In the 90s, Capcom was killing it with their fighting game franchises, particularly the ones that were based on the success of Street Fighter 2. One of these series was Darkstalkers, a game that featured characters based on various horror tropes. Sadly, there hasn't been an actual new entry into the series for quite a long time, though some of the characters are still fairly popular.
One of these is Morrigan Aesland, the Succubus. She's been fairly active in the various cross over fighting games, and even makes cameos in non fighting properties. So it should be no surprise that Morrigan is the first of the Darkstalkers to be released in the new Kotobukiya statue line up for this franchse.
I clearly couldn't pass this up, so she was preordered and arrived with the most recent Anime Export haul.
Here she is in all her glory. As is usual for Morrigan, she has been depicted in a playful pose. Colour choices are accurate for the character, as is her general facial expression.
Here is the concept art the statue is based upon. As with pretty much every entry into the Bishoujou lineup, the original art is the work of one Shunya Yamashita. I'm pretty sure the artist has another gig or two somewhere, but for me it's almost like all they do is create art for Kotobukiya to make statues from.
The overall feel of the art definitely made it into statue form, though there's always some more subtle details that don't make it. Kotobukiya has very seldom, if ever, actually gotten the full feel of the faces and the eyes across onto their Yamashita based statues. I honestly have no idea why that is... they're generally a bit longer and less squat. In the case of Morrigan, it could argued that this is due to a head tilt issue... which means its off anyway. The statues are also very rarely actually as curvy as the drawings (I don't recall this being an issue with the Yamato releases), and in the case of Morrigan specifically, the bat wings are also at different angles/lengths.
Part of me wonders if this is due to the fact it's always the same guy, for the last 20 years, who has been sculpting these statues, or there's some sort of strange manufacturing limitation. There's also loss of detail on her feathery shoulder straps, and a general.. I don't know... loss of colour vividness compared to the drawing.
On the plus side, the statue actually has nicer looking hair.
Having said all that, this isn't a bad statue - its just that there's always these little things that don't make it to the final product... it's like tradition or something. The actual finished product is quite nicely made, and the Bishoujo line itself is probably one of the consistently good Kotobukiya offerings. I mean, they used to be kind of "meh" back in the day, but it's nice to see that they've found their niche.
Lack of flesh paint and horrible production values were the hallmark of the mid 2000s for the company. Yeah they were cheaper than their competitors, but they could have been so much better... especially the Witchblade anime stuff. Now, the product is 99% shortcut free, featuring some fantastic textures where appropriate, no visible seams or sanding issues. Excellent paint work and decal work is present.
Although a bit unsightly, they even put in these spacers between the heel and the foot for the purposes of stability, which should help prevent undesired damage. Combined with the fact that post 2012 scale statues are made of a combination of ABS and PVC, there should be no concern with regards to leaning.
It's nice to be able to revisit a classic character with modern production values. Morrigan will always be a favourite of mine, though understandably the biggest barrier to collecting scales is the price. It's always the price, especially since the hike due to the use of more durable materials. Having said that, it's not like Morrigan is especially expensive - just the hobby on the whole, which is why I really don't buy too many of these anymore and prefer the action figure route.
Say what you will though, this is a sharp looking piece that has some great shelf appeal.
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