I had planned on looking at a Figma today, but some uninvited water has my toy closet in upheaval and while nothing was damaged, there’s a lot of stuff I can’t physically get to this weekend, as I await new carpeting so I can put everything back. That, and it’s been too long a week for me to get involved in a lengthy Feature. I just want to chill out today, play some video games and marathon some episodes of One Piece, and coif some rich, life-fortifying Jameson. Fortunately, I do have a newly arrived Prize Figure from Taito handy, so let’s do this!

Today I’m having a look at another character from the video game, as opposed to the anime series. Again, my familiarity with the game exclusive characters is limited, so I always take this opportunity to read up on them. In this case, I’m not getting a lot of personality from Shiranui or even any really memorable quotes, so let’s just press on with the packaging. She comes in the usual fully enclosed box that we’ve seen many times here from Taito. You get several photos of the figure, but precious little in the way of English, but hey this is an import after all. As you can see, my box came pretty smashed up. I do keep these boxes to store the figures when they’re not being displayed, but considering how cheap I get these for, it’s probably foolish to expect good packing. Shiranui actually comes in a bubble inside the box. That’s the first time I’ve seen that!

As you probably read way up there in the title to this piece, Shiranui is a “Preparation Figure,” which means this depicts her getting ready for battle. I’ve looked at one other of these, and that was the Light Cruiser Yahagi. I was mostly drawn to this figure by the rather distinctive nature of her outfit. It’s still got some of the trappings of the traditional Fleet Girls sailor-style school uniform, at least in the form of the pleated skirt. In this case, however, she’s wearing a more traditional collared blouse, a black vest, and black leggings that go just above her knees. She isn’t sporting any rudder boots, just a pair of gray socks and some sensible brown loafers. Maybe they’re boat shoes. HA! It’s kind of an eclectic ensemble, but I like it.

Shiranui is quickly tying her necktie, with one glove stuffed in her belt and the other dangling from her mouth. She has one of her smaller twin gun mounts strapped to her right thigh, but the rest of her armaments are on the ground waiting to be equipped. The coloring on this piece is not overly sharp, but it is pretty solid. There’s no evidence of any especially bad slop or untidy lines. The white, black, and gray outfit is livened up a bit by the bright red necktie. The skin tone is warm and soft, but there are some really obvious and unsightly seams on her arms. That’s a bit of a downer for me.

I like the portrait here. The pink hair and blue bow helps spruce up the color palate quite a bit. The large eyes are neatly printed, and the expression is solemn and measured. She doesn’t look like she’s frantically hurrying, but rather preparing herself, physically and mentally, for the sortie ahead. It’s a somewhat sober emotion for what has generally been a fairly whimsical line.

The bases on the figures are all over the board. Here we get a simple clear disc with places to peg her unequipped armaments. In front of her is the smaller twin gun mount for her left thigh, and behind her rests the larger 12.7cm high angle gun mount, which I believe she wears over her shoulder. Like the other Destroyers, Shiranui is supposed to have an oxygen torpedo mount, but it isn’t present. I like that the base here is extremely respectful of my diminishing shelf space. It’s only as large as it needs to be.

I like this figure a lot, but it’s not one of my favorites. It might be because I haven’t been able to glean much about the character from my readings. The quality is solid for a figure in this price range (mine was $16 shipped!), but it also feels like a little bit of a drop from some this line’s overall standard. I know, I shouldn’t expect top quality from a mere prize figure, but Taito has set a high bar with some of their releases. Still, I’m very happy to add her to my Fleet Girls shelf. And apologies for no group shot for comparison this time, but as I said earlier, I can’t even get into the area of the room where the others are displayed. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take some snaps in a few days and add them in.