A big figure with a big price for big fans of the anime-style video game.
The Atelier franchise occupies a unique spot in the video gaming industry. On the one hand, it’s low-profile enough that a lot of gamers have never heard of, let alone played, one of the fantasy RPGs from developer Gust where the protagonists are alchemists. On the other hand, the Atelier series now consists of over 20 games that have been released since it got started in 1997.
So even if Atelier flies under many people’s radar, it’s carved out a rock-solid niche. Not only is the series getting a new game later this year, pre-orders are now being accepted for life-size figures of the franchise’s current heroine, Ryza.
▼ The figure stands 172 centimeters (67.7 inches) tall, not including the base.
Ryza made her debut in 2019’s Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout, which saw a major jump in popularity for the series. While the Atelier series has always made art design a priority, fans quickly flocked to Ryza’s palpable warmth and energy. Her uniquely bold costume, which emphasizes her rather-voluminous-for-an-anime-style-character thighs, probably didn’t hurt either, and figure maker Wonder Works is quite upfront about how recreating this visual aspect is one of its major priorities.
However, it’s not just the thighs that Wonder Works is committed to making look their best. The designers are also proud of their work capturing fine details of Ryza’s costume, such as the test tubes in her belt which she uses for storing the potions she crafts. Her jacket is removable, and since she does show quite a bit of skin, all effort as made to keep the number of visible seams in the material to a minimum, and also to blend a paint shade that matches the reddish complexion Ryza gets from spending so much time out in the field gathering mystical materials.
▼ They’ve even added a glossy finish to her toenails.
The figure is a recreation of one displayed at Atelier publisher Koei Tecmo’s booth at the 2019 Tokyo Game Show, and 10 are being offered for sale to commemorate the release of Atelier Ryza 2, which is scheduled for release sometime later this year.
So how much will it cost you for the full-size Ryza to set up shop in your house? 2,750,000 yen, or just about US$26,200. Oh, and you’ll likely need not just money, but luck too, since if more than 10 people apply to buy one of the figures, a lottery will determine who gets to shell out enough to have bought a car. There’s also a limit of one per customer, so if you have more than 2.75 million yen burning a gigantic hole in your pocket, you’ll have to find some other way to spend the remainder, like maybe that 220,000-yen Gundarium Alloy Gundam model.
Applications can be made here between now and August 30, with lottery winners needing to make payment by September 30. Shipping is scheduled for August of 2021, which seems like an awfully long ways off, but if you’re going to drop this kind of cash on a figure, you’ll probably want to be sure it’s not a character you’re going to have lost interest in a year from now.
Source: Gust via Otakomu
Images: Gust
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