Jujutsu Kaisen 25-Piece Sitting Figure Set by Penguin Souvenir – Merchandise Review

Last month I wrote all about the arrival and unboxing of the Jujutsu Kaisen 25-pcs mini figure set by Penguin Souvenir. Without ever having to take the little figures out of the box, it was easy to simply prop the display box against a wall and view the entire set. That would have been the wise thing to do. Untouched, the figures are kept in their factory new condition, ready for resale if I ever fall out of love with the manga/anime.

But then the whole point of buying figures is to be able to ‘manhandle’ them. Not in a violent or destructive way, of course, but in a fun and playful way. Fun as in putting them in various places and making up stories of their interactions. This only works for smaller figures, though, as the bigger ones are better off inside a display cabinet. 

This current set in question has an array of figures about 5cm tall, and they’re just perfect for my diorama boards. I wrote about one of them previously, a little English village filled with miniature houses I began collecting while I was still a student at university.

These days Isekai and parallel or alternate universes are all the norm, so we put two and two together and get… Jujutsu Kaisen Isekai version. (English continued after Japanese)

座る呪術廻戦25体セット

遅くなりましたがハッピーじゅじゅハロウィン?この間投稿した「座る呪術廻戦25体セット」をやっと中箱から取り出しジオラマに置いてみました?。カワイイ?（自画自賛?）みんな、本当に可愛らしくて好きすぎます?！ダイソーで買った粘土を使ってかぼちゃ、紅葉した木々、そして小川＋池を作りました。これで秋風景が作れたかなと思います???。その他の、季節のおもちゃはダイソーの他、セリアやキャンドゥなどから集めました。これからはキャラの色んな組み合わせで撮ってみたいです。下手な写真ですみません、フィギュアの実物は本当に可愛らしく、小さいながらよく出来ていると思います！

It’s All in the Details

A town isn’t a town unless there are trees and foliage and water features. I made some using modeling clay from the Daiso dollar store, choosing ‘stone powder clay’ amongst the available types. 

It was great fun creating the trees, though it was only much later, when the parts had dried, that I realised modeling clay shrinks! My plan was to craft modular trees, that is, make the trunks separate from the foliage so I can swap out the foliage according to the season. Since it is autumn in this part of the world, I decided to make yellow and orange canopies. 

Everything was going swimmingly until the parts fully dried and I tried to put them together, only to find some of the canopies’ openings had shrunk and could no longer fit into their intended trunks! xD Next time, when I make the pink and white canopies to represent cherry blossoms in spring, I’ll make sure to create bigger openings to account for the shrinkage.

My other plan was to make a river, with a lake on one end and a waterfall on the other. Lake and river turned out fine, though they now look more like a brook and pond xD I decided to put my waterfall plans on hold since I wasn’t sure yet how tall the risers would be in the end. At present, I’m using book-shaped storage boxes, but this is only temporary. Soon I’ll be cutting up and carving foam to act as permanent risers. Once I get the risers finalised, then I’ll make the waterfall. That way it’ll be the right height.

For the blue shade of the water, I bought a beautiful little boat from Mercari (Japan’s largest online flea market) which had wave formations at the bottom part. Thankfully, the blue green paint I bought from the dollar store matched the wave paint perfectly! Speaking of wonderful coincidences 🙂

The other clay stuff I made were a bunch of pumpkins. Now this was really fun to make! They’re tiny and a bit tricky to carve – especially the stems – but comparatively easy to shape. 

Adding the New Townsfolk

So I gathered up my courage and finally opened the interior box of the Jujutsu Kaisen 25-pcs sitting figure set. The thumb-sized figures were a bit tricky to pop out of the clear plastic tray moulded in such a way as to hold on tight to the figures. But once I got them out they were easy to place all across the diorama. 

At first they kept toppling over since their heads were larger and heavier than their teeny-weeny bodies. But I finally got the hang of making them sit upright: the trick is to hold the bottom of the figure with your fingers from above (i.e., palm curving over the head), gently placing it on a roof or other surface all the while balancing it. Once I figured this out then it was easy-peasy to sit them anywhere. 

Let’s see the pairings and groupings I randomly thought of:

Sukuna, Megumi and Yuji

Well, this is the unholy trio, so it comes first. Wait, there are a bunch of unholy trios in JJK xD Sukuna sits on top of a slide, grinning and plotting, while the two boys are out front, oblivious to the terrible danger lurking behind them.

