It’s been awhile since we last saw the PVC incarnation of a kit based on a Sengoku-series character, so I was excited when the PVC version of this Cerberus Project Sunny Day Mizuka was announced on Goodsmile’s website last year. While some at the time found her expression ghoulish I really liked the radiant energy I saw pouring out of the resin prototype and placed an order primarily for that reason. Several months later I can report that the finished version came out decidedly mixed, and more than a little zombified, sadly – read on for details:

Original Design: Tsukasa Jun
Sculptor: Sunny Day (Cerberus Project)
Source: Sengoku Cannon -Sengoku Ace Episode III-
Scale: 1/6 (20 cm tall)
Materials: PVC
Release Date: December 20th, 2007
Production: Art Storm (Lilics) / Goodsmile
Price: 6,800 JPY (tax included)
Current Availability: [KNC] [HLJ] [HS] [TL] [AAA]

Released for the PSP in 2005, by all accounts Sengoku Cannon was a disappointment as a game – but it produced some fantastic Tsukasa Jun character art that has since been immortalized in several figures (primarily of the miko-themed Koyori, who also appeared in the earlier Sengoku Blade. I still have to review her EB Craft incarnation…). This is the first PVC incarnation of a non-Koyori character from the franchise, Mizuka.

Sengoku Cannon game cover and Mizuka source image

Given the enormous backlog of figure reviews I currently have to work through, instead of a full review I’m going to quickly touch on a few of the positive and negative points about the kit that stand out the most:

Positive

I’ve already said I’m a fan of the original Sunny Day resin, so with that as a given, Art Storm/Lilics did some things profoundly right in their PVC rendition. First, the casting fidelity is superb – detail work is crisp, clean, and well-rendered, and while this results in a few visible mold lines I think it’s acceptable for the level of detail achieved. Secondly, the paint job is (with a few glaring exceptions) quite excellent – liberal use of shading and contrasting gloss and matte finishes really brings the kit alive, especially her costume. Detailed paint work is also largely on target. Finally, the inclusion of non-PVC media (the string weaving on the sleeves of her tunic) is an appreciated touch that adds an uncommon level of realism to a kit of this size, and enhances the feeling of detail nicely.

Negative

The critical failure of this kit is in the skin, especially her face. The PVC stock they chose for her skin has a slight greenish pallor that looks quite awful in certain lighting – as the linked review comments, she looks a bit like a corpse. The nonsensical addition of a gloss finish to her face (not present on any of the other exposed skin) is another contributing factor to the bizarre and unhealthy look, as is a slight misalignment of the eyes that makes her look unfocused from certain angles. To add insult to injury, there’s no way this kit is 1/6 scale (as advertised), unless Mizuka is meant to be 20×6 = 120 cm tall. I’m pretty sure that’s classified as dwarfism even in Japanese women…

Castoff Notes

The review linked above describes a castoff process that I wasn’t brave enough to try myself; after persistent tugging her outer robe wouldn’t come come detached, and I didn’t feel like breaking anything to force the issue. Removal doesn’t result in anything particularly revealing, though apparently she’s not completely flat (though nothing compared to Koyori :3).

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Lilics’ Sengoku Cannon Mizuka is a really nice kit with a critical flaw that I suspect will keep many from enjoying her as we really ought to. If you don’t mind the pallor of her skin in certain lighting this is a kit I can provisionally recommend to fans of the original Sunny Day sculpt, but can’t in all honesty get too excited about; given the failure of the franchise with the Cannon release I don’t expect we’ll see much else in the figure world from the Segoku series, so it’s a damn shame things had to end on this mediocre a note.