Realistic Detail Figure Vol. 2 Aya Natsume

Introduction

A lot of people prefer this Aya Natsume figurine more than the Maya Natsume one.  This is based on the quick sales I saw on the net.  Aya sold out more faster than Maya.  Reasons I could think of is that Aya is a cute innocent type of girl & the Maya figurine is mainly fan service.  I pre-ordered this figurine with Maya from an online store.  I had to wait a week to get them shipped from Japan due to Golden Week (a week long holiday in Japan).  Like the Maya figurine, Diamond has the Aya figurine available to North America.  The version here is the Japanese release of course.

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

The Review

Aya Natsume out of the card

I hate this blister card packaging that Kaiyodo uses.  I'm afraid that I would cut the card when I try to open it.  I should learn how to open those kinds of packages carefully.

Aya Natsume comes out of the package without any assembly required.  One exception is putting her on the included display base which is a must since she can't stand on her own.  The shape of the base is unique.  It's shaped like a triangle without the sharp point at the tip.  The Tenjho Tenge logo is etched there in orange.

Aya Natsume slicing from different sides

This pose is not bad really.  It gave me the impression that Aya is pulling the katana out of its sheath in a quick motion.  The clothing is her school uniform.  Bome chose to use dark colours & it doesn't look too bad.  The blueish-white shirt really gives it some shadow.  The creases on it look natural as it matches Aya's movement.  The patterns on her dress is etched ok.

You can see the balance of the white horizontal stripes isn't even.  This is probably due to the folds of the dress.  Although you see a flesh colour spot on the dress, this is pretty much expected since Aya was mass produced.  The colours used here are mostly flat, but her shoes are very glossy.

As you can see from the pics above, the brown shoes are shiny.  I didn't use flash to take these pics.  Touching the shoes, it feels very smooth & thick.  I assume hi-gloss brown paint was used.

The katana gear is not bad.  The sheath, handle, & guard shows it like it has been used for ages.  That dark brown really gave me that feeling.  The paint job on the handle to her right hand shows some major bleeding of flesh colour.  Personally, I think that should have been fixed a bit.  Another reason I heard why most people prefer Aya from Maya is the flow of her long hair. 

Ahhhh....  I love girls with long hair!

I have to agree.  Aya's long flow hair is beautifully sculpted.  It shows a lot of grace as she pulls that katana from its sheath in a quick motion.  It doesn't look like the hair was just randomly made.  No doubt a lot of attention was put into making the hair flow so beautifully & naturally.  I think this is the strongest part of this figurine.

Aya's face is more like the manga version than the anime version, but more in the cute way.  The paint job is good & the light colours really match her personality.  The facial expression however didn't feel right.  It didn't match her body expression of pulling out the katana.

Overall Conclusion

Aya Natsume isn't bad & was worth the money.  Personally, I prefer the Maya figurine over this one.  Although it doesn't have that much fan service as her sister, Aya's graceful movement is more than enough to be satisfied.

Like her sister, Aya gets a nine out of ten from me.  The colour tone, graceful motion, & her flowing hair are what sold me.  The minor poor paint job is what cost her perfection.

Getting this figure is my recommendation as it has that Oh! Great's feeling to it.  Between the Diamond & Japanese version, I say the Japanese one all the way.  I don't think Diamond will have that nice colour shadow tone.  My guess is the colour will be a bit brighter.  Finding the Japanese first release may be a problem since this has been re-released once.

On August 2005, Kaiyodo released a repaint version of Aya as Vol.4 of the Realistic Detail Figure series.  Nothing special added, only the colours have changed.  The colours on that one are bright.  It's coloured to match the anime version where Aya has light brown hair.  Personally, I prefer the original over the repaint.  If you like a manga version of Aya, get this one.  If you want an anime version of her, get volume 4.  Both sell at the same retail price.

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

Last updated on May 27, 2008