Figure Unboxing and Review: Hanairogoromo Meiko

Figure Unboxing and Review: Hanairogoromo Meiko

Wednesday, August 30, 2017 / No Comments

I got this figure in July (together with Kaito) but it took me this long to review it. Due to my busy school schedule daily, I have this huge pile of figure reviews piling up and now I'm just finding time every month (or rather, week) to clear this backlog.

Today, I've decided to take some time back into the past to review this figure that has been in my collection for some time. I would like to think that this is a great time to review her, as Luka's Hanairogoromo version will be released in a few months (November), so it might be a great time to order both of them for your collection, if you'd like to!

Packaging

The theme color of Meiko is generally red, and this is why there is no surprise to me that her feminine side featured in this figure has a more feminine color in the same color scheme -- pink! The box itself is made from normal (quite thin) cardboard. Though not flimsy, it does give a quite "cheap" feel to it when you compare it to figures giving more sturdy cardboard boxes, such as Myethos.

The outside of the box features a lot of shots of Meiko from different angles and the pattern on her attire. The patterns are an important part of traditional Japanese wear and seeing it immaculately featured on figures is always a selling point for me!

As with the other Hanairogoromo figures, the inside of the feature features the background of the illustration (which is the same one as her printed base). You might want to pull this background sheet out to use as a back piece when displaying Meiko too.

And here is how she looks while still in her blister. You can see that her blister is all tight and secure and she does come with a ton of plastic to prevent paint transfer, especially since she has so many vibrant colors on her.

It even comes with a tiny bit of foam to prevent damage to her feet!

On the other hand, the protection for the sakura branch that came along with her is rather lacking. It is placed directly behind Meiko, without an additional blister for protection and only comes with a thin plastic sheet to cover it. This kind of protection is definitely not up to my standards. Fortunately, the branch and leaves came without any damage.

 Base

Well, I've decided to take the sakura branch as part of the base so let's look at this first, then at the circular base itself. As you can see, the sakura branch actually has a lot of dimensions to it, especially with all the shading that brings out all the textures that a tree branch has.

The pink leaves have a gradient effect to them, going from darker pink to almost translucent. I don't think my camera managed to capture that on each group of leaves, but you can see that overall, the colors get lighter the higher up on the branch it goes.

Her circular base is the same as with all the other Hanairogoromo figures, even using the same illustration. There is a silver peg where she/branch connects with the base and so both can be spun around to get a better angle to view the figure from.

Figure
First, let's start off with a simple 360 of Meiko.

From these few pictures, you can already see how vibrant her colors are and how soft the kimono appears to be. I especially like how fluffy the fur around her neck looks but I'll get to that part slightly later.

Her hair ornament mixes blue and red together, which is a very bold move in my opinion, as the red might get washed out due to her brown hair. In reality, the red flower stands out a lot less than the blue one, which affirms that it is the right choice to add the blue flower to the red (Meiko's image color), as the color of the former just pops against this red-toned color palette.

You can also see that blue plays a lot of roles in this figure, especially with the undershirt which adds a cool elegance to this figure.

The pose is pretty simple but each crease in her outfit is immaculately sculpted to make the fabric look soft and appear as if it really is draping down. The fur looks warm and fluffy against her neck, and we all know how irritating it can be when something that is supposed to look warm and soft turns out to look stiff and chunky in the final prototype.

Another point that I like about this figure is the obi area. Effective use of gold there adds to the elegance of the figure. However, what I like most is that gold parts are only restricted to these areas. This helps it make the obi look more special and with everyone who is trying to get more unique and pretty obi... well, this is definitely a good way to go about doing this.

Before we talk about the patterns on the kimono, let's take a step down to look at her shoes. Whenever I get figures with traditional Japanese attire, I like to take a moment to see how they actually sculpt the tabi and geta. In this case, I love how there is a gap between her big toe and other toes as it helps to illustrate how a tabi actually looks and functions, with a gap there for the strap of the geta to fit in.

The geta also makes use of paint which makes it look polished as well as a navy blue strap. While the strap doesn't look as close as it should be to authentic fabric, it actually looks great to have that color there to set it apart from the other pink and red colors.

The main pattern on her clothes are flowers and it comes with a few colors. The main parts are red and white, thus tying in with the main color scheme and the fur. However, the center of these flowers are yellow, thus tying in with her gold accents. However, the minimal use of yellow parts actually accentuates the gold at her obi instead!

Now let's take a look at her hair. I find that no matter which angle I view her hair from, be it from the back like the image above, from the top, or from the front, it looks nearly perfect. Her hair looks very well combed and simply styled for a perfect day. While I like the flower ornaments on her hair, I also love how you can't really see the hair seam at the top of her head, as well as how the side of her hair is all slicked back to clip these ornaments on. It adds a touch of realism and elegance to the figure.

A gripe that I have is that her face could have been done better, especially the eyes. Her eyes seem pretty flat to me, perhaps more depth would be better. I have the same issue with her hair, that is, there is insufficient shading. While that wouldn't be a cause of concern usually, but with the amount of shading her kimono has, especially around the sleeves, the minimal shading around her hair makes her hair look pretty lacking as a result.

And last but not the least, let's take a look at how she looks with the cherry blossom branch once more~

Hanairogoromo Meiko is definitely one of my prized possessions and I hope more people will appreciate this figure, especially with the few Meiko scales available!

~ Reina-rin

AniManGaki 2017: Day 1

AniManGaki 2017: Day 1

Sunday, August 27, 2017 / No Comments

Ah… it’s that time of the year again. Where I pack my bags and head to the shores of Kuala Lumpur. It’s AniManGaki! One of my all-time favourite conventions to go to in the region. An event for the fans by the fans. And this time I brought a friend with me to the convention and was there for both days! Doubling (tripling?) the fun.

