Moé Moé Rabu

For a long time I have been an avid Da Capo fan. So when the Da Capo 2 game came out, I had the best 4 days as I stopped watching anime and just played through half of the game. So when a figure of one of the two main girls came out, I knew I had to buy one. This being the third Da Capo 2 figure released, I present to you Asakura Otome.

Otome is the older one of the Asakura sisters, the younger being Yume, and she happens to be one of my most favourite girls in Da Capo 2. At home she is an Onee-chan to both Yume and Yoshiyuki, but at school, she is the Student Council President (whilst still being an Onee-chan). Though when I was playing her route of the game, just hearing her say “Ototo-kun” was music to my ears and I just melted. Although a little strict, she does care for her dear Ototo-kun.

Funny how I should notice this only now, but Otome’s pose is exactly the same one in her character profile on the Circus website. It’s true, check it out here. In fact, Nanaka and Yume are exactly the same. Go me for taking so long to realise! There isn’t much I can say about her pose as it isn’t anything too special. Though if there is one word I could describe her it would be confident. Or should I say straightforward? Well both work well and that is the kind of character that I feel Otome is (well early on in the game).

Being in her senior year of high school as well, Otome wears the senior uniform for girls. When I first saw this originally WAY back in the first Da Capo series, I didn’t like it much. But it eventually grew on me and I find it a very nice uniform. It has a nice sense of maturity but it doesn’t do justice in showing off the 3 sizes, compared to the other uniform, especially since they are also wearing a coat. The sculpting quality of the uniform is remarkably done well - like the skirt, the cuffs on the coat, the tie and collar (I should find out the proper name for these but its the thing on her shoulders) as it looks layered and really neat, and looks MUCH better than the Nanaka and Yume figures.

Her boots are a nice touch and the white matches with the colours of the uniform. The detailing on the laces are done well, though the edges at the top of her boots are a little rough at the back. Though if there is one thing about the painting on this uniform that I don’t like, it’s the colour of the coat. It doesn’t appear close to palish yellow like in the CGs. But other than that, the paintwork is fantastic.

One of the most defining features of Otome has definitely got to be her hair. As some of you know already, I’m a sucker for girls with really long hair, and Otome is no exception. The long length of her fringes (is that what they are called?), and her ponytail is just crying out moé with it being tied with her large sakura pattern printed ribbon. Although I do find how her ponytail parts like it does a little odd as I’m sure that can’t happen in real life.

Another feature of Otome is her armband. This armband shows that she is a member of the student council and it does nicely to blend in with the uniform. I also happen to have this exact armband as a cosplay item and I bought it because it was cheap. You can see a picture of it here. I have worn it once, though unfortunately my arm isn’t girly enough so it doesn’t actually fit loosely and is quite tight.

The one thing I love the most about Otome’s character design, has to be her face, and more specifically, her eyes. She does indeed look very cute and the shaping of her face is nicely rounded and she doesn’t have much of a pointy chin. But her eyes~~~ Every time I look into them I find them lively, but a sense of depth as well. Yume has the same eyes but I think they work better on Otome.

Like all figures based on girls from galges, her skirt is removable. Although Otome required a little more force than others I have in my collection. Only one photo this time as I was in a really public location and I already had enough eyes watching me.

Product: Asakura Otome
Anime/Game: Da Capo 2
Produced by: Kotobukiya
Sculptor: JUN (E.V.)
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: March 2007
Price: ¥4,200
Available: HLJ (unavailable)

Collecting a figure of one of your favourite characters from an anime series or even a game I feel is a little different to just collecting a good looking figure. To me I tend to look at them in a more loving manner than to marvel at their awesomeness, resulting in me taking nearly 3 hours to write up this entire post (I kid you not). Don’t get me wrong, I love all my figures equally, but with Otome, I love this figure of her on a different level. In this kind of case you can’t really explain why I love her so much and I think I have a thing for siscon, just like a certain tanuki

Anyway, back to the figure. Overall Otome has shown great improvements since the Yume figure in terms of sculpting and paintwork. With Yume I found her paintwork to be a little glossy and her sculpting not so great. So it looks to me that JUN has improved since then as Otome is clean and well proportioned. The only minor downsides to this is just the mold lines that are visible on the underside of her right arm and on the armband. Though also for some odd reason, Otome looks a little faded in terms of colouring. It may be due to the flat colouring look to her but I can easily overlook that. So should this be one that you should look into buying? On an over the top biased opinion YES. But of course that is just my love for Otome speaking. If you are a Da Capo fan like I am then it’s worth looking into getting one.

Just a little extra I though it would be nice to pair the Asakura sisters together.

Photography Notes:

Location: Hyde Park, Sydney

Back a few months ago when Windbell came to visit, one of the places we visited was Hyde Park. This here is actually a pathway leading upto a water fountain but where I took the photos was on a flight of stairs. You may notice in the full shots of Otome, she is leaning a bit. This is due to the spot I used had a slight slant on it. Reason I wanted to use this setting was I wanted something similar to the sakura pathway they have in the Da Capo game. Although this was shot during the middle of the day, this pathway looks really awesome in the afternoon.

You may also note that some photos are a bit blurry. Using the standard lens really is showing it limits every time I do a photo shoot, so it may be time to start saving for that macro lens. This set I used more photos than usual simply because I found it difficult to cut down what I wanted to use. Also choosing between particular photos was difficult, like this and this photo. They may look similar, but in fact one is zoomed out more than the other. So I chose to use both of them.