Akemi Hasegawa Floral Mint Type

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

After the success of the first wave, Akemi Hasegawa Floral Mint Type & Miharu Fuyuki Floral Mint Type came into the market as Kotobukiya's second wave for the Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 PVC series.  Originally a resin model kit, this figurine sold out fast as the first wave & was reissued again later that year.  It was reissued only once.  I actually pre-ordered the second wave from YesAsia when I first heard about it.

Some of the pictures aren't clear & good.  If I have time, I'll redo the bad ones & repost them.

The Review

Akemi Hasegawa Floral Mint Type out of the box

Like many PVC figures, no assembly is required except putting Akemi on the included display base.  The sizes of the pegs on the base & the holes on her soles made it easy to figure out how to display her.

Akemi from different sides

Akemi's pose isn't too bad.  It seems like she is welcoming a customer that has entered into the restaurant.  The pose is pretty simple & nothing too special about it.  Akemi, as portrayed in the game, is one of the oldest girls working at the Pia Carrot family restaurant & is in her mid 20s.  In fact, she is a manager applicant & treats the restaurant as her home.  The pose here seems to capture her character well in terms of her maturity.  Although workmanship of the pose is good, the detail work isn't.

Unlike the first wave, the quality of the paint job went down a bit.  Notice how the designs on the hem of Akemi's dress isn't painted evenly.  Some parts are dark while other parts are light.  There is some slight bleeding as well.  The top part of the sleeves, however, is pretty good.  Although there is some minor bleeding on the green lines, the colour is solid & even.  Although Miharu Fuyuki wears the same uniform as Akemi, the molding is a bit different.  Akemi's body figure is quite good, but her feet seems to be a bit big. 

I think the most unnatural part of Akemi's body is her feet.  They look long compared to her body.  I'm not sure if it was designed like that in order for her to stand properly to support her weight & pose.  It's not noticeable unless you pay attention to it.  I don't have feet fetish by the way!  Let's take a look at the items that bears the "Pia Carrot" name.

The tray that Akemi is holding is (I think) the same tray mold as the Sayaka Takai Tropical Type figurine uses.  Looking at it closely, it's pretty much as sharp as Sayaka's.  Unlike Sayaka, Akemi does look like she's holding it.  The Pia Carrot button on Akemi's dress seems to be done better than the previous wave.  The sharpness of the letters has improved & isn't messy.  The letters on the order menu is no doubt very sharp.  It's most likely etched on, not painted.

Pia Carrot e Youkoso!!

The expression on Akemi's face is quite gentle.  Her eyes gives that mature look.  Her open mouth smile is pleasant.  No deep colour was used for her mouth.  The light colour was a good choice as it really express that gentleness.  Like the first wave, no paint bleeding can be found as if it was painted with care.

Overall Conclusion

Akemi Hasegawa Floral Mint Type is quite a simple figurine.  It doesn't show any strong expressions like the first wave has.  But yet, it is effective enough to show Akemi's character.  Akemi hasn't seen the inside of her box she was in ever since she was displayed.

Although the detailed workmanship went down a bit, they aren't noticeable from a distance.  They become visible when you take a closer look at Akemi.  Other than that, there was nothing bad about this figurine.

Akemi gets an eight out of ten in my books.  What made me gave it that score was her simple pose & the detail problems on her dress as mentioned.

Akemi has been out of production for a long time & she's extremely hard to find now.  Although there are some online auctions that do have her for sale, don't be fooled.  There are bootleg versions of her at very  low prices.  From what I've seen, the workmanship is terrible.  Price wise, I'm not sure what the collector's value of Akemi is now.  She was higher than the suggested retail price for sure.  It's possible that it's lower now.

Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera.

Last updated on April 11, 2008