This year’s AniManGaki theme was Magic and Elements! Specially featuring the elements, fire, earth, and water! Upon entering the convention, you could get yourself appraised and sorted into one of the elemental groups.

Of course, now after two years (read about AniManGaki 2015 and 2016) at this convention, I knew what I was doing, and had set my eyes on getting those wonderful art commissions, and hopefully chatting up some artists along the way. This culture is something that you don’t quite get at Singapore conventions but something I immensely enjoy…

Handmade Plushies! Check more of them out here!

Walking around the doujin area, you’d be surprised to find that the first blood from my wallet wasn’t some anime art, but rather some really cute handmade plushies. I got myself a very squishable unicorn. By the second day almost all the unicorns were gone! The guy that makes these does all sorts of other characters from minions to avengers and even custom orders, he tells me that sales is normally quite brisk. With the cuteness of these plushies… I can see why…~

Cute Unicorn! It hangs on my bag now!

Moving along dear friend and I got more stickers and more stickers…

Art by Ettachii!

Art by Plowplo!

Cat stuff by Black0Seven!

Beautiful Miku art by Ruuya!

Till we heard some really fantastic violin playing from the main stage, guess we were in for a treat with Luna Lorrain, an international violinist who has played at events across Asia. Cosplaying as Madoka this time, she stunned us with some amazing violin playing skills of popular J-pop songs.

Luna really into the song!

But really, onward to the prize of this convention, the really really well-drawn commissions. Friend and I walked along the rows and we stopped right where there was girl with a really cute artist mascot that looked just like her and with a display of some extremely well-drawn watercolor pieces. Admiring her art, we ordered our commissioned art there and then, I requested a chibi version of the artist mascot herself and dear friend of mine had Todoroki from Boku no Hero drawn. The result was simply something we both absolutely loved~

Todoroki and May! (Can you believe that no one had requested her mascot before??!) Follow her on instagram here!

Next stop was at Rociel’s art… It was set up like a gallery of pretty backgrounds of what could be fantasy visual novels. I fell in love with her art so much I bought three pieces from this stall. Guess which ones I bought!

The colour here in the picture doesn't do justice to the art... but you can check out her website here!

Next up on day one was the mini interaction session with Joelle, one of AniManGaki’s special guest stars this year. 

Joelle~

She answered a few questions about her inspirations (Michael Jackson) and her favourite song (I just can’t stop loving you) and the best song she sang so far (Takkei no Seijo). Joelle also came with a lot of hi-chew candy for the audience much to their delight. Who doesn’t like free things, especially since it’s coming from such a pretty girl eh~ Listen to Takkei no Seijo below!

That was the end of day one of AniManGaki for me, I shall end the post on day one with Unipi (the name of the unicorn) looking over the doujin haul.

Read about Max's AniManGaki 2017 experience here! 
Stay tuned to day two! Where there's more stuff to buy and more people to meet both old and new!

Written by Neko

Awesome Animangaki 2017

Awesome Animangaki 2017

Saturday, August 26, 2017 / No Comments

Animangaki is an awesome event for anime fans, organised by anime fans. Finally I had set foot to Sunway, KL for Animangaki 2017. The flight from Singapore to KL took just an hour. Jerry (Public & Media Relations) had suggested us to take a Grab or Uber to Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre instead of train or taxi. True enough, it was a seamless ride from KLIA airport to Sunway.

The venue for Animangaki 2017 was perfect because the convention centre was smacked right in the middle of a gigantic shopping mall, bigger than any mall in Singapore. We chose to stay in Sunway Clio Hotel which is just a stone throw away to the venue. Thus getting food and necessities wasn't a problem. The stretch of Sunway is most beautiful at night when the exterior of the buildings lit up in bright orange colours.

To help us pinpoint the venue in Day 2, we trailed a couple of cosplayers but we missed some turns as well. When we reached the entrance, we experienced bouts of excitement, fun and camaderie. Truly a place where all otakus come together as one. And I felt privileged to be invited to witness this extravaganza. I was surprised that Malaysians are crazy about Japanese subculture, in the way they behaved, cosplayed and sang along with the stage performers!

Keichan, the mascot of Animangaki drawn by various artists.

The stage area. The overall feel of the hall is that of spaciousness. The ceiling is very high and painted in black. This allows plenty of air circulation and a feeling of cozyness. 10/10 for location!

You won't know who is an otaku on the streets. But in an anime convention, you know everyone is an otaku! 

  

Talented artists. Even more pro at marketing. You know how chicken-rice stall uncles slowly chop the chickens so that passers-by perceive that their chickens are the best. Same logic ^^

This event is a haven for Doujin lovers. With a total of 120 doujin booths, you can take hours to navigate through all the rows. Do arm your wallet with money for commissioned artworks as well.

A groupshot with Kendrick Ng, a very warm and enthusiastic chap. Also bought his "Kendylife Chibi Pocket Edition comic book". By the way, our media relations manager Neko was standing on the left beside me (holding camera).

Sometimes I hold the namecard of the illustrator so that I can remember who's who after the event. I bought some bookmarks from BlackZeroSeven.

This is a cute Unicorn plush which Neko had purchased.

Photo of Jerry from Animangaki and myself. Thanks for the hospitality! ^^

Bought some doujin stuffs from the wonderful booth sellers

Kari of Capripuff drew our OC Amami Kisa (Queen Bee). Isn't she adorable?

I had a wonderful time in Animangaki 2017. The organisers had done a terrific job in terms of planning, logistics, crowd control and users' experience. I remember they even set up a water station for people to quench their thirst. That was so thoughtful! 

See you in August 2018, Animangaki!

Written by Max