Despite the name, this figure arrived broken, and also turned out to be a Chinese knock-off with typical shoddy construction (I did get a partial refund).
Note the slapdash assembly and paint job, with visible seams and dull, messy colors. The hair is supposed to be semi-transparent but with this paint job it looks horrible. Actually I’ve seen few figures where I think this gimmick works well.
I re-glued and repaired, filled gaps and sanded seams, scraped off paint smears on her skin, and repainted all of the black and gold, the brown boots, and most of the red and a good portion of the white parts:
I bought the figure mainly because it’s such a dynamic and unusual pose and an interesting base, and has a nice contrast of textures (when painted properly, at least). The character Yaya is actually rather annoying in the story, but looks gorgeous here.
I weathered her boots a little, trying to make them look more realistic. At least they look more like rubber and leather now than with the original glossy finish.
I was a little sloppy myself when repainting the intricate design on her right furisode sleeve, because – but for the mirror base I added – it’s mostly hidden from view. Rather than a bright gold moon with dull gold scribbles (which is the anime version), I opted for a silver moon (like in the novel) with bright gold scribbles.
