Maria from the Witchblade anime is a strange girl. She has tri-tone hair, wears a corset, thigh high boots, a swimsuit bottom, and carries around her own pedestal for when she feels like sitting down. Then there’s the sly sarcastic grin, the icing to let you know that she’s no normal cupcake.
Witchblade Maria comes from Kotobukiya, sculpted by Shunji Hagii in 1:6 scale. She’s an attractive sculpt with an interesting pose that has some personality to it. The way her body line curves gives a real sense of life.
Maria is in a sort of sitting, sort of standing pose and connects to her base via pegs you push into her thigh and her backside. The connection is firm, but the fit leaves a gap between her and the base, which isn’t too big of a deal from the front view. Those choosing to highlight her rear cleavage might find the fit with the base on the sloppy side.
For a Kotobukiya figure, the sculpt and build quality is actually pretty good (I find Kotobukiya figures very mediocre). The paint on Maria is pretty clean, missing many of the paint snots that usually litter most Kotobukiya paint jobs. Her outfit actually has some defined detail on it and those details seem fairly sharp. However, Maria still has the low detail helmet-like Koto hairdo.
Some of the grooves on the figure are dirty and have plastic artifacts, but since they’re mostly in the seams and not on the open surfaces it’s just a minor gripe.
Maria’s face style differs a bit from the typical anime figure face style, which was the main reason I ordered it. That sly look with her eyelids part way down and her sardonic grin breaks the mold of the eyes wide open with the open “D” shaped mouth.
From some angles it looks nice, but from an equal number of angles Maria looks like a goon. In part it’s due to her exposed teeth and how they protrude, plus the eye decals aren’t the prettiest out there.
I tend to look at my figures closely every now and then, so how they look close-up is important. If you typically leave them on a shelf or in a case and never take a closer look after you first take her out, Maria’s face is perfectly fine. The shape is a little on the roundish side, so not quite as sleek as this type of figure should be.
In all Witchblade Maria from Kotobukiya is a pretty good figure and one of the better sculpts I’ve seen from the company. Being 1:6 scale might be a factor in the modest increase in detail this figure has over the typical low detail Koto offering. The 1:6 Ninja Gaiden figures they released were also well above their standard quality, though Witchblade Maria doesn’t quite reach to quality of the Koto Ninja Gaiden figures. Maria’s price is also a little on the high side.
Product Data:
- Product: Witchblade Maria
- Maker: Kotobukiya
- Sculptor: Shinju Hagii
- Scale and Material: 1/6 scale PVC
- Released: Early December 2006
- List Price: 7,800 JPY
- US Release Date: 5/30/2007 with an SRP of $59.99
[...] Secondly, ratolicious did a review of the unexpectedly good looking Maria from Witchblade. Now, I know you're thinking "There are other characters in Witchblade besides Masane?" Yes, there are… just barely. The reason I qualify with unexpectedly is because it's a Koto sculpt which, as he points out, tend to fall in the "meh" category, but this time they've made a suitably hot girl… aside from the seeming eye thing/facial expression she has going on. Might just be the angle? Still, it's a good body sculpt with some paint issues around rats's arm band, not sure if that account for all of them though. Still, give it a look. The face she has on might not be for me, but maybe you are into that. Sicko. [...]
I like this figure but the expression is bizarre, sometimes she looks really sleepy rather than ‘come hither’! ^_^
She’s really weird that way. From a few feet away, subtle shifts like that tend to disappear and the overall design of the figure comes through rather than the details. They went for something different with her face, but didn’t quite pull it off.
Looks to be a nice figure, but I just don’t seem to like the face very much.
She’s a bit more Western in style it seems. Stupid witchblade. And I never did watch beyond episode 9 so don’t know this character.
Seems as though yours finally arrived, and as usual, beautiful pictures.
I’d rather wait for the Masune 1/7 (or was it 1/6?) by Orchid Seed that’s coming out on March 2007. Nice shots of Maria though.
Adun — I think quite a few people would share your opinion. She has her share of unflattering angles.
tj han — Is Witchblade really that bad? Isn’t it Gonzo?
Zero — Yup she came along with the Lilics Iroha.
sentinel011 — The first couple of Masune’s looked awful. I think the Orchid Seed version looks cool with those tendrils surrounding her, but I don’t know if I’ll order it. I really like Maria’s character design a lot, so tried to make her look as pretty as I could.
Hey, nice shots ! I was doubting before, but now, I’m waiting for her impatiently !
Hey SbebiWan, nice to see you! She will look great in your case.
6th picture from top – Awesome display of her bwebs.
Lovely pictures as usual, but she looks so sleepy. Oh and nice skin too.
Tsubaki — see, not all of her eyes are sleepy.
Love the Pictures, love the face and that expression. Never thought twice about ordering her……….Waiting patiently.
Yeah, she’s cool. Her brightly colored hair looks great and the stand she has makes her look really nice sitting in a display case with a bunch of other figures. You’ll like her once you get her.
Her ahoge much like an interrogation point and her subtle facial expression makes me think that she is the daughter of The Riddler
Very nice paint job thoug…
Which Riddler? The comics, the old tv show, or the movie with Jim Carrey?
The comics, the 60′ TV show, you choose
If this Maria was more cheap, I would buy her, nice painting job, very nice body, but my budget is very shallow, so I only buy figures that I really liked.
i have this toy figure too pretty nice!! =P