Plamo-Kyoshiro

Plamo-Kyoshiro (プラモ狂四郎) is a 1982 manga belonging to the Gundam franchise, written by Hisashi Yasui and illustrated by Koichi Yamato. It was published from August 20, 1982 until December 17, 1986 in Comic BomBom magazine of Kodansha publishing house, receiving eventual reprints. This was the very first production of the Gundam franchise, in its entire history, that showed idea of battles with customized Gundam Plastic Models. This idea has proven to be a very powerful concept, and has been used several times later  in other productions of the franchise, such as Gundam Build Fighters , Gundam Build Fighters Try and Gundam Build Divers 

This work is  considered the very first work of the gundam franchise set in an alternate universe, and is the first absolute derivative of the original TV series .

Concept

 * Plot

The manga is aimed to the audience of Plastic model fans., The story of Plato-Kyoshiro's is about Shiro Kyoda, a young man from Tamiya city and a student of the Bandai Elementary School. Shiro is great enthusiast of Plastic Models and Plamo Battles. Shiro's dream is to become the representative of Japan in the World Simulation Tournament and be able to fight in the finals in the Battle of Hobbytopia. In addition to that, the comic had original Mecha designs that gave rise to the series of Mobile Suit Variations and BB Senshi.


 * Plamo Simulation

In Plamo Kyoshiro, the Gunpla Battles are known as Plamo Simulation. (The word Plamo comes from PLAstic MOdel ) The battles take place through an artifac called Plamo Simulation Machine.  The players put their kits into the domes of the Machine (See the image below) sit on the seats and put on a specialized helmet. They dive into the virtual field on the a unison exclamation of the ‘Plamo Simulation Go!’ command. The battle is directly imaged in the players’ minds while spectators view it on screens. the damage suffered by the models in battle is replicated on the real kits by lasers and mechanical arms. Mods done on the kits can affect the battle, like using a different material to build the parts or adding gimmicks like springs and tasers.

Also, the players can make dioramas and conect the dioramas to the Plamo Simulation Machine and use them as a battle ground for the battles.

For the World Simulation Tournament, the Biochip Plamo Controller (BCPC) is used. The BCPC is housed in a huge facility called the ‘Plamo Simulation Center’. It seems to be an extension of the standard simulation but with an additional biochip which has the player’s biodata. To win the battle, the biochip which will be hidden in the kit must be destroyed. In this system psychic power is used to channel the player’s spiritual energy to control the plamo.



Characters
(this list is enunciative, but not limitative- there are more characters-)

Shiro is the protagonist of the series. He lives in Tamiya City and is a student of the Bandai elementary school. It is the classic shonen protagonist with an exuberant and passionate behavior, as well as being characterized as a real otaku, willing to do anything to grab the last gunpla on the market and customize it according to its personal tastes. He began to take an interest in Plamo Simulation thanks to the owner of the Craft-Man Model Shop, which he is a loyal customer, and in a short time, will be noticed among the most talented and skillful "modellers" in the country, who will not hesitate to challenge him and his gunpla at every opportunity.Shiro usually uses more or less customized Gundams as his favorite means. Among his most famous "pieces" we remember the Perfect Gundam, the Musha Gundam and the Red Warrior.
 * Shiro Kyoda  (Voice - Rika Matsumoto)

He is the owner of the modeling shop frequented by Shiro, The Craft-Man Model Shop,. Also, he is the father of Midori and supporter of Shiro. Shiro refers to him as "Master". On the second floor of his shop, he has a "Plamo Simulation Machine" that allows Shiro to train for the various tournaments and clash with his rivals.
 * Futoshi Kurata

She is the daughter of Futoshi and although she is able to build models and occasionally take to "battle simulation", her role is more like a support role, almost like a "mascot". Her name is a tribute to the Midori, an old manufacturer of plamo.
 * Midori Kurata

He is a classmate of Shiro, and is always portrayed in camouflage clothes. Ken lives in a Western-style house and belongs to a very wealthy family. He is also a very passionate modeller, which leads him to often find himself in conflict with his friend Shiro, a rivalry that will be rekindled when, having moved to the United States because of his father's work, he will meet Sacky who will plagiarize him. He will again prove to be Shiro's friend, however, at the end of the World Simulation tournament, where he will not hesitate to betray Sacky, tired of his cruel behavior.
 * Ken Maruyama

His name is a tribute to Marusan, the first toy company to produce plamo in Japan. Ken uses plamo from various series (especially Dougram ) and in various scales for his fights. While it generally makes extensive use of Zeon media, including various Zaku, the Gelgoog and the Acguy, worthy of mention is also the use of a GM Cannon.

