Tomopop Review: Alter's 1/8 Azusa Nakano

3:00 PM on 09.03.2010   |   Call Niero

Okay, I know I promised a different review at the end of my last one, but Clalaclan is coming soon! The weather has not been at all cooperative, and I am not taking a figure as expensive as Clala out in 95 degree heat! I realized that Azusa here hasn't gotten much love on the interwebs in terms of reviews, and given her ridiculous cuteness levels, I thought it was time to fix that.

Oh yeah, the box shot. it's a box! It's ... kind of boring, but really small! Easy storage!

I don't think I really understood the term "moe" untill I got Azusa. I avoid moe anime like it is the plague, and while some of my figures are cute I have yet to own a really moe one. Well, maybe the Miku Nendo fits the bill, but I don't have any big moe figures. I didn't understand it before, but now ... well, let's just say that I am totally enamored with Azusa. Does this mean that I suddenly like moe? Only time will tell!

Look at that face and tell me it's not the most adorable thing ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but she's damn cute. I think Alter kind of missed the happy face mark on Yui, who ended up looking a bit demonic, but Azusa here is pure joy. The happiness just radiates off of her face. 

Back view is pretty standard, a bit boring but not overly so. Her outfit is not very interesting from the back (or from the front either, honestly), so there was not much that could be done here. However, they didn't skimp on the quality from this angle, and the paint and shading are still great. 

As I am sure you know, Azusa comes with an alternate part. NEKOMIMI! She looks about a billion times cuter with them on, so it's a pretty obvious display choice for me. You know me, I am all about the animal ears. On a serious note, Alter did a great job rendering them. The little tufts are almost too much!  

Azusa's outfit is well done but utterly bland. This isn't Alter's fault, as the character design just has boring clothing, but it does take away from the figure a bit. I think with a better outfit Azusa would have been more of a stand out figure. As it is she kind of faded into the background, which is a shame because she is really well made.

Azusa's hair is, well adorable. There isn't that much detail in the sculpt, but it is hard to do with something so thin. Her twintails don't give people much to work with, and the shading is really nice so the lack of detail doesn't bother me much. Other companies have tried to poof out her hair a bit to make it noticeable, but I think the slim look suits her better.

Guitar strings! I only have one other figure with strings on their guitar (Daiki Haruhi), so it's nice to see a company go all out on something like this. The strings are actually clear, but under the light they are hard to distinguish from metal ones.

The folds in her skirt are well done, the paint is perfect, the shading is all there, but there's just ... something missing. Some extra oomph that I expect figures to have. Don't get me wrong, I love Azusa, but it is a shame that they picked this outfit. Actually, it is a shame that K-On! has the most epically boring school uniforms of all time. Seriously, guys, put a little bit of effort into it! Some color, cool shapes! It's the same thing we've seen over and over, only the colors are more bland. And yes, I know, it's a slice of life show so they are meant to be "normal" but it makes for hella boring figures.

Alter executed her foot supports very well. It's not overly noticeable like the white and black ones that most companies use, and it is more stable than metal poles.  I know some people complained about it, but there's little else they can do with this pose. Speaking of pose, I haven't yet talked about Azusa's much, and it is really the highlight of this figure. The sense of motion and energy it conveys is just superb. It looks like they captured a moment on stage.

Azusa's base is very nice but it is also problematic. The clear stand that her feet are on is separate from the actual base and has to be attached, which is a huge design flaw. We had to take Azusa apart after the shoot to move her to a new home (school!), and when she was alllllmost free, the clear attached part just split from the base. In the recoil from that, 3 of her pegs snapped off. It's fixable with a ton of superglue, but it's a major annoyance. I thought broken pegs were a thing of the past, and here we have a figure from one of the best companies with a major issue like that! 

So should you buy Azusa? I know I complained about her outfit a lot, but in the end I really, really like this figure. Yeah, she would stand out more with a better outfit, but I have more than enough figures that pop. It's almost nice to have a more "mellow" feeling one. And her base is problematic, but learn from my mistakes and be careful and it shouldn't be too much of an issue! She doesn't seem to be very popular sadly, and even though she was released a few months ago she is still available at AmiAmi for 5450 yen!

Thanks as usual to Stephen for taking these pictures! And an extra-special thanks to my awesome dad for letting us shoot in his music studio again! Thankfully he had the same guitar as Azusa, only in a different color! Well, he has 14 guitars, so I suppose that's not really a surprise ... but he also has her amp! She looks so tiny next to it. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures in the gallery!

As an end note, I have a question for all you lovely Tomopeeps. Stephen got quite a few requests for wallpapers on his Momohime shoot, and a few in-staff requests for Yagyu wallpapers. Would you guys appreciate it if he made say 2 or 3 for the shoots he really liked and shared them with the community? I know I'd really like this shot on my desktop!