Konohagakure Hiden Secret Taijutsu Technique: One Thousand Years of Death! Otherwise known as the Secret Finger Jutsu!, this was one of the funniest scenes in an anime that I’d seen in a long time. Naruto getting schooled by his master Kakashi Hatake in the technique had me laughing my ass off for a while. It’s only natural that Kakashi was high on my list of wants of characters from Naruto in plastic form.
The leader of team 7, including Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno, was finally released as part of S.H. Figuarts line of action figures. I’m a bigger fan of the Naruto series over the Naruto: Shippuden, the former is less dark and a bit more innocent. At least for a while. The interactions between the characters is great, specially Naruto and Kakashi. Plus, he’s a ninja and everyone loves ninjas.
This is a great figure that captures the anime/manga art of Kakashi perfectly. The sculpt is well done, and any time you can look at a sculpt of figure and go, “Yep, that him,” then you know the company hit the nail on the head. The sculpt is very cartoony; there is no “realism,” lots of details, texturing, or paint to make this figure look anything other than what it is: a cartoon character. Bandai is consistent in their designs in that regard. The feet are a bit small, which makes balancing him difficult at times. And it’s a tall figure, really tall for an S.H. Figuarts. It’s as tall as a Marvel Legend, which is really cool. Many collectors have noted that they like the scale as they consider Kakashi an adult and he should tower over Naruto, but he also towers over every other S.H. Figuart made.
The articulation is excellent as usual. I was worried about how Bandai would handle articulating the vest. Would it hinder movement? Would it look too mechanical? It doesn’t and it looks great and moves the way one would expect: crouching poses, sitting poses, flying poses — all of them are attainable. Bandai introduces a new hip design with this figure; it’s a combo t-crotch, hippy-hinge, ball-and-socket configuration, and it works really well. It does give a bit of a “diaper” appearance, but he is often shown as having wrinkled pants along the waist and hips, so just pretend that is what you are seeing.
Kakashi has some special moves and Bandai was gracious to include them in this set. The first is Sharingan, or copy wheel, which allows the user to copy an opponent’s move. This is represented in Kakashi’s left eye as a red iris with three solid black paisley (yin) patterns, and Bandai included a face with the headband up and the eye exposed. The other special move included is the ball of Chidori, Kakashi’s lightning cutter, and if you combine that with some of the Bandai Effects accessories, you’ll get some cool action shots. Sasuke came with a different version. The Rasengan, ball of chakra, was released with Naruto. All of these make for some poses and play (if you are into playing with your toys).
He comes with two kunai, two extra heads, tons of hands, a hand reading a book, hands that can be used for Secret Finger Jutsu, a hand reading a book, and, finally, the Chidori. Once again, Bandai packs a ton of accessories into the sets and all of them perfectly relevant for the character.
Kakashi is a must-have for the growing Naruto action figure collection. He is the leader of Team 7, he has a huge past in the Naruto-verse and he is a Hokage. The figure is great and the character is core — you must add this figure to your collection.
Kakashi is still available at:
