WAVE has rendered Kyou in the school gym uniform she uses during her basketball activities.  The key parts of the outfit are, of course, the distinctive red bloomers and white thigh highs.  Sure, it’s a completely unrealistic outfit for an actual high school student to be wearing, but that’s what makes it fun xD  This is the outfit Kyou wore during the infamous ‘locked in storage shed’ scene.  You remember that, right?  Here’s a reminder, just in case ^^

Yes, that scene.  3/4 through episode 17 if you want to see it again ;)

At 1/7 scale, this Kyou figure is slightly larger the 1/8 scale that most figures come, but the size difference is barely noticeable and I would probably easily mistake it for 1/8 if I didn’t know the actual scale.

WAVE paid nice attention to the important parts ^^;

Kyou carries the basketball from practice.  It’s perhaps a bit too shiny/smooth.  Anyway, do you like this photo?

Or do you prefer this one? xD

One of my main gripes with this figure is Kyou’s hair.  It’s a bit clumpy and simplistic but beyond that it had rough molding.  Some of the edges and corners weren’t cleanly cut and had small fragments loose.  From normal viewing distance, this is not really apparent but with these macro shots, it can be seen (in this photo in particular).

I do like the figure’s pose.  Kyou is in her gym uniform, basketball in hand, seemingly in the middle of practice.  It’s quite fitting that she has a look of confidence on her face and her pose is with her in a self-assured mid-step forward.  Seems like an accurate reflection of her strong-willed, athletic personality.

As a final parting shot, I’ve included Wave’s 1/7 scale Kyou beside Kotobukiya’s 1/8 scale Kyou from 2005.  That Kyou was one of my very first  figures and is still one of my favorites.  She is very well made, especially her hair ^^.  I wish I had the other Clannad figures from Kotobukiya’s set >_<

Anyway, this review is about Wave’s Kyou, not Kotobukiya’s ^^;  Wave’s Kyou was released back in August 2009 and retailed for about 7000￥.  Upon writing this post, I discovered that Wave is re-releasing Kyou in May 2010 ^^.  Unfortunately, it looks like pre-orders are already closed at Hobby Search and Amiami but she might still be up for order elsewhere.  So, my verdict on the figure?  The hair problems and an imperfect paint job keep me from recommending it highly, but for any Kyou fan (or even Clannad in general), I would say yes as it is the best Kyou figure since Kotobukiya’s 2005 version (released before the anime aired).  Personally, I am a satisfied owner :D

Another review for Kyou over at Tentacle Armada.

Related posts:

1. Wave’s Aisaka Taiga Preview
2. Good Smile announces 1/4 Lucky Star Figures by FREEing
3. Wave’s Taiga Preording + Some Chiaki

Three new Lucky Star girls and a Kyou challenger appears!  Since I’m quite cheap and shipping EMS is quite expensive, I try to package as many items into a single order as possible.  Hobby Search is great for this as they will hold your items up to a month and then ship them all together.  Results in a slight delay for some items that are released early in the month but saves a lot of money on shipping ^^

I’m looking forward to playing with my new toys over the long Labor Day weekend :-D

Image by tearfish.

On a unrelated note, I have been keeping myself busy with a few new games (new to me, at least).  Picked up LittleBigPlanet (PS3), God of War 2 (PS2), and borrowed Persona 4 (PS2) from a friend.  Too many games, too little time xD  The PS2 games play quite nicely on my PS3 thanks to the backwards compatible hardware in the 60GB model.

And lastly, I’m almost done with final part of my Italy trip coverage.  Should have done that a while ago ^^;

Related posts:

1. Good Smile announces 1/4 Lucky Star Figures by FREEing
2. New outfits for FREEing 1/4 Lucky Star set
3. Atelier Sai’s Kagami now shipping

I recently finished watching Clannad. As usual, I was a bit behind and watched the series after it had finished airing, something I tend to do so I don’t have to suffer the weekly cliffhangers ^^;

This is meant to be more of a overall summary of the series than a detail review. I thought about doing an in-depth review but there are other blogs out there (Random Curiosity, for example) who do a better job at this. Instead, I will be giving my personal response to the series.

To be honest, I was reluctant to watch or even give this series a chance while it was airing because I did not enjoy the previous Key anime adaptations I had seen. I watched the original Kanon back when it aired in 2002 and found it, well, boring and melodramatic. I also tried watching the AIR anime when it aired and I couldn’t even keep interest in it to finish the series. I dropped it at around episode 6 or 7.

I can now say, my faith in Key-based anime is restored :) I truly loved watching Clannad. Sure, it might seem like a harem show at first glance… well, I suppose it does qualify as one, but it’s not as low-brow as most others out there. It’s a perfect blend of comedy, drama, and character development. I think the reason I liked Clannad so much is because the characters in the show actual evolve as the series progresses.

Tomoya in particular matures significantly through the series. Ironically, while he is initially untrusting and skeptical of the world in the beginning he is the one who tries to fix everyone’s problems. He is the one who convinces Nagisa to pursue her dream of opening the Theatrical Club. He works diligently to help Fuko become more social and create her starfish to give out. In the Kotomi arc, he goes out of his way to clean up the yard and works through the night trying to make it how it was with her parents (probably my favorite arc ^^).

In the end, Tomoya realizes that family is one of the most important gifts in life. And not just family by blood, but a group of people you can trust and depend on in the best and worst of times. The series name itself, Clannad, means “family or clan” in Irish and represents the most important point of the entire series. In the end, this series ended happily and I was happy I watched it :D Now, I’ve some not so happy things happen in the latter part of the story, but we’ll save that for another time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get back to watching Kanon 2006 ;)

Shots of some my favorites moments in the show:

Related posts:

1. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Summary
2. Super Dimension Fortress Macross Summary
3. Anime and waiting