Shirai Kuroko – A Certain Maid Outfit Teleport by Kotobukiya
I’ve been meaning to review this figure for a while now – over a month in fact. So finally here she is, Shirai Kuroko Maid Ver. by Kotobukiya. She’s one of those figures I wouldn’t typically pick up but as luck would have it I managed get her super cheap. Kuroko here is based on a poster from Nyantype 03/2010 edition which features both herself and Misaka in maid outfits. Kotobukiya have also released Misaka Maid ver. from this poster as well. Read on to see more of Kuroko.
For those unaware of the characters origins Kuroko first appeared in Toaru Majutsu no Index first season as a side character during the Sisters arc. Since then she’s made frequent appearances in the series as well as becoming a main character in the spin-off title Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She first comes across as your stereotypical oujo-sama, but as the series progresses you begin to see more of her marvelous character. Character development is something Index does quite well, minus Touma. One of her more interesting quirks is her intense love for Misaka which usually lands her in trouble as she attempts to manhandle the poor girl. She has the special ability to teleport any object she touches, including herself, provided it is within a certain range and weight limit. If you’ve not watched Index or Railgun before I’d recommend them, even if it’s just for Kuroko. But I suppose none of this character background really matters since this figure has her in a maid outfit – something we don’t see in the anime series itself.
Kuroko here is one of those figures that falls into “she’s nice, but I’m not mad about her” category. However the price I got her for she was definitely not worth missing. £26 inc shipping – that’s a bargain! I picked her up at the very end of September during the Hobby Search 1/2 price SAL shipping, from the bargain bin at 50% off and using most of my HS points. Most of that £26 was actually the shipping as well.
She stands 25cm including her base at 1/6 scale, about the same height as Kotobukiyas Blanc Neige who was at 1/7 scale. Due to the vertical nature of her stance she doesn’t take up a huge amount of shelf space either, everything is contained within the size of her base.
Kuroko is my second maid figure, the first being Benisu from They are my Noble Masters. Call me crazy but I don’t really find the whole maid concept that appealing. Maybe I just don’t ‘get it’. I also find the outfit rather dull now. Sure it was interesting the first few times I saw it. But once you start seeing more and more characters dressed as maids it becomes repetitive. That or maybe I’ve just become sour from the typical maid character seen in many anime that I’ve been put off the outfit.
So if I didn’t pick up Kuroko for her maid outfit why did I decide to pick her up? The most enjoyable aspect of Kuroko for me has to be her facial expression. Looking at my collection most of them have serious or vacant expressions. Kuroko is just bursting with happiness. The winking eye adds an a-symmetry to her face which I think helps accentuate her happiness. With both eyes open I think she’d have looked more crazy than happy. Her one legged pose is also interesting to look at. It’s full of vitality and motion with her hair and loose fabric circling around her as if she’s just spun round.
Kuroko was my favourite from Toaru Majutsu no Index and the Railgun spinoff, more so in Index. And while the anime was interesting and enjoyable to watch I’ve never had the urge to pick-up any figures from the series. The main issue being that many of the outfits are boring to look at – school uniforms, nun outfits, everyday clothes. Where are the pirates, priestesses (not just copy pasta nuns please) and ninjas? Okay no, please don’t put any of them in Index or Railgun, but hopefully you see my point. On top of that Kurokos’ ability is rather difficult to portray in figure form. At least Misaka has her electricity – how do you show teleportation?
As hypocritical as it may sound I’m glad Kotobukiya choose to put Kuroko in a maid outfit. Sure I may not be a huge fan of maids, but it’s certainly more interesting than a school uniform. How else do you make characters shown in dull school uniforms more interesting? You could go crazy like ToHeart2 has done with their Dungeon Travelers series. Or you could put them in a swimsuit (urgh have you seen the Kuroko swimsuit figure 
) or something else. So in that respect the maid outfit is a welcome deviation from her ‘standard’ look.
I’ve been very impressed with Kotobukiya recently. Sure their figures aren’t top tier, but the characters they choose to release and poses they put them in are much more appealing to me. I’d say Kuroko here is the most accurate looking Kuroko figure available when compared to her anime counterpart. Maid ver Misaki on the other hand – eh, no. There are a few minor defects when you look at Kuroko up close. You’ll perhaps notice her skin isn’t smooth and has tiny black specs. These are only noticeable from the camera however – she look perfectly clean with the naked eye. Her hair looks a bit like spaghetti – however I do like how it shows some level of motion. It looks as if Kuroko has just pirouetted round to show off her outfit. This motion is also visible from her clothing with the ribbon at the back of her uniform.
Mmmm, I like the back of her outfit the most. Those laces at her back look great, as do the frills.
