The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a Manga and an Anime which follows the life of Haruhi a high school girl who can unconsciously change reality, and her adventures in herself proclaimed SOS Brigade, which she founded to investigate mysterious happenings. Fun then ensues as she recruits Kyon a cynical classmate, Yuki who is a bibliophile, Mikuru who is a time traveller and Itsuki the esper, but alas to Haruhi is unaware of her comrades’ true identities. Mikuru is a time traveller from the future, who like Yuki has been assigned to keep an eye on Haruhi and discover the reason why there, is now an inability to time travel to any point in time before three years prior to the present story.
Mikuru is a sweet soft spoken girl who goes along with almost all of Haruhi’s silly demands. Haruhi enjoys dressing Mikuru up, much to her dismay, Haruhi also tends to get very jealous of Mikuru’s friendship with Kyon.
Packaging:
Mikuru comes in a standard Figma box.
On the front is a window for viewing the figure, on one side is the Figma logo, on the other is a picture of the figure, on the back there is relevant information, all in Japanese, and pictures of the figure in various poses with their various accessories. Instructions for swapping face pieces and other items are usually printed on either inside of the box tabs or on a piece of paper slipped inside the packaging. Also take note that all figures you purchase have the correct authentication printed or stickered on the box.
Inside the box the figure is held between two pieces of moulded plastic, with spaces for their accessories. The extra hands and the base of the Figma stand are stored in plastic bags underneath the figure in the plastic moulding. Figures are usually wrapped with plastic in certain areas to protect the paint. Boxes also come with inserts which act as backdrops in the box and can be taken out and used for backdrops while displaying figures. Mikuru's backdrop is a reflective silver.
Figma’s also are supplied with a small zip-lock bag to store all the accessories in, the name of the figure can be written on this bag so that figure accessories can be stored neatly. Figma’s also come with a neat little device for storing the extra hands in.
Packaging = 6/10
Stand:
Mikuru comes with the standard Figma stand. Made of clear plastic it has three points of articulation which move forwards and back on hinge joints, one joint is at the bottom where it plugs into the base, one in the middle and one where it plugs into the Figma. The articulation of the stand allows the Figma to be posed in a variety of dynamic poses, and because it is clear it does not interfere with the aesthetic of taking dynamic and exciting photos.
Stand = 7/10
Sculpt:
This is Mikuru Fighting Waitress Version.
Mikuru's overall design is gorgeous, I love the outfit the design and sculpt of it, it looks soft and flowing.
Starting from the top, her hair band is nicely sculpted with well done frills and ribbons, and her hair is nicely shaped. Her arms and legs are nice, and her cuffs are sculpted onto the bottom of her arms. Her dress is well designed, with her petty-coat and bow being made of soft PVC with ripples and frills, her skirt is also made of soft PVC and is also nicely shaped. Her waist is nicely detailed and her chest is well shaped and the detail of her neck piece and ribbons is very good. Her sleeves are also soft PVC, and can be removed, but in doing so her arms look strange. She is also wearing the standard Figma soft PVC panties, and hers are light pink. One thing I do not like about her sculpt is that her face piece has the chin sticking out away from her neck joint and so she permanently looks like holding her head forwards and it looks uncomfortable and unnatural, so sadly that brings her sculpt mark down a bit.
Sculpt = 7/10
Paint:
Mikuru has a nice colour scheme, and is the reason I chose the Fighting Waitress Version, her outfit is cute with a peachy-pink and white, with little highlights of red. She has some nice shading on her skirt, and her red and white detailing is done very well. However on her right cuff some of the main white has run-over onto her arm, and I was very sad to find that on her sleeves they failed to do the white trim line, which appears on her skirt, they have just left it undone.
Mikuru's accessories are painted well, her handguns are in a block chrome gun-metal grey, and her Kyon head is well painted and shaded, with nice detailing on Kyon's face. Her extra Mikuru Beam face is nicely done with the nice blue Mikuru Beam eye.
Paint = 7/10
Articulation:
Mikuru use’s the standard Figma joint system. Figma joints are hinge joints with pegs on either end allowing both forward and back movement and rotation.
