Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

For many months now, School Rumble fans throughout the Galaxy have been waiting for the release of this Eri 1/8 PVC figurine by Good Smile Company. GSC is more or less pretty confirmed to be doing the SR series of characters and when Eri was announced, it was more a matter of when rather than if. But with the high expectations, there came great disappointment when GSC’s rendition of the single most popular character of SR turned out to be rather lacking.

安倍 匠 is the sculptor and I cannot pronounce this kanji. But let’s all lay the blame on him. Funny how single-minded figurine collectors are though, even if most of us viewed and were disappointed with the promo pictures, we still placed orders. And then after shelling out 3800 yen, we moan even more.

It’s quite the pity, when GSC’s previous two School Rumble figurines, Tenma and Yakumo, were done so well, especially the Yakumo one. I know quite a few who bought this Eri one just to not miss out on the full set, even if they did not particularly like it. But enough of the moaning, let’s get on with the review!

On its own, this figurine is a pretty typical school girl one - uniform, twintails, straight pose and all that. What makes it special is because it is a real world physical (mini)manifestation of the Twintailed Tsundere Goddess of SR. But of course, as I said, that is its biggest flaw - not being a likeness.

Eri’s face is nothing like Eri. Notably, the face shape, hair and lips are the fatal flaws. The figurine’s cheeks are puffy and too chubby, giving the impression of her hoarding her winter stash of sunflower seeds in her cheekpouches. Her hair, particularly the fringe, is shoddy. Not in terms of quality, but it’s just chunky. While you can tell the sculptor made some effort recreating the numerous layers of fringes Eri has, the figurine just looks like it has a bob of hair on her forehead. The hair is just a mild complaint though. The lips, unfortunately, are slightly upturned and silly-looking, this is sooo not an expression the Ojou-sama makes. If anything, the lips make the cheeks even fatter.

One praiseworthy area - there is zero visible hair seam and from side angles, the hair is very good.

 
From the right only, the fringe is right from Kobayashi Jin’s designs.

A good test to see what’s wrong - cover parts of the face. When the lips and cheeks are covered, the likeness of the figurine is still rather high but when those are unveiled, liposuction is required. I took a few pictures trying to create the best angle where she’ll look most like Eri and these all involve avoiding the lips and cheeks.

Eri’s here at last.

How long are you staying?

Ok now where did Eri go again?

Ok she’s back.

Beyond the face, Eri is actually pretty well made. She’s standing straight, leaning back with her arms raised and stretching. This is actually the pose she takes during one of the beach episodes, where she’s in her black bikini. Here, the bikini is switched for the more conservative school uniform. Eri is standing on her right leg mostly, with her hip leaning towards that side as well. There’s wind action, blowing her hair, skirt and the tails of her jacket to her right. This adds a bit of dynamacism to an otherwise rather static figurine.

Basically, she’s wearing a white blouse with a beige outerlayer and red ribbon and pleated skirt. Eri is also wearing two red ribbons in her hair. Her footwear is standard school attire, dark blue with brown shoes. Her right foot plug is longer than her left as it is the main support. One complaint I have is that her fitting isn’t really tight and her left foot does pop free sometimes. When standing flat, it is not a problem. However, Eri has a tendency to fall backwards since her main support is on her right heel. This may result in warping over time, so keep her level.

As for paintwork, with rising standards these days, it’s normal to expect a perfectly painted figurine and Eri is one of them. With the lack of difficult motifs or designs on her, the least GSC could do was to deliver a flawless paintjob and they did. Her hair is graduated, and lighter yellow in some places. The creases of her clothes are realistically crafted taking into account the stretch pose and wind effect. One issue though is the giant crease across the front of her skirt - what the hell is that? Nakamura and Masaru, can’t use the iron properly? Or is it an invisible Imadori lifting her skirt?

One thing, Eri sure has huge tits for such a small frame.

And good upskirt pictures no thanks to the huge crease. Maybe that was the true purpose.

White, but surely black would’ve been more of her style.

The butt is like.. wow.

Overall, this is a rather boring figure and if it wasn’t Eri or School Rumble, nobody would be interested in the least bit. I can’t say I’m too pleased with this but its nice to finally own a figurine of the Goddess. Now, the key question is, WHO IS NEXT? Technically, it should be Mikoto. But screw Mikoto, I want either Akira, Itoko or Karen. Judging by previous gashapon and trading sets, it’ll probably be Mikoto.