Karen Araragi by Good Smile Company
Project details
Karen Araragi’s volatile nature allows her to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee albeit this unsung hero has a tendency to get stung herself more often than not. Briefly spotted in the anime adaptation of Bakemonogatari, it’s not until the second part of the series titled Nisemonogatari that Karen gets the spotlights aimed towards her.
Having the main protagonist Koyomi as an older brother, Karen alongside little sister Tsukihi enforce discipline to keep his laziness in check through a variety of hilarity.
Good Smile Company have once again gone the extra mile with their *monogatari figures by pouring a substantial amount of PVC material into the base. In Karen’s case the base is made up of a partial asphalt roller making for an impressive display behind the figure itself. The sculpt is, just like with previous releases from the series, based on the Blu-Ray cover accompanying a specific character’s chapter.
Karen latches onto her bulky friend with the help of two pegs placed on the roller’s front plate firmly securing the right foot in place. Quality wise both subjects excel in sculpt and paint job leaving little to agitation. My only remark would be the removable jacket, it comes off Karen a bit too easily if not careful.
Despite being roughly half the size of the real thing the base is on the large side of things with non-functional lights and two at them bottom that swivel 360 degrees.
SCALE
1/8
ART DIRECTION
Enthusiasm
PHOTOGRAPHY SETUP
Flash (partial gel), diorama, incense
wieselhead
sporty spice turned out more than just nice. The figure is really cute, such an adorable happy face with the upper front teeth line and these elaborate details all over the figure, you can expect nothing less from GSC’s Bakemonogatari figures. Unfortunately, I passed on this very sister, but I should be happy with just Tsukihi, Kanbaru and Shinobu.
Nightmare
While the main reason was to fill my *monogatari shelves I can’t deny that Karen is a gem worth having. I did enjoy the character in the series and I’m quite fond of the black and yellow color play she sports.
Those three do make a fine trio in your collection I think, with Tsukihi being one of the most impressive figures of the year if she makes it into 2013.
Jenn
I love Karen’s sporty look, and she looks even better without her jacket. Very streamlined. Very unique. Looks like GSC came through strong with her. Her sense of movement and chirpy pose are absolutely excellent. Strangely enough, I passed on Karen because of her giant roller (the swivel lights are a cute detail though). Getting bifurcated props always seems to dissuade me from buying otherwise amazing figures.
I’m loving the photos of Karen in front of the sunset.
Nightmare
The base is indeed on the gigantic side but unless it makes a cabinet fall over it’s all good. Much like with other fearsome objects it does look better up close and personal. That said I’m running out of storage at an unwelcome speed so perhaps it’s a wise idea not to queue up on Karens in the near future.
It’s funny that you mention the swiveling lights because after I had taken a bunch of test shots I noticed that one light was tilted up effectively making it a cross-eyed roller. Very distracting.