Groove announced the upcoming release of a new Pullip called Kayano via their blog last night. Pullip Kayano is going to be a September release in Japan (US release date is one month later) and she will have a MSRP of 19000 yen which is about $173.31 as of this writing.  Lately we have not seen many original, non-collaboration series releases and it seems like the original releases that we have had more recently have all had somewhat subdued color palettes so I’m very excited to see Kayano who is such a bright and colorful release on the schedule. 
A lot of people have mentioned that Pullip Kayano has the vibe of the classic older releases, they are not wrong an earlier version of Pullip Kayano’s prototype was featured in the 2011 Pullip calendar below is a picture I took of the calendar years and years ago (more pictures of the calendar can be seen on my flickr there are some additional unproduced prototypes featured).  It seems as though a few of the fabrics have been changed out as I imagine some fabrics have been become unavailable with time (it’s been seven years) but the face up and outfit style are undeniably inspired by this early prototype.


I absolutely love Kayano’s face up, I think I still prefer the older stylized face ups over the overly detailed bjd-esque face ups so she really appeals to me. She reminds me a bit of previous Pullip release Prunella. I love the pop of the blue on the eye crease, it stands out as a great contrast with her red hair and amber eyes.

I love how much of a wild burst of color Kayano is! The fabric choices are all pretty bright and colorful it almost seems as though they shouldn’t work together but the colors do seem to balance each other out pretty nicely. The plaid is a very unusual choice for kimono but I think it works for it.
My only complaint about the outfit is the shoes, they have reused this shoe mold quite a few times already which is okay but I feel like there was probably a better suited style choice to go with this particular outfit. It’s a small complaint and one that is easily remedied once I have her in my hands. If I am only slightly disappointed with the shoe choice with a release really it speaks very highly of the quality of that release!

Back view of the outfit!
I will be sure to update as more information regarding Pullip Kayano becomes available! I can’t wait to preorder her.