Nendoroid Tsuruya-san Part 1

Everybody needs a Tsuruya-san in life
After Haruhi featured in March, Nendoroid cutie of the month (not that I have many actually ^^;) is Tsuruya-san, another character I like very much from "the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya".


Debuted as a friend of Mikuru in the baseball match episode, Tsuruya-san is more of a secondary character in the anime. Even though she didn't get a lot of screen time in the entire show, even less than Kyon's two friends Taniguchi and Kunikida to be exact, I like her as the hyper and really cheerful character who laughs a lot every time she appears on screen. If I remember correctly from the baseball match episode, before you even get to see her, you get to hear her laughter first. ^^




Unlike Mikuru and Yuki, Tsuruya-san is not an ESP, alien or time traveler, just a "normal" person as depicted in the show. That's perhaps another thing I like very much about her. A "normal" person who is very cheerful is very nice to meet in real life. Dealing with Haruhi's ridiculous imagination, the rest of the cast wouldn't be laughing since they know what's going on, but being an outsider and a non-member of Haruhi's SOS Brigade, Tsuruya's burst of laughter to many of the happenings in the show is really my reaction in summary. ^^ Be it Kyon's band of impossible baseball players (which also featured her) or Mikuru's costume and line of dialogue in the movie episode, I feel like laughing out like Tsuruya-san seeing all that. XD It's certainly nice to have a character in the show who reacts just like how a normal audience would, and I can most certainly relate to her because of that. ^^

Tsuruya-san is voiced by Yuki Matsuoka (松岡由貴), who "surprisingly" for me, is also the voice actress for Osaka-san from "Azumanga Daioh". XD That's another very cheerful anime girl actually, in Osaka-san's own unique way that is. ^^



There were certainly many figurines and action figures of Tsuruya-san being released in the past, but the one that really captured Tsuruya-san "hyper-burst" of laughter in my opinion is this Nendoroid version released by Good Smile Company, first came out in 2008. It's not just adorable - a statement that can describe all Nendoroid figures, ^^ the option parts included let you create some really wacky images of Tsuruya-san, perhaps even more wackier than her actual image from the show. ^^





Images on all sides of the box.
Like Haruhi, "H" for Haruhiism is everywhere on the box, but in green for Tsuruya-san. ^^



Introduction of the figure on the back of the box.
The image of Tsuruya-san for this Nendoroid release is based on the maid costume she wears in the school's culture festival episode.




The maid costume aside, the image of her as one of Yuki's mind-controlled victims in the movie episode can be realized as well, but the body unit in school uniform must be "borrowed" from Haruhi for that purpose. ^^; It's not a complete release on its own you can say, as some portion of the content is quite useless unless you have Haruhi. Perhaps the company believed that fans of Tsuruya-san are definitely fans of Haruhi as well, and that when you obtained the earlier, you would have already purchased Haruhi. I agree on that statement to some extent, and on top of those two, I believe fans would probably grab everything else, including Mikuru, Yuki and Ryoko. ^^ It's probably not a problem back in 2008 when Tsuruya-san first came out and Haruhi was still available somewhere, but it's a problem for me who only started looking for both Nendoroid releases 2 years after that. When I got my Nendoroid Tsuruya-san, Haruhi was nowhere to be found anywhere anymore. ^^; I had Tsuruya-san for months before finally able to find Haruhi in Singapore. ^^; This review series would be incomplete if I wasn't that lucky back then. ^^;

Forced cross-compatibility between releases is rarely seen in subsequent releases of Nendoroid figures. Maybe the company realized the troublesome limitation of putting some "prerequisites" on a figure's features and decided not to do it anymore. That's a good thing for the customers really. ^^


Box open


Content


Just like Haruhi, a yellow backdrop for Tsuruya-san.







A look at the figure and all her accessories on the tray.


Side view of the tray.



With the cover of the tray removed.




The display stand is mandatory to display the figure standing. ^^;



Straight out of the box Tsuruya-san ^^
More images of Tsuruya-san and all the accessories included in the next posting.