Black Canary Emerges Victorious in Her Bishoujo Debut

Finally, after what seemed like an impossible wait, Kotobukiya's Black Canary Bishoujo is really happening. Though the statue has had its share of development issues, Koto has been teasing this final iteration of the anticipated Black Canary for a few months now, and is actually on track to deliver her before the end of the year.

While it will be nice to finally be able to complete the Birds of Prey collection, Dinah Lance is missing a little something compared to her teammates. As you can see in the images, Black Canary's base is much more simplified stand, and lacks the gargoyle base like the rest of the Birds of Prey. Koto has been dialing back the sculpted bases in the bishoujo line across the board, and it hasn't really been a big problem. Here however, the lack of a gargoyle base could detract from the aesthetic if you've been planning to display the whole crew as one unit.

Now that's not to say that the sculpt is bad. While it's disappointing there's not a more thematic base included, Dinah herself looks cool. She's got a bit of a fighting game victory pose going on, which wouldn't be out of character for Black Canary given her melee proclivity and expertise in close combat. I'm glad to see that Koto's once again gone for something beyond overt sex appeal, too. Though Black Canary still has her signature corset, jacket and fishnet style, she's not jammed into a brokeback pose, nor does she have a wanton gaze we'd seen so many times in the earlier bishoujo figures.

Shunya Yamashita's design comes to life rather well, and the different textures and paint apps used to bring the various blacks in Dinah's costume look good. The actual fishnets definitely bring a different vibe to the statue versus previous bishoujo efforts. We saw the same effect used in the Zatanna, but Canary is clearly working with more of the material that that figure. It could be a bit problematic should any tears occur, which wouldn't be an issue if the stockings were sculpted, but they do bring a bit more realism to the piece.

The Kotobukiya Black Canary Bishoujo is available for pre-order now for $69.99, and is due to arrive in November.