NENDOROID: Shinguji Sakura and Koubu

Hello everyone! I'm back with news. I'd like to welcome you to the new version of "No Real Plot" where we will write more reviews about art and art books, comics, figures and collectibles, the occasional food and fashion, places we visit and other wonderful things we see.

I've felt that as a sketchblog, NO REAL PLOT! has become really stale (mostly because I don't have any artwork to post) so I decided to liven things up a bit by blogging about other art-related things. I thought of creating a new blog for my artwork but decided to keep this as well, because I really do love the title, "NO REAL PLOT!" If you can remember, I took the title from a tagline concept for my comic concept back in 2009. The comic is still unfinished but I am working on it, promise. I'm just selfish and paranoid too shy to post previews and ideas. Anyway, I'm excited to see how this new blogging feature turns out. Please do stay, dear readers and subscribers, because I will continue to post artwork. Thank you for those who have stuck with me all this time. I hope you enjoy the new direction NO REAL PLOT! is heading.

As always, feel free to post your thoughts about this news and any other comments you might have about the blog. Thank you very much! Now, onto the REAL article.

We're starting the new phase of the blog with a feature of Nendoroid 235 - Shinguji Sakura and Koubu set made by the Good Smile Company. I actually bought this last year from a local online store, Onegai Oniichan Hobby Shop, and just decided to start blogging with her because well, she's pretty and she's my first Nendoroid figurine. The first thing I can say about her is: she's sooooo PINK!

Sakura is a character from the "musical" (well it does have a LOT of songs) anime, Sakura Wars. Sakura only comes with her sword, one extra angry faceplate, a scabbard-holding left arm and an extra open hand. She was very minimal props and her design is actually really plain compared to other Nendoroid characters. handle.. However, the lack of accessories isn't so bad once you take in the detail of the miniature koubu.

It's gorgeous, it is. The real reason I bought feels more for the koubu rather than Sakura herself. And Good Smile did not disappoint! In miniature form, the egg-shaped robots looks even cuter! It has movable arms and legs and it can hold the sword too. If there were more of these sets in the future (and there are!) I'd buy those too.

Sakura herself is a cutie pie to look at. I love kimono outfits, which looks very cute in Nendoroid form. Her colors are lovely and depending under what light you look at her, her hair may come off as grey or some kind of really dark, almost black-kind of blue green. Her eyebrows will tell you. I spent a great deal looking at them because I wasn't sure. haha!

The only thing I didn't like with Sakura was the way her long hair couldn't get right behind her back (the stand kept blocking it) so it has to be tilted to the side a little bit. Her detachable arms also have a tendency to come off (maybe it's loose, but I think it also has to do with the front hair and kimono sleeves colliding)

Putting Sakura in her koubu is fun to look at. While the koubu's top is removable, Sakura's upper body detaches from her skirt so she can "sit" on the robot. I believe other nendos with similar construction can ride too. I'll have to test that out in the future.

So there! For any Sakura Wars fan out there, Shinguji Sakura and koubu set is a great collection. Good Smile just recently released a teaser of another koubu set for Erica Fontaine from Sakura Wars 3. I'm very excited for that I might just pre-order it. Megahouse is also releasing scale versions of Sakura's and Capt. Ogami's koubu soon. Now that's very, very cool and a treat to long-awaiting fans of the franchise series.