It’s time to take a look at Amakuni’s 1/8 scale Dark General from Shingeki no Bahamut (aka Rage of Bahamut).

This review started as a review for the Dark General’s sister-in-origin, Dark Angel Olivia from Kotobukiya, who arrived not too long ago. Although Olivia is a gorgeous figure when viewed in person, I found her very difficult to work with from behind the camera as her wings block the angles where I want to put my light and the glossy finish on her eyes provide horrible reflections from most any position. I quickly grew frustrated, punted on the Olivia photo shoot, and switched over to the Dark General here hoping for some redemption. Fortunately, she proved to be quite photogenic.

Gallery

Review

I know little of Shinegki no Bahamut (Rage of Bahamut) save for the fact that it is a collectible card battle game–a genre that has never managed to capture my interest–and that it features some wonderfully unrealistic fantasy armor designs of the variety that have been a popular target of the gaming press in recent years.

The Dark General’s armor certainly exposes more skin than it covers, which is fine with me. I prefer to suspend my disbelief when it comes to armor design and would rather see form over function in most fantasy settings. As an aside, I find the design aesthetic strongly reminiscent of the Daedric armor from recent entries in the Elder Scrolls series. The name “Dark General” would seem to imply a demonic origin, so the similarity makes sense.

Despite the generous views afforded by the aforementioned armor, this figure does not feature any sort of cast-off. Given that the cast-off feature was the main pain point with my other Amakuni figure, Leviathan, I’d say this is a good thing.

The pose captures the Dark General looking like a woman of action, holding a rather ornate spear in one hand, while the other hand accentuates orders issued from her fiery countenance. Her hair and cloak billow outward, conveying a sense of motion while also affording a better look at the General’s attractive physique. The sculpt design is definitely one of the high points for this figure.

The General’s hair is notable in that it starts as a matte white at the crown of her head and transitions to a translucent silver at the tips. I also find the hair seams a good bit more subtle in person than they come across in some of my photos.

The Dark General is officially 1/8 scale. She’s not necessarily small for her scale, but she’s easily dwarfed by Kotobukiya’s Olivia and a number of other large-ish 1/8 scales that have come across my doorstep recently. I would hesitate to label her disappointing in this regard, but if I could change one thing about this figure, I would make her a bit bigger.

The base design consists of what is essentially two clear plastic discs fused together, with the lower featuring a very subtle magic circle pattern. The design is perfectly functional, but the pattern is all but unnoticeable under normal lighting.

As with all Amakuni products, the Dark General was made available exclusively through Hobby Japan. There’s not too much to say that hasn’t already been said about exclusivity and figures. For better or worse, HJ seems to put out a lot of exclusive figures relevant to my interests. Despite the HJ exclusivity tax, the Dark General actually cost me about $30 less than Kotobukiya’s Olivia after shipping costs were factored in.

All told, I’m quite satisfied with Amakuni’s Dark General. She could stand to be a bit bigger and she certainly could have been cheaper to take home without Hobby Japan requiring a middle man, but if you can accept those things, then this is a damn fine figure.