I hadn’t thought very much about it, but I haven’t ever reviewed a figure from the Taimanin series, even though I’m generally a fan of the series. Actually, this is the first figure I’ve bought of a character from the franchise, but it’s a great one to start with, I think, as Yukikaze looks fantastic.
Yukikaze Mizuki is one of the principal protagonists from the Taimanin world, starring as the eponymous heroine in a series of video games and anime episodes. The series reprises many of the conventions of the series: in particular, female ninjas clad in skin-tight clothing battle against demons in futuristic Japan, only to lose and suffer a variety of indignities and deprivations. The anime adaptation follows the bad ending of the game, in which Yukikaze performs an undercover mission as a prostitute, subsequently enduring a litany of confinement, degradation, and abuse. More unique to the series is a heavy netorare theme, in which Yukikaze forsakes her boyfriend Tatsurou for the wiles of her captor. NTR isn’t really my thing but it is what it is; these days, NTR is about as common in hentai as isekai is in mainstream anime.
An unusual development in the series is that the original eroge has since spawned a variety of gacha games, each of which appears to exist in its own timeline. There’s even an all-ages (charitably speaking) gacha game called Action Taimanin that excises the rape, torture, and general unpleasantness endemic in the primary games in favor of an action-style game in the vein of Honkai Impact and Punishing Gray Raven. There’s also a turn-based RPG game called Taimanin RPGX that is receiving an English-language adaptation sometime soon; apparently this game does retain the more graphic content that Taimanin fans are no doubt used to.
This figure of Yukikaze was manufactured by Amakuni and released in October of 2021. It is sculpted in 1/6 scale and stands about 26 centimeters in height. The figure presented here is the standard edition, which lacked some of the display options afforded by the limited edition; that version had an optional different head and I believe it had exposed nipples as well. The head showed Yukikaze’s tattooed tongue, which is an element I really don’t care for, and therefore I didn’t buy it (notably, the anime and I think later games in the series discarded the slave tattoo on the characters’ tongues).
Yukikaze is standing in a simple but proud pose, showing her cool and confident personality. She’s wearing her standard Taimanin uniform, consisting of a black leotard, supplemented by thigh-high boots and elbow gloves trimmed with some sort of fur-like material. Her leotard is cut high over her hips, revealing her trademark tanlines. Not present are her weapons, a pair of pistols.
Her hair splays out behind her, giving a sense of volume but also obscuring the view of her back. Two additional hair tails sprout out from her head, resembling whip antennae to some extent.
That said, there’s not a lot to see from the rear; Yukikaze’s backside is relatively modest in size and shape.
The details of the figure impress; I particularly like the paint gradients visible on her hair, particularly in how the darkened tips frame Yukikaze’s face.
Yukikaze isn’t wearing a lot of clothing, but I like the variety of finishes present on her uniform. Her leotard is glossy black, while her gloves and boots are done in a lighter satin gray, trimmed with metallic red. Cutouts filled with fishnets add an element of interest to her look.
I like Yukikaze a lot, though I’m not entirely sure how high I’d rank her as far as Taimanin characters go. I did enjoy the OVAs, though the animation quality dipped noticeably after the first episode. Still, the content was pretty good.
The Taimanin franchise has gotten several figures over the years, but I think this is one of the best. The technical execution from Amakuni is on point, the size is good, and Yukikaze has a great design. This figure certainly does her justice; hopefully Amakuni or a similar high-quality manufacturer continues to produce figures from the series, as I’d love to own a figure of Asagi or Ingrid.
The post Yukikaze Mizuki from Taimanin Yukikaze first appeared on Tentacle Armada.