This is kind of a weird one. I'm not much of a fan of anime - not that I hate it or anything, but I'm more at home with traditional Western animation, a la She-Ra and so on. And the Ame-Comi series of statues DC is doing aren't cheap, so I was prepared to let them pass by, until my local comic shop had a 20% Off Sale to coincide with Free Comic Book Day, and Power Girl (as you may know, a favourite of mine) was one of the four statues available, and... well, I ended up getting the whole set, just so PG would have someone in her own animation style to talk to.
It's not just the proportions and facial features that have been changed here - the whole visual style of the characters have gone anime, with various kinds of reinterpretations of their costumes and looks. In PG's case she's acquired a decidedly sci-fi bent, with her bodysuit sporting a segmented design, various built-in armour plates, and the cord holding her cape in place transforming into a heavy gold chain. Meanwhile her plain gloves and boots are replaced by high-tech gauntlets with all manner of gizmos built into them, and thigh-length space-suit-esque boots. It's a fairly dramatic redesign, but the main visual elements of Power Girl - the boob window, the bare thighs, and her trademark white-blonde bob hairstyle - are all in place, and it's impossible to mistake her for anyone else. I'm not sure I can bring myself to entirely like the chain, the way it's swirling away from her torso, but that's just one part of the whole.
The sculpt is quality work, with a fair degree of detail, though nothing extraordinarily sharp - possibly that's a consequence of these being PVC rather than regular plastic (whatever that is), but I'm no expert on materials so don't ask me. Surprisingly, there's quite a bit of realism in play in the fine details. The layered segments of the costume actually do sit at different widths from the body underneath - the 'corset' overlapping the 'panty' segment (it's anime, it must be a panty in order to have the obligatory panty-shot, yes?) for instance - and there's even a slight bulge to the bare skin of her chest where it reaches the tight edge of her suit. Her face is obviously highly stylised, with the anime trademark pointy chin and nose, tiny mouth, and huuuuge eyes, but care has been taken to render an attractive sculpt within that style, and the face looks fine (given its nature) from any angle.
The paintwork is capable, but could have been a bit better. Overall everything is good, with a pearly white base for the suit giving it some visual sparkly, a metallic pale blue picking out the various seams and joins, and solid blue providing the primary contrast. Unfortunately some of the pale blue edging isn't quite as clean as it should be, with some slop in areas like the exposed knees, the edges of the shoulder armour, and the top of the collar. It's about the same standard as the average DC Direct action figure - good enough, but not going the extra mile.
PG's cape really makes her stand out - in place of the waist-length cloth she's got a long trailing ribbon of fabric, whipping around in the breeze behind her. The sculpt on this piece is very dramatic, and given the stylised nature of the statue as a whole it works just fine visually. It's attached only at one fairly thin point at her left shoulder, but since it's a rigid piece and the tail rests on the base, stress damage shouldn't be an problem.
The base is in style identical to the other Ame-Comi figures, but each is cast to accomodate their particular needs in terms of stability - angled pegs for Batgirl and Catwoman's high heels, and a hole for Supergirl's flying base. In the case of Power Girl, with her flat-soled boots, she just has a pair of standard pegs, which hold her firmly in place.
Having bought the four Ame-Comi statues so far, I'm still not that enthusiastic about the concept as a whole - but I'm appreciating the novelty of them, each according to their own merits. With the next pair scheduled for release being Wonder Woman and Cheetah - both designed in quite novel fashions - I imagine I'll probably pick them up to add to the collection.
