Review: Meiya Mitsurugi Figma

Another day, another Figma. It's not the first time we've visited the series this item is based on either - the Muv Luv Alternative series has garnered a great many fans thanks to the hard-edged sci-fi aesthetic that's tempered by the incredibly cute characters within the suits. Meiya Mitsurugi is no exception.

As a Figma, the articulation is as good as you'd expect - elbows, wrists, knees, ankles and the neck are all poseable (though the head is slightly inhibited by the collar). She also has the rare feature of being freestanding - thanks to a pair of chunky ankle-length boots, she's balanced enough to stand without the need for the usual clear plastic stand which comes with all figures in this range. Of course, if you want to get really wild you'll need to employ it, but it's a rare and welcome achievement which makes her seem more like an action figure than most Figma's.

Unlike the statue of Katsumi Yashiro (reviewed here) Meiya is less about the cute and more about business, and to this end the bunny accessory is replaced by a suitably nasty looking sword. As her main accessory it's surprisingly versatile for such a small item - the sword can be placed with a scabbard or drawn ready for combat, which gives an already very versatile figure a new range of possible poses.

As usual, she comes with a range of hands on a tree, although I did struggle to find teh right one to achieve some of the box poses.

The sculpt is, as you'd expect, excellent. The armoured suit hides almost all the joins in her body, which is quite a feat. She's even more seamless than the Hatsune Miku Figma, though I still lean toward the virtual idol as my favourite of the two.

All in, this is one of the best Figma figures to date. Certainly better than the Shana Figma (to be reviewed shortly) and arguably even better than Miku, who until now has stood as the pinnacle of the series to date.

I picked up mine from Kamika-Z.

- Ross Liversidge

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