Despite it's incredibly divisive ending, I will freely admit that I got far too emotionally invested in the second season of Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (aka Oreimo), particularly during the Kyosuke/Kuroneko relationship episodes. Yes I totally ship them, and regret absolutely nothing. As a result Kuroneko ended up shooting up my "favourite anime characters" list and tracking down one of her Figma became required. So here we have a release of the standard Kuroneko Figma, numbered 101 in the main series and released back in July 2011.
Usually I'm one to praise box design, but Kuroneko's is one that doesn't sit with me very every. Its a standard Figma box so there's not much to say in terms of layout (window front, picture on spine, back features poses etc.) but the colour scheme just seems horribly off. For a gloomy goth lolita, patchwork pinks and purples just seem a little too girly. It does fit in better with the other Oreimo releases in the line, but I can't help feel something darker or Maschera-inspired would have gone down better.
Being a character of not particularly high stature, Kuroneko isn't one of the tallest Figma around (it's a shame they never made Saori, because there would have been a good height spectrum). This is Kuroneko in her usual attire - a cosplay of the character Queen of Nightmare from anime-within-an-anime Maschera: Lament of a Fallen Beast. As you can see the outfit is predominantly black with purple highlights, with a white top and underskirt as a nice contrast. There's the usual high level of articulation, however the head had pretty limited side-to-side movement because of the solid, flat hair.
Naturally it wouldn't be Figma without an impressive selection of accessories, and Kuroneko is no exception. Within the box you'll find 10 alternate hands (complete with the handy-dandy Figma plastic piece to keep them all in one place), 3 faces (stoic, unhappy and smug...just the way she should be), an alternate fringe with cat ears hairband, handbag, teacup, saucer, chair, alternate static leg piece (for sitting down poses) and two plastic sheets. What are these for you ask? Also included are a selection of stickers to turn them into the "Maschera Encyclopaedia" and the doujin she makes in one of the episodes (which at the time had only happened in the novels I guess). I don't really know why these had to be stickers though, as they'll undoubtedly lose their stickiness and experience some wear and tear over time. To add further flaw, the corresponding hands don't grip them very well at all.
To swap out the lower half of the figure, all you have to do is remove the body from the waist down then plug in the new body. Following that you'll need to take the legs off the articulated body and pop them on the new one. Since the body is a solid piece the legs won't be moving much other than for precise positioning. Moving on from the chair, the teacup hand is a little problematic as once the teacup comes apart from the hand, it won't be going back in. I don't think I've broken it as there's no signs of breakage and a clear tab/slot system, but as you can see in the image I've had to start resorting to blutack for any tea drinking poses.
The Kuroneko Figma is a fun little package, but undoubtedly a lot of her charm is in the novelty of it. If you're a big fan of the character you'll be more than satisfied with what you've got here, but by Figma's high standard she's nothing overly spectacular. The inclusion of a solid leg section is a great compliment to the chair, but unless you plan on displaying her in a sitting pose a huge chunk of the accessories are just going to be sitting there in the box. I don't regret the purchase by any means, but (and I say this based purely on looks at this point) if you're going to save up for ONE Ruri Gokou figure the special edition Kamineko Figma might be the better of the two. Unless of course you want her more popular appearance that is!
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