At the head a Figma joint is used at the top of the neck allowing the figure to look up and down and turn their head left and right, however looking up is restricted somewhat by the design of the back of the hair. To change the faces on Figma’s the front piece of hair is removed and then the faces can be taken of and swapped.
The shoulder consists of a double joint, a ball joint which sits inside the upper body, this is attached to a ball shaped Figma joint which acts as the shoulder, and this allows full range of motion to the shoulder. Further down a Figma joint is used as the elbow and bends in and then out straight and there is some slight rotation for the lower arm to turn in and out. At the wrist the various hands plug into a small hole at the end of the arm. Each hand also has a hinge joint, which not only allows the hand to rotate but also to move up and down which gives the figure realistic wrist movement.
A waist joint is located under her chest. Waist joints are ball and socket joints, a ball joint will be attached to the upper body and which plug into a socket in the main torso, this gives the body twisting movement and bending forwards and back. At the hips a three jointed ball and socket joint is used. One ball plugs into a socket at the bottom of the torso acting as the hip joint; this allows the hips to turn side to side, lean forward or back, then on each of the other two ball joints the legs plug on. Each leg has an inner socket which the ball joint plugs into, this piece allows full range of motion from the ball joint and also allows the thigh to turn in and out as it pegs inside the main leg piece.
A Figma joint is then used as the knee allowing the knee to bend backwards and then out to straight, and there is some slight rotation for the lower leg to turn in and out. The ankle also is a Figma joint allowing the foot to point and flex turn in and out.
Mikuru also has articulation in her ponytails, with a peg and ball joint in each, so that her hair can move in all directions.
Pose:
Mikuru is therefore highly posable and can be posed in a variety of ways. With the use of the accessories supplied, her handguns, her Mikuru Beam face and hand, she can be displayed in a number of poses, in battle with a gun in each hand, using her Mikuru Beam, and if you have Kyon taking aim at Kyon in the deer head.
Articulation & Pose = 9/10
Enjoyment:
I will break down enjoyment into two categories: Accessories and Play Value.
Accessories:
Mikuru comes with two facial expressions; a winking expression, and her Mikuru Beam expression. Mikuru also comes with an assortment of hands; a pair of hands for holding her handguns, a pair of hands doing the peace sign, a fist hand, a pointing hand, a Mikuru Beam hand, and a Rock n Roll sign hand.
Mikuru also comes with a pair of handguns, which are featured in the special episode, the handguns have a nice detailed sculpt, to use just push the handguns into the handgun holding hands. Next Mikuru also comes with a special feature for Kyon, this also appeared in the special episode, and is Kyon wearing a deer head piece, this head piece also comes with a scared expression for Kyon, and is used by taking the front piece of to remove the face and to attach it to Kyon's body. This is a nice addition by Max Factory so that if you have the whole set of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya cast you can recreate the special episode.
Play Value:
I will break down play value into two categories: Compatibility, with other figures and accessories, and general play.
Compatibility:
Mikuru doesn't come with hands for holding items and so her range of compatibility is small, however if you own another Mikuru Figma their faces and hands are interchangeable, as I own the Mikuru Cheerleader Version I can use Mikuru's other facial expressions. Mikuru can also fit Reimu's face's and so can be a happy drunk as well, she can also use Tsuruya-san's hands and can rock with Miku's microphone. With the use of Mikuru Cheerleader Version Mikuru can use a wide range of other Figma accessories by borrowing hands for holding items.
Next up is a height comparison, as you can see she is in the middle range of the Figma height scale.
General Play:
In general Mikuru is a very fun figure. I have previously owned the Fraulein Revoltech Version of this figure which I loved immensely and although this figure is missing some of the detailed paint work the Figma version is non-the-less a great version of Mikuru Fighting Waitress. She is cute and has all the Figma movability. Overall a highly enjoyable figure, and will no doubt be one of my fav's as the Fraulein one was.
Enjoyment = 8/10
Over all Mikuru scores 7.3/10
