Kotobukiya Asuka Langley Shikinami PVC: Rebuild Of Evangelion
I opted to go straight to the source for Asuka and use HLJ since my usual venue didn’t look like they we’re getting her in. Of course karma, doing what it does, saw to it that my usual venue put her up the next week, but by that point it was easier to stay with HLJ even though I’d have to pay shipping. The unexpected result? Me getting to do a review while the figure is still fresh and not months old! Today we’re taking a look at Kotobukiya’s 1/6th scale Asuka Langley Shikinami PVC from Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.
Hobby can (not) advance~
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Kotobukiya Asuka: Background
Kotobukiya’s 1/6th scale Asuka Langley Shikinami PVC was released in Japan in October of 2009 retailed for about ¥6800 (76 USD). Sculpted by Shirahige Tsukuru, Asuka is featured in her classic plug suit. Given the designs we now know are featured in Evangelion 2.0, I wouldn’t be surprised if a test plugsuit variant was in the works. At least I hope there is. :3
Asuka is the third in a (currently) three long line of Evangelion Shin Gekijouban (aka. Rebuild of Evangelion) figures that Kotobukiya has produced: along with Rei and Misato. Shirahige-san has sculpted all three and that brought a rare consistency to this line. My guess is Shirahige-san is hard at work on a Mari figure, but I haven’t seen anything official yet.
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Rebuild Of Asuka
Despite my fervent and seemingly illogical love for all things Evangelion, I still haven’t seen any of the new movies. I wasn’t so interested in Evangelion 1.0 since I understood it to be 99% rehash from the TV series (though I eagerly anticipate it’s domestic release this month) and I haven’t had the time to find a copy of Evangelion 2.0. All that is a long way of saying “I don’t know why they changed Asuka’s family name to Shikinami but please don’t spoil it for me!”.
So today I think I’ll start with the negative (yes, singular). Asuka’s skin tones are just a shade too pale. Are they horribly off? No. Are they brownish like Kotobukiya sometimes does? No. Her tones look like skin and well done, it’s just really odd to see Asuka have a paler complexion than Rei. It’s also perplexing since there was only one area they had to get right.
Now that that’s out of the way it’s on to the good stuff! Asuka exceeded my expectations. I liked what I saw in the official images and I new she’d be a good figure, but having her in person is a whole other thing entirely. The official images just didn’t capture the energy and elegance of Asuka’s pose, the amazing colors, or the well placed details with the accuracy befitting this fine figure.
I love how they handled Asuka’s hair. Using a translucent material and then layering paint on top of that gives her hair a lightness that mold detailing and paint work alone could not achieve. The resulting effect is simply phenomenal. It looks like Shirahige-san tried something similar with Rei’s hair but the effect is far more noticeable on Asuka.
The sophistication and resulting sensuality of Asuka’s pose is hard to capture in pictures, but I did my best. The pose is my favorite aspect of the figure: it’s just so captivating. Asuka holds herself in a way that’s both womanly and girlish; which is perfect for a character who was always trying to act more than her age.
Another thing I like about Asuka is that she’s crafted very much in the spirit of Sadamoto-san’s art style. You can see this particularly well in the shape and width of her waist (a trademark of Sadamoto-san’s style), but also in the angles in her cheeks, her well pronounced shoulders, the shape of her eyes, and the sharpness of her knees. Asuka’s sculpted so truthfully it’s almost like she was lifted from a drawing.
The thing I really like when Kotobukiya tackles the larger scales is that they don’t skimp on the detailing. With Asuka, much like Rei before her, Shirahige-san took the time to physical carve the seams and joints of the plugsuit and then paint in the cracks. Sure; it can be a little messy when analyzing the details close up, but when sitting on your desk or bookcase the effect of that detailing is fantastic.
One thing I didn’t appreciate until looking at the pics just now is that Asuka is nearly devoid of solid colors: every color is shaded, toned, highlighted, and/or accented. Usually that’s one of the first things I pick up on for any figure but with Asuka all the color choices are really nuanced, esepcially when compared to the bolder moves in the pose and detailing. It makes her color palette part more atmospheric than any figure I can recall.
