When Tony Taka Wins, We All Win

Several updates from Tony Taka today, the first time we've heard from the artist since his mid-February announcement of his non-ero art and creation wing, Albion Works.   First, the artist will be the centerpiece of a traveling art exhibition by Art Jeuness featuring original works and concepts from the Shining series of video games, starting today.  With the announcement, a gorgeous new Swan Lake-inspired piece welcomes visitors to his site:

Thankfully, Tony has not abandoned his ero roots, and he revealed a new edition of his Fault!! tennis eroge franchise.  Fault!! Service Ace compiles Fault!! A and S, and a special edition will include a dakimakura featuring Ai Saeki and Mio Sugiyama on one side, and Reiko Date Wingfield and Maya Kamiwazumi on the other.

Also, here in the Third Dimension, an outstanding reveal from Kotobukiya courtesy of Plastikitty shows the planning stages of a figure of Tony Taka's cover girl from last year's mook Girls! Girls! Girls! vol. 9.

De-tennising Unboxing--Ai Saeki by Skytube

I've just received a box from the good people of AmiAmi, and it's none other than Ai Saeki from Fault!!.  A proper figure review is still to come; for now, let's unbox!

Saeki's box is a blunt, desperately workman-like affair, completely devoid of anything that could be mistaken as "styling" or "package design."  There is, quite literally, almost nothing done to entice the buyer to pick up the box other than the very simple fact that an ecchi figure from Tony Taka is contained therein.  I would almost prefer a Dharma Initiative-style white box with "Ai Saeki" in black Arial to what we've been given.

To further eradicate any semblance of mystery or excitement about the figure, the top flap of the box is affixed with a simple circle of velcro to allow an immediate, full-on view of Saeki in her reclined splendor.

If you listen very carefully, you can hear a very faint "Let me out of here!"  As you can see, she comes fully composed with all the cast-offable bits made obvious by extra plastic wrapping.

After removing the top plastic molding, she's practically ready to go.  It's at this point that you really get a sense of what you're in for with the figure.

I've found my wife in a similar position after losing a battle with a plastic painting dropcloth:

After extracting Ai from her molding and taking off the necessary bits to remove the extra plastic wrap:

But wait, there's more!  There are very nicely hidden clasps at the hook of her brassiere, the left hip of her panties, and the underside of her skirt...

Now that you have your nightmare fuel for the evening, something a little kinder:

It must be said; there are few figures with a vulva as detailed as Saeki's is.  I'm not sure it says anything good about me as a man when I can say with complete confidence that labia minora on an anime figure is exceedingly rare.

As remarkable as Ai looks completely cast-off, I prefer her with her clothing still on, and it's certainly more faithful to the original illustration.

A proper review shall be forthcoming.  Until then...

Comic Market 82: T2 Art Works / Tony Taka

For the first time in eight months, Tony Taka has updated his website with information about his recent projects, including his releases for Comic Market 82 which started today, Friday the 10th of August.  It seems that the June release of Fault!! S - A New Rival In Love inspired him to take us all to tennis camp to get reacquainted with Reiko, Mayo, and the gang. 

First off, durable goods including a microfiber towel, clear folder, phonecard, and bath poster:

And of course, his book:

I'm a little disappointed to find that Tony went with a non-parody doujin for the second Comiket in a row, after Winter 2011's original work Puella.  There have been so many quality series he could have explored from the past two or three cours that I would have loved to have seen (had he taken on Yuka Nakajima's Papakiki characters, my head would have exploded), but I'm not at all dissuaded from picking this up.

Whose Fault!! is that face? News from Ciel & Alphamax

Saeki Ai from Fault!!, September release, thanks to Hobby Search.

When Alphamax announced back in late February that they'd be producing a figure of Saeki Ai from Tony Taka's 2009 eroge, Fault!!, I had figured it was just a gift, an opportunistic mining of the creator's backlog to release a heretofore unheralded heroine onto the shelves of Tony's figure-buying faithful.  And what a gift it was--a gobsmackingly sexy pose,  a spot-on Tony facial expression, a character rescued from obscurity into the must-have lists of collectors across the globe. This is a move I'm completely in favor of; generally speaking and within reason, I will buy anything that Tony has anything to do with, 2D or 3D.

I love a well-executed lob shot--Fault!! by Ciel, character designs by Tony, released in July '09.  Thanks Hobby Search.

And then, calloo-callay, Alphamax announced that in addition to Saeki, they'd also be releasing a figure of Date Wingfield Reiko, also from Fault!!, in October.  Great news!...that is, until you see it.  That shredding sound you hear in your head is your anticipation wrought useless.  Unlike Saeki, I certainly did not find Reiko to be an instant pre-order candidate; the face of the figure is just too far afield of the original illustration, or, rather, of anything that even vaguely resembles a Tony Taka character design.  Observe:

As I mentioned in a previous article, Tony Taka's detractors state that all of his character designs look the same, that he has exactly one face in his repertoire and all he does is change hair and eye colors as needed.  I am of the position that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that when the end result is the illustration on the left.  Now, never mind the original illustration's exposing her breasts, look at the figure's face--who exactly is this girl, and what has she done with my half-Japanese, half-British senpai?  The eyes and the mouth are tragically incorrect, and I simply don't have the disposable income or the shelf space to accommodate her with such flaws.  Somehow, she lacks the youth and the athleticism and the spunkiness of the illo. 

Her upcoming release did, however, immediately enter a more interesting question--what exactly is going on with not one but two Fault!! figures all of a sudden, three years removed from the game's release?  Assuming Alphamax didn't just cherrypick Ai Saeki for figuredom, could this mean some 3D Sugiyama Mio sis-con coming up?  Maybe get Hayama Rika in there for the greatest Women's Doubles teams since the Williams sisters?

A new challenger appears!  Image from Amazon.co.jp

It looks like the answer came today; according to Akiba Blog, a follow-up to the original game will be released in June.  Almost three years after the release of the original game, フォルト!!S～新たなる恋敵～ (Fault!! S ~ A New Rival In Love) goes back to the academy for more volleying, smashing, and fuzzy balls.  Probably some tennis, too.  The box art features our lovely Reiko alongside newcomer Mayo Kamiwazumi.

No complaints about Alphamax getting a previously unheralded group of Tony's girls back into the otaku consciousness, but I do hope that if more is to come, they're rendered better than Reiko is.  Also, I suppose this means that I'll have to continue to wait and hope for a France Shoujo figure in the future...