Utena Tenjo & Anthy Himemiya

7 hours ago, Chise said:

hi sorry... still me... Cannot stop staring at that teaser image.... Himemiya has DARK JOINTS!!
Volks clearly could always make the matching joints happen, they just didn't wanna.... (unless these are photoshop & "sample may differ from final product" shenanigans in which case I will cry)

For real if they would hurry up and make dollfie icons on F3 with matching joints I would buy them SO FAST

I went to bed last night thinking I was most assuredly safe from Volks News this time

BUT THEN

UTENA!!!

Really, I should have known better. We are never entirely safe.

I thought I was safe as I’m very happy with the state of my collection.. but Utena is just gorgeous! 

So…I’m about to faint from shock 😵

I’ve been out of the dollfie game for a little while because not a lot of recent gals have really wowed me… But - hit diggity daffodil!! I want both!!!

I only worry now if they aren’t a preorder if it’ll be very hard (and expensive) to get them - I now have a little baby human to care for and click wars and paying after market aren’t as easy (or justifiable) as they once were. 😔 

I would hope it’s a preorder … but Sailormoon had a bigger reach than Utena and they were limited - so I’m betting they’ll follow suit unfortunately.

22 minutes ago, mangaemi said:

I would hope it’s a preorder … but Sailormoon had a bigger reach than Utena and they were limited - so I’m betting they’ll follow suit unfortunately.

Sailor Moon hasn’t been bad on markups, except for Usagi’s Super Sailor Moon outfit.

5 hours ago, CaffeinatedCake said:

I am praying so hard that they go preorder route or like, standard lottery. If it's clickwar I'm doomed... I have 0 expectation that I would win 😭

The important thing is that we TRY. ; w ;

5 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I'd expect they will follow the pattern of other releases and be a clickwar item on the Volks website.

 

They will almost certainly be together as the upcoming Dolpa's DD releases.

Somewhere between ¥70,000 - ¥80,000 seems likely.

 

Utena is coming home for sure, but I'm not sure about Anthy. I really don't like the idea of skin colors that don't have option or replacement parts, so unless this tone is a new standard option, she seems like a maintenance nightmare. That's what's always held me back from getting Kanu.

That said, I'd love to see Volks release this color into their lineup, and Anthy's sculpt seems really faithful to the character.

The skin color thing is a definite concern but it's legitimately not gonna stop me ; w ;
though it's def. good to know in case I need to choose one over the other.

Do you know if Volks makes you upfront? I've heard they don't and that Y'shtola isn't the norm 
but would like to have my wallet prepared (have a spending limit a day on card)

13 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

Do you know if Volks makes you upfront? I've heard they don't and that Y'shtola isn't the norm 
but would like to have my wallet prepared (have a spending limit a day on card)

Upfront payment is the norm for the Dolpa after events. 

12 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Upfront payment is the norm for the Dolpa after events. 

Oof, good thing paypal pay in 4 is a thing x'D
Do we at least get the DDs sooner unlike Y'shtola who releases in December?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you so much for answering them!
I'm currently going on hyperdrive research mode for these @_@

11 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

Do we at least get the DDs sooner unlike Y'shtola who releases in December?

Yes, Y’shtola was unlimited pre-order, which takes a year to prepare the dolls. The Dolpa events usually have a lead time of 8 - 12 weeks. Keep in mind that there can be unexpected delays. Volks is good about keeping their schedules, but in the past major events like typhoons have knocked schedules out of whack. 

They will tell people weeks ahead of the event what the terms and schedules are. I would suggest creating a Volks account now, and be aware that some doll releases require GL membership, so if this one does you want to sign up for GL well ahead of the event. 

17 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Yes, Y’shtola was unlimited pre-order, which takes a year to prepare the dolls. The Dolpa events usually have a lead time of 8 - 12 weeks. Keep in mind that there can be unexpected delays. Volks is good about keeping their schedules, but in the past major events like typhoons have knocked schedules out of whack. 

They will tell people weeks ahead of the event what the terms and schedules are. I would suggest creating a Volks account now, and be aware that some doll releases require GL membership, so if this one does you want to sign up for GL well ahead of the event. 

I have a Volks USA account, but just found out about international, I know international will be better (exchange rate and all) from ordering PVC figure from Japan vs US, but I'm hoping USA may have less competition, though we don't know which store they'll be up on other than I'm guessing main JP and International.

