Nanao Yuriko (The Idolm@ster: Million Live!)

All these photos make me want her. But I really really shouldn't...

:'( All these photos make me want her. But I really really shouldn't...

For the correct path to take, you just have to ask yourself, "What would Yaya do?"

Just leave the decision in the hands of Gabriel’s Freya. You’ll end up with two dolls hidden behind an entire library of Warhammer 40k books that mysteriously appear on your bookshelf one day.

 

My Yuriko shipped today, so she almost certainly won’t be here in time to post photos ahead of the after event. With all the owner photos out there now hopefully everyone knows which way they fall already.

Yuriko’s page is finally up:

 

https://www.volks.co.jp/page_ex.jsp?CONTROLID=SC0040&BUSINESSID=InitDisp&jancd=4518992419978&version=en

 

Honestly as much as I love Million Live, I REALLY hope that the next im@s DDs would be of practically any of the SideM idols instead. The art style there is the same as anim@s and Million Live, but at least they’re guys so it’ll def be different for once.

Honestly as much as I love Million Live, I REALLY hope that the next im@s DDs would be of practically any of the SideM idols instead. The art style there is the same as anim@s and Million Live, but at least they’re guys so it’ll def be different for once.

 

Ah, I would much prefer this. I'd like to see more male DDs in general but this seems like an obvious choice if they are going to continue with the IM@s.

 

~~~

Also I can't get over HOW MUCH she looks like Karin. It is actually crazy to me, and weirdly makes me dislike Karin a little.

:'( All these photos make me want her. But I really really shouldn't...

For the correct path to take, you just have to ask yourself, "What would Yaya do?"

 

That is a very scary question indeed...

Huh. 6 hours after she went up and she’s still available. I was expecting a much more brutal clickwar so that’s good news I guess - gives me hope for any future releases done this way. I wonder if they’ve prepared heaps of her or if she’s just not as popular...? It’s good news for people who wanted her, bad news for people on the fence who might have assumed they wouldn’t have a chance anyway.

Wow, she’s still available. I wonder how long she’ll stay in stock. I think most of the people who seriously wanted her must have bought her by now, so it’s good that there were enough of her made with more to spare. While Yuriko herself is a really popular character within her series and her doll looks good as representation as her character, I admit that as a DD release she doesn’t really bring anything that new or unique.

 

She’s still super cute though, and I’d love to see more owner pictures of her!

 

Now I really want to see how she looks compared to Karin..

Still there now too. While it's certainly possible that she just wasn't that popular and hasn't sold so well, otherwise I feel like with Yuriko as well as other recent releases like Luka being a new type of preorder and Sailor Moon (being lottery but still seemingly had a high percentage of winners), and the odd wording on Kaede's page suggesting she's being sold like Yuriko (or some other different technique) that hopefully the days of lots of heartache over not being able to get dolls from Volks are over.

 

Now I really want to see how she looks compared to Karin..

I was thinking the same thing earlier today; it'd be great if someone gets both dolls and posts headshots from the same angles to finally answer once and for all how similar/different they are.

Still there now too. While it's certainly possible that she just wasn't that popular and hasn't sold so well, otherwise I feel like with Yuriko as well as other recent releases like Luka being a new type of preorder and Sailor Moon (being lottery but still seemingly had a high percentage of winners), and the odd wording on Kaede's page suggesting she's being sold like Yuriko (or some other different technique) that hopefully the days of lots of heartache over not being able to get dolls from Volks are over.

 

Now I really want to see how she looks compared to Karin..

I was thinking the same thing earlier today; it'd be great if someone gets both dolls and posts headshots from the same angles to finally answer once and for all how similar/different they are.

So has Volks increased production? The hobby slowed down? Smart Doll consuming market share? I have always followed Volks releases, but not really the second hand market for dolls I never purchased. I have noticed that even some of the older release dolls have dropped in price. I feel like earlier in the decade a DD not selling out in the first few days was absolutely unheard of, or am I just remembering wrong? Its possible shes just not popular, especially since so many are comparing her to a standard model(Karin).

I don't have any answers, but I was thinking it seems likely Volks has at least the ability for more production now. Luka is a preorder doll, yet there's just a few month wait to get her unlike the nearly a year wait that's been typical for preorder dolls. And while I wasn't in the hobby at the time, I know from reading here that there was a period when Volks was preparing a popular doll (I think it was Saber Extra) that bodies weren't available to buy for a long time because they couldn't make them and also make the doll.

 

I've been in the hobby less than a year and only paid some attention to it for about 3 years, but I have an impression that maybe people have left the hobby? I really have no idea but over the past few months I have read through most of the threads on this forum, and there are a significant number of people who used to post here consistently that are no longer around, at least not here whether that means they left the hobby or just the forum I do not know.

I'm guessing higher production numbers. It's not just the change in the after events, they've changed how they do them at Dolpa's, and they are offering all of them in the US now too. (Not sure about Yuriko though, so far no news.)

 

I don't think the character lacks popularity, but I did think that reception here was a bit more tepid than usual. That might be an indicator of people not liking her sculpt.

 

I don't have a Karin, and not looking to get one. I can of course provide a headshot and maybe we can get someone with a Karin to combine it into a side by side.

 

I'm hoping she will be here on Monday, she should be in the US late tonight, but we'll see how it goes with customs. Really depends on if it's SFO or LA, and how busy they are.

Gunter posted pics of Karin's bare head from different angles here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17235 so there's that for comparison.

 

I'm guessing Yuriko and Kaede won't be sold by Volks USA. Since Idolmaster and their outfits never have been, presumably there is a licensing barrier to doing so as there is with Macross.

 

Yuriko's sculpt doesn't really appeal to me but I know my tastes are weird and limited, and generally I'm most interested in the more mature-looking dolls, hence why I love Sheryl, Takane, Chihaya and Miki Hoshii and why I dislike DDH-01 and most MDDs.

Since Idolmaster and their outfits never have been, presumably there is a licensing barrier to doing so as there is with Macross.

 

Actually Volks USA did the pre-order iM@S girls, and they are supposed to offer all the limiteds now. What I think may be different with Yuriko is she seems to be a special release more like the macros re-release.

Oh, I didn't know that. I had read somewhere here none of them were offered through the USA site, I thought. Ok, so it sucks even more that I don't have Anastasia.

 

I suspect Volks wouldn't have wanted to risk offering the Macross girls on the USA site before or now. Harmony Gold has effectively killed any release of anything Macross in the US for the past 30 years even though whatever they actually have rights to is dubious and should've not extended to newer series. That hasn't stopped HG from suing anyone and everyone who tries.

 

If information on Wikipedia is accurate, maybe Harmony Gold's reign of terror over Macross will finally end in 2021-2022.

 

I suspect Volks wouldn't have wanted to risk offering the Macross girls on the USA site before or now. Harmony Gold has effectively killed any release of anything Macross in the US for the past 30 years even though whatever they actually have rights to is dubious and should've not extended to newer series. That hasn't stopped HG from suing anyone and everyone who tries.

 

 

Don't really know anything about Macros historically. I think I recall someone saying Volks USA had another iM@S DD release a long time ago, but it didn't do well. That could just be my hazy memory of forum posts from long ago though.

Off-topic so I'll just briefly summarize, and I don't know all the details anyway. Harmony Gold turned Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada into their series Robotech back in the 1980s. They've claimed to own anything to do with Macross ever since, and even though they themselves have no intention of doing anything with the license, they don't want anyone else doing anything either.

 

There have been an exception or two as with AnimEigo releasing Macross on video so I'm clearly not sure of all the details of everything.

 

I seriously doubt NGBI would've blocked Volks from releasing iM@S DDs in that way, but still there may be separate licensing, or extra fees or something over just releasing them in Japan. And you could be right; if Volks tried with any of the early releases before iM@S was really known at all in the US the dolls might not have done so well.

I seriously doubt NGBI would've blocked Volks from releasing iM@S DDs in that way, but still there may be separate licensing, or extra fees or something over just releasing them in Japan. And you could be right; if Volks tried with any of the early releases before iM@S was really known at all in the US the dolls might not have done so well.

 

I dont know if Volks USA is a good indicator of anything. Most people use or used to use the international site because they shipped faster and offered product much much sooner. Volks USA used to just be for people who missed out on the international lottery. Also many products were only ever offered on the international/japanese site so even if you wanted to use Volks USA as much as possible you generally became familiar with the international site as it sold exclusive items. Since you always wanted the maximum chance of getting a doll via lottery, everyone pretty much did use the international site over Volks USA.

She arrived, and she is beautiful.

 

Just a few quick first impressions. Her wig is nice, and is a bit less poofy than in the Volks photos. While it doesn't completely match the style in the iM@S card pictures, and I don't see how it could in any event, I was a bit worried about how big it looked in the photos.

 

Volks did a pretty good job with designing her outfit so that just about everything that touches her is white. The little black stripes on the bodice are backed with white as are the accessories. The big exceptions are the socks, and depending on how you position the skirt there is a spot on her waist where the blue in the inside of the bodice could touch her. The belt is tight on her waist, and I am not sure you could put it on a DD3. It fits her pretty well.

 

I put an S bust on her, because that seems to fit her character art better, and the outfit works fine with it. I never tried it on the M, but I think it would be very very snug in the chest. This is another area where I think you can forget about putting this outfit on a DD3. I heard similar things about Usagi's outfits being very tight in the bust, and I almost wondering if Volks isn't just shipping these dolls with M when they really should be a smaller bust size.

 

In any event the outfit really seems to be made for DDS, which is nice.

 

Standard Volks yellow box too for those who are interested. I was kind of hoping special art box for the first ML release, but nope. Still, easier on my closet space.

 

Edit: Just as a note I think the outfit would work well on Chihaya's SS bust too.

I've wondered if, for the standard outfits included with the dolls, if Volks has been making them DDS-specific, since there's no requirement or expectation that they need to fit anything else. It's uncommon of course to have extra outfits that are only for DDS, though I think I've seen at least one that is listed that way.

 

I just checked and Yuriko is still available from Volks, and is also not listed as "low stock" even.

 

I'm liking this easier availability on dolls, but also hopefully Volks doesn't end up with overstocks of dolls where they decide it wasn't such a good idea after all. Freyja is still available after all.

I'm liking this easier availability on dolls, but also hopefully Volks doesn't end up with overstocks of dolls where they decide it wasn't such a good idea after all. Freyja is still available after all.

 

I do worry about that as well. And for the record I think the Volks photo's of Freya are just awful. Gabriel's photos of her show her to be a lot cuter than she looks in the product photos. It's the same with Haruka Amami, she looks a lot nicer in person. The Volks pictures make her face look longer and more angular than it is.

Yeah Volks' pictures of Freyja are awful; I didn't realize she was actually nice until Gabriel's pictures.

 

I'm unconvinced on Haruka though; I've seen user pics and she's just...weird.

Yeah Volks' pictures of Freyja are awful; I didn't realize she was actually nice until Gabriel's pictures.

 

I'm unconvinced on Haruka though; I've seen user pics and she's just...weird.

 

Yeah the open mouth isn't the best thing in a doll, but again with Haruku I think the character needs that big open smile. It would look even stranger if it was as big as it is in her card images. It's kind of like side mouth, cute in 2D but horrifying in 3D.

 

 

A few other notes about Yuriko's outfit. The only way I have found to position her hat like they have it in the pictures is by hooking it into her braid, which I really don't like since it could mess up the braid if it snagged on something.

 

The diamonds on her socks are that iron on stuff like the stuff they used on Ranko's. Not so good since it cracks with age. Given that they are dark blue I have no intention of putting them on her anytime soon, but still it would be nicer if they used thread.

 

Her shoes have no zipper, so you kind of have to shove her feet into them. Not too hard if you pull the feet off, but that's not going to be a good option if you put the socks on her. You could unlace them, but good luck getting the bow back in place. They pushed on easily enough with the feet off, but partly because you could fish the tongue out easily.

 

Edit: And just to be clear she's awesome in person. I'm not trying to nitpick, I just want to give people some feedback on her set.

Yeah Volks' pictures of Freyja are awful; I didn't realize she was actually nice until Gabriel's pictures.

 

I'm unconvinced on Haruka though; I've seen user pics and she's just...weird.

 

Yeah the open mouth isn't the best thing in a doll, but again with Haruku I think the character needs that big open smile. It would look even stranger if it was as big as it is in her card images. It's kind of like side mouth, cute in 2D but horrifying in 3D.

 

 

A few other notes about Yuriko's outfit. The only way I have found to position her hat like they have it in the pictures is by hooking it into her braid, which I really don't like since it could mess up the braid if it snagged on something.

 

The diamonds on her socks are that iron on stuff like the stuff they used on Ranko's. Not so good since it cracks with age. Given that they are dark blue I have no intention of putting them on her anytime soon, but still it would be nicer if they used thread.

 

Her shoes have no zipper, so you kind of have to shove her feet into them. Not too hard if you pull the feet off, but that's not going to be a good option if you put the socks on her. You could unlace them, but good luck getting the bow back in place. They pushed on easily enough with the feet off, but partly because you could fish the tongue out easily.

 

Edit: And just to be clear she's awesome in person. I'm not trying to nitpick, I just want to give people some feedback on her set.

 

After weeks of scouring YJA I was finally able to find a seller that I can actually buy from. I’m excited to receive it. Shame about the socks though. I think I’ll make the most of them while they last. I’ll just double sock it.

 

After weeks of scouring YJA I was finally able to find a seller that I can actually buy from. I’m excited to receive it. Shame about the socks though. I think I’ll make the most of them while they last. I’ll just double sock it.

 

Which socks? Nanao or Ranko?

 

I haven't tried Nanao's on so I have no idea if they stain. Ranko's didn't stain her for the brief period I had them on her, but the black parts on her bodice did.

 

Not sure which doll you mean, but Ranko is worth every penny if she is the one you are after. I kicked myself for not getting her sooner. Her look is very true to her character, and she's such a cute character to start out.