Figure Review: Kujibiki’s Kasumi and Izumi! Samurai + Gambler Combo!

Published on April 15, 2006 in Figurine Reviews & Galleries. 9 Comments
I woke up this morning to see yet another HLJ box beside me. I have now solved the mystery of the box magically appearing on a saturday morning on my bed. The postman does work on a saturday and I wake up at 2 pm. So some random guy from my house picks up the package and kindly places it beside me. While I’m still dreaming about Eri and Yakumo. Ok I never knew postmen work on saturdays, good job guys!

This time, the package was safe from damage.


Safe!

And the contents? Safe!!


Safe! Nice boxart really.


Safe!

A quick intro to Kujibiki Unbalance first. For those who do not know what it is, it is the most popular anime series in the Genshiken world. What’s that? An anime in an anime? Yeah, that’s what it is. 3 episodes of Kujibiki Unbalance (Kujian) were made and released in the Genshiken DVDs, and what great 3 eps these were. I was laughing stomach-crampingly hard for all 3 eps. It’s just that good. Enter Brain has so kindly released PVC figures of the three most popular characters. These aren’t even the main characters. They, especially Kasumi and Chairman, appear very little. And yes, my favourites are also Kasumi and Chairman. Just like 99% of the anime-watching crowd.
Let’s look at Kisaragi Kasumi first. She’s the vice-chairwoman of the Student Council in school and lives to protect the Chairman (actually it’s a girl) from danger. She has one fight scene in the 3 episodes. Kasumi is a skilled swordswoman and carries her katana with her all the time. She apparently has a fiancee but I did not get to read the Kujian novel so I don’t know much.


I think this scene appears in the anime, where she’s in her Iai (Battou) pose about to strike. Cool!!

She comes with a white oval base, with two plugs for her feet. The figurine is very stable and doesn’t rock the slightest. It’s small at about 14 cm.


The base is very fitting and stable.

Kasumi has her really long katana in the Iai pose, about to lop off the head of her target. Her feet are spread martial arts style and she’s a righty, so her body is turned towards her left. Her head is pointed down but she’s looking up. Kasumi is dressed in the regular school uniform but with an extended length skirt and high boots. Her blouse has six big yellow buttons on it and her cuffs have another two.


Front view and rear view


Left and right vews

Her face is not good closeup. Her eyes are normally rectangular, but here they are slightly rounder. The blushes are also unfitting. The paintjob on the hair is not good too, it isn’t the smoothest and there are specks. Her long black hair ends in a pony tail, tied by a white ribbon. She also wears two white ribbons on her side. The white ribbons have blue shading, which is part of the design but I do not like it.

This series suffers from poor painting along lines and other details, so it isn’t surprising to see the paint lines on her collar slightly messed up. I’ll point out other paint defects later.


She’s your archetypal samurai girl. Stern and cool.


The white ribbon at the end of the black stream. We all like black hair. It’s cool.

Her sword is in its sheath so we can’t see it, but the hilt is well done except for a tiny bit of a mess on the first and second markings. The scabbard is however, well done. It has the texture of unpolished wood, which is fitting.


I forgot the name of her sword, but my guess is it involves the word "Tiger".

Her skirt is reallllly well done. Look at the sheer number of creases and shading, which makes for a very 3D look. The white line on her skirt is a nice touch but the application leaves much to be desired. Some points were badly painted.


It looks better than a real skirt!

Ok now’s the bonus for the niche (or maybe not so niche after all) crowd of mune and pantsu lovers. Kasumi is a typical Asian size, which is a change from the G cup of the Chair(wo)man. Can’t have those when you are an active swordswoman right?

 


Not much to see here.

Another advantage of her great pose – the hilarious upskirting. She looks terribly ungraceful here. White pantsu, black stockings and high boots.


She’s assuming the harem female character trademark position now.

In conclusion, this rendition of Kisaragi Kasumi from Enter Brain, at the price of 3990 yen, is a great buy. Her very cool action pose, bright colours and perfect size and anime-ish design is very pleasing. Apart from some paint defects, which are not visible when looked at casually.

I’m in the midst of making an RPG character styled stats chart for my figgy reviews. But the format is as follows.

Vital Stats

  • Name: Kisaragi Kasumi
  • From: Kujibiki Unbalance
  • Sculptor: Nakayama Eiji
  • Maker: Enter Brain
  • Height: 14 cm
  • Price: 3,990 yen (but I pre-ordered so I paid less)
  • Scale: 1/8


Score (Maximum is 10)

  • Pose: 10
  • Paintjob: 7.5
  • Detail: 8
  • Base: 8
  • Design: 9
  • Originality: 9
  • Excitement: 8
  • Total: 8.5

Now for the second figurine – Tachibana Izumi. She’s part of the main team, that is, the good guys. But her materialistic attitude and gambling addiction makes her more of a baddy. She’s so good at gambling that Yakuza call her Sensei.


