Papillon Rose
Encyclopedia
is an anime
which parodies the magical girl
genre, particularly Sailor Moon
and Cutie Honey
. Created by dojinshi
group ECHIGOYA, Papillon Rose started out as a metafiction
joke on a website
, and the official website only had a few pictures of characters
(which were usually copied from scenes in Sailor Moon, with the artwork changed) and a few lyrics
to opening and ending theme songs. Demand grew due to people finding the page and assuming it was for an actual series, and in 2003, the series was picked up by the animation studio Pink, and an OVA was produced (Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose: Tsubomi no Yume wa Yoru Hiraku).
An episode guide
for the (non-existent) first series and manga was also made available, as well as a set of CD-ROM
s containing a 2-minute animated promotional clip
, eight songs (6 BGM and 2 vocal songs), system voice clips for computers, a Papillon Rose mahjong game, and two screen savers. The CDs were only made available for Comiket
, and were not distributed outside of Japan
. Later an episode guide for the second ('R') season was made as well.
The homepage was redesigned and updated with fake manga
covers and notes from the fictional author
. Amateur
voice actors and singers were also contacted to provide sample character voice clips for a handful of the villain
s and hero
ines.
An English
version was initially intended for release on the Internet
, but plans failed to materialize. In March 2010, Section 23 films announced plans to distribute the 6 episode series and OVA on DVD for North America on behalf of Maiden Japan. The DVD set is planned to be released on June 8, 2010. Maiden Japan is a division of "J-Horror" and "Pink Cinema" licensor Switchblade Pictures. Papillon Rose will be their first release.
From 2003 until early 2005, no new news was made available about the series, save for profiles of new characters and various fictional incarnation
s of the series:
In early 2005, however, the site went blank, with nothing other than a graphic that stated the website would return in the new future. As of October 2005, this page is still in existence at the prior location. http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~novy/
On October 8, 2005 Anime News Network
reported that the site was relocated to a new official website http://www.ayaya.co.jp/, with information on the development of a Papillon Rose television series. The TV series was called 'Papillon Rose New Season' and was six episodes long, covering what happened to the girls a year after the ending of the OVA and introducing new characters.
The DVD release of the TV series was halted after the third DVD was released, a while after a soundtrack for the series was put on sale and a box set containing all six episodes was released in October 2007, although various changes (such as music) had to be made due to copyright limitations.
Despite the seemingly hentai
overtones, the series has yet to feature sex, or extremely graphic nudity.
Tsubomi has transformed once more into Papillon Rose and she and the other Papillons fight with the Gel Dynasty, but the Papillons’ powers don’t work against the transvestites as they don’t have vaginas. With new powers and allies at hand, Papillon Rose will knock the Gel Dynasty down to protect the peace and pussies of the sex industry! The transvestites raise their flag, and the Papillons will make them explode with Orgasm Power!
A new threat has arrived on Earth, but will the Papillon soldiers be strong enough to defend against it? New allies appear as the Papillon soldiers face what could be their final battle.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
which parodies the magical girl
Magical girl
belong to a sub-genre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga. Magical girl stories feature young girls with superhuman abilities, forced to fight evil and to protect the Earth. They often possess a secret identity, although the name can just refer to young girls who follow a plotline involving magic...
genre, particularly Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...
and Cutie Honey
Cutie Honey
is a Japanese media franchise created by Go Nagai. Cutie Honey first appears on volume 41 of the 1973 edition of Shōnen Champion. According to Nagai, she is the first female to be the protagonist of a shōnen manga series....
. Created by dojinshi
Dojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
group ECHIGOYA, Papillon Rose started out as a metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
joke on a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, and the official website only had a few pictures of characters
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
(which were usually copied from scenes in Sailor Moon, with the artwork changed) and a few lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
to opening and ending theme songs. Demand grew due to people finding the page and assuming it was for an actual series, and in 2003, the series was picked up by the animation studio Pink, and an OVA was produced (Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose: Tsubomi no Yume wa Yoru Hiraku).
