By now, everyone knows that I’m crazy for the Muv-Luv girls. I’m not even really sure why since I’ve neither played the games they’re in or seen the show, but I find something about the design aesthetic very pleasing. And not just the plugsuits: I’ll buy pretty much any figure of the trio from Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse! But of course their suits are the star of the show, so fans (and, you know, not-really-fans-but-kind-of-fans like myself) got pretty frustrated that we went so long without and cool figures of them.
Thankfully Kotobukiya answered our prayers and delivered the trio in their suits. We reviewed Cryska a while back and since doing things in order is no fun at all we’ll be taking a step back today to admire the first and arguably most popular of the lineup (and also, curiously, the only one actually standing up): Yui Takamura. So hit the jump and let’s go fight some aliens!
Wow, such boxes. Much cardboard.
Stephen is back at the photography helm (though we will be sharing the burden from here on out to get up more original content!), and since he’s far more methodical (read:professional) than I am we actually get a structured review today. Even the box shot! I know you all missed them.
Yui only has two pegs, one for her right foot and one for the hand touching the base, so it seems like she should be easy to get together. If that’s what you are thinking you’d be horribly, terribly wrong. That damn hand peg fought back like a cat taking a flea bath. I haven’t seen anyone else complaining about that so it might just be ours. THANKS OBAMA.
Yui always seems kind of distant and contemplative in her figures. I have no idea if this matches her in-game/anime personality so I’m just gonna go with yeah, she’s an emo chick. Behind that flowing hair are some earbuds blasting Dashboard Confessional. She looks so sad! But in a pretty, America’s Next Top Model sort of way.
Yeah gurl, work it.
There really aren’t a lot of brunette figures out there compared to real life. Way more blondes, redheads, and girls with crazy colors. My people are under-represented! I think they did a very nice job with the shading and texture here: it can be tricky to create the illusion of depth with plastic hair, but the layered sculpt and shadows do nicely.
Yui’s eyes are ridiculously detailed. There’s an absurd amount of anime bubbling going on there that makes her look both depressed and super-kawaii at the same time. Combine that with the pouty, “I’m about to cry” mouth and the pointy chin death strap it looks like she’s about to kill you while bursting into tears. It’s kind of endearing and certainly original.
Sometimes I wonder if plugsuit designers have seen real boobs in action before. Here are some facts about boobs and latex: if you squish boobs into a latex suit, it does not conform perfectly into them. You do not get a perfect skintight pushup effect that looks like body paint. Latex does not make boobs float, or immune to the effects of gravity. Latex does not create boob socks. What will happen is a uniboob. If it’s a too-tight latex suit, like Yui’s, you get an awkward, painful, unattractive, constrictive, “oh my god I can’t breathe why is this so tight I’m going to die” uniboob.
Yui’s boobs are ridiculous and distracting, but hey, not as distracting as Cryska’s! And the black-tinted-purple color does seem to diminish them.
Yui’s butt almost makes up for the boob socks. Almost.
Her plugsuit colors look like the love-child of Evangelion Unit-00 and Unit-01 if it went to a rave, which is pretty cool. Even with all that black it manages to be REALLY bright. Like glowing neon motel sign bright. Yet Cryska and Inia’s suits are subdued pastels, so they definitely don’t really… go together, which is kind of odd. You’d think they’d match tonally. But whatever, she has a cool sword.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: bases can make or break a figure. In this case, Yui’s base is 100% awesome. Rubble is always good, but Koto really pulled out all the stops when it came to the finish. It looks so realistic and creates and awesome post-apocalyptic feel. The smaller pieces of rubble don’t connect to the base, so you can display them however you want!
If you like Muv-Luv you probably already bought Yui. If you like her now and haven’t… well, I’d suggest you get her sooner rather than later! The aftermarket pricing on Kotobukiya’s figures has been wildly unpredictable these days, so while she’s floating at around retail now I could see her jumping up in price once the whole set is finally out. Or, you know, they just re-release her…
Thanks to Stephen Donaldson for taking these shots! Also how friggin lucky was he to get a RAINBOW in his shots?! It hadn’t even really rained that day, it makes no sense. Can you tell I’m miffed? Envious, you say? Me?! No way.