[ryan]

S.H. Figuarts Nasca

"I told you before, I also love this city."

Ah, Kirihiko Suda! From the smug, superior attitude he carried at the beginning, as the top Gaia Memory dealer, to the way he became a rival of Kamen Rider W, in his form as the Nasca Dopant, and then even a bit of an ally at the end, Kirihiko was a favorite character of mine. And no lie, I still get a bit teary-eyed when I think of his transition and demise (spoilers!).

SH Figuarts Nasca is a figure I looked forward to getting for quite a while, so let's see how he compares to the W Figuarts (of which I have previously reviewed Heat Metal, Luna Trigger, and of course Cyclone Joker), shall we?

Packaging
Nasca comes in the standard Figuarts box of the time, with a black and white picture of the character on one corner, a big window revealing the figure, and his name in orange letters against the blue box. I do like the coloring the W boxes have, but really, the boxes are boring, merely functional and little else.

Main Figure
Nasca has almost all the same articulation points as does W, but he doesn't share any parts, as far as I can tell. The joints are all functional and none are too hindered, though the hands can run into the gauntlets that extend past the wrist in some poses, but it's not too big a deal. The baggy pants he wears are scooped out in the back so his knees retain a deep bend, the skirt is soft and don't interfere with the legs that I've found. His ab crunch is a bit better than the W body, as his Driver doesn't interfere like W's does, though the backwards movement has a little more range.

His scarf? Cape? What are those things on his back? Anyway, they're on a ball that lets them swivel out to almost parallel with the ground, and they can be lifted backwards too, though to get them to stay out like that I had to half-pop them off the ball. Oh, the ankles are not my favorite type of joint, being a ball-peg that the foot plugs into. There's not ankle hinge like W has, but unlike other Figuarts that have this type of foot joint, Nasca's actually has a pretty good range before the foot collides with the leg.

As for the sculpting, Nasca is fantastic. The problem with W's form variations is that they're 9 (I guess 10, really, with Fang Joker) identical figures. There is slight variation in the chest band and arm/ankle cuffs, but they're such a small percentage of the figure, what my eye really sees is the same suit recolored several ways, and frankly, though I love the show and the character, it's a bit monotonous on the shelf. Enter Nasca! He looks NOTHING like W, and that's a great thing. His two gauntlets are distinct in both shape and detailing, his shoulder pads are triangles instead of the sphere's of W, the helmet is completely unlike W's, and his skirt and baggy paints completely change the shape of the figure, so again it looks unlike W.

Obviously, that's all the design from the show, not inherent in the figure, but it was executed perfectly for the figure. All the black lines shapes on the blue, and the blue shapes on the black, are all sculpted, so the distinction between the colors is sharp and clean. The belt is detailed, the pants and sleeves look like cloth, with appropriate folds and wrinkles to look realistic, and to contrast with the smooth boots and armor-look of the gauntlets and torso. There's also black shading that helps bring out the folds/seams/wrinkles of the 'cloth' parts. The cape/scarf things are unique sculpts, each folding/curving in distinct ways. All the orange lines on the silver part of the mask are again sculpted detail, which helps it look amazing.

Accessories
For accessories, Nasca doesn't have a lot, and two of them are really part of his costume and probably shouldn't count, but for some reason, it doesn't feel like quite as big a deal as on the three W forms (maybe because the bodies are just repaints of each other? I don't know). Our friend Nasca has 4 pairs of hands, punching fists, sword holding hands, rage hands, and gesturing hands. As I mentioned earlier, Nasca doesn't appear to share any parts with W, and that includes the hands, they are not the same sculpt as W', he has a unique look to his gloves. Additionally, the poses of the rage and gesture hands are distinct from W's hands, so that's a nice detail. His cape/scarf thingies are removable, so I pictured them as accessories, but really, they're part of his outfit, there's no reason to ever remove them.

His best accessory is, of course, his sword. It's an odd design, the grip is thin at the hilt and thickens as you move to the pommel, the hilt his a large, strange black piece with lots of silver lines painted on it (all raised sculpts), there's a few lines sculpted on the blade and painted silver, and the edge of the blade is also silver. While I don't know that I actually like the design, I love the look of the black and silver paint, it's great. Do be careful when putting the sword in his hands, this is actually my second Nasca Figuarts, as I broke the grip of the sword off right at the base of the hilt when trying to get him to hold it. Don't push on the hilt, push on the grip where you're having him hold it. Anyway, I love swords and Nasca looks great posed with his.

I will say, it would have been cool to get his speed or flying wings that could be swapped with the scarfs, or maybe a soft rubber scarf with bendy wire in it, since they could be prehensile in the show? But neither feels like a noticeable lack, really. Oh, what he should have come with was a to-scale Futo-kun key chain. LOL.

Final Thoughts
I think this figure is a necessary part of the Kamen Rider W line. He was a very influential character, heroic in his own way, the suit itself came back in a different form later, and again returned briefly in the A-to-Z movie to fight Accel. Beyond that, it's absolutely gorgeous, both in terms of coloring and sculpting, and it stands out against the sameness of many color swaps of the W suits. And as a bonus, it's not expensive on the aftermarket, running around $20-$30, from what I've seen. It's well worth that price to have this uniquely designed figure.

Oh, and if you haven't seen the Kamen Rider W net movies they did around the time of the A-to-Z movie, you need to watch them, just for the Kirihiko segments.