I just want to put out front here, Aerith, is not my favorite Final Fantasy VII character. In fact, she is probably on the bottom, by quite a bit. Like, I have a few favorites (Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid) and everyone else is a bit below that in a plane, and then there is Aerith.
But considering I plan to get everyone else from this line, it would be lame to leave out Aerith. Especially because, though I dislike her, she is, very much, central to the plot. I mean, aside from Cloud and Sephiroth, you could remove almost any other character from the plot and offload their plot elements to someone else or just remove them. Except for Aerith. Because her name sounds like Earth and she is a mako manifestation of the planet’s spirit or whatever.
I mostly just find her boring. This isn’t an Aerith thing, it’s an “RPG Healer type” thing.
The figure is at least nice. The articulation in the legs is hindered slightly less than I expected given the long rubber skirt. The skirt is flexible enough and the slit down one side really help. She can actually sort of do a kneeling pose. And this need isn’t for some weird dirty reason, she literally kneels and prays in the game, it’s part of her deal, she lives in an abandoned church even.
It probably would have been too much to ask for a cloth skirt, and probably would have looked out of place anyway. It’s kind of an eternal problem for action figures in general.
Of the three of these I have so far, Aerith makes out the best for accessories. She has a weapon like Cloud, and an extra face like Tifa, and more alternate hands than both. Maybe they were trying to make up for her limited hip articulation. I do have one issue with her accessories though, the face/hair front on mine tends to fall off. It’s not super loose, but it’s loose enough to be annoying.
She also has articulation on her pony tail, which I had wished Tifa had, so that’s also a plus. Honestly, despite that I am not a fan of the character, she is probably the best figure of the three I have, aside from the limitations that come from a plastic/rubber skirt piece.
