Neet it up in the name of the Moon!
Introduction
This review will be of the one and only 1/8 scale figure of the Touhou character Kaguya Houraisan. She was sculpted by Akiyama Akio and released for the only time by Griffon in May of 2010. This will be my first review which I will be using the scoring guidelines I created in the previous blog article: blog/2410.
Kaguya is one of the final boss of the 8th Touhou’s game, Imperishable Night. She is a Lunarian princess. Kaguya was exiled from the Moon to Earth after drinking the Hourai Exlier, which granted her immortality.
The events of Imperishable night are initiated after the Lunarians decide that Kaguya should no longer be in exile and is to return to the Moon. Kaguya who now use to life in Gensokyo, doesn’t want to leave. So to avoid being taken back uses her magic to project a false moon into the sky hiding her from the sight of the real moon. In the past her beauty attracted potential suitors from all round, including Mokou’s Dad. To allow someone to win her hand she gives them the “5 Impossible requests” which is to collect five items which were already in sneaky Kaguya’s possession. These include the Stone Begging Bowl of Budda, the Jewelled Branch from Mount Hourai, The Legendary Robe of the Fire Rat of China, A Coloured Jewel from a Dragon’s neck and The Legendary Cowry Treasure of the Swallows. Kaguya is Zun’s version of the legend of the Bamboo cutter’s daughter.
Above: Zun’s original character art with the five items orbiting around her.
Above: Fanart depicting what Kaguya's official art may have turned out to be if she was to appear in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody.
In Touhou she is noted as spending all her time in her mansion Eientei, hiding so the Lunarians do not detect her. Touhou fans have twisted her personality in fanon into that of a Neet: Not in Employment, Education or Training. Kaguya is depicted as playing video games all day, usually being very good at them. When she does choose to make an appearance she usually has a Laptop, DS or PSP in hand.
I believe that Kaguya’s appeal to me is that she has a very graceful character design with her immaculate long flowing jet black hair, pink kimono/robe like top and red regal skirt. Yet she is someone who I believe chooses to spend all their time playing video games and is very good at them.
Photograph Section
The figure Kaguya comes with two set of hands. One set she holds close to her chest while the other has it are on either side of her with her Kimono sleeves hanging down from her arms.
Here are some assorted shots of when Kaguya from various angles to give you a good idea of the figure.
With items.
With no items.
Following are some photographs of when Kaguya is rotated through a full circle with her hands held together. Items removed so you can gain a better view of the figure.
Below are the photographs of when Kaguya is rotated through a full circle with her hands held apart.
Features
As mentioned above Kaguya comes with 5 items allowing the figure to appear like she does in her original illustration. As far as changeable accessories go they weren’t anything tricky to manufacture mostly being one colour and some shading, with the jewelled branch from Mount Hourai and the a coloured jewel from a dragon’s neck requiring some painting. Clear plastic sticks come with them allowing them to plug into her base so the items appear to be orbiting around her the original art.
From left to right Branch of Mount Hourai, Stone Begging Bowl of Budda, The Legendary Cowry Treasure of the Swallows, a Coloured Jewel from a Dragon’s neck and the Legendary Robe of the Fire Rat of China.
The Legendary Robe of the Fire Rat of China doesn’t look anything like it did in the game though, being a piece of orange see through plastic. The other accessories are a pretty fair representation though.
As you can see Kaguya comes with two set of hands allowing two different display options which is a plus if you get board with her current pose. When she is conservatively holding them up to her chest allows her to carry the Branch of Mount Hourai.
Box 8/10
The box is fairly large, with dimensions as below, so as you may believe shipping slightly more than usual.
H 22cm
W 26cm
D 18cm
This allows the box to have larger windows than most generic Griffon Touhou boxes allowing people take a good nearly all angle view Kaguya. Unfortunately Kaguya’s face in front of each window has also been assigned more space hence obstructs the view a little. The back drop has a circle window with the moon and bamboo in it with a tatami mat floor which makes me believes she is in Eientei.
Kaguya’s box is fairly generic as far as Griffon Touhou Project figures go. There is a close up of her face and her name in Gold letters in front of every window. I must admit this contrast with the purple background with generic yellow sparks going which Griffon have probably tried to pass by as her magic Lunarian. The back side shows her items and Kaguya with her two sets of arms against the moon as a backdrop.
Being fairly big with her secured at the centre of the box it looks like it is quite sturdy.
Box gets 8/10 for being fairly generic.
Sculpting 5/10
The sculpt of this figure doesn’t really excite me. For starters she is only 16.5 cm tall. This translates to 132 cm in real life, not the height you would expect for a princess who has lived thousands of years. It is the height you would would expect a Cirno would be at. I must admit that Kaguya is usually depicted on the shorter side of Touhou characters, this is because she is often drawn with the tall Erin. Even though this series is smaller than most regular 1/8 I still believe that Griffon went overboard. If she was another 1 to 2 cm higher it would have be good. Her long graceful clothes cover all of her graceful body which is true to character design so there is nothing in the way of deformities which Griffon could have screwed up.
