One of the things that I am thankful for is that there is such a huge assortment of high-quality ero figures. Not all that long ago, it was scandalous for a figure company to even reveal a sculpted nipple and now we have, well, this sort of thing. There are a bunch of similarly explicit figures in the current review queue but we’ll start with Rie Kawai, who is all dressed up in a superb outfit.
Rie Kawai is the lead girl of Jellyfish’s 2003 eroge Lovers. The developer is remarkable for shipping just three products despite being in existence for almost two decades: Green, Lovers (about a boy and a girl who are lovers), and Sisters (about knocking up one’s sisters), with the upcoming title I Virgin (about a character who presumably is a virgin) still in development. Jellyfish is also particularly noted for animating the sex scenes in their games rather than simply scrolling descriptive text over static images while the voice actress squeals and squawks. And it’s real animation, not the cheesy After Effects distortion that some low-budget titles incorporate; it’s a little bit surprising that none of their games has ever gotten an ero anime adaptation, at least so far as I can recall.
However, Lovers has gotten a ton of doujinshi and artwork material from Taki Minashika, the artist of Lovers and Sisters. This isn’t even the first time we’ve looked at Rie here; I put up a post about a Rie pillowcase many years back. Funny how it doesn’t feel that long ago.
This figure is manufactured by Q-six. It’s the first Q-six product I’ve ever owned and as such, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The first impression is pretty good; the figure has a solid, substantial feel. Maybe even too much so; she’s quite top-heavy as one can see and hopefully this won’t cause any leaning issues in the future. This is also a very large figure; Rie is sculpted in 1/5 scale and stands about 29 centimeters in height, which is quite impressive given that she has a notably stubby body build. She comes with several accessories, and we’ll talk about them in turn in a bit.
As far as I know, Lovers is more of a romantic sort of eroge, even though some of the themes it touches on are a little more hardcore or kinky than the average Japanese high school porno game. Rie is often depicted in official artwork as enjoying sex. Here, though, she looks a little nonplussed, as if she is waiting for something, or as if she doesn’t quite know how to react to her situation. Interestingly enough, the other high-profile figure of a girl in bondage gear – Native’s Nana Chigusa – had a similar sort of expression.
One of the most appealing aspects – at least for me – of this figure is Rie’s outfit. She’s wearing a black leather bondage harness with cuffs around her thighs, wrists, and ankles. She also has a thick collar with a metal leash. It’s a great-looking outfit, a style that I wish more anime figure manufacturers would incorporate into their products.
It’s also a very lewd outfit, though it’s also not quite complete, as the straps that frame her crotch aren’t actually painted all the way between her legs. It’s not really a big deal but it looks a little peculiar if you examine this figure closely.
Rie’s design shows off a number of idiosyncrasies, including a very large head, relatively short and thick limbs, and a cylindrical body form with a broad waist.
She also has a rather compact backside. Her outfit does reveal her ass in an inviting manner but I think this is more of a boob lovers’ figure. Note also that although her arms are positioned behind her back, they aren’t actually restrained by anything, though I suppose an enterprising collector could improvise something to remedy that.
Rie comes with an instruction sheet (printed on sturdy, glossy paper) that illustrates how to disassemble her. It’s fairly straightforward, with her head and arms detaching. I found that on my figure, the head comes off easily but the arm pegs make for a very tight fit. Removing her arms allows her to be dressed in a white shirt that doesn’t quite cover her up. I recall her wearing a dress shirt in a number of her official illustrations but I don’t particularly care for it here.
She can also be depicted with an alternate arm pose. Some of the promotional photographs show her holding her leash in her white hand and a vibrator in her left hand. She could also be posed with one arm extended and the other arm held behind her back; I didn’t think to do so but I guess if one were going to do that, one could put a pointer in her outstretched hand, as if she were giving a lecture.
Here’s that vibrator. This is going to come in handy for future photo reviews.
I didn’t show a couple of her other accessories. She comes with a post that attaches to her base that can be used to hold her leash; I don’t really have a problem with it dangling off of her neck. She also comes with a sheet of pubic hair decals; Taki Minashika is, along with Satoshi Urushihara and Onigirikun, one of the few ero artists to prefer drawing pubic hair on their female characters. I like the shaven look more so I didn’t bother applying them; I’m not actually sure how they are affixed, anyway.
I like this figure quite a bit. Admittedly a large part of my bias is due to my fondness for her outfit and the whole bondage theme, but even without that I’ve always liked Minashika’s work (hence the reason I bought the pillowcase a few years back). It’s too bad that even though there is an abundane of ero figures on the market, there really aren’t that many in bondage gear (or wrapped in tentacles …). This is a fine example of one, though, and hopefully more will follow.
