Following the insane success of last year's anime adaptation, releases of Attack on Titan figures have started in the last couple months and will continue on into the forseeable future. GSC was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon with a Nendoroid version of the Colossal Titan, and the series line continues with Mikasa Ackerman!
Admittedly, this wasn't a figure that I immediately pounced on when pre-orders were first available. I ended up going back to order her once I had my Eren and Levi orders in, since I decided that I wanted the full set. Because of that, I feel a bit silly complaining about her since this version wasn't a high priority for me in the first place. However, after being really impressed by the quality of my last two Nendoroids, I'm really surprised that GSC's first release of a major Attack on Titan character has so many problems.
First of all, the tail of her scarf is floating in the middle of her shirt for some reason. It doesn't look like it's attached to anything at all. If I didn't know that it was supposed to be a scarf, I'd be even more confused. I'm not sure how this even passed QC. I'd expect that something like that would be on the checklist, given that its an important part of the character's outfit. A quick look around the Internet shows that not all Mikasa Nendroids have this problem, but it's still a regular occurence.
As for the rest of her, the decals are clean and the sculpt (aside from the scarf) is simple but functional. I'm a huge fan of the swivel joints in her legs. Why don't all Nendoroids have these? However, the paint job on the straps of the 3DMG is sloppy, with the white paint bleeding over. Also, Mikasa's hair is the biggest dust magnet I've had since my Black Rock Shooter Figma. You can see some of the random stuff it attracted in the pictures for this post, and these were taken right out of the box!
Moving on, her simplest accessory is the salute pose, which feels half-hearted because there's no way to make it accurate. A separate arm was included just for this pose, yet apparently it was too difficult to also sculpt a bent wrist hand to go along with it. Making things a bit more frusrating is the fact that the back arm can't stay in the place it's meant to go thanks to the stand. You can't see it in my picture here, but ANN's recent Astro Toy column has a pretty good illustration of this problem.
But let's continue on to the main piece: the 3DMG and the swords! And yes, I know that she's holding the blades backwards. I didn't notice until a few days after I took the pictures. In my own defense, I was preoccupied with making them stay put in her hands. These things will find any reason to fall out, even from the lightest shake.
Much more impressive is the 3DMG itself. It's sculpted to be anime-accurate, and easily fits into the slot on Mikasa's back where the stand peg usually goes. The boxes on the side can't actually hold the swords, but they do have a slight bit of articulation to them so that you can move them out of the way of Mikasa's arms or outwards for the illusion of motion depending on what kind of pose you're going for. Once attached, the stand connects to the bottom of the 3DMG and is actually more secure than it is when it's connected to her back when fitted properly.
This is great, since it makes her aerial poses much less nerve-wracking. Despite the problems I mentioned above about her swords constantly falling out, this is the biggest strength that the Nendoroid has, since it's very easy to put her into action poses. Mikasa comes with an extra set of bent legs for just this reason. There's even an extra smoke plume accessory that attaches to the back. The gradient shading isn't as good as it could've been, but the quality of this accessory is very low on my list of complaints.
Being an Attack on Titan figure, her alternative expressions are Battle Rage Bloodlust and All-Consuming Despair. Those will be fun to swap out! For the action-oriented poses, there's also a pair of effect parts for the swords that simulate blood. They're very easy to put on and adjust without the risk of falling off or being too heavy for the figure to hold up. That's a pretty hardcore pose as far as Nendoroids go, though...
Finally, there's an extra scarf part for Mikasa's face. It attaches very easily to the bottom of the faceplate, and there's enough room that paint transfer shouldn't be a concern. I'm pretty sure that this pose was intended to be "cute," but I had other ideas...
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| No one touches the scarf |
Images by me. This post is also available on OASG.
Regardless of Nendoroid Mikasa's quality, the Titan franchise in Japan is pretty much guaranteed. There's a Titan-themed horse racing game produced by the Japan Horse Racing Association, and Titans's publisher, Kodansha, attributes its first ever revenue increase in 18 years to Titans's bestselling power.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the chance, confusedmuse, I recommend picking up Engaged to the Unidentified. It starts out like a typical reverse romcom(girl finds out her engagement to stoic country boy), but the clever writing, cute character interactions and surprise supernatural twists do bring a different element to the proceedings.
It's also very popular with the Japanese otaku, 2nd only to the Witchcraft Works anime.
Hozuki and Chuunibyou are 4th and 5th popular, BTW.
Yep, it basically prints its own money at this point.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation, I'll try to check it out once RL gets a little less crazy!