Her face itself I believe is one of the most generic Griffon Touhou figure faces which is really saying something! She just regally stares at you smiling slightly minding her own business. However everything is still pretty and in proportion and is not a turnoff by any means.
Kaguya has long flowing clothes and these are represented well on the figure. There are long ripples in them. The parts of her clothes which should have engraved detail being her bow and collar do have that detail. Her white skirt under her red one is flowing with creases.
However since this is relatively simple to sculpt I would expect her hair to have more detail. Her hair style which I love in pictures of her with the straight cut front bangs and the long straight cut back is her main appeal point to me and where she draws her gracefulness. However I believe Griffon could have gone at it with more Gusto, the putting more lines into it representing more strands which is what you would expect of well brushed and straight hair. Besides from that at the back it is quite thick and clunky. Maybe it is to give her hair a sense of volume I however believe that it could have been thinner making it look more delicate without compromising its structural integrity. The rest of the figure is in proportions although since she is all covered in clothes being a graceful princess after all.
For seam lines, on at least my figure she has two major ones. One being between her sleeves when she clasps them together but being removable parts this is understandable. Very much not forgivable is the seam line on her head. Somehow the bangs don’t seem to match up vertically with her back hair leaving a white line of unpainted plastic. This is very ugly, I think Griffon’s QC department must have dropped the ball allowing mine with such a big seam line to pass through. Luckily her head is removable allowing me to fix it by airbrush in the future.
Seamline Defect
All up the figure score 5/10 for sculpting.
Posing 6/10
I don’t really like the pose of this figure it is just so generic exemplifying the first/second generation of Touhou figure. She is really just being one limb away from just standing there. Combined with her blank generic face the figure doesn’t really show much personality. To Griffon’s credit though all Zun made her do in her boss fight in Imperishable Night was sluggishly fly round and cast spells. Just thinking how Griffon have improved with poses make me think about what this figure could have been. A matching battle pose verses Mokou, her immortal rival, would have been very nice.
Painting 9/10
Griffon has done a fairly nice job with her paint job. The figure doesn’t grab attention as the purple/pink and red used for her Kimono top and skirt are very subdued.
This makes the golden decals of flowers and bamboo on her skirt stand out clear and defined. However these gold decals on her purple don’t contrast as much and you have to look at them closely to define a boundary, yet it is true to her character design. Her hair is a few tones lighter than pitch black which is what was am expecting of her. However it still looks good.
The only paint defect which I could detect was a bit of air bubbles/ overuse of paint on her white underskirt.
Paint Defect
All up I the paint job does the work it needs and fits in with the subdued feel of the figure 9/10.
Base 5/10
I don’t have much to say about the base for those of you who have a Touhou figure. It is round big and black. Actually it is quite large, due to the radius of Kaguya’s skirt and the ability to display the items floating round Kaguya. Beware you need to make room on your shelf with a semi major axis of 22 cm and semi minor one of 17cm. I feel that Griffon could have made this smaller if they had tried. The label on the base is well done having a picture of the moon and the clouds which are seen on the sleeves of her Kimono. She is quite stable and is easy attach to the base even due to the blind spot created by her skirt. It gets 5 out of 10 as it does its job.
Enjoyment 7/10
As you can see from my review I have being quite critical of the figure’s generic boringness and you would be right. It doesn’t do anything wrong, except that horrid hair seam line and her height and height. As you see below she is smaller than Youmu, a traditionally small character, who is made in the same scale by the same company. However in Today’s market she does nothing at all to stand out from a crowd. When standing all by her lonesome self I have had comments directed that she is very pretty.
Youmu is taller!
However when it comes down to it I bought this figure to represent Kaguya in my collection, and I feel it does that. Hence have a good time taking my time to admire her still posture from time to time.
It’s a shame that no one has attempted to make a video game obsessed version of the character. I feel that would feel a stronger connection to it than this version. She did come with 2 sets of arms and her items. This bumps enjoyment from 6 to 7/10
Overall
Tallying up the base categories Kaguya scores 6.6. On the important categories she scores, sculpt, paint, pose and enjoyment she scores 6.8. There is nothing about her which grabs your attention and says wow! Its if some of Kaguya lazy NEET personality inspired Griffon to create her to so they could complete the set of characters from Eientei. I can only put forward one reason to buy her and that is to represent Kaguya in your collection. Being not the most popular character it is unlikely she will see scaled PVC made of her. Oh another is that she has being on Sale at AmiAmi for ever at 37% off and is looking for a good home.
Score card. Eternal Demon Moon Princess!
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