Darkstalkers really doesn't get the love it deserves, with mainly us old diehards and the occasional versus game keeping the series relevant. When the Kotobukiya Bishoujo line was announced, I only preordered Morrigan as she was my main in the series, and shipping on these piece is no joke due to their volume. But, fate often has other plans, and such was the case when I found an unloved Bishoujo Felicia up for sale locally for $80CAD, which is one hell of a deal. So naturally, I got out to do the transaction as soon as humanly possible.
I would say that next to Morrigan/Lilith, Felica is probably the next biggest "Brand Ambasador" for Darkstalkers. In the world of the game, Darkstalkers are basically humanoid anime-d movie monsters (hence your vampire, succubus, zombie, werewolf, etc.) and Felicia is the resident Catgirl. Not entire sure which horror movie genre this came from, but clearly I'm missing out. If I remember correctly, Felicia's deal is that she was taken in by an order of Nuns and helped run an orphanage, but she does the whole fighting thing to fulfill her true dream - to become a Vegas Showgirl.
No, you can't make this up.. I mean, I guess someone did, but if I'm not 100% accurate, it's at least 95% there. She possess a wide array of wacky powers and is very much a "live in the moment" kind of girl.
Naturally the Shuya Yamashita art isn't going to capture everything about her, but its generally representative of the character in question. The interesting thing is that while the Yamashita art isn't bad, it just seems very... low energy to me, and I feel it is in the head tilt and how sharply she's raising her left knee. The fascinating part for me is that there's generally deviation between the statue and the art, it's usually a slight loss of the original intent of the drawing.
However in this case, it's kind of the opposite...
While I don't understand (or approve) of the downgrade in cup size, the statue just feels livelier to me, capturing more of that manic energy Felicia is known for. I mean, one of her special moves is her throwing a cat toy the enemy, then launching her self after it. Her face is less round, and the facial features have been changed slightly so that to it resembles the old Kinu Nishimura art more than Shunya. Her hair has also gotten slightly shorter up to, which makes it seem wider by comparison. Her paws have extended claws, which gives them an larger appearance. Her overall torso and legs also seem to have been. There's some other more subtle changes, such as the positioning of the feet. Overall, these changes, to me, make her seem more manic, like the designers intended her to be.
Her mop of hair is so massive that Kotobukiya actually included a separate stand that is meant to prop up the hair at the back. This is likely a precautionary thing, meant to prevent the hair from sagging when displayed for long periods of time. Also, to me, it seems that this was an after thought, as the solution is very ineloquent. , and I think if they meant to have it in the first place, the stand would insert directly into the base.
Speaking of hair, it's very nicely detailed. I imagine the drawing is probably more detailed, but the sculptors did a very good job at capturing the texture of Felicia's hair. Of course, her large mane of hair is very much a defining characteristic for her design, so no surprises about the extra care in making sure it looks good.. Paint work is also smooth as silk. Well that and the fact it's basically all you can see from the back. You screw that up, you will have many unhappy collectors.
A very expressive sculpt, nicely done by Kotobukiya. I remember the days when open mouth sculpts generally looked like garbage. Here we are in 2023, where open mouth expressions can actually be recreated in scale model form without any issue.
Like with Poison, the various fleshy curves on Felica came out looking very nice, though not as flawless as those on the former. You can see the one very obvious mould line running along her right hip and thigh - the mark on her buttocks I'll chock it up to bad luck or being second hand. Still, not bad, especially when you compare it to the various white pieces that fit on her torso and lets, which have numerous mould lines or crooked edges, and there are obvious QC issues with parts not quite fitting in their intended grooves perfectly.
Both sets of paws feature some decent sculpting and great paint work, but you can probably easily make out some mould lines. Furthermore, the "fur" texture isn't exactly terrible, but it's not exactly anything to rave about either - it's just kind of there. Overall, the white parts seem a cruder and not as crisp as it ought to be - perhaps this is a necessity due to the fur texture and the softness of the plastic.
Finally we have the base, which is pretty basic.
Felicia falls into the group of Bishoujo statues at are flawed. They still look great overall, but when you compare it to really good ones like Poison and R. Mika, there's an obvious difference in final production values. But ultimately, it's all about getting those video game ladies represented on your shelf, and this statues does a great job of that for this character. Besides... flawed as she might be, ultimately she's a looker than fans of the character will not regret having in their collection, because she's a lot better than most of the other scale representations of her up until now (though admittedly, the FuRyu noodle topper looks pretty good).
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