Review: Senjougahara Hitagi by Good Smile Company
I’ve had this Hitagi figure sitting around for about a month now and have only just recently decided to attack the poor girl with our camera. Looking back, I think it might have been the prototype of this figure that finally prompted me to actually watch the Bakemonogatari anime. The combination of the innovative figure design and enjoyment of the anime and Senjougahara’s character made this a figure that neither of us wanted to miss out on so we pretty much placed our preorder the day they went up!
Senjougahara Hitagi (戦場ヶ原 ひたぎ, Senjōgahara or even Senjyogahara Hitagi according to her figure box) originates from the Bakemonogatari series which first got it’s start as a light novel written by Nisio Isin and later received a popular anime adaptation by SHAFT. Hitagi herself is the main character of the Hitagi Crab arc and she’s a self proclaimed tsundere who has a tendency to conceal massive amounts of stationery in her clothing. If you’d like to know more about Hitagi and Bakemonogatari, hop over to the Bakemonogatari Wikipedia page here.
Above is a short video of Hitagi’s opening for the anime, Staple Stable. I really like her opening song so I thought I’d include it!
The figure itself is manufactured by Good Smile Company and was released mid January 2011 after a few delays. She was sculpted by Tokunaga Hironori and her retail price is around the 9333 yen mark and while she doesn’t come cheap, Hitagi comes with a few extras that I’ll get to later on in the review. She stands at about 210 mm in height which makes her a decent sized 1/8 scale figure.
Good Smile Company and the sculpter have done a wonderful job of capturing the illustration this Hitagi figure is based off in 3D form and I’m particulary impressed that they have pulled off a figure that’s supposed to be viewed by it’s profile so well.
I believe that one of the things that turned a few people off this Senjougahara sculpt is how her face looks from front on. Personally, I think it looks a little strange too but I can’t quite put my finger on why! I don’t really like the look of her mouth from the front and something about her eyes also seems off. However, Hitagi’s profile looks spot on to me and as that’s the angle I mostly view her from so I can let the minor issues I have with her face slide.
The highlight of this figure is definitely the stationary coming from Hitagi’s skirt! I doubt Luth and I would have bought this figure if it wasn’t for the stationary since while Hitagi is one of our favourites from the show, we tend to lean towards more elaborate character designs when it comes to figures and Hitagi is a little.. well.. I don’t want to say boring but let’s just say her character design isn’t all that fancy!
All the detail that’s gone into the little pieces of stationary is nothing short of incredible! It almost looks like the stuff coming out of her skirt is actually useable! Good Smile Company blogger Mikatan has a few interesting posts on how the stationary was made in the factory here and here.
Hitagi’s base is a simple clear disk which uses 3 pegs to plug into holes in her feet. She stands solidly on it and doesn’t wobble around at all so stability shouldn’t be an issue. Luth and I had a bit of trouble attaching her stationary to the base, we wanted it to look like it does in the promo shots but every time we attached it, it was sticking out at weird angles all over the place! In the end, we just followed Mikatan’s guide on her blog and had her set up in no time after that. A set of instructions comes with the figure and they’re easy enough to follow.. you pretty much just have to twist the stationary around after attaching it to the included pegs until you’re happy with the way it looks.
Falling stationary isn’t the only thing this Hitagi has going for her, the detail of the sculpt itself is gorgeous! The clothing folds are so well done and natural looking that sometimes I find it hard to believe that I’m looking at a piece of hard PVC and not soft fabric. The paint job is good too – no complaints from me in that area!
I love the way her skirt looks from the back! Some parts of her stationary are stuck on the bottom of this skirt so it might look a little strange if you decide to display her in this skirt without the stationary that attaches to her base.
Am I weird for finding her hands cute? Yeah, probably but look at them! Even her little fingernails are painted. I couldn’t resist including photos of them..
The shading on Hitagi’s hair is nicely done using pinks and purples but it can look a little excessive in certain lighting. She does sport a rather large seam line across the top of her head but it’s something most PVC figures have and with the way Hitagi’s character is designed, there isn’t really a way to hide it.
I mentioned earlier that Hitagi comes with a few extras and those extras would be the alternative skirt and stapler holding hands in the above photos. You can’t usually see her panties from a straight viewing angle but I seem to have taken quite a few unintentional panty shots for this review but I’m sure someone out there might appreciate it, haha.
Okay, so this shot wasn’t exactly unintentional but as you can see.. Hitagi’s skirt is able to be cast off so you can have her standing around in her underwear if you like. I’ve also got her standing without her base here and she can balance well on her own feet but I wouldn’t be brave enough to display her like that since a slight knock would probably tip her over!
She’s got some adorable stationary print on her pants just like in the show and has had a cute little belly button sculpted in for her.
GSC Hitagi also comes with a couple of pieces of loose stationary (scissors and a box cutter) for you to scatter over her base. She also has nice, shiny shoes! Speaking of shiny, what’s the deal with the super glossy thigh highs that some figures (including this one) have? Is it a Good Smile Company thing?
