Play Arts Kai Ibuki - Super Street Fighter 4 Review

This is a rare instance of me doing a review of a character i'm not really familiar with so i have to do some research on her. Apparently, Ibuki is a very famous character in Street Fighter since i have reasons to believe that SQEX is using the old "Popularity Poll" to decide which Street Fighter is worthy of a Play Arts Kai incarnation. Considering Ibuki is released on the 3rd Wave with the Play Arts Kai Guile figure and, notably, ahead of Ken and Sakura, she must be very famous, well, at least in Japan. I did not find that surprising since a rather hot "kunoichi" is a sure-fire hit for the guys (Kasumi anyone?).

I ran a short check on her background and i find it quite unremarkable and direly unsatisfying: a teenage "kunoichi" who's into boys and wishes to lead a normal teenage life instead of being a ninja trained in the arts of "ninjutsu." Perhaps that whole rebellious teenage thing is part of her charm but since i'm way past that age-point i just can't relate. I think i'll just focus on the aesthetics.

One glance and you will find her very appealing and a welcome addition to your Play Arts Kai collection most especially, if you, like me, is gunning to complete the Super Street Fighter 4 line.

The Play Arts Kai Street Fighter line almost never fail on the accessories and they actually got better with the inclusion of a stand. Ibuki's got a pair of alternate open palm hands, hair-extension, a kunai-wielding closed fist hand and an alternate angry head. My d@mned figure though got a quite loose default head out of the box. Also, if you're going to replace her head you need to remove the 3 front hair-extension pieces and the pony tail and transfer them to the head you're going to use. I think an alternate masked head would have also fit in there, i believe i saw some of her pics wearing a mask.

Ibuki's overall face sculpt and form is beautiful and pretty accurate to the game model. Her balance though is off and, once again, her arms are very flimsy. You should take care moving them for poses. Also, i'd like to ask are her ( )( ) really that big? i mean, come on, she's a teenager for crying out loud. For Jun Kazama i understand but for Ibuki...that's about the size of Cammy's head already, hehe. On a marketing point of view, that pervy exaggeration actually makes the figure more compelling.

The best feature of Ibuki is her poseability and i'm surprised how well you can execute kicks especially when using the stand. Her crotch piece allow high kicks without getting loose or getting tangled with the joints. The arms are very mobile also on account of her sleeveless upper garment though, like i mentioned, be careful of her arms. 

The Play Arts Kai Ibuki figure is a pretty decent buy but i suggest you wait for her price to lower a bit though the stand somehow makes up for the slight price difference to the older SSF4 PAKs. 

I am not familiar with her in-game move set so i just took random battle poses with her. Enjoy.