Moé Moé Rabu

Through all the craziness that is the Spring season of anime shows, within the schedule I managed to sneak in a figure photo shoot. So take a break from the bombardment of shows, take a step back into the Fall and Winter season to remember back to Kanon 2006, and here we are, Minase Nayuki.

With the conclusion of Kanon 2006, I was sadden as Kanon is my all time favourite shows and is what probably sparked my interest in anime, but more specifically ren’ai game based animes. Back when I watched the Toei version of Kanon it has stayed at the very top of my list for many years, even to the point where I would rewatch Toei’s version at least once a year (yes I’m that much of a Kanon fanboy) and my most favourite character was and still is Nayuki. But what is it about Nayuki that I like so much? Well hopefully I can explain along with the figure review.

The very first thing about Nayuki is that I find her really cute. From when she smiles, when she’s half asleep to even her voice (hats off to Kouda Mariko for doing an awesome Nayuki voice) I find her just lovable in every way. Here in the photos we see her wearing her school uniform which has a a rather deep shade of red which brings a nice contrast to the overall look of Nayuki and her surroundings. But it also brings out the colour of her hair and eyes.

One of Nayuki’s unique features is definitely her hair. The grooves and how her strands part are sculpted well and it has a nice flowing feel to it, though her fringe does look a little big, but it blends in with how her hair is scultped and give it volume. Under certain lighting conditions, Nayuki’s hair can actually change colour. If under natural light it can become blue, but under a tungsen light it appears a dark purple and I find this to be really cool. In the anime I’m not exactly sure what her hair colour is but I like it very much. In fact Nayuki is also the reason why I like girls with long purple hair.

Just some more awesome hair shots. Anyway Nayuki’s pose isn’t really that exciting and feels too plain though I see that as rather fitting. Given her personality to be a happy but a bit of a sleepyhead, it goes to show she is just an ordinary girl. Her right hand up in a tossing her hair motion looks nice and gives the impression of how nice and pretty her hair is. With a stepping forward pose and holding her school bag makes her look as it she was waiting for someone.

So far I’m talking as if this figure is perfect. Well not exactly. There is a slight downside I see to this figure and that is mainly her legs. To be honest, they are a little big around her thighs and calves. Nayuki is supposed to be the captain of the track team and I expected her to be a little slim and fit, but here it doesn’t appear to be the case. Her overall body looks a bit big, but that is due to her uniform I would say.

Also as you can see, the base she comes with is a scenario type plug base. Unfortunately during transport of this figure in my backpack during the photo shoot day, on of the pegs actually broke off, but luckily it was a minor one so Nayuki is still attached firmly to the base. I was actually hoping that she could stand freely on her own but unfortunately not. The scenario type base is nice and matches well with Nayuki, plus it looks better than a tacky transparent type base.

At first I though Nayuki had nothing removable at the start, but I found out that the top part of her uniform is actually removable. Just pop the head off and take the shawl off. Without the shawl, the uniform looks really weird, but now we can see Nayuki’s body line more clearly and shows that she is really in fact slim. As stated before, the uniform just makes her look big. Though seeing how winter gets very cold in her city, doesn’t surprise me how they want to wear a lot of clothing. As you can also see, Nayuki has a zettai ryouiki which is an added moé factor.

Lastly of course is the accessory items that comes with the figure. Yes here you see is the snow bunny and it looks so cute, a befitting accessory to accompany Nayuki. At first I didn’t realise that she came with the snow bunny until I opened it. I had an idea of making a snow bunny myself but lucky for me.

Product: Minase Nayuki
Produced by: Kotobukiya
Sculptor: Munetoshi Makio
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: February 2007
Price: ¥4,200
Available: HLJ (out of stock)

With Kanon being my first and favourite anime and Nayuki being the one who started my long purple hair obsession, I was overcome with joy when I heard of a Nayuki figure coming out. As far as I know this is perhaps the second Nayuki figure to ever come out, with the first by Clayz WAY back in 2002-2003 which had accompanied the Ayu figure. Though I could be wrong as there could’ve even been cold cast kits. Well with this being a Kotobukiya work, I am happy with the overall quality of Nayuki in terms of painting, sculpting and build quality as it is a very clean make, which is really rare to see.

The few minor issues like her legs being a little bit fat, and again like the Ayu figure it was a bitch to get out of the box, the fact remains that Nayuki is still a wonderful figure. Seeing the promo pictures she didn’t appear to look that great, but upon a closer inspection and through the eye of the lens, I grew to like this figure of Nayuki more and more. But the fact that remains that she is still my favourite character from Kanon and that is what makes me love this figure so much more. In the past I have bought some not so good quality figures, but the amount of love you have for the figure can bring out the best of it, and that is what figure collecting is about. I wouldn’t say that this is the best figure in my collection, but it is one of the ones that I show much appreciation to.

Check out other reviews of the Nayuki figure:

• Figurine: 1/8 Nayuki Minase from Kanon (TedFox’s Anime Reviews)

Photography Notes

Even in the middle of the starting session of the Spring anime season, and with fellow blogger Windbell with me, I managed to get a photo shoot done over the Easter Weekend. The weather wasn’t looking that great but it cleared up a bit on Sunday so it was good weather to do a photo shoot in. The location I chose for Nayuki is at the World Square shopping centre on George Street, Sydney. I chose this place as I wanted a shopping area as the background and this place was perfect in two ways:

It has a shopping area look, but the stairs you seem somewhat resemble the stairs by the train station that we see in the Kanon anime. With Windbell with me, I taught him the things I learnt since I started photography or more specifically figure photography. Lucky for him though that it was Easter Sunday and that there weren’t a lot of people around.

This is Windbell practicing his photography with me giving him advice on what to do.

And then there’s me doing what I love doing the most. What you see me doing is using the macro filters to do the really close up shots.