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Today’s post is all about the new Inuyasha Nendoroid from Good Smile Company~
NOTE: We took all photos shown here and made minimal edits to them. We slightly adjusted the color/lighting, dust was Photoshopped out, and we cropped each photo. However, we did not remove any blemishes or imperfections.
Nendoroids have come a long way since the very first one was released at the winter Wonder Festival back in ye olden days of 2006, according to Good Smile’s huge listing. We’re talking a roster of over 1,400 figures that shows no signs of slowing down regular announcements, spin-offs like the Nendoroid Doll series, and who knows what other projects they’re cooking up.
The whiplash of seeing everything from characters with barely three anime episodes under their belt to ever-present favorites getting greenlit for Nendoroids makes Nendo fatigue a very real (and understandable) thing that hits from time to time; everything starts looking the same after a while, but we always know there’ll be that one figure (or five) that inevitably reignites the madness all over again.
You know when older video games get an HD remake? That’s what this Nendoroid feels like.
Inuyasha in Nendo form channels more of that 2000s anime flair (makes for a wild nostalgia trip) than what we’ve seen of him so far in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon.
Quality-wise, he’s consistent with other recent Nendoroids — minimal shading, a fairly clean paint job, and he comes with a decent variety of parts for maximum posing shenanigans. One nice surprise when unboxing him was seeing a placeholder peg used with his bent leg; not necessary, but appreciated.
His base is one of the newer ones and, like other Nendoroids with longer hair, he has a shorter, modified stand. As a lot of you know, one major pitfall of these figures is how hit-or-miss they are when it comes to how easily the stand peg fits into the back of the Nendoroid so we were relieved that we were able to attach everything very easily without having to jam anything together.
Anyway, now that we’ve got the boring stuff out of the way...
Ohmygod his ankles rotate. Don’t judge us, but this is a stupidly cute detail. It’s admittedly a challenge to get him to stand flat on his feet at times (weep with us over our failure in the photos), and yet it makes posing way more fun. His poofy sashinuki pants are also perfect for the Nendoroid chibi style~
So, the Beads of Subjugation aren’t a masterclass in detail work, but we do like the contrasting shine of the paint that still matches the other purple accents. (And let’s face it — coloring inside the lines isn’t something Nendoroids are known for.)
What we are impressed with are Inuyasha’s itty bitty claws! Major kudos to the sculptor who made these look so good — even his nails have been recreated.
Initially, we were torn between whether or not we were let down that they didn’t paint his nails to match the show.
And then we started seeing tweets and edits like this and decided it’s probably best to leave details like that to larger scale figures out there.
Although, if any Nendoroid modders out there want to make this a reality...please share pics.
Meanwhile, yeah, we said the stand peg slotted easily into the figure’s back, but that wasn’t the case when we tried to get Tessaiga’s sheath to stay in place.
Nendoroid collectors and lovers of miniature things know this struggle. We’re just glad we didn’t lose the scabbard after it popped out of place so many times.
Tessaiga itself is dope (and way less of a pain). Tiny replicas of colossal blades are always a surefire way to ramp up our serotonin levels and balance out the frustration of grappling with finicky parts.
On an equally happy note, fitting the sword grip into Inuyasha’s right hand was ridiculously easy and we were able to raise his left hand to rest on the end of the grip instead of snapping it to fit into place beforehand like we initially did in the photo below.
Don’t be fools like us! Just get his right hand and arm set up with the sword and then you can pose his left arm and hand afterward.
Let’s not kid ourselves — this is the pose and expression that had everyone sold on this Nendo and we can confirm, 11/10, it’s even more heart-stoppingly precious in person.
Even though this is what we remember happening most of the time.
We’ll admit that we see Inuyasha as more of a bratty cat boy than a dog, but at the end of the day his little Akita ears are adorable no matter what. The only thing that could’ve made them even better is if they were poseable like his ankles.
All in all, it’s a great figure for fans of this frustratingly lovable wreck of a tsundere.
Expect the usual fumbling that comes with trying to get a Nendoroid’s small parts into place and posed just right, but cycling through Inuyasha’s different poses was infinitely easier compared to setting up others. (Lio Fotia we love you, but ugh).
Finishing each pose gave us an actual sense of satisfaction and it wasn’t hard to make this figure look good — sometimes, a simple character design can go a long way and in this case Inuyasha is a perfect addition to GSC’s Nendoroid line.
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