Persona 5 Royal: Panther and Queen Get the Pop Up Parade L Size Treatment

Good Smile's Pop Up Parade L Size: What Makes It Different?

Not all figure lines are created equal. Good Smile Company's Pop Up Parade series launched as a more affordable, accessible alternative to their premium scale figures, and it's been a hit ever since. The standard size sits around 17-18 cm, but the L Size variant steps things up to roughly 22-24 cm, giving you noticeably more presence on a shelf without jumping into the 30,000+ yen territory of scale figures.

That's why the L Size tier hits a sweet spot for collectors. You get better detail, more dynamic sculpting, and a price point that doesn't require a second job. For Persona fans who already own multiple figures from the series, adding L Size entries feels like a natural upgrade. No wonder Good Smile keeps expanding this format.

What I especially like is that the Pop Up Parade line keeps the base designs clean and recognisable. These aren't hyper-stylised interpretations. Panther's red-and-black Phantom Thief suit and Queen's biker-inspired outfit translate really well into this format, staying faithful to the original character artwork from Persona 5 Royal.

Ann and Makoto: Why These Two Characters Hit Different

Guess what? Of all the Phantom Thieves to get simultaneous L Size releases, Ann Takamaki and Makoto Niijima are genuinely the two most requested characters among the Western collector community. Both have appeared in earlier figure releases, but an L Size Pop Up Parade specifically tied to Persona 5 Royal fills a gap that many fans have been waiting on.

Ann, known in-game as Panther, is the team's baton user and one of the earliest members of the Phantom Thieves. Her Japanese voice actress is Nana Mizuki, one of the most recognisable names in anime voice acting. The character's design leans into a bold, theatrical aesthetic, catsuit, whip, red mask, which makes for a visually striking figure even at a glance.

Makoto Niijima's Appeal as Queen

Makoto is a different kind of fan favourite. She's the student council president by day and a motorcycle-summoning Phantom Thief by night. Her Persona is Johanna, styled after a Buddhist deity, and her combat role is the team's tank. In Japanese, her surname 新島 (Niijima) carries a certain formal weight, fitting for a character whose entire arc is about breaking free from rules she was raised to follow. Persona fans who've studied Japanese often point to Makoto's dialogue as a good example of keigo, or formal speech register, which makes her surprisingly useful for language learners paying close attention.

On a related note, the dual release of both characters at the same time is a deliberate move. Good Smile has done this before with popular duos, and it's a smart collector bait strategy. You're far more likely to buy both when they're announced together than if one came out six months after the other. Convinced yet?

Persona 5 Royal and the Figure Market: Context Matters

Persona 5 Royal, the expanded version of Atlus's 2016 original Persona 5, came to Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC in October 2022 after years as a PlayStation exclusive. That broader release brought a massive wave of new players into the franchise, and with new fans come new collectors. The timing of these L Size figures isn't accidental.

Fun fact: Persona 5 Royal has sold over 4 million copies worldwide as of Atlus's most recent reports. The franchise's visual identity is incredibly strong, which is part of why it translates so well into merchandise. The red-and-black colour palette, the bold typography, the Phantom Thief motif, everything about Persona 5's aesthetic was designed to be iconic, and figures carry that energy well.

Trust me on this one: if you're even slightly on the fence about pre-ordering, don't wait. Good Smile figures from popular series tend to sell out during the pre-order window, and aftermarket prices on sites like AmiAmi or Surugaya can climb quickly. The yen fluctuations over the past two years have already made importing Japanese figures more expensive than it used to be, so locking in a pre-order price is genuinely the smarter move.

Where to Pre-Order

Pre-orders are live through Good Smile's official website as well as major import retailers including AmiAmi, Hobby Search, and Nin-Nin Game. If you're based outside Japan, shipping costs and import duties vary, so it's worth comparing. Pro tip: AmiAmi's used section sometimes has cancelled pre-orders listed slightly below retail, which is worth checking a few weeks after the initial announcement hype dies down.

Oh, almost forgot: Good Smile typically ships L Size Pop Up Parade figures in a single wave, so you won't be waiting for one to arrive before the other. Both Panther and Queen should land around the same delivery window, which makes display planning a lot easier.

For Japan Fans and Language Learners: A Small Bonus

If you're learning Japanese and love Persona 5 Royal, you're sitting on a goldmine of study material. The game is fully voiced in Japanese (日本語, nihongo) and the script is dense with everyday vocabulary, slang, and formal speech patterns. Characters like Makoto offer great examples of polite language, while Ryuji's dialogue is basically a masterclass in casual Tokyo youth speech.

Hand on heart, playing Japanese games with Japanese audio and Japanese subtitles is one of the most enjoyable ways to absorb vocabulary naturally. The word 怪盗 (kaitou), meaning phantom thief or gentleman thief, shows up throughout Persona 5 and it's a great word to know, it also appears in classics like the Detective Conan spin-off series. Collecting the figures while learning the language creates a genuine connection to the material. Personally, I think that kind of immersion beats flashcard drilling any day of the week. Sounds good, right?

In pictures

Sources

1. Persona Central: Pop Up Parade L Size Panther and Queen Announced