to it. Her ponytail is fitted with a ball joint for more versatile posing. The bell and white ribbon have clear and on-spot paint colors. The sculpt of the bell is accurate too and not too huge for the Nendo head size.

And now, onto how to slot in the nekomimi, as you can see, she comes with the front and back hair pieces, where the back piece is further split into three sections as follows.

By removing the smaller two pieces, you can then replace them with the nekomimi pieces to have Rin in cat-form! Sadly, she doesn't come with a tail part to match. Nevertheless, the nekomimi pieces on my copy is quite loose but I'm unsure if that will be the case for other copies as well.

Enjoyment

While this is a Nendo that might be suited for cat-lovers as she comes with a lot of cat accessories, or for someone who wants to make a custom baseball-centered Nendo fix (Daiya no A I'm looking at you), this might not be a figure for most people who aren't into the series or the character itself. I say that because she comes with very few accessories which can't be fitted to other Nendos and her uniform with a black vest and patterned plaited skirt isn't that uncommon. Her nekomimi is attached to her hair parts and cannot be used interchangeably with other Nendos, which makes it a very minus point in my opinion.

However, if you are a fan of Natsume Rin, this Nendoroid can definitely showcase many sides of her, making any fan of the character pleased!

~ Reina-rin

Figure Unboxing and Review: Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko (GSC)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko (GSC)

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Henneko was a series that I never thought I would enjoy, but later happen to quite like it. Similar to most fans, my favorite girl would be Tsukiko and I like how she can appear so emotionless but actually has so many emotions in her that she can't express. Especially how troubled and pouty she gets when she's jealous. That being said, I'm sympathetic to her for losing her ability to express her emotions and the initial clumsy and timid her is really cute too~

Without further ado, let's move on to talk about this adorable Nendoroid of hers!

Packaging

The typical Nendo packaging with her image color in pink. Something to note is that most of the Nendoroid has the cut-out of the character on the left side of the box while hers is on the right. While that isn't a major issue, if you display boxes like myself, this may be an issue for aesthetics.

Here is best girl in her entire glory! She comes with three faceplates -- default, emotionless and one to be matched with her nyan pose. She also comes with a few exchanges of limbs and an alternate lower body with an attached tail, where she lifts her skirt. She also comes with nekomimi (cat ears) and food -- meatbuns in a packet, meatbun she is holding, and curry rice.

Posing and Assembly

Having a lot of limbs also mean she has a lot of posing choices. She can be easily arranged to fit one of her trademark poses on the official wallpaper. There are also other poses that she can come with, and I especially like the duo-food pose because it matches her glutton side and... what's a better Nendo than one that comes with a ton of food?

She can't even decide which to eat! But if you can, she can too!

The meat buns come with a larger held counterpart and the curry rice come with a spoon too. However, these two come attached to the hand and this is the only way you can pose her taking both food items.

This faceplate is used to show her chewing food but with a little variation you can pose her like she's pouting too.

To increase the versatility of  the figure, her side ponytail is also removable and that means that you can create nuance in the posing. However, that isn't on par with the later Nendos with the ponytails secured with a ball joint at the ends to give much higher posing flexibility.

Her alternate lower body has a lifted skirt and the two grooves are where her hands are supposed to hold. She also comes with a cat tail and her lower midriff. Though the beige part on this piece looks weird, it joins almost seamlessly with the upper body.

Painting and Sculpting

She has relatively good and precise paintwork, with vivid colors. This is evident through her hair ties which are painted metallic silver and pink. though the pink is a little dull in the image above, it's definitely much brighter in the actual product.

The sculpting of her hair is also very neat and shows how the hair flows well. It has the concept of individual strands too, though not as visible because it's part of a Nendo after all. Her eyes are also bright, similar to the anime, and her rosy cheeks -- they are absolutely adorable!

A closer take on her outfit, we see that her skirt has a very neat and detailed print with realistic folds forming the plaits. The blouse doesn't have a very detailed design but it is capable of pulling off the simple white piece look by compensating in terms of sculpting, with the creases and shading.

The yellow ribbon counts as a very stark color to draw attention and increase the intricacies of the otherwise simple uniform. The same goes for the green leafy design at the color as well.

Bringing attention back to this piece, you can note more details because it doesn't have the upper body blocking the view. Two things I would like to point out with this... First, the white buttons. They are perfectly sculpted and painted, with a sharp white paint and that makes it stand out against the pink and make the skirt looks more chic.

Second, we see that the waist piece held in place with the white buttons is slightly thicker than the rest around the circumference. This ups the realism factor and adds detail to the skirt.

Enjoyment

Tsukiko is definitely one of the girls that ranks high on my Best Girls list in Anime Universe, though probably not in my Top 10 or perhaps just barely making it in. However, bias aside, I would recommend anyone to get her because she's a beauty and she comes with quite a bit of accessories, which you can of course, trade with any other Nendo. Though, note that this will only work if they have similar sleeve length. It isn't that common for Nendos to come with so much food nowadays... food accessories are a total luxury nowadays.

~ Reina-rin

Love Live!! School Idol Festival: The Struggle Is Real

Love Live!! School Idol Festival: The Struggle Is Real

Monday, January 30, 2017 / No Comments

Initially when I started on the game, I didn't see why there would be so much fuss over it. Granted, the first installment of the anime was o-kay... I guess? But the game...! It was so hard for me to figure out the mechanics... Maybe it's also because I am generally slow to figure things out as well.

Alternative title: how I became hooked onto the game and boom now I'm being a nerd.

