Japanimation 3-D
Manufacturer
MacFarlane Toys
Year
2000
Materials
Plastic
Height
6.5 inches
Japanimation wave 2: Kaneda on bike
By otaku_kei
14th Nov 04  Height: Kaneda - 6 1/8 inches. Bike - 10 inches (long)
Points of articulation: Kaneda - 13. Bike - 4.
Mold: Kaneda - Plastic with soft molded rubber for gloves, trousers & boots. Bike - Plastic.
This is it; the limited edition packaged set from wave 2 of Kaneda on his bike. That's right, THE BIKE that everyone who's seen Akira would love to have! It's sleek, stylish, and runs like a bat out of hell! The bike just screams speed! It's everything about cyberpunk that we dream for, and Kaneda was such a cool badass when riding it around the streets of Neo-Tokyo. The early scenes of the movie, of the running biker gang battle through the streets made as fall instantly in love with the look of this movie and Kanead and the bike were the center of that adoration (well for me at least).
The sculpts for both of these figures are superb. Focussing first upon the bike, this is a faithful recreation of the model from the movie: the stickers placed around the body of the bike; the wheels are movable and not solid moldings; it even has the front fork/handlebar hinged just like in the film. Everything that you could want, apart from it to be full size with a working engine, is part of this model. As with all of the MacFarlane ranges the attention to detail for this piece s phenomenal. Inside the hinged front panel they have recreated the engine and wheel forks, and all of the stickers have been painted into the right part of the bike (I got bored and examined it against pictures from the manga/anime). This attention to detail has propelled MacFarlane to being one of the market leaders in collectible toys, and with these figures that attention to detail really is very welcome.
Moving onto Kaneda now, this is one of the most detailed figures I've ever seen come from MacFarlane Toys, and that goes up against some really stiff competition. This figure captures the look of and feel of Kaneda. The little grin just screams out his reckless, devil-may-care attitude. The clothing sculpt is also particularly good. The design clearly mirrors Kaneda's look as he sets off on his bike at the beginning of the anime. The sculpt is a mixture of hard and soft molding that is spot on to give the impression of his blood red biker leathers. But whilst he looks great sitting astride his monster of a street bike, when you stand this figure up he ends up looking like a mong, his legs looking disproportionate to his body!
Now this is a great model to have on display. Everyone who has ever seen Akira, and lets face it it's one of the few mainstream crossover anime around, they will come round and drool (hopefully not literally) all over this figure. It is a beautiful sight to behold and if you can still track it down its worth picking up.
-- otaku_kei 14th Nov 04
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