Review: Nendoroid Menma

when I brought Menma out for a photoshoot, I just got her that day and didn’t have time to do a proper review. Menma however is just too cute to delay her review any longer so here she is!

Menma is from the anime Anohana, or あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない if you prefer the longer title~ It was tremendously touching and easily my favourite anime of 2011. So if you don’t know Anohana (gasp!) or haven’t watched it yet, please do!! You will not regret it.

Menma comes with the good old round stand (yay!) over the square ones GSC seems to favour and also 2 side stands for her flowers. Menma attaches via a magnet so it’s quite steady and poseable. =) Menma also has a personalised flowery stand despite not being a BRS series or Touhou Project Nendoroid. YAY!

Menma has a really simple character design and it’s something that is almost impossible to screw up. Well GSC didn’t screw up and what we have here is clean and simple. The white dress and grey hair is rather mute and you’re just naturally drawn to her face..which is a tremendously joyous face..for some reason I can feel happiness exploding from this face-plate and despite not being a fan of smiling faces..this one is totally awesome! I mentioned that Riannon had a great smiling face but Menma owns her in this aspect now. XD

From the sides Menma isn’t that flattering as the seam for her hair is quite obvious and ugly..the hair sculpt is nice though, flowing and natural. =)

Her dress is clean and simple with all the frills sculpted really well. Nothing too outstanding but it’s a job well done. =)

What Menma lacks in design, she makes up for it in accessories! Other than the tremendous slew of hands and legs, she comes with flowers, 2 other face-plates, her buns, a spare ribbon and the notebook.

Giant flowers for sale~

In case you didn’t know what are all the flowers for, it’s to reflect the ending theme of Anohana! It was a cover by the anime’s seiyuus of Zone’s Kimi ga kureta mono.

It’s a tremendous cover and one of my favourite Japanese songs ever~ So yes, I’m highly biased doing this review..in a good way~ XD

Then you have Menma with her serious expression. The happy one was already bringing sunshine into my life, this determined one just brought even more through the window~

Menma also comes with the notebook in which she wrote stuff in the anime to show the rest that she exists. I know GSC can do this crazy mini words thing before with Kyon and it’s real neat to see it again~ It even looks so handwritten! If you can read Hiragana, you can try reading what Menma wrote~ Basing it on my dodgy Japanese, I think it means something like “I want everyone to get along and be happy, all the way till the end.” Posing the book is slightly tricky though, since the hands might not close enough to grip the book tightly. Just take your time and be careful and it will be fine. =)

Those special buns she made for Jintan are also included and this time, she’s making it for the Hirasawa sisters! But why are they so shocked? I guess because they can’t see Menma and all they witness is a floating plate…~

Hmm now what is Menma doing..?

………..if you watched the anime, you should get this. If not, then I’m not spoiling it for you. =3

Menma also comes with a serene expression and it’s really just to re-create the ending theme. That was the first picture of this review so if you’re wondering what I meant, just scroll all the way up.

Finally, Menma can also run by the bridge (as in the anime) and this was what I tried to replicate here..weee~

Conclusion:

Menma is a really simple-looking Nendoroid and that might not attract you visually. All her accessories are also really tied into the anime and if you haven’t watched it, the significance is lost. =( I really really really like Menma and after reviewing her, she is probably my 2nd favourite Nendoroid after Flandre and if you watched Anohana, she is a tremendous item to get since it reminds you of all the key points in the anime. I wouldn’t recommend Menma for non-watchers but if Anohana affected you in some way…GET HER!

If GSC has the temerity to release the rest of the gang, my money is as good as theirs~ Still I suspect if anything, they will be petits instead of full-sized Nendoroids..

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