Kuroko comes attached to her base already – it’s simply a case of freeing her from the packaging and she’s ready for display. She’s also screwed into her base, just as Blanc Neige was, which is probably to offset any leaning. Which leads to a good point, all that weight on 1 very thin leg. Even with the screw in place I suspect she’s going to be a leaner sooner or later. I can already wriggle her around to shift her distributed weight and she’s typically defaulting towards a forward lean on a flat surface.
Oh lookies – Kurokos signature dark purple underwear. Need a closer look?
Incoming pointless cast-off option. Split Kuroko in half and you can take off the white apron and black skirt. Putting her back together you’re left with a visible break between her top and bottom half. But at least you can see those purple pants better? *Sigh*. The good thing about this cast-off option is it’s completely hidden when fully assembled so at least Kotobukiya haven’t sacrificed quality for this.
So yeah, Kuroko is a nice figure. If I didn’t get her for the price I did I probably wouldn’t have picked her up. She’s got many appealing aspects such as her facial expression, accuracy to her anime counterpart and interesting one legged pose. She’s just not an outstanding figure that I’d rush out to pre-order. The maid theme, while different and interesting when you take into account what other options are available for Kuroko, is not my cup of tea. Saying that it’s not like there’s a whole lot of outfits to coose from given the characters background. And I will admit the maid dress here has been nicely executed. Still despite any hesitations towards ordering her I do still enjoy Kuroko and I’m glad I decided to pick her up.
Check out Shadonia for a review of Misaka Maid Ver.
Or both Misaka and Kuroko over at HappySoda.
Here’s some wallpapers to enjoy.
So that’s all the new figures I currently have reviewed – although there is one more on the way hopefully before the new year. Frequent readers may remember when I re-reviewed Yoko Swimsuit ver. I said I might revisit older reviews. Well turns out I won’t need to go back for the figure I intended to redo as she’s been given an alternative colour release. So expect to see her appearing sometime soon.
Posted on 11/12/2011, in Figures and tagged figure, figures, Kotobukiya, Kuroko, Maid, Shirai Kuroko, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, Toaru Majutsu no Index. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
Kuroko looks like a nice pickup at that price. It’s pretty rare anymore that I’m able to grab a figure for less than $75 (USD). I’ve had mixed results with buying figures because of a nice price, but it sounds like you’re satisfied with your purchase.
I’m not overly fond of the maid fetish, either, but I did give maid Mikoto a good look when her preorder first opened. I think I ultimately passed because of her relatively static pose and the fact that I don’t have the utmost faith in Kotobukiya.
I can’t say that I ever gave Kuroko much consideration, but then I haven’t seen Index or Railgun, so I’m not that familiar with her character. Still waiting on an official English subbed release, which seems to be stuck in licensed-but-unreleased hell.
I’ll agree with that, trying to get a decent figure for under that price is quite difficult now. Anything that goes above 8k¥ I now stop and consider if I really want to go ahead and pre-order since shipping usually bumps the price quite a bit. Playing the bargain bin gamble is always hit and miss, I was lucky with a hit this time.
I’m not too fond of Misaka either. To me she doesn’t really look like Misaka – plus there are better figures of her out there in my opinion. GSC one from last year is nice although her pose is a tad bland.
Knowing the background of a character and liking them I find helps when choosing figures. I liked Railgun and Index enough to want a figure – just not a figure in their usual outfits. Bunny suit Kuroko would have been awesome even if it’s an extreme deviation from the source. Maid Kuroko will have to do
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It’s annoying when companies, usually FUNimation, hold a license for so long before releasing it. I like how Sentai work – grab anything, spit out subbed DVDs asap. I’ve been waiting on Sora no Otoshimono and it’s finally getting the first season released 2 years after it finished airing. Heck could be worse, could be on UK anime release schedules.
I find the facial expression very appealing and most fitting her character. The cast-off part on the other hand doesn’t exactly add anything interesting to the figure, I’m glad you chose to show her off in her default setup for the most part.
My main gripe with Kuroko is the glossy part of her mouth. I’m not sure if it’s painted that way but the glare in her mouth, possibly caused by a light source makes it look like she’s drooling a little bit.
There’s no traditional maid figure in my collection as of yet, something I intend to change during next year as your review certainly sparked an interest in similar figures. They do make great subjects to shoot even if it’s understandable that some find them rather plain.
Kuroko looks great, I’m glad I picked her up. She can be the one figure in my collection with a huge smile on her face.
I’m really not impressed with the cast-off. It adds absolutely nothing to the figure I think. Still, I wanted to at least show it off so that others can make up their own minds.
You’re right, her mouth is glossy. That’s a disadvantage of a stationary structured light source – glossy things reflect back their position. It does look a little like drooling now that you mention it. Maybe she’s drooling from seeing Misaka in her maid outfit xD?
