Review: Yui & Tenshi (Furuya Prize Figures)

Helloooo everyone and welcome to our second prize figure duo review! This time we’re looking at a prize figure that’s not from Sega in the hopes that it isn’t just Sega who can make a decent figure!

The lucky pair this time hails from Angel Beats probably one of my favorite shows of recent memories. It had its flaws mainly in being rushed, but the content it covered was extremely powerful to me and left a great impression (something I can only say about a few shows…). So unless you’re some sort of stone-hearted jerk *COUGHchagCOUGH* you’d very much enjoy watching it and I wholly recommend to anyone who hasn’t to do so now!

From the massive ensemble cast Furyu choose Tenshi and Yui for this set. Tenshi isn’t a big shocker as she’s pretty much the poster girl for the show, being extremely lovable in every possible way one could want, but for me the real reason I got this set was for Yui!

Sadly she isn’t one of the two main girls and will probably never see a proper full price figure release, so this was my only chance at getting any sort of figure of her thus I jumped at the chance!

In direct contrast to Tenshi’s demure personality, Yui is crass and obnoxious…but all of that boisterous bravado hides a very kind and sad girl that I absolutely fell in love with watching her during the show. Even on a second viewing when I knew how everything would play out, she still managed to get more than a few tears out of me.

Now with that said, let’s see if Furyu was able to do justice to this beloved character of mine or not! Now, unlike unlike last time, the decision of who to open first is an easy one for me! Sorry Tenshi fans!

One thing  you’ll notice right from the start about her is the fact that due to her one-legged pose, she is given an extra support bar to help her keep balance, but honestly she’s pretty damn balanced even without it. They used a nice solid large two-peg design that reminds me a bit of the type Alter employs. With that said, she goes from steady to rock solid with the strut attached and it is pretty unobtrusive being clear plastic so there’s little reason not to use it.

The first impressions after getting her set up would be…well, she’s pretty damn cute, actually! Like it seems with all prize figures I was braced for a disaster looking nothing like the promotional shots, but honestly with her enegetic pose and big smile they did an admirable job capturing the look of Yui.

Since Yui didn’t disappoint let’s grab Tenshi then and see how she measures up. Like Yui she has some nice solid pegs (this time totaling 3 as she has both feet on the ground). Beyond that…well, I will say if you want an anime accurate portrayal of her you won’t find it here. Her face looks quite a bit less rounded, giving her a sharper more mature look to her, though if I’m entirely honest I don’t actually mind the change that much.

I mean, she doesn’t look that far off the mark — just slightly. If anything, she feels like she was based off of fanart –an alternate interpretation of the character’s looks that doesn’t deviate so much as to not look anything like the original character, but still far from her anime appearance.

With the first impressions out of the way lets get to the nitty gritty, shall we?

First thing that jumps out as a difference between these and the Sega figures is the skin. While the Sega ones do have a plastic like sheen to them, these Furyu figures unfortunately take it a step further. Not enough to completely turn me off, but in that regard you can clearly feel the quality difference. After that the next biggest thing would be mold marks most prevalent in the hair but also in other areas. Once again, the Sega figures had these as well, but they are certainly more numerous in the Furyu figures, though I was expecting far worse.

Leaving the comparisons with Sega aside, the painting in general is fairly well done. There’s no complex shading or anything here, but all of the colors look right and if I had to describe it, I’d say they both look “adequate” in that regard. There is some mess here and there (more so on Tenshi then Yui it seems.) , but nothing too hideous.

Sculpting-wise there is the aforementioned mold marks throughout, but also some nice touches like Yui’s little V-sign and the cutely detailed tray Tenshi is carrying (Although I do wish her food was a bit more RED like in the anime). They also did a decent job giving a sense of motion in their clothes with Yui’s shirt slightly lifting up and both girls skirts swishing with the implied movements of their bodies…Quite nice.

Yui’s guitar certainly isn’t of the quality of, say, Alter’s K-ON! girls, but for the price point I think its fairly detailed, even if the neck of it isn’t quite straight. Both the girls wear very fitting expressions, Yuis being one of wide-eyed joy with Tenshi giving her typical neutral stare as she strides to her seat.

The posing for each is extremely well done as well and I really love the fact that Tenshi has a plate of her beloved food in hand as opposed to the rather neutral and somewhat boring pose that GSC provided us. Again, like with last time’s pair I have to marvel at how these “cheap” prize figures bring out the characters personalities far better then their full priced counterparts, or in the case of Yui simply providing us a figure of a character that other wise probably wouldn’t even exist.

Lastly we have the bases which are well…rather meh I have to admit. They are at least clear plastic and thus won’t burn your eyes out with horrid colors while also having very well-designed pegs, but that’s about it…

Pros

• Great Poses
• Rock Solid Bases
• Yui has a very cute face

Neutral

• Tenshi’s isn’t quite anime accurate

Cons

• Slightly above average amount of mold marks even for this price point
• A fair few paint problems mostly on Tenshi

This time seemed to show that Sega is a cut above Furyu, but as for these girls themselves I’m quite content with how they turned out!

As I said I highly doubt Yui will ever get a “real” figure so for anyone that wants a figure of her this is probably going to be your only bet, and while Tenshi isn’t quite as much of a hit as Yui was for me, I think she’s still an enjoyable enough rendition of her most especially because of her included iconic food!