Kyun Chara Momoe Nagisa Review

Hello everyone, welcome to another figure review on Tiro Finale! Today, we are going to take a look at one of the newest Magical Girls to join the Magica Quartet. Debuting in the Rebellion film, Momoe Nagisa is the cheese-loving Magical Girl who develops a close bond with Mami as her Bebe incarnation. This particular figure is part of Banpresto's Kyun Chara series and came as a K Prize from the Rebellion Ichiban Kuji lottery. Not wanting to drag the introduction any longer, let us jump straight into the review.

• Manufacturer: Banpresto
• Series: Kyun Chara, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
• Price: 833 Yen (Ichiban Kuji ticket price, resale value may vary)
• Release Date: 10/2014
• Scale: Non-scale
• Material: PVC

Front View

From the front, we can see Nagisa dressed in her Magical Girl outfit and looking rather confident. Nagisa's outfit is immediately apparent with her bright orange overcoat, puffy shorts and polka dot stockings. She almost looks like a candy pumpkin and it is a look which suits her bright personality and age very well. 

Rear View

Towards the back, we can observe that much of the view is occluded by Nagisa's light purple hair and eared-cap. A black stand is also visible which mounts directly into the base providing Nagisa with some much needed support. When I mention much needed, it is indeed absolutely essential as the pegs in her feet that mount to the base are insufficient to keep her top-heavy body stable.

Right Angle

With the stand though, there is no problem and moving Nagisa about is not an issue whatsoever. The brace which mounts snugly around her head is rather large and can be seen even from the sides. The fact that it is black in color does not do much to hide its presence either.

Left Angle

Fortunately, the most common angle you would be looking at Nagisa is up front where she has her left arm slightly raised and tilted. It almost looks like Nagisa is encouraging someone with her arm lifted up that way.

Facial Close-up

Then, we move onto facial expressions and details. Nagisa is sporting a slight smile and bright open eyes looking towards the left. Her childish fringe does a good job of framing her facial structure and complementing her expression. Noticeably, the biggest contrast of the entire area are Nagisa's eyes with her bi-colored iris and Ume Aoki hand-drawn styled eyes. The look is rather hypnotic when you stare at it for a little too long. 

Take a step back and you will find that Nagisa's bright eye color blends in naturally with the rest of her outfit which shares the same shades of orange and yellow. This creates a very lovely harmony of colors all while contrasting with her light purple hair.

In terms of hair detailing, there is not too much to talk about with half of Nagisa's hair covered by her eared-cap and the half being rather spread out locks which cover her entire back. There are two playful tails which stick out of her cap that was present even in her original design. It helps to inject that little bit of playfulness in an otherwise simple design.

Aside from the ears, Nagisa's cap also has two furry balls at both sides of her cap. This is a very common feature in winter caps. Balls or pom-poms, call it whatever you want. 

In fact, there is actually a reason why those balls are incorporated into caps and hats. You can read all about it here but be warned, it is rather lengthy.

Moving on, we will now take a closer look at Nagisa's outfit. Being a rather small figure, you would not expect much in the way of detailing. But you would be rather surprised at the sheer amount of detail that Banpresto has managed to reproduce and help keep faithful to the source material. 

Just looking at the upper half of her outfit, there are various little details that can be pointed out. These include her candy Soul Gem belt, the little red buttons on her coat and the silver fasteners on her suspenders. All of these are details which often go unnoticed especially when viewed from an arm's length. 

Even the white frills around Nagisa's orange coat has been faithfully reproduced. The scary attention to detail of this Nagisa figure reminds me of Sega's own Nagisa figure which I reviewed last month. The only difference is, that one cost a lot more. 

Even the cutouts for Nagisa's gloves are present letting little bits of her fingers poke out. It would be a little unreasonable to expect painted fingernails and, as such, they are in fact not painted. 

Moving down, we take a closer look at Nagisa's puffy shorts and polka dot stockings. Not very difficult to mess up with not too much in the way of detailing. No complaints here.

Rather than complaints, I actually have one point of praise for Banpresto as Nagisa has actual feet with red sandals. As opposed to just simple stubs. Of course, they needed to do this in order to help mount her into the base via two small holes located at the sole of her feet.

These mount into the pegs located on the base and together with the stand help securely hold up Nagisa. The base itself is purple in color with a smiley emoticon on it. This is actually a reference to Nagisa's candy shaped Soul Gem which has a smiley face on it too. 

After several reviews, I have always considered Banpresto's Kyun Chara series of figures to be of high quality and good consistency throughout various series. This particular addition is no different with solid detailing, sculpt and coloring all throughout the figure. 

Sure, there are certain areas you can nitpick such as the lack of accessories or that the detailing could be a little more defined. But then, you would be forgetting the category that these deformed figures into. Given out primarily as lower prizes in the Ichiban Kuji lottery, these figures are almost considered to be afterthoughts meddling with the likes of rubber straps and cutlery. 

In a sense then, Kyun Chara figures are very much like the prize figures of deformed figures where Nendoroid would be considered the premium scale figures. But, they differ in one critical aspect. Where prize figures can vary wildly in quality, Kyun Chara figures are rock solid all round figures which cover all the basics while hardly having any flaws attributed towards them.

As such, it is not unusual to sometimes find a certain Kyun Chara selling in the resellers market for more than 1,500 Yen. If not for the rarity alone, collectors are willing to chalk out a rather hefty amount due to the established trust in the Kyun Chara series of figures. And unlike Banpresto's less than desirable stab at plush toys, they sure know what they are doing when it comes to figures. 

A solid all round figure, Banpresto's Kyun Chara Momoe Nagisa comes highly recommended especially if you find it at the right prize. Released almost three years ago, availability is starting to dwindle so you might want to get your hands on one before the year is out. 

With that, we come to a close for this review. Stay tuned for a 360 degree view of Nagisa coming later this week. Also, if you have any questions or thoughts about the figure, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I would love to hear what you think. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!