Review of Kaori Kanzaki

Since I started collecting PVC figures, I have amazingly never pre-ordered any figures made by Kotobukiya. Some of their figures do appeal to me, but somehow, they never ended up on my pre-order list. This 1/8 scale figure of Kaori Kanzaki though, is the first figure by Kotobukiya that actually made me placed a pre-order when she was announced.

For those not familiar with the character, Kaori Kanzaki is from the manga/anime series, To Aru Majutsu no Index. She is a sorceress who wields a nodachi. I love weapon-wielding ladies. ^^”

Before the review, a worthy mention regarding Kotobukiya’s packaging methods. It is a norm for figure makers to protect figures with plastic wrappings and usually clear tapes are used to hold the wrappings in place. For Kotobukiya, they uses a self-adhesive plastic wrapping that can be peeled off easily instead. This certainly make removal of the plastic wrappings a breeze. Kudos to Kotobukiya for that!

Now on to the review.

   

Generally she is a very nice looking figure. I like the posture adopted by Kaori in this sculpture as it is reminiscent of her unleashing one of her special offensive move, Nanasen.

Here are closer look at the finer details of the figure, beginning with her face sculpt.

    

Based on the promotional photos, I was initially concerned about the face sculpt because the face appears too flat and the eyes too listless. However, she turns out much better in person than expected. In fact, her nose is a little too pointed in my opinon. But otherwise, the face sculpt is quite well done actually.

Kaori’s hair is easily the most challenging part of the figure to sculpt and I feel there will always be a tendency to overdo it. But the sculptor did a wonderful job and I really love how it turns out.

Here’s a closer look at Kaori’s tee.

   

Nothing much to comment about here actually. Her outfit is nothing elaborate with only a simple white tee and Kotobukiya does a decent job here. And I love her naval.

Here’s a closer look at her belt and nodachi.

   

The belt and the nodachi comes separate from the figure. The nodachi itself comes in two parts – the hilt and the longer part attachd to the belt. Thus one needs to detach Kaori at the waist to put on her belt, slide both parts of the nodachi into Kaori’s hands and then connect them. Nothing complicated and there’s an instruction paper for this as well.

The belt is alright, although I would have prefer more shadings on it. The nodachi is done well enough although it seems a little too short as Kaori’s nodachi is suppose to be two meters long. Guess that is not easily put to actual scale. ^^”

Closer look at her legs and figure base.

    

This is my least favorite part of the figure. The jeans lacks details and I would have prefer a more realistic and rugged look. The exposed left thigh is a little too pale and lacks shading. Her bottoms are too flat … that’s personal preference. ^^” The base, though, is very nice.

Overall, the sculpt quality of this Kaori Kanzaki figure is good and she is a really decent looking figure. The paint job on my copy is also very clean. If only the jeans could turn out as what I had hoped for, then she would have been a great figure. Finer details like that is especially important on this kind of figure since the original character design herself does not call for elaborate costume or sophisticated weaponry. But generally, I am happy with this purchase. ^^

I don’t think I will be adding any more figures from To Aru Majutsu no Index to my collection, with Index perhaps a remote possibility. And as of now, there is no other Kotobukiya figures on my pre-order. ^^”

More quality reviews of the figure available at ToyWorkz and 徒然Blog (Japanese).