Thank you for the GL heads up! These are items I legitimately really want (and now even before Y'shtola arrives I'll have my 3/5 dollfies I'll ever own if I win/manage to win click war lol)

Ohyeah, I'd have to renew my GL membership if it's needed (probably will be), but I'll wait until we know for sure. I should probably use my points before they expire this time. ^^;;

We know Utena will come with her sword, do you guys think Anthy will come with Chuchu? I'm also gonna have to bite the bullet and learn how to pierce ears, Anthy HAS to have her earrings!

1 hour ago, kranberrijam said:

do you guys think Anthy will come with Chuchu?

That’s what I’m wondering 💭 

Im so torn. Utena and Anthy are my dream DD's. Ive even posted about that before! But their faces are....alll wrong.

Theyre beautiful dolls. But they dont look anything like the characters or art style. Noses are too small, faces are too soft and round. They look like Megurine Luka cosplaying as Utena and Anthy. They did such a great job imitating the art style for Lina Inverse, why not Utena?

Im hoping more photos will change my mind but Im actually pretty disappointed.

10 minutes ago, Cydril said:

They look like Megurine Luka cosplaying as Utena and Anthy

Utena looks more like Kaede Takagaki to me. 
 

10 minutes ago, Cydril said:

They did such a great job imitating the art style for Lina Inverse

Lina has a very round cheeks, which lends itself to the Volks DD style pretty well. With projects like this there is always going to be some compromise between 2D character art and what works as a product in the real world. The head also has to fit the Volks DD body style, and the body is pretty curvy as opposed to angular. What works with the outfit affects the style too, because a manga artist can ignore physics and a doll-maker can’t.  
 

An anime character is a styled representation of a person, and a DD is kind of a stylized representation of an anime character.

 

21 minutes ago, Cydril said:

Im so torn. Utena and Anthy are my dream DD's. Ive even posted about that before! But their faces are....alll wrong.

Theyre beautiful dolls. But they dont look anything like the characters or art style. Noses are too small, faces are too soft and round. They look like Megurine Luka cosplaying as Utena and Anthy. They did such a great job imitating the art style for Lina Inverse, why not Utena?

Im hoping more photos will change my mind but Im actually pretty disappointed.

Honestly my plan is to get new faceups for them--I think the base sculpts are great, but I think the faceups could be better? Especially Anthy's. Like they're not bad, by any means! But I think they could benefit from better faceups. I felt this way about the Nero Claudius DD too (which is why mine is a Saber with a custom faceup that I felt captured her personality waaaay better).

24 minutes ago, Cydril said:

Im so torn. Utena and Anthy are my dream DD's. Ive even posted about that before! But their faces are....alll wrong.

Theyre beautiful dolls. But they dont look anything like the characters or art style. Noses are too small, faces are too soft and round.

I definitely understand your stance here, because in my heart of hearts, I too wish they looked more... 'Utena' style, but I also know that there was no way they could have gotten that pointy-chinned, edgy style to work on a DD.  I know they would have been ugly as hell if they had tried to lean into the style too much.

Custom faceups on these two are going to do a world of difference, especially for Anthy, as everyone seems to agree.  I wish her eye makeup was a bit bolder, really.  Her darker skin tone plus the glasses really just muddles the lashes as they are now.  She's still serving big Anime Anthy vibes though and I'm here for it.  I really have no complaints!

 

Also, for anyone interested, the NA license holder for the series has the entire anime uploaded to YouTube, in both Subbed and Dubbed versions!

 

Since we didn't hear anything about KAITO, I'm assuming he's going to be the August release at best (though, do we even have confirmation that he's going to be a 2022 release at all?), and so I'm really left wondering when they're going to put these two out.  At first I thought I would just get Utena, but Anthy has really grown on me, so I'm basically trying to refinance my entire life and preparing to live off of ramen to afford three god damn character DDs in one year.  Assuming these two don't go clickwar/lottery, of course.

Oh god my wallet is doomed if the video game convention tomorrow doesn’t take it first.  😵

Edited February 26, 2022 by Tokimemofan

2 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

With projects like this there is always going to be some compromise between 2D character art and what works as a product in the real world. The head also has to fit the Volks DD body style, and the body is pretty curvy as opposed to angular. What works with the outfit affects the style too, because a manga artist can ignore physics and a doll-maker can’t.  
 

An anime character is a styled representation of a person, and a DD is kind of a stylized representation of an anime character.