It's been close to 1.5 years since I started playing with my friend's recommendation. I wonder why I even stuck around, however. Perhaps I didn't think of playing any other game at that time. Perhaps I decided to train more on SIF so I get less bad at it. Perhaps, it is when I found out about the tiering system I decided it was fun to spend some gems just to place well in an event to get more copies of the event card. 

I generally don't play a lot of games, and anything I've previously played definitely did not involve the option to scout for new card designs - I then learnt that scouting as such is a common thing in Japanese mobile games. The idea is based on the concept of gasha - something like how you'd play gashapon machines; insert a certain amount, twist the handle, receive the randomly selected capsule dropped.

That also reminds me of Ichiban Kuji, a sure-win lucky dip game: where you get a ticket at a fixed price and ripping it open will let you know of which prizes you've received.

Ichiban Kuji can be less merciless than online game gasha in a way, where you at least win tangible objects. For many mobile games with that function, one solo scout often gets you the least powerful card you can get from the set, and often not worth the currency used for the single scout. Promotions to get more powerful cards are applicable only when you save up enough to scout more at a single go.

About the cards. There are 3 types:

1. healers (heals a player's stamina if they got a bad/miss a note)

She's literally a healer.

2. timing window/perfect lock (turns great/good taps into perfect taps. Goods break the combo, and perfect taps give the highest points, so this is quite useful)

3. Score ups (increases score when activated. Extremely useful if the card has a high score up (~500-600) + decent activation rate. Otherwise, it may still narrowly salvage your positions during score matches during close calls between other players. Sometimes statistics have to be taken into account as well - the section below elaborates on that.)

Typically after playing for a while you don't really need a stamina card to survive a song even (if players do stick around to continue playing, that is), so getting more healers is only going to be kind of annoying. (I have a friend who sacrificed her 3 healer URs in exchange for a UR she has been eyeing in the sticker shop. That UR is of her best girl... And also because it's a relatively good scoreup card as well.)

Ballroom Nozomi

If we are talking in terms of usefulness, good cards are not only considered good in terms of their skill - they can also be good due to their stats. A higher card rarity gives higher statistics, which gives a good boost to the team overall, increasing the tap score during songs. The introduction of the new rarity SSR (a new rarity between SR and UR) is indeed a relief for many, but for the unfortunate people out there who has been on SIF before that implementation and only gotten SRs, the pain is real! (haha)

The pain is also real with the art T_T

And adding to the complication, now UR/SSR cards (if you have any...) now has a secondary boost which raises the stats of specific members, effectively increasing the stats of the whole team and eventually the tap score during the song. I feel that minor point differences won't make a difference, but with reward boxes to fill with your score points and song rewards during events, I find myself constantly reassembling the best team for the best score boost.

And next, the gameplay: according to some people (and me) LLSIF have one of the more difficult beatmaps amongst the idol rhythm games. After the very initial stage of being satisfied at being able to pass a song, it then moves on to the goal of hitting an S-rank score for the song, and finally, full combo. The last goal is more challenging to achieve, especially with tricky Expert songs which many has not yet conquered completely, and the introduction of Master level songs. If you've watched the video on the expert beatmap of magnetic today on my previous nico event post, you'll know what I mean. Or you can try this one.

LLSIF is also notorious for dishing out subpar scouting results to many users, some people (I know a friend who has) quit because the game has not been kind in that aspect. Certainly, players has their own share of lucky pulls and maybe the same amount of really unlucky pulls. Worst case scenario, which often happens, is where only one SR is drawn among all the Rs/the SR is not so aesthetically pleasing/actually also a weak cards from the yesteryears)

Ouch. Full video

More ouch. And that SR happens to be an event SRs, and event SRs are typically weaker than cards only found in scouting boxes.

Best case scenario is probably something like this, probably happens once in a blue moon.

Of course, there's the game whales, people who spend tons of money on loveca stones to scout over and over until they get what they want (often targeting URs that appear in the box)

Obviously not my team :T

But enough of those frustrations. One of the things I find appealing is the clean interface. Not many games have that, making the game easy to navigate around and use.

Bye Chika :T

And as mirrored from the anime, Love Live! is about people who wants to make a difference and work towards a seemingly impossible common goal. The tenacity present throughout the franchise but hardly seen in real life draws in fans who thinks of it as an inspiration. I also do think the second installment, Love Live! Sunshine!! also showed improvement in character development with all the characters thus far. Well certainly, there are areas that can still be expanded on, but fans can anticipate a second season for that!

The in-game card designs are quite gorgeous as well, the current cards a drastic improvement from the initial art. Here are some of my favourites from the recently released:

This hanayo event card is really pretty... hoping I can get the second copy! (her event, with eli, is ongoing now!)

I like this side of Ruby! She is often portrayed to be very timid and anxious but here she shows a more calm and regal side of her :3 The colour palette is also amazing and true to her theme colour (pink)

I thought this outfit and pose fits chika very well!

I absolutely love the decorations and the expressions on hanamaru and yo's face!

I like how precise the details in these cards!

Since Yohane is my favourite in Aqours, I may be a little biased here... However, the Halloween theme fits her personality very well, I have no doubt of her being the ultimate queen of the underworld >:D

It's an unexpectedly long chapter in my life when it comes to this game. With that, I have finally decided to slowly close it and take an indefinite hiatus after the current event on the WorldWide version, and probably after the event tomorrow on the Japanese version. I might come back to it when school's out, but with SIF having served its purpose as a great distraction and a good form of entertainment to occupy my time and subconsciously think about life, perhaps not as often, but time will tell.

Thank you for reading this article! Now, I must go back to my last all out attempt on tiering for nico. /screams

Written by

Ritsu