I stood in Chris’ dorm room looking over the pictures she tacked onto the cork board above her desk. We had just gotten back from winter break and were doing the so how was it conversation. Our voices seemed to carry since the dorm was nearly empty. Most everyone would come back tomorrow, so the quiet in the hall felt alien. I liked getting back on campus as soon as possible, my home life is great, so don’t read anything about that into it, just, wandering through an empty campus feels like the world ended and I was left behind to remember it. Don’t ask why that mood appeals to me, but it does.
(Figure is ecchi / nsfw)
“I like the outfit,” I said while catching an eyeful of the skimpy santa outfit photo.
“Which one,” she said shoving clean clothes back into her dresser.
“Ho, ho, ‘ho?” I said with special emphasis on the last “ho”.
“That? That was for work.”
“Serious? That’s no Target or Wal-Mart santa uniform. That’s like a stripper santa uni.”
“Shut up, it’s not that slutty.”
“You’re right,” I said. Chris and I were just friends. Of course I wanted her. Alot. But, it would be too weird to lay that out on the table. “It’s really cute.”
“Eww!”
“Eww?”
“I hear what you’re thinking!”
“Sorry. Male. Girls in santa suits trigger a switch. It’s in our genetic code. Why I don’t know, but it’s true.”
Chris stood next to me facing the pictures on her board, where she pointed out each one of her friends from back home, so I’d know who was who in each photo. She then told me that over winter break she worked at a cafe that catered to nerds and such, mostly older nerds and the wrinkled suits who failed at office politics 101, who didn’t mind paying extra money for bad food so long as they could flirt and get an eyeful of high school and college girls in kinda kinky costumes without getting in trouble for it. Chris didn’t really sound disgusted by it, which I thought she would. I thought it was pretty sad, myself.
“So you wanna see me in it,” she asked without any edge in her voice.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Turn around and don’t look until I say and you have to help me this semester. I hate going the library and looking stuff up by myself. It’s boring and I always fall asleep, so you have to go with me.”
I made that last part up. That’s not how it really went at all.
Review of Beagle’s PSE-02 Chris
Wahoo!, a Murata PSE figure that’s actually a decent size. Sweet. This Christmas themed figure is cute and ecchi at the same time. There’s a non-holiday version of this figure as well, but I opted for the holiday version since I liked the hair and eye color combo better, plus the Santa suit with the mistletoe was too much to resist.
The sculpt carries the Murata style pretty well, particularly with the foot and leg-wear. All the details are sharp, like the individual rivets on the sole, the washer on the shoe tab, and even Chris’ ear is rendered beyond most anime figure ears.
The base looks sort of like a snow cube. It would have been really cool if the base were a real functioning snow globe that you could shake to make it snow, but even without that it works as a holiday decoration for pervy otaku. The actual paint itself is very clean and gives off an air of premium and the application quite good.
While her pose could easily be seen as risque with her legs up in the air and her wares pointing skyward, it still feels more cute to me than anything else — the story reads to me as more whoops I fell, rather than hey look at my pantsu (even if that’s the probably the point of the figure itself). Definitely happy with how Chris turned out.
Other Stuff
Is it just me or does it seem like Murata’s illustrations have been growing a little more ecchi. Maybe they always were. I mean, there’s something fetishy about his clothes design style, a certain antique industrial tone done with modern materials. I don’t mean to imply cheap or tawdry, when I call it fetishy, just that the design style has a strong identity to it. The contrast of the clothes with the very cute characters who wear them has such an appealing contrast, that maybe I’m just getting around to noticing it. Maybe it’s a little of both. When I first saw Like a Balanced Life, I thought of Murata as like a Japanese Norman Rockwell, particularly with the lighting style and how his figures seemed to be telling a story. The panty shots sort of strain against the Rockwell mold a little, but who knows what would have been if times then were as they are now.
Ah so cute. Gets me right in the christmas mood
Pantsu!
This figure is wonderfully cute.
Her eyes are such a vibrant blue, I almost want to get this figure for that quality alone. Such blue blue eyes, good god it’s a pretty feature.
Also Pantsuuuuuu!
Was there any color enhancement done on your end post-processing or are the colors really that deep on the figure. If they are, then damn, I have a must buy before end of year.
There’s a bump up in saturation on a few of the shots. The 4th and 5th shot, that shows the front and back of the full figure are pretty representative. The 7th shot is a good representation of her eye color. In some of the shots her eyes look a bit dark…a little to busy to reshoot those so more light shone on her eyes. Also, depending on your monitor settings, the colors can vary quite a bit from what I see. Particularly with LCD screens, the saturation and contrast varies a lot depending on how straight on your view is.
In general I try to keep the more representative shots closer to the review portion and the ones that push the saturation or go warm on the color shift toward the ends.
Everything in the anime otaku culture has grown a little more ecchi. In time it will all change again.
Very nice shot, and I love this Range Murata figure. Cutest X’mas figurine I’ve seen so far
Happy Holidays
Cute little figure related to Christmas ^^. Pantie shots are always an extra on figures, some are hidden but others are way exposed but I don’t really care about that
Merry Christmas
… you really like Ringo’s bag huh.
I think Range Murata’s figures are always ecchi, but there’s probably something about making it less porny and more professional that worries him and stops it from slipping too far off the deep end. I’m just guessing.
She is a really cute figure and that pose is pretty good. what I like about her is that she does not have the traditional base and that it’s a little snow man encased it clean plastic(or glass).
Amazing shoots as always!!!!!
Love the feather lying down pic!!!!!
Great figure shoot just in time for the holidays!!!!!!
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and all the other holidays I don’t know about.
Ecchi qualities are part of what I like about otaku and anime things.
I do like Ringo’s bag.
I worry about slipping to far off the deep end too with figure shots all the time. The one shot in particular in this set, I spent over an hour debating whether or not to include it, which I did, deciding to fall off it every now and again.
I dont get any ecchi vibes at all from her.Its more a cute/playful aura.
You worked extra hard for the story this time eh?Is it our christmas gift?^^
hoho… Merry Christmas indeed.
The figure’s really good-looking, and really cute at that. Now, if only I could find a nice Christmas Nagato figure.
She is really cute, and your pictures are wonderful as always!
Yup, I agree with the above commenters, the figure’s cute. And sexy. Nice Christmas gift!
i really like this one ^^
pantsu for christmas is always nice :p
I really wanted to get this figure for Christmas, but had to keep my purchases in control as I am really running out of space. Love the first shot with the chair.
Last pic is the best one. It seems like a totally different figure!!