Whether you only remember her from the legendary first animated masterpiece GHOST IN THE SHELL, or you’re a fully fledged denizen of those augmented highways of STANDALONE COMPLEX, or GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE, you have to admit, Major Motoko Kusanagi is one of the most compelling characters ever to grace a Japanese animated project. Will her striking looks and icy demeanour, the cyborg police officer has been a huge influence on the science fiction and anime genre since she first graced our screens in 1995. Her visual style has been incorporated into the underground Industrial/EBM/cyber culture quite noticeably, with her hairstyle and clothing becoming something of a standard uniform amongst certain areas of the scene.
Sideshow have unveiled their brand new limited edition 12 inch Motoko Kusanagi figure depicting the legendary character in a suitably dramatic pose. The sculpt is deceptively simple, but if you look at the promo images closely, there is a great deal of character in the face and the physical stance. You can almost hear her smirk. Due to ship in the 2nd quarter of 2008, this is going to be a must-have for anime enthusiasts, and I’d rather like one myself too.
Motoko Kusanagi, the squad leader of Public Security Sector 9 is presented in 1:6 scale and comes packed with weapons and the usual quality stand. Packed in a Ghost in the Shell, themed display box, she cuts quite an impressive figure. As she is a ‘Real Action Hero’ figure, she comes articulated in several places, but the beauty of this figure is that the joints don’t seem very noticeable, enabling varied poses without it looking cheap, which it certainly ain’t, but it is quite fantastic. The only thing I’m concerned about is the join between the head and the neck ball-joint, which looks a little clunky from the rear close-up on the Sideshow website, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. A co-creation of Sideshow, Medicom, Kaiyodo and Perfect-Studio, she’s sure to set shelves alight with her presence.
Personally I would have preferred to see Motoko in one of the outfits from that phenomenal original movie. This costume isn’t quite cyberpunk enough for my tastes, but it does look superb. I know the STANDALON COMPLEX series has now eclipsed the popularity of the first Ghost in the Shell movie, but maybe Sideshow would consider creating a movie version of this figure? Anyway, what we have here looks like it is going to kick almost as much backside as Motoko Kusanagi herself…
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