Categories
Figure Review

Review: 1/8 Yashiro Kasumi

I believe I have the power to control the weather! How do I know this? Because every time I make up my mind to photograph some reviews the weather turns to crap! Awesome power, right? *sigh*

Anyway enough of my despairing…Time to review something I received recently, but is far from a new release.

"Part bunny. Part Sci-FI. All cute!"

It’s funny what a difference knowing a character does for my desire to own a figure…before I played Muv-Luv, I was fascinated by Meiya because of her revealing pilot suit and generally bad-ass character design. So I went out of my way to snag myself her figure while completely ignoring the other two girls that Good Smile Company made from the series.

"The picture that made me fall for her in the game. Such an angelic look! (Ignoring the rabbit of course...)"

Sadly, after playing the game and finding Meiya to be utterly not my type of girl (she isn’t really a bad character technically, but very much not what I look for in a gal) she became less enticing to me as a piece in my collection. Instead I found myself utterly charmed by Yashiro-chan, and much to my delight she was much more readily available and not nearly as overpriced as Meiya always is!

"Those eyes of hers really cut you to the core!"

Now trying to give a biography of Yashiro would pretty much constitute a spoiler as far as I’m concerned, so all I’m going to say is she was cute and enigmatic in the first game then became downright endearing during the second one to the point that she is easily my favorite girl in the series!

So with that vague description lets see how our lovely little bunny eared girl stacks up to Meiya quality-wise!

"Loving the detail they gave her. Notice the little nubs at her waist!"

As far as assembly goes, there isn’t much to be done here despite the fact that GSC decided to add some instructions on how to attach Yashiro’s plush rabbit to her hand via the right holes and pegs. It did take slightly more force than I expected,  but it was a painless process.

"The coloring and all the little details really just come together to make one pretty little package!"

One thing I noticed right off the bat was that she lacks Meiya’s messy painting on the small details of her suit, which was my one major gripe about that figure. This time around however all the small spots where she has green and blue have been immaculately painted! I was pretty worried about an echo of Meiya’s annoyances, so crispness of the details on Yashiro was a very nice surprise.

"THE RABBIT OF DOOOOM!!!"

Aside from the detailing, the overall paint work on Yashiro is just plain excellent! GSC did a wonderful job shading her hair, and her bunny looks exquisite (well, as exquisite as a creepy giant pink rabbit with red eyes and razor teeth can be). Likewise, the gloss of her suit has a beautiful luster to it. I do wish her face was just a shade lighter as she is an extremely pale girl in the game illustrations, but it’s not so bad that it really detracts from the appeal of the paint overall.

"More fine detailing like the badge on her shoulder! Also enjoy how her face is just a touch chubby! So cute!"

But of course, nothing is perfect and there are a few niggling defects with her hair and the bunny in the form of paint clumps, but they’re pretty damn hard to notice without a macro lens while being few in number as well to be honest.

"She has to have one of the best butts I've seen recently!"

Alright then let’s take a look at the sculpting and pose…wow, now there’s a surprise — she has a really great ass! Honestly looking at her outfit I didn’t expect to get much service out of it, but they sculpted her butt very nicely. It’s not overly large, but rather pleasantly rounded for her petite proportions, and the strategically placed little blue doodad at the crack helps accentuate the shape even more…Nice job GSC!

"For an emotionally repressed girl there's a lot of impact in that lovely face..."

The rest of the figure is very enjoyable as well. Yashiro  has a cute face, and her suit has been crafted beautifully in all the ways you could possibly hope for with all the small details and panels having been carved out across its surfaces.

GSC has even managed to conceal the few visible mold lines in her twin-tails! I also especially like how there’s an indent on the plush rabbit’s hand where Kasumi is holding it…Small little details like that are the types of things I love to see!

"There really is next to nothing to complain about her! Just well executed all round!"

The pose is very “Yashiro-like” with her clutching her beloved rabbit in one hand and a clenched fist held tight to her chest. Sculptor Yusuke Mazaki also did a great job with her legs, which are slightly crossed with one foot drawn back — it really helps play up the sense of trepidation that her upper body is displaying in her own charming way!

She’s a very quiet awkward girl after all and I can entirely imagine her making a pose like this easily, so no complaints from me.

"Not much to that base, but it does the job and it isn't an uninspired plastic disc!"

