The original Ranma series got attention last year, and now we have the reboot to take a look at. Near as I can tell, it's like the original manga run where there was less filler and more faithfulness to the manga. Also much like the Urusei Yatsura remake, it more focused on light censorship while trying to retain any fan service or basic nudity. However, despite being the titular character and having more merch potential with either gender, Ranma Saotome did not arrive at my doorstep. Both versions were bought at Amazon with preorders still waiting to be fulfilled while blue hair babe Akane Tendo and part-time cat Shampoo came directly from BigBadToyStore. While I wait to think of something for the protagonist of this series to make his and her way home, I will instead be reviewing the two gals who try to win his heart. Let's see how well Good Smile translated them as Nendoroids.
Let's start with Akane Tendo, the girl who has a conflicting crush towards Ranma. Between their rocky first meeting and the way Ranma sucked at socializing. This figure generally matches the shorter haircut style she's normally given, though the new anime sometimes shows her with slightly longer hair. I always preferred this style more since it makes me think of Ami, Bulma, and Rei. The dress remains consistent with what she normally wears in the series, and thankfully everything has been painted nicely with no mistakes at all. Even the eyes and the small smile have no QC issues. I always appreciate that the bare skin is left unpainted so it can look more naturalistic while the clothes and hair are painted to make them feel more premium.
As far as her accessories are concerned, she comes with alternate arms that attach to the rolled up sleeves so she can hold a very tiny P-Chan, who attaches onto a small peg for one of the alternate open palm hands. Those same bent forearms can be displayed with her having her hands on her back so she can be displayed with an alternate blushing expression with one of the legs replaced with an alternate knee-bent piece. And of course, she can be displayed with a yelling face since that is normally what she does to people. I'm surprised she doesn't come with a hammer but then again, it would be difficult for her to hold.
As for Shampoo, she comes with her Chinese dress, which stems from her ethnicity and country of origin compared to most of the other characters. Also, the new anime dub uses an actual Asian VA instead of a Caucasian mimicking how the Chinese sound, and with all the debates going on with the standards of the past versus now, I can at least say it sounds better than the replacement VAs we got with most Fox cartoon characters or Phil LaMarr no longer voicing Samurai Jack. From having the Figuart as the sole version of the character on my collection (for a while until this arrived), I was used to her having an apron on or maybe wear one of the outfits that has pink. At least she doesn't come with beef against Ranma. Also, while the bangs and the twin buns seem new, the back of the hair seems too similar to what Good Smile has done before with many long hair characters. Kagome and Misato come to mind in my collection, and I don't know if GSC uses CAD files for reference material, but maybe they don't want to deal with constantly making new sculpts for every anime character with hair that long.
As for display options, she comes with an alternate face looking to the right with a look of either seduction or straight up going "whatcha doin'?"; that or she wants to offer you some food. She also comes with bent forearms so she can either offer said meal or prance around all happy with an alternate bent leg. However, it appear that she has new articulation different from the others; her neck joint is cut at an angle compared to the more symmetrical rotation found on other figures, and it makes having her look up and down wonkier than the old hip joints on Toy Biz Marvel Legends. Not only that, but the hips are on unique double ball joints that are fairly new to me...and sadly, one of them broke. Now it could just be my luck failing me in this instance to have poor quality control, but with how delicate these parts can be, especially if they come from a poor batch of double ball pegs, GSC should look into better check-ups before shipping them. Either that or the paint dries up and froze the joint. Honestly, using normal pegs would have worked better, even if you have to shrink them because of the dress's size. Also, she doesn't have her car for., which may be saved for a Ryoga or Gendo Saotome, but who knows. So while Akane manages to be free of any issues, be careful with Shampoo or else you'll get tears in your eyes from breaking your copy the same way people get teary eyed from shampoo suds reaching their eyes.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for both)
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