He is a classmate of Shiro and Ken Maruyama's right-hand. his nickname is Kibou. Initially he too will be in a position of rivalry with the protagonist, but then find himself his friend after joining forces against modelers from other schools and shops. He is not a skilled fighter like Shiro and Ken, but his support often proves to be fundamental. He stops building gunpla and taking part in the Simulation Battles after being banned by his mother, in view of the school exams. Like Ken, Kouichi also makes use of various media from various series, but is generally associated with mobile armors and support vehicles.
 * Koichi Kida

University graduate. He is a sportsman (boxer) who has skill of model making. He also works as a instructor at the Athletic Club. he has a great influence on Shiro as a modeler. He recomended Shiro to "put your soul in his own plastic model". Also in the sequel's "New Plamo Kyoshiro", it appeared as an advisor to the new protagonist.
 * Tomita

Akira is the first recurrent antagonist to give Kyoshiro a hard time. He is the leader of the modeling club Plamo Teikoku Emperor, locateded on the Taiyo Model Shop. He is extremely competitive and he hates to lose, and his models are characterized by dark but realistic colors, along the lines of Okawara's "Real Type". Despite being a caustic rival of Shiro, he does not hesitate to join forces against the common threat of Sacky. He has a predilection for Zeon models, and among his favorite vehicles appear Gouf, Hi-Zack and Zssa in custom colors.
 * Akira Yamane

Store Manager of the Taiyo Model Shop. Muraoka was a classmate of Kurata in college days and was a member of the College's Plamo Club. He also owns his own plastic simulation machine. He dislikes to lose and his personality is disgusting, Even Kurata may even complain to his attitude. he likes to provoke Shiro Calling him Gundam boy.
 * Muraoka (Murakaoka)

The giant of the Satsuma model club that has been in Tokyo to challenge Kyoshiro.
 * The Nanbangzan Mountain 

The team of tenma brothers is composed of (from top to bottom in the photo) Taro Tenma, Kotaro Tenma and Goda Tenma. They are descendants of a ninja family lineage. At first they are rivals of Shiro but in the course of the history they become allies getting to fight next to the against the faction of Sacky Takeda in the wars of Sekigahara
 * The Tenma Brothers 

The three brothers representatives of Kyoto who defeated the Temma brothers. From left to right on the photo: Benkei, Yoshimaru (is a boy) and Jing.
 * The Ushikawa Brothers 

description not written yet
 * Black Mountain team 

Iwao is a Monk-Like Model Maker who lives in the Ise Suda Village, a traditional Japanese rural area dedicated to rice cultivation at Hakone. His Mission is to protect the The Model Secret Scrolls (Onokinomaki). Iwao visited the Craftsman store and challenged Shiro to a duel. Iwao used his wooden Gundam, beating Shiro's Gundam Mark-II.
 * Shigeto Iwao 

Later, Shiro visits Iwao's house with Kazuzo Ozawa to get the rematch. This time Shiro used his Musha Gundam against Iwao's Dragon model. Shiro cutted the Dragon in half with the spear of the Musha Gundam, but a bunch of Wooden Unbeatable Balls came out from the cutted stomach of the Dragon model. The unbeatable balls of iwao bounced at great speed destroying Shiro's Musha Gundam, but to the surprise of iwao, inside the musha gundam there was an Unbeatable Iron Ball. The wooden unbeatable ball manned by iwao grazed Shiro's metal ball at gread speed, causing friction, making a spark that caused his unbeatable ball to burn, giving shiro victory.

In the end, Shiro receives one of the Kinomaki scrolls as a reward for his victory, but Kazuzo Ozawa steals the parchment, giving shiro a false empty parchment. Actually, whoever stole the parchment was Sacky Takeda disguised as Kazuzo Ozawa. Shiro and Iwao make friends and chase Sacky to retrieve the scroll.

