Hello, fellow collectors! Many apologies for the delay of this post; this semester has been unforgiving with the amount of work to do and deadlines. Things are beginning to wind down since finals are next week. Anyway, today we’re going to take a look at Kuroko no Basket’s Murasakibara Atsushi from the Megahouse Kuroko no Basket figure series. Kuroko no Basket centers around the members of the Seirin high school basketball team, who accepted the huge challenge of becoming the #1 high school basketball team in Japan. In order to do so, they must defeat various other teams, including former Teiko middle school basketball team members Kise Ryōta, Midorima Shintarō, Aomine Daiki, Murasakibara Atsushi, and Akashi Seijūrō, all whom were called the “Generation of Miracles” due to gaining constant victories with their distinct abilities. With the “phantom sixth man” of the Generation of Miracles, Kuroko Tetsuya, and the naturally talented basketball player, Kagami Taiga, Seirin takes part in the challenging Inter-High tournament to claim that #1 spot. Now that you know the gist about the series, let’s take a closer look at this Murasakibara figure!
The Murasakibara figure is 1/8 scale, which is a pretty standard size for figure releases, but even so, he seems pretty huge due to how tall the character is (6′ 10″). Being the tallest character in the show, he’s as tall as the Kagami and Kise figures (which features them jumping and going for a dunk) without being airborne. Murasakibara is depicted as either grabbing the ball after a successful block or rebound, or perhaps when he’s about to do his famous “Thor’s Hammer” dunk. Either way, he looks like he is ready for action!
Megahouse managed to catch Murasakibara’s likeness with his eyes perfectly; it looks like he was pulled straight from the show! While some companies may have their own interpretation of the characters that sometimes works in their favor, it’s nice to see Megahouse replicating how Murasakibara’s eyes look in the show and illustrating that on this figure. It’s a pretty faithful representation that will make fans pretty happy. His hair is shown waving about in accordance to how his movements were sculpted. One area that some figure collectors often worry about is the seam line on the head, but I’m happy to say that it really isn’t noticeable with how Megahouse sculpted Murasakibara’s hair.
One of my favorite things about the Kuroko no Basket figures by Megahouse is how detailed the made the ball look. It has the texture of what a real basketball would, which you can feel when touched! As if that wasn’t enough, Megahouse went through the trouble of making the nails on his hands noticeable. It’s that kind of attention to detail, even though it may seem like a small detail, is what makes the figure stand out a bit more from other releases.
Of course, athletes have that muscly body build, which Murasakibara does indeed have. Megahouse did a great job sculpting the biceps and triceps without looking like blobs on an arm. Also, the calves are nicely done as well, as they do have some muscle to them rather than just looking like stick legs.
In basketball, the players are always in some sort of motion, so it’s natural to think that the uniform isn’t just pasted onto this figure, right? The uniform really seems to have motion, as the folds are present according to how Muraskibara is posed. You can almost feel the fabric just by looking at it! All details of Murasakibara’s Yosen uniform are present with the lovely folds to highlight movement.
Let’s talk about Murasakibara’s shoes. Megahouse did a splendid job making sure to include actual shoelaces on the shoes, not to mention that on one of the shoes, the laces seem to look like they’re swaying from the motion. Along with that, the shoes have this…particular design on them. It’s a design that’s pretty commonly seen on sneakers today from a particular popular brand.
The design heavily borrows from Asics’ signature design; it’s almost identical! Only one of the lines are missing, but anyone who saw the shoes on this figure would immediately do a double-take when they saw the design on them. While on this topic, this is probably why we won’t see Kuroko no Basket’s manga over in the US for a long while: it makes note of the actual shoe brands, especially Jordans.
In the anime, the brands aren’t mentioned, but there are some references at some points, like when Kuroko and Kagami shop for basketball sneakers, they stop by a store called “Dr.Jordan.”
So it’s safe to say that these brands are shown in some shape or form to make the series feel more “real” and relatable: you can also buy these kinds of shoes and play basketball! I’m actually glad that Asics-like design wasn’t kept from Murasakibara’s shoes for this figure release, since it serves to highlight what kind of brands these characters from Kuroko no Basket would prefer.
Lastly, let’s take a look at the base of the figure. It has Murasakibara’s name and player number, along with the school’s name, Yosen. What I really like about this base is that it was textured to make it look like it’s actually a basketball court’s hardwood floor. If you take a closer look at it, you can see the wood accents on it as well. It’s like Murasakibara is actually on a basketball court playing a game!
Overall, this figure is an excellent representation of Murasakibara: from his face, to his stature and his shoes, this is unmistakeably Murasakibara from Yosen! Megahouse did an excellent job. If you are a fan of Murasakibara or Kuroko no Basket, you owe it to yourself to track down this figure. You can snag one from AmiAmi or from Hobby Search.
To determine the following figure review…I leave it up to you, my fellow collectors, to choose who you would like to see next:
Until next time, happy collecting!
Figuratively Speaking 