The hype for Daiki Kougyou’s Sanae PVC grew steadily from the moment she was announced in June, through her listing in Hobby Japan in July, the scooping of her malleable chest in August, Amiami’s image update in September, her release delay to November in October, and finally the [ERO] revelation of her anatomical detail when she went on sale last week. After putting her through her paces today I can say with confidence that this is the best kit Daiki has ever produced, and is indeed a milestone in the development of PVC-based erotica. An excessive amount of pictorial evidence follows. Update: Sanae is currently available at Play Asia once again, though who knows for how long.
Original Design: Kotoyoshi Yumisuke
Sculptor: Katagiri Katsuhiro (Vispo)
Source: Shokunyuu 2 (eromanga)
Scale: 1/4 (21 cm tall)
Materials: PVC
Release Date: November 5th, 2007
Production: Daiki Kougyou
Price: 15,750 JPY (tax included)
Current Availability: [HLJ] [HS] [TL]
Support HD!: [PA] [YA]
I was going to lead this review with the disclaimer that no bodily fluids were expended in the course of its production, but I cut myself in the process of trying to cast off her lower half – so yes, body fluids were used to make this review, just not the ones that might have been expected.
Aizawa Sanae is one of the heroines of Kotoyoshi Yumisuke’s Shokunyuu 2 eromanga, and as the below images show she was given a bit of a remodeling by the artist for the purposes of this kit. The loose hair is replaced by tight drills, and the less realistic elements of the costume are toned down and given greater detail.
Sanae manga design (left) and figure design (right)
I’m not going to go into great detail regarding Sanae’s character here (perhaps in a subsequent eromanga review), but suffice it to say that through the course of the manga she becomes domesticated in a way that leads to the expulsion of yet another sort of body fluid that lends itself to the choice of costume in question.
WordPress has a hard character limit for posts that I’m afraid I’ll hit if I wax on too much here regarding the awesomeness of Kotoyoshi’s original design, or the unique spin provided by the Vispo resin incarnation – they’re both luminaries of their respective fields, and I find it very hard for either to do much wrong when it comes to design illustrations on the one hand or sculpted interpretations of them on the other (hell, I already bought the kit once).
Instead I want to focus here on what Daiki has done with their PVC rendition. First I should say that in terms of production quality this is certainly the best kit Daiki has released to date. The paint job is quite solid, employing a wide variety of gloss and matte finishes to bring various textures of leather, metal and skin alive. Work on the trim is decent as well (though not spectacular), and there’s enough shading in the right places to convince me that they were really trying to go above and beyond their normal fare here. There isn’t much to mention in terms of visible seams other than on the replacement chest part, and it’s not nearly as bad as Amiami’s sample gallery; otherwise the casting job is largely excellent, with high-fidelity reproduction of detailed sculptural elements.
The biggest glaring problem with the production is arguably one of the kit’s selling points, and that is the lower cast off. It’s secured in place in the same way Tama-nee‘s bra was – PVC pegs superglue mounted into holes on the kit in such a way as to be virtually impossible to remove. This was a huge irritation, and I would’ve given up altogether if I didn’t know what was underneath; in the end I put a gash in my finger and broke off one of the pegs in the process of casting her off, and the result doesn’t even look that great thanks to the straps of her panties being painted on. I wish they hadn’t gone half way on this – if you don’t want us to take it off just fuse it to her crotch permanently, guys, and don’t sculpt anything tempting underneath. =_=
I tried to document the chest replacement procedure photographically as thoroughly as possible. The replacement breast part is essentially an empty shell of rubber like a balloon, easily deformable to the touch, especially after opening the air valve in the back of the part. The provided gel is there to add mass and some resistance to the part, though after filling it as much as possible it’s still quite yielding. I found half way through that taking the entire cap off the container of gel was a much more efficient way to fill the syringe, as demonstrated here; forcing the gel out through the thin tapering top is difficult and time consuming due to how viscous it is.
