Kill La Kill Ryuko Matoi from figma

A lot of people seem to think that I am a hardcore anime watching madman.  However the opposite is closer to the truth than one would expect.  I am rather fussy about what I watch and it’s pretty rare for me to grab on to an anime and watch it from start to finish, and even rarer for me to recommend it to others.

Kill La Kill is one of the few that I have watched all the way through and enjoyed.  It’s quirky, visually interesting, has cool fights, manages to talk up the characters quite well, has a nice theme that carries along the whole show and is generally pretty damn clever.  I was naturally stoked when I saw that the main character Ryuko Matoi got slated for a figma release.  Let’s check out how she looks hey?

The box is modern standard figma fair.  I must admit that red and black make a great colour mix!  Just like Shadow the Hedgehog.

It’s a small box.  Not that I mind that, less storage required.  OK, time to break her out!

First impressions are pretty good.  Seems tough enough and looks pretty much bang on to the character.  There are a few immediately obvious careful spots though.  The “bow/tie” of Senketsu (i.e the pointy bits the project over her shoulders ) are flexible and can be rotated a bit. However they are only held in by a soft peg so they can fall out a bit easier than I’d prefer.  On the plus side though, they are extremely easy to plug back in when they do fall out. 

The shoulder joints are also a tad sensitive.  They are double ball jointed, so a lot movement is available, but between rotating her bicep into the right position and getting the joint to move without stressing it, can be a bit of a hassle.

On a slight side note, I really like the design of the super suit mode to Senketsu, who is Ryuko’s living clothing (it makes sense eventually in the show), as it cleverly makes a lot of homages the old Sailor fuku of Japanese school life and gives it teeth.

More about that will come out later, I am sure.  Let’s move on.

Articulation is pretty good and they've even added soft plastic parts for areas that need some flexibility and it works pretty damn well.  One thing I was rather impressed with was that despite her high heeled footwear, you can still get her to stand pretty easily without resorting to the supplied stand.

The bow/scarf area becomes the eye and on the back  The left eye has a white paint piece in it, and to be honest, I am not sure if it’s meant to be a tear, or a light glint.  The right part of the bow is a bit of battle damage.  I assume Senketsu had his eye cut out once.  The back flap kind of changes to an exhaust port.  Let’s just ignore the level of skimpiness though shall we?  Or, enjoy the skimpiness.  your choice.

Actually for a bit of comparison, lets have a look at a typical sailor fuku uniform and the tummy bearing black and red take that Ryuko ends up with in the show.

Pictures stolen from google.

The pleated skirt also grows teeth as well.  I know the anime was a tad risqué in the design and that the skirt ends up being a very low cut version, but on this toy, it doesn’t quite somehow pull off the look just right.  The show gave the impression the skirt hung essentially just hanging above her coccyx, right off the bottom of her butt, but the toy, I dunno, just looks kind of chunky or something when you look at it from right on.

Her legs are great with a very deep knee bend and thigh swivel, although that does upset the lining of the tights, but it’s nothing major.  Really, since Ryuko uses the figma 2.0 body, she has all that articulation.  One slightly annoying issue that most figmas suffer is the hair blocks her from looking up very far.

I really thought that action poses would fly out of this toy, but when I had her in front of the camera, nothing all that great really came along.  Sorry.  Oddly when I just leave her on a table and idly mess about with her, THAT’S when the magic happens…

She also has a really great arse under the skirt.  Hmm, let’s make that less creepy.  Really great arse sculpt.  Did that work?  Which for someone in a skirt that short and from the anime is kind of required.  I feel like I should talk more about the sculpt, but it’s a tad plain due to character design.  Lot’s of flesh, and lines and skin tight clothing.  Alien Lycra?

Colours are nice enough, red highlights, black and skin colour.  With a touch of white here and there.  She comes with few accessories.  Some extra hands, faces and her scissor blade.

The faces are nice, with a normal face, a struggling/defeated face and my personal favourite, the FRIGGIN’ angry face.  I like that they painted under the chin black as well, so the neck isn’t super noticeable by the sudden encroachment of brightness.

All her faces look very cool and are well sculpted.  She also comes with half of the Scissor blade in normal form and big-ass mode!

The scissor blade is a bit odd to pose with I found at the start.  Not too sure why.  Anyhoo……  Didn’t stop me from playing.  This is normal mode.

Here we have the extended scissor reaper.  Maybe.  Scissor Scythe!  That sounds cool!

Bloody thing rivals Guts’ and Cattleya’s swords in size!!

I was surprised to see an extra wrist joint included in the box.  Kind of glad too, because during the process of changing hands, this happened. (⊙.⊙(◉̃_᷅◉)⊙.⊙)

The bloody joint broke and would not peg back together.  Grrrrrrrrr.



So being Ryuko, I though I should get some of my newly acquired effect parts out for a play.

This flame effect works with her really well!



As does this explosion effect.

And this crater effect.

Woo, Surprise cameo from Satsuki!



And finally, this microphone effect part from Miku!  Yay! Thanks Miku!!!



As I thought with this figure, I really bloody like it.  The articulation is pretty good and due to the character’s erm, spartan design, is unhindered by costume or bulky muscles.   The faces are nice, the colours just work together and she has a load of personality to her.  Of course most of this is due to the original character design, as opposed to GSC’s work on the figure, because as a figure she ends up being relatively plain.  But hey, it works and gets the job done.

Me like!  Now, I'm not normally one for a character in their normal school outfits or whatnot, but I would totally love a version of Ryuko in sailor uniform mode, jacketed uniform and ALL of her powered up modes.

Geddonit GSC!