I finally have a Sage Mode Naruto statue in the collection and I couldn’t be happier that I went with MH Studio’s, because they really exceeded my expectations with this one. This statue is inspired by Naruto’s battle with Pain and he is shown with Fukasaku and Shima at his side.
As always, I’ll be reviewing this statue in the following areas: Shipping and packaging, concept and design, and paint and sculpt. I’ve also added my unboxing and review of the MH Studio Naruto 1/4 scale statue below if you’d like an all-around look at this statue and its pieces!
Shipping and Packaging
MH Studio’s 1/4 scale Naruto statue came shipped in one box. The art box, which features artwork of Sage Mode Naruto’s face sculpt on top, came shipped in a cardboard shipping box. In the art box, were two foam inserts that were secured together with strong velcro straps.
Aside from Naruto’s body sculpt and the base, this statue has a lot of small to medium size pieces. I was happy to see that they made the decision to house the larger pieces in their own foam insert so that there was less risk of damage to the other, more delicate pieces during shipment. The pieces were either wrapped in plastic bags or tissue paper to prevent damage to the paint and they added small foam pieces in any areas where wiggle room seemed possible to keep them from shifting during shipment.
All in all, no pieces were damaged during shipment, so I was happy with how MH Studio packaged and shipped this statue.
Concept and Design
Part of the reason as to why this statue arrived unscathed was thanks to its design. They’ve really made some improvements since the last statue I bought from them, which was their statue of Obito. On that statue, the tie on his mask came broken off one of his head sculpts, because they sculpted it on the head sculpt. This time around, they made better decisions with these more delicate pieces. For instance, Naruto’s headband tie came sculpted separately to prevent breakages during shipment.
Concept-wise, this statue shows Naruto with the Two Great Sage Toads, Fukasaku and Shima, and it is inspired by his battle with Pain in one of my favorite arcs in Naruto Shippuden, Pain’s Assault. In particular, this statue shows him in that unforgettable moment where he takes on the Asura Path. The overall concept is just really cool and it takes what we see in the anime and gives us a freeze frame version of this scene. The motion and impact that’s occurring in this moment can still be felt though thanks to the way they sculpted and placed the pieces on this statue, such as Naruto’s jacket and the parts of the Asura Path.
This concept also seems to show Naruto in the final stages of that scene as if he is lifting his head up to lock eyes with the Deva Path. This is a badass moment all-around, but the concept here makes him look even more badass.
Paint and Sculpt
The two areas that MH Studio surprised me the most on this statue are paint and sculpt, especially on Naruto’s body and head sculpts. This statue came with a total of two head sculpts. The first head sculpt shows Naruto in Sage Mode and the second shows him in his standard appearance with a kunai in his mouth. The expression on both head sculpts are incredible. These are two of the best portraits I’ve seen of Naruto, but the Sage Mode is where they impressed me the most. A lot of studios don’t get his eyes in this form right, but MH Studio really hit it out of the park. The orange around his eyes is bold and the details they added in the iris of his eyes look incredible. They even added a highlight bubble and some shading to his eyes to add more detail. Then they finished them off with a clear gloss to give them a more realistic look.
His headband is done well too. It’s painted in metallic paint to give the plate in its center a nice shimmer in the light and it has the look of metal. His hair is also incredibly sculpted. Some of the best work on hair I’ve seen on a statue of Naruto. The spikes are really sharp so be careful when putting his head sculpts on, but there are so many different layers and I love the different yellows they picked to add highlights and shadows to his hair.
What I really like though, is how well they captured his likeness on both portraits. His portraits are anime accurate but they are also enhanced somewhat because they took a more realistic route on his eyes and hair.
The sculpt of his body is done really well, but its the texturing and paintwork seen on these pieces that shine the most. His outfit is accurate to what we see in the anime. He is shown wearing his red cloak, which has that black flame pattern on it. They added texturing on his clothing, including his jacket, which has this almost leather-like texture, and then his pants, which are textured nicely as well. On his pants, they even added the pockets on the back and all of the thread details. They added so much detail to his clothing and I really love what they did here. His shuriken holster and the leather bag are included on this statue as well, so they left no detail off his body sculpt.
Fukasaku and Shima came with this statue as well. Fukasaku’s head comes separately sculpted and it attaches with a magnet into his body. His cape smartly hides the seam line on his neck. He has his mohawk-like style hair and his likeness is spot on. And on his back, you have the message from Jiraiya. He has a hidden magnet in his stomach that allows him to rest securely on Naruto’s shoulder, which is really cool. I really like how they did this because there aren’t any notches or visible key in areas on Fukasaku or Naruto’s body sculpts.
Shima came sculpted separately and she is displayed at the side of the statue. They did her justice as well with her sculpt and paint, especially her hair. I love both Shima and Fukasaku and they played such an important role in the series, so I couldn’t be happier that MH Studio included them both with this statue.
The scroll that Naruto has during his battle with Pain is included here. It keys in to the back of the base. They made it a little more ornamental with the addition of the pattern on the maroon-colored sections. I also like the way they painted and textured the belt to look like leather. They even added rings on the edges to make the ends of the scroll look like paper, which is a really nice detail.
The only areas of paintwork that can get a little bit iffy are on the cloud pieces that key in on his jacket. The paint on the rocks sometimes overflows onto the clouds and these pieces aren’t as well painted as the rest of the statue; However, I really like the fact that they sculpted swirls into the clouds.
The last thing I want to talk about is the base. So there’s a lot going on on this statue’s base, but I think it’s tastefully done and everything has a place on this statue. I like the fact that it isn’t your standard base, like you typically see on anime statues. Instead, you have this rocky pillar that builds up to the ground that Naruto stands upon and the scene of the battle. There’s a lot of rubble and debris and cracks in the rocky Earth that show off Naruto’s power here as well as the aftermath of Pain’s assault on Konoha.
All in all, the paintwork and sculpt are incredibly done. This is above and beyond anything I’ve seen from MH Studio in the past and I’m really impressed with their work on this statue.
Final Thoughts
I’ve bought statues from MH Studio in the past, so I expected to receive a great statue, but I was definitely not expecting to receive one as highly detailed and well done as this one. They really exceeded my expectations this time around, and because of that, I really hope they release more statues in their 1/4 scale line!
If you are looking for a good site to pick up anime statues from, definitely check out FavorGK. MH Studio’s 1/4 scale Naruto statue is sold out, but they have a lot more statues from the series on preorder that you can check out!
If you want to learn more about collecting anime resin statues, check out our Best Places to Buy Anime Statues From and a Few You Should Be Wary Of and Guide to Buying Unlicensed Anime Statues and subscribe to the Anime Collective YouTube channel for statue unboxings and more!
