Sakura Taisen HGIF ~Act 2~
Guest Review
by William Van Hecke

Review date: 1/11/2004

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 six girls from Sega/Overworks/Red's Dreamcast mech-strategy-meets-dating-sim masterpiece series Sakura Taisen. Sakura Shinguji and Maria Tachibana from the Tokyo cast, Reni and Orihime from the ST2 Tokyo cast, and Erica Fontaine and Glycine Bleumer from the
Paris cast are represented. I'm not entirely sure why they chose to cast Sakura and Erica again when they could have cast some unrepresented characters instead (ahem, Kouran).
 

Sculpt:
Not bad. The previous series really was more impressive, but this set is pretty solid as well. Orihime in particular seems rather awkwardly put together, and I found it impossible to get her to stick together properly. Sakura seems to rest on her katana more than she rests on her feet, as well. I think the star of this set is Maria, with her cool pose and faithfulness to the character. One nice thing, is that the clear bases are much more helpful than in the first set. They are better molded to the characters' feet and give more support.
 

Paint:
This is pretty comparable to the previous set. The detail is nice, and while there is some sloppiness it is minimal and forgivable for such tiny and affordable figures.
 
Overall: B+
Nice, but somehow not as cool as the first set. It's not a disappointment, but I hope that the third set (which just came out) will be better than both.
 
Where can I find this?
You can probably find these around Japan as they were produced pretty recently. 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:

 


"..."

 


"Nippon no otoko wa sukiku arimase~n!"

 


"Taichou!"

 


It's so nice to be the main character; you get cast in every set.

 


Erica in her vaguely embarrassing cat-outfit.

 


Where does she keep that flamberge?

 

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