SH Figuarts Ranma 1/2 Shampoo review

We previously took a look at the Ranma duo. If you thought I'd immediately go to the love/hate interest Akane Tendo or the other male character of the series named Ryoga Hibiki, you're unfortunately wrong. As of this moment, both figures are much harder to obtain than either Ranma or Shampoo, the latter of which will be the focus. Like most characters, she is given a curse where she changes form when she gets drenched in water, but she turns into a cat with a fur pattern that looks like her hair from the front rather than becoming a male version of her. Shampoo loves male Ranma and thinks female Ranma is an enemy, and she is also a cook of some sort. We'll see if she can be more valuable than the hair treatment products she is named after!

Here we have Shampoo in-hand, depicting her in a Chinese dress with leggings that are rolled up for her exposed ankles while an apron is put over her body. Shampoo's anatomy remains close to the anime she appeared in, and I also like the way the fleshtone looks consistent on the ankles, forearms, and face. It is an overall successful recreation of the character's appearance in the anime (and by extension, the manga that spawned the anime), though I'm sure some will mention how the characters tend to have bigger or smaller eyes depending on the main animator, though the figure suffers from having a larger set of hair that will undoubtedly weigh her back somewhat. There is a fix to this, though I find that better tolerances could save from stumbling over if she is standing upright.

Her head sculpt has the eyes shaped to somewhat have that Chinese ethnicity to her, which is a trait that makes her distinct from the other characters in the series who, despite hailing from Japan, do not bear Japanese characteristics to their faces. The purple hair has a lovely brush to almost make it appear black as it fades to the bangs and the bottom of the strands on the back. I also love the red and gold on the ribbons and hairbands that go on the sides. Her accessories include a bowl of ramen, a delivery box that reads "okamochi", a relaxed face, a happy face, a side-eye face, her cat form, six pairs of hands, a set of hands cupped together, a neck support piece, and the parts necessary for his stand.

The articulation is about the same as the other Ranma figures, though the skirt does limit her leg movement (not to the same extent as Akane's). While she can grip the box without issue on the handle, her bowl can only rest in place, so be sure not to let it stumble over! That and the food itself being a separate peace from the bowl means you better not lose either piece! Thankfully, getting any of her hands in place is nowhere near as annoying as with Ryoga, even the option with both hands cupped together. As for the neck support, what it basically does is remove the additional hinge joint for moving up and down to make her head flop around less due to the weight of her hair. It still flops around a bit, though now at the neck. Come to think of it, with most Figuarts having this engineering for the neck joints, it makes one wonder how easy it is to remove them for swapping onto other bodies.

Taking a closer look at the box, ramen bowl, and Shampoo's cat form, and the paint work is great to see on all 3 accessories. I appreciate that the handle is painted in a flat deco to contrast the metal box. The ramen bowl looks rich in detail to distinguish each of the ingredients used to make ramen (which is ironic since I never tried ramen before). As for the cat form, I'd argue it's done better than the P-Chan accessory, from the fade of pink to a very faint lavender. She is pre-posed but there is rotation at the neck.

Here she is next to the Black Series Bossk figure I reviewed along with Dengar. With her being of average Asian height, this scale makes sense if you wanted to do any wacky crossovers with Star Wars and Ranma characters. Should you? Who knows. But I do recommend Shampoo overall. While I wish she was as affordable as the prices she used to go for, she makes for a cuter contrast to the more comedic characters we previously covered. She doesn't have any expressions showing anger nor dismay; in a way, she could pass for a generic Chinese restaurant waitress if you have no interest in Ranma 1/2 but want this figure to make a restaurant display involving her. But good luck with the aftermarket prices!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