The slightly disturbing image above is what Senjougahara Hitagi looks like when she’s disassembled. I’ve kept the stationary attached to the base but it can be removed easily, I just didn’t want to have to rearrange it again after this photo. Oh, check out those freaky hands attached to her skirt!
It’s really easy to swap her parts over and I didn’t run into any paint transfer issues when casting her skirt off. She comes with a set of basic instructions (in Japanese but with pictures) should you run into any trouble though.
Her box is a nice design based off the opening video I linked at the start of this review. Please excuse the reflection of the camera and tripod in the box window!
Overall, I’m really happy with GSC’s clever take on Senjougahara Hitagi and prefer her over Kotobukiya’s version which is a nice figure but a little too bland for my tastes. If you’re in the market for a Hitagi figure but aren’t pleased with either of them, Alter have also have an upcoming figure of her which looks like it’s turning out really nicely!
Hitagi has only been out for a couple of months as of writing so she shouldn’t be too hard to find at around her retail price if you’d like to buy her.
Thanks for visiting, I’ll end with some leftover photo spam!
17 comments on “Review: Senjougahara Hitagi by Good Smile Company”
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I sometimes wonder about the glossy stockings as well. I guess it might be supposed to represent the “shininess” of nylon stockings, but that is a LONG shot. Maybe they’re just trying to appeal the latex fetishist buried in all of us?
I haven’t read Mikan-tan’s posts on the manufacturing process of those stationaries before, but after reading them, I won’t complain about the cost of this figure (nor the delays) anymore. That is some crazy shit.
A couple of my friends think the face is weird-looking, and I do agree to some extent. I found the pronounced lips on her face to be a little awkward from the front.But then again, there are a lot of figures out there that have very limited optimal display angles, and given how good the GSC Hitagi looks from the right angle, I think that more than compensates for the lack of flexibility.
Thanks for the pantyshots, by the by! =)
Chag recently posted..Review- 1-8 Kousaka Kirino
I’m glad I’m not the only one who wonders about little things like that, haha. Whatever the reason, I like the effect myself but I can recall reading somewhere that the shininess bothered a few people for some reason that I can’t remember!
Yeah, I was really surprised to see multiple people hand painting all those tiny parts and thinking of how many those guys probably had to work through kinda hurts my head. D:
The face on a figure is usually most important thing to me about it and if I don’t like something about it then I’ll keep away from the figure.. but I dunno why I don’t let Hitagi’s bother me that much! Mm.. maybe she just looks that good from the angle she’s supposed to be displayed at.
And no worries, any time!
wow, lovely pictures and a great detailed review! (love the vibrant pictures)
she definitely is a great figure, Idk if I put my stationery right^^” but it seemed to work somehow. Yeh, her face does look weird in a way but I think it’s how the hair was down, hence the ” weird feel” But I display her in a sideway pose, so it doesn’t really bother me
This figure actually got a 40% mark down at hobbysearch to like 4000+ yen or something. Which made me quite disappointed and surprised in a way, but you know, what can you do^^” I expected this figure to actually sell out but guess it didn’t.
tabetaiii recently posted..Xiao-Mei 1-7 PVC Figure by Max Factory pre order
Thanks for stopping by again, Tabetaiii! I’m glad you like my review.
As long as you think it looks alright, the stationary placement shouldn’t matter! xD
Our Hitagi has been in sideways mode since we got her too.. well, apart from when I took review shots. It’s just too good of of angle to change!
I was really surprised to learn she got marked down like that too, there haven’t been many figures that we have preordered that have actually sold out but I’m still too afraid of something selling out to wait and see if a figure gets thrown into a bargain bin. >.<
Really really lovely shots! Great BG color choice for sure!
I’ts funny I actually don’t mind her face for some reason even when viewed from the front. While the Alter one does bug me…and yet thats the one I decided to get…ah yaya damn my love for sitting poses… >_>
Ashlotte recently posted..Review- 1-8 Kousaka Kirino
Thank yooou! I had huge trouble with jpeg artifacts while I was processing these shots and spent way too much time trying to get them looking presentable so it’s particularly nice to hear you call them lovely. xD
I think the face on Alter Hitagi looks a bit weird too. I dunno if it’s just me but her ears seem sorta big on it also, haha. No denying that it’s a gorgeous figure though.
Lookin’ forward to seeing some better shots of her and I really can’t wait to see their Black Hanekawa painted, mmmm.
Gaaah, sitting poses! I was telling Luth the other day that I want a figure in a sitting pose since we have none! I keep putting all the Figma into sitting poses to compensate for it, hehe.
Nice review, its very well written and has good pics of Hitagi:)
Bakemonogatari is a favorite show of mine, I think Hitagi is a cool and attractive character, but she’s not my favorite character like Araragi, Mayoi or Kanbaru are.