He is the super villain and Main antagonist of the series. He is a brilliant model maker with dual American and Japanese nationalities. Sacky does not hesitate to destroy those close to him for his interests. he loves to humiliate his opponents and destroy their plamo, and his personality is arrogant and selfish. He has studied very advanced modeling techniques in the United States. He uses innovative materials and special effects, on his models, experimenting as much as possible.
 * Sacky Takeda

His name is a tribute to Saki Hijiri, a central figure in the edition of the mythical Japanese science fiction magazine Uchousen , The models created by of Sacky are extremely eccentric: the best example of this is the terrible Bloody Mary (nicknamed "Devil Gundam"), a grotesque Alien hybrid hidden under the disguise of a mobile suit, able to spit latex from the hidden xenomorphic mouth under the helmet.

The main computer of the large hobby factory "Hobby Topia" suddenly runs away, challenging Shiro with the employees taken hostage. The main computer is  the last rival that Shiro has to face in the thirteenth round (and the very last) of the Tournament. to destroy this opponent shiro had to fight him hand to hand without using any mobile suit in the simulation. all the blows and damages that shiro suffered in the simulation battle fighting with the main computer were reproduced in real life in his body.
 * The Main Computer

Fortunately, Shiro managed to destroy the main computer using the Plamo Spirit   destroying  the main computer, winning the battle of hobby-topia and therefore, the entire tournament.

SPECIAL GUESTS - REAL LIFE CHARACTERS Behind this pseudonym are hidden (from left to right in the image) Katsumi "Meijin" Kawaguchi, Masahiro Oda and Masaya Takahashi, three sacred monsters of the 80s who have inextricably linked their name to Gundam.
 * Stream Based

"Stream Base" was the name of their modeling group at the time of the university. In the Manga, They act as instructors and guides Shiro. They apeared for the first time in volume 4, when the protagonist will have to face the Zeon Shonen-Tai Group.


 * Hiroshi Fujii
 * Iwaki Tetsuo

Plamo (Mobile Suits)
(this list is enunciative, but not limitative- there are more models-)

Plastic Models of other Franchises
Trivia:The Gunpla Battles only Focuses on 'Gundam Models'. The Plamo Battles focuses in all types of plastic models no matter the origin. That's why the comic has shameless appearances of models from other series / franchises. Most of these plastic models appear to be actively used by players in battle, some only appear to be exhibited in one or two pages of the comic.

Notes:


 * 1) The Walker Machines Gallop Type, Dugger Type and Crab Type also appear. The Robot Walker Gallia also apears.
 * 2) The ATH-14-ST Standing Tortoise and the X-ATH-02 Strike Dog also appear.
 * 3) The Soltic H8RF Kolchima Special also appears.The CrabGunner and the DesertGunner also appear.
 * 4) The FAM-RV-S1T Torunfam, The FAM-RV-5 Neofam and The ARV Round Vernian Type Recon also appear.
 * 5) The Fighting Platform Fou and the Aura Battler Bozon also appear
 * 6) The SPT's Daljuan, Gashlan, El-Darr and Dankova make appearance. The main Robot SPT Layzner does not appear.
 * 7) The Heavy Metal Auge apears.

Production Notes
(reference here).

Plamo-Kyoshiro was written by Hisashi Yasui and illustrated by Koichi Yamato. In October 15, 1981, Kodansha had released the first issue of its magazine Comic Bom Bom. Mobile Suit Gundam was extremely popular at that time. Although the Gundam boom was centered at the higher age group, the fire slowly spread to the lower age group in the form of gunpla and thus it was decided to mainly publish gunpla content. At that precise moment, the publisher was planning to launch a manga adaptation of the Mobile Suit Gundam movies, but the publisher was unable to get Sunrise's authorization on time. As an alternative plan, the publisher contacted Hisashi Yasui to create a new series. That's how Plamo-Kyoshiro was born.

In 1979 was released Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series of the Gundam franchise. In 1980 The toy company Bandai began to penetrate for the first time on the sale of plastic models, a hobby quite widespread in the world, but hardly known in Japan at that time. To publicize this new product, Bandai sponsored events and specialized magazines (SF Plamo Magazine, Hobby Japan Magazine) in the hobby of Plastic models along with other advertising techniques. The Plamo-Kyoshiro manga was created as a tool to publicize the plastic models that Bandai was launching at the time.



