Review: Figma Kiritsugu Emiya

It’s time for yet another review I should have written a long time ago! This time it’s on figma Kiritsugu Emiya by Max Factory. Keeping in line with my other long overdue reviews, the regular shots were all taken several months ago with my old point and shoot while the shots at the end were taken this week with an SLR.

In the novel/anime Fate/Zero, Kiritsugu is a notorious magus killer who is hired by the Einzbern family to fight in the fourth Holy Grail War. Fate/zero takes place ten years before Fate/Stay Night, and paints a grim tale of corruption and the ceaseless desire for power. At the centerfold of this bloodbath is Kiritsugu Emiya; a broken hero who has no qualms about killing if it is for the greater good.

Despite the its being darker in nature than Fate/ Stay Night, I enjoyed Fate/Zero much more. Although I admittedly only watched the anime(which isn’t exactly known for being good), one thing I disliked about Fate/Stay Night was the unnecessary amount of teenaged masters. I understand that the war was premature(and it is an adult visual novel), but the fact that almost everybody was a teenager in a revered fight to the death seemed far-fetched to me. Because of this, seeing so many adults in Fate/Zero was quite refreshing. Along with more adult characters, Fate/Zero also introduced more ruthless methods of fighting. Without Shiro “Nobody can die” Emiya, mages were free to slaughter each other and Saber could be Saber, which I found much more realistic and enjoyable.

My relationship with Fate is rather odd. It all began when I watched Fate/Stay Night as an excuse to buy the figmas, and although I cannot consider myself a diehard fan, I always feel drawn to the franchise. Even though my “Gotta catch ’em All” mentality regarding figmas has now changed(and I regret many of those mindless purchases), I still value my Fate collection and gobble up almost any new figma from the series. That being said, adding the Fate/Zero line of figmas to my collection was a no-brainer.

Behind his servant Saber and wife Irisviel, Kiritsugu is the third figma in the Fate/Zero line.

Kiritsugu’s box follows the same theme as Iri and Saber’s: an illuminated forest with the moon overhead. I should add that my Kiritsugu’s box was in pristine condition until it met my foot.

Kiritsugu stands tall in a black suit and trench coat. To reinforce his manliness, he has a lovely figma tan.

While inspecting Kiritsugu for the first time, one of the first things I noticed was his bulkiness. Not only is he large for a figma, his build is very solid. Come to think of it, Kiritsugu is my first adult male figma. After handling female figures all the time, this is a nice change!

Speaking of male figmas, I think Max Factory(Goodsmile as well) really messed up with Fate/Zero. The show had many unique male characters that I think would have made great figures(and being Type Moon characters, I doubt their sales would be poor), but the only one we got was Kiritsugu. I was expecting at least Kotomine or Gilgamesh figmas and would have loved to see Lancer, but nope. There wasn’t even a Fate/Zero nendoroid petite box, and of the three figures GSC/MF released, two were rehashes of old sculpts. At least we have Altair and their moe Waver Velvet to the rescue!

As much as I hate to say this, I don’t think the figma’s face resembles Kiritsugu as much as it could. Although the figure certainly looks like him, it feels like a scaled down version that lacks that extra oomph to make it truly Kiritsugu. I think Max Factory’s refined 1/8(which I was very close to preordering) is a better representation.

His hair is super spiky. Spikier than I remember…

Three shades of black were used to make Kiritsugu as stylish as he needs to be. His vest is made of soft PVC to allow movement of the chest joint while the shirt and coat make use of harder plastic.

A blood red command seal is lovingly printed on his left hand. Is it bad that it took me this long to realize Shiro and Kiritsugu have different command seals?

Thankfully I did not have any problems fitting the stand into his back.

Buttons and corresponding buttonholes are sculpted into his coat.

His coat also has a nice sense of motion.

For added coolness, the coattails are fitted with joints and can be posed. I find the coat to coattails transition rather jarring, but he looks fine from the front.

His shoes are plain and brown.

Of course, there’s more to Kiritsugu than black clothing. He also has some pretty neat accessories.

First is his three optional faces.

Angry while smoking, compassionate(?), and angry while not smoking

Face one(angry while smoking) isn’t a bad face. The cigarette adds to that cool look and gives the figma a nonchalant feel. The problem with the face is that the cigarette does not come attached. Figma Kyoko Sakura has a similar Pocky face that requires the Pocky to be inserted, but the Pocky actually stays in her mouth. Kiritsugu’s cigarette does not, and as a result, I almost lost it several times. I’d highly recommend gluing the cigarette in his mouth or being prepared to keep watch it like a hawk while photographing him.

I’ll be blunt, face two(compassionate?) is one of the most derptastic figma faces I’ve ever seen. I understand what they were hoping to achieve with this face, but it did not work on the prototype and works even less on the mass produced version. Every picture I’ve taken with it looks creepy, and I’ve nicknamed it his “tired monkey” face. Yet I’m not necessarily upset since I think I’ll get many comics out of this face.

I have no problem with face three. He looks *ahem* ticked off just as Kiritsugu should.
On a side note, you do have to appreciate the stubble on all three faces. Quite rugged.

Also included are many special hands!

Besides the standard open hands, fists, an gripping hands, Kiritsugu has hands for holding guns, a cigarette, and a bullet.

Moving on to character specific accessories, Kiritsugu has an impressive arsenal.

First is Kiritsugu’s Thompson Contender which is a special gun he uses in conjunction with Origin Bullets.

The gun fits into a hand designed for it, and looks good up close.

The gun can even be opened so Kiritsugu can be posed loading it with one of his Origin Bullets.

Next is a smaller gun(please excuse my lack of gun knowledge).

This gun has more details and also fits into a hand designed for it.

The gun even comes with an effect part!

The effect part fits on to a peg on the front of the gun.
This is my first figma with shooting effect parts! How exciting.

Rivaling Homura Akemi, Kiritsugu has yet another gun!

This larger gun makes use of two hands!

More lovely details

And of course another effect part.

Kiritsugu also comes with four cigarettes. Two are bent and meant to be placed in his mouth and the other two are straight and go in his hand. I mentioned earlier that the cigarettes are very easy to lose track of, so I’m glad that extra were included. If you don’t believe how tiny these cigarettes are, here’s a picture for reference:

Two of them very easily fit on a penny. Don’t lose these!

Kiritsugu’s final accessory is a pair of forearms that allow him to put his hands in his pockets.

The old arms disconnect very easily which makes changing them out stress free.
I enjoy the cool guy look these arms give, but not quite as much as how funny they look when not in his pockets.

Teddy Bear Kiritsugu!

Now that we’ve seen everything Kiritsugu comes with, let’s take him out for a photo shoot.

Despite my best efforts, I felt rather uninspired while photographing Kiritsugu. I’d hoped to get more comedic shots with him, but ended up with a lot of tender moments and cool guy standing pictures. I have a feeling he’ll be more useful for comics, or maybe I’ll just try again and have a day where I unleash him and his guns on all my other figmas.

I present to you: cool people standing!

In the snow!

Final Words
I don’t think I made a bad choice in purchasing Kiritsugu, but I do feel that he’s yet to live up to his potential. Perhaps it’s because I had to shelf him for months before photographing him properly, but I feel underwhelmed. I’ll be giving him another chance, but for now my opinion is lukewarm.
Still, if you are looking for a manly bad@ss figma, he’s definitely it! Cool figmas aren’t my specialty, but I’m sure that anyone who’s collection is in need of some ruggedness would appreciate him.