Vividred Operation was one of my 'guilty pleasure' anime, having the right combination of cute girls, fanservice and sheer badassness to get me hooked. So when news came out that there's a swimsuit figure coming out of one of my fave characters from the show, how could I resist?
Read on to find out what I thought of Griffon Enterprises' 1/8th scale Himawari Shinomiya Swimsuit ver. figure!
For those who don't know, Himawari Shinomiya is a character from the anime Vividred Operation, the high-tech magical girl anime from the peeps who brought you Strike Witches. Himawari-chan here is one of my fave characters from this show, and not for the (prodigiously obvious) reasons you think. She's ridiculously moe in her reclusive-ness, and the Vivid system basically turns her into a walking Ion Cannon. Nice.
Himawari-chan here is depicted in the swimsuit she wore during the undying Beach Episode. As good a reason as any for Griffon Enterprises to make a figure of her in a bikini!
Out of the box, Himawari-chan looks pretty well made. A quick once-over tells me the sculpt is nice, proportions are good (well, as far as she is concerned. Yowza!), and the paint job looks well-applied. Even her eyes (the ones on her face, ya perv) are thankfully applied right, perfectly capturing that sleepy, nonchalant look Himawari always had in the anime.
It's a shame then that Himawari-chan doesn't hold up to closer inspection. The frilly parts of Himawari's bikini (including the bow at the front) lacks depth and looks dough-ey, a far cry from the promising prototype pictures, and made even worse by the glop of thick paint they used that removed any sharp detail the figure might have had.
I know, I know, its madness to use prototype pics to judge the final product, but I was hoping it wasn't that far removed. I was wrong.
But you don't buy this figure for the perfect paint apps (unless that's your thing, then more power to ya)...you buy this because cute and busty anime character in tiny bikini, which Himawari-chan's figure actually is. And speaking of figure...
I'm sure you can turn a blind eye to all her shortcomings with a little pectoral persuasion. :) It's like staring into the light of creation...
Anyway, I know it sounds like I'm picking nits, but for the price of 4,000 Php ($90+) I expect some semblance of quality. But while it's no Wave's Beach Queens, I concede that Griffon Enterprises' 1/8 scale Himawari Shinomiya swimsuit figure is ridiculously sexy eye-candy in its purest form, and I'm sure any fan of cute anime girls in bikinis would find her a welcome addition to the kinds of figure displays you don't usually mention to your mom or girlfriend.
This figure is available now, though Wave Corporation recently came out with a Himawari Shinomiya figure of their own that looks nice (and at almost half the price of Griffon's Himawari figure), so I would be a good guy and tell you to just wait for that one.
Hope you found this review helpful! Comments? Suggestions? Is Himawari Shinomiya you're waifu? Drop me a comment via the comment box below and let's talk about it! Thanks for reading!
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