Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3 is amazing. She's Gekkoukan High School's valedictorian, student council president, and the leader of its Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad. Such a complicated character, yet everything she is can be captured by a simple resin garage kit.
That stoic expression — as if she's almost bored with the idea of risking her life fighting against shadow demons. She has been training and fighting since she was a small child, after all — it's not a struggle anymore, it's just what she does.
It's confidence. It radiates from her. Her fellow students are drawn to it, which explains why she's the most popular girl in school. Not her looks — though she's certainly not unattractive. Her power is in her presence. She's not sort of female character you find in Japanese role-playing games all that frequently.
This garage kit version of Mitsuru comes from e2046's Gathering line, and thank goodness it did. For one, that means it comes with a special base, featuring the fan-translated Special Extracurricular Execute Sector version of the S.E.E.S. acronym. It also means that someone else painted this for me, and painted it well.
I have purchased many unpainted garage kits in my time. They are, for the most part, still in their boxes, still unpainted. That's because I am terrified I am going to screw up someone else's work of art. Just look at this image from a fan gallery on the e2046 page for the unpainted version of the kit:
Compare that to the Gathering version...
...you can understand why I am hesitant.
So I shall stick with letting other people paint the Empress of Persona 3. I'll let them handle the fine details of this nearly 12 inch-tall figure.
I can only imagine how horrible those would look if I took my shaky hand to them. Mitsuru deserves better.
Confident in your painting abilities? The unfinished Mitsuru Kirijo resin garage kit is available now from e2046 for only $36 and change. Otherwise, the pre-painted version, currently sold out, normally runs $175 (though when last in stock they were on sale for around $140). It's a substantial difference, but for someone of my painting skill and patience level, it's the difference between a professional figure and a complete and utter mess.
Mitsuru is totally worth it.