Kotona Elegance
Almost every day, I would suggest to Kotona that she wear a lab coat. I hear the screams out there reacting to the foolishness of the idea of covering up such a sweet body, but there’s something mysterious about Kotona and the lab coat plays to that — there’s a story behind her eyes. Of course, she could still wear her short skirts. What self-respecting hot anime girl in a lab coat wouldn’t? Hell, she’s got the pen twirl down pat. Some glasses would be nice too. Lab coat, pen twirl, and glasses. It’s a better life than that of an assassin, well maybe.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Kotona Elegance Figure Review
I had a few reasons for adding this to my already painful list of pre-orders. Mostly what it came to was, Kotona is elegant, even with the short dress and retro space-girl boot/stocking footwear. The elegance is there in her eyes, the ones on her head.^^ Gotta thank Danny Choo for making it so most figure folk think you’re talking about her rack when mentioning a figure’s eyes.
Kotona is a Max Factory figure sculpted by Chieri, whose done a bunch of things under Max Factory. So with this one they’ve got Kotona resting on some blue-green modern design chair, leaning back, stretching one leg out while hugging the other. With that pretty gaze, it’s a winner. Her hair frames her face perfectly too. All lines point in.
I’ll interrupt the love fest for a second to point out that the paint on her outfit spiderwebs into the other colors. It looks okay on normal, but a little sloppy on macro. Those eyes will poke your eyes out.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
The other thing I like is she’s in 1:7 scale, which has become my favorite scale size for these anime girl figures.
More Blather!
I didn’t pre-order Kotona. It was the pictures at foo-bar-baz that made me do it. When her gaze is in that sweet spot where everything lines up, yeah that was it. Plus Kotona is built closer to a woman than a girl.
Edit: It looks like Windbell got this one too, yay! I like it when good figures find homes. As he notes, you can pretty much let Kotona sit on anything appropriate. I’ll leave what is appropriate up to you, since my mind is going straight to the gutter.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Click image to enlarge or view on flickr.
Comments
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priss
on March 25th, 2008
Nice in the fluff! I can’t wait for this delicious beauty to turn up at my door! It’s so good see who online makes the same preorders! It tends to be the most reassuring thing when justifying a new addition! The bow and boots combo is just to die for.
Almost A Hero
on March 25th, 2008
You damn bastard.
And by that, what I really mean is “Why does light love you so?”
It’s like… like http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/812/lightal2.jpg.
Anyway, love the ones with the chair. Very chic.
gordon
on March 25th, 2008
nice lovely photos once again! me love the pink fur. ^^;
ron~
on March 25th, 2008
Sharp photos as always, I need to learn alot from you
I want this figurine now ._. this one is based from tony taka illustration right?
rain
on March 25th, 2008
The pink fluff you did was excellent. And yes, the eyes are gorgeous. I noticed her hair looks one tone darker in your pictures.
I thought they could have done better with the base. But then again, love how the focus is put on Kotona herself. My bro said Kotona’s really attracting, especially with her colours - the greens and the reds contrasts really well.
Belela-san
on March 25th, 2008
OMG stop torturing me with her pictures plz. I’ve had on pre-order since mid December and still haven’t got her, still waiting for her to be shipped then those damn custom services will delay her even more. Can’t wait to take some pictures with her alongside with my gundams
Panther
on March 25th, 2008
Very nice photos, may I know what you used? And great pics of Kotona especially with the pink fluff. Still waiting for her to arrive in stores here in SG since I missed her preorder.
Howie H
on March 26th, 2008
This is a nice figure for sure!
But the paint job is just fine…
Still good buy though~
Windbell
on March 26th, 2008
Yay, you got her too!
I still can’t get a completely white background even with three lights ^^;
Zeroblade
on March 26th, 2008
I was really tempted to get her too, but I had other things to get, and I really wasn’t into Zoids anymore.
Noticeably, the eyes of a figure, when looking off to the side and to the distance, seem to have more of an attractive, “elegant” (as you put it), feel than oh say, eyes that are just staring straight at you.
Prim3
on March 26th, 2008
ouch.. you got her already! I am still waiting for mine..
love your pink fluff.. it blends well with her dress.. and ya.. she’s gorgeous ^^
super rats
on March 26th, 2008
Priss, I kind of feel the same way.
Almost a Hero, ^^, the chair setup I thought was attractive, which is another reason I got this.
Gordon, it’s good to love pink.