Gotta disagree. Azone somehow makes all their dolls look exactly like the characters in the anime/games they’re adapted from. I don’t know if Volks just likes to march to the beat of their own drum or what, but their dolls almost always just look like Volks dolls and not like the actual characters they’re meant to represent. Being the biggest name in the industry, that just strikes me as laziness on their part.

32 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

Gotta disagree. Azone somehow makes all their dolls look exactly like the characters in the anime/games they’re adapted from. I don’t know if Volks just likes to march to the beat of their own drum or what, but their dolls almost always just look like Volks dolls and not like the actual characters they’re meant to represent. Being the biggest name in the industry, that just strikes me as laziness on their part.

I think Azone dolls have a style, just like Volks dolls do, though.  If you compare the Azone 50cm Utena doll to the Volks DD Utena, you can tell they're both Utena, but in the respective company's style.  While you can argue that Azone tries to lean more into the original style of the character, you can't fault Volks for staying true to their style, regardless of if it's your (collective you) preference or not.  So I think Beyond is right here, that Volks makes the necessary compromises to the character vibe to ensure it fits the Dollfie Dream style.

41 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

Gotta disagree. Azone somehow makes all their dolls look exactly like the characters in the anime/games they’re adapted from. I don’t know if Volks just likes to march to the beat of their own drum or what, but their dolls almost always just look like Volks dolls and not like the actual characters they’re meant to represent. Being the biggest name in the industry, that just strikes me as laziness on their part.

This is also something that's bugged me for quite some time with dolls in that it's pretty difficult to get the dolls to capture the essence of the characters they're representing. And sometimes the result is a doll that looks closer to a doll cosplaying as the character, rather than being a doll of that character.

As for why Volks character dolls tend to have that particular look, my observation as an outsider is that the lion's share of their collabs seem to be based off the DD/DDS and feature the same mature-faced sculpts with the eyes also having that signature look to them.

With Azone's character dolls, even the more mature characters lean more "moe" for lack of a better word, so they have a more cartoony, childish look to them that is more identifiable with the anime characters they're based on.

I recently bought a 1/6 PureNeemo from a series I really like, and it's just really hard for a doll to compete with figurines if visual fidelity is a concern. You're tuned to a character's exact look, and figurines capture this perfectly. Dolls are inherently a compromise in exchange for being able to dress them up and pose them.

Edited February 26, 2022 by chef_mai

1 hour ago, OccultBeast said:

I think Azone dolls have a style, just like Volks dolls do, though.  If you compare the Azone 50cm Utena doll to the Volks DD Utena, you can tell they're both Utena, but in the respective company's style.  While you can argue that Azone tries to lean more into the original style of the character, you can't fault Volks for staying true to their style, regardless of if it's your (collective you) preference or not.  So I think Beyond is right here, that Volks makes the necessary compromises to the character vibe to ensure it fits the Dollfie Dream style.

Oh I definitely think Volks tries to stay true to their own style, the end result is just that, as @chef_mai put it, it looks more like a Dollfie cosplaying as a character than the character itself. If you want a doll that looks like Volks’ interpretation of the character, that’s fine, but if you want a doll that actually looks like the character, you’re going to have to look elsewhere. I brought up Azone as an example because they do a lot of collabs and in recent years they’ve really been hitting it out of the park in terms of faithfully reproducing characters (especially in 1/6 scale).

I can't beliieve this. I have to buy them both. It's my favourite anime

I'm praying these dolls are sold through pre orders. If Anthy is the first DD with skin this dark, im sure people will be extra interested in her so I think it makes sense for Volks to do a pre order. . . .

Personally, I really want Anthy because this is the closest a DD has ever really matched my skin tone and that just warms my heart. So many companies only go as far as light tan, so I'm glad to see darker skin tones. ^_^

 

Also, im only a quarter through the manga but which do people recommend more. The manga or the anime?

27 minutes ago, iPOUT said:

I'm praying these dolls are sold through pre orders. If Anthy is the first DD with skin this dark, im sure people will be extra interested in her so I think it makes sense for Volks to do a pre order. . . .

Personally, I really want Anthy because this is the closest a DD has ever really matched my skin tone and that just warms my heart. So many companies only go as far as light tan, so I'm glad to see darker skin tones. ^_^

 

Also, im only a quarter through the manga but which do people recommend more. The manga or the anime?

Same - if they’re not preorders it’ll be rough…

My recommendation for manga vs anime is hands down the anime. The symbolism and music do so much more for the story and it’s themes. 
 

(also off topic so forgive me but - looks like a Utena figure is also in the works from Volks: