After giving the first two incarnations of Orchid’s gothic lolita Kanu a miss I wasn’t originally planning to pick this one up, but an unexpectedly good deal called out to me and I couldn’t pass up on the chance to pick up another castoffable Kanu (I think I may be diseased in this regard). Here we are then with the third color variation of what is a decent sculpt, but one with a few production issues that Orchid has hopefully ironed out in their releases scheduled for the near future.
Original Design: Shiozaki Yuuji
Sculptor: Ishiyama Satoshi (WFS, Amiami)
Source: Ikkitousen (manga, anime)
Scale: 1/7 (12 cm tall)
Materials: PVC
Release Date: August 2007
Production: Orchid Seed
Price: 6,800 JPY (tax included)
Current Availability: [KNC] [HLJ] [HS] [TL]
Support HD!: [PA]
Anyone who collects figures and doesn’t know who Kanu Unchou is has probably been living under a rock for the past few years. No offense to the sub-rock dwellers, but you guys are seriously missing out; a ninety-second Kanu education can be obtained here for those needing a refresher course (or those looking for an excuse to watch some exquisite Satoshi Urushihara fanservice).
Those familiar with Kanu are also no doubt aware that she never wore anything remotely resembling the outfit depicted here in either the Ikkitousen manga or the anime. I’m generally a stickler for this sort of thing, preferring original color versions of figures as well as those that accurately reflect the character in their original context; in the case of this figure however I found my will crumbling. The color composition and balance is in my opinion superior to the first two versions, and she just sort of leaped out at me in all her delicious strawberry milkiness.
Despite a bit of oddness in the face the sculpt is generally solid, and I don’t have it in me to dislike anything that Ishiyama Satoshi touches – the breasts hang quite nicely when the front of her dress is cast off, a pleasant asymmetry that’s a nice change of pace from most similar sculpts. The pose is also decent, with lines accentuated by the solid red and white bands and the dark hair falling to frame the front of the kit.
Though the choice of colors and the sculpt itself pass inspection without much comment, the overall production quality does raise a few warning flags. First: “Vaseline” is not a skin color, people. I mention this because I fear Orchid is in danger of adopting it as part of their official color palette; Chichinoe +2 looks similar, and has me worried. Most of the body is fine, with the thighs and chest area shaded quite nicely, but all color seems leeched out of the face and the lips stand out too starkly against a sallow background and ill-defined nose.
Paint-wise, shading over the red part of the dress is generally nice but the trim could use a bit of work (on the stocking straps, corset lace and shoe and sleeve buckles especially). The use of a gloss finish on the corset is well-intentioned but is a bit stark in contrast to the matte red dress, and I would have preferred a consistent shading scheme throughout.
When all is said and done, though, this is a pretty solid kit that I don’t mind recommending to any Kanu fan or any fan of cute castoff figures in general. Hopefully it’s a stepping stone on the road to more solid production for Orchid in the future, but she stands kneels well enough on her own two four legs limbs for me to be happy with the purchase.
Overall Score: 7/10
+ nice sculpt
+ pleasing color balance and composition
+ well executed castoff
o pose is best enjoyed from limited angles
o questionable choice of gloss vs. matte finish
o inconsistent shading across adjacent surfaces
– Vaseline complexion
– some shoddy trim work
Your daily recommended allowance of strawberry milk can be acquired at Play Asia should you desire to support HD; otherwise the best price with her in stock seems to be Kid Nemo.
I preferred the black version.
Argh, I hit the submit button before thinking of a reason. Which is:
Black panties.
Thanks. I didn’t know Satoshi Urushihara does Ikkitousen.
Yup. I’ve been living under a rock… :(
Love this figure for its ichigo color scheme.
Ugh, just…no. If they had just labeled it generic strawberry loli figure it’d be cute enough to sell on its own. But this is NOT Kanu Unchou – it’s a slap in the face to her character. This has no trace of her “sultriness” (I mean c’mon, you can actually see both eyes on this figure – the way Kanu’s hair covers her face is 30% of her hotness right there!)
Sorry for the mini-rant – like I said, it’s a cute enough figure by itself. I’ll just ignore the label…
(Oh and Shingo, dare I ask, of all the cast-offable figures you have, how many do you actually leave cast off? XD)
>>DJnerate
You do have a point on the black panties. It’s too bad they didn’t make this black and red instead of white and red (strawberry… licorice? I don’t know).
>>blacklotus
Urushihara doesn’t do Ikkitousen (the manga is written and illustrated by Shiozaki Yuuji), he just directed animation for the ending sequence of the Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny anime series. Almost makes me wish he’d done the whole thing, though.
>>Kurushimi
I agree that this isn’t a very “Kanu” figure in spirit. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I held off on the earlier versions. Still, as a figure independent of context I think it stands on its own merits well enough.
It’s probably better to ask how many figures I don’t leave cast off, though the answer to that is approaching zero… the vast majority I leave in as close to the state of nature as possible. And no, I don’t have many house guests.
I thought it was Rin Shin, not Urushihara, that was involved in Ikkitousen DD?
I picked up the initial version of this a while back. It’s reasonably good, but I find her face tends to look a bit squashed when viewed from the wrong angles.
>>NegativeZero
Urushihara was in charge of
directingkeyframing the ending animation only. His name can be found in the credits here. Interestingly it seems the ED was actually storyboarded by Yoshimoto Kinji, the director of Genshiken 2 (which has a Urushihara-directed OP).>Shingo
I’d say menses on black panties, too much realism is not a good thing.
>>DJnerate
Not quite sure I follow you there… my point was that black panties on a red background (the dress) would look nice, and black and red striped stockings would’ve been fun instead of the more typical white and red, etc.
>Shingo
Reading it over again, I have no idea what I was writing about. It seems like in my half-awake state I mistook your second sentence to be referring to the panties, instead of the entire figure. My kingdom for an edit button.
Well, my wish is that everything is done by Satoshi. :)
But Obari (Angel Blade) is also one of my favorite artist.
p.s. if you notice the trend, I favour artists who have a skill for drawing g-cup size boobs… :)
>>blacklotus
Yeah, it’s a pity that Obari is tied up with Prism Ark this season. I hope he has another eroanime in the pipeline soon. :3
It still looks fine to me. I may one day get this…when I have the money, that is! ^_~
Nah. This is so UN-Kanu that its one of the few likenesses of her that I just can’t help but reject. Nicely made & all, certainly. But it doesn’t even strike me as a likeness of her if it hadn’t been labeled as such on the package.