Figure Review: LAIN is Pain, the Queen of Cyberloli Needs Some Photoshop at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Figure Review: LAIN is Pain, the Queen of Cyberloli Needs Some Photoshop

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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Popularity: 8% [?] Published by tj_han August 24th, 2006 in Figurine Reviews & Galleries

Lain, possibly the most recognisable recent anime cyberpunk loli, fittingly, requirs a computer program to look good as a figurine. In simple terms, OMG I PAID 6800 YEN FOR THIS SHIT???? THAT I HAVE TO PHOTOSHOP BEFORE IT EVEN LOOKS ANYTHING LIKE HER AND NOT A UNDEAD ZOMBIE SOAKED IN SWIMMING POOL WATER???

Vice kindly had some Yoshitoshi ABe artwork on the inside of the box. Now that is Lain. The figurine itself is not Lain, it’s PAIN!!

Ok maybe I am over-reacting a little. Lain’s clothes and the diorama base are perfectly fine and I would even say they are quite good. What totally irks me is the face. And the pricetag. How does this justify 6800 yen? Vice must die.

But first, photoshop for the win. By increasing the contrast, I made the effects darker and eerier. Just like how Real Mayer looks plain without her make up and Avril Lavigne has dead eyes without those eyeshadow, Lain figurine needs make up.

Tried different settings for each picture.

And now for the real thing.

Ugh.

On first look, Lain figurine’s notable areas are the diorama base and the rather weathered and dirty outfit she’s wearing. The base is a chunk of a staircase and it is curved, with the back portion with its rails tapering off for a vanishing effect. Lain is climbing the stairs, resting her left hand on the wall. The pose is not dynamic but goes the other way - it is motionlessly calming not unlike Nagato Yuki sitting and reading Hyperion. It’s quite a good representation of Lain really.

Her clothes are not squicky clean like most PVCs, but intentionally deeply shaded and toned for a dark and dirty feel. As you can see, they sure succeeded in creating a "dirty" effect since it does look like she rolled around in coolant fluid and hasn’t bathed in days. This sort of uncleanliness does well to bring out the gritty cyberpunk element of Serial Experiment Lain. Pretty unique but not quite orthodox figurine beauty. Imagine if a clean paintjob was applied, that would be totally out of place.

And I have finished talking about the good parts.

Attached to the base by three plugs, Lain was rather hard to squeeze in but very secure once in. She is actually leaning a tiny bit on the wall. Otherwise, if a force is applied outwards, she does tend to tilt a bit to her right and make violent creaking noises. Probably secure though.

I remember the dark sillouettes.

No upskirt picture but we have backwall. Anyway her panties are sort of whitish beige and very hard to spot.

To understand why this figure truly is the product of hellspawn, we must first understand what features Lain has that make her a cyber goddess.

She has asymmetrical hair - her left side is kept long and tied up. Asymmetry is cool! Vice’s figurine replicates this hairstyle but to poor effect. Her hair looks like a helmet with a sausage dangling.

Lain is loli with a dark side. The figurine has the loli, but the dark side is sorely lacking thanks to a poor choice of facial skin colour tone and a bad facial sculpt. Lain figurine’s face looks like an overweight zombie.

Lain has intelligent but emotionless eyes with a tinge of angst. The figure has an average decal for the eyes. Decent but not good enough. ABe’s artwork is put to shame.

So I have to give this figure low marks for the high cost, poor representation especially the face and a crap haircoconut masquerading as the hair. Points for the base though. Do note that the character score grades how much I am glad that the particular anime character was figurised and not how well she is represented.

Popularity: 8% [?]

20 Responses to “Figure Review: LAIN is Pain, the Queen of Cyberloli Needs Some Photoshop”

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1 Tsubaki 519 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 6:58 pm

Boom.

It seems like you’re on a “buying ugly figurines by accident” streak. Tsk tsk tsk.

I never finished watching Lain because I accidentally bought VCDs of it that was subtitled in chinese.
And I got totally lost with my rather weak command of chinese.
2 Adun 5 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 7:30 pm

6800 yen for that? Well probably because it is a diorama but still, Lain looks ugly with that face.
3 Lianyl 785 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

Actually, I like the clothes very much. It looks uber cool, but too bad Lain’s face sucks.
4 Juice 49 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 8:53 pm

the hair looks crappy indeed
5 jkl 7 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 10:11 pm

Yep definitely too light on the colour.
6 Alvin 45 comments Aug 24th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

Somehow the figurine seems to be unpropotional to me
7 Randall Fitzgerald 62 comments Aug 25th, 2006 at 12:39 am

That shit is just as ugly as it was when I saw production shots. Why did you buy it?!
8 Os 60 comments Aug 25th, 2006 at 6:13 am

I’m not going to deny. The coolest part is the stairs.
9 Crayotic Rockwell 37 comments Aug 25th, 2006 at 10:06 am

the eyes remind me of Lulu Miyamoto from Blood
10 Haesslich 18 comments Aug 25th, 2006 at 11:51 am

The hair’s all wrong - no texture, no definition.. and with that face having almost no shape or detail, it’s less “Lain” and more “Keroro” in the way it’s shaped… at least, IMO.
11 JKL 7 comments Aug 25th, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Yep too they were too light on the colour.
12 ryouko 1 2 comments Mar 26th, 2007 at 4:23 am

I generally don’t go for figures modelled after poses based on illustrations , wheres the originality? You know they didn’t even bother to paint underwear on this one for the release. I’m on a buying figures on impluse trend now, just purchased sara kodama. yep thats right
13 Meimi132 8 comments Aug 26th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

If ya just removed that dark eyeliner under her eyes and gave her new hair, it would be alot better off.
14 Jay Hunt 1 comment May 21st, 2010 at 2:28 am

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15 William Moore 1 comment May 25th, 2010 at 2:18 am

Link Popularity is very important specially if you want your websites to rank higher in google..~.
16 Kaden Hayes 1 comment Jul 10th, 2010 at 12:17 am

link popularity is very important in order for your website to get higher up in the search results page of any search engine.:”"
17 Bradley Thomson 3 comments Jul 26th, 2010 at 1:06 pm

as everyone knows, link popularity is very important in gaining page rank.:-*
18 Verokomo 1 comment Jul 29th, 2010 at 7:32 am

I wonder if the Exclusive Color Version is better.

Too bad they didn’t make a Lain figure all tangled up in cables like in the anime. Would have been a nice representation of her.

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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