Alphamax – or SkyTube – has made a number of exceptionally nice ero-figures over the last couple of years, many of them adapted from Tony Taka’s artwork. This time, they’ve turned to the portfolio of another popular artist: Kizuki Aruchu, very well-respected for his doujinshi work with the circle Udon-ya. He is particularly famous for illustrating their long-running series of Monster Hunter doujinshi and like Tony, he combines a unique and readily-identifiable style with an impressive level of skill. Unlike Tony his work has historically not received a great deal of attention from figure manufacturers, although that has begun to change recently, and the figure we’ll be looking at today is the most recent one to be released.
The subject of this particular figure unfortunately has no name; she’s simply listed as the Cover Girl, and presumably she did appear on the cover of Wani Magazine’s COMIX X-EROS at some time in the past. Manufactured by Alphamax under their SkyTube label, she differs from their Tony figures by being sculpted in a noticeably smaller 1/7 scale. Also, while their Tony figures typically come with castoff options, the Cover Girl comes with an impressive selection of clothing choices. She also has a little green hair ribbon which doesn’t seem to actually attach to her hair; I’m not really sure what to do with it. And finally, she comes with a base, which looks like a big, soft, fuzzy white rug.
This figure does a very nice job of replicating the artist’s style. One of the signature themes of his style are sharply-angled, slightly narrowed eyes and shapely, full-figured bodies with slender waists and broad hips and thighs; taken together, they give his characters a look that radiates seduction and sexuality, even when they aren’t in erotic situations (which, admittedly, isn’t all that often). Here, SkyTube does a fine job of adapting that style into three dimensions; anyone who is familiar with the artist’s illustrations will instantly know whose work this figure is based off of.
The Cover Girl actually has two faces; the default one, in which her tongue protrudes from her mouth, and an alternate one with an open mouth but no tongue. I think the tongue-less face looks a little strange; rather than radiating raw sexiness, she looks sorta sleepy and slack-jawed. The shape of her mouth is squared-off, which also looks peculiar.
That’s not to say that the default face is perfect, though. For one thing – and this is a personal thing – I really don’t like the way her eyelashes are colored gray, matching her hair. This is something I see every now and then in anime art and I really dislike it. I’m not sure why artists do it, being that it makes their characters look like space aliens or something. It isn’t that noticeable in the source artwork but is rather more prominent here and it annoys the hell out of me.
Another thing is that I’m pretty sure her finger is supposed to be reaching her mouth, but at least on my figure, it doesn’t quite get there. More on this in a second.
The Cover Girl has a number of display options. The least revealing has her wearing her underwear, a dress shirt, and a skirt, lifted high up on her hips. While this is the most modest that she gets, it’s still quite explicit, as her rack is hanging right out.
Not that you’ll typically be able to view this figure from the rear, but she has one hand shoved into her panties, covering up her ass. That’s also not an aspect that is safe for most audiences.
An instruction sheet is provided for removing her clothing; it’s a reasonably straightforward process without too much hassle, and yet I found that it was quite difficult to get her arms properly seated; there often seemed to be a gap in her biceps where the parts didn’t fit as tightly as they should have. A big part of this problem is that both her left and right arms are sculpted as a single unit, melded with her jacket (which cannot be removed). This makes alignment much more difficult.
In other words, this figure was a colossal pain in the ass to photograph and once I concluded that I didn’t have all night to try to get her clothes and limbs set up properly, I decided I wouldn’t bother, and so there aren’t going to be too many pictures of her in her clothing. I’m sure most of the people interested in this figure are more concerned about what she looks like without her outfit, anyway.
She can be rendered nude for all practical purposes and without her clothing, she looks very nice. She has big, appealing breasts – though they show no realistic sense of weight as they are transfixed in their normal position rather than sagging towards the floor as they should – long limbs, and an attractive pose that emphasizes the swell of her wide hips.
This, of course, is the part that everyone wants to see, and it’s all there.
(As with Yuria Misaki, I am not able to hold my pinky figure in that position and if you stare at it long enough, it starts looking rather painful.)
Her shirt is strangely translucent; the artwork depicts the cover girl in a wet shirt and that’s obviously what’s supposed to be emulated here, but it just looks unrealistic. Nevertheless, if naked shirt girls are your thing, that’s definitely one way that she can be displayed.
She can also be displayed wearing just her underwear, and that’s a nice look for her too, I think.
Ranting a bit more, I found it difficult to get her bra strap hooked, so I won’t be using this display mode. Admittedly, her jacket does a decent job of hiding it.
Ah, but I’m not done yet; on my figure, her right leg is incredibly loose (the leg detaches at the knee so that her panties can slide off in one piece). It literally will not stay attached; if I pick up the figure, it falls right off. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be this way or not.
But with respect to just her looks, I think the Cover Girl looks really nice. She’s not quite perfect, and there are a few elements I don’t care for, but she looks quite sexy, with a lovely sculpt, an appealing facial expression that exudes lewdness despite her apparent nonchalance, and a pose that showcases her body quite well. And, well, despite her technical issues, I can’t really hate on a figure of an anime girl who seems to be fingering her anus. Being a big fan of Kizuki Aruchu’s work, I’m very happy to see his designs receive figure adaptations, and the Cover Girl is a solid adaptation of his illustration.
For another review of the Cover Girl, check out Neath Grim.
