Akane Tendo (Ranma 1/2 (Bandai)) Review

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Akane Tendo (Ranma 1/2 (Bandai)) Review

Akane Tendo
Ranma 1/2 (Bandai) (Bandai)Although I don't watch as much anime as I feel I should nowadays, the new Ranma 1/2 anime by MAPPA is one of my current favorites. Coming well after the original anime that ended long before the manga did and was generally bogged down by filler and unneeded changes, getting a more manga-accurate adaptation was great news for fans, and the second season was a whole lot funnier. While I wait for the "special announcement" next month (no doubt season three confirmation) and the new S.H. Figuarts to release, I'll be looking at the other character from the first SHF run I have: Ranma's somewhat unwilling fiancée, Akane Tendo.

As I mentioned with Ranma, the first SHF for the series used Rumiko Takahashi's designs from the manga instead of the Studio Deen anime, and they captured Akane very well. Despite what Ranma claims, she's cute and even he knows it. Her default expression here is a smile, and the work on the face is mostly clean, save for some little marks on her right eye, and the bob-cut hair is a very dark blue, somewhat like the old anime. Akane has four other faceplates to further display her personality: one looking off to the side (similar to what Ranma has), one with closed eyes and a cheerful smile, one flustered/ready to fight, and one with an exasperated look, for when she's done with her fiancé’s BS. The different faces all look great, and they swap with no issues.

While Akane has worn plenty of outfits in the series, her school uniform is the most recognizable one, and thus is the one her figure gets. Standing about 5" tall, Akane is dressed in blue and white with puffy sleeves, a skirt, and long socks. It's a little simpler than what Ranma wears, and the minimal colors mean not much paint is needed, and the work is very clean aside from some bleed on the socks. The lower part of the uniform is two separate pieces with open areas on the sides to give the legs freedom to move, and her panties are used as a floating crotch piece underneath the skirt (though shouldn't they be blue?). While she does have a stand (more on that in a bit), she can stand fine on her own, even with the little feet.

Akane is a martial artist just like Ranma, and that combined with being part of S.H. Figuarts means that she gets plenty of articulation. She has a revolver joint head, ball/hinge/swivel shoulders with extending sockets, revolver joint elbows and wrists (with ball pegs going into the hands), ball-jointed chest, waist, and hips, swivel thighs, and revolver knees and ankles. It's not as much as Ranma, but she feels a little sturdier, with nothing loose on her. Most of the joints have plenty of range, partially thanks to the way her skirt is designed, though the ankles are restricted a bit because of the socks. The pegs going into the shoulders don't really move, but you at least have some good rotation in the elbows. The hands are a bit tight, but swap without much fear of breakage, though I would recommend some heat the first time you switch out hands.

Akane has a wide variety of accessories, including plenty of hands. Aside from the open hands she has on in the box, she also comes with gripped, cupping, closed, and warding gesture hands, all of which work well with the various poses she can take on. Her main extra outside of swappable parts is P-Chan, the little black piglet she takes a liking to, unaware it's actually Ryoga's cursed form (though they're both better off she doesn't know). He's a little slug figure with no articulation, not even a head swivel, but the sculpt is very nice. She also comes with her bookbag, one of those little ones meant just for books (I have no idea what they're called actually), and a large, cartoony mallet, just in case Ranma gets on her nerves too much. Lastly, she has a clear stand with a posing arm, albeit a little different from what Ranma got. It has a lousy grip, so it's really meant more for keeping her stable than mid-air poses.

While the old SHF Ranma run is quite pricey nowadays, Akane tends to go for much more than them, often being around $300-400 on the aftermarket, making her one of the "grail" Figuarts. I got her for a better price at $200 thanks to a Bluesky user (I lost another $200 in the process to a scammer, but that's another story I won't get into), and I'm quite happy with her. Though now that SHF is doing Ranma again, hopefully we can get a new Akane figure that we can actually afford.

- 2/25/26