Alter 1/8 Senhime PVC: Sengoku Rance
Today we’re taking a look at Alter’s 1/8th scale Senhime PVC from Sengoku Rance. This was one of my “on the whim” purchases, but thankfully she didn’t also end up as one of my “should have passed on her” purchases! Not that she’s without a few minor faults, but she’s a fantastic figure I love to death.
hobbytajutsu~
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Senhime: Background
Alter’s 1/8th scale Senhime was released in March of this year. Retailing for around $85 USD and sculpted by Toshiyuki Yagyu, Senhime is still relatively easy to find using conventional establishments.
Senhime comes from the game Sengoku Rance. I haven’t played any of it, but her actual name is Sen Tokugawa. Apparently she got the nickname Senhime, or “Princess Battle”, because she is a fight-otaku. Or something like that.
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Princess Battle
Like I said, I got Senhime on a whim. I liked Alter and I liked feudal Japan inspired designs, but not having played the game I was unfamiliar with the character and couldn’t connect on that level. Still haven’t played the game, but that doesn’t stop Senhime from being one amazing little figure.
Well, she’s really not so little actually. Senhime is big; much bigger than what I’m used to with 1/8th scale figures. This isn’t due to Senhime’s scaling really, it’s more that she juts out from the base, has a wide stance, has hair that flows outward, and has a long spear. This makes her footprint 2-3 times wider than I expected. About as wide 1/4 FREEing Haruhi, really.
I rarely talk about the character “design”. This is because 90% of the time it’s out of the sculptor’s hands what the character is wearing, how their hair is done, or the shape of their face as it’s already been established in another medium. What the sculptor can do – and this is shown in Senhime – is work detail and energy into the figure making it stand out more then the original design.
Part of this energy comes from Senhime’s stance: it’s just so fantastically dynamic that you fear the impending smack-down. This is also where my thought about enhancing the original design comes into play. I love how the short skirt takes a new enticing vibe due to the spread of her legs. Oh how I envy those snakes.
The rest of the energy comes from her face. Not only is it executed exceptionally well in terms of painting and sculpting, but I think there is something to her eyes as well. They’re sharp, focused, and tell a story: almost like you can tell she’s analyzing her next target and already planning her next move. I admit I may be reading too much into that one. ^^;;
Detailing wise I really like the amount of work that went into sculpting the folds and materiality in her outfit. Yagyu-san even went so far as to put little folds in the palm of her gloves. I think the snakes are a nice touch to the base, and work to give the whole figure a sense of context. This might be the thing most affecting my read of her eyes, actually.
Painting wise I’m equally impressed. Her outfit is a sort of lusterless realization that I think is fitting for the era Senhime is supposed to hail from. But that’s not to be confused with her skin tones, which are as vibrant as the they are perfectly shaded.
The one area that could use some improvement in Senhime’s hair. Firstly, it’s a little light on the shading compared to the rest of the figure. But secondly, and more importantly, it’s just not sculpted with nearly the fine detailing I think it needed. Look at how blobby her hair gets. The overall effect is nice and I can see how one could worry about too much resolution in her hair, but as she is the detailing feels uneven.
I also have to say I’m a little disappointed in Alter for not making Senhime a cast off. Usually that wouldn’t bother me, but the character is from an ero game for crying out loud! If there was ever a situation where it’s appropriate to use the feature, this would be it.
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Final Thoughts
There have been a number of figures for Sengoku Rance produced already, but Senhime stands out as one of the best in my mind. The combination of solid craftsmanship, great detailing, and an all around amazing pose make for an fantastic figure. So far this is the only Sengoku Rance figure that Alter has produced but I certainly hope for more from them.
Of course I haven’t played the game, so I could be signing the praises of a character that no one likes. So if there are any Kenshin or Kouhime fans out there, don’t take it personally. 
wouldn’t mind being locked up with her,
Rico-sama
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Senhime’s Full Gallery
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That’s definitely not a figure I would have considered purchasing prior to your pictures. But she really stands out now. I was considering the purchase of Sill Plain also from Sengoku Rance (seriously, that has to be Lance right?) but she’s just no where near as detailed. Though I think she is cuter.