Her choice pose – the angled slouch typical of a ruffian.

Izumi is wearing her school jersey top and normal short skirt, with an inner black top. She has a snow hat and giant goggles like Kino. Actually, she looks a LOT like Kino from Kino no Tabi. Izumi bares the most skin out of the three. Her orange shoes are quite cool really, like her last name.


Front and rear views


Left and right views. She’s leaning forward slightly.

Why is she leaning? It’s both due to the pose (she slouches forward) and the shitty base attachment. There is only ONE peg on her right foot and it isn’t long enough to hold her properly. Izumi is rotatable and can fall off her base.


See? Just the tiny bit of plastic holding a 15 cm figurine.

Izumi’s face is cold and emotionless, much like how she is really. Her short lime-green hair is very uniform with shading. Nothing much to talk about for hair here. Her giant goggles are cool! Painted a metallic silver, with a black strap. The visors are lacquered light-blue with white shading, so its shiny shiny.

Her top is a plain jersey, and she’s wearing a plain inner top, baring her midriff. I just realised midriff baring girls aren’t common in my collection. Only Jo and Tifa do so. There’s a giant zipper on her jersey and other details are the school crest on her left sleeve and the dark blue elastic bands (not really elastic you know) around the sleeves and waist. The skirt is a simple pleated mini-skirt with a bit of creasing on the front. It is generally ok, with the usual white line circumferencing it.


A straight on mug shot of her isn’t too nice. And notice anything missing from the second picture? Hint: It starts with B in English and M in Japanese.


The school crest. Now that’s detail. But the Chairman one is a third the size with the exact same detail.


The only one in the 3 Kujian figures to have a skirtline higher than her knees. And the only one to be not wearing black boots.

And finally, the eroish section. Nothing much on her chest, maybe she hides her dice there. And she’s wearing black tights!! It matches her top too. Let’s move along.

Lolicon?


She’s smart. She doesn’t leave herself open.

In conclusion, this is a boring figure with a boring pose and a boring design. I wanted her to make up the set, that’s all. The plus point is that she’s a bit like Kino and I like Kino. And Izumi and Kasumi seem to be antagonists who live together.

Vital Stats

  • Name: Tachibana Izumi
  • From: Kujibiki Unbalance
  • Sculptor: YOSHI
  • Maker: Enter Brain
  • Height: 15 cm
  • Price: 3,440 yen (but I pre-ordered so I paid less)
  • Scale: 1/8


Score (Maximum is 10)

  • Pose: 5
  • Paintjob: 7
  • Detail: 7
  • Base: 5
  • Design: 7
  • Originality: 7
  • Excitement: 5
  • Total: 6.14

And now for some pictures of the Enter Brain Kujian Family.


It’s a nice set. I wonder if there’ll be anymore? But I already have my favourite two. The rest are ugly.


Kasumi protects Chairman, Izumi looks on with suspicion and cynism.

9 Responses to “Figure Review: Kujibiki’s Kasumi and Izumi! Samurai + Gambler Combo!”

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  • kwok
    April 15, 2006 at 7:24 pm

    Vice chairman rocks. Congratulations on 10,000 hits. Where was that Enma Ai poster from? SHE IS IN NATSUFUKU. omg.

  • T_T|||
    April 15, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    My HLJ order of 1/8 Furukawa Nagisa arrived today morning too! I think Singpost just left all the HLJ parcels in one corner to deliver all at once on Saturday, considering that someone SHOULD be at home on a Saturday. And Kujibiki Unbalance figurines look cool. Too bad I don’t have excess money for them… I’d love a Chairman(she’s considered Tsundere isn’t she?) on my desk in office. But then my figurines/manga/artbook/Kadokawa novel purchases have rendered me so poor I can’t even buy myself a Burger King set meal today. Sad… When will I ever have enough for a Xbox 360…?

  • tj_han
    April 15, 2006 at 9:57 pm

    Yeah she’s tsundere. And why waste money on a rotten console. The Xbox is only suited for non-anime commoners who play action games.

  • kwok
    April 16, 2006 at 8:47 am

    I would put Chairman as mild tsundere because she isn’t violent. hahaha did you read that yl.

  • T_T|||
    April 16, 2006 at 11:45 am

    Freak la. I WILL buy a PS3 when its price drops okay? For the time being, I need my dose of Ninety-Nine Nights and DoA4. Who cares about shitty Halo anyway? Notice the Xbox games I play are 99% Japanese. I didn’t get myself a PS2 because:1. A PS2 can’t be modified to watch anime.2. My bro already owns a PS2

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