Her display base follows the same hexagonal pattern as Meiya’s, which is in keeping with the original game’s use of hexagons in its art. The base gives off a pseudo-futuristic look — not crazy complex, but hey, it sure beats the hell out of a crummy plastic disk!

"She's sporting some seriously funky looking shoes."
"She has got some seriously odd footwear, but it all adds to the charm!"

Pros:

  • An appropriate in-character pose
  • Well-painted, especially the suit
  • Detailed sculpt

Neutral:

  • Some very minor paint clumping on her hair and rabbit
  • Base isn’t exactly what I’d call “exciting”
"Even without all the funky background clutter she is rather spectacular."

Haha, I bet you thought I was really reaching to find those downsides eh! But this Yashiro honestly is a damn lovely figure in all respects as far as I’m concerned! As a Yashiro fan, I really can’t find any outright faults with this beauty. I do kind of wish they had made a figure of her in her uniform or nightgown, but that’s another topic entirely!

As for this figure,you really can’t do any better and the fact that I got her for a decent price is just the icing on the cake! Even though she’s not exactly new she is still easily one of the most well made and appealing GSC figures I’ve seen in some time!

If you want a second opinion and far more color accurate photos of Yashiro feel free to check out Tier’s previous review of her!

And now on a somewhat personal note…

So as some of you may know, I’ve done all my photography since the old MFC review days with my trusty little Panasonic DMC-LZ8. I may be a little bit too full of myself in saying this, but I do think it has served me well and produced some great photos on par or better with some of the shots I’ve seen people put out with camera’s 10x its price. But alas, despite how nifty it is, it still does have its limitations and I’ve recently found myself running head long into those restrictions more and more as my skill has increased. Thus, I recently purchased a DSLR to replace the lovable little fella to remedy this problem.

I mention it here because the acquisition of the DSLR means that this is probably the last review for which I will shoot with my trusty friend, so I felt the need to get a little sentimental for just a moment. Thankfully it will not be spending its days boxed up, but instead given to a friend whose become interested in photography (I actually shot these two pictures at that very friend’s house; and yes, they were both taken at the exact same spot minutes from each other just for comparison’s sake) and I hope it serves her as well in her endeavors to learn photography as it did for me!

As for the new one? Well I’m hoping its increased capabilities will allow me to be even more creative than I have been with reviews in the past, so I may hopefully bring you better photographic eye candy to make my sad excuse for writing more bearable to read! So with that I hope you all have enjoyed the Point & Shoot Era and I will try to make the new DSLR Era even more enjoyable! ^_^

"The new kid is bigger thus better!!! Or thats how it's supposed to work right?"

29 replies on “Review: 1/8 Yashiro Kasumi”

I’ve always liked the look of the Muv Luv characters, tight futuristic pilot suits are always a win in my book. But I didn’t really know how high quality the GSC figures were, wow! Yashiro looks cool inside your desktop which I can’t help but notice is custom made *thumbs up*.

Also, congrats again on your new camera! I was really surprised when I learned that you had been using a compact all this time and am really looking forward to the pictures that will be coming out your new Canon. Are there plans for more lenses, filters, and flashes?

@3edc97ba755b3da5dba13bde0c6ef8d6:disqus Yea Mu-Luv has some really great unique character designs thats for sure. Honestly after all the little errors on Meiya I really wasn’t expecting Yashiro to be so flawless!

Haha yea I managed to squeeze some use out of my old cobbled together PC it seems…Kinda lamenting not using the funky colored cable sleeves again with the new one. >__>

Tbh, you’d probably need multiple flashes to really light up something at night. Best bet is a tripod, long exposures, and maybe a flashlight or something. This video really opened up my eyes to how to handle still life photos at night: http://vimeo.com/20047720

@3edc97ba755b3da5dba13bde0c6ef8d6:disqus Interesting video! But no no I’m not going to try shooting in total darkness or anything! I meant more like urban areas. I have about 3 ideas I’m batting around atm but yea all would be near artificial light sources. Hopefully a tripod and long exposure is enough. ~_^

Holy shit. You’ve been making those great shots with a PnS?! Props man, just goes to show it’s how you use it that counts. I’ve never clicked on an enlarged view of the photos from your reviews but the thumbnails have always looked great IMO.

