Hunting the Elusive

Well, as many people might have guessed from the previous post, this one is going to review the second Kureha figure I received some time ago, and this is the authentic 1/8 PVC of the Tony Taka-created character. It was a bit less popular than the Max Factory one, in that it is still in stock. It definitely takes a different approach, however. First of all, the pose is much more dynamic, and secondly the face and the hair denotes a character rendered less "mature" than the previous Kureha.

The first obvious thing of course is the pose. The clothing is flying up, as if the character were in the middle of a spin or a run. The bow is the same design as the other figure.

Being a PVC, however, I was disappointed by the lack of shading in the clothing, which ended up looking like banana peels.

I have immediate problems with the way the mouth has been done, with one straight brown line. Although brown line might be OK, I think the have done better to make it more subtle, or make the line shorter.

That said, overall the feeling of the character is younger than the Max Factory figure. The rounder face, for example, and the less-defined nose does push that across.

Also, the lighter colours of the prints used for the eyes, as well as the hair, means Kotobukiya was trying to capture the particular feel and palette of Tony Taka's illustrations. Sometimes the T2 Artworks are so light and ephemeral that less aesthetically-informed Anons would feel the need to adjust the levels and colours of the pictures. It certainly seems like this figure tries to keep the illustrative originality of the character style, while the Max Factory version is more like an anime or conventional rendering of the character.

Other than that, the PVC figure is subject to certain mass production flaws such as detachment marks on the skirt. However, it is sculpted nicely, and the cleft behind the figure's knees, for example, is realistically done.

The figure posses the same style of shoes as the Max Factory version, and again there are the folds in the boots. It is screwed into the translucent brown base.

The bow uses a rather more tightly-strung bowstring made of brass, and is held in hand without any attachments. The only way to get it secure is to have it held at the middle curve of the bow, such that the thumb of the hand locks it in place.

Partly because of the pose, the skirt has been sculpted to look rather more skintight than the other version, with contours visible through it.

Topdown look indicates the hair of the figure is made of one piece (as opposed to three pieces in the other). The top part of the figure's clothes also exposes more than the Max Factory version.

The hair is not as well shaded as how E2046 rendered it, but the detailed sculpting does go some way to make up for it.

It therefore comes as little surprise that this figure is cast-off-able. I believe Max Factory's is also cast-off-able, but E2046's version is not.

Curiously, the attaching tab for the torso of the figure is this translucent brown plastic -- perhaps ABS or another sort of material to provide the stiff support needed?

Two more angles of the face. Like the previous Kureha, it's quite impossible to screw up the angles on the face -- it looks good no matter where you're shooting from.

Conclusion:

Having looked at two Kureha figures, I must say one would be hard pressed to subjectively choose one over the other. The approaches are completely different in both cases, even though they are the same character. I guess most people will be making their choice based on stuff like costs or scale -- 1/8 versus 1/7. Personally, I rather like this Kotobukiya one more than the Max Factory one by virtue of the loyalty to the original artwork and the more dynamic and cuter rendition. Technically-speaking, the lack of comprehensive shading is a bit of a let-down though. There are also flaws which are inherent to the PVC figure medium, but in the case of this figure, well within acceptable bounds.