This figure is a freebie from kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace vol. 2 mangazine which was released as September 2009 issue. The mangazine was pretty cheap @ Y600-ish which includes this figure and imagine, having a thick book which priced light. Just wow. I was pretty amazed by it.
Anyways, this figure was produced by Kaiyodo in collaboration with Kadokawa Shoten (or is it?). It's pretty amazing that the figure is so detailed considering the size of it and it's a freebie at that.
About the photos below, I tried mimicking Kotobukiya's preview photos of the Upcoming Asuka Langley with yellow background but.. failed miserably. The yellow background is really blinding. Another thing that I included is my kousaka Tamaki monkey bar base instead of the provided base cuz... it looks better that way than using the provided base which needs to be boosted to balance the figure.
PS. Missed the two past issues of Young Ace which has Makinami Mari figures but it matters not as I am not a fan of Mari unless I see her in action. OTL