I’m looking to buy a DSLR to take figure photos too. What model is that? 550D? Also, what made you decide on this make and this model?

@440e5d0735e4fae752e0584364db09e9:disqus Yea just me and my little 100 buck fella! The manual controls really elevated it above its price point. But yea if you check full view of some shots you can see it does have quite a bit of noise in the shot sometimes heh.

Nope I went with the cheapest of the cheap! A 1000D (Or Rebel XS as they call it here). Looking at all the stuff out there about cameras I decided the lens was more important then the body so I decided to sink more money into that heh.

Honestly any entry level DSLR can shot nice shots from what I’ve seen so it came down to price and I could get the Canon for much less then the competition. That plus Tier’s recommendation of a Canon lens were pretty much the deciding factors.

D’aww.. isn’t she adorable? I love pilot suits and bunnies.. what a winning combination!

That suit up her backside looks mighty painful though, haha.

Congratulations on your new camera! I hope you have a much easier time learning to use it than what I do with Luth’s SLR! I think I already mentioned it on MFC but I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the future! 😀

@d61408ee6fb397d842e2b336d271fa59:disqus Indeed! Mecha bunny ears are quite the awesome accessory! :p

Haha it is very tight isn’t it! I honestly was extremely surprised by that. *feels slightly guilty at leering at such a sweet innocent girl* >_>

Thanks! I dunno about that…It has so many buttons and knobs everywhere! Oh god yea you did mention it there haha…Honestly I didn’t expect that little snap shot to be so popular so I’m feeling the pressure now! I’ll try to do my best to live up to everyone’s expectations! >_<

She reminds me of Miku, it must be the twintails.

I don’t know if it’s due to the lighting or the paint job, but I noticed that the reflections off of her seem a bit wavy. From what I’ve seen of other figures, an uneven paint job will cause that so I’m just wondering how she looks in real life.

@fefde1e0f10ec995fb543d21a2f66a03:disqus Wow how did I not see that earlier?!? No wonder I like her haha!

Yea thats probably my fault doing weird things with the lighting honestly…The paint actually is very uniform.

She looks very nice in this shiny high tech dress, as a big friend of twintails, I like her huge twintails a lot.

Also the creepy rabbit hugging toy has an awesome shading effect on his paintjob.

I think your pictures looked always very nice so far, I hope you will have even more fun when using your new cam.

These two camera shots really show the difference between a point and shoot camera and a DSLR, the depth of field effect is nearly unbeatable, but sometimes it can be also hard to handle, at least for me ^^

@wieselhead:disqus Twintails are indeed a wonderful thing! :p

Haha that rabbit…Ah yea i display her without it since it honestly weirds me out a bit. >_>

Thanks! Haha yea the DoF you can get with the Canon is pretty unreal. You are right though if you aren’t careful you can screw things up big time with it.

I miss the days when GSC would make figures from offbeat series like Muv-Luv Alternative – particularly since Muv-Luv doesn’t get a lot of figures in general, aside from some relatively obscure Volks releases (that also vary wildly in quality). Hopefully Muv-Luv’s 360 release will do well and figure manufacturers will take notice. Ha! It’s a nice thought at least, no? Regardless, I’ll still be hoping more figures of the Total Eclipse and Euro Front and Chronicles characters get made, hopefully in their piloting suits rather than their underwear. Though I really can’t knock a figure of a cute military girl in her underwear; as a male, it just wouldn’t be right.

Yea I guess GSC is just trying to develop their own properties with stuff like BRS and Vocaloid for better or worse…

Haha yea I don’t get the underwear figures either. You could make girls in their underwear from any series you like why pick the one with the sexy pilot suits? Shame that…

Actually, I’ve noticed a small surge of Muv-Luv mecha merch lately. Kotobukiya has been releasing variants of the mechs in plamo fom, and Kaiyodo has recently announced the Revoltech equivalent. Maybe a new wave of figures is more likely than you think? It would be fantastic if Alter decides to hop on the Muv-Luv bandwagon. As their test plug suit Asuka proves, Alter is more than capable at handling skin-tight bodysuits.

Cool, you decided to pick up Kasumi Yashiro. After reading all these reviews of Muv-luv figures I’m curious to see what the game’s all about. Hopefully some sort of localisation agreement with Age can be made so we can get some of their titles.