It’s a bit tricky to get the replacement part snugly in place, but once it’s there I found that it looks surprisingly good and is quite pleasurable to play around with. That, combined with the generally solid production quality (a first for Daiki) and the amazing original design and sculpt, as well as the uncensored (albeit flawed) lower castoff, gives me little choice but to mark this kit with a score only given to pieces of history, much like Spinal Tap‘s legendary amplifier:
Overall Score: 11/10
+ stunning original Kotoyoshi Yumisuke design
+ sensual, massively voluptuous Vispo sculpt
+ do-it-yourself breast augmentation kit actually yields good results
+ fully detailed undercarriage
+ best Daiki production values to date
o trim work is alright, a bit shoddy in places
o visible seams on the replacement chest part, hair
– difficult to connect milk can top to rope without damaging Update: this is avoidable, see comments for how
– nearly impossible castoff leaves holes behind, broken pieces, paint-on straps
In terms of the satisfaction I intend to derive from this kit once I’m finished writing this review I’d say the unprecedented score of eleven is most definitely warranted. This is an item I would recommend figure fans seek out merely as a piece of history, if not for the more obvious prurient interest aroused; as of writing she seems to be… no longer available anywhere, alas. Update: she’s still available at Yes Asia, if you can stomach their premium pricing. Good luck to all those awaiting preorders, and even better to those who missed out.
Update: Sanae is currently available at Play Asia once again, though who knows for how long.
GWAR! No fair! HLJ is in the process of moving their operations, so shipping of this beautiful figure is delayed until after the 19th.
Looking at the pictures and the review, I’m very glad I went ahead and ordered this. Great review!
it is probably less messy to use saline fluid/gel instead.. will experiment with alternative fuilds.. with my copy.. which I just received moments ago.. definately daiki’s best so far.. brown eyes could be painted more realistically..
It is certainly a unique quality of gel that came with the figure.. certainly hard to duplicate.. and maybe not so messy after all as I expected…
…wow…umm…
anyway, certainly a unique piece, and it represents a number of “firsts” in the PVC realm.
I must say though, while Daiki is not the best PVC company out there they certainly have guts, and Toushirou (Cobra Kai), though not exclusively, and I absolutely love my 1/5 Tamaki (Tsun Face ver.) and my 1/4 Koyori. I personally believe that the thing that trumps all is how good the original sculpt is, and how well it is translated to PVC, and they did a very impressive job on the items I have, and obviously on the Sanae as well. Now they need to do the 1/5 Chun Li (Porkbun ver.) by Toushirou (which was released as a kit by them in the past) and the 1/6(?) Rei With Motorcycle by Vispo. Well I can dream, right? Oh, and they can hurry up with my 1/5 Mai.
Shingo, I see that you may have damage the paint job on the plastic triangle when inserting the ring loop(like inserting a key into a ring key chain).. For other owners.. the plastic triangle could easily detached from the hinges and the ring loop could go in.. no damage to paint job..
A little too much for me both price-wise and level of detail wise.
Don’t forget that Daiki brought us the massive 1/4 Majikina Mina as well. She is absolutely beautiful and worth every penny.
I still wait for mine. It was send 4 days ago. EMS tells me that it is on the way but I can’t see a single change since days. Move faster!
…I hope nobody stole it…
>>Uncensored, how much did you pay for EMS shipping on it?
>> Y, I ordered mine from Hobby Search and I paid 4700 yen for EMS shipping. I guess it’s not bad considering how big it is and how fast it got here, but then again I have no idea what a good price is concerning EMS. I got it about 3-4 days after they sent me the shipping notice.
>>Anachronism
Just wondering b/c Yesasia has it for 179.99 US + Free Shipping + not getting raped by customs + helping out our friend Shingo = WIN!
All in all it comes out about the same if you got it from Hobby Search or about the same/maybe even less if you get it from HLJ
I don’t think I was clear there, YA for once does seem to be the best choice here ^^
Yeah, I agree with you on supporting good ol’ Shingo. I’m gonna have to start ordering things from PA and YA.
Also, I’m not sure if there’s a glitch in HLJ’s system, but Sanae’s still available for pre-order from them (Shingo provided the link for it above), for anyone interested, given Shingo’s glowing review (which I agree with wholeheartedly).
>>Kat_Ears_Kahrain
I hope HLJ finishes their move quickly so they can get stuff out to fans in an expedient way. :3
>>oopai power
If you would like to create a substance similar to the gel that came with the kit, there are instructions on how to do so here.
Thanks for the tip on removing the handle for the milk can lid, I feel a bit silly for not noticing that myself. Would’ve saved me a damaged paint job. I’ll make a note in the post directing people to your comment.
>>the_pseudokings
Perhaps you would be interested in my Tsun-Kao Tama-nee and Daiki Koyori reviews, if you haven’t already seen them. I agree with you completely and hope Daiki continues producing epic scale kits such as this, especially if they retain this level of production quality – I’m really looking forward to the promise of Vispo’s Seyada Tara since she was announced at Wonder Festival (note the URL), hope it comes up on their site soon.
>>Y
I have yet to see a thorough review of Daiki’s take on the Cobra Kai Mina. Is she in fact castoffable? I’ve been tempted, but without castoff confirmation the price has ultimately turned me off.
I tried searching Yes Asia for her yesterday and came up empty-handed, thanks for pointing out that she’s still available!
>>uncensored
I hope yours arrives soon. :(
>>Anachronism
I’d be happy to have your support, and I’m also happy to advocate buying from the most reasonable source – when I checked HLJ’s listing yesterday the entire site was down due to the move, so while she still does seem to be available for preorder I’m not sure how much faith can be placed in this particular listing given that we don’t know how much of the site is being monitored by an actual human at this point.
Still, if you (and by you I mean people other than you, given that you have yours) can snag one at HLJ prices I’d definitely recommend it.
As an aside, 4,700 yen for EMS sounds right given the weight of the figure and the box dimensions. I just wish shipping from Japan would be uniformly speedy… interesting to note that in this case the free shipping from Yes Asia does just about even things out, price-wise.
>>Shingo
Mina is not castoffable in the easy sense but with a little surgery you can remove her top as well as her skirt but that is something I won’t be undertaking considering her high price.
Shingo, refer to this link, about Mina 1/4 for the cast-off, she is going for quite cheap at Amiami/yahoo.jp
http://www.figure.fm/post/11836/
The quality on Mina definately lacks.. when compared to Sanae
>>Y, oopai power
Thanks for the info. Disappointing, but not unexpected; I don’t believe SNK has ever authorized a castoff PVC based on one of their characters, so she’s in keeping with the trend, sadly.
>>oopai power
Why you gotta be so mean to Mina?
BAWWWWWWWW
>>Shingo
Great review, big guy. Your enthusiasm makes me wish I was into this fig.
I had to pay 5,400 yen shipping. I got mine from Hobby Search too. Finaly there are signs of life at the tracking page. Unfortunately it is in customs now. They will grap 23,7% taxes. Not fair!
Why should play asia have no problem with customs? You mean for US customers?
>>shingo
Seems like I’ve found another spinal tap fan here in shingo. :D
Looks like the web is still the best place to find like-minded acquaintances/friends. None of my circle of friends in my country even knows the meaning of ‘up to eleven’ or heard of spinal tap. :(
Still, giving it 11/10 is a bit too much. IMO, I’ll settle for a 10/10, just like Megahouse’s Kiyori. Sanae’s bottom castoff, although much better than Daiki Kiyori’s glued-on fundoshi, is still a bit of a should we or shouldn’t we, since they actually glued the pegs of the panties, unlike Megahouse’s Kiyori (help yourself to taking off my clothes easily :)
Overall, Sanae is a good addition to my Daiki’s giant figure collection. :)
BTW, I’m surprised how fast all the Sanae went out-of-stock in all the webshops when the reviews come out. After the release and before the reviews, you can still lots of shops with stock available (HS, Amiami, HLJ, etc).
Guess good exceptional figures are like Sakuras flowering in spring (cherry blossoms) – good things don’t last long. Grab it while it last. :)
Great review on a landmark product! It is a piece of art but it is quite a challenge to put this in your living room ;) so…guys you really show balls!
Shipping to Holland would be a disaster: EMS is quite expensive but I would also have to pay about 6500 yen to get through customs (the bastards). Maybe if the shipping invoice would say: “dead parrot”, customs would be fooled ;)
Seyada Tara “sigh” …still waiting for this release…this would be my new number one I guess :D.
Shingo: keep up the great reviews esp. on the material others are too chicken to mention let alone show.
It got 11/10? You have to know I didn’t toggled the visisbility of this review since I strictly resist to watch any revealing pictures of Sanae before I got my hands on mine. ;-)
She was on the top of my wishlist since I saw her first. Its hard to describe, since the chara design isn’t as beautifull as others. But shes definetely a detailed one. Her corkscrew curls, the milkbottle, the ear sign and of course her very womanlike body are made me pay the price. That she has a lot of H extras is the icing on the cake. I think I will not be disapointed from that Sanae.
>> Shingo
I cannot read Japanese (someday…) so does the page, or any other info you’ve run across say if Vispo’s Seyada Tara Daiki PVC will have the LEDs included and/or pre-assembled?
I really must disagree with your Koyori & Tamaki reviews, they might not be prefect but no figure is (even Sanae), and 8 just seems too low for both simply on original sculpt and PVC translation of it alone. Also, I love the Mega House Koyori too(and Yes, I do have one), but I can’t call it a better version. It has no shading at all in the folds of the “pants” (I can’t remember the proper name at the moment), and is a really loose fit (“pants’, waist joint & one of the sleeves) and is a real pain to put back together. Wonderful, but not better IMO. By the way, do you know who sculpted the Mega House Koyori? I’ve never been able to find out, though it looks much like the recent OSIRIS (Heavy Gauge)sculpts from them.
I’m getting the 1/4 Mina (Lighter Skin Ver.) that was more recently announced. I know it’s really too expensive, but it’s Toushirou, I missed my chance at the first version, and I think the lighter skin will look better in final PVC paint form. I don’t really care that she’s not castoff, given that she never has appeared in an official SNK product topless, and never will, so I think expecting it or judging her harshly for not being castoff is unfair/unrealistic. Now, anyone passing due to the price tag, that I can understand.
Also, and just because, I have the Melting Neuron Felicia from Organic, and mine doesn’t have a finger print or anything. Detail paint could be better, but the sculpt it brilliant, translated well to PVC and the face is wonderfully executed. Much, much higher than a 4 (that is what you gave it right?). So not all copies of her suffered the same fate as yours.
Sorry to be so off review topic…
>> Pseudokings
The first version of Mina is back in stock at Hobby Search.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10059206
I don’t really like the facial expression on the lighter-skin version.
>>the_pseudokings
There’s no news on the LEDs at this point; I expect we won’t find out details until product listings start to go up. Soon, I hope.
Regarding past review scores, I have to stress that they’re purely subjective (and therefore meaningless, perhaps). It might be better to abandon them altogether if it seems they’re generating more controversy than helpful opinion.
While the scores I give are holistic, I tend to place a lot of weight on production quality and fidelity, and frankly Daiki hasn’t been up to standard in most of their past work. I support them for tackling ambitious, large-scale projects, but if they don’t do justice to the source material I feel the need to call it the way I see it. It’s no disparagement toward the original craftsmanship on the kit, just to Daiki’s production ability.
I hope their future kits will continue to improve on the standard it seems they’ve finally managed to attain with Sanae.
Regarding Daiki’s Mina, the price coupled with lack of particular affinity for the character are what made me pass her up (though I admire the sculpt immensely). I mention castoffability because I am a sick, sick bastard and would have considered paying up if her top was genuinely removable. -_-
I’m glad to hear your Felicia was undamaged; I’ve taken a look at others in shops and it seems mine was a freak accident. Unfortunate, but again – shame on Organic for letting it pass through their quality control. The original sculpt is amazing, and it was theirs to fail on, and they did (if only in my case).
I like how creative figure makers are getting, although I’m not really a collector.
First cast-off, then “fully-pliant” bosoms (the ‘technology’ which services the mousepad industry as well), and then LEDs for the future!
So yeah, Sanae is a milestone figure so to speak. I’ve been following her development at vispo’s site for ages.
Forgive me as I’m trying to not sound crude in this post but since this is “Oh, Japan!”, we’re talking about, we can hope for more crazy stuff in the future.
One thing to hope to expect in upcoming releases would be using silicone such as used in baby bottles. (I’m not sure how similar that would be to the rubber compound used here is.). If the manufacturing technology is kept sanitary then there would be real ‘suckable’ chest portions for all those fans of lactation fetish manga.
About this kit in particular, the original character design and pose doesn’t do it for me. I prefer more feminine designs as well as moe, even for bakunyuu characters. The pose is more like “I am spreading my legs!” rather than a shy “come hither!”