Ron, thanks, but you’re getting good at this yourself. Windbell posted a Tony illo on his site with Kotona in a similar pose. It wasn’t the same, though going by the face it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case. I don’t know who Kotona is beyond a character description on Wikipedia.
Rain, the hair is darker in these shots. I noticed that when shooting in with a vivid setting in JPEG mode my camera (Olympus Evolt 500) tends to darken blue and green. Against a white background the color shift is more pronounced. I think the first photo is the closest match in terms of her actual hair color. Add to the fact I don’t manually balance the color, the colors can be a little different from picture to picture. I do tweak a little after the auto adjusting, but that’s more for shadows than anything. The other thing too is I generally under expose the photos on purpose.
Belela-san, I ordered mine last Wednesday. ^.^ Look forward to your Kotona with Gundams pics.
Panther, the camera is an Olympus Evolt 500 with a 35mm macro lens. For lights I use compact florescent bulbs (5000K, often labeled as “full spectrum”). The pink stuff is a cheap boa I got at the crafts store.
Howie, the paint is pretty sloppy on close inspection.
Windbell, the trick is to make the background brighter than the foreground. Make sure the light is more intense on the background than the foreground. Somewhere on Otadesho.com, ~ron did a tutorial on it. There’s other ways to do it, but he explains the principles behind it in his post.
Zeroblade, the expression on her face is very appealing. In addition to the eyes, it’s her mouth that’s just slightly open.
Prim3, I was surprised with the speed HobbySearch sent her to me considering I ordered her after she was released.
Panther
on March 26th, 2008
I read your previous post on lighting and photoshoots SR, so I learnt quite a bit and will be looking for those stuff you said would help a lot.
Unfortunately mine is a digital camera, not a SLR, so obviously, I cannot do very much with it.
And your camera model is Evolt? The hell, you got it from Zoids Genesis? Evolt.
Thanks for the help.
super rats
on March 26th, 2008
I’ve never seen Zoids, so it’s funny to me that my camera has the same name.
You don’t need a dSLR. You can get good results without one. On my picture gallery page, the sets are laid out in reverse chronological order. Yuukanalia was the first one with a dSLR. The ones before were with a regular point and shoot.
Kotona Elegance - I’ve Anime!
on March 26th, 2008
[...] HappySoda [...]
Cameron Probert
on March 31st, 2008
Good stuff. Just felt like I had to say something
coeli
on April 1st, 2008
Pretty and so pink! I like the chair/stand and I like how her face looks…like she’s shy or something.
super rats
on April 1st, 2008
Cameron, that’s cool, thanks!
Coeli, her face is the best part.
Radiant
on April 2nd, 2008
I quite like the chair that she sits on. The way you’ve managed to light it looks VERY cool. And putting her in a bed of ummm… soft stuff… it’s quite cool! I like how you are able to repurpose your figures in such creative ways!
super rats
on April 2nd, 2008
Thanks, especially coming from the guy who goes crazy with the ’shopping to make scenes.
AS
on April 2nd, 2008
Haha, the bottom shot was nice ;p. Nice use of fluff.
asdf
on April 2nd, 2008
I think this one just ruined your collection
hot pink = disgusting
bad paint job too
like the chair though
lu-k
on April 3rd, 2008
Gyyaa this figure is really tempting. For know the only Kotona I have is the nendoroid version. A nice pair with Re Mie.
I will wait to see this figure in French stores, then decide to purchase it or not. A bit too pink for my tastes, but green hair beats everything ^^;
Thrid picture is wonderful!
radiantdreamer
on April 3rd, 2008
nani? I think you have me confused with Shinohai! Oooooooh photoshopping, not actual shopping shopping!
Pic 1 & 4 are definitely my favorites.
JF
on April 5th, 2008
You’re going to make me get this one too now, Super_rats, damn you. I just came back from Sakuracon myself with a swath of figurines I didn’t have before too, so I’m going to try and figure out how to get high quality shoots like you keep doing.
I had posted a request in a previous blog entry comment of yours hoping to get some pointers on how to get such clean shots like you keep managing to amaze us with. XD
Persefone Loki
on April 6th, 2008
She is very beautiful and your photos too, i had follow your tutorial, but is complicated, my first test i follow what Danny Choo said, i go the Sun, but didn`t worked.
Len-Vesper
on April 7th, 2008
Ahaha, I feel like such a spaz now!
I just found your tutorial on how to set up lighting in your earlier posts, Super Rats. Sorry for asking twice! D:
I should have searched sooner. Going to give these things a shot.