Kamo and Kenjaku

Kenjaku (or Zombie Geto, or Fake Geto, guy has many names) and Noritoshi Kamo of the Kyoto school come from the same Kamo stock, one of the Big Three sorcerer families. Student Noritoshi Kamo (加茂憲紀) seemed to have come around to accepting Yuji being Sukuna’s vessel, so he’s no longer one of the ‘bad’ guys. But his ancestor Noritoshi Kamo (加茂憲倫) is a whole other story – it seems he’s behind all this to begin with. BTW, Old Kamo and Student Kamo have same-sounding names, but while the surname is exactly the same, their given names have different Chinese characters. 

Megumi with a Frog Shikigami

Found this great pumpkin with frog at the dollar store, and immediately thought of Megumi’s shikigami. Frog saved Nobara’s life (to which our ungrateful princess quips she dislikes the amphibians xD). Here Megumi sits on a pumpkin couch, being grumpily adorable.

Toge and Todo on a Roof

It was Toge Inumaki who stopped Aoi Todo from destroying Megumi during the pre-campus sporting event, so I thought they’d share a roof. In the end, they end up fighting alongside each other.

Nobara with a Giant Cupcake

Here’s our princess in front of a giant cupcake with purple icing topped by a Jack-o-lantern. Fancy cupcakes seem to be all the rage at the moment (along with… heaven knows what kind of other fancy baked goodies are having their five minutes of fame). Nobara is fashionable and in-the-know. I can imagine her being in hip, youth-oriented places like Harajuku and eating all the new, trendy stuff from all the new, trendy stores.

Ichiji Sweating While Giving Gojo the Side-Eye

This Ijichi figurine is just so adorable I kept grinning at it! He’s sweating on his mobile phone, troubled by the fact that Gojo is sitting behind him on a swing, seemingly minding his own business but probably able to hear every word of the phone conversation. Ijichi is one of the most underrated characters in JJK, in my opinion. I love every scene he’s in. 

Yuji with Junpei Sitting on a Piano

I got the woodland piano miniature from the Daiso dollar store, and I think it’s really well made for the price. The Junpei arc is one of the most heartbreaking and best-written in the manga, about a poor boy bullied by his classmates who eventually turns on them using help from a special-grade curse, Mahito. I absolutely love Akutami’s portrayal of how easy it is to groom and manipulate an unhappy, introverted boy. Junpei naturally wanting someone – anyone – to recognise his good traits and accept him for who he is, is something anyone can relate to. Haven’t many of us as teens simply wished we found that someone who could give us the approval and affirmation we deserved? At first, Mahito seemed to offer this friendship, but we all know it was just another game in his eyes. Itadori was Junpei’s first and last true friend.

Hanami and Jogo Sitting on Chimneys

Aww, look at these two! They are so well-designed in terms of shape and form, thanks to Akutami’s two-thumbs up imagination in full bloom at the start of the manga. He seemed to have lost this creativity in the middle of the story, however (Tengen anyone? He looked so awful and just poorly executed all around! *Shudder*). In my eyes, both Hanami and Jogo are his masterpiece monsters. That they’re sitting on chimneys here thinking nothing of it is something they’d easily do in their world. Both of them wouldn’t mind the smoke at all, and who cares if they’re reversing the smoke’s direction? I think they’ll enjoy the idea of much-hated human beings choking inside the house!

Doc Ieri and Principal Yaga

The last (and first?) time we see these two together is when they’re at the mobile treatment centre just outside the Shibuya war zone. Dr Shoko Ieri – a medical doctor – is Gojo and Geto’s peer, and thus had been Yaga’s pupil back in the day, when he was in charge of the first-year students. We know so little of Ieri, and only get a bit more of Yaga’s back story moments before he died. I wish she’d been able to treat him. I made her sit on top of a hospital roof in hopes she’s treating and healing Nobara, Toge and the others.

Miwa and Mechamaru with a Magic Pumpkin Coach

Ah, these two! I love them so much, and cried at their tragic non-love story. Poor Ultimate Mechamaru, only wanting to be ‘normal’ and spend time with his friends/schoolmates like an ordinary boy. Poor Kasumi Miwa, your typical pretty girl crushing on the gorgeous Gojo, oblivious to the fact that her senpai is in love with her. That he took the time to say goodbye to her via his spy device was a kind touch by Akutami-sensei. I love what he said to her: that all he wanted to do was look after her, and didn’t care whom she loved as long as she was happy. To wish her well in this manner is a testament to Akutami-sensei knowing how to write a good love story.

Miwa weeping on the train, begging Mechamaru not to die, is something I can’t wait to be animated. Got a box of JJK tissues just for that moment! 

