hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Alter Shigure Asa :: Grassy field in the evening

As usual, I should have seen it coming. Or rather, I should have heard it coming. The running footfalls approaching from behind. The intake of breadth. Perhaps even the swinging of her arm through the air. There was, of course, no missing either the loud greeting of "HELLO!" and the slap on the back.

'You sure are late going home today!' she chirped.

'You too, Asa-senpai.'

'Cooking club activities! And now I've got to rush back to make dinner. See ya!'

And as she turned to speed off in her characteristically energetic way...

Nature sent a blessing wind. Blue crossed stripes on white...

She spun round, an interrogating gleam in her eye. 'You saw, didn't you?' she crooned.

Crap! Did I say that out loud!? 'Huh? Of course not! Definitely not! Not even a little!!'

A sly grin crept over her face, eyebrows raised sceptically. 'That's a little disappointing.'

By the light of the setting sun, her smile was reflected in mine.

---

This figure can look quite different when seen from just a slightly different angle. My favourite is the one above right where the eye can travel in a straight line from top to bottom, taking in all the design points of interest from her ahoge, hair ribbon, front bow, cleavage, upraised left hand, pleated skirt and underskirt, briefcase (with adorable Ama keychain) and bent knee. Certainly seems to have been sculpted with a very specific placing in mind.

Her back is certainly a lot less interesting. I do appreciate and enjoy all the painstaking details such as the dots borderng the grey underskirt, the belt buckle at the small of her back, the buckles and clasps on her school briefcase, the painting of the brown stripe just above the hem of her white skirt, shirt sleeves and sailor collar but, as with all the points of interest mentioned above, the front view is definitely where the focus is.

Being a green-haired chara, I thought that a green background wouldn't work at all but it doesn't seem too bad. Also the light was a bit low. But the hair still manages to stand out from the grass behind. And I think it has a nice contrast against the uniform. Also, for some reason, the pic on the left had a brownish tinge which cleared up after using Auto Levels (right). Not a very successful shoot but a fun one nonetheless.

Still have much to learn especially from other great shoots like Dancing Queen's - who used a background with yellow stripes that's just a tad more elaborate than the packaging box's. Blue, as seen on 1999.co.jp's catalog pics, works great too.

My favourite is Saku's photo shoot. He made such marvelous use of a variety of outdoor backgrounds (sky, water, buildings and trees), careful posing as well as low f/stop to create a lovely date mood and the feel of 1/1 perspective. Great to see others enjoying this figure of my favourite SHUFFLE! chara too.

Related posts:

1. SHUFFLE! Shigure Asa Character Profile
2. GSC 1/7 Saber Lily ~ Evening Star
3. Goodsmile Company 1/8 Alicia Florence (ARIA)