Before we start, I would like to express condolences to Kyoto Animation and the victims of the horrible arson attack 2 years ago. Kyoto Animation has always been one of my favorite anime studios and the news from 2019 was absolutely heart wrenching. I sincerely hope they are recovering well and keep on bringing out more series that we all love.
Kuriyama Mirai is the protagonist of the show Kyoukai no Kanata, or Beyond the Boundary. Aired in 2013, with two movies that followed (instead of a much anticipated season 2) in 2015 which concluded the story. I have some qualms about the anime but this review isn't about that, so I won't go into it. However, I still loved the series and Kuriyama Mirai is to this date one of my favorite heroines.
I unfortunately was not fast enough to get her when her figure was released in 2015 - and I saw a steady rise in her value as soon as she was released. Anytime she was put up for sale, whether she was second-hand, or brand new, fetched prices many times her original release price and are picked up by hunters pretty much immediately.
I would like to thank my friend 2B9S for notifying me when she saw Mirai put up for sale on Mandarake (twice!). The first time Mirai was picked up by someone else within the hour, and I wasn't fast enough. But the second time I was finally able to pick up one of my absolute grails - for the price of JPY42,000 - second-hand.
不愉快です!
Money well spent I say, I'd be keep wanting her for the rest of my life if I didn't get her, and KyoAni probably isn't going to release another figure for the series considering the series has now fully concluded.
Before I start showing you all the photos, I should say that the images weren't very flattering, for some reason I just couldn't get a very good shot of her. Rest assured though that she looks much better in person and on your shelf. Also note that I did get her second hand, so certain blemishes that I may talk about could very well came from the persons who handled her before me.
The box itself has seen better days, the front panel is falling apart and the top has seen some wear from opening and closing a number of times. This is pretty expected of a figure that has come second-hand.
The box overall is compact, as expected of a 1/8 scale figure.
I really wish they'd have done a figure of Mirai in this pose shown in silhouette here... They did a Mirai prize figure in sukumizu in a pose similar to this, but the figure wasn't that great and I'm not into sukumizu because personally they look kinda weird.
I really like the outline artwork on the back of the box, I wish they made a poster similar to this. They probably have - but most of the stuff sold by KyoAni goes through KyoAni shop and dealing with shipping is a bit of a hassle for things like posters.
Mirai came attached to her base, the box also came with no instructions though I wish they did. As you do have to stick the sword handle into her hands. It took a bit of careful fiddling to get the sword handle in, it's a very tight fit and I really don't want to damage her.
With unique looking bases like Mirai's, I really don't mind it when they do come permanently attached to the base.
Here's some shots of me struggling to find a good angle for her...
Her pose is really great in my opinion, her flowing hair and cardigan just hits all the right aesthetic spots for me. But take my opinion with a grain of salt for her, as I'm heavily biased because of how much I love her character. You may find me more critical in my other reivews.
Here is a 360 for her. My camera focused on the mirror instead of on her for a few of the photos in this image, and I apologize for that, let me know if you'd like to request a photo or reshoot for any angles or aspects of her.
My lighting may be a bit unflattering for Mirai's face, I'll have to tweak a bit for a proper photoshoot but for review purposes this will have to do. Her face 100% looks better in person, but it falls a little flat on the photos. From this photo you can see some minor blemishes on her hair, but considering her original price, I won't fault it.
One problem though, is her ring does not fully revolve around her pinky. The QC could definitely have been better, the ring is slightly risen from the rest of the finger, it's just that a little bit of it is not painted. On her other hand, you can also see her index and thumb kind of stuck together in an unnatural way, this can be hidden in photos and while she is on display. But I unfortunately have to be critical with this kind of QC issues.
The paintwork on her cardigan is a bit sloppy, perhaps a design issue. There is barely any shading and the colors overall kind of falls flat.
And let's just say her sculpt isn't perfect, but you know, if you really love a certain character, and this is the only scale figure that she gets. You take what you can get, and you will still love them.
One great thing about this figure, is how sturdy everything is. She is surprisingly stable on her base along with the youmu. They barely even wobble - despite how flimsy the youmu arms actually look. I've also included an ecchi photo at the end, an interesting place where one of the youmu hands are reaching for ;)
Overall, Mirai isn't a perfect figure, and far from it. But I'm happy to have her in my collection and I don't think I will ever take her out of her place in my collection. It's just one of those things that despite being not perfect, you just love a character too much to not have them, if you know what I mean... And how could I say no to this face???
And that concludes this relatively short review. Thank you for reading this far and I'll see you guys with the arrival of my next figure, which I expect to be Apex's Arknights Skyfire at some stage in the next two weeks. Happy collecting!
ncG1vNJzZmilqZu2qMHRnpqopJyasLW1zqdlp52kZK%2Btu8appqysX2mFcoSY