Yes Asia just got some more if anyone’s interested. Care to link to it, Shingo?
Sorry, I meant Play Asia
Thanks for the tipoff, Anachronism! Sanae is currently in stock at Play Asia, though who knows for how long…
>>DaFool
I expect lactation wouldn’t be a viable option unless working with scales a bit larger than Sanae here… probably 1/3 and up, and that means a serious investment both in initial production and for the end user. I wonder if the fetish is widespread enough to warrant something like that being mass produced.
Well, if Rin can have a 1/1 scale figure, I believe there are lactation fetish persons out there on Earth who will pay for a 1/3 or larger anime figures based on a good bakunyuu character. (Characters from Angel Blade, Bible Black/Discipline, G-taste, Erotic Heart Mother, Linda, Witchblade etc all make good candidates)
I myself will order a pair. And anime-based characters to me don’t look frightening at larger scales, unlike those from http://www.realdolls.com
Okay- finally got to go over the review and the comments and a few things come to mind.
Questions about the castoffablilty- do you think her bottom was supposed to be cast off? “Sure!!” You think to yourself, “She is suppose to be castoffable down there!! She is NAKED underneath the panties!! Very very detailed and naked!!” But I don’t think she was intended to be castoffable, due to the fact that of how secured her underwear was attached to her.
So why is she naked underneath? Well, that is to reward the customer for ruining the figure!! They knew collectors would take a peak underneath, so they gave them something to see. It’s like having a Picaso painting, but it was painted over a DaVinci, so the only way to get to the DaVinci is to ruin the Picaso.
But anyway- I LOVE this figure- her size and her anatomically correctness, her vagina, anus her most plentiful of sized breasts are fabulous. I have wanted this kind of detail in figures for a long time. There is no reason to be ashamed of what’s underneath our clothes. (Well, most of us, there are some people out there, you can just stay covered-LOL)
After all that- I wish I had the money to get this figure. It doesn’t appeal to me (that much) but I want to support making PVC’s of this naked and correctness nature. I want all figures to be this naked under their clothes. Sanae is in fact a very beautiful figure. My only gripe would be her anus looks a too semetrical- but whatever. I just can’t afford her right now.
Who knows maybe I have a rich relative who wants me to share in their wealth. And then she will be mine!!!
LOL- thanx for reading.
>>Work_Ethic, (The reward)with patience, tools, steady hand, and the understanding of the flexibility/stretching limit before breaking of the pvc material the figure is not ruin.. and totally reversible just like new/glued
Got mine! :-D
I found that it works pretty well to suck the gel directly into the syringe. That way you can remove gel that is oozing out too. I couldn’t fill all of the gel to the bossom. So I have something left and the breast feel pretty firm too.
What I don’t like about the replacement breasts is the little gap between her decollete and her bra. They doesn’t fit well enough. The pvc breast doens’t have that problem. I can see on your pictures the same issue. Another one is the floating left foot.
Though it was fun to fill the gel to her breasts and she looks really good!
Gah. I had Sanae in my order list at HLJ for months until I finally canceled it out in a fit of budget-cutting. The expense got to me. But, thanks to this review, I just went and ordered one from Play Asia. In the end, the allure of the cow girl was just too much to resist…
I too needed to have what looked like an incredible example of the uniqueness of Japan. When I heard Play-Asia had them again, I snagged one. It just arrived today and I finished filling the boobs. I was able to use almost all of the gel (which is an incredible substance in itself) but I think the boobs are a little overfilled. The bell is bumped up a bit and the piece bulges near the top. They did get nice and firm though. The best refinement that could be made for this concept is a check valve instead of the plug so that fluid could be easily filled without it flowing back out when you set the piece down to refill the syringe. Although something to help relieve air pressure inside it would be good too.
Hi hi!
Sorry for my english… ehehe… i’m italian.
Aizawa Sanae it’s a great model, and i received it just yesterday.
I collect many of theese pvc and resinkits but… please can you explain me something?
I noticed that in your photos, the model is so veery clean! Also under the panties, where the black color usually can stain the skin color with black shadows or something.
I have the same problem with others ero-models: i remove the clothes but the skin under them is usually “not clean”
How can i toggle that kind of stain?
Thank’s in first of your interest and see ya