I've got a strange relationship with Hidamari Sketch. I've never read or watched any bit of the series and really have only ever had a vague notion of what it's about, but the name, both Japanese and the English Sunshine Sketch, has stuck with me for some reason. Normally this would be useless knowledge, but it's actually done me some good. You see, I go to this small local anime convetion called ANIMAINE and one of the quests for the past two years has been Sentai Filmworks producer/director (and an ADV founder) David Williams. He does the usual industry panel stuff (to a room of about a dozen people) of talking about his company and announcing new shows, plus he does trivia for prizes. In 2011 one of the questions he asked was what does Hidamari mean in English? Guess who won a copy of Night Raid 1931 that night? Then this year he does his speil and then trivia and the question comes up again and I find myself with a copy of Alison & Lilia. Just goes to show that worthless information can come in handy some days. One of these days I'm actually going to sit down and watch Hidamari Sketch.

Getting on topic here we've got a pair of great looking figures from the fourth season, Hidamari Sketch X Honeycomb, featuring leading lady Yuno. Up first we've got a cute figure of Yuno in Nendoroid form. She comes with the usual assortment of extra faces and arms parts, but also includes the rarely seen blank face with a decal sheet of expressions for customizing. She also includes her sketchpad and pencil and a slice of bread. Most interesting accessory is a little bug-like charaters (yeah, it's a Metapod) that represents series creator Ume Aoki who also did the character designs for Madoka Magica. Incidentily, both series also share director Akiyuki Shinbo, though I'm pretty sure Hidamarai Sketch isn't nearly as brutal. She'll be out in May for ¥3,334. You can see pictures from Mikatan's feature in the gallery.

[ Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan | Otacute | Hobby Search | AmiAmi | CD Japan | ToysLogic | Big in Japan | Big Bad Toy Store ]

Second we've got a Yuno again, this time in figma form. It's another cute figure that comes with both a normal smile face and a eyes closed huge smile face as well as an Ume figure, plus... Plus... Uh, wait, are you telling me this figma only comes with two faces total and a little bug!? WHERE'S THE REST OF IT!? I know figma often get short changed with it comes to accessories compared to Nendoroids, but holy crap, talk about being cheap. And by cheap I don't mean inexpensive because Max Factory still wants full price for this, ¥3,048! Even if I was a fan I'd have a really had time justifying paying full price for such a stripped down release. Anyway, It'll also be out in May. figma blog posted some pictures, you can see them in the gallery.

[ Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan | Otacute | Hobby Search | AmiAmi | CD Japan | ToysLogic | Big in Japan | Big Bad Toy Store ]