This post has been on my backburner for a while, but due to time and some family circumstances, I had to put off writing and taking photos for a while, but alas, here we are.
Around a year and a half ago, ALTER announced another iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls figure, and this time it was for Kamiya Nao, based off her SSR3 card from the mobile game iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage. At the time of this writing, I haven’t managed to obtain the SSR card that Nao’s figure was based off of (and probably won’t for a while since she was in a time limited gacha pool), but her cool, accomplished composure was something that I really admired. The prototype photos of her figure looked absolutely stunning as well, so I ended up ordering her last year. She finally came in earlier this year.
I’ve been a huge fan of ALTER figures ever since I got my first one back in 2015: a swimsuit figure of Nishikino Maki from the Love Live! series. I was very impressed by the attention to detail and sculpt that I continued to buy figures from them. Nao was no exception.
To start things off, we have Nao’s box. This is one of the larger boxes from the iDOLM@STER series of ALTER figures, just behind Shiki’s box.
Taking Nao out of the box, we have her figure. Her gallant pose and hair are captured just like her SSR. Nao stands triumphant, gripping her wireless microphone in her right hand after the faithful performance of her first solo song, 2nd Side (or at least this was how I was picturing her in my head).
Starting from the top, we have Nao’s flowing hair captured in mid-pose. Most of her hair is tied up behind her back. On the left side of her head, she sports an elegant hairpiece that complements the rest of her outfit. Her hair is one hell of a sculpt, though. The texture of Nao’s hair is very prevalent, which I hopefully captured in the next set of photos below with the various lighting angles. It was done very nicely and looks beautiful from the back.
Nao’s facial expression has been faithly recreated, from the angle of her eyebrows to her triumphant smile. Props to the colourer, Hoshina Eimi-sensei, for doing Nao justice!
Moving downwards, we are met with the focal point of this figure: Nao’s outfit. Everything about her outfit gives a heroic vibe. Starting with her jacket, it has several tones. On the exterior, we see a glamourous white jacket, with gold highlight “stitching” everywhere. ALTER’s quality checks really did Nao justice: the gold pattern’s paint job around the bottom of her jacket is faithfully recreated. She has gold chains hanging off of her jacket, with some hanging midflight while striking her final pose. There are also a few transparent gems hanging off her gold chains (hopefully the imagine comparison below does justice in bringing that out).
Underneath her cool jacket, we have her actual outfit. Her breast area is enveloped in a white blouse, with another midrift, vest-like piece held together in the front by three buttons. Its colour scheme matches the inner part of her jacket, giving Nao a nice, mature vibe in my opinion. The sculpter, Missile-sensei, also reproduced the ruffles on the end of her blouse, keeping true to the card illustration.
Further down, Nao sports some nice but short white shorts, held in place by another white belt with gold trims. You can see the creases of her shorts as well, so the detail here is on point.
Turning to the back side of the jacket, the sculpting on the bow, along with the intricate colouring and minor details, truly make Nao shine from all angles. In addition, present from all angles is the dark rouge-like colour on Nao’s bow and on the inner side of her jacket. The ribbon of her bow has a bit of sculpting texture, which the lighting helped actentuate and bring out more. The ribbon ends also have golden tassels (I’m not even sure if that’s the right word to describe it), and it’s also got some nice texturing to it. It’s the little things that add up that make Nao stand out.
Continuing down towards her legs, we’ll find a few more things. First, we have her black thighhighs, striped verically with a nice black rose pattern around the top. She also has this garterbelt-like thing going on (I obviously can’t describe it for the life of me), and that’s done really well. You can see the “tightness” of them hugging around her thigh area. Similar to how I’ve described it in some of my previous posts, I really really like that kind of thing. The sculpting around her knee area is also done perfectly. The shading is ever so subtle, but the lighting around her kneecaps definitely highlights the contures, which I have tried to capture in the photos below. On her feet, we have her matching heels. I honestly don’t have much to say here; the gold paint and detailing here are just like Nao’s jacket: super sleek and clean. I think the photos speak more than my words can here, so here you go.
And with that, here’s a full shot of Nao from the front and back.
If I had to pick my favourite part about Nao’s figure, it would definitely be her high heels. I’m still at a loss for words on how to describe it, but in most of my collection, the feet or shoes are where a figure is anchored onto its base, so it’s not typically the focal point. That said, the sculpting and especially the colouring done on her shoes are something I really enjoy from all angles. Even the insides of her shoes are coloured red, and not just white like the rest of her shoes.
Overall, Missile-sensei’s sculpt of Nao with Hoshina Eimi-sensei’s colouring really brought out the life of Nao from her SSR3 card. ALTER has once again delivered a top tier figure with no disappointment. I ended up putting her beside me on my turntable for a few days while working, and I was able to appreciate her from any angle because of there was no compromise made to the quality and detail anywhere.
Anyways, that’s all I have this time around. I had a fun time using my new laptop to take photos (photo below); however, I know it does still need some improvement. In addition, I did recently start a playlist of playing MVs of my favourite characters in MVs from Starlight Stage. If you’re bored, you can check them out here. They were recorded on my Sony Xperia 1 II, so the aspect ratio is 21:9.
Until next time!
~Lui