#uqh

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I’m gettin’ to review UQ Holder this season, a goal I’d hoped to accomplish when I wound up with this anime-writing gig, and it’s been an interesting ride of an adaptation so far. It’s honestly been stronger than I expected from the promo materials and opening episodes, but let’s see if it can go all the way before the wheels come off. Anyway, the real big benefit to Negima’s sequel series getting animated is a slew of new merchandise related to the series, with UQ Holder already brazenly putting out standard gewgaws like keychains, can badges, and phone charms featuring the classic Negima characters who have thus far only appeared in sparse flashbacks in the show. The solid amount of it at least speaks to the hopeful success of the series.

Anyway, completely separate from all that, a visit to my brother and sister this past weekend saw them graciously gift me a grab-bag of goodies from a local anime book and merch shop, including, of all things, an old Figumate figure of Satsuki Yotsuba from Negima. I can only assume it was the only one left and marked down heavily for as long as it must have been sitting there. So with UQ Holder on the brain, I might as well talk about this cute little figure and the history of these dang things.

Coming out way back in 2005, the Negima anime was probably intended as a merchandising juggernaut, given the sheer amount of marketable girls in the cast and the already-solid success of the source manga. That…didn’t exactly pan out, likely down to how much of a drag the actual show was, but a bunch of stuff got made anyway, chiefly multiple waves of these Figumate things, a line Konami put out in a time before Nendoroids and their similarly-sized Petits. They’re cute, they came blind-boxed, they initially reused the same basic school-uniform body a bunch before Konami started changing things up with special designs, and they made a boatload of them, with a few of them making their way stateside officially as pack-ins in Funimation’s DVD releases of the shows. They even made accessory packs for them that included chairs, desks, and sitting bodies to be used with them.

Like I said, Figumates were neat enough, but it seems Negima the anime nor even the actually-successful manga wasn’t enough to maintain them as a major toyline. It didn’t help that these little things focused on just pumping out different variations on cute anime schoolgirls even as the appreciable portion of Negima was rapidly shifting towards the cooler, shonen-battling aspects of the characters. No other major anime series got the expansive Figumate treatment Negima did, and you can usually still find one or two unopened boxes kicking around at convention dealer rooms and swap meets to this day.

Which is good news for any fans like me who still like adding a little of the series to their life every now and then? So how is Satsuki? Amusingly, she’s probably the least-suited to the Figumate reused-body style, given the chef’s more distinctly chunky build in the actual series. But she does come with some cute cooking utensil accessories, and definitely scratches that obscure-character itch that you might not expect from what was supposed to be a major line from a big source series. And she’s appreciable for all that. I’ll have to dig out all my old Figumates to hang out with her sometime, I owe the cute little things that much, at least. Especially since we’re probably not likely to get UQ Holder Figumates anytime soon.

Thanks for indulging me on that one, everyone! It was fun, so I hope you have fun too! Have a good night!

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