figma is tackling Masume Shirow. This is a huge event as Masamune Shirow is the Japanese manga artist responsible for so many incredible characters and stories over the last decades, Black Magic, Dominion, Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed.
And his art books are classic, Intron Depot 1 and 2 are fantastic reads. Buyer beware, Shirow likes his ladies and he likes them sexed up, but his female characters are great, strong and wonderful protagonists.
And figma tackled one of the most popular, Motoko Kusanagi from the incredibly popular Ghost in the Shell. This particular figure depicts Motoko from the anime Stand Alone Complex, specifically S.A.C. 2nd GIG, where as it’s been recently pointed out to me, she has a lot of clothes on. For those of you old enough, or have recently tracked it down, Shirow has a habit of putting Motoko in as little clothing as possible. In the first series/season of Stand Alone Complex, Motoko was sans her pants.
Motoko is one of my “grail” type of figures/characters for my collection. She’s must have due to her placement in my own personal anime culture. Ghost in the Shell as an anime is incredible, like Akira, it was groundbreaking and set standards not only for other anime, but American cartoons and films in general. The scene at the end with Motoko hiding behind pillars and those pillars disintegration by gunfire is still something that I can watch over and over. And the story and characterization was art. When the Wachowski’s integrated this into the Matrix it was a beautiful nod to an incredible anime.
Motoko is a fantastic figure, another figma masterpiece and I am happy to report there is no weirdness with one leg being longer than other, it’s a solid piece of plastic. The sculpt seems to be dead on from the images that I’ve seen (I have not seen 2nd GIG yet), and the head is definitely Motoko. Another fantastic likeness. As with most figma’s I’m always concerned about the height since there seems to be no real standard with figma it can be a crap shoot. The scale on Motoko seems to be just right, I don’t remember her being six feet tall and she seems to be sculpted to match an average five foot six/seven inch woman, for those of you wanting something more she is the same scale as a Marvel Legends Infinites Spider Girl. That seems pretty perfect for me.
There’s not a lot to say about the articulation that I haven’t said before, it’s figma standards joints, there isn’t anything new or different. It is what it is. You can achieve a huge range of motion and make some fantastic poses. The only complaint that I could throw out there is the rocker ankle is limited due to the sculpt of the shoe. Here’s the breakdown:
Rocker ankles
Hinged ankles
Swivel ankles
Hinged Knees
Swivel thighs
Ball hips
Ball waist
Double ball ab
Ball shoulders
Hinged Shoulders
Swivel bicep
Hinged elbows
Swivel wrist
Hinged wrist
Swivel neck
Hinged neck
Swivel head
The accessories include the usual extra set of hands, guns, and base. There are extra faces and a new set of bangs for action poses. And of course the extra set of boobs. Yes this is already another conversation bit, but it’s for a very functional reason, the additional breasts are squeezed together at the top allowing you to cross Motoko’s arms for gun holding or maybe sword holding positions. It’s a great thought and it does allow for a “narrower” range of motion. While I’m super happy with the provided guns, Goro, Motoko and soon Snake are going to be needing quite a few guns for their warring through the toy shelves.
This is a great figure for your collection, it’s one of many Shirow characters that I want. When figma makes Duenan and Briareros from Appleseed my collection might be complete. Well until someone makes Starblazers…
You can pre-order her today at:
