Moé Moé Rabu

Yes it’s another figure review! I finally got off my lazy ass to do a photo shoot after a gruesome time of sorting and editing 250+ wedding photos. So having after handing them over to my mum, I headed out towards the beach.

Now this arrived like a LONG time ago. Like WAY back in early December I believe and I was meaning to do this a long time ago. Also I had to think about what kind of setting I wanted, but I thought the beach would be a nice place, especially having done the pre-wedding shoot for my mum, I found some very nice places around Sydney.

Asakura Yume is the second main girl of the renai game Da Capo II. She is also the younger sister to Asakura Otome and the protaganist Sakurai Yoshiyuki (though not by blood). Yume is the probably the one who takes most of Asakura Nemu’s traits in terms of looks and personality. Serious and occasionally tsuntsun, she does her cute sides when it comes to Yoshiyuki and that is when you see her true self. Personally I haven’t played through Yume’s path on Da Capo II. Such a shame really as I am halfway through completing all the girl’s (thanks to playing it for 4 days straight with very little sleep, lol) but I think I’ll finish it one day.

One thing about Yume is that she is rather small. Not as in terms of scaling but she is rather thin. With a small body frame she doesn’t look to be a strong person, just perfect for any “Nii-san” to protect. The bag that Yume carries here is an optional accessory that you have remove. But personally I think she looks better carrying the bag.

With an arm behind her back, it adds to her petite form. Her pose shows her shyness but also implies that she is waiting for a special someone. As you can see, Yume comes with a clear purple base. Such a shame that she can’t stand on her own.

The paintwork on Yume is about average, it’s not good, but it’s not bad either. Mainly around her shirt is where you notice that it looks roughly, but it feels rather smooth. Another thing is the creases throughout Yume’s shirt. The feel unnatural and blockish, where this is fairly noticeable around her right elbow.

One best feature about Yume is her face. Although it may appear small, it is molded really well. In a lot of figures, you tend to get this flat look, but with Yume you don’t. Her nose pecks out a bit and her cheek bones form out quite well. Also unlike Nanaka, Yume’s hair isn’t covering her cute and bashful face.

And of course for the panty fans. I am somewhat surprised that the sculptor did give Yume her flower laced panties (those who have seen the CG scenes will know what I’m on about).

Product: Asakura Yume
Produced by: Kotobukiya
Scultped by: Kimihito Honda
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: November 2006
Price: ¥4,200
Available: HLJ (in stock at time of posting)

Being a Kotobukiya figure, I am somewhat disappointed in the quality of painting and molding. But the mold lines are the worst part as they are quite noticeable on Yume’s shirt, but also along the side of her legs. Obviously you can’t see the ones on the legs as I didn’t include the photos but you can see them from the back.

Just like Nemu, I like her, but at the same time I don’t. The same goes for Yume. There are times when I love her completely, but there are times when I’m thinking she is quite annoying. So the same can apply to Kotobukiya. It’s almost like a hit and miss with figure quality but in this case, it’s both. But if you are a fan of Yume, heck even Nemu, this is truly depends on how deep your love for her is.

Photography Notes:

Yes the beach. Luckily for me this time around there wasn’t too many people as I went during a weekday (such is the sad benefit of not working full time) so I didn’t have hundreds of eyes on me. This location is actually one of the locations used for my mum’s pre-wedding photo shoot and I thought it was a fabulous place. The location for this is in the suburbs called Watson’s Bay, just north of Bondi.

Though due to the time, which was around 4:30 p.m, it was still broad daylight and was about 2 hours away from sunset. So the photos have turned out a bit too shadowy and bright in places. You may notice that some photos are either grainy or blurry. This is because I was using Av Priority mode where I wanted to set the highest F-stop value to so I could include the background. Though due to this it means a slower shutter speed, and results in a slight blurry picture.

The use of a tripod and remote could have helped reduce the blur, but with the current tripod, it is rather hard to setup pending on where you sit the figure. So I may look towards a more flexible tripod as the current one isn’t actually mine. At this stage I am also considering purchasing a UV filter though I am unsure on what type at this stage.