Shikinami Asuka Langley

Review by chachipower

Coming straight outta Evangelion: 2.0 is the ever-popular Shikinami Asuka Langley. In Evangelion 2.0, her family name has been changed to Shikinami from Soryu. The first #003 Fraulein Revoltech Soryu Asuka Langley release was pretty popular and featured a very nice sculpt. However, there were a couple of complaints with the execution. You can check out JoshB's review of that release HERE.

15 releases later, Kaiyodo has given it another shot with the Asuka we see in Evangelion 2.0. Does this release make up for what was missing in the first release? Let's check it out.

This review was made possible by the folks over at Anime-Export. They came through with the Asuka figure for your reading and viewing pleasure.

Asuka comes in a standard Revoltech box with a smooth touch coating on the box. Gives it a classy feel.

The back of the box shows Asuka in various poses and shows off some of the new features of this sculpt.

Once we have the tray out, same thing, standard revoltech vacuum formed black base tray and clear cover.

Out of her tray, you'll notice the colors have more life when compared to the #003 release. Very nice paint application. Matte or glossy where appropriate.

This figure uses a system called "E.L.F."
Here is the description according to Kaiyodo:

"'E.L.F' is a revolution in female action figures.
Fraulein Revoltech is an exciting new series of female action figures. It consists of new idea of figure system called 'E.L.F.' producing beautiful body lines and motion as natural as real lives. 'E.L.F.' and Fraulein Revoltech are all created by Enoki Tomohide."

In short, its really cool girly figures designed by a Japanese dude.

Here she is in a very basic pose. You'll notice I have her on the included stand. Very helpful to use this when posing her.

A big plus is revoltech joints on her hair.

Now you can swing her hair back for more dramatic poses.

Now let's touch on her accessories. Sorry, no weapons. She comes with an array of hands that you can use depending on what kind of pose you want her in.

Ohhh the creepy Asuka Doll. Well this version is not as creepy, but the whole story behind it is just creepy.

She pilots the ultimate weapons of technology, yet she still uses a Motorola Razr. Still cool little accessory.

This mic piece is tiny yet secures surprisingly well to a slot on her neck.

YES! They actually included alternate faces in this release! The previous Asuka release only had one face and didn't quite capture her various expressions and bitchiness. These don't quite cover ALL her faces but I'm happy. To change her expressions, it's a matter of removing her bangs and then the face.

Here is her angry face. My complaint with the angry face is that her bangs cover her eyebrows, leaving her looking not-so-angry.

Also included is the innocent and surprised look. You can't fool me Asuka!

Something Kaiyodo should've fixed in this release is the ability to bring her knee up. This version suffers the same fate. The thigh could be spun around to allow the knee to come up, but this is only a workaround, not a solution. It's a compromise Kaiyodo had to make to maintain a clean feminine shape without large gaps in the joints. Here I've managed to squeeze a teeny bit of knee action.

So before I leave you guys to check out some various fun poses I did with this figure, I'd like to comment on how I feel about this figure overall. I think it's a good solid release and I enjoyed it. The colors are vivid, the sculpt is spot on, the presence of color-matched Revoltech joints are well hidden and it has an ability to achieve a myriad of poses. However, there is a downside. Like most Revoltechs, it can be a challenge to get it to pose just the way you want. Some joints are too tight, some are too loose and some just have a mind of their own. I tried to emulate some of the poses on the box and realized they must have super glued the box specimen to get those poses. Some limbs just wont stay up where you want them or won't flex as much as you need them to. That's not to say the figure is bad. It's just marketing magic being used. The figure is best displayed with the included plastic stand. It just doesn't want to stand on it's own. Once on the stand, it looks great on a shelf.

OK, let's have some fun posing!

Notice in this picture that there is no seam line on the front of her waist. There is a soft PVC skin over it that allows a great amount of waist movement without a hideous seam line!

What kind of poses can YOU get her in? Find out by picking her up and more at Anime-Export, they came through with today's specimen so you can check it out before adding it to your collection.