New things are nice, aren’t they? When we discover something new there’s that sense of excitement, and so it was for me when I reviewed my first prize figure.
Sadly, because of that positive experience I went a bit…overboard (OMG DECENT QUALITY FIGURES FOR CHEAP!!!). With that one singular thought in my addled mind I sprinted off like a  rabid animal and ordered 2 more pairs of prize figures!
Probably not the best idea considering my display space issues honestly… But order them I did and they are now, so I guess we will see if they can live up to the high standard Asuka set!
As these figures do come in pairs I’m going to review them as such, so let’s start with Kuroneko and Kirino, shall we?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2UcNzudytI
I’m sure most of you know this show, but for those of you that don’t the basic premise of Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai is that Kirino is a closet Otaku who uses her brother to navigate the tight rope act of appearing normal while having an abnormal hobby. Kuroneko is one of the first friends she makes that also shares her love for all things Otaku, albeit with different tastes, which leads to many fun verbal battles between the two.
These specific outfits they wear are modeled off the look they both had while going to Kirino’s first Comiket, and as such hold a certain special meaning which made me want to get these more than Kotobukiya’s first figures of these two characters.
Now that the introductions out of the way, which to open first? When the show was airing, I really detested Kirino as many others did, while adoring Kuroneko instead, but after my second viewing the I really appreciate the dynamic between the two of them and their interactions are easily my favorite thing  in the show by far. Well, lets go with Kuroneko since she still seems be the general fan favorite!
Wow, ok, first impressions are she looks pretty damn good! Really good in fact! Nice…
Honestly, I was rather apprehensive about getting these…As I said in my Asuka review, I had gotten her because the design left a lot more wiggle room as it wasn’t trying to be accurate to the character, so figures like these that are aiming for accuracy had me worrying a bit, but she looks spot-on.
Before we get into any more details, let’s crack open Kirino and see if she leaves the same positive first impression Kuroneko did…
Well, she doesn’t quite have the wow factor Kuro has due to her face being rather flat looking. Kuroneko’s face has a somewhat flat look too, but the angle of her head and the hair masks this problem nicely, whereas Kirino’s is right out there in the open. With that said, if you view her from an upward angle, it’s not as bad.
In terms of sculpt quality, Kuroneko is pretty much spot-on in all regards. Sure, some of the small details aren’t incredible, but this is a prize figure, and when you take that into account she is quite lovely. As I said at the start her face is spot-on and the same goes with her hair. Her thin little arms look quite yummy, although they do have some mold lines but that seems to be rather standard at this price point.
Speaking of her exposed skin, her hands are probably the only thing that really bug me. They just look kinda fat and misshapen, which is a real shame. Just below that though you have her nice skirt with some frills and even a pair of cute bloomers underneath!
Kirino’s sculpt looks quite good as well. She has a nice slight frame which her top nicely clings onto and sort of flutters out at the bottom as she strides on, happy with her purchase. Thankfully, since both of her hands are closed she avoids the finger problem that plagued Kuroneko. Once again, the fit and finish with regards to things like mold lines isn’t that great, but far from being so bad as to ruin the figure’s appeal.
Now then, let’s check out the paint. We’ll go with Kirino first because I want to talk about how much I love her bag! Both sides of it have a print from the show within the show that Kirino adores, Meruru! Not only are both sides of it impeccable looking quality wise, but I find this a really really nifty detail they added. They could have easily just made the bag some plain boring color like was shown in the original promo shots so I’m overjoyed they did this. Other than that, I really like how they did her hair color with some nice shading and her cute top!
Her shorts are rather blah, and the ribbons are far too dark, but these are only minor quibbles. The more notable quibbles would be some of the errant paint on her skin, specially her legs and upper body. Fortunately, Kuroneko is free of these problems, and since her outfit is so monochromatic, it looks pretty much spot on in every regard. One special thing to take note of is the blush they gave her, which is shaded exceptionally well and contributes a lot to how great her face looks! Even though her bag is far from being as lovely as Kirino’s, the quality level on it is still decent for a prize figure.
I do find it a bit odd that both of them are the same height as Kuro has always been about half a head shorter then Kirino…An odd detail to mess up.
As for bases they are both a rather basic affair being white with green lettering bearing the name of the series. Oddly enough the pegs for the figures are built into the figure instead of the base, but they secure fairly well nonetheless.
Pros
Kirino
- Lovely bag
- Generally well sculpted with a cute pose and dress
Kuroneko
- Great pose as well and a fantastic face that beats even full price figures in terms of appeal
- Good paint job that has very few errors at all
Cons
Kirino
- Some rather ugly paint mishaps on certain areas of her skin
- Face appears extremely flat from certain viewing angles
Kuroneko
- Ugly deformed hands nearly ruin an otherwise fantastic sculpt
So there you have it! I’m honestly feeling pretty positive here! As I stated earlier in the review, I wasn’t expecting much coming into this, but I gotta say I’m rather impressed at the moment.
Kirino certainly got some of the bigger problems due to her being more colorful and complex, but I still think they both look pretty great! I honestly would choose either of these over any of the current figures of them out now or coming up. I think Kuroneko’s face looks better then any rendition of her I’ve seen yet, and I adore Kirino’s outfit plus the fact that she’s carrying a Meruru bag around unlike the generic ones she has in all other figures.
As for the quality…well, you get what you pay for. But even saying that the quality isn’t that much lower then your average Wave figure or Kotobukiya’s lesser releases, so I’d say in general these are an incredible value!
In any case I’d highly recommend these two if you want some OreImo figures and I’ll be keeping a close eye on Sega’s releases from now on!
6 replies on “Review: Kuroneko & Kousaka Kirino (Sega Prize Figures)”
I’m surprised, these are not that bad at all. When I see the prices some of these prize figures get I worry a lot. I mean, when you pay some minute fraction of the price of a regular scaled release what you get can’t be that good right? Makes me happy you showed me wrong, I’m surprised with the sufficient amount of detail. I was planning on picking up a Sega prize figure but decided not to because I became too weary… but if it turns anything like these for the price it has, I suppose why not.
After buying various makers Sega is a cut above the rest when it comes to Prize figures in general. They fuck up on occasion, but on general they come across as the Alter of Prize figures haha…
I can’t argue with you: prize figures are great value for the buck, and they’ve been getting better and more elaborate. Still, there’s a quality level that I’m still not willing to dip below at this moment. Still, it’s good to know that if figure prices rise to unreasonable levels, at least alternatives such as prize figures exist.
Kirino looks good, though! If only her mouth isn’t so triangular — I don’t recall it being that shape in the anime. The loss of the fang is unfortunate as well, but other than that, I’m impressed — how much did you pay for these two, again? And why didn’t you mention it in the review? ASHHHH
Yea I’m not either, but for people that bother with like Koto stuff or such these are far better bang for the buck.
What do you mean how much I payed? I payed MSRP. Since when do I say whether I bought a figure when its on sale or not…
Sega’s really been stepping up their game. I have a couple of prize figures from them, and each one is more impressive than the last. They all have horrible issues, mind you, but for the price? Good stuff.
These two look really cute, and probably make for great choices for the Low Budget Figure Collector. Kirino’s colors really pop out!
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