Sill Plain is still available and I may still purchase her. But anyway…
You wish Senhime was cast-off eh? ohoho~ I’m surprised at her price actually, she’s only $3 more expensive than Sill, and appears to have considerably more detail. Hmm…
-Aka
Yeah, I think it should be Lance too, but most of the sources I saw had it labeled as Rance so…
And Sill certainly is cuter, but I’m partial to the badassitude of Senhime. It could be because I’m watching lots of Seirei no Moribito and I’m projecting a lot of Balsa onto her.
There was a part of me that wanted to encourage Alter for not making Senhime cast-off as, I would’ve argued, it would ruin that enticing vibe I spoke about. But no: I just want to to be able to take her skirt off.
lol it’s good of you to admit that. I want to take the skirt of many… but we wont get into that….
I’m not sure what Seirei no Moribito is or who Balsa is. Good series? appears to be a “historical” adventure fantasy series.
I think I read on Danny Choo once that sometimes figures are initially designed as cast-off, but higher ups will tell the manufacturers to glue them together. That always struck me as odd. Why not just keep the feature?
I like it a lot. It’s done by Production I.G. (so the quality is there) and the same director who did the Ghost in the Shell TV series, to give you an idea the feel of Moribito.
I’ve never been able to get into the GITS TV series, I started it a few times but couldn’t watch the whole thing. Maybe one day I will.
That really is strange if what you say about cast-off figures is true. Wonder why they’d do that, higher-ups decide out of no where that they don’t want to be pervs this time around?
Took me some digging because it wasn’t really a post – it was just an one-off comment. Here it is anyway.
Having figures turned down because “they don’t do that in the anime” is even odder to me. o.O
Those do seem like some strange reasons. I see a lot of figures that don’t match up with anything I remember seeing in the series. I don’t mind if a figure doesn’t cast-off though. The first figure I bought was a cast-off and I didn’t even know.
I bought this figure as well. I haven’t played the game and didn’t know anything about the character. However, I loved the design (here’s to taking some time to design a base with some character and visual interest!) and I that since Alter was making it, the overall quality would be there, so it wasn’t like I was taking a huge gamble on the end product.
I have to say that I’m not disappointed with the purchase. I just took a second to look her over again and I agree, the painting on her hair appears to be almost completely uniform, without shading. I guess I’m not too upset about that (at least it’s all the same color, unlike the Rider figure I have in which Rider looks like she’s wearing hair extensions because the longer pieces are clearly lighter in shade than the hair directly on her head), but they could have done a bit more there for sure.
Overall, I really like this one though and Senhime commands a mighty location in my living room. :3
I’m glad you see the same thing in her hair on yours. I mean, I’m not glad that you have the same issue because that would make me a jerk (more of one, anyway), but I am glad in that I’m not alone in the matter.
It makes me think that it was more something that occurred with the entire run and not just mine. Makes me feel a little better, ya know?
Yeah, what happened with EnterBrain Rider was crap. I’ll gladly take Senhime’s “problem” over Riders any day.
Actually, I’d take Senhime over Rider any day! XD
Nice photos. Well she’s really good but costly at the same time. Have just had a review of Kotobukiya’s Senhime @ my blog [http://uselessthoughts.net/]. Please do check it out. Also, I’ve linked you to my blog.
Hi, samejima! Glad you liked the pics.
I checked out the pics of Kotobukiya’s Senhime at your site. She looks nice, but IMO there is something off about her face.
Yeah, in fact, Alter’s is more prettier and the facial expression is better than Kotobukiya’s but still good since the quality is great.
There first figure I ever bought wasn’t a cast-off, but it was Atelier-Sai’s 1/6 Haruhi Bunny Girl so it really couldn’t be.
The second figure I got was definitely a cast-off. Kinda earth shattering the first time I realized that was an option. I remember wondering if that was a standard feature for all figures.
I was surprised that mine was, because I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere. So I too started to wonder. All of my Horos so far are cast-off in some way. One is cast-off until nudity, the other 2 you can remove their skirt/dress bottom. And even the GSC Horo is the same way. Eventually though I started getting other figures that weren’t cast off. The majority.