Review: #316
Name: Asuna ALO ver.
Brand: figma (Sword Art Online II)
Year of Release: 2015 (#264)
Variations: none as of this date
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
As per usual, Asuna comes in the standard clean looking figma box, the primary color being blue now.
Asuna is number 264 in the figma line and the back shows off some really nice poses within the stock photos.
Taking her out of packaging, she has some accessories. Not as much as expected but all of the iconic items are there.
First up is the cardboard stand that you can stamp out to make, a bit redundant.
She comes with two alternate faces, a confident smiling face and an angry shouting face.
There are various pairs of hands, although she has more right hands than left ones, which was an interesting choice.
The standard figma plastic bag is included to store all your accessories when not in use.
The articulated two-piece figma stand for your posing requirements.
Unfortunately, Asuna only comes with one melee weapon and that is her rapier. She has one sheathed, it's molded solid, you can't actually pull out her rapier from this. However, the handle does detach for certain poses.
Her actual rapier is silver and looks nice.
Of course, there's her tree wand to cast magic.
And finally, her pair of wings, which come separately.
FIGURE:
As with all figures in the figma line, Asuna looks as if she stepped right out of the anime. She's very faithful and there has been no cost cutting in terms of the details.
This is Asuna in her ALFheim Online avatar from the anime Sword Art Online II, therefore sporting the elf ears and blue hair.
The head manages to capture the character perfectly, with the correct proportions so it doesn't look odd or anything. Her head has the articulation to look around and upwards.
The detailing on the figure is intricate. Her clothing is made of various separate pieces and soft plastic is used in order to not hinder movement.
An improvement over the Sword Art Online version is that the rapier sheath is now a slot, making it easy for the piece to go in. Unlike the original where it was just a hole that you have to tear apart which always felt like you were going to tear it too much and break the figure.
Needless to say, Asuna has excellent articulation. The smiling face is perfect for peace poses.
It's impressive how well the photographer manages to pose the figures for the stock photos because it is always really hard to replicate. In this case, it's hard to get Asuna's wrist just right to hold her sheath naturally.
Annoyingly, in order to attach her wings, you have to use the stand. This is because the slot to attach Asuna to the stand is also the piece that threads through the wings and holds it into place. This is disappointing that you cannot keep her wings on without the aid of the stand.
The other weapon she has is the wand which looks like a twig that you pick up from the ground, complete with a long leaf. It is surprisingly well painted to be fair, and it's made of a softer plastic so less chance of snapping.
Her hair is adjustable to a certain degree, it can be lifted to get out of the way or look like the wind is blowing against it.
She is slightly taller and with slimmer proportions compared to the Sword Art Online version.
Swapping her face is really easy, you just take the front hair piece off in order to pull her face off and attach another one. Her determined face looks good.
The figma stand does a good job of keeping her in place, although if you have a really dynamic pose, it gets in the way.
She has the standard figma articulation, that is to say, she has every natural jointing you'd expect, from knees and ankles to wrists and shoulders.
That said, her shoulders are annoying to pose, due to how they are assembled, they don't always sit upwards and it takes some fiddling in order to make them look natural.
If you're using the wings too, be prepared to be annoyed since this means her hair gets in the way of the wings and stand, and moving her limbs will probably cause the stand to detach and the wings to collapse.
Swapping hands are easy since you don't need to pull the wrist joints out. Attention to detail is evident here because all her left hands have the silver ring painted!
Getting her to balance naturally without the stand can be difficult as her footprint is small. You need to keep experimenting and adjusting her feet in order to keep her standing.
It just seems that Asuna's jointing doesn't work as well as you would expect since her arms is another area where it takes some fiddling to look natural.
The last face for Asuna is her angry battle face, perfect for striking poses.
Her wings are adjustable, either dropped down when on the ground or angled upwards for when she's in flight, or just want to provoke.
While her skirts are made of softer plastic and also have joints, they are limiting, which means really dynamic poses are out of the question.
The color matching between painted plastic and colored plastic is really good. Asuna also has an upper waist joint which likes to dislodge when posing her, so you have to keep readjusting.
Getting the weapons into Asuna's hands is quite easy, while her grip is tight enough so it doesn't droop.
A fantastic representation of the character, but some of her flaws are annoying and frustrating.
OVERALL:
If you're a fan of the character or her design, then figma Asuna ALO ver. is a no question, you're definitely going to get her. For anyone else who is just mildly intrigued, the figure is worthwhile, moreso if you can get her during a sale. She has some minor annoyances such as the jointing and pieces blocking articulation. Overall, the attention to detail that figma is known for is continued on in this figure and this is most likely the best representation of her.
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