An episode guide
Guide
A guide is a person who leads anyone through unknown or unmapped country. This includes a guide of the real world , as well as a person who leads someone to more abstract places .-Guide - meanings related to travel and recreational pursuits:There are many variants of...
for the (non-existent) first series and manga was also made available, as well as a set of CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s containing a 2-minute animated promotional clip
Teaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
, eight songs (6 BGM and 2 vocal songs), system voice clips for computers, a Papillon Rose mahjong game, and two screen savers. The CDs were only made available for Comiket
Comiket
, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....
, and were not distributed outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Later an episode guide for the second ('R') season was made as well.
The homepage was redesigned and updated with fake manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
covers and notes from the fictional author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. Amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
voice actors and singers were also contacted to provide sample character voice clips for a handful of the villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s and hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
ines.
An English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version was initially intended for release on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, but plans failed to materialize. In March 2010, Section 23 films announced plans to distribute the 6 episode series and OVA on DVD for North America on behalf of Maiden Japan. The DVD set is planned to be released on June 8, 2010. Maiden Japan is a division of "J-Horror" and "Pink Cinema" licensor Switchblade Pictures. Papillon Rose will be their first release.
From 2003 until early 2005, no new news was made available about the series, save for profiles of new characters and various fictional incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
s of the series:
- Papillon R which parodies the 2nd season of Sailor Moon;
- Papillon G which parodies the 3rd season (S).
In early 2005, however, the site went blank, with nothing other than a graphic that stated the website would return in the new future. As of October 2005, this page is still in existence at the prior location. http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~novy/
On October 8, 2005 Anime News Network
Anime News Network
Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
reported that the site was relocated to a new official website http://www.ayaya.co.jp/, with information on the development of a Papillon Rose television series. The TV series was called 'Papillon Rose New Season' and was six episodes long, covering what happened to the girls a year after the ending of the OVA and introducing new characters.
The DVD release of the TV series was halted after the third DVD was released, a while after a soundtrack for the series was put on sale and a box set containing all six episodes was released in October 2007, although various changes (such as music) had to be made due to copyright limitations.
Despite the seemingly hentai
Hentai
is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and computer games. The word hentai is a kanji compound of 変 and 態...
overtones, the series has yet to feature sex, or extremely graphic nudity.
Papillon Rose OVA
Tsubomi is a High School student working a part-time job at a Lingerie Pub "Papillon". After sleeping with Hikaru, a man she meets in the district, she meets a talking cat named Rama who informs her that she is the lingerie clad soldier Papillon Rose and must transform to protect the people of the city from the evil minion Sister Biene who has been sent by Regina Apis to steal people's sexual energy. Things seem to be going badly when suddenly a stream of semen shoots through the air, a mysterious man, who later identifies himself as 'Dandy Lion', proceeds to distract the enemy while Papillon Rose powers up her finishing attack...Papillon Rose R
The remnants of Dinasty have joined forces with the dark religious sect which divides the upper streams of the African Congo, Geldam, in order to form the self-titled militant transvestite group the Gel Dynasty. They have started to wipe out the hostesses in the sex industry by scattering venereal diseases. This is their horrific plan to rule over the idiotic masses with their transvestites.Tsubomi has transformed once more into Papillon Rose and she and the other Papillons fight with the Gel Dynasty, but the Papillons’ powers don’t work against the transvestites as they don’t have vaginas. With new powers and allies at hand, Papillon Rose will knock the Gel Dynasty down to protect the peace and pussies of the sex industry! The transvestites raise their flag, and the Papillons will make them explode with Orgasm Power!
Papillon Rose G
Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose G was a unanimated movie idea that went up on the official website a year or so before it finally closed down. New people were chosen to provide voices for the Papillon soldiers' voice clips which would appear on character profile pages that never made it to the main publicly viewable pages of the website. In the directories where the character profiles were found, the chapter summaries for the 'movie' were also found and saved by some of the people who visited the site in hopes that one day they would be translated. This was the last storyline for the original Papillon Rose concept that ever appeared on the internet.A new threat has arrived on Earth, but will the Papillon soldiers be strong enough to defend against it? New allies appear as the Papillon soldiers face what could be their final battle.