Two of my fave bric-a-brac are in this shot: an adorable dollar-store pumpkin couch with gold accents (to represent Miwa being the princess in Mechamaru’s dream world), and my hand-made orange pumpkin, right there in front. Cute, eh?

Maki and Mai Making Plans

Another amazing pair, another heartbreaking love story, this time a familial one between twin sisters. I’ve written about these two at length here and here. Another masterpiece of a relationship by Akutami-sensei, these mini figures are so on point in that Maki is smiling in a slight yet straightforward kind of way, while Mai has a devious smile complete with telltale hand. I didn’t put them side-by-side in this shot, but with the older twin above and the younger twin at the bottom. I think this is how they are currently: the self-sacrificing Mai being the foundation of Maki’s drive to destroy her own clan.

Principal Yaga with Panda on a Boat

Every time someone is given a backstory, they die. At least, that’s what it looks like lately in the JJK world. We’ve seen Principal Yaga doing an act of kindness, creating a boy-doll to help a colleague’s emotionally and physically crippled sister. Poor Yaga is eventually killed by the suspicious hardliner Gakuganji. Panda crying while carrying his father’s corpse will be a surefire tear-jerker in the anime. Ah, so many good stories waiting to be animated!

I bought the miniature boat – christened ‘S.S. Ivy’ – from Mercari, a Japanese online flea market. It’s one of the prettiest little rowboats I’ve ever seen, complete with fish barrel, freshly caught fish, a little bird, anchor, flag, and even a pot and stove for making breakfast tea at sea. The tiny paddle is decorated with flowers. I love this little boat so much you can be sure you’ll be seeing me sitting every figure on it eventually. But first, Panda and Yaga, going on their wild nautical adventure. 

My autumn trees can be seen in the background. Whaddya think? 🙂

Principal Gakuganji on a Rocking Chair

In this frame, Yaga is gone, and Panda is left on his own to navigate the world. Kyoto school principal Gakuganji is the subject of this shot, as he sits on a rocking chair, scheming. Now that he knows the secret to Yaga’s sentient living dolls, will he and his cohorts create an army of slave dolls, like the clones in Star Wars? We shall see!

Nanamin and Mahito

We all know how these two battled it out at Junpei’s high school. For me, that battle scene between the bespectacled sorcerer and the stitched-up yet handsome young special grade Curse was one of the highlights of the anime 1st season. From then on I would forever associate Nanami with Mahito.

In Season 2 we need to have our tissues ready. 

Best Friends – Gojo and Geto

Ah, these two. Their story could make up an entire manga. I don’t want to write a fanfic novel right here right now and bore you to death, so let this picture paint a thousand words.

So Many Other Possible Groupings

Our main trio (well, not lately, though, as the girl is out of the picture): FIK. The second year trio, PIM. The Kyoto students. Utahime Iori and Satoru Gojo. Nobara and the Zen’in twins. So many groupings and pairings waiting to be set up. Let’s hope I’m ready to fight off laziness and apathy with a double-edged blade! 

As for the figures themselves, they are awesome. Momo is the hardest to balance because of her big hair. There are hardly ever figures of Jogo or Hanami, as well as the Kyoto faculty (Utamime Iori, Principal Gakuganji) and the Tokyo staff (Shoko Ieri, Kiyotaka Ijichi), so this set having all of them – in and of itself – is reason enough to hand over the money. I’m glad I did! 

That’s it for our look at my JJK Isekai diorama. Let me know in the comment section below what pairings/groupings you’d like to see next!

Where to Buy the Jujutsu Kaisen 25-Piece Figure Set

Here’s some buying info for those who have not pre-ordered the set. As of this writing, it costs JPY12,500 plus JPY1,250 tax for a total of JPY13,750 (about USD120).

Buying Within Japan

Buy online via the Penguin Souvenir Web Store. Shipping is free for domestic purchases. 

The set is also available in specialty stores such as Suruga-ya and Book-off. I’ve seen a pre-owned (but unopened) one being sold in the JPY 9,000+ range, and an opened (but unused) one in the JPY 7,000+ range. 

For some reason people are selling the figures by piece, so if that’s your thing then Yahoo! Auction is for you. You can also try the online flea markets such as Mercari.

Buying From Outside Japan

You can buy this set via proxy, and have it shipped worldwide. Check out my Shopper’s Guide.

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座る呪術廻戦　25体セット

Thank you so much for reading! Please take a moment to share a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for daily manga/anime posts! xoxo – hana