Some maid outfits can look good if the pose matches. Kurokos’ pose here matches really well I think – she looks super happy and confident. Although saying that I think the same could have been achieved with a different outfit. I’ll be interested to see which maid figure you’ve decided to pick up in the new year.
Denying won’t help you are a maid maniac XD haha sorry I was just kidding
In general I prefer (Mikuru style ^^) waitress uniforms over maid uniforms, because they have a cuter design, but when a favorite character of mine gets a figure treatment in a sexy maid uniform Im interested, like Orchid Seeds upcoming Kurono Kurumu for example.
Nice to hear that you also like Kuroko, she is a favorite female character from this franchise. She is cool and funny. I couldn’t watch her getting beaten up by the several villains in these shows, but at least she’s tough.
This figure of her looks cute, Kuroko’s petite bodyframe looks quite appealing in this maid uniform. Kotobukiya did a good job in recreating Kuroko and giving her the right amount of happy cuteness. The black and white colors of her outfit are simple but nice, also these stockings *drool*. too bad that there’s a gap when the skirt is off, since her belly and pantsu are nicely detailed. Maybe one thing that bothers me a bit, well somehow I think that her twinking eye is a few mm too low in her face.
Well, I could also imagine a figure of Kuroko in fancy underwear, but I guess only a company like Orchid Seed would do something like that.
Oh you found me out xD. The waitress uniform is a bit better I think. There’s a little more variety in terms of colours and styles. Kurono Kurumu looks to be quite nice although I probably won’t pick her up myself. I didn’t enjoy R+V all that much, although I did like Kurumu.
Urgh mentioning Mikuru has reminded me I recently watched Endless Eight (and the other 4 episodes of the second season -.-) for the first time. It’s like Kyoto Ani wanted to test the true fans – I’m anything but a fan of Haruhi now. Off-topic rant over
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Kuroko is awesome in the Index. I didn’t really like Railgun as much, but she was still enjoyable to watch. Plus her VA, Satomi Arai, has a wonderful voice.
I don’t think I’d ever display her cast-off even if the gap wasn’t present. She looks odd with half an outfit, belly and pants showing, then back to stockings. It is a waste since her belly does look good – it’s just not appropriate for this figure in my opinion. Her winking eye does look lower than her other eye – also wider. It doesn’t bother me yet, maybe one day it’ll hit me and I’ll change my mind. That’s happened with a few figures, notice little things and it changes the way you look at them.
Lacey underwear Kuroko. As tempting as that sounds I don’t think I could do that to her. Got to keep some of my figures pure
. Although bunny suit Kuroko… 
If I was offered this figure for that price, I’d buy her too. Kuroko was my favourite character from the Index/Railgun series, but there just hasn’t been any figures of her that I’m interested in. I also find the maid outfit to be rather dull, but like you said, there isn’t much to work with when most of the characters are in school uniforms.
My ideal Kuroko figure would be one of her when she teleports into the sky to do that combo with Misaka in the last episode of Railgun. At least that way the figure would have a cool looking pose and it would sort of show her teleportation abilities. For Kotobukiya, this is a nice figure though.
She was a great bargain. I’m not sure I’d have picked her up if she wasn’t going for such a low price, which is a shame since now I’ve got her I like her a lot. Yeah the Railgun/Index cast are quite difficult to make interesting figures for I think. Most of their abilities are invisible – Accelerator moves things fast, Touma has his hand, even the sexy Oriana had an invisible “Counter Magic” ability.
I’m trying to find/remember the scene. Doesn’t Kuroko just teleport debris which Misaka launches? But yeah some sort a diorama figure of Kuroko and Misaka would be cool. Kuroko falling through the air amongst debris while Misaka is firing the Railgun. It’d be super expensive though xD. For a cool looking pose maybe one where she’s crouched on the ground ready to pounce with objects falling all around her.
The penguin parade figure of her just released somewhat tried to capture an action pose as she unleashes her belt of nails. It’s a shame her face and body posture don’t give the action feel. It looks more like she’s posing as a model than anything.
What a cute color for her panties! And how fitting.That alone makes me want to get her. Plus, she’s my favorite character in all of Railgun, so yea. ^ ^
I also really really like her cast off look, with the lacings and everything. Her maid costume is pretty as well. Overall, a very lovely figure!
Indeed, the purple pants fit in with Kurokos character perfectly. She’s my favourite as well – it’s just a case of finding a decent figure that captures her character. This maid one isn’t too bad – her happy face is in character and looks great. Not so sure about the maid outfit though. It looks nice, it just doesn’t feel very ‘Kuroko’ to me.