Despite being an avid consumer of all manners of news concerning the coronavirus epidemic, somehow it escaped my notice that Japan Post has suspended the delivery of parcels via EMS to the United States and that means I will not be getting any new figures until perhaps next month. As such, the only thing left to do – aside from abandoning this site, which I already feel pretty badly about and do not wish to perpetuate – is to review some older figures. Let’s begin with one of the biggest and most in-your-face in terms of callipygian excess, Erika Kuramoto from the doujin series Zettai Junpaku Mahou Shoujo.
First, a bit of background: Zettai Junpaku Mahou Shoujo is an original doujinshi series created by noted anime artist RAITA, who is perhaps better known for being the character artist of Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles series and for designing Fate/Grand Order’s Minamoto no Raikou. Mahou Shoujo is, as far as I can tell, about a relatively hapless guy who happens to have some special powers that enable him to help out a cast of young girls, who putatively battle lecherous beasties and occasionally get raped by them. That said, the story seems to focus more on the romantic experiences between the various protagonists. As for Erika herself, she is depicted as a popular idol as well as a traditional tsundere type, traits which are not readily apparent from this particular figure.
This figure of Erika is sculpted in 1/4 scale and stands approximately 44 centimeters in height. It’s manufactured by BINDing, which I assume is the ero-figure manufacturing label of FREEing, and if you have ever seen one of FREEing’s bunnygirls you already know what you’re getting with Erika.
As part of the Native product catalog, Erika’s appearance is played up for maximum sex appeal. Accordingly, she’s bent over a stool with her backside proudly thrust towards the viewer. The somewhat unlikely body proportions characteristic of Raita’s style is evident here, though somewhat played down compared to his illustrations; Erika has a gigantic ass, long and prominently tapered legs, a wasp waist, and huge breasts, each easily the size of her head. Erika’s arms are rather short and slender, and I feel like if she were in a more conventional and less dynamic pose, her stylized physique might diminish the overall effect of the figure. As it is, her positioning turns what might be a distraction into a benefit.
FREEing has been re-releasing some of their older bunnygirl figures sans fishnet pantyhose, often at a cheaper price. As nice as the fishnets look – and they are real fishnet material – I think the bare-legged look is more attractive and doesn’t run the risk of staining the plastic skin underneath. I would not have minded if they had dispensed with them here.
Her breasts are equally impressive and are too large to be contained by her leotard. There’s no way to cover her up unless the owner improvises something by themselves; her breasts are freely visible with no castoff system implemented.
I’m not a fan of the tsundere trope, and I think the prevalance of this archetype is one of the reasons I haven’t really watched a lot of anime in the last few years (other reasons are that I generally loathe both light novel adaptations and isekai stories). You wouldn’t really know that Erika starts off as a tsundere girl by looking at her here, though; she looks quite cheerful and friendly.
The magical girls from this series feature small wings such as these. They’re a bit difficult to install since the gaps in her hair covering up the insertion slots are not very wide, but they look nice once they’ve been properly placed.
I’m not actually sure what this is but it fits into a slot in her left thigh.
Erika comes with a nicely-designed stool that does look like something one might find in a nicely-appointed bar or casino. She also comes with these little plastic cards, presumably meant to show a poker hand. The obverse is printed with the ace of spades on the top card.
She also comes with this drink tray and a beverage. This is perhaps less well-designed than I would have liked; the tray fits on her fingertips with nothing actually securing it, so bumping the figure will likely send the tray and the drink toppling down. The drink actually comprises three parts: the cup, the simulated liquid, and the ice cube, which are each loose pieces. I lose figure parts with some frequency so I put these pieces back in the box to keep them safe.
I think this is the first BINDing figure I’ve reviewed (though it’s not the first I’ve owned – I think that was Olga Discordia, and I still need to take her out of her box someday) and while Erika is not vastly different from most of the FREEing bunnygirls I own and have photographed, I think this might be my favorite one of the product line thus far. The giant size of these figures is still something I enjoy and the additional appeal from the explicit lewdness enhances the attractiveness of this figure. This is – I’m sad and a bit embarrassed to admit – the first figure I’ve photographed this year but I think Erika is already a strong contender for my list of favorite figures of 2020.
