Sakura Taisen HGIF
Guest Review
by William Van Hecke

Review date: 1/1/2004

Manufacturer: Bandai

Released: 2003

Availability: NORMAL

Type: Gashapons

 
 
Personal Story:
On my trip to Tokyo in the Summer of 2003, I was determined to collect Sakura Taisen gacha-gachas. In my mind, models (the kind you build yourself) and gachas are the best values. Models provide many hours of relaxation, and gachas are just so dang cheap. This series in particular was one I knew I wanted to get. After years of spotty releases, it looked like we were finally going to get high-quality, character-complete gacha-gachas for Sakura Taisen.
 
Introduction:
This is a set of five girls from Sega/Overworks/Red's Dreamcast mech-strategy-meets-dating-sim masterpiece series Sakura Taisen. Mer, Ci, and Erica Fontaine from the Paris cast, and Sakura Shinguji and Sumire Kanzaki from the Tokyo cast are represented.
 

Sculpt:
Nice. These poses are taken from the official character art for these characters. Sakura and Erica look just like they do back-to-back on the cover of Sakura Taisen 4. The reproductions of these poses are incredible. Every little detail of the original character designs is preserved. Especially impressive is the way that clothes and hair blow in the wind on the three "main" girls, and the cool and sexy poses of the ST3 "side" girls. The faces are also quite faithful to the characters' expressions in-game.

Sakura's skirt/pants thingy does seem a little weird, as it's divided into two pieces down the middle. Somehow it just doesn't look right. Sumire is rather hard to assemble and doesn't quite stick together perfectly, but the others assemble rather solidly. Each girl is made out of a lot of little parts, and they've really done everything possible to make sure every bit is just right. Building them is actually a lot of fun.

These girls come with little clear bases to help support them; some are more successful than others. I'm glad they chose clear this time, because in my mind it's the only sensible color for such a base. However, Sumire's is quite loose, Mer's is iffy, and Erica's is utterly inexplicable. Needless to say, these poor girls fall down a lot.

Incidentally, these models all support LiK's panty-focus observations. Astounding. (LiK: LOL!)
 

Paint:
All right. There is some splotching and some sloppy bits, but for the most part it's gorgeous. Little details like patterns on Sumire's kimono and Sakura's miko-looking-thingy are very pretty. The color choices are all right on, representing the way the characters look in-game perfectly.
 
Overall: A-
These figures are as flowery as the ST3 gacha series was slick. It works well and these are very attractive models. At 200 yen each, you simply cannot go wrong.
 
Where can I find this?
I found a full set of this in a gacha shop in Ikebukuro, and I imagine you can find it around Akihabara and such just as easily. It's also, of course, in heavy rotation on eBay by SE Asian types for about $10 plus $10 shipping. Check it out.
 
Other Images:

 


If only Mer was gettable...

 


"I've got a gun! Hyuu hyuu~!"

 


"Did I leave the iron on?"

 


Further proof that religion exists solely for distortion and exploitation by Japanese geek culture.

 


"O~hohohoho!"

 

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