Been sitting on a few fixed posed pieces for a while now, and figured before I start in on any articulated stuff, I'd tackle these as they generally take much less time to actually photography and analyze. It's so much nicer when my only concern is lighting the thing up properly, as opposed to having demonstrate various aspect of the design.
First up is the Kotobukiya Bishoujo Series Mai Shiranui.
Like with the entirety of the Bishoujo line, the art on which the statue is based upon was drawn by Shunya Yamashita. A quick reminder, the artist has a very distinct face and eye shape, as well as a firm grasp of feminine curves but not so much highlighting any musculature. Mai is depicted in one of her trademark poses. Simple, but effective.
At time of purchase, the statue was about 11,000 Yen, which is in line with the rest of the Bishoujo series.
These roughly 1/8 scale statues are quite popular with collectors, and the line itself doesn't just focus on fighting game characters - pretty much anything is fair game, as is evident by the recent Optimus Prime and Megatron announcements. In general, I think its fair to say that very few, if any, of these statues actually lose their value in the aftermarket.
As always, the statue is like 95% the same as the art. The remaining 5% is things like the eyes, facial shape, and other odd things that make no sense like the size of the breasts and the angle of the right leg. It happens with every single statue - maybe there's some sort of loss of translation when the sculptor does their magic. Most people wouldn't even notice, but well, I'm not most people.
The only other things to look at are QC related. I keep forgetting this, but Kotobukiya has upped their QC over the years, particularly for the Bishoujo line. You may or may not be a fan of the aesthetic, but at least the quality of statue is quite good. As far as I could see, there were no obvious seam lines or poor finishes. Paint work is generally smooth, with no overspray or poor textures. Detailing of fabric and musculature appears to be just right, given the nature of the source material.
There are concerns I've read about how glossy the finished statue looks, and I understand why. People are saying this glossy look lends to the figure appearing to be of a lower quality, which I can understand. The official explanation is that the gloss was added to make the statue appear more like the source art work, which is shiny. I personally think they overdid the gloss in the sense it should really just be her skin rather than the entire statue - more accurately, the curvier, the glossier. The actual shine itself, however, isn't terrible as it is, but it's just not what people look for.
Overall, this Bishoujo is, in this day and age, a fair buy. I'd go a bit higher for a more exquisite statue if such a thing existed, but I'm more of a Mai Shiranui fan than the typical fighting game enthusiast.
For everyone though, if you're Mai fan, you should go for this while the Character Goods gods smile upon us.
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