Asuna

Tired: damsel in distress. Wired: damsel saving an entire world in distress. Uncontent to only tap into one kind of fantasy, Sword Art Online is mot just an isekai - like the musical Hamilton, it's also a harem anime. Every girl in the world wants to show Kirito their ethernet ports within about five minutes of meeting him, and the only thing that keeps them all from following him around everywhere or sharing a single suspiciously spacious apartment is his utter insistance on working alone. At least until he met Asuna. Yuuki Asuna came from a rich family and attended private all-girls schools before becoming trapped in the game. Technically it was her brother's copy of the game, and his VR equipment, but he had been called off to a last-minute meeting and couldn't attend the launch. She initally just holed up in a rented room in the starting town, before deciding to take her fate into her own hands. She was impressed by Kirito when she met him, and followed the advice he gave her, eventually becoming one of the game's top players. Asuna is dressed much more appropriately for a medieval fantasy world than Kirito was. It's hard to even name what clothes she's wearing, because they're more "what would be a fancy design" than "what would a human be able to wear?" Which makes sense, since they're purely digital, but still. Are those thigh-high boots with weird flares around the ankles, or short boots with high stockings? Is that a sleeveless dress, or a corset with tails? The elbow-length gloves are logical enough, but do those straps around her upper arms do anything, or just look cool? Is the miniskirt attached to anything, or separate? It definitely looks like something you'd see a character wearing in World of Warcraft or a similar game, though. She's in her guild colors, red and white, with some silver accents for the breastplate and belt she wears. You can count on Figma releases to have excellent articulation. Asuna gets all the joints you'd expect on a human toy - head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles - but also a few that are going to be unique to her because of her design. The big, white, skirt part of her dress is actually two panels, each mounted on their own joints so they can flare out behind her dramatically as she jumps through battles. But then there's a joint, hidden by her short little ponytail, that allows the hair to move. Articulated hair! How many toys can claim that? We also get a bunch of alternate hands (relaxed, splayed, fists, holding, and tilted holding) and a clear display stand to help keep her in more extreme poses. The front of her hair, the bangs and the strands that fall in front of her shoulders, can be removed, allowing you to swap her faces. The one she has on in the package is happy, and the other two are varying degrees of intense - not quite angry, but definitely concentrating hard on whatever fight she's currently in the middle of. The one could best be described as "flustered" - it's even painted with those little squiggles on the cheeks that anime uses to represent blushing. Asuna's specialty was swords, but where Kirito focussed on the choppy-slicey kind, Asuna favored pokey-stabby. She was a fencer, in other words. She doesn't dual-wield, so the fact that she comes with two different rapiers with two different scabbards represents a weapon upgrade, not two at the same time. The silver hilt and black scabbard are her Chivalric Rapier, made from the melted-down remains of her first special sword, and the sword with the blue hilt and the red scabbard is Lambent Light, a masterpiece-quality blade made by the same blacksmith who made Kirito's poop-sword. Both scabbards have a large knob on the back that can plug into a hole on the left hip of her skirt. She also gets a piece to represent her special attack, jabbing forward at an enemy with a flurry of strikes so fast she seems to be hitting them multiple times at once. The toy portrays this by having a translucent blue piece that fits onto either sword, then slides into a second piece that features four green "stab" effects connected by clear plastic so they look like they're floating. It's a nifty way of duplicating the animation style. For some reason, a lot of anime fans seem to look down on SAO. But I don't care, I like it. I like most of the sequels so far, too. I definitely liked it well enough to get the toys (or at least knockoffs on Singles' Day). Taste is subjective; if you enjoy something, if it entertains you, don't let anyone convince you it doesn't. Asuna's a cool character, and if no western company is going to make toys of her, we'll just have to look abroad. -- 09/15/21

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