Daiki Kougyou’s figure of Noel Marres Ascot went up for preorder last week, fully half a decade after their Celia Cumani Aintree figure was released. Let’s take a look today at the hotheaded and aristocratic Bertille Althusser, the third figure to be released, way back in September of 2015.
While not a main character – or even a romantic option, at least not until the fandisc Walkure Romanze More & More was released – Bertille is the catalyst for the events in the game and its anime adaptation. Early in the story, an unfortunate incident between her and Mio Kisaki results in Bertille demanding satisfaction in the form of a joust, and that leads to all sorts of hijinks involving Takahiro Mizuno, the game’s protagonist. Bertille then steps out of the story for a while, but she apparently gets her own love route in the aforementioned fandisc, and she even gains a rival in the form of transfer student Alice Weinberg, who appears to be just as crazy as Bertille is.
I enjoyed the TV anime of Walkure Romanze quite a bit, and I’m a bit sad that no United States company has licensed it for distribution in North America. It was a pretty silly show but the girls were likeable, the protagonist was a decent guy (if completely devoid of personality, which is pro forma in romantic visual novel adaptations), and the character designs were quite appealing. I suppose the other thing I’m sad about is that it has never gotten a hentai anime OVA adaptation like its predecessor series Princess Lover! did.
This figure is manufactured by Daiki Kougyou; it is sculpted in 1/6 scale and stands about 29 centimeters in height, or an even 30 centimeters with the base. Bertille’s sculptor is Toshirou, a long-time veteran of the industry who has sculpted a number of figures I own, including the aforementioned Celia and gangsta lean Saber, whom I hope to finally review soon, being that FREEing is rolling out their own 1/4 scale Saber and I feel like I ought to review the original. No accessories are provided and the base, as is typical with Daiki Kougyou figures, is a plain black circle.
When I reviewed Celia, one of the things I wasn’t too thrilled about was the figure’s body build, which took great liberties with her design. That is, she was a good deal thicker than she actually is. That doesn’t bother me as much now, and being that Q-Six is rolling out their own Walkure Romanze figures that are much in the same vein as Daiki Kougyou’s but with slimmer proportions, I feel like I can enjoy these figures for what they are. Bertille does have a fairly plump look here, with prodigious curves, very broad hips, wide thighs and exceptional breasts. It’s a good look overall, I think, and I’m interested to see how Q-Six’s Bertille compares, being that she’s scheduled for release later this month.
Bertille – and all of Daiki Kougyou’s Walkure Romanze figures – is wearing some sexy bikini armor, which is quite literal in its implementation. Unfortunately, the bikini looks pretty terrible; it doesn’t fit well, and the thong is actually just a flap that covers up the top of the cleft of her ass. That at least makes it easy to remove; no instructions are provided but if anyone should happen to be interested in buying Bertille, her top detaches on the bottom of the right cup and her bikini detaches on the left side of the top of her thong back.
Instead, Bertille looks a good bit better wearing just her thigh-high greaves, gauntlets and pauldrons. Bertille is a fancy girl from a wealthy family and thus her armor is quite distinctive; it is colored in sort of a rose gold tone with silver accents and filigree. The detailing is astonishing, from the wings on her shoulders to the flower ornamentation on her legs. Obviously the main highlight here is her naked body but the armor is equally as pleasing to look at.
As a girl with a patrician complex, it’s only fitting that her hair is magnificently ornate. She’s got corkscrews framing her face, a French braid encircling her head, a big bun, two ahoge poking up and back and more tendrils of hair projecting from her nape.
Speaking of the nudity, Bertille’s vagina is sculpted but there’s not a great deal of detail there. Obviously this figure is three years old and SkyTube has set the bar quite high in terms of explicitness, but this is still a little disappointing. I am curious to see what Q-Six’s Bertille looks like in this regard.
Bertille has a pretty face which doesn’t particularly reflect her excitable nature, but she looks good anyway. She’s know to be well-endowed but her breasts are quite a bit larger here than they are shown to be in the source material.
Going back to the armor, even the plating over her fingers is detailed. It’s truly impressive.
As is her thickness.
I picked up this figure a year after its release from Mandarake, being that I wasn’t sure how much I liked the curvier style presented here. I like it quite a bit now; this figure of Bertille is very sexy and extremely well executed, particularly with respect to the armor and the hair. I’m a big fan of the theme espoused here – that is, nearly-naked girls in plate armor – and I’m happy that there are so many figures that revolve around this concept, with Bertille being no exception. I wonder if Lisa will ever get a figure, though?
