At long last the other heroine of Nitro+’s 2005 smash hit eroge Jingai Makyou makes her figure debut! Those left cold by Ignis may well thrill to the delicate features and small frame of Kaze no Ushiro wo Ayumu Mono (yes, that’s her name), but does Solid Theater’s rendition do her justice? This kit has gone a long way toward making me a Kaze fan, but you be the judge…

Original Design: Niθ
Sculptor: Toda Satoshi (Yume no Kagutsuchino Koukoku) (original kit)
Source: Jingai Makyou (eroge)
Scale: 1/10 (13.5 cm tall)
Materials: PVC
Release Date: April 17th, 2007
Production: Goodsmile, under the Solid Theater brand
Price: 4,500 JPY (tax included)
Current Availability: Hobby Link Japan (preorder)

Translated quite lyrically as “she who walks behind the wind”, I’m tempted to attribute the lesser popularity of Kaze no Ushiro wo Ayumu Mono vis a vis her Jingai Makyou costar Ignis to her long and unwieldy name. While I still prefer the fiery katana-wielding redhead, Kaze’s charms don’t fall on blind eyes either, so I’m happy to see her finally come into her own in both this splendid kit from Solid Theater and Alter’s subsequent May offering.

The Good

• The character faces in some of Toda Satoshi’s other work have a wizened, shriveled look around the mouth area, like an octogenarian’s decrepit bone structure covered by a young girl’s skin. Thankfully this sculpt manages to avoid that sucking wound, instead giving Kaze’s face an elfin look that while not present in her original design is quite appropriate for her character, in my opinion.

• Toda excels at the art of the finely detailed small scale sculpt, and Goodsmile’s production value really shows through in their faithful rendering of minute details that make the kit look great even from extreme close angles. Being able to achieve this sort of impact with a kit of this size is a testament to their superior level of craftsmanship.

The Adequate

• I hate to bring up the size issue after just extolling the virtues of the kit’s quality at this small a scale, but the fact is that in the realm of figures bigger is almost always better, all else being equal. Poor Kaze looks dwarfed by the gang of Ignii surrounding her, and I’d love to see the even greater level of detail they could’ve crammed in if this kit had been at 1/8 or 1/7 instead of 1/10.

• The pose. It’s a great way to present the just barely ero side of the kit, and there are so many fetish points to gush over it’s hard to declare merely average, but if there’s anything this kit could benefit from it would be a more assertive, dynamic pose.

The Ugly

• The shambles my willpower was left in after succumbing to the preorder lure of this kit. Thus far I’ve managed to hold off on Alter’s offering, and I’m hoping to keep it that way… I like you, Kaze, but you’re no Ignis. Maybe if you’d put on a wedding dress at some point in the game things would be different…

Overall Score: 9/10

Docked a bit for the small scale and somewhat nonsensical pose (why are your pants half-off in the middle of a field, Kaze-chan?), this kit is otherwise close to flawless. A fine addition to the collection of fans of Jingai Makyou and/or small-chested ramen eating demon girls everywhere!