The story of the Manga and the idea of Plamo Battles were concepts specially designed to arouse the interest of the readers for the hobby of Plastic models. In the manga, the characters appear buying plastic models of Gundam Series and from other famous anime series, TV series and feature films, as well as models of airplanes tanks and other models of vehicles to use them in the simulation. In addition, the characters appear customizing and creating their own original models of  Vehicles and Robots. Apart from this, the characters can be seen using branded products from companies dedicated to the Plastic model industry and numerous references to famous companies, products and people related to this hobby.

The producers of the comic also gave the opportunity to real people to appear caricatured in the manga. editors of modeling magazines, illustrators of hobby magazines, prominent employees of model making companies and young practitioners of this pastime also appeared caricatured in the comic.

Here we have another example to enrich the reader:

The Pictures Above belong to the book プラモテクニック教室 狂四郎VS小田雅弘 講談社ポケット百科 (Lit.: Plastic Tekniks Classroom Kyoshiro VS vs Oda Masahiro Kodansha Pocket Encyclopedia. In the first picture we can see Shiro hanging on the left arm of a caricatured masahiro oda. in the second pag,e we can see Shiro And Masahiro, Shiro carriying models and a real photo of masahiro with part of his background info..

Throughout the manga they appear teaching Shiro how to build the models, what materials to use and what techniques to apply in the construction of them. These explanations are accompanied by very detailed illustrations so that readers could learn implicitly how to assemble the models.

The point of all these was, of course to arouse the interest of the reader for the hobby and and promote industry, companies, key people, magazines and the plamo culture in general.

Impact of This Work
The original edition had 15 volumes and was in publication from August 20, 1982 until December 17, 1986 in Comic Bom Bom magazine by Kodansha. In 1989 a Single Volume was published entitled Plamo-Kyoshiro-Musha Gundam Version; This volume deals with the episode in which the Musha Gundam appeared. In 1990 a second edition of 11 volumes was launched. In 1999 a 6-volume Deluxe edition was published. Between 2002 and 2004 an Economic Version of 13 volumes was published and in the year 2008 a paperback edition of 10 volumes was published. All the Plamo-Kyoshiro publications, from the original 1982 until the last of 2008 have all been published by Kodansha The manga has also received several sequels and derivatives:
 * Manga

Publication History
The volume numbers can be confirmed on the cover
 * Original Issue, 1982-1986


 * SPECIAL ISSUE
 * Plamo-Kyoshiro Musha Gundam Version


 * REPRINT 1990


 * Reprint 2002

The volume numbers can be confirmed on the cover
 * Reprint of 2008

Plastic Models
This is a Master Grade plastic model of the Perfect Gundam (パーフェクトガンダム, Pāfekuto Gandamu), the first model customized by that Shiro Kyoda. this model was released in 2003. the model includes a little statue of Shiro at 1/20 scale with some artwork from the manga related to the model.
 * 1/100 MG Perfect Gundam

Toys and Figures
This series combines classic Gundam characters in SD form with ‘cloth’ armor representing their iconic Mobiles Suits. This was the seventh release in the series. it was launched in 1989.
 * SD Gundam Cloth Musha MKII

Plamo-Kyoshiro Tamashii (プ ラ モ 狂 四郎 魂) is a small line of figures launched by Bandai in 2004. The Line is composed of 5 figures: The Perfect Gundam, Perfect Gundam III, Musha Gundam, Perfect Zeong, and a figure of Shiro Kyoda sitting in his simulation chair. The figure of Shiro includes two heads to place: one with his cap on and another with his helmet.
 * Plamo-Kyoshiro Tamashii


 * Gundam Fix Figuration 

Video Games and Table Games

 * SD Gundam G Generation Series
 * SD Gundam G Generation F (PlayStation)
 * SD Gundam G Generation F-IF (PlayStation)
 * SD Gundam G Generation NEO (PlayStation 2)
 * SD Gundam G Generation SEED (PlayStation 2)


 * Another Century's Episode Series
 * Another Centurys Episode 3 THE FINAL (PS3)


 * Gundam Extreme Vs. Series
 * Gundam Extreme Vs. Full Boost
 * Gundam Extreme Vs. Maxi Boost


 * Gundam War
 * Gundam War :Colectible Card Game