Im wondering why she’s always considered as tsundere, she doesn’t have the random tsundere qualities, in my opinion she’s quite honest with herself and she has no “Its not like I especially made it for you” attitude. Hitagi also has never shown rage explosions the main quality of tsundere characters,’
. To me she appeared a little yandere when she hurt Araragi with the stapler or teased him with a wink all the time.
Well I don’t want to argue about it but I just dont get it
Anyway the figure looks very nice with the detailed clothes and these cute school utensiels.
That brings back memories when I was in school I was fully equipped with this kind of stuff, too.
I loved my little white stapler, the set square and the ruler
The two skirt and even a no skirt option is nice, imo she looks pretty good without any skirt XD
My second favorite option is the one with the wide open skirt. I also like figures with single sculpted fingers at their hands,my Momohime also has nice fingers. There are many angles where her face looks very good and only a few where it looks a little strange. These two pics are very pretty hitagi26.jpg and hitagi27.jpg
Are you interested in the upcoming Kanbaru and Tsubasa cat figures as well?
I hope they will turn this Shinobu gk http://myfigurecollection.net/item/60458_bakemonogatari_oshino_shinobu_1_7_eyewater into a pvc figure someday.
Fabienne recently posted..Buddy by ALTER
Heh well when the term Tsundere gets thrown around in the show it’s very tongue and cheek…More of a jab at the character type then anything else. :p
Ashlotte recently posted..Review- 1-8 Kousaka Kirino
Hi Fabienne and thank you!
Arararagi is my favourite as well as Hitagi. I like all the other characters except for Nadeko.. I found her kinda annoying!
Yeah.. Hitagi doesn’t really fit the traditional tsundere archetype for me either and like Ashlotte said, I feel they might be poking a little fun at the stereotype. If I were to label her as anything, I’d go for yandere too.. she’s damn crazy when it comes to Araragi attentions (and I love iiit). Maybe people might call her one since she is constantly referring to herself as one?
Oh, I love stationary! I think it comes from my time as a secretary.. I really love looking at cute stationary sets even though I don’t use them. My school sets were never cute though, just the school standard ones.
I’m very interested in the upcoming GSC Tsubasa figure! She looks so cute kneeling on the desk and would look so pretty displayed next to Hitagi. The Kanbaru is also a stunning figure and we thought about ordering it for a bit but decided to pass. The GSC Mayoi looks like it might be cute too. I wish they’d make a Shinobu PVC figure.. maybe they will make an adult one after the Kizumonogatari anime comes out!
Oh man, gorgeous pictures for a gorgeous figure.
I find myself both fortunate and unfortunate that I have yet to watch Bakemonogatari, if I had, this figure would be happily on display in my room by know. Then again it has somewhat of a steep price but all the stationary stuff is a nice touch and makes the figure stand out. I think this is the first time I see Senjougahara without her skirt, I read somewhere about the stationary print panties but never had a good look at them until now.
I don’t know why but I’m finding these pictures really tickling my fancy, hadn’t happened with a figure review in a long time.
Thank you, Miette-chan!
She’s an expensive girl but after looking at the figure in person and seeing how much time they spent making her, I didn’t mind paying out so much. If she’d been of lower quality or had any issues though.. I would have been pretty damn pissed off, lol.
I’m really happy that you like my shoot! It kept being overcast which made the lighting in our room very dull and I hated the way she looked under our lamps. Maybe waiting all that time for some nice, sunny afternoon light paid off. ^^
She’s a fabulous figure and I think the photos that you took of her really captured the fine details. This really isn’t a thing where you could digest all the visual information in one go. And yes, it’s a bit sad that her face looks a bit strange front on. But I guess a compromise had to be made because all the other views look lovely.
Oh my gosh, I never realised she had stationary prints on her underpants. That’s just too cute for words!
Thanks Angela! GSC have certainly impressed although they had a quite a few delays to get her right, haha.
Looking at the face and the expression she’s making.. I don’t have any idea how they could make it look any better. Maybe they have just done the best job they could do while staying true to the source illustration!
They are cuuute and while on the subject, your blog looks super adorable! I really love the layout!
Love the pic with the backlight!
I’m currently struggling between buying the GSC version or waiting it out until the Alter version comes out since i’m the type of figure collector who buys as much as possible one of each kind. I have to say that the amount of effort and thought placed into bringing this illustration to life in a figure form is incredible, from the accessories down to the figure itself.
For sure im buying a tsubasa hanekawa figure though, the one with the chair =D
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Ahhh I feel your pain!
I feel exactly the same way with GSC Tsubasa and Alter’s Black Hanekawa! I guess they’re different enough to justify getting the two of them if they both come out really nicely though.. ehe,
But yeah, I think both GSC’s and Alter’s Hitagi figures are amazing but I’m glad we went with the GSC one in the end, she just stands out a little more to me or something. xD
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