Figure Name: Anohana Menma 1/8th Scale Figure
Figure Maker: Alter
Retail/List Price: ¥8,800
Available at: HLJ | AmiAmi | Hobby Search | Otacute 

Menma comes packed in a nice little box. I was a little surprised at how small and light weight her packaging is. The colors Alter chose were really appropriate to her character. As a nice touch the little multicolored flower petals painted on the box reminded me of the animation from the ending theme of Anohana and how countless petals had fallen to the song.

Here is Menma, still snugly wrapped in her packaging. You can clearly see her diary, umbrella, and various things.

At a glance her included instructions seemed a little complicated, but really all you need to do is attach the stack of tires to her stand and place her umbrella, diary, and figure on the base as shown in the illustration. Simple enough right? 

Menma's base is one of the coolest parts about this figure. It is modeled to look like part of the club house that she and her friends used to play in as kids before she passed away. It's kind of jumbled and messy, but that's half the charm, it looks lived in! The cherry blossom at the base is is also a nice addition to this piece of art. 

Clearly scrawled on the front of her base is something from the series. I could be wrong but I think it says their club name, "Super Peace Busters!" 

Here you can see the woody grain and all the little imperfections that Alter created in the planks. You can also see her diary. In the series Menma occasionally wrote in this diary to convey messages to her friends to tell them things that she wanted to. It was one of the only ways she was able to do so, and the inclusion of this diary was what made me decide to purchase Alter's version of Menma. The diary and the base sort of set the scene, and are figures in of themselves.

Well, what can I say? I love minis! So I had to try seeing how some of my minis fit on her base. After all there is this empty cot under where she sits! Sure her feet will be dangling partly in view, but the lower half of her base is a perfect place to stash some mini nendoroid figures or any super miniature figurines.

Well, here is Menma! She is really light weight and skinny compared to my K-On girls and other 1/8th scale figures, which adds a little bit of believability to her ghostly status. I would guess that she has no metal supports in her body. Of course she doesn't need them either, because she sits quite nicely on her stand and is very well supported by it, or anything else she might sit on.

As you can see this is one of her less flattering angles. Her bottom is keyed a little to sit easier on the wooden shelf provided by the stand, but rest assured her balance is great for sitting on anything, even partly curved surfaces! One nice thing about this picture is it shows off her hand and foot sculpts. Outside of swimsuit figures it is rare that you get a barefooted character, so it is cool to see here. I really like the barefoot look!

Menma's face is pretty simple, her pose and expression just seem relaxed to me. Speaking of her pose, I was initially worried that with her sitting up high it would be a little too easy to accidentally get a glimpse up her skirt. Thankfully the little frills of her dress tastefully obstruct that from most angles.

From the backside she looks relatively uninteresting. This is definitely a figure that looks better from the front! All the grey and white is a little bit spooky.

Here is a closer look at one of her feet. As usual Alter has polished every toe-nail and the overall look is very good.

While I like what Alter did with Menma's figure, she does not stand out too much by herself. Yes the frills of her skirt are really cool, as are the frills up by her arms. Alter did everything they could to try to make a character with a very simple design appealing. What really completes the package is the base and her diary, adding character and reminding those who watched the show a few of the little things about it that helped make it special.

Finally we have the complete package. I do think that Alter's Menma is a cool figure to display. She may not be as cute as some figures, or attractive as other ones, but the fact that she is not a typical anime character makes her more appealing to collect to me. What do you think Tomopeeps? Had this little ghost caught your interest? Let us know in the comments.