Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (1/6)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (2/6)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (3/6)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (4/6)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (5/6)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki (6/6)

As you can tell from the shape of the feet, it can't stand upright without a stand.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - So you have no choice but to borrow a stand from another kit to get it standing, a

So you have no choice but to borrow a stand from another kit to get it standing,
and because of the butt skirt, you'll need a longer joint part.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Detail shots (1/5)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Detail shots (2/5)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Detail shots (3/5)

Detail shots

The eyes can be swapped in 3 different directions.

Choose from 6 options for the left hand.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - The large right hand requires swapping out 4 different finger parts to attach, whi

The large right hand requires swapping out 4 different finger parts to attach, which is a bit of a hassle..

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - 4 variations of the right hand. (1/4)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - 4 variations of the right hand. (2/4)

4 variations of the right hand.

You can secure the weapon by inserting a fixing pin into the hole.

Leftover parts

Articulation is just about average.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - The torso construction is similar to previous kits, so the upper body moves with q

The torso construction is similar to previous kits, so the upper body moves with quite a bit of flexibility.

The skirt flips up pretty easily too..

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - When bending the knee, the leg itself tends to come apart like that. It's caused b

When bending the knee, the leg itself tends to come apart like that.
It's caused by the knee joint being stiff while the thigh connection is weak,
so if you're not careful it can snap pretty easily.. (One of mine actually broke T_T)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Action pose (1/3)

Action pose

Action pose 2

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Action pose 3 (1/3)

Action pose 3

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Action pose 4 (1/4)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Action pose 4 (2/4)

Action pose 4

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki - Together with Raikaseal Redria. Similar overall setup, but a completely different

Together with Raikaseal Redria.
Similar overall setup, but a completely different style.

This kit is a figure model kit of Akaonihime Shiki from Sega's game "Phantasy Star Online 2." The overall setup is similar to previous Phantasy Star Online kits, but the look is completely different — going for a Sengoku-era style aesthetic. I've never played the game myself so I'll skip the background details~;

Thanks to the thorough color separation and a generous amount of stickers, this kit looks impressively good even as a straight build. The one downside is that the stickers are thin enough that the base color shows through underneath. That high level of color right out of the box is definitely the kit's biggest selling point, but beyond that, there are quite a few drawbacks..

For starters, the feet have such a unique shape that the kit can't stand upright on its own, yet no stand is included in the box. You'd have to separately buy a Kotobukiya-specific stand or borrow one from another kit — it's a bit of a head-scratcher that a kit which basically requires a stand doesn't come with one.

The biggest issue with this kit is the serious inconsistency in joint strength. The hip joints and skirt connections are way too loose, while the knees, elbows, and shoulders are way too stiff T_T. Because of this, it's not easy to get a clean upright pose, and posing in general is just a pain. The skirt connection in particular is so loose that it just droops straight down, and I had to stuff some tape into the joints to fix it before I could even take photos.

If you move the knee joints the wrong way, the entire leg can snap off. I ended up breaking one of mine and had to glue it back together. The problem is that the knee joint is stiff while the thigh connection point is weak — when you bend the knee, the stress gets transferred to the thigh fixing pin in the wrong way and it can break, so be careful (see the review photos).

Also, when swapping hand parts, you have to transfer a single hand armor part over each time, and the right hand in particular uses a system where you swap out multiple finger parts onto a single palm piece, which gets pretty tedious to deal with.

So while it looks great, this is a structurally quite frustrating kit — you really need to go in with some fan appreciation for the game and just hypnotize yourself into being satisfied with the high visual quality. Either way, no matter how niche a kit it is, it's a real shame they didn't catch and fix the joint strength issues during the prototype straight build stage before releasing it :-)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Akaonihime Shiki | 2015. 8 | ¥5,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.