As creepy as the pink bunny looks I find it kind of cute how she adores it so much. His giant grin is so goofy looking I can’t help but laugh. The CG with her hugging him is lovely. As for Kasumi herself this figure really brings out the cute in her. Her cute pale face poking through that black tight suit is just adorable. I also like the sort of robot bunny theme they’re going for with her.

For an old computer there’s very little dust in sight :P. Cool idea though to use a computer case as a backdrop.

@2d7668aa07f9457a27cfc996cf278419:disqus Yea last I heard it’s still in the talks phase…Be nice if they actually do release an official english version though! Hoping if it does well they might release some of the other stuff in English as well.

Honestly I think I’m slightly jealous of the rabbit and thats why I dislike the thing! Aye this figure has so very many endearing design elements to it! It’s a shame she apparently didn’t sell well considering how easy she is to still find…

Haha I had to dust the hell out of that thing before this shoot! Was literally caked in dust when I took it out of the storage box.

You gave your camera to a friend? Wow, how nice of you! That’s all the more reason you should move to Canada — I want in on some of them freebies! =P

Anyhow, quick question: in the header image, what’t that blurred patch in the foreground?

Meh cheap camera and she’s been really supportive of what I do…Not into figures, but she always comments on my shots. Trust me I’m plenty sick of South Florida…

*shakes an angry fist at Chags*

You’d have the answer to that if you ever bothered to read my reply to that question you asked on the posted shot on MFC ya know…*sigh* But being the saint I am I’ll spare you the wasted time and copypaste my reply here for you!

“It’s the glass side panel from the case reflecting some lattice pattern in the nearby wall. Tried to get the reflection so it would make the glass look solid and I thought the lattice might make it look something like a gate.”

Not really knowing anything about it, Muv-luv confuses me. It’s a spin-off of an eroge that’s a mecha eroge with SRW gameplay and then everything goes to Hell when monsters show up and rape everyone…?

The figure is nice looking, though the contrast between the serious-ish pilot suit and the moe face kinda has me going “woah wait?”

@HamsterCorp:disqus Gameplay? I wish they had gameplay! Haha but yea it is technically a spin-off of a standard romance Eroge.

Haha its called Gap Moe Hamster! The best Moe there is! :p

Nice shots, love the back drop. I know nothing about Muv Luv but looks Kasumi is my kind of girl, always like the quiet soft spoken girls. Unless of course that’s not what she is like at all.

DSLR’s are nice, sure P&S are serviceable, you can take really good pictures with them if you know what you are doing but at the end of the day a DSLR does give you so much more to work with. I been using my D3000 for over a year now and I still find new things to do with it, new tricks to try out, I find owning and using a DSLR is fun and a rewarding experience.

@twitter-119500162:disqus Thanks! Oh yes she is very much the quiet type…Extremely quiet actually as you’d be lucky to get a few words out of her most times. :p

Indeed! I’m still trying to work the thing out…There’s a lot more flexibility but I’m finding it’s also a lot easier to really screw a shoot up. Feel like I’m trying to re-learn photography from square one haha.

@Ashlotte:disqus Sweet pics! Congrats on the new camera too! I almost forgot about this figure, then I saw the bunny and remembered it. I never followed this figure’s origin, so I guess it was easy for me to dismiss it. I remember when it first came out, I wondered if I should get the figure (just cuz that bunny was pretty darn cool). But I skipped it in the end as the character didn’t have much significance to me. It’s good to see that she turned out great though!

@c7d63c106a85f525e3104ed5fa2cd85e:disqus Thanks VF! Hopefully I can produce something non-terrible out of it!

If you ever get the time you should play the games! They take a good chunk of time to get through but I enjoyed them thoroughly. :p

 Oh good lord, games already take up enough of my time.  Honestly, I went on a hiatus from my reviews for about two months, partly due to gaming.  Started to replay some Mass Effect and Dragon Age… too many time consuming hobbies.  Plus I’m not too keen on these Japanese games, do they have English translations?  I hate playing JRPG and not able to understand any of the text.  =(

I know the feeling VF!

Haha well its an Eroge not a JRPG, but yes all three parts of it are translated at the moment.

@Yi:disqus Like the creepy rabbit do we eh? :p

Always happy to hear! Hopefully I can make them even more enjoyable from now on. ~_^

Leave a Reply to Miette-chan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *