With the major success of the anime series Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuustu, there has been a great influx of merchandise coming out, including figures. One of the first few Haruhi figures to come out is Kaiyodo’s Asahina Mikuru, the big-breasted moelicious mascot of the SOS Brigade. So continue reading as Mikuru prepares to serve you some tea.
Well no need to go on about SHnY since everyone knows about it. What we have here is Mikuru in her maid outfit that she wears in the Adventure of Asahina Mikuru and I must say, it’s rather cute. With it being the first one to come out, I pre-ordered it without much thinking but eventually more figures of Mikuru were coming out. Though I still kept this one and it eventually arrived at my door.
The very first thing you notice about Mikuru is her eyes. They are a bit large and takes up majority of her face, which is a little distracting as well. What is also done is the eyebrow painted on her fringe. Not sure what the go is there but I think what Miyazono Hiroshisa was aiming for was a similar look to the anime version of Mikuru.
No wait, what I said was a mistake, the above picture is what you first notice, lol. Horizontal breasts aren’t such a bad thing as it can also depict her size. Moving along i am somewhat surprised by Mikuru’s body frame overall. I always though of her as someone petite, but that’s not the case at all. Though this may contribute to the fact that her legs are quite long, but I don’t mind this point at all. Nothing like some leg showing now is there?
Now what kind of Mikuru would it be if we couldn’t remove her skirt? Upon making her more embarrassed, we reveal underneath that she is wearing a silky type of panties, which I find rather odd. But then, we never do see what she wears underneath in the anime anyway. You may also notice that her left arm is in a position where she is holding her skirt down, however, physically she isn’t holding it at all.
Product: Asahina Mikuru
Produced by: Kaiyodo
Sculptor: Miyazono Hiroshisa
Scale: non-scale (stands 23 cm tall)
Material: PVC
Release Date: January 2007
Price: ¥4,500
Available: HLJ (in stock at time of posting)
Overall I don’t find this Mikuru to be all that bad. She is rather cute and the fact that this is a very simple figure is why I like it. I don’t like the Atelier-Sai version at all, and the Max Factory one is in a nice pose, but the way she looks like in pain kind of turns me off. She comes with a translucent purple base which is lacking, especially since other Kaiyodo figures have some kind of print of them, but Mikuru is well enough to stand on her own (her breasts are probably acting as a counter-weight).
Though the only thing about this Mikuru is that she doesn’t look very Mikuru at all. But that is like a lot of figures these days but the other Mikuru figures look closer to the anime version. Although if you don’t like the other ones available, or the ones coming out soon, I would recommend this. This is just a simple figure, nothing too fancy, but nothing degrading about it either and the quality is exceptionally well.
Also sorry, no proper upskirt shots this time since I did this photoshoot on a table.
Check out some other reviews of Mikuru:
- Figurine: Mikuru Asahina by Kaiyodo (TedFox’s Anime Reviews)
- Mikuru Asahina (Danny Choo)
Photography Notes
Well this is a first indoor shoot for a while (the Fate Testarossa doesn’t count since I didn’t use lighting) and from my point of view, I’m not there yet. I still need to get the right amount of lighting, or position the lighting properly to get the effects I want. But at least the awesome thing about doing this photo shoot is the remote shooting directly from my computer. At this point I’ll have to buy more coloured cardboard as my range is very limited at the moment but I think for the next figure photography shoot I’ll be going back to basics and use a white background.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again…I don’t like this one. Her skintone is out, and her face is perhaps too chubby. Atelier Sai’s upcoming black nurse dress one might be a good option for those who subconsciously compare bunny mikuru with BUBBA’s haruhi.
Horizontal breast and never ending legs.
That said, I prefer this compared to those already on the market, although the upcoming black maid one would most likely beat the rest hands down.
I’ve been really annoyed by indoor shooting. The results just aren’t any good, with a couple of exceptions.
I meant for my own photoshoots! Eg the Nono Buster Machine one.. in case you got the wrong idea.
Well we both have the same Mikuru and both did indoor shots in this case. Well I guess mine’s in front of white background like all my other figure shots.
There’s definitely not enough lighting especially on a couple of shot the figure looks really dark and I didn’t think you intended that. Maybe you need to get a few more lights so you can position them at the direction you wanted and also makes the figure brighter. In most of the cases, you probably want the figure to be light up evenly but just a bit brighter than what your naked eye think is good to take photos. Don’t judge it by your naked eye, judge it by your camera. So take a shot and look at the final picture. If the figure looks a bit too dark, just move the light closer. (Well to a certain degree because you still want a smooth even lighting not a hot spot shinning some where).
I prefer the max factory mikuru compared to this one, I don’t really like the eye brow drawn on her hair. But anyway, nice photo shoot
but I prefer outdoor more 
icie: I want to steer clear of Atelier-Sai for a while since their recent line of figures haven’t exactly been good quality.
TedFox: I like this one as well. Though I don’t think I’ll be buying the other ones. I don’t like having the same character twice unless I really like the character.
tj han: Yeah indoor shooting gets quite annoying. Although at least I can remotely photograph my figures.
Fenix: Thanks for the tips. Although I think one problem I have is that one light is giving off natural light, the other is giving off a tungsen light. I might need to change the tungsen to natural light.
ron~: Such a shame I can’t order the Max Factory one since it’s been placed on order stop, but I can’t exactly start placing pre-orders since I’m broke as well.
I haven’t ordered a single Mikuru figure yet, which is a shame really considering her curves. But, none of them has been all that great. The one from MaxFactory…she looks like she’s in pain rather than in the Mikuru expression.
Hey hey, I’ve change the categories of my post a little, so could you help change the link in your post?? Thanks thanks.
http://anime.tedfox.com/2007/others/figurines/figurine-mikuru-asahina-by-kaiyodo/
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No…. she dont look Mikuru-Mikuru does she? But I do like when the shine is painted onto the hair. And I didnt even notice about the eyebrow untill you mentioned it lol.
She is very cute… a little too thin I think….. but very cute.