Making news this morning was the rather unexpected announcement of Azumanga Daioh's Sakaki and Osaka being granted a PVC combo release from industry fixture Kotobukiya...

The endowed kuudere Sakaki and simple kansai-tongued Osaka are being released under Kotobukiya's severely underdeveloped 4-Leaves LG series of "eternal heroines", or, as the "LG" denotes, "Legendary Girls". Most of the 12 bishoujo occupying the 4-Leaves series have come from well-received eroge (To Heart 2 and Shuffle! reserving the top spots) but with this Azumanga announcement the line has been opened up to the increasingly popular realm of 4koma. Sakaki and Osaka dawn their memorable swimsuits from the anime and manga's trips to Chiyo-chan's beach house, comprising a service-laden release...for Sakaki anyway. There's no definite reason as to why the figure community is being graced with these PVCs but I assume it has something to do with Azumanga Daioh's 10th anniversary. In celebration, Shogakukan and mangaka Kiyohiko Azuma re-released the first few tankoban of the series earlier this year; with over 60% of Azuma's original illustrations being touched up in his contemporary style. Though there was some commotion over that decision, I feel fans will definitely support Kotobukiya in this endeavor.


Azumanga Daioh has never received much love from figure manufacturers, Bandai releasing a series of trading figures in the early 2000's and Toy's Works following suit with a few (but highly prized) completed polystones. Besides those finite iterations, resin kits have been Azumanga's primary means of penetrating the figure scene since 1999. It comes as no surprise then that Kotobukiya's 1/7 scale Sakaki and Osaka are based on limited edition event-only resin kits first released around 2002. It's difficult to say whether sculptors Gen Ishiduka (Sakaki) and Tsukuru Shirahige (Osaka) were responsible for the creation of those 2002 kits but both are being respectively listed by most vendors as such. There's no doubt more will surface about these PVCs as their February 2010 release dates draw closer. For the time being though: internet high-five to Kotobukiya for making this happen.