There isn’t much that needs to be said about Asuka’s face: it’s sculpted well and captures the essence of the character. I’m a little unsure on how I feel about her smile. One on hand, I feel that something a little more vibrant would’ve fit Asuka better (and make her stand out from Rei and Misato), but on the other hand what we got fit’s in with that “acting more than her age” bit.
See what I mean about her skin tones being the palest of the bunch? Anyway, the last thing I wanted to mention falls into the atmospheric qualities of the figure again. There are moments where you see the muscle and form of Asuka’s body permeate through the plugsuit. The most readily obvious is her butt, but you also start to see some thigh, stomach, and collar bone. All this goes to create a more sensual, but at the same time believable, pose.
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Final Thoughts
I really like how the low lighting shots turned out this time. I added a back-light to the scene. It really didn’t do anything to light the figure, but putting some light on the background really made for a dramatic impact. I am quite pleased with it, that I am.
fly me to the moon,
Rico-sama
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Asuka’s Full Gallery
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She is really nice ! I love her pose and her face’s expression ^^ And your picture… great like always
So that’s one vote for liking her face the way it is.
Glad you like the pictures. I think these might’ve been the best I’ve done in a long time. Took a lot of them too!
I really like her face, really good, also her sweet side (Asuka, the original tsundere!).
I still think she’s a bit too shiny, as if someone poured lotion on her.
Obviously, major Katsuragi is the best
Another vote of approval for her face. I was still thinking something more vibrant would’ve been nice, but when you said “tsundere” that totally won me over. Love it!
Yeah, latex can be shinny sometimes.
That Mistato is.
Seriously, that figure won her character over for me. Best Misato figure on the market.
Rei and Asuka are the most famous “original” Blue and Red, if you look over at TVTropes.
Rei is the original Ice Queen character (blue), and all the characters kids these days say are like Yuki Nagato (such as Tabitha from Zero no Tsukaima) are actually like Rei. Yuki is like Rei.
Asuka is the original Red, fiery and smacks the male protagonist about, and she kicks ass. Asuka also goes the furthest on the “soft” side, mainly when asleep and when suffering from mental breakdown, true, but then we learn that the bluff exterior is to hide the gaping wound within.
Her face, it’s not just sweet, it’s also very slightly rueful. It’s in the eyes.
I’ve always thought of Rei and Asuka as sort of “proto-moe” characters. They share a lot of the shame characteristic with the moe-types of today, but also fundamentally different.
That’s even more interesting when you consider that one of the goals of Anno and crew were for the new Eva movies be an antithesis to the current moe-laden shows out there. XD
Yuki is like Rei? *SHOCK*
J/k, j/k.
PS. I wonder if Mari will be equally important to future generations of anime shows?
Nice new watermark. I guess we have a little logo now? Red box?
Yeah, I thought it was time for a less intrusive WM. I picked the red box because it kinda fit with the site header.
I have this figure as well and, wow, it really did exceed expectations; though in fairness to Kotobukiya, I think the Misato figure is phenomenal so I had suspicions this one would really be nice. Thank you Kotobukiya! Good job.
I love the pose, and the execution is really spot-on.
Now, if we could just get Asuka in that alternate plug suit design …. my god, want! 0.0
Test-plugsuit design would be phenomenal. For Asuka.
I don’t think I like Mari’s test-plugsuit too much.
First off, let me get this out of the way. I hate you. My Asuka just shipped.
As I was reading your review I started thinking as to why her skin tone might be lighter than the others. Nationalities? Ok maybe that’s pushing it… I’m not really sure why.
I’m not really sure why they renamed Asuka. As while all the female lastnames are of various ships, Soryu was as well. However looking into it I’ve perhaps thought of something. Soryu was an Aircraft Carrier, where as Ayanami was a Destroyer. Shikinimai is also a Destroyer, perhaps putting her on ‘even’ plain with Ayanami Rei now. Additionally, Makinami is also a Destroyer.
Here’s the list…
Shikinami, 12th of 24 Fubuki-class destroyers in the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I.
Ayanami, a destroyer in both 1909 World War I as a Kamikaze-class as well as in 1929 World War II as a Fubuki-class, same class as Asuka, again with the even field. The two ships idea is very fitting of Rei’s character in Eva, being a clone of Yui Ikari.
Makinami was a Yugumo-class destroyer in World War II, as well as a modern day Takanami-class destroyer.
Katsuragi was an Unryū-class Aircraft Carrier during World War II. An interesting note on the wiki says “She did not commit to any significant action…” made me snicker a little.
Akagi was also an Aircraft Carrier, though a slightly older (fitting of her character!) class known as the Amagi-class, which was originally a battlecruiser class.
Hyūga was an Ise-class battleship from around the time of World War I.
Ibuki was a Heavy Cruiser modified from a Tone-class from around World War II.
Aoba was a name and class of Heavy Cruisers in World War II.
I think that’s all the characters… And that shouldn’t be spoiling it for you, because I haven’t seen or heard anything from Eva 2.0. I doubt they’ll explain anything in it as to why her name changed, because they’ll just introduce her as Shikinami Asuka Langley instead of Sōryū.
Now back to the figure… I think it’s neat they had the same sculptor do all 3 figures, my urge to get the other 2 is growing despite my dislike of Rei’s pose. It’ll be neat if he does Mari as well. So far I haven’t really liked any of the Mari figures, his might change that.
I agree that I like how his sculpts match up with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s artwork. Though I like his sculpts better for the most part because they have more realistic proportions than a lot of his work I think. I have a big Rei wallscroll that’s done by him, and over the years I’ve come to hate it in ways due to the title=”Ayanami Rei by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto - danbooru”>messed up proportions. A lot of his artwork is sexy, but the proportions skew my mind.
-Aka
PS: I hope this post doesn’t get stuck in your spam queue because of all the links.
PPS: Jesus that was a long comment, it’s like I wrote my own post.
In such a long comment I was bound to mess up something.
1) Last paragraph I’m a bit inconsistant with whom I’m referring to. I like Shirahige’s sculpts better than Yoshiyuki’s artwork. Due to a more realistic appearance.
2) I forgot to mention, I finally purchased myself a Rei figure. Currently in transit.
They moved from Japanese warships to American/English ones. That’s all. Was there a good reason for it? Nahhh. But remember who the director is
Which of those were American/English ones? Did other names in the series change as well? All the ones I listed were Japanese warships were they not?
Well, also in the new.
Langley is a navy base, “Illustrious” is a common ship name, etc.
I can’t seem to find the lengthy article I’ve once seen on the naming convention in NGE.
Langley is quite a popular name and as such is the name of many things. Headquarters for the CIA is in Langley Virginia, as is an Air Base, there are Schools, Cities, though most importantly in relation to this series, a US Aircraft Carrier in both World War I and World War II. Sunk by the Japanese in World War I, and a new one built for World War II.
But this isn’t really a switch from Japanese warships to American, as her name is still Shikinami Asuka Langley right? The only switch is to her Japanese name.
I never even thought about looking up Illustrious in regards to the name of a ship. I hate the name so much I guess I forgot. Illustrious is the name of 5 ships in the Royal Navy (UK) as well as a class of ship in World War II. Ships dating as far back as 1789 right up until 1981 with an Invincible-class Aircraft Carrier.
First off, I can take it.
Second off, which Rei? The Kotobukiya one?!
Nationalities, huh? That’s an interesting theory, actually. It makes some sense on that regarding, but thinking back to the show Asuka had more of a peachy/orange tone to her skin but she was definitely more flush than Rei - unlike the figures. Still, there may be merit to the idea.
That’s a very good point about how the figure is inspired by Yoshiyuki’s artwork but still maintains proper proportions. Hadn’t thought of it like that.
Wow. I knew some of the Evangelion characters were based off warships, but I didn’t realize it was to that degree.
@Aka on Shikinami: Your probably right that there will be no reason for it, but I’ve been thinking they could turn it into a pretty cool plot point. Something along the lines of taking her father’s name (Shikinami) due to what happened in the past. But that’s kinda merging manga/anime plot points, lol.
@Guy on Shikinami: LOL! So true!
Very shortly after posting I went and purchased yet another Rei. In fact, I purchased the whole set of Kotobukiya figures, Misato and Rei, with Asuka already having been pre-ordered. But the Rei I’d ordered originally was Alter’s Rei.
Also purchased one of Good Smile Company’s Sabers.
That post took a lot longer than I really intended lol but I’m glad I taught you something from it! haha
I wouldn’t necessarily say the figures have proper proportions, but they’re more proper. Name a 14 year old you’ve seen that looks that sexy. I rest my case. (Or if you do name one, you dirty dirty man)
Never thought of Asuka taking her fathers name, though, I would have assumed she took her fathers name from the start and would instead take her mothers maiden name. Whichever…
Well, I’ve seen 14 year olds who were fully mature, physically. They were almost entirely females though, who tend to mature earlier, physically at least.
But you’re right, the characters are much more 16-17 years old looking. Shinji’s small size suddenly makes sense. Heck, in the movie I think he only reached as high as Misato’s shoulder
Toji is the only one who seems to have any mass from the kids.
Like I said it has it’s roots in the manga. In the manga Asuka reveals herself to have been conceived through In Vitro Fertilization (in a pretty funny scene where she details her mother’s selection criteria to Shinji). As such she never knew her father and had her mother’s name.
In the anime it’s never spelt out so specifically, but her father isn’t mentioned nor seen either. Because I was exposed to the manga first I always assumed that Soryu was her mother’s maiden name. I think there is some validity to the thinking since the manga and anime were planned simultaneously, even thought they eventually became totally different beasts.
The story surrounding Asuka and her mother in the two mediums are the same aside from that point, so my pet theory continues that Asuka takes her father’s name (Shikinami) in “rebellion” and that allows her to externally break from her past. Internally though, as Guy put it, the gaping wound remains.
Anyway, enough of that.
Alter Rei!! She’s one of my favorites! Alter seriously needs to get off their butts and stop with this Nanoha nonsense and get us an Asuka. And Misato. And Mari. And Hikari. Hell, I’ll even take a Ritsuko.
I kid, I love the Nanoha nonsense, but this is Eva we’re talking about here!
GSC Saber is a good choice too. Was it the maid or the full armor?
Neither, the casual attired Saber.
Alter needs to do a Horo, then they can do those Eva characters!
I should read the Eva Manga… I’ve never done so. I’ve read some alternate timeline fanmade doujins, but never the actual.
Ah! Forgot that they did that one. Very nice.
Horo is only one character…so I’ll agree to that!
The Evangelion manga is a wholly different experience than the anime mostly due to characterizations - Shinji has a bit more backbone, Asuka is a bit less “tsuntsun”, Rei has a personality, etc. A lot of purists will decry it but I quite enjoy reading it. If you’re a fan of Sadamoto’s work then it’s a real treat indeed.
PS. Why Wordpress decided to put that comment into the spam filter and not your essay above is perplexing.
Possibly if you’re using akismet it didn’t like myfigurecollection.net? not really sure, but I questioned that aswell. They probably pass wikipedia links because the likelihood of it being a spam article is pretty low.
Yay that’s 2 for an Alter Horo, now to convince a few thousand! As well as find someone to sculpt and a pose. I think I vote for a Horo cosplaying as Hatsune Miku, because I want my Horo with a little zettai ryouiki, and perhaps Tohsaka Rin like twintails. Or you know, whatever, just another Horo figure would be great.
Sadamoto did the artwork for the Eva manga? (shows how much I know in relation to the manga)
Yeah I use Akismet. I’ll see if I can’t change the settings at all. Funny it says it’s tracking a 99.819% accuracy rate for the site. Guess you’re that .181%.
I can’t see zettai ryouiki being fitting for Horo - she seems more like the type just to run around naked, Of course, you would know better than I.
The real question is who should sculpt? I vote for Chieri. :3
The Evangelion manga is drawn by Sadamoto. That’s part of the reason it’s been ongoing for 13 years - guy loves to take his time, lol.
Horo likes her stylish clothes too, she likes to look good. And while she knows she looks good (great!) naked she gets cold in her human form and requires clothes.
I got the Hatsune Miku cosplay Horo idea from some pictures on danbooru.
As for sculptor I never considered it seriously. But I’ve always liked what Inagaki Hiroshi did with Tohsaka Rin and CC, along with Haruhi and Kallen. And Kunihito Iwamoto’s work with Canaan and Alphard seems quite nice. I’m just not sure what style would best suit Horo really.
The manga is still ongoing?!?!
See? I knew you knew Horo better!
Nice choice in sculptors - would bring some great life to Horo. I choose Chieri mostly because he/she’s responsible for the sculpt that really got me into collecting (which, oddly, I’ve never reviewed LOL).
The manga is still ongoing but they’ve announced that it will be ending soon. Think the final collection will be Volume 12.
It’s great that people are persuading you to think otherwise but I’m just not convinced this will is the best we can see of Asuka. Like you, what concerns me the most is her face - her expression to be exact. It’s just…not Asuka. Not angry enough to be Tsun and not joyous enough to show her flamboyant character.
The rest of the figure is however excellent so I’m very sad how her face turned out. The emotion and character she’s missing is so vital to Evangelion figures that I fear that I’ll always see her as “incomplete” if I have her in my collection.
Where’s my yellow dress and sunhat Asuka? Where’s my frowning and scolding Asuka? Where’s my big grinned and full-of-life Asuka?
I don’t want to buy a figure ONLY because of the character it portrays, I want to WANT to buy a figure because it portrays a character.
On a side note. Misato was one of my first figures, I was also blown away that I started to like her character more and more. I think when I do watch the movies eventually I’d have a hard time choosing who I like more.
For the sake of agrument though, I could easily argue the same about Kotobukiya’s Misato.
“Where’s my tank top and beer guzzling Misato?” or “Where’s my ‘my ex is driving me insane’ Misato?” All those are aspects of her character that I love but they are just as much aspects of her character as the serene, sensual, and conflicted Misato that Kotobukiya gave us.
So back to Asuka then, I think it’s awesome that we can all focus on different aspects of the character as the ones that “define” her - really speaks to the level of complexity the characters in Evangelion on a whole. Sorry Asuka didn’t turn out to your liking though - that’s never fun.
As an aside, all the comments here have helped lead me to another interpretation on the whole line - that each one is a physical representation of the character’s inner persona. I mean, Rei wasn’t so afflicted, Misato wasn’t so hesitant, and Asuka wasn’t so melancholy “externally” when they were dealing with their day-to-day, but as a viewer we were exposed to those “internal” parts of their characters through a foil (Shinji). So to me it feels like that’s what Shirahige-san is trying to bring to the table. If that’s true, then it’s an entirely different concept than the majority of Evangelion figures on the market.
Or that could just be non-sense like most of the things I say.
I am sure my memory of the series has all but faded to abbreviated dot points since I have only seen Evangelion once and that was a long time ago. So I will refrain from making anymore comments linking the anime with the figure.
However I still think that this figure fails to deliver what Misato achieved. There are already a gazillion Asuka figures out there with “melancholy” expressions – which BTW I never understood why.
I do have a theory regarding the expression/clothing/pose though. Figures are made to sell, yes? We all like happy figures, yes? All/most of us like to display our figures, yes? The fact is some may not have liked Misato’s tank top wearing and beer guzzling boldness; others may not be too fond of Asuka’s constant over reactive attitude but still liked the characters as a whole. So in order to appeal to more people, we often see generalised, subdued and pleasing representation of characters in figures.
Or did I just pull that out of my behind?
The real issue is that there are too many not-different enough figures of Rei and Asuka (and most butcher Rei’s face), and not nearly enough figures of Misato
Quoted for truth!
No more than my thought above was! LOL.
That’s a interesting point and far more pragmatic then I tend to be when reviewing these figures.
My reviews always tend to center around design (showing my background a little) and execution of figures than cost and marketability.
I wasn’t trying to change your opinion on Asuka, just stating why I thought they way I do. Plus this is Evangelion we’re talking about here and I tend to be excitable by discussions around it.
I LOVE talking about Evangelion!
I love this figure. So sexy!
I like the direction they took with both, her and Rei. Nice pin-up type poses. Great.
I suppose this is the 18 year old Asuka and Rei 8D
Now, Misato. I like it because it is Misato, but I wonder why her jacket is not on properly. And surely it is from the scene at the end of the series, so why did they releases this figure under the 1.01 label, or whatever… It could be me. Anyone can refresh my memory?
I have a similar cold cast Misato, that I like the pose of a little more, but that was expensive (although now I think about it, the PVC prices these days are giving it a run for its money!)
ttp://myfigurecollection.net/figure/3760_katsuragi_misato
(note: add *h* to link)
If someone wants to do a Misato and Kaji like this, I would not object! ttp://myfigurecollection.net/figure/20078_katsuragi_misato___ryoji_kaji
We (I) need more Misato!