Thanks to the burgeoning popularity of Japanese anime, the Japanese high school girl has become something a global pop culture icon. Depending on the particular source material she can be a sexpot, a helpless victim in need of rescue by a big strong hero (preferably with mad martial arts skills) or a warrior in her own right, playing somewhat against type by leaping into the fray herself (again often with mad martial arts skills).

Considering the popularity of the archetype, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen one or two schoolgirl minis crop up in various miniatures lines, but they’ve usually been some variation of Busty Half-Naked Jailbait With A Big Gun/Sword. Pretty lowbrow and pretty one-dimensional stuff. The sort of thing you shove to the back of your mini collection to hide it from the wife/GF/SO. If you wanted Japanese schoolgirl minis you could use in public, you were pretty much out of luck.

Until now, that is. From Left Hand Miniatures comes this four pack of schoolgirls clad in the traditional sailor fuku (uniforms) of the style made famous in the West years ago by Sailor Moon and her ilk. Each girl comes with three unique options, broadly split among civilian, ancient weapons, and modern weapons. I love this kind of customization, which allows you to equip the girls according to your dramatic needs. Need a heavily-armed bunch of (oddly-themed) assassins? Go for the guns. Need some helpless victims/targets? Break out the satchels and cellphones. Martial arts mayhem on the menu? Time for katanas and nunchucks. You can even mix it up a bit, as I’ve done.

From talking with Graydon Gorby, who runs Left Hand, these minis and their sisters from the Ichiban pack (stay tuned for a future review) were conceived in concert with Atarashi Games for their excellent rules-light schoolgirl-themed RPGs Panty Explosion and Classroom Deathmatch. Since both games have a player base that skews heavily towards young women, special effort was made to avoid the super-voluptuous bodies typically found on this type of fig. The result is that the girls are built pretty much like regular high school girls, perhaps a bit taller and thinner than usual.

The delicacy of the girls’ limbs makes assembling them a bit tricky. Unless you have access to monomolecular wire and some kind of laser drill there’s just no way to pin such tiny joints. I asked Mr. Gorby how he assembled the girls for his studio shots and he recommended a two-part epoxy from JB-Weld. I found some at my local Home Depot and used it to assemble the girls and it did a terrific job. Look for a detailed review next week. Normal superglue might well work, but with so little surface area to bond, these are always going to be delicate minis.

The overall level of detail is decent, though the faces are a bit of a mixed bag. Each girl is recognizably unique, not just a slight variation on a single basic model. The uniforms are very well sculpted, especially the crisp knife pleats in the skirts. Even the way they wear their uniform scarves varies slightly from girl to girl. Their limbs, especially the legs seem a little on the long and thin side to me, but I don’t spend much time with girls this age, so perhaps I’m off-base.

Overall these are unique and well-done minis. The customization options make them useful in a wide variety of roles, and their more realistic figures mean you won’t be ashamed to field them in public. I’m already scheming how to best integrate them into my upcoming zombie campaign.

[Editor’s Note: For more information about Panty Explosion or Classroom Deathmatch, please visit Atarashi Games’ website. They’re offbeat games to say the least, but well worth a look]

Pros: Unique subject, Realistic proportions, Several assembly options
Cons: Tricky assembly
Final Verdict: 4/5
MSRP: $3.50 each, $13 for the set of four
Source